The Enforcer (Untamed Hearts Book 3) (7 page)

But he had one from Kentucky, and thanks to Carina again, that worked perfectly. He set it on the dash and then pulled out the one for Brianna that matched his.

He handed it to her.

“You have one for me?” She stared at it as if she was genuinely shocked. “Why do you have this?”

“In case I needed it.” Tino pointed at the picture in the corner, deciding not to mention that he actually had several for Brianna. “It’s old, but you look the same. Mostly the same. A little fitter. A little hotter.”

He winced as he said it, even if it was true, ’cause
holy shit
.

Tino shifted in the seat when his cock betrayed him again.

He wasn’t real sure how he could be in this nuclear mess with Brianna in tow and still be hard, because the ramifications were terrifying. That was a low, even for him, which was saying something.

But she did look incredible, even if she was thinner than he remembered. He thought of asking if she was eating, but he was fairly certain she would tell him off for it. If he knew one thing about women, it was not to ask about their weight.

“I got one for Carina too.” He showed it to Brianna to stop himself from staring. “Nova. Romeo. Jules.” He handed her the one with his sister-in-law’s picture. “She would fucking freak if she knew I had this. She’s still a volunteer deputy. If you can believe that.”

“I can’t believe it.” Brianna took the fake ID he had for Jules and stared at the picture. “She’s very pretty. Very blonde.”

“Yeah,” Tino agreed. “She’s very tall too. Like Romeo tall. My nephews are giants in their playgroup, and they’re the youngest ones.”

“I bet they’re cute,” she whispered as she handed Jules’s fake ID back. “I’m sure you miss them already.”

“Yup,” he agreed as he filed the ID with the others.

He shoved them in the plastic bag and reached back down, forcing Brianna to lift her feet and put them on the dash despite her long legs. He pulled out another bag and fished in it for a ring. It was simple and silver, and he slipped it on his left ring finger without too much thought.

It wasn’t until he handed one to Brianna that he saw the look on her face.

“I have one,” she whispered and held up her hand as evidence.

Tino stared at the glint of diamond and gold under the dome light. “Right. Yeah. I guess you do.” He took the silver ring off and grabbed a gold one. “We’ll just make it match.”

She looked back at her fake ID. “Are we married?”

He couldn’t look at her. “Yes, we’re married.”

“You got us matching IDs?”

“They’re fake IDs, Brianna,” he reminded her, his voice sharp and hard in a way he hated, because there was something about her that still pulled down all his shields. “I’m a criminal, remember? This is what I do.”

“I remember.” Brianna kept staring at the ID as if she hadn’t heard him at all.

His stomach knotted with so many overlapping emotions he wasn’t sure how to sort it all out. So he pulled off his jacket and reached for the bag of supplies his sister bought. He grabbed the University of Kentucky shirt and made quick work of taking off his old shirt.

Then he made the mistake of looking at Brianna before he pulled on the new one. She had tucked a strand of long auburn hair behind her ear in a nervous habit she obviously hadn’t grown out of. Her green eyes were startling in the dim light of the car as the two of them sat there in a dark corner of the hotel parking lot. The way she was looking at him made his stomach muscles tighten against his will and his cock jerk in his jeans.

He tugged on the blue University of Kentucky shirt, pretending not to notice. Then he reached into her bag and pulled out the tank top. “Put it on.”

To Brianna’s credit, she didn’t argue as she took it from him.

He would’ve liked to call himself a gentleman and say he turned away, but who was he kidding? Tino had never been able to call himself a gentleman.

He watched as she pulled off her jacket and tugged her turtleneck over her head. Brianna had great tits, not too big, not too small, but tight and high in a way that had always made him hot and hard whenever he thought about them.

But this time the marks on her neck sort of distracted from them.

He reached out and touched the injury as anger surged through him. He was getting seriously sick of motherfuckers who got off on bruising and hurting women somehow managing to stick their fucked-up shit on Tino’s conscience. His month hadn’t exactly been stellar before Brianna was nearly murdered.

Now, seeing the marks on her, knowing that his grandfather had it done in retaliation for what happened in Miami, Tino was almost light-headed with the need to kill someone for it.

