Page 99 of The Slayer
“I miss my brother,” Tino whispered, the tears still heavy in his voice, as if he was voicing Chuito’s loss out loud.
“It’s been three days.”
“Yup,” Tino agreed.
“Come stay at my place. You’re sad because of the crash.” Chuito couldn’t keep the warmth out of his voice even if Tino was a spoiled brat. Tino missed his brother in crime just like Chuito missed his. “Tell Romeo you’re gonna hang for a few days.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chuito spoke to Nova Moretti for the first time thirty-six hours into Tino’s crash. He had made sure Tino kept feeding bullshit to Romeo via texts, but he had forgotten the all-importantconnectedpresence in Tino’s life.
He sat at the kitchen table, looking at Tino’s cell phone, seeing Nova’s face flash on the screen for the fourteenth time. Nova looked more like Tino than Romeo did, but there was something hard in his gaze, even in a picture, that kept Chuito from answering.
It stopped ringing.
Then the first texts showed up. Short and to the point, so he could read them all on the screen without having to slide his finger across it and risk them showing as read.
Pick up the phone.
You don’t want me showing up.
Chuito winced and looked back to his bedroom where Tino was currently sleeping like the dead. He was just considering trying to wake him up again, when another text showed up.
I’m talking to you, Garcia.
Oh. Shit.
When the phone rang, Chuito picked that fucker up before the second ring.
“Where is he?” Nova barked before Chuito could say hello.
“He’s sleeping,” Chuito said before he paused for a second and looked at the phone again. He realized only then they had both been speaking Spanish. “¿Hablas español?”
“Sí, cabrón.” Nova’s voice was harsh as he kept speaking Spanish. “What is going on?”
“Are you—” Chuito started, before he decided he needed to hear Nova speak Spanish some more, because Tino’s brother certainly didn’t sound like an Italian. “He’s, um, partied out. I was just letting him crash here for a couple days.”
“Actually crash there?” Nova asked skeptically. “Or did he find other things to do? I know he probably ran out of snow girls to fuck. Romeo said you two were out finding a party.”
“He’s just hanging out,” Chuito said as he tried to overlook the fact that this scary asshole also used the same code words Chuito’s people did. “He’s tired of the snow girls, and he had to tell Romeo something.”
“And why is he hanging with you to get over it?”
“’Cause I used to date snow girls too. I’ve been through a hard breakup.”
Nova was quiet for a long moment before he asked, “How bad is it?”
Chuito looked to the door and considered his options. He didn’t want to sell out Tino. He already had to tell a fuckload of lies to Alaine about why he had this Italian passed out in his apartment. Narcing on Tino went against everything in Chuito, but he was also starting to suspect the reason Tino was so fucking spoiled was because of the motherfucker on the other end of this phone.
Chuito finally admitted, “He’s been sleeping for twenty-four hours.”
“Are you taking care of him?” Nova asked, the pain so vivid over the line. “We know of you, but we don’tknow you. I’m inclined to call Romeo even if it sells out Tino.”
“No, it’s fine.” Chuito shook his head, knowing what it was like to hurt for a brother like that. “I got it. He’s safe. The breakup won’t kill him. It’ll just make him wish he was dead.”
“I can’t come. Shit’s been deep.”
Chuito nodded. “I know. He told me.”
