Page 78 of The Enforcer's Revenge
Brianna didn’t recognize the phone number, but she answered it without hesitation. “Hello?”
“Hey,” Tino said quickly. “I think Nova left his phone. Can you check the bottom right drawer of the dresser in his room? I’ll call it so it’s easier to find.”
Brianna looked at Carlo, who was just sitting there, waiting. “But?—”
“Aiuto, baby.” Tino said it casually, but Brianna could hear the undercurrent of panic in his voice. “Find the phone. He’s freaking out.”
Tino had never once used the family code wordaiutowith Brianna. That was a life-and-death code word that meant drop everything and help.
“Okay.” Brianna’s heart skipped a beat in fear. “I’m going now.”
Brianna took off, still clutching her own phone even though Tino hung up. She ran down the hallway, and when she pulled open the door to Nova’s room in the Don’s mansion, she could hear the shrill ring of a burner phone.
She started jerking open all of Nova’s bottom drawers in his dresser and found the phone hiding between two pairs of jeans. It was an old-fashioned, untraceable flip phone from one of those places that allowed Nova to pay for monthly usage in cash.
She answered quickly and barked, “What’s wrong?”
“Nova’s been shot.” Tino’s voice was shaking. “He took a bullet right to the chest, and it’s still in there.”
“Oh my God.” Brianna sat on the ground because all the feeling fell out of her legs. Her heartbeat was thundering in her ears, and her chest was tight because she forgot to breathe. “Is he?—”
“He’s alive,” Tino said before she could finish. “We’re heading home. You have to tell the Don to get the doctors ready for him. He has a bullet in his fucking chest. This could kill him.”
She sucked in a sharp breath. “Where are you?”
“We’re still in Tampa,” he sounded more frantic than she’d ever heard him.
“What?” she choked because she had temporarily forgotten that part. “You can’t make it all that way. You’re talking about a bullet wound in his chest! Take him to the hospital, Tino! Take him right now!”
“We can’t! Lotta shit went down, and we just can’t.” Tino’s breathing was hard and uneven, like he was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. “We have to pack the wound. You know, like a battlefield injury. Nova’s gonna talk us through it. He thinks it’ll stop the bleeding enough to get him there, but there’sa lotta fucking blood, Bri. The Don has to have those doctors ready. Nova says he’s O positive, so tell them to have it there.”
Brianna opened her mouth, but no words could make it past the fear lodged in her chest.
“Did you hear me?” Tino barked at her.
Brianna nodded even though no one could see her. “I’ll tell the Don. We’ll be ready.”
“I love you.” Tino always sounded like he meant it, but this time more than most. “I can’t let him die, baby. If I have to take him to the hospital, I will. So, if I go down?—”
“You won’t go down,” she said before he could finish because she couldn’t even think about it. “Please hang up and get him home.”
“Okay, I probably won’t be able to call much because I’m doing all the driving—just be ready for us.”
“We will,” she promised.
The phone went dead before she realized she hadn’t told him she loved him back, but she didn’t doubt Tino knew. Then she took off running, flying across the hallway, racing down the stairs, ignoring the looks from the few people still up and mulling around.
She burst into the kitchen and found Carina sitting at the kitchen table with the Don. The two of them were obviously enjoying the quiet since the rest of the house was packed with people.
Carina jumped up and shouted, “What are you doing? You’re supposed to be watching my zio!”
The Don jumped up too, and it suddenly hit Brianna the gravity of the news she had to deliver when it’d already been a horrible two days.
“What is it?” the Don asked, obviously reading the look of horror on Brianna’s face.
Carina looked at the burner phone still in Brianna’s hand.
“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.” Carina clutched her chest. “It’s Tino!”
