Page 130 of The Slayer
“Would you have hurt me?” she whispered as she studied Tino, seeing something so different from the playful, teasing man she’d come to know him as.
“Are you going to sell him out?” he countered. “Is that something you could do to him?”
“Never,” she said as she gave him a look of horror. “I could never. I love him. I’m here. I told Jules,my boss, that I had a threesome. I’m a liar, and I’m riding in a stolen Ferrari that has a million dollars in the trunk. Obviously, I’m not going to sell him out.”
Tino tapped his fingers against the steering wheel, seeming deep in thought. “Then I guess we’ll never have to find out what I’d do if you sold him out.”
“I would still like to know,” Alaine pressed as she looked to him again. “Considering I’m trapped in the car with you for the foreseeable future.”
“No.” He shook his head at that. “You wouldn’t. I wouldn’t either. I don’t even want to think about it. I’m just gonna trust that life is not that fucking mean to put us in a situation like that.”
“I don’t know who you are at all, do I?” Alaine whispered as she studied Tino again. “Everything you’ve been in Garnet is a lie.”
“Yeah.” He gave her another hard look. “A huge fucking lie.”
“You’re saying you’d kill to protect Chuito,” she whispered, looking at her lap again. “You’d kill me to protect him.”
“Yeah, I probably would.” He choked even as he said it. “But I wouldn’t want to, if that makes you feel better.”
“So much better.” She closed her eyes and fell back against the seat. “What did you do in the mafia when you lived in New York?”
“Do you really need more secrets?” Tino asked her with a look of disbelief. “Don’t you think Chu’s secrets have gotten you in enough trouble?”
“Does it make a difference?” She laughed manically. “You already said you’d have to kill me if I said anything. Is there anything worse than that?”
Tino was quiet for a moment before he admitted, “I was an enforcer.”
“What does an enforcer do?”
“Enforces things,” he said softly, his eyes still on the road, though his handsome face looked haunted. “Justice. Mafia justice.”
“Was it fair? Justified?”
He shrugged. “I wasn’t the fucking judge. I just carried out the sentence.”
“Why?”
“To protect the Borgata. The family,” he said as if it was obvious. “To protect the administration. To protect my brother, because if the Borgata goes down, my brother goes down, and I was not going to let that happen. I’d fucking lose my soul before I’d let that happen.”
“And now you’re Chuito’s enforcer,” she said in understanding. “You’re protecting him.”
“That’s right.” Tino nodded as if it made perfect sense to him. “These motherfuckers in Miami should be really fucking scared, because I have stolen one brother’s car, kidnapped a woman, and now I’m trying to figure out how to lie to the other brother who knows me better than anyone in this world. I have no idea how I’m going to pull that off. I am pissed off right now.”
“Well,” she started as she considered that. “Maybe you should tell me what you know, and we can formulate an alibi together.”
“You think I’m going to tell you what I know?” He laughed in disbelief. “I already told you too much.”
“I’m a lawyer. I’ve passed the bar,” she reminded him. “Attorney-client privilege.”
“You’re notmylawyer.”
She shrugged. “But I could be. I could bill you.”
“You’re gonna fucking bill me?”
“Sure.”
A smile tugged at his lips. “How much?”