His stomach lurched as he caressed the bruises standing out starkly against her pale skin, because as surely as he sat there staring at them, he knew he was the one who had caused them.

For touching her.

Needing her.

Loving her.

“Are they that bad?” Brianna asked as she broke his hold by tugging the tank top on. Then she pulled down the visor and used the light to look at them. Just as quickly, she shut it with a huff. “Whatever. It’s just skin. It heals.”

Tino looked away and stared out the windshield to the hotel.

He still felt physically ill with the image of those marks on Brianna, and he was fighting down the urge to lash out again. He knew he needed to stop using her as an outlet because she was the only one who had been able to see through his bullshit well enough that he didn’t bother trying to fake it.

It wasn’t her fault he felt like someone had just stabbed him.

He was mad at himself.

He was mad at his grandfather.

In some ways he was mad at Carina for being friends with Brianna.

And he was mad at Nova for being too smart for his own good.

Tino would never admit it to his brother, but he was tired of being Nova’s whipping boy. It was one thing when the lashes were just ripping into his skin and marring his soul, but now this power play was hurting Brianna too.

And since he was at it, he was also mad at Romeo, for going to prison and setting all this into action to begin with.

Tino had suffered for a long time.

He had covered up a lot of pain and spent a lot of years laughing and joking around to make it a little less obvious.

Right then, Tino realized he was officially tired of being a good brother.

He loved them all.

But he was done bleeding for them.

He’d had to kill a lot of motherfuckers this week thanks to his grandfather. He nearly watched Alaine get raped and murdered in front of his eyes.
In front of Chuito’s eyes.
Chuito, who loved Alaine every bit as much as Tino loved Brianna.

So that had seriously fucked Tino up.

He spent a week on a beach in Miami trying to recover from it all.

Confession certainly hadn’t helped.

It would take a while before he found something to smile about again. For the images to fade. It was the first time he’d killed since giving up blow, and he was starting to wonder why the hell he went off cocaine to begin with.

’Cause Nova felt guilty.

Fuck Nova.

He should feel guilty.

Tino was done fighting the good fight that had allowed him to suppress the fury, and now it was rising up after all these years, nearly stealing his breath with the force of it.

“Are you okay?” Brianna asked softly next to him.

Tino turned back to her, still feeling dirty, as if he didn’t deserve to be sitting there next to her, let alone thinking about touching her again.

Even if he had spent the past four years slowly dying without her.

But Tino didn’t tell her any of that.

He didn’t even know how, and the young, in-love part of him didn’t want to tell her. He wanted her to look at him like she had before, when he was pulling his shirt off, and he didn’t want to give her anything to be disgusted about.

And that was when he realized out of everyone, he was angriest with Brianna.

For falling in love with him.

And ruining her life.

Maybe ending it.

There was this very juvenile, very confused part of him that wanted to yell at her for touching someone like him. Someone dirty.

But the only way he could put that into words was to say in a cold, distant voice, “I need a shower.”

“We’ll get a room.” Brianna’s voice was soft, endearing, making him realize too late that he had said that to her one too many times before. “You can have a shower.”

She said it like she knew exactly why he needed one.

She knew why he was dirty.

Somehow she knew what happened in Miami. She always knew.

But she touched him anyway.

Because Brianna made bad life choices.

He was mad at her for it, irrationally furious, but he was going to take a shower and fuck her anyway, ’cause he loved her so much more than he was mad at her.

Chapter Six

“Who are we hiding from?” Brianna asked as she tossed her bag on the chair by the bed.

“Everyone,” Tino said as he locked the door behind them.

He had a briefcase with him, but there were no clothes in it. Just cash and firearms, neither of which she’d been surprised by when he pulled it out of the trunk.

“Like the feds?” she asked as she stared down at the tank top she was wearing under the jacket Carina had loaned her. She glanced back to Tino as he took off the camouflage hat and set it on the desk by the door. He pulled off his jacket, tossed it over the chair, and stood there in that blue University of Kentucky shirt that was too tight across his broad, muscular chest and clung to his thick biceps. He was way too sexy for her sanity, so she quickly turned away and asked, “Is that why you’re using an ID with your father’s name on it?”

