The Enforcer (Untamed Hearts Book 3)(55)

Tino sat down in the middle of the floor and sulked.

“I miss Romeo.”

He wanted his older brother.

He wanted someone to hug him and protect him and tell him it was going to be okay.

Romeo was six-six and built like a tree.

A really big, very muscular tree.

He was the reason Tino and Nova were so heavily involved in martial arts. Romeo had been competing nationally since he was in middle school.

It was easy to believe everything was going to be okay when Romeo promised it.

“I’m trying, Tino.” Nova’s voice cracked with misery. “I know I’m not Rome, but I’m trying.”

Tino knew he was trying, and he honestly didn’t want to make things worse on Nova. It was obvious something broke in him after the night in the shower, so Tino just took a long, steady breath and asked, “How long till he gets out? You never tell me how long.”

Nova was silent for a while before he whispered, “I don’t know.”

Tino didn’t believe it, because Nova knew everything.

He just fell onto his back, even though it hurt like a bitch, and looked at the ceiling, seeing a water stain. If there was a hole in the roof, that meant there were probably rats up there.

Of course there were rats.

Why wouldn’t there be?

“Do I have to live here until I’m eighteen?” Tino asked him, still staring at the water spot. “Is Rome gonna be gone that long?”

“Probably,” Nova whispered. “But maybe, if we get the right judge—”

Tino closed his eyes, but the tears ran down his cheeks anyway.

He didn’t think there was a person in existence who missed East Harlem as desperately as Tino did in that moment. Then Nova’s new cell phone rang, because it rang constantly since the don gave it to him.

“Pronto,” Nova answered in that tone he always used when he talked to the don, like everything was f*cking great and nothing in the world existed but serving him. “Yeah, I can look at it. Are they there right now?” He met Tino’s gaze and mouthed, Sorry, right before he said, “No, I can come tonight.”

Tino turned on his side because his back was hurting him, and he really didn’t want his brother to see him break down and sob over burned pasta.

Though, honestly, someone should cry over that.

It was pretty f*cking bad.

After he hung up, Nova put a box of cereal bars in front of Tino like a peace offering. Then he leaned down and kissed Tino’s temple. “Ti voglio bene.”

“Yeah,” Tino agreed and didn’t bother to wipe his tears. Carlo said Lost Boys were supposed to cry, so he gave up and cried, but still he said, “I love you too,” because he didn’t know where Nova was going and he didn’t trust life. Not anymore. “Come home.”

“Brush your teeth. Don’t forget.” Nova almost sounded like Romeo when he said it. “Get rid of the list.”

“There’s no cable,” Tino reminded him, because they had their television from East Harlem that was almost useless.

“Then make a different list. I’ll rent you some movies on my way home.” Nova kissed his temple one more time, and then he found his shoes in the bedroom and was gone.

Just like that.

’Cause the don told him to jump.

So Nova f*cking jumped.



Tino colored in the list rather than get rid of it. Just covered the whole paper with black ink, completely ragging out the ballpoint pen, but he knew what was hiding under all that ink.

He knew the words that were there.

Then he started working on a new list instead of eating another f*cking cereal bar.

Tino officially hated cereal bars.


Upside of Neverland

Carina

Carlo

Brianna


Tino stared at it for a while, because that was about it for the good things. He drew a line under each of their names, and then paused on Brianna and decided to add uniforms to the list.

Even if they had been on the downside list, he couldn’t help but be a little excited about the first day of school if Carina’s best friend in a Catholic school uniform was the bonus.

They had her tryouts tomorrow in Bed-Stuy.

He’d been counting down the days. Not like he had much else to look forward to, and he was dying to see what sort of routine she was doing. He wanted to ask Carina what song Brianna was dancing to, but it felt like a spoiler for the one thing he had to look forward to.

So he wrote Bed-Stuy under uniforms on the list.

He heard someone on the stairs, which surprised him because Nova hadn’t been gone long. Maybe his brother felt guilty and got Tino fast food and a movie rental before he went running to the don.

Tino was about to add Big Mac to the list and turned around, expecting fries. Instead his stomach knotted when he saw Carina’s mother open the door.

This was the first time he’d been in the same room with her. He’d only ever seen her from a distance, spying that shiny blonde hair in the house across the pool, but up close Tino could see Carina in her.

His sister’s features were Frankie’s.

Her coloring was definitely Frankie’s.

But the rest was from the woman standing in front of him. She couldn’t be more than five feet. Everything about her was tiny, but she was curvy too. Her hair was wavy, shoulder-length, very styled like even the strands were afraid to fall out of place. Her makeup made her look too perfect.