The Slayer (Untamed Hearts #2)(100)

Jules just stood there as Tino ran off, and then opened her mouth, as if searching for the right words. “Did you sleep with both of them?”

Alaine grabbed the neckline of her sweater and pulled it up. “Like I told you at the office, my life is sort of complicated right now. I’m going through a thing after breaking up with Edward.”

“A thing?”

Alaine nodded. “Pretty intense thing.”

“What is going on with you?” Jules asked in disbelief. “Really, what is happening to you, Alaine? This is not you.”

“Okay, thank you, mama.” Tino ran back up to Jules, the keys in his hands. He kissed his sister-in-law’s cheek. “We love you.” Then he reached forward and grabbed Alaine’s hand. “Come on, baby. Let’s go.”

Alaine resisted the urge to cringe and jerk her wrist out of Tino’s hold as he dragged her in through the garage to the Ferrari. He opened the car door for her and then ran to the driver’s side. He pushed a button on the visor, and the garage door started opening.

He looked behind him and said, “Oh shit.”

“What?” Alaine glanced back, seeing that Romeo had come out of the house.

“Put on your belt,” Tino said as he threw the Ferrari into reverse.

Alaine gasped and ended up grabbing the dash as they backed out of the driveway. Her eyes were wide when Romeo chased after them, but Tino must have been a race-car driver in a past life.

He threw the car into gear and punched the gas before Romeo could catch up. She looked behind them, seeing that Romeo was standing in the road like an angry Italian Hulk as they drove off with his car.

“You’re in trouble.” She turned to Tino with wide eyes. “You just stole Romeo’s car.”

“Yeah, I’m screwed,” Tino agreed as he looked in the rearview mirror. “He is going to f*cking kill me when we get back.”

“Why didn’t we just take my car?” Alaine barked at him. “They can’t arrest us for taking my car.”

“But this car has a million in cash in the trunk,” Tino said as he gave her a look. “I didn’t pack. Did you pack? We need cash. Untraceable cash. I needed the Ferrari.”

“Oh my God,” she choked as she gave him a look of horror. “You just stole a Ferrari with a million dollars in it.”

“I’ll pay him back,” Tino said as if it wasn’t a big deal. “He’s still gonna beat my ass, but he knows I’ll pay him back. I’m not stealing. I’m borrowing.”

“Do you have a million dollars?” she asked him with surprise.

“I do, actually. I have a lot more than that. I’m hot and rich,” he said as he switched gears when they got onto a wide, open road, pushing the car past eighty. “You scored.”

She glared at him. “I’m going with you for Chu.”

“Aw, I’m all heartbroken over here,” Tino said with a grin. “What happened to our thing?”

“There is no thing,” she said with another glare. “I’m throwing up just thinking about it.”

He laughed. “Madonn’, princess, you better be worth protecting for him, ’cause I swear, if you sell Chuito out after this, I’m gonna break one of my own rules. I just pissed off both my brothers for this shit, and it’s a long f*cking drive to Florida.”

“We’re driving to Florida?” she whispered in horror. “I’m stuck in this car with you all the way to Miami?”

“That’s what you’re bitching about?” Tino countered, giving her a harsh, cold look that was intimidating in a way she didn’t expect from him. “Nova is gonna go insane when he finds out about this. I guarantee you Romeo’s on the phone with him right now. I’ve got a fourteen-hour drive to figure out what sorta bullshit I’m gonna spew to him that’ll fix this, because I can’t just say Chu lost his mind and I have to go get him. Nova’s not the easiest guy to lie to, okay?”

“What happens if you say Chu lost his mind?” Alaine asked fearfully.

Tino shook his head slowly, his eyes still on the road. “I don’t know, but I’m not gonna find out. I owe Chu my life. I would go down to save him in a New York f*cking minute, and that scares the shit outta me. That is a problem.”

“Why?”

He glanced to her and admitted, “I’m not nice when I’m protecting someone, Alaine. Not nice at all.”

Alaine looked at her lap at the admission, hearing that same string of self-recrimination she heard from Chuito all the time. The difference was, this time she understood what he was confessing.

“What if I hadn’t gone with you?”

“You did come with me,” he said rather than explore it. “Thank God.”

“Would you have hurt me?” she whispered as she studied Tino, seeing something so different from the playful, teasing man she’d come to know him as.

“Are you going to sell him out?” he countered. “Is that something you could do to him?”

“Never,” she said as she gave him a look of horror. “I could never. I love him. I’m here. I told Jules, my boss, that I had a threesome. I’m a liar, and I’m riding in a stolen Ferrari that has a million dollars in the trunk. Obviously, I’m not going to sell him out.”