The Enforcer (Untamed Hearts Book 3)(117)

Fuck the commission.

Fuck any sort of grand idea Nova had about paying Tino back by saving his friends and all those other Lost Boys and Girls who’d been hurt by the system.

“I need your bike,” Carlo said to Sergio and caught the keys deftly when Sergio tossed them to him, even though he was still fighting to keep Nova pinned. “I will be honest with him, Nova. I owe him that, okay?”

“You better be f*cking honest with him!” Nova yelled at him. “You remind him what I’ll turn into if he f*cking dies! You remind him, Carlo!”

He wanted to scream that if Tino died, Carlo would be dead to him forever.

But Carlo wasn’t supposed to have friends. He wasn’t supposed to give a shit. Nova wasn’t either. They both knew better, but they’d broken the rules, and they could end up paying for it in the worst way possible.

Carlo was gone anyway, disappeared down the hallway too fast, and Nova’s breathing was harsh and irregular. He couldn’t lose Tino, not for this.

Not because of the f*cking Brambinos.

He started fighting again.

“Moretti, I get it, but you made an agreement,” Dante said in warning as he got down on his knees next to Nova. “We’ve all been here. You got the pass, but enforcers are intense about this shit. It’s like a f*cking religion to them. If your brother doesn’t want that life, it’s his choice. Respect that.”

Nova elbowed Sergio and fought to turn his head. He looked up at the other commission members. They had all jumped up and followed him down the hallway when Nova lost his shit. It wasn’t the best first impression he could make, but Nova didn’t give a f*ck. He stared at Lorenzo Campelli, who was looking down at him with wide eyes.

Nova broke his arm out the enforcers’ hold and pointed at Lorenzo. “You kept my brother, injured, knowing we were looking for him! Knowing why we were looking for him! Knowing that these f*ckers sold him to your wife because you couldn’t get the f*cking job done! Now his life’s on the line. You owe me, and I don’t want f*cking money! I’m done taking cash for this merda! Cash is easy! I want something else!”

“We’ll agree to that.” Marcell nodded for the Savios. “No one wants a war.”

“What?” Lorenzo turned back to Marcell with a look of horror. “Is that why you brought me?”

“Sacrificial lamb,” Dante repeated his words from earlier. He got back to his feet, making him hugely imposing over the rest of the commission, because he was unusually tall for an Italian, with a thick, powerful build to match. “And I get to watch.”

Suddenly Nova was breathing a little easier. The pressure of four enforcers holding him down got less intense. He kept his gaze on Lorenzo and said, “You better f*cking run, puttana.”

Nova let him get halfway down the hallway before he elbowed Carlo’s buddy Sergio just because he f*cking felt like it, making him curse, but Nova didn’t turn to see the damage.

He slipped out of the enforcers’ hold and took off after Lorenzo, who went for the stairs down to the restaurant, which was open. They wouldn’t close it for a meeting, that would be too suspicious, but they did come through the back entrance.

Lorenzo was hoping for a scene.

For cops to be called.

In that one moment, it was obvious to everyone in that room that he would flip in a f*cking heartbeat to save himself. The enforcers cursed behind Nova, but Nova still got to Lorenzo first, catching him two steps down the restaurant stairway.

Nova sensed the scream before it happened. He slammed Lorenzo’s head against the wall, but the f*cking drywall gave way, leaving a huge dent. The restaurant was noisy downstairs, and it helped muffle Lorenzo’s shout. The drywall helped too, but Nova couldn’t risk it. He pushed him against the stairs and fisted his hair despite Lorenzo flailing.

Nova used his hold on Lorenzo’s hair to slam his head against the floor at the top of the stairs. The dull thud of flesh against marble echoed over the restaurant buzz from downstairs. No one upstairs was saying anything. They were barely breathing when Nova started slamming Lorenzo’s head against the marble over and over. The blood splattered on the walls, the pool of red growing bigger and dripping down the stairs, because it was about so much more than losing Tino now.

It was about losing him a long time ago.

It was about the f*cking basement.

Not just the first time, but all the times after. Every f*ckup Nova had made in the past four years had been taken out on Tino. Then to find out Mary had been using him too, punishing him for being named Moretti, when no one hated that name more than Tino.

It wasn’t until that exact moment that Nova had someone he could hurt in return. Before now the horrible echo of his father’s voice from the past had haunted him. Nova closed his eyes a thousand times over the past four years, remembering Frankie doubling Tino’s punishment when Nova tried to fight back.

And nearly killing Tino in the process.

No one was doubling it this time, or if they were, Nova was past giving a f*ck. They’d already taken everything. So Nova had a Carina moment and beat his demons out of Lorenzo Campelli, slamming Lorenzo’s head against the marble so many times Nova’s hand started slipping through his hair from all the blood.

Finally it was Sergio who pointed out, “He’s…very dead, Moretti.”

Nova still had a lifetime of demons, so he thumped Lorenzo’s skull against the floor one last time and spit on him. He got to his feet, breathing hard, nearly busting his ass in his Versace shoes when he stepped around Lorenzo’s prone body into puddles of blood. Then, just because he was still raging and Carlo, his uncle, his friend, Nova’s only friend except for his brothers, was on his way to probably kill Tino, Nova kicked Lorenzo violently enough that it forced his body over.