Page 129 of The Enforcer's Revenge
“Told him what?” Tino turned and looked from Carmen to Tony. “What don’t I know?”
Tony ignored him as he stared at Nova in concern. “You’re in a world of shit, Zu.”
“Yeah, seems like it.” Nova, still sprawled out and breathing through the obvious pain, looked at Tony seriously. “You still want that job?”
Tony nodded. “Absolutely.”
“You sure?” Nova raised his eyebrows pointedly. “I don’t know when, but this could all get very deep—way deeper than what you’re looking at right now.”
“I understand.” Tony sounded sure about it. “I probably get it more than you.”
“Yeah, you probably do.” Nova sat up and grabbed Carmen’s hand, which she had on his chest, as though she was willing him to heal faster. He kissed the inside of her wrist and then looked back to Tony. “An enforcer job just opened up. If it’s cool with Tino, it’s cool with me.”
Tino’s gut clenched. He hated it for Tony, so much so that he could hardly breathe, but he also understood that if Nova made the offer, it would be his only choice.
“He saw too much.” Tino choked on the words. “But you got him a pass from the Don downstairs.” He knew it was true because it had happened once before. “All he’s gotta do is be an enforcer. He’s dead if he doesn’t agree to take it.”
Nova nodded. “Yup.”
“I fucked you, Tony. You were living the good life with Maria, and I fucked it all up by calling you.” Tino closed his eyes and leaned over, pressing his forehead against his knees. “It’s as bad as killing Brianna. It could be worse.”
“She’s not dead,” Nova whispered softly. “She’ll live, Tino. They’ll stitch up her arm and give her some blood. She’ll probably be home in a day or two.”
Tony sighed. “I’ve been telling him that.”
“I should’ve let them take me down.” Tino felt the tears sting his eyes when he thought about the dark reality his brother had signed him up for at seventeen to save his life. Now, it was Tony’s reality, too. Tino was guilty of the same sin just to keep himself out of lock-up, and there was nothing he could do about it. “I ruined everything by calling you. I wrecked your whole fucking life—just like that.”
Nova reached over and squeezed Tino’s arm like he understood. “Were the Feds really tracking him?”
“Yeah, it was the Feds for sure,” Tony assured Nova while Tino kept his head bowed in mourning. “He’s not bullshitting. I barely got him out of it. He should be in lock-up right now.”
“Well, something’s not adding up. If they were tracking Tino, why weren’t they watching this place when all these motherfucking Brambino’s showed up and ran into Tino’s 9mm?”
“The Feds have to be in someone’s pocket.” Tony sounded confident about it. “I think someone wanted to make sure Tino wasn’t here when the Brambinos went after you. Outside this Borgata, people talk about him—both Tino and your uncle make other gangsters very nervous. I’m sure they wanted him in lock-up before they raided this place. It just didn’t work out for them.”
“But how would they know Tino was capable of something like this?” Nova argued. “I didn’t know, and I’m his brother. No one in this Borgata knew.” He glanced to Tony. “How many did you get?”
“None.” Tony gave him a wide-eyed look. “He did that shit all by himself.”
“Seriously, what the fuck, Valentino?” Nova looked up at him in stunned disbelief. “Did you kill all those guys with one weapon? ’Cause I don’t see any others on you.”
“Yeah, I just had the one from Tampa. I left in a rush, and I haven’t had time to grab more. I didn’t even have a second clip,” Tino explained, thinking of the dead Brambino gangster upstairs who blew through his whole clip shooting at a door, hoping to hit something. “I was careful with my ammunition, and I had Tony with me as backup.”
“The Don didn’t know you were that good. Monte didn’t either.” Nova still looked genuinely stunned. “You just changed the game.”
“I did?” Tino scowled, not fully understanding. “That’s some shit, Casanova. What the fuck do all you accountants assume we’re doing when you give us a job? You think your problems just disappear by magic?”
“It’s not a secret that the Morettis have dangerous enforcers,” Tony assured all of them. “Even if you guys didn’t know it, everyone else does, and I am sure if the Brambinos were planning an attack, they’d want Tino in lock-up. They have a lot of powerful people backing them up behind the scenes. Think of all the blackmail material the Brambinos have. They rent kids to a lot of government officials and powerful businessmen. That’s their biggest game, and they are very good at it.” Tony looked at Carmen and arched an eyebrow. “Two guesses who it was this time. You know he helps them, and he has a lot of connections with the Feds.”
Carmen nodded but didn’t say anything.
“Either tell me or stop fucking talking about it in front of me.” Tino barked at all of them. “Because there’s clearly shit I don’t know.”
Tino had been in Cosa Nostra enough to understand how it all worked. There were lots of things Nova did that Tino didn’tknow about, and there was even more shit Tino took care of that Nova was in the dark over.
It was by design.
To protect each other—and the Borgata—and the entirety of Cosa Nostra above that. Good in theory, but Tino was starting to think all these generations’ old Cosa Nostra rules weren’t working the way other gangsters thought they did, not anymore.