“I’m using that ID ’cause the credit cards in my father’s name are the only ones I have that Nova doesn’t know about, and nice hotels need a credit card for incidentals. The feds are the least of our problems. Where we stand right now, the feds would be doing us a favor to pick us up.”

“We didn’t have to stay somewhere this nice,” she argued. “We should’ve just gone somewhere that takes cash.”

“I’m not staying in a shithole. It bothers me, and you know why it bothers me,” he said with a glare. “If you knew where I landed when I first got to Miami last week, you wouldn’t give me merda about the hotel.”

“For a wedding?” She arched an eyebrow skeptically, ’cause Miami was clearly an issue. “Did something happen in Miami? Obviously you’re not as out as we all thought. Did you piss Don Moretti off?”

“The don pissed
me
off,” Tino growled at her. “And he knows it. That’s why he attacked you. His plan didn’t work, and now he’s trying to make me feel vulnerable. He’s trying to make me feel sixteen again. He’s scared.”

“He’s not the only one,” Brianna whispered as she sat down on the bed. She looked at her hands as everything hit her again. Her career was as good as gone when she had been working toward becoming a headliner since she was old enough to stand on her toes. For all the years since she and Tino had been apart, her job had been her sole source of joy, and knowing she was going to lose it after she disappeared without a word had her fighting tears. “I did the right thing. I married Broccoli. I was lonely and unhappy, but I was supposed to be secure, and you were supposed to be safe. Nova promised me.” She lifted her head and stared at him, seeing that Tino was standing there, his entire body tense, as if she had physically struck him. She wanted to feel bad, but damn it, he’d been washing hot and cold since Kentucky. “I’ve missed you. I’ve cried for you. I have closed my eyes a thousand times and tried to imagine it was you touching me instead of—”

“Don’t,” Tino cut her off, as he looked away, clenching his jaw. “Don’t talk about him touching you.”

“It makes you uncomfortable?” She almost shouted it. She was just that indignant. “It was my reality, Tino. While you were off enjoying Southern hospitality with your little strawberry-shortcake friend Alaine, I was living a lie for security, and now that’s gone too! I guess I deserve it. Maybe we both deserve it. I lied in front of God. You made me a liar.”

“I didn’t fuck Alaine. She’s married to Chuito Garcia, who, aside from being the reigning heavyweight UFC world champion, is also my best friend,” Tino said as if he didn’t hear the rest. “I haven’t touched her.”

She let out a bitter, mirthless laugh. “Oh yes, I’m sure you’ve been a pillar of chastity while we’ve been apart.”

“No.” He shook his head in denial. “I fucked my brains out since we broke up. I snorted enough blow to kill an elephant, and I drank so much Nova’s convinced I’m one more drink away from liver failure.”

“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, Tino—” Brianna started, feeling her blood pressure spike.

“I have been dying without you,” Tino said before she could finish. “I’ve been slowly dying, and no one knew it. I couldn’t tell anyone. Then I had to give up the fucking coke ’cause I thought Nova was gonna off himself over the guilt. I’ve just had to sit in Kentucky and die.
Sober.
” He pulled off his shirt and tossed it over his jacket. “So don’t worry, baby. I’ve suffered for your security too, but if it makes you feel better, I’m gonna make sure they pay for fucking it up.” He walked past her to the bathroom, pulling at the button to his jeans as he did. “I’m gonna make them all pay. I’m done being Cosa Nostra’s whore.”

She flinched when he said it, because that word had so many terrible implications for Tino, but he just gave her a look that dared her to deny it as he went on, “They broke me a long time ago; now they’ve broken you too. That wasn’t supposed to happen. I’ve been screwed for the last time, and you can put it on my fucking tombstone. I’m done!”

Brianna jumped when Tino slammed the bathroom door, and then she sat there staring at it as the shower started running. It wasn’t until she saw the steam slip out from under the door that she realized he hadn’t locked her out.

Had it been anyone else, she might have disregarded the act as careless.

But Tino had been the Moretti Borgata’s lead enforcer before he’d left.