Page 58 of The Enforcer's Revenge
Tino frowned. “So?”
“At Club Starlight.” Nova looked at Tino, his gaze hard, his voice tight as he said, “It’s a strip club.”
“And you have an issue with that?” Romeo looked between the two of them, clearly insulted because he worked as a stripper after their mother died. “You two would’ve starved if it wasn’t for stripping. She’s probably got bills to pay.”
“Yeah, probably.” Nova met Tino’s gaze again and then looked at his phone on the kitchen counter. He turned it on its side like he needed something to do with his hands. “Just thought Tino should know before he agrees to go with me.” He glanced back at Tino once more. “Or I could bring Rome, and you could stay here with the girls, keep an eye on Carlo and the old man once I spring him from lock-up. The lawyers are still waiting for the all-clear to post bond. It’ll probably be past midnight.”
“I vote for keeping himinlock-up,” Romeo said under his breath.
“Stai zitto,”Nova hissed at him and looked over his shoulder in obvious paranoia. Even though they had been speaking Italian and very few Morettis were fluent, a lot of the guys in the Borgataunderstood some of it. “You’re in his house right now. You have to show respect here. Always.”
“Yeah, like the Pope,” Tino offered helpfully.
Only he was bitter as fuck this evening, and it must have shown enough that Nova sent him a dirty glare, too.
“I’m just giving him a visual.” Tino rolled his eyes. “So, he better understand the level of reverence required.”
“He’s not my fucking Pope,” Romeo reminded both of them. Speaking Italian was clearly about as far as he was willing to go to keep his feelings to himself.
Nova looked like he was going to drop dead from a heart attack.
Tino had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from smiling. Sometimes, Romeo’s epic level of ‘I don’t give a fuck’ when it came to Cosa Nostra was very refreshing and rejuvenating for Tino.
Maybe, if he hung around Romeo long enough, it’d rub off.
As it was, he reached over and squeezed Romeo’s thick bicep as he said in English, “The friggin’ stugots on him, though. Come on, Casanova, you gotta admire that a little.”
Nova shook his head, looking disgusted with both of them, and switched to English, too. “I’ll just take Rome. It’ll get him outta this house, and you won’t have to deal with whatever the hell’s going on in Tampa.”
“That’swhat you’re going to protect Tino from? A strip club?” Romeo snorted in disbelief. “You need out, Casanova. Quickly. I love you, but this needs to be your wake-up call.”
“Yeah, I hear you,” Nova said rather than argue it. He knocked his phone against the table lightly, avoiding eye contact. “And the anger’s more justified than you think.”
This was the closest they came to just outing themselves to Romeo. It was like all their protective barriers had been rippeddown, and that scared Tino a little. Not for him so much because he was long past giving a fuck.
Tino and Nova had years to get over the great rifts Cosa Nostra forced in their relationship. They couldn’t just throw it on Romeo all at once because they were in the middle of a crisis. It would only make things worse.
And Tino didn’t trust Nova not to crack right now.
“I’ll go,” Tino decided for all of them. “I promised Carlo I’d go.”
Nova might need an enforcer with him instead of a brother if they were busting Carmen out of an underground Brambino sex ring in Tampa, Florida, of all the fucking places.
And it made sense.
Tampa was one of the few cold spots the rest of Cosa Nostra went out of their way to stay away from because of the brewing De Luca civil war.
It was a good city for the Brambinos to get back into the business if they were willing to risk everything by clashing with the De Lucas, which was scary. The ones with nothing to lose were always the worst targets, and if their Borgata had somehow managed to manipulate Carmen Brambino to work for them again—they were definitely fuck-crazy desperate.
Unless she was in on it.
It was anyone’s guess, especially since Carlo clearly hadn’t made a great case for the Morettis.
Lola was dead now.
Tino couldn’t pretend he hadn’t heard things about her sister anymore.
’Cause he had.
