Page 134 of The Enforcer's Revenge
Tino sighed, knowing he needed to address the elephant in the room. Since he went ahead and blew up Tony’s life, they were going to be spending a lot of time together. He wanted things to be good with him, and he didn’t want Tony’s memories of Lola to be bitter.
“You see how crazy my zio went on the Brambinos. Lola was protecting you by avoiding you,” Tino assured him. “That doesn’t mean she didn’t care about you guys, and I’m in the same boat. It is way too easy for me to be around Maria. Like, it blows me away how easy, even now, years later, and I am a hundred percent certain Lola felt the same about you. We were both in exclusive relationships. There’s no fucking way either of us could just show up for a spa day and let Maria pull out the hot wax. That is a different part of our brains, a different life. It’s like Maria’s cleanse. We had to stay away from our old friends. I barely got out of that apartment today without letting Maria crawl in the shower with me. She would have if I hadn’t gotten that text, and I probably would’ve let her ’cause she’s used to getting what she wants from me.”
Tony tilted his head at that. “That’s probably true.”
“Spa days are the only nice memories I have about that time, and I know Lola felt the same. You two made some of the most horrible shit bearable. You took care of us. You got us through so much. I’ll never stop being grateful, but Maria is so good at her shit. I know you don’t get it, because her shit is your shit, and you’re better at it than she is, but I wasn’t lying about me and mygirl not sharing. Despite what Bobby’s told you, I haven’t bent anyone but Brianna for years now. We are very exclusive.”
“I guess you are. That is…” Tony shook his head, “…really far out.”
“It’s not, though. Real people do that stuff,” Tino assured him. “She is the one normal part of my life.”
Tino turned around after he said it and found the large pool of blood—Brianna’s blood.
He stared at all the abandoned, bloody medical supplies, having forgotten for a moment. Tony was good at distracting him from horrible shit. It was one of his more well-honed skills, but it came back at Tino in a rush.
All of it.
Everything he’d put Brianna through since that first time in a partially remodeled walk-up in the meat-packing district.
“She’s not that vanilla,” he whispered.
“What?”
Tino looked back to Tony. “My girl. You said she was vanilla, but she’s not. I dumped a lot of our shit on her.”
Tony raised his eyebrows. “I guess that makes it easier.”
“It doesn’t.” Tino shook his head, the guilt creeping up the back of his neck, white-hot and agonizing. “I think it was kinda wrong. She was a real honest-to-God good girl, and look at this.”
“You didn’t do that, Tino,” Tony whispered.
“Didn’t I?” Tino held up his hand to the pools of Brianna’s blood. “I think I did, and if she’d have died, I would’ve blown my brains out with that last bullet. Fuck Nova. Fuck all of this. I wouldn’t be here. I don’t want to be here right now.”
Just as he said it, from very far away, he heard the Don call out, “TINO!”
Tino groaned and dropped his head back. “Cazzo.”
“One step at a time,” Tony reminded him. “Get all these motherfuckers to leave. Send your brother home to rest. I’m sureCarmen would love to tuck him in, and then we can clean this shit up. We’re good. I didn’t mean to make it harder on you. I get it.”
Tino nodded and headed for the stairs to deal with the Don, repeating to himself, “Just one step at a time.”
“Let’s get it done, and then I’ll drive you to the hospital.”
“Grazie,” Tino whispered, meaning it with every ounce of his being. “I really have missed you, Tony.”
“Good thing.” Tony snorted. “’Cause you’re stuck with me now.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
When Brianna was twelve, her father invited her out to his house in the Hamptons. The big one with the game room for the kids. Not her, but his new kids, who were probably still too little at the time for a game room but had one anyway. Back then, her brother, Teddy, was three, and her sister, Lisa, was two. They were cute and funny, like toddlers were apt to be, with their matching blonde hair and chubby cheeks.
Brianna used to imagine herself one day being the cool older sister, living in Manhattan, starring on Broadway instead of the unwelcome, untrustworthy outsider they made her feel like. The one stain on their otherwise perfect family would turn into something brilliant and unique.
Once her name was in lights, they’d be so proud of her, like her father used to be proud of her before her parents split up and her mother’s drinking made it nasty.
Then, after one long, mostly uncomfortable summer at her father’s big, beautiful house in the Hamptons that he bought for his new wife, who really didn’t like Brianna at all
They left.
