Page 73 of The Enforcer's Revenge
Nova turned off the car and rested his head against the steering wheel. “I should just fucking drown all three of us right now.”
Carmen looked to Tino, her light eyes hollow and sad, as if waiting for him to give them a reason why Nova shouldn’t do just that.
That was how wrecked Cosa Nostra left the three of them.
The idea of Nova sinking them didn’t seem nearly as crazy as it should. Tino knew Nova was dead serious. His brother was one heartbeat away from stomping on the gas and solving all their problems—permanently.
Weirdly, though, Tino wasn’t too inclined.
He had too many people back home.
Instead, Tino surged forward and turned off the car before Nova did something they couldn’t take back. “Where’s the blood coming from?”
Nova fell back against the seat and pulled at one side of his unbuttoned shirt. It was hard to get a good look because it was dark, but Nova’s bare chest glistened in the flashes from the cars driving by that lit up the inside of the car.
“Oh my God,” Tino choked and pushed the button to turn on the dome light.
He let out a strangled sound of horror because the gorgeous cream interior of Nova’s Bentley was bathed in blood.
Nova’s blood.
Tino pushed Nova’s shirt aside, seeing the nice, neat hole in his chest slowly gushing blood.
“Madonn’, Casanova, he shot you! You’re shot!” Tino lifted Nova’s shirt, staring at the bullet wound closer. “Is it your heart?”
“Well, obviously, if it were my heart, I’d be dead already,” Nova said in annoyance, like Tino was just clueless about something mundane.
Tino felt Nova’s back, looking for an exit wound, and didn’t find one. “You have a bullet in your chest, stronzo.”
“Thanks for the update.”
“We have to take you to a fucking hospital.” Tino started hyperventilating. “We have to call 911.”
Tino reached for his phone in his pocket, but Carmen caught his hand and stopped him. “If you call the cops, they’ll have him for murder. He’s going down for sure, and you’re not in a great position either. None of us is.”
Tino gaped at her, realizing she expected him to choose between prison or death for his brother. “What makes you think they won’t know anyway? Your Desi friend’s gonna sell us out when the heat shows up.”
Carmen looked away rather than answer.
“It’s against Omertà for the Brambinos to cooperate with law enforcement. It would be a death sentence for the whole Borgata. The other families would level them,” Nova reminded him, his voice tight, his words clipped and controlled as though the pain was making it hard to talk. “I’ll have to answer to the commission for going after the Brambinos without permission, but they can’t sell me out. If someone calls the cops, they’ll have to play stupid with the heat. Legally, we might get away with it if we head back home. Tonight. Pretend like we never left.”
Tino fell back against the seat next to Carmen, realizing Nova and Carmen were right. If they got back to New York, they could get away with it. They would still have the not-so-small problem of the commission coming down on Nova, which might makethe police preferable. Tino had first-hand knowledge of what happened to wise guys who broke the rules, but they could worry about that next week.
Except Nova had a fucking bullet in his chest.
“If we’re doing this, if we’re running, we have to do it now. Right this second,” Carmen snapped at him. “Do you have somewhere safe to go back home? Will your administration help him?”
“Yeah. Heisthe administration. He’s a Zu.”
“What kind of Zu?” Carmen surprised Tino by asking. “I knew he got all of us out, that he’s still getting others out, but I didn’t know he was that high up in your family.”
“He’s Consigliere, but not your average Consigliere. He’sveryimportant to our Borgata. We have doctors on call who will take care of him.”
“And what the hell? Why would the Morettis send a fucking Zu to Tampa to tell me my sister’s dead? Especially Nova Moretti. Do you know how important he is to all of us? You don’t take better care of him?”
“Usually, we do.” Tino felt a little insulted since it was part of his job to protect the administration, but he also couldn’t argue that he’d failed since Nova had a bullet in him. “This is a fuck-up, obviously.”
“I promised Carlo I’d get you home to claim Lola’s body. It was personal,” Nova said from the front seat. “I do try to keep my word, but I didn’t want to tell you like that. I couldn’t think of another way to get you out of the building. I’m sorry.”
