The Enforcer (Untamed Hearts Book 3) (5 page)

“Maybe she knew ’cause we look completely out of place,” Brianna suggested with a laugh.

“She knows Tino. And Romeo.”

“Romeo’s famous. Most of New York knew him too,” Brianna said with a pointed look. “And Tino’s still Tino.” She looked away and mumbled under her breath, “Obviously.”

“You’re married. Bri, you didn’t expect—”

“What if he has a girlfriend?” Brianna burst out with her darkest terror. “There’s no reason for him not to have a girlfriend and—”

“I talk to him all the time. He
does not
have a girlfriend. I would know.”

“What if he didn’t want to tell you?” Brianna pressed, feeling her cheeks heat with the clash of fear and embarrassment. “What if—”

“Look, he’s Tino. He’s been around since you broke up. You both went to extreme measures to stay away from each other, but—”

“He’s got a girlfriend,” Brianna whispered miserably. “And we’re gonna show up here and ruin his life.”

“He doesn’t have a girlfriend,” Carina assured her. “I promise.”

Promise or not, Brianna ended up eating half of Carina’s fried chicken out of nerves. It did taste fantastic and was certainly more enjoyable than any sex she’d had in the past few years.

Tino really had been such a long time ago, a different life, hazed in the smoky glow of nightclubs and the hot, sticky press of bodies colliding in the dark. Their love had been wild, unpredictable, and so unbelievably raw and sensual it would likely never stop haunting her.

Together, they were like a firework.

Beautiful in the night.

A dusty smear of ash in the morning when reality crashed in and ruined the high. They just weren’t ever meant to be more than one brief, amazing explosion of memories that should’ve been enough to sustain them.

But it hadn’t been.

Not even close.

* * * *

Now she and Carina were using the GPS to try and find a gym called the Cuthouse Cellar, where Tino was supposed to be attending a wedding party, ’cause nothing said romance like Cuthouse Cellar.

“They’re so helpful here. Not only did she know him, but she knew right where he was,” Carina observed as she turned left at the GPS’s urging. “With any luck, I won’t have to see Romeo at all.”

“Helpful? Is that what we’re calling it?” Brianna asked, realizing life had officially made her paranoid. “It doesn’t bother you that she just pointed us right to where Tino was? What if we were with the Borgata? What if we were another Borgata? What if we were one of the thousand guys who has a vendetta against Tino?”

“Tino can take care of himself,” Carina said in the way most Cosa Nostra family members did to protect themselves from the knowledge that danger was everywhere—for everyone.

Anyone could fall prey to a bullet.

Denial was just something they’d been trained with since birth.

Brianna was close; she’d been around it far too long, but the protection mechanisms hadn’t been ingrained like they were with Carina.

“Wow, this is a fucking gym right here,” Carina said as she turned into the large parking lot of the Cuthouse Cellar. “Look at the size of this place. Damn, they don’t half-ass things in Kentucky.”

“Yeah,” Brianna whispered, not really paying attention because her stomach was leaden with anxiety. “This is a mistake. I cannot just show up here and jack up his life. I think I’m gonna puke.” Brianna dropped her head to her knees. “How do I let you talk me into these things? My entire life is a series of bad decisions, and I think a large portion of them are mostly your fault.”

“Yeah, probably. I’m certainly a guilty party,” Carina agreed without apology as she parked. “
Madonn’
, there he is.”

“What?” Brianna lifted her head so fast she felt faint as Carina tossed the hat and glasses off. “No, don’t—”

Carina leaped out of the car before Brianna could grab her. Then Brianna had to remind herself to breathe as she looked across the parking lot. Standing against the wall was Tino, all casual, stealth-like grace as if he didn’t have a care in the world. He was still too gorgeous to be human. Tanned and beautiful, because Tino, like all the Moretti siblings, had been blessed with some kick-ass genetics. God probably felt he owed them for the absolute shit storm that was their lives.

Tino had a woman with him, and she was very pretty and petite in a Carina type of way. It looked like they had escaped the chaos of the wedding party to find somewhere to be alone together. So there it was, in living color, her worst fears come to life.

It left Brianna just sitting there, frozen in horror, as Carina waved Tino over like she was completely oblivious to the other woman.

Tino spotted his sister almost instantly. He clearly hadn’t grown out of the paranoia he had back in New York that made him constantly vigilant of his surroundings.

