“No.” Carina shook her head. “Shhh. I can’t hear you.”
Carina got up and ran to the window. She grabbed a chair and set herself up right there, flicking into the ashtray on her lap and doing a very good job of trying to ignore Brianna as she blew smoke out into the cool night air.
“Can I—” Brianna started again.
“No,” Carina cut her off. “You cannot.”
Brianna rubbed at her face again and huffed as more tears rolled down her cheeks. “I don’t have anyone else to talk to.”
“Don’t do that.” Carina pointed at Brianna with the cigarette between her fingers. “Do not use that sad, puppy look. It won’t work.”
“Fine.” Brianna threw up her hands in defeat and fell back against the bed. She tugged on the blue silk comforter on Carina’s king-size bed and pulled it over her head. “I’m going to sleep.”
She rolled over under the blanket, trying to get warm because the window was still open. What was it with Morettis and the cold? It was like they loved the misery. Nova bought himself a Porsche but slept in that freezing apartment all winter when he could easily invest in a heater.
Brianna was starting to think they weren’t human, and she told Carina as much, mumbling it through the fabric of the comforter as she stayed hidden.
Then she lay there, trying to forget that Tino would rather have those rave girls touch him instead of her. She sniffed and covered her eyes with her hands when more tears showed up without her permission.
The doorknob turned, jerking Brianna out of her thoughts.
“Get out!” Carina shouted before the door even creaked open.
“Carina Maria—”
“Get out! Get out!” Carina repeated it like a chant. “Get out, Ma!”
“I can smell that horrible shit all the way in my bedroom!” Her mother’s voice was slurred with too much wine. “It’s stinking up the whole fucking house. You’re ruining my furniture.”
“Figlio di puttana!” Carina snapped, clearly unapologetic. “Get out!”
“They make you disgusting. Is that what you want to be? Completely disgusting. More disgusting than you already are.”
“Yeah,” Carina said without hesitation. “I wanna be disgusting. I love it. Get out!”
“Who is that under the covers?”
“It’s the gardener.”
The blanket was jerked off Brianna so that she was blinking up at the icy-cold stare of Mary Moretti.
“You think it’s funny to help my daughter mock me?” Carina’s mother arched one perfectly shaped eyebrow at Brianna. “Is that fun for you?” She kept staring down at Brianna like she completely forgot seeing her when Brianna got there earlier this evening. “I could destroy you.”
“Your crazy is showing,” Carina said harshly. “Big-time.”
“I’m sorry,” Brianna said before things could get tenser. “I was already under the covers. I wasn’t trying to trick you. I would never—”
“Diavolo, no,” Carina growled at Brianna. “You don’t get to apologize.” She pointed at the door with her cigarette. “Get out.” Her voice was threatening now, making a shiver roll down Brianna’s spine. “First Tino breaks her heart, and now you’re threatening her. No. My family is done hurting her for the night. If you say one more word to her, I will get very mean.”
“Tino?” Mary Moretti turned on Brianna with such intense accusation Brianna shrank back instinctively. “Have you been fooling around with him?”
“Duh, Ma!” Carina shouted again. “Crawl out from the bottom of the wine box. Everyone knows they’re fucking!”
“That dirty guinea in the garage?” Mary sounded appalled, like she couldn’t imagine Brianna touching Tino even though anyone with eyes could see he was gorgeous. “That’s who you’re fucking?”
“Get out before I turn into a dirty guinea and beat your ass.” Carina still sounded very dangerous. “You’re not allowed to talk about my brothers like that!”
Mary didn’t back down. “Bring it.”
Carina threw her ashtray with shocking force, making it shatter against the wall. Brianna jumped from the sound of it, but Mary was a little too numbed, either by life or too much wine.
She just looked at Carina furiously.
Carina glared back.
It was strange, like watching animals in the wild waging a silent battle for dominance. Carina took a long drag off her cigarette, looking eerily like Nova as she did it.
And it was obvious her mother noticed.
“You wanna be like them? The dirty trash in the garage. I gave birth to you; now you wanna side with them? Those bastardi who insult me by existing.”
“Yeah, I told you before, guineas stick together,” Carina said without remorse.
“Fine.” Her mother’s eyes narrowed. “You think you’re so tough, little girl, but I can cut you. I can make you bleed.”
Carina rolled her eyes. “Whatever.”