The Slayer (Untamed Hearts #2)(144)

“Then why are you here?” Tino lifted his head and looked at Chuito, his dark gaze swimming with tears. “Why are you sitting next to me, motherf*cker?”

“I dunno. I guess ’cause I love you enough not to think about the what-ifs.” Chuito shrugged. “Enough to recognize you saved Alaine from a bullet in her brain. You saved me too.”

“But—”

“Look, I’m still here. Alaine’s still here. We’re okay,” Chuito cut him off. “We are alive because of you. They found my weakness, but you stepped in, and you were strong for me. I owe you. I’m sorry for saying the shit I did. For making it worse on you. Attacking you was easier than attacking myself. I’m the one who touched her, Tino. I’m the one who dragged her into this bullshit. The only one who is allowed to sit here and hate himself is me.”

Tino was silent for a long time before he asked, “Are you blitzed right now, ’cause I think somewhere in there you told me you loved me?”

“So blitzed,” Chuito agreed.

“Chu—”

“But I still love you,” Chuito finished before Tino could say more. “Just, you know, don’t make me repeat it. And if you make me sit out here and cry with Italians everywhere, I’m gonna f*cking kick your ass anyway.”

Tino let out a choked, broken laugh. “You can cry in front of Italians. We’re passionate. We—”

“Feel things.” Chuito rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I know. But I’m not convinced it’s all Italians. I sorta think it’s just you.”

“Yeah, maybe,” Tino said with another laugh. “I am so drunk right now. Like highly f*cked-up. I’ve been working hard at it. I didn’t know there was bud.”

“Yeah, you don’t get any bud,” Chuito said dismissively. “Drink your f*cking drink, and we’ll just sit here until neither of us feels like crying.”

“I can cry if I want,” Tino growled. “Fuck them if they don’t like it.”

Tino offered Chuito his drink like a peace offering, and Chuito took it, downing a big gulp of it, and then winced. He pulled back to stare in the cup. “This is straight whiskey.”

“No ice,” Tino agreed.

Chuito took another large drink of it before he handed it back. “I promised Alaine I wasn’t gonna drink anymore after tonight.”

“That sucks,” Tino said as he took another drink. “Now who am I gonna have to hang with over the garage and commiserate about all this bullshit?”

“You really think you’re getting back to that garage anytime soon?” Chuito asked him.

“No, I don’t think that.” Tino sounded really torn up about it, and the tears were back in his voice. “I lost two brothers today. I’m gonna miss Romeo and Jules, and the twins, Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. They’re like my own bambini, but I cannot let Nova deal with my f*cking grandfather by himself. I’m so tired of choosing between them, Chu. I’m so tired of life doing this to me.”

That was a really shitty choice, and Chuito was fairly certain neither Nova nor Romeo knew how much it ripped Tino apart to be caught in the horrible space between them.

“I’m going with you,” Chuito promised him, not sure if it was enough to erase the pain of being torn between two brothers whose worlds were just so far apart. “You didn’t lose two brothers. I’m still here. I’m sitting here next to you, motherf*cker.”

“That’s too much,” Tino argued. “I can’t ask you to do that for us. Nova wouldn’t ask it either. This is our bullshit.”

“Too bad you don’t get to have a f*cking choice in the matter. Your grandfather sorta f*cked up my shit today. I figured I earned the right to help you take him out.”

Tino turned and looked at him, tears spilling down his cheeks. “Yeah?”

Chuito nodded. “Oh, yeah. We’ll take him out, or we’ll go down together. That’s how a crew works. You know that’s how it works, cabrón.”

Tino leaned over and kissed Chuito’s forehead. Then he broke down right there in front of all the other Italians in his crew. All Chuito could really do was hug him and let him cry on his shoulder hard enough that tears welled in Chuito’s eyes and rolled down his cheeks too, because Tino wasn’t the only one forced to give up more than he wanted.

Tino was drunk off his ass.

Chuito was high as a kite.

It would have to be okay after the day they had, and Chuito was inclined to agree with Tino about it for the moment.

If anyone had a problem with it, f*ck them. They could talk to their Berettas if they had an issue, because together the two of them were badass enough to help Nova take down the king of the underworld.

And they both knew it.





Chapter Forty-Six


Chuito rolled over, still fighting the heaviness of sleep and the lingering effects of bud in his system, because he had the memory of smoking with Nova and his mother sometime in the early-morning hours. Rather than think on it too much, he studied Alaine, sprawled out on the bed, her hair glinting almost pink in the sunshine. He caressed her shoulder, rubbed his thumb over a nasty bruise the Russian had left there.

Chuito felt a white-hot surge of anger rush through him and mourned the motherf*cker being dead. He got better than he deserved. He should’ve suffered.