When Tino ran up to Carina, the petite strawberry blonde followed. Brianna tilted her head, meeting the woman’s gaze as Tino stood there having a rushed, heated discussion in Italian with his sister.

Brianna didn’t want to think about what Carina was telling him.

She didn’t want to look at Tino now that he was so close, because he wasn’t hers anymore. She had zero claim to him, and it was that thought more than anything that made her almost physically ill.

She was pulled out of her thoughts when Tino suddenly jerked open the door to the BMW and crouched down in front of her.

“
Cazzo.
” Tino cupped Brianna’s cheek. His thumb swept over the bruise from the bathroom sink, and she could see the guilt flash across his handsome face as he whispered, “Jesus, Bri. I’m sorry.”

“I told Carina not to come, but we didn’t know where else to go,” she confessed as she touched his arm, feeling the bunched-up, hard muscles under his leather jacket because she simply couldn’t help herself. She wanted to pull back, to be respectful, but it was like asking her to stop breathing after being slowly choked to death for the past four years. “I don’t want to ruin your life here. Are you together?”

“What?” Tino frowned in confusion, as if he honestly had no idea what she was talking about. Then he glanced back to the other woman. “Alaine. No, she’s my friend. She just got married. I haven’t been involved with anyone. Not like that.”

“Wish I could say the same.” She let go of him as all the emotions chose that moment to overwhelm her. After so many nights of going to bed dreaming of him, Tino was in front of her, but at what cost to both of them? “It all happened so fast and—”

“Figlio di puttana.” Tino’s scowl became dark and dangerous. He stared at her for a long time before he asked the one question she wished he wouldn’t. “Is this the first time he hurt you?”

“I didn’t know David was working for your grandfather.” She avoided his gaze on instinct. “I think your grandfather’s been setting us up all along. I’m not Italian and—”

“Yeah, that’s the reason,” Tino said with sharp bitterness and then grabbed Brianna’s hand as if the two of them had never been forced apart. “We have to go. Right now.”

“Tino—” Alaine cut in, her voice shrill as she reminded them both she was still there. “Where are you going?”

Tino helped Brianna out of the car with the same old-school chivalry she used to love. “I have to take care of something.”

“What something?” This woman wasn’t letting up. Then she dropped the bomb by asking, “Don’t you think you should tell Nova what’s going on?”

“Is Nova here?” Brianna felt all the air leave her lungs as she shouldered the travel bag and looked to Carina. “You didn’t tell me he was here.”

“I didn’t know.” Carina shook her head, looking as horrified as Brianna felt. Then she turned back to Tino. “You are
not
leaving me here with Nova.”

“No, no, I’m not,” Tino said quickly. “I’m leaving you with Romeo.”

Brianna winced in sympathy.

“No friggin’ way,” Carina snapped before Brianna could form a better argument. “Your brother hates me.”

“No, he doesn’t. He has no reason to hate you.” Tino’s voice was low, calming in a way only he could do with his sister. “I have to go, Carina. No one wants to hurt you. Everyone loves you. Stay here. Watch my nephews until I get back. We both know the old man won’t bother you. Staying here is insurance for them. Please do this for me.”

“I can’t believe my nonno did this,” Carina whispered, as if Tino had cracked her armor. She stuck out her bottom lip in a juvenile pout Brianna hadn’t seen in a long time, not that she could blame Carina as she let out a sob of misery. “And now I’m stuck with Nova.”

“Sweetheart, your nonno is an asshole, but I can’t help you deal with that.” Tino pushed his sister toward the other woman. “This is my friend Alaine. Talk to her about it. I have to go. Stay with Romeo.”

“I don’t even know this woman. I can’t talk to her about everything,” Carina said as she gestured to Alaine, because like Brianna, she wasn’t inclined to trust strangers. “I should come.”

“No, that’s bad. You need to stay here. I can’t move fast with both of you.”

Something about the way he said it washed out the rest of the conversation Carina, Tino, and Alaine were having about this drama.

Like Carina said, enforcers were the best liars in the Borgata, and Tino was arguably the strongest enforcer to have come out of the Moretti Borgata in a lot of years.

He could lie to anyone.

Bald-faced lie, without flinching.

But for some reason, Brianna always heard his lies.

