Page 199 of The Slayer
Alaine didn’t know why it was funny, but it was and she burst out laughing. “You don’t want them to baby you.”
“Yes, I do. I love living in the lap of luxury over the garage in Garnet and eating Romeo’s cooking every day,” he said with a laugh, before he sobered. “I am gonna miss it. A lot.”
“I know,” Alaine agreed. “Remind me to tell Nova he hired me to be his lawyer for five million dollars. I told Jules that too.”
“Holy shit,” Tino said with another snort of amusement. “He got screwed. You only cost me twenty-five hundred.”
“Price of inflation.”
“Fucking inflation,” Tino said with another laugh. “Gets us every time.”
“Who is that?” Alaine asked as she looked out to the parking lot, seeing a black BMW pull in. It was the same car her father drove, and for one crazy moment Alaine thought he actually wanted to reach out and respond to the voice mail she’d left on his phone. It didn’t matter one way or the other. She’d already decided her life with Chuito was the only thing that mattered, but then a woman stepped out of the car instead, and Alaine let it go as she turned to Tino. “I thought that was my father. How stupid is that?”
Tino frowned at the woman, looking stunned, as if he wasn’t quite sure of what he was seeing. The woman seemed to notice Tino at the same time, because she waved him over frantically.
“Another admirer?” Alaine asked, because Tino did have a lot of female admirers. “She’s very pretty.”
“That’s not an admirer,” Tino said as he pushed away from the wall. “That’s my sister.”
“Your what?” Alaine asked, even if Tino was already out into the parking lot.
That was too big a bomb not to follow up on, and she ran after him, wildly curious, because she’d had no idea Tino had a sister.
He had never once mentioned her.
By the time Alaine got to him, Tino was having a rushed, heated debate with the woman in Italian. She spoke the same way Tino did, exuberantly and with hand gestures, despite her graceful appearance. On closer inspection, Alaine saw the resemblance between her and Nova was uncanny, which was bizarre, because like Chuito, Alaine considered Nova to be one of those men who had nothing but a pure masculine appearance, but this woman was radiant.
Alaine stood there uneasily behind Tino as another woman in the car tilted her head, eyeing Alaine through the windshield. She had deep red hair, so dark it was almost mahogany. It hung long and loose down her shoulders and was shiny and layered in a way that told Alaine she probably had a five-hundred-dollar haircut.
The two of them kept eye contact, because clearly this woman didn’t understand Italian any more than Alaine did.
Alaine noticed she had a bruise on her face, a nasty one that ran the length of her cheekbone, and she looked tired, very tired, but even still she was beautiful.
Stunningly so.
“Motherfucker,” Tino cursed in English and looked back to the Cellar for one long moment, as if he was suddenly making a life-altering decision. Then he ran up to the BMW and jerked open the passenger-side door. “Cazzo,” he cursed as he cupped the woman’s cheek. “Jesus, Bri. I’m sorry.”
“I told Carina not to come, but we didn’t know where else to go,” the redhead said as she gripped Tino’s arm as if she couldn’t help it. “I don’t want to ruin your life here. Are you together?”
“What?” Tino frowned and glanced back. “Alaine. No, she’s my friend. She just got married. I haven’t been involved with anyone. Not like that.”
“Wish I could say the same,” she said as she held up her hands. “It all happened so fast and—”
“Figlio di puttana,” Tino said with a growl. “Is this the first time he hurt you?”
“I didn’t know David was working for your grandfather,” she whispered rather than answer his real question. “I think your grandfather’s been setting us up all along. I’m not Italian and—”
“Yeah, that’s the reason,” Tino said sarcastically. “We have to go. Right now.”
“Tino—” Alaine cut in. “Where are you going?”
“I have to take care of something,” Tino said as he helped the woman out of the car.
“What something?” Alaine barked at him. “Don’t you think you should tell Nova what’s going on?”
“Is Nova here?” the redhead asked as she put a large purse on her shoulder. She turned back to Tino’s sister. “You didn’t tell me he was here.”
“I didn’t know.” Tino’s sister glared at him. “You arenotleaving me here with Nova.”
