Page 54 of The Enforcer's Revenge
Nova looked like he was going to throw up.
Tino wasn’t sure whether Nova had done that part or not, but history told him it was coming, and Tino was praying his brother didn’t end up losing his shit in this stark, terrible office.
“Tino!”
He turned around, and Brianna ran at him. She must’ve been in the bathroom. Her face was white in fear, but he caught her when she jumped into his arms. She was shaking, too, and he held her tight and whispered in her ear, “Amore mio. My baby.” A fresh surge of tears stung his eyes, and he leaned back to brush some of the hair off her face. “Ti amo,” he said and then repeated himself in English even though he knew she understood. “I love you.”
He pulled her to him again, tighter this time when he remembered Lola’s light eyes staring at him sightlessly in death. It all felt too close, like it could’ve just as easily been Brianna’s wide green eyes and her blood sticky on his skin.
He buried his face in her hair and breathed her in, realizing only then that all he’d been smelling for hours was Lola’s blood. He still felt it on him, even if the doctor let him clean up a little after they were done taking pictures. They gave him wipes to get it all off, and it was amazing he still had skin with the fierceness he had attacked the project, but there weren’t enough disinfecting wipes in the universe to make him feel clean after that.
“I need a shower.”
“We’re going to the Don’s Dyker Heights place,” Nova cut in. “Rome’s meeting us there.”
“You told him?” Tino asked as he looked back to Nova, still refusing to let Brianna go. “And they know he’s coming? They’re looking out for him? They’ll let him in if he beats us there?”
“Yeah, they know. He’s not coming until later, but trust me, everyone knows,” Nova said in Italian, his eyes wide in silent communication of one single, horrifying word.
War.
“I hope they fucking enjoy those pictures.” Carina’s voice carried down the hallway. “I know you’re sharing it with your friends. I don’t care. You think I care? I’ll stand out on FifthAvenue and show my girls. I got nothing to be ashamed of. I even waxed last week.”
Nova groaned and looked to Tino as he asked in Italian, “Did they give you anything to cover with when they took the pictures?”
Tino shook his head, wondering if this was one of those social things he was supposed to know but didn’t because life had fucked him up. “No. Was I supposed to ask for something?”
“They took photos of you completely naked?”
“Sì,” Tino said slowly and went on in Italian, “Is that a problem?”
“Well, it’s violating. I don’t think that was necessary,” Nova growled.
“Oh.” Tino rolled his eyes. Being violated wasn’t real high on his list of concerns at the moment. “I thought I got lucky when they didn’t ask me to jack off for them.”
“Are you joking right now?” Nova looked even more pale.
Actually, Tino wasn’t joking.
They kept talking about evidence; he figured that was the next step. Not that he had anything to hide there, and he would’ve done it without too much bother. His DNA was already on the grid. It couldn’t get worse than that, so Tino just arched an eyebrow rather than say anything. Then Carina showed up, still pissed off, and he didn’t have to.
“Theseputtanemade me get naked for them,” Carina announced as she appeared in the lobby. “And they didn’t even buy me a drink first.”
“Stai zitta,”Nova warned her, making it clear not just with his words but his tone that she needed to shut up, and went on in Italian, “I don’t like that they took pictures either, but we’ll deal with it later.”
Carina folded her arms rather than say anything. Her eyes were red-rimmed, and she avoided looking at all of them as she glanced at the ceiling.
“Oh, sweetheart.” Brianna grabbed her. Carina tried to jerk out of her hold, but Brianna was not only bigger than Carina but considerably stronger.
She didn’t give up, and finally, Carina let out an uncharacteristic sob and hugged Brianna back. “It was so horrible.”
“I’m sorry.” Tears sounded in Brianna’s voice as she kissed Carina’s forehead.
“She looked bad,” Carina choked, making it obvious it was Lola and not the medical examiner’s pictures she was crying over. “She was so beautiful, and look at what Cosa Nostra did to her.”
“Carina,” Nova warned because they weren’t supposed to name the organization, especially in public.
“I’ll say it if I want. I’ll fucking scream it. No one askedmeto take an oath,” Carina growled at him. “And someone should be screaming about it.”
