Tino tilted his head, blinking past the lights that were far too bright for a fucking basement, and frowned at what he saw.
Romeo was sitting there, deep lines of concern etched on his forehead as he stared in the direction of the bathroom. Tino visited him all the time in prison, but right then his oldest brother looked so much bigger than the Romeo who went away all those years ago, meaner, more cut, as if the pen had drained out any softness in him and left this huge, angry man in its wake.
Tino thought maybe it was a hallucination. He was good at nothing if not using his imagination to survive, but Romeo looked very real and on the verge of losing his lunch like Nova, so Tino told him, “He puked when you got arrested too. Forget about it. It’s what he does.”
“Ehi.” Romeo turned his full attention to Tino. He ran one big hand through Tino’s hair that still felt dirty and sticky from Tino being held too fucking long by the Savios. “How are you feeling?”
Tino raised his eyebrows at that, giving his brother a smile that probably looked stupid as hell.
“Okay, I get it. Dumb question.” Romeo nodded, still speaking Italian the way their mother spoke it, making Tino realize he and Nova had picked up that zip slang from the don and Carlo too. “What the hell happened? Who fucked you up like this? I want to hear it from you. Not Nova. Not this motherfucker. You.”
“I told you,” Carlo cut in, sounding calm, but he squeezed Tino’s other hand as he said it. “Another family got him. A Savio caught Tino in bed with his wife. These Mustache Petes. They’ll start a war over this shit. How fucking old-school is that? I couldn’t make this shit up.”
“I wasn’t asking you,” Romeo growled and pointed at Carlo over Tino’s bed. “I know what you are. I know who you are, and what you’re telling me means jackshit because I don’t believe a fucking word you say. I told you that in the car, and I’m telling you now.”
“Yeah, what am I?” Carlo held out his hands, like he couldn’t resist. “Tell me what I am, big man.”
“You think I’m scared of you?” Romeo asked him in English, his voice dark and dangerous in a way Tino had never heard it before. “After I’ve been in the fucking pen all this time. You wanna intimidate me? I dare you to try it. You motherfuckers have bled me dry, and the next time one of yous hits me, I’m hitting back.”
“Look, man, I’m not starting anything. You got the wrong Moretti for all this anger. I didn’t do this. I didn’t put your brothers in this family.” Carlo held up his palms in surrender that was unusual for him. “But I’d take a fucking bullet for Tino. I’d take one for Nova too. So we’re cool. You’re their brother. That means you’re my fucking brother too, even if you don’t want me to be. That’s how it works.”
“You’re not my brother, and if I ever hear you say it again, I’ll lay you out,” Romeo snarled at Carlo and then turned back to Tino. “Tell me what happened, Valentino. Have you been doing the dirty work for them? Has this motherfucker been making you do the dirty work with him?”
Carlo dug his fingers into Tino’s arm.
Tino was high, but he got the message.
So he said, “You got a haircut.”
“What?” Romeo frowned down at him.
“Your hair.” Tino pointed at it. “You cut it.”
“He’s stoned,” Carlo said with a laugh. “The doctor pumped him full of morphine when they dug the bullet out. Nova told me he had to hold him down. That’s probably why he’s puking now. He said it was bad.”
“Yeah, I cut my hair before I got out. Cleaned myself up,” Romeo whispered, obviously deciding to ignore Carlo as he looked back to the bathroom when Nova threw up again. “I didn’t know I was going to end up in a Moretti basement my first night out.”
“Basements suck,” Tino agreed.
“You look like merda.” Romeo caressed Tino’s hair again, even if he was obviously still so pissed off he was shaking. “I’m sorry they hurt you, piccolo. So sorry. Whatever you did, you didn’t deserve this.”
“Don’t call me that,” Tino whispered on instinct as his eyes got heavy again.
“Yeah, I guess you’re not ma’s baby anymore.” Romeo choked as he said it. “You haven’t been for a long time.”
Then his brother, who’d spent almost three years surviving in prison and a year of jail before that, broke down and started sobbing. Why, Tino wasn’t real sure. The hole in Tino’s thigh or Nova puking in the basement, or Carlo standing guard over them even if Romeo didn’t want him there.
Luckily, the rest sort of faded out for Tino.
That was all he remembered the first night, both of his brothers losing their ever-loving shit and Carlo like a rock, protecting the Borgata’s secrets from Romeo, hiding his own emotions like his breakdown at the Savios’ never happened. Instead letting the world see the Washington Heights guido with a big mouth and bigger attitude designed to hide the darker sins.
Unappreciated as usual.
Taken for granted, even by Nova, who left him there with Romeo, knowing he would protect him the best he could.