When Tino answered the phone with, “Hey, baby,” she came unglued.
“They want me to flip or lose my scholarship, and I just told them, fuck you, ’cause who the hell do they think they are? Where the hell do they come from? They want me to turn against the Borgata. I’m not gonna do that. I’ll give it up, but it’s not fair and—”
“Whoa,” Tino cut her off, and his voice got low and concerned. “Do we gotta go to pay phones? Someone’s trying to flip you?”
“Just the school officials.” Brianna took another shuddering breath. “They took me in their office and told me I need to move out of Carina’s apartment and promise not to associate with the Morettis. They’re using that one tiny slap with Miranda as leverage. They’re blackmailing me. They’re gonna take my scholarship money.”
“What the fuck?” Tino sounded as shocked as Brianna felt. “That can’t be real.”
“I tried to explain it to them that your Borgata is your family, and you don’t just turn your back on your family because someone told you to. How fucking far are we from Brooklyn? I feel like I’m on another planet here.”
“I’ll give you the money,” Tino said in a soothing voice. “I’ll pay for your school.”
“That’s not the point. The don offered to pay too, but I worked for that money, Tino. It was my thing that I did all by myself. Now they’re spitting on all my hard work. Where are you? Can we go back to your walk-up?”
“Shit, baby, I’m working. I’m sorry.” Tino seemed genuinely torn up about it. “I’m gonna be home tomorrow. Carina’s got her gig. I’ll stay the night. I’ll make it up to you. I’ll make it better.”
She sighed, trying not to sound too disappointed. “Are you gonna be safe?”
“Yeah, I’m always safe. Carlo’s here. He’s got my back,” Tino promised her. “We’re good.”
She took another deep breath, because she didn’t want to distract him while he was working. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have called with my dumb school stuff.”
“Hey, it’s not dumb. That’s fucking bullshit,” Tino said quickly. “They just spit on your hard work. I don’t like hearing that. They oughta be very happy I’m not in Manhattan right now.”
Brianna knew he couldn’t say where he was.
“Go,” she whispered. “Go work.”
“I love you,” he surprised her by saying, even though Carlo was obviously in the car with him. “Okay?”
“Okay.” She nodded. “I love you too. Miss you.”
“Don’t worry about school,” he said softly. “I’ll be home tomorrow. I’ll spend all night making it better.”
She smiled in spite of everything. “Be safe.”
“I promise,” he said before he hung up.
“Those cunts took Brianna into their office.” Tino put his phone back in his pocket. “They’re threatening to kick her outta school, and they gave her shit for being associated with the Borgata. They said that merda out loud.”
“No shit.” Carlo sounded as shocked as Tino. “They said our name when they were talking to her.”
“Yeah, like it was fucking dirty. They took my girl into their office and reprimanded her for being associated with us,” Tino growled. “They made her feel like a criminal. Who the fuck do they think they are? We’ve been here longer than New York’s Premiere Center for the Arts. So they’re the oldest performance college in the country. We’ve still been here longer.”
“Well, that doesn’t fucking work,” Carlo agreed. “We should do something about that.”
“Right?” Tino nodded, glad Carlo wasn’t trying to talk him out of it, because the truth was they were in Manhattan. “We won’t clip ’em. Just scare ’em a little. I told her I was working till tomorrow.”
Carlo was silent for a moment and then looked to Tino hesitantly, because the two of them had never decided who they were going after before. Someone else did it and handed them the names.
Being judge and jury was way outside their job description.
“This is a Nova problem,” Carlo whispered. “We should talk to Nova.”
Tino groaned, because he hadn’t even told Nova he was seeing Brianna again. “That’ll just cause a big fucking issue.”