The Enforcer (Untamed Hearts Book 3)(85)

“Wow, thanks. That was fun and educational,” Nova said sarcastically. “I always feel like I need so much more than weed when you start oversharing.”

“You ever licked *, Tino?” Carlo asked, completely ignoring the oversharing comment. “You done the deed yet?”

“He’s licked something,” Nova said before Tino had to answer. “But we don’t like to talk about it.”

“When I was sixteen, porca buttana, I got around.” Carlo was quiet for a moment and then admitted, “I still get around.”

Nova laughed. “Puttaniere.”

“Oh, who’s talking?” Tino turned and arched an eyebrow at his brother.

“We can’t all save ourselves for marriage like you,” Nova said without apology before he handed the joint back to Carlo and asked, “So this woman—”

“The most beautiful woman in the f*cking world,” Carlo finished for him.

“Right.” Nova laughed again. “What does she look like?”

“She’s Dominican. Washington Heights, man. I was raised to love Dominican women.”

Nova nodded. “Nice.”

“And she’s fit. Smooth. Waxed.” Carlo raised his eyebrows, like he was remembering. “She’s got these eyes. Like the f*cking ocean. Dunno where she got them, but they are amazing. I asked, but she never met her father. Doesn’t talk about her mother. I think she had a hard time growing up.”

“Oh, so sad,” Nova said cynically. “Tell her to join the f*cking club.”

“I wanna take care of her.” Carlo was smiling again. “I’d spoil her rotten.”

“How old is this girl?” Nova asked suspiciously.

“Relax, Mr. Accountant. She’s legal.”

“How old?”

“Twenty-one. Older than you,” Carlo said with another smile. “But she’s mature. Honest to God, I was shocked when she told me she was twenty-one. She’s got skills. When she f*cks me, it’s like I go f*cking blind with it. She rocks my world. Minchia, I think I love her.”

Tino met Nova’s gaze, and together the two of them burst out laughing.

“You’re laughing. One day.” Carlo pointed at the two of them. “One day. You’ll find your Wendy.”

“Io passo,” Nova said dismissively.

“I have a Wendy,” Tino said with a smile. “And I bet my Wendy’s hotter than your Wendy.”

“Bullshit. I already told you. Hottest woman in the f*cking world.” Carlo raised his eyebrows. “Who cares if enforcers aren’t supposed to have wives? I’ll get the don to give me a new job, ’cause I’m gonna marry this girl. You’re both invited to the wedding. You’ll be the only ones there, unless she invites her friends. Hell, maybe you know her. She grew up in East Harlem. She’s Upper East Side now, but her roots are in Harlem.”

“Oh yeah.” Tino nodded. “’Cause we know everyone from East Harlem. A hundred thousand people live there, stronzo.”

“I’m sure you hang in the same places. She wears that club bracelet like yours. With the fox-head thing on the clasp.”

“It’s a lion.” Tino took another drag, and then something occurred to him through the haze of weed and oxy. “Wait. What?”

“That leather-bracelet thing.” Carlo gestured to Tino’s wrist. “She wears one too.”

“She must like giving hugs,” Nova said in a singsong voice.

Tino’s pulse picked up, thundering in his ears as he stared at Carlo. “How’d you meet this girl?”

“At a coffee shop.”

“You just walked up to her?”

“Hottest woman in the world,” Carlo repeated like a mantra. “I would have to be dead not to walk up to her.”

Tino just stared at him for a long time, unable to hide his horror. “And she lets you f*ck her?”

“Why wouldn’t she?” Carlo looked down at himself pointedly. His gaze stopped on his crotch. “Not to brag—”

“Yeah, let’s not brag,” Nova agreed as he stole the joint from Tino.

“It’s long and thick,” Carlo finished. “The package and skill set it comes with is not half-bad either.”

Nova laughed, but Tino was still hung up on this woman wearing a band.

Not just any band, but a lion-head band.

That was the Brambino marker.

That wasn’t kind of suspicious; it was undeniable.

Carlo was the Moretti Borgata’s lead enforcer. He didn’t just make them strong; he made them terrifying. He was fearless and couldn’t care less that he had no friends in a way that was hallmark for any good enforcer, because no goodfella wanted to be friends with their potential executioner. He was one of the dark ghosts that hung out on the fringes of their world—an angel of death no one wanted to look in the eye. Not everyone could do it, but Carlo was a bastard. He didn’t want to socialize in mafia circles. Like Nova, he hated spoiled gangsters and was perfectly happy being feared and ignored.

It left him with virtually no weaknesses.

Or so they’d thought.

Tino hadn’t considered a woman, but if there was one edge the Brambinos had in the underworld, it was knowing how to use sex for profit, control, and destruction.