The Enforcer (Untamed Hearts Book 3) (60 page)

“It’s okay.” Carlo grabbed Nova’s face and kissed his forehead. “We still love you.”

Then Carlo reached into Nova’s front suit pocket and grabbed his cigarettes. He tossed them to Tino. “Take those too.”

Tino caught them on instinct and made a gagging sound, but opened them anyway. “I dunno why you smoke these.”

“Yeah, me either,” Carlo agreed. “Why don’t you just smoke weed if you have to smoke something? Those motherfuckers will kill you.”

“You two do blow, and you’re giving me shit about cigarettes?” Nova asked incredulously. “Really?”

“We don’t do blow that much,” Carlo said defensively. “Hardly ever.”

“Gimme a fucking break,” Nova snapped and then pointed out the door when Tino lit one of the cigarettes with the lighter that was stuffed in the pack. “Don’t smoke in my closet.”

Tino pushed past him and smoked the cigarette as he went. He coughed and choked and winced at the same time. “I hate these.” He made a gagging sound again, but he kept doing it because he felt like if he was going to be Nova, he should probably know how to smoke a cigarette.

“You’re doing it like you’re smoking weed,” Carlo coached. “Just blow it out.”

Tino did it, but it was in a harsh, quick motion to get the smoke out of his lungs as fast as possible.

“No, you have to be cool when you do it. Like James Dean,” Carlo went on. “Act like you’re gracing the fucking room with your presence just by being here.”

“Okay.” Tino stood in Nova’s living room and shrugged his shoulders to capture that casual intensity Nova always had. Then he took a long drag off the cigarette and blew the smoke out slowly like Nova would and arched one eyebrow at Carlo. He made sure to wipe off any semblance of amusement and said, “So you think you two can just go to the school and be me. You think it’s that fucking easy.” He let out a sardonic laugh. “Really?”

Carlo was on the floor. Literally, he just cracked up and fell to the floor.

Tino laughed with him and then turned to look at Nova, who was arching an annoyed eyebrow at him, likely without realizing he was doing it the same way Tino just imitated.

Tino sobered instantly and said, “It’s not funny.”

“It’s really not,” Nova agreed.

“I know.” Tino took another long drag off the cigarette and blew the smoke in Nova’s direction like Nova did when he was pissed off at someone. Tino was about to say something snarky and smart-ass, but he was having a hard time keeping a straight face, and the world felt a tiny bit fuzzy all of a sudden. He looked at the cigarette in his hand and then sniffed it, but all he smelled was tobacco. So he took another drag, holding in the smoke, even if it made him want to cough. When he finally let it out, he did cough. Loudly. Then he shouted at Nova, “These motherfuckers have weed in them!”

“No shit?” Carlo jumped up and stole the pack from Tino. He pulled one cigarette out and sniffed it. “I don’t smell anything.”

“It’s like a nonexistent amount,” Nova assured them. “The dogs didn’t even pick them up the last time they raided me.”

“How long have you been lacing them?” Tino asked in disbelief.

“I just thought, you know, if Romeo found them, he’d freak a little less if it was cigarettes.” Nova winced. “And I kept doing it outta habit.”

“You’ve been smoking laced cigarettes every day since you were thirteen?” Tino was stunned cold sober—despite the weed. “Casanova!”

“My life is fucking stressful,” Nova explained like it was obvious. “I know it’s a bad habit, but it keeps me chill, makes me less of a stronzo.”

“Jesus, remind me to be on vacation if he decides to quit.” Carlo lit another cigarette from the pack. He took a long drag off it and then coughed like Tino did. “This is more than a nonexistent amount.”

Since Tino and Carlo were smoking them, Nova went ahead and had one too, and the three of them sat around the dining room table getting a little bit lit. Sure enough, Nova mellowed like he always did after he had a cigarette and asked, “Do I really sound like that much of a condescending asshole when I talk?”

“You are a condescending asshole.” Tino put out his second cigarette, feeling his lungs burn. “If you don’t know that, I can’t help you.” He coughed again. “You really should quit this shit.”

Tino leaned back in the chair after he said it, and stretched out his legs. Then he ran a hand down his chest and gave Nova a displeased look the same way Nova always did to him.

“Is there a reason why I couldn’t just go and talk to the school officials instead of having to deal with the fucking identify crisis you two are giving me?” Nova held up his hands as he said it. “Why didn’t you ask me?”

