Page 82 of The Enforcer's Revenge
Even if traces of long-worn mascara left dark smudges under her light eyes.
Even with blood smeared on her cheeks and forehead and the same shell-shocked look that Tino had, she was stunning.
This woman was Lola-grade gorgeous, and seeing her stole all of Brianna’s breath. There were more than a few noticeable differences between the two sisters, the blonde hair being the largest, but it was still like seeing Lola come back to life, and the effect almost hurt.
Nova gave Brianna a bored look while she tried to recover from her shock. His eyes were glazed, heavy-lidded, and bloodshot as he took a long drink out of the liquor bottle in his hand, like he needed the distraction.
“Questa è la bff per sempre,” Nova said as he turned back to Lola’s sister, straddled over him. Even though Nova spoke Italian, it was obvious his words were very slurred. He held up the bottle toward Brianna and switched to English when he gestured back to the woman over him. “This is Carmen Brambino.”
“Yeah, I figured that out,” Brianna whispered when she realized he was introducing them. “Hello, Carmen. I’m so sorry—for everything.”
“Thank you.” Carmen’s voice was raspy, like she’d been screaming or crying for a long time. “I assume you have a real name besides BFF forever.”
“My name’s Brianna Darcy,” she clarified when Nova started laughing, like that was the funniest thing he’d ever heard.
Then he started coughing, which made every muscle in his arms and shoulders tense in pain so obvious that Brianna hurt for him when he gasped, “Cazzo.”
“Look at me, bello.” Carmen grabbed his face with her free hand, forcing him to look at her, and then whispered something in Italian. She traced her thumb over his bottom lip, and something about it must’ve helped. Nova noticeably relaxed as Carmen switched back to English and said, “You’re okay now. You made it.”
“Sei tu, bella.”Nova grabbed her hand and kissed the top of it. “Solo tu.”
Brianna arched an eyebrow and looked back to Tino, who explained, “We had to let him self-medicate before Carmen packed the wound, and liquor turns Nova’s game on like a motherfucker. He’s been working hard at it the entire ride.”
Brianna gaped in disbelief. “For eighteen hours?”
She didn’t know whether she should feel bad for Carmen Brambino or impressed that the Moretti constitution let Nova drink that much for that long without dying from alcohol poisoning. To say nothing of surviving a bullet wound to the chest and a car ride from Tampa to Brooklyn without bleeding to death.
Tino pulled into the side garage when Carina waved him in.
Then he asked Brianna, “The doctors are there? They have the blood?”
“Yes.” Brianna nodded and looked back at Carmen and Nova. “They’re ready.”
Carmen was still whispering to Nova in Italian, caressing his face with shaking hands. Her light eyes were watery, and Brianna realized Carmen was terrified to the point that her entire body started shaking when the doctors jerked open both doors to the back seat. Carmen looked at those doctors like a caged animal that was being exposed to light for the first time.
“We got him, sweetheart,” Dr. Acciai told Carmen soothingly. “You need to let us take care of him now.”
Carmen pressed harder against Nova’s chest and argued, “I can’t let up. I can’t let go of him. When you do, he could start bleeding again, and?—”
The doctor on the other side of the car reached over and placed a hand on top of Carmen’s, where she was holding the gauze to the wound in Nova’s chest. “I’ve got it.”
Nova said something else in Italian to Carmen, and whatever it was must’ve reassured her.
“Va bene,” she whispered to Nova and switched back to English to speak to everyone else waiting. “Okay.” Carmen slipped her hand out from under the doctor’s. Then she looked over her shoulder to Doctor Acciai and whispered, “Just let me get out so you can help him.”
Dr. Acciai helped Carmen climb off Nova while the other doctor slid into the backseat to better assess him.
Brianna jumped out of the car and ran around to Carmen because the other woman was still shaking from head to toe.
Brianna wrapped an arm around her and said, “Let’s sit for a second.”
Together, the two of them sat against the wall in the garage.
Carmen was a stranger, but Brianna hugged her like a friend when she remembered that, on top of everything else she’d been through in the last eighteen hours, Carmen just lost her sister in the worst way possible.
“Jesus, he’s unconscious.” Dr. Acciai sounded nervous as he spoke to his colleague.
“The rum probably helped.” The other doctor didn’t sound so sure.
