Page 156 of The Enforcer's Revenge
“If we’re going to out-pirate the pirates, we gotta tread water. That’s the only choice we got,” Tino decided for both of them, switching to English so Tony and Maria understood as he started pulling Nova towards the door. Nova was still heavy, reluctant to move forward when they were leaving behind so much. “How do we get through this, Casanova? You gotta big brain. I’m sure you know the answer.”
“Not this time.” Nova opened the door to the roof when Tino stopped in front of it. “Really, I don’t have any fucking idea.”
“One step at a time,” Maria offered softly.
“That’s it.” Tino pushed Nova towards the stairs. “You just have to take the first step. I’m right behind you. Tony is, too. Either we get there, or we go down fighting, but you have to keep moving, even if it’s hard.”
Nova turned back on the second stair and arched an eyebrow. “Are you quoting Lao Tzu?”
“No, motherfucker, I’m quoting Tony De Luca.” Tino looked over his shoulder to meet Tony’s gaze behind him before he started walking up the stairs, pushing at Nova’s back to keep him moving forward. “Maybe he learned it from Lao Tzu.”
“I dunno who the fuck Lao Tzu is,” Tony said as he and Maria followed them up the stairs. “I just gotta enough common sense to figure out one step at a time is the only way to get shit done.”
EPILOGUE
Brighton Beach, New York
November 2014
“Just one step at a time,” Tino whispered it like a prayer almost every day since he first started pushing Nova up the steps of Maria and Tony’s old brownstone. Now, over four years later, he sat on the windowsill of a small one-bedroom apartment, located over a Turkish restaurant in Brighton Beach on the Russian side of Brooklyn. He narrowed his gaze when the Don came walking out of the Russian Health Food store across the street, and changed his comment, “More like one bullet at a time.Deficiente.”
“You’re not going to shoot him now?” came the concerned question behind Tino. “This is my family’s restaurant, and I run the business in the back. I can’t have the heat showing up. The Bratva will retaliate, and?—”
“Calm down, I’m just fantasizing about it.” Tino turned back and glared at the boss of a small crew of Turkish criminals who had banded together in order to protect themselves from the much larger Russian Mafia that had a tight hold on this area.Canner ran his family restaurant below them, and was currently letting them use his apartment to spy on the Don, but not for free, so Tino didn’t feel bad as he growled, “I don’t just shoot men in the middle of a busy street with kids walking around excited to go to the beach for sunset. Is that how your crew does it? ‘Cause I don’t like hearing that. I live in this city too, motherfucker.”
Canner shook his head, and said quickly, “We would never.”
At the same time, Tony asked, “This is your city again?”
“Well, not this particular city,” Tino said with a pointed look, because neither of them bought property in Brighton Beach. They weren’t exactly welcome in the predominantly Russian neighborhood, even if the Don seemed to be in love with it. “But, yeah, I guess so, and not Brooklyn either. Don’t start with that shit again. I’m still East Harlem. Kentucky changed nothing.”
Tony leaned a hand against the wall next to the window as he stood there, waiting for Tino to make his assessment. “But, you’re back for good? That’s the plan.”
“For however long that lasts.” Tino picked up the binoculars Tony pulled out of the car when they got there. He looked through them, really honing in and studying the Don’s face. Tino hadn’t seen him in years, not since before he moved to Kentucky, but he knew him well enough to agree, “You’re right, this motherfucker is being way too casual. Something is definitely off.”
Tino watched his grandfather closely as he stood outside with Nikolai Aristov, the Russian mafia boss whose crew tried to have Nova killed in Miami a few weeks ago.
They were all standing next to the Moretti limo parked on the street, just shooting the shit. The Don had three security guys with him, and Monte. That wasn’t a lot of protection for a guy who failed at something that just dumped a fuckton of gasolineon the slow-burning fire of Moretti civil war that had been kindling since the day Carlo died.
Tino knew for a fact that Nova had spoken to the old man more than once since the incident in Miami. The Don was very aware that Nova was still alive. Even if Tino was currently no contact with his brother, Tony wasn’t, and Tony assured him that Nova and the Don talked on a regular basis.
The Don should be a lot more nervous about Aristov’s failed attempt, not walking around like nothing happened. The old man was a lot of things, but stupid wasn’t one of them. Despite what Brianna, Chuito, and the others knew, the Don wasveryaware that Tino would be stalking him for even thinking about trying to take down Nova. It was a miracle the old man was still alive, even without Miami, and no one knew that more than the Don, but there he was, chilling with the guy who had sent soldiers to kill and torture Nova.
“There has to be something we don’t know,” Tino agreed with Tony’s assessment of the situation, still looking through the binoculars. “Why is he so chill?”
“Unless the old man doesn’t know what went down,” Tony suggested. “That’s the only explanation. I’ve been saying it. I don’t think he did it. He’s not that fucking stupid.”
Tino glanced over his shoulder at Canner, still standing behind them, looking understandably nervous about the two Italian enforcers he let into his apartment for this project.
Tino wished Tony spoke Italian, but he was used to it by now. So, he just kept his opinions to himself as he went back to watching the Don now shaking hands with Aristov.
That was a business handshake.
It could be a new arms deal.
It could also be some new plan to kill Nova.
Who knew?