“I dunno.” Tino looked away from him. “I thought you’d freak about me hooking up with Bri again.”

“Is she why you’ve been in such a good mood?”

“Yeah.” Tino nodded, but he couldn’t look at his brother. “She just—” He shrugged. “She loves me for being me. I even told her some of my shit after you said I needed to talk about it. Some horrible shit. She’s not grossed out or anything. Just…loves me.” He lifted his head and gave Nova a smile, even though his eyes were glassy, and he knew it showed. “She makes me feel normal.”

Nova was quiet for a second, before he said, “Then let’s go fuck up some school officials.”

Chapter Forty-Two

“Valentino Moretti!” Brianna shouted as she slammed the front door, because she knew he was here like he’d promised. Carina had a gig in the morning, and the two of them usually hung out the rest of the day. “I know it was you!”

She stormed into the living room and stopped, staring dumbfounded at what she saw.

“I’ve been here all day,” Tino said before she could find her voice.

“Gig got canceled,” Carina added.

“What are you doing?” Brianna asked both of them.

“Watching
Miracle on 34th Street
,” Carina said like this was all very normal.

“The most boring movie ever,” Tino added and then sucked on the bright red Popsicle he was eating. “I’d rather go back to the fucking soap operas.”

“That can be arranged,” Carina assured him as she sucked on her yellow Popsicle. “I got ’em all saved from last week. I’m a romantic.”

Tino snorted. “Stronzate.”

“No, no, it’s true.” Carina’s face was bright red because she was hanging upside down next to her brother, her feet draped over the top of the couch, her long hair an inky pool on the marble. “Watch.”

When Tino turned to look at her, his face also red because of hanging upside down, Carina deep throated her Popsicle so far it almost disappeared.

Tino shoved her, making her choke. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”

“What?” Carina cracked up, even though she was still coughing. “Paco told me it was romantic.”

“You do shit like that to gross me out,” Tino growled at her. “I’m ’bout to get tired of it, Carina Maria. One of these days I’m gonna retaliate.”

“Why are you upside down?” Brianna couldn’t help but ask.

“You know that thing where you eat your ice cream with your spoon upside down to keep from getting a brain freeze,” Carina said and sucked on her Popsicle again. “You can’t turn a Popsicle upside down, so we figured—”

“I don’t think it works like that,” Brianna mumbled, wondering why the strangest shit happened whenever Tino and Carina were alone together. “Does it work?”

“So far.” Tino sounded surprised too. He reached over and picked up the box. “Want one?”

Brianna was sort of curious despite the sugar. If Tino could eat brown rice for her, she could eat one Popsicle for him. So she set down her bag and got on the couch next to Tino. She put her feet up and dropped down next to him while he unwrapped a grape Popsicle for her. She took it and sucked on it, hard, trying to test the brain-freeze concept.

She frowned, concentrating on it, because in theory it shouldn’t be at all the same as eating ice cream with the spoon upside down. She did notice the sea of abandoned Popsicle wrappers on the floor now that she was upside down, making it obvious they’d been doing it for a while, so maybe there was merit to it.

“Nice,” Tino said with a hitch in his voice. Brianna turned to him with the Popsicle still in her mouth, seeing the hot look he gave her as he watched. “It
is
sorta romantic now that I think about it.”

Carina shoved Tino’s head, making him choke on his cherry Popsicle. Then he laughed so hard he put his other hand to his chest, but Carina was giving him a death glare, and Tino held up his hand in defeat.

“I’m kidding. Calm down,” Tino said in a soothing, passive voice. “That’s not my style. I’m a gentleman. It’s more like, um—” He licked the top of his Popsicle as if testing it and pushed his sister’s shoulder at the same time. “No, really, Carina, look. It’s totally innocent.” When she kept her head turned away, he started pushing at her shoulder over and over, chanting, “Rina. Rina. Rina.”

“What?” Carina shouted and turned back to him.

Tino licked the top of his Popsicle like he was licking something entirely different, moving the tip of his tongue so fast it was genuinely impressive.

At least to Brianna it was.

Carina made a gagging sound.

“What?” Tino laughed. “I thought it was romantic. You don’t think it’s romantic?” When Carina didn’t answer him, Tino shrugged. “That’s funny, ’cause your best friend told me it was romantic.”

“That better not be true,” Carina growled at both of them. She lifted her head, looking past Tino to Brianna. “Is that fucking true?”

