“I can’t believe my nonno did this,” Carina whispered, as if Tino had cracked her armor. She stuck out her bottom lip in a juvenile pout Brianna hadn’t seen in a long time, not that she could blame Carina as she let out a sob of misery. “And now I’m stuck with Nova.”
“Sweetheart, your nonno is an asshole, but I can’t help you deal with that.” Tino pushed his sister toward the other woman. “This is my friend Alaine. Talk to her about it. I have to go. Stay with Romeo.”
“I don’t even know this woman. I can’t talk to her about everything,” Carina said as she gestured to Alaine, because like Brianna, she wasn’t inclined to trust strangers. “I should come.”
“No, that’s bad. You need to stay here. I can’t move fast with both of you.”
Something about the way he said it washed out the rest of the conversation Carina, Tino, and Alaine were having about this drama.
Like Carina said, enforcers were the best liars in the Borgata, and Tino was arguably the strongest enforcer to have come out of the Moretti Borgata in a lot of years.
He could lie to anyone.
Bald-faced lie, without flinching.
But for some reason, Brianna always heard his lies.
Could see them when others, even his siblings, couldn’t.
And that was a lie.
Tino could bring Carina. He didn’t have to leave her, but he was choosing to, and Brianna was starting to suspect she knew why.
She pulled out of Tino’s grasp when she found herself standing in front of a black Mercedes SUV that had his name written all over it. Wiseguys were drawn to highline black SUVs like moths to a flame.
She watched him get in, knowing that going with him meant leaving everything behind, but that wasn’t what was stopping her. It also meant Tino was doing the same thing, abandoning the hope of a life outside the mafia.
Of being a fighter like Romeo instead of a mafioso like Nova.
The dream was withering and dying right before her eyes, when no one deserved to be out more than Tino.
He was going to throw it all away and for what?
“Get in the car, Bri!” Tino shouted at her, as if he knew she saw through him.
She shook her head, looking back and forth between Alaine and Tino, knowing this woman represented a new life. New friends. Now he was going to walk away from it. Brianna couldn’t let the Borgata win like that, not after all the pain they’d caused him.
“I can’t ruin your life.” Brianna felt tears sting her eyes. “I can’t do this. I won’t. I won’t make you suffer for my bad decisions.”
“My life sucks!” Tino shouted at her like he was purging his soul. As if no one but her had found a way to see through his lies, and he needed someone to hear him be angry. “There’s nothing left to ruin. I lost the only good thing a long time ago. I’m not gonna lose it again, not for that asshole. I’m officially done hurting for him.”
Brianna put a hand to her chest and took a long, shuddering breath as Tino became a watery blur in the afternoon sunshine. She didn’t want to understand, but she did.
Nothing really mattered anymore.
For either of them.
They’d been living on borrowed time.
“Get in the car, Brianna.” Tino reached over and opened the passenger-side door from his seat behind the wheel, as if he had been waiting for four years to do it.
Brianna stood there for a long moment; then she turned back to Carina and called out, “I love you,” not knowing if it was the last time she would get to say it. “I’ll call you.”
“I love you,” Carina said as she stood there crying. “Tino, you better keep her safe.”
“You brought her to me ’cause you know I will.” Tino smiled at his sister as Brianna crawled into the SUV. It was a lie, and he covered it by saying, “Tell me you love me, Carina.”
“I don’t love you.” Carina huffed as if she heard the lie too. Maybe she’d always heard them. “You won’t take me with you, and you’re leaving me with Nova.”
Tino waved her off, making it clear without saying he knew the real reason she was mad. Then he said to his friend Alaine, “Tell Chu to protect my sister.”
“Is Brianna the dancer?” Alaine asked him.
Tino nodded. “She’s the dancer.”
“You talked about me?” Brianna whispered as the tears rolled down her face without warning.
“Yeah, I talked about you.” Tino’s eyes were still glassy as he gave Brianna one of those heart-stopping smiles that always made her breathless. He held out his hand. “Give me your cell phone.”
Brianna reached into the bag and pulled her phone out of its case, because she might still need the cash or cards in the wallet portion. Then she handed her phone to Tino, knowing that she was putting her entire life in his palm.
“Where are you going? At least tell me where you’re going,” Alaine said quickly. “I have to tell them something.”
“To get Patrón,” he said cryptically. “Tell Nova I’ll call him.”
“No.” Alaine shook her head frantically. “No, you’re not allowed to get Patrón, because—”
Tino dropped the phones on the ground, abandoning both their lives without hesitating, and shut the door before his friend Alaine could give him a better reason to stay.