“Products,” Lola confirmed. “Slaves.” She shrugged and looked at Carlo and said with a crack in her voice, “A troia who doesn’t get paid.”
“You’re not a product,” Nova cut in, because Carlo was looking at her completely speechless, stunned silent and horrified. Nova reached over and grasped Lola’s wrist softly, forcing her attention to him. He looked her in the eye and said, “You matter, Lola. I’m not just saying that. I mean it.”
She smiled, her light eyes glassy under the fluorescent light. “Grazie.”
“To me you matter,” Nova went on as tears rolled down his cheeks without warning. “Please help me find my brother, and I swear to God I will do anything in my power to help you.”
“You can’t help me.” She gave Nova a sad smile. “I was born a product, but I know your brother wasn’t. I always hoped that meant there was an end for him.”
“How do you know him?” Brianna asked, unable to taper the hitch of pain in her voice.
“We work together sometimes,” Lola said cryptically, giving Brianna a hesitant look. “He talks about you a lot, you know?”
Brianna pulled back, feeling the tears roll down her cheeks too.
Her emotions were shattered in a thousand different directions, but hearing that from this woman, something about it struck her as unbelievably honest.
“How do you work together?” Nova went on. “I don’t know what you know about me, but sometimes just talking and giving me information, any information, can help me piece things together. Just tell me everything you know about Tino, and maybe I can figure it out.”
“I’ve heard about you. I know you have a gift.” Lola looked to Carlo one more time before she sighed with defeat. “I met Tino the first time a few years ago. They wanted us paired together for certain parties. Elite parties. They’re sort of an open house where buyers can shop for highline slaves. He wasn’t born into it, but he was valuable like I am, and they felt we complemented each other.”
“Why are you valuable?” Nova asked, and then tilted his head and looked at her. “Besides the obvious.”
“I have an interesting last name.” Lola shrugged. “Maybe it’s exciting. Maybe it’s a power trip. I don’t know why it’s appealing to sleep with a mafia daughter, but it is, and my father understands that. There are others, children of particularly talented or beautiful slaves who were raised to do what we do. I’ve met a few of them.” She looked to Carina. “You have other cousins.”
“Lola,” Carlo whispered, and Brianna turned to see him physically pale.
“Anyway.” Lola looked back to Nova, deliberately ignoring Carlo. “Your brother also has an interesting last name. It made him valuable, but when I met him, they were trying to decide what to do with him. Obviously, men were the likely choice, except—”
“Tino doesn’t like men,” Brianna said to the entire table.
“No, not at all. He wasn’t going to be able to pretend it was his thing,” Lola assured them. “He was older. It’s not like he was raised to be accustomed to it like others. Plus, he’d never been with a man, but he was fairly adept with women. So they thought maybe, with the right partner, they could make him valuable to a different type of client.”
“I need more information.” Nova waved his hand back. “You said he was older. How old—”
Lola shrugged, clearly thinking back. “Maybe fourteen.”
“That’s older?” Carlo asked her incredulously.
Lola nodded. “It is.”
Carlo glanced away, his face still pale like he might be sick.
“Tino had been with his benefactor for a while. She was pleased with him, but—”
“She—” Carina said with a glare. “I thought you said my Zio Carmine did this.”
Lola just stared at her but didn’t say anything.
Nova looked at his sister too. Then he said, “Maybe you should leave, Carina.”
That stunned the entire table, because they’d never actually heard Nova acknowledge his sister by using her name. It was always some sort of jab, but he sounded so earnest all of a sudden… Like he cared.
“Did you know?” Carlo asked Nova in disbelief. “You’ve known the whole time we’ve been sitting here?”
“It’s the only gap of time we can’t account for,” Nova whispered, his gaze still on Carina. “He’s always doing errands for her. Mowing lawns. Shoveling driveways. And I told him to do it. I literally whored him out.” Nova’s voice cracked when he said it. “Because it was easier than pissing her off.”
“Are you saying it’s my ma?” Carina asked all of them and then turned on Lola. “Is it my ma?”
Lola was silent, looking back to Nova hesitantly.
“You said his benefactor was happy with him,” Carina went on, her voice shaking in fury. “Are you saying that my ma—” She pointed to the door. “With Tino?”
“Carina—” Nova started.
“It means your brother loves you very much,” Lola said before Nova could go on. “You also have a very interesting last name, Carina.”