Brianna sucked on her Popsicle, contemplating it, because a few days ago the most she could get out of Tino was the idea of keeping it a secret. This felt like a good thing, so she agreed, “Yes, it’s true,” and then gave Carina a devious smile. “I thought it was
very
romantic.”

Tino cracked up, like he couldn’t have planned it better. He sounded so genuinely happy. Brianna didn’t care about anything else in the world and just laughed with him.

Even if Carina was glowering at them.

Neither of them cared.

“That’s where you fucking went the other day!” Carina shouted at her. “Aaron’s dorm, my ass. You bitch! I can’t believe you lied to me!”

“You’ll be okay,” Tino said dismissively, still chuckling, and turned back to Brianna. “Anyway, what were you gonna yell at me about?”

“I was gonna yell at you?” she asked, because in that moment, with the amusement still dancing in his dark eyes, she couldn’t love him more if she tried.

“Sounded like it.” Tino gave one of those wide, heart-stopping grins of his. “Used my full name and everything.”

“Oh.” She remembered now, and even if they were sharing a moment, she did have to scowl at him. “Did you go to my school?”

“Yeah, I went to your school the other day,” Tino said without flinching. “You saw me do it.”

“No, did you go there without me? Did you go talk to some people?”

“If I went to your school, I wouldn’t have been talking.
Figli di puttana
,” Tino cursed with a scowl. “Why?”

Brianna kept her eyes narrowed. “’Cause they called me into the office and apologized.”

“So what’s the problem?” Tino sucked on his Popsicle again. “Least they could fucking do.”

“And they upped my scholarship money. That doesn’t happen, Tino. I know you had something to do with it,” Brianna accused him, because she hadn’t thought he was going to run with that little promise over something like this. “I know it was you. You’re the only one I told.”

“Maybe they just came to their senses,” Tino suggested. “Everyone knows it’s
unwise
to mess with our Borgata. Someone could’ve clued them in.”

“Yeah, maybe, except then Miranda came up and apologized too, like kissing-my-ass apologized.” Brianna couldn’t keep the dismay out of her voice, even when Tino turned to look at her in what seemed like genuine shock. “I could tell she was scared to death. What did you do to her?”

“I didn’t do anything to her.” Tino sounded horrified. “You think I went to your school and threatened some WASP-y girl from Southern California? I wouldn’t do that. I have complete confidence that you can handle that shit on your own. You could take that Miranda puttana in your sleep.”

Brianna paused, because now that he said it, the idea did sound ridiculous.

“Huh,” Brianna mumbled and sucked on her Popsicle again. “Well, you and Carina are the only ones I told.”

Tino arched an eyebrow but didn’t say anything.

“Oh my God!” Brianna shouted and brought her legs down, doing a somersault off the couch and looked toward the kitchen, because Carina had disappeared. “Carina!”

“That bitch ratted on you,” Carina said as she came out of the kitchen. “She ratted you out to the authorities. She’s lucky I didn’t fucking bury her.”

“It’s not the authorities. It’s just a school. This isn’t life-and-death. Even if I got kicked out, who cares? I can still work. There’s a million gypsy jobs on Broadway. You can’t just go cut some outsider because they ratted on me.”

Carina shrugged and looked away. “I didn’t
actually
cut her. I might have had a discussion about cutting—”

“Did you tell the administrators you’d cut them too?” Brianna shouted. “Did you go into their office and scare them into giving me more money?”

Carina arched an eyebrow and looked toward the couch, as if considering it, and then shrugged again. “Sure.”

“How much money did you get?” Tino asked curiously.

Brianna looked back to him and winced. “Quite a bit.”

“Enough to keep me in the style I’m accustomed to?” Tino asked as he rolled off the couch like Brianna had and stood with a wide smile. He leaned down and pressed a kiss to the curve of her neck. “Enough to buy me everything on my Christmas list and make me a happy man?”

Tino smacked Brianna’s ass before he walked to the kitchen.

“Gross,” Carina said as he passed, but when his back was to her, she smiled and glanced over her shoulder at him in the kitchen. “You’re in a good mood.”

“Yeah, well, turns out Brianna’s a romantic too,” he called from the kitchen.

Brianna couldn’t help it.

She laughed.

Carina walked over to her and dropped her voice so Tino couldn’t hear. “Is this a good thing?”