Could see them when others, even his siblings, couldn’t.

And that was a lie.

Tino could bring Carina. He didn’t have to leave her, but he was choosing to, and Brianna was starting to suspect she knew why.

She pulled out of Tino’s grasp when she found herself standing in front of a black Mercedes SUV that had his name written all over it. Wiseguys were drawn to highline black SUVs like moths to a flame.

She watched him get in, knowing that going with him meant leaving everything behind, but that wasn’t what was stopping her. It also meant Tino was doing the same thing, abandoning the hope of a life outside the mafia.

Of being a fighter like Romeo instead of a mafioso like Nova.

The dream was withering and dying right before her eyes, when no one deserved to be out more than Tino.

He was going to throw it all away and for what?

“Get in the car, Bri!” Tino shouted at her, as if he knew she saw through him.

She shook her head, looking back and forth between Alaine and Tino, knowing this woman represented a new life. New friends. Now he was going to walk away from it. Brianna couldn’t let the Borgata win like that, not after all the pain they’d caused him.

“I can’t ruin your life.” Brianna felt tears sting her eyes. “I can’t do this. I won’t. I won’t make you suffer for my bad decisions.”

“My life sucks!” Tino shouted at her like he was purging his soul. As if no one but her had found a way to see through his lies, and he needed someone to hear him be angry. “There’s nothing left to ruin. I lost the only good thing a long time ago. I’m not gonna lose it again, not for that asshole. I’m officially done hurting for him.”

Brianna put a hand to her chest and took a long, shuddering breath as Tino became a watery blur in the afternoon sunshine. She didn’t want to understand, but she did.

Nothing really mattered anymore.

For either of them.

They’d been living on borrowed time.

“Get in the car, Brianna.” Tino reached over and opened the passenger-side door from his seat behind the wheel, as if he had been waiting for four years to do it.

Brianna stood there for a long moment; then she turned back to Carina and called out, “I love you,” not knowing if it was the last time she would get to say it. “I’ll call you.”

“I love you,” Carina said as she stood there crying. “Tino, you better keep her safe.”

“You brought her to me ’cause you know I will.” Tino smiled at his sister as Brianna crawled into the SUV. It was a lie, and he covered it by saying, “Tell me you love me, Carina.”

“I don’t love you.” Carina huffed as if she heard the lie too. Maybe she’d always heard them. “You won’t take me with you, and you’re leaving me
with Nova
.”

Tino waved her off, making it clear without saying he knew the real reason she was mad. Then he said to his friend Alaine, “Tell Chu to protect my sister.”

“Is Brianna the dancer?” Alaine asked him.

Tino nodded. “She’s the dancer.”

“You talked about me?” Brianna whispered as the tears rolled down her face without warning.

“Yeah, I talked about you.” Tino’s eyes were still glassy as he gave Brianna one of those heart-stopping smiles that always made her breathless. He held out his hand. “Give me your cell phone.”

Brianna reached into the bag and pulled her phone out of its case, because she might still need the cash or cards in the wallet portion. Then she handed her phone to Tino, knowing that she was putting her entire life in his palm.

“Where are you going? At least tell me where you’re going,” Alaine said quickly. “I have to tell them something.”

“To get Patrón,” he said cryptically. “Tell Nova I’ll call him.”

“No.” Alaine shook her head frantically. “No, you’re not allowed to get Patrón, because—”

Tino dropped the phones on the ground, abandoning both their lives without hesitating, and shut the door before his friend Alaine could give him a better reason to stay.

Brianna looked back and watched his life disappear behind them as he peeled out of the parking lot.

He drove like his sister did, fast and aggressive, as if they were on a battlefield instead of a road. Brianna was fairly certain it was their fault she never got a driver’s license.

The Morettis could put anyone off driving.

The gym had long since disappeared before she turned around and took in the interior of Tino’s car that was top-of-the-line. He obviously spared no expense and purchased every bell and whistle available.

“Sorta obvious, an SUV,” she mumbled as she stared at the GPS. “Should’ve gotten something small, like a Porsche or—”

“I bought it because I babysit my nephews. My sister-in-law works a lot, and Romeo teaches at the Cellar.” He gestured to the backseat. “Usually there are car seats in the back. It’s a family car. I’m not using it to hide bodies, Brianna.”