The Slayer (Untamed Hearts #2) (30 page)

“That’s a helluva message.” Tino stared at him for a long moment. “That’s sorta fucked-up.”

Chuito gave him a look. “And sinking motherfuckers in the ocean isn’t?”

“I didn’t want to sink him. I gave him a lotta opportunities. Seriously, my brother
hates
when problems turn into bodies. He tries really hard to avoid that shit.”

“How diplomatic,” Chuito snorted and then pointed out, “he’s still at the bottom of the ocean. Those gangbangers killed my family. They shot at a house they knew had women and children in it. What’s your fucking excuse, Moretti? Money.”

“I didn’t put out the hit. The old man did that shit.”

“You just carried it out?”

“Yeah.” Tino nodded. “It’s not my fault he screwed the old man. Anyone knows that’s bad for your health.”

“How easy is it for you to believe that off the blow?” Chuito asked curiously.

Tino sighed as he wiped a hand over his face. “I never wanted any part of
Cosa Nostra
. It just—” He paused as if having a bad memory. “It just turned out like that.”

“What’s Cosa Nostra?” Chuito asked, because he’d heard Tino refer to it before.

Tino gestured to himself. “It’s
our thing
.”

“Do you like your thing?” Chuito asked, because he got mixed messages from Tino all the fucking time.

“I’d like it if Nova was running it, but he’s still gotta answer to the old man. Nova has this theory that the underworld, organized crime, it’s all unavoidable. It’ll
always
be there. The key is to do it as efficiently as possible. Like, if it has to be there, you should have a motherfucker with class and real intelligence pulling the strings. I like that idea. I think life in general would be better if Nova were running the underworld.”

“What happens when your grandfather bites it?”

“I dunno.” Tino was quiet for a long time but then shook his head. “I suppose shit will get interesting. There’s a lotta motherfuckers who don’t want my brother in charge. My father included.”

“Why?”

Tino laughed. “Let’s just say my brother’s got a list of people he’s pissed off at, and my father is at the top. I mean, I don’t love my grandfather. I’ve had to kill a lotta motherfuckers ’cause of the old man’s bad deals, but my father, Madonn’, I
hate
that asshole. He really fucked us over when we were young. He’s still fucking us over.”

“You think Nova will actually smoke your father after the old man dies?”

Tino shook his head. “Nova doesn’t want to kill anyone. That’s what people don’t understand about him. To him, shit like that is sloppy. Uncreative. He doesn’t want them dead. He just wants to punish them for the rest of their lives. To make sure they know he won. That’s what it’s all about to him.
Winning
. Life is a big poker game to my brother.”

Chuito considered that and then nodded. “I could be down with that idea.”

“Yeah, I thought you might be.” Tino laughed. “Sometimes you remind me of him. Only without the bloodlust. I don’t ever see Nova leaving a bloody, dead body in the streets. No friggin’ way.”

“Man, you talk to me after you lose a brother,” Chuito said with a glare. “See how humane and neat you are then.”

“Take it back.” Tino crossed himself. “Nova’s still in deep. You can’t talk about things like that. I’m serious.
Take it back
.”

“I’m sorry. I take it back.” Chuito went ahead and crossed himself when Tino kept glaring. Then he sat down and looked at Tino from the other bench. “No one’s gonna take him out, Tino. You’re mafia. You never go down.”

“We go down all the time.” Tino looked haunted, as if just the mention of losing a brother terrified him. “I already told you that, especially when he’s stuck dealing with the fucking Russians.”

It turned out the Russians hadn’t been the reason Nova was stressed out.

A week later Jules and Romeo ran away from Garnet because Tino’s father put a hit out on Romeo for flaking on a gambling scheme they wanted to use him for. A scheme Nova tried and failed to talk the family out of.

Romeo ended up with two mafia bullets in him for running, but he lived.

Tino’s father hadn’t been so lucky.

Nova killed him.

Without finesse.

He killed the guy who sold out Romeo and Jules too. There was nothing neat about Nova shoving a gun into his own cousin’s mouth and blowing his brains out.

Even guys with class lost their humanity when they were faced with almost losing a brother. That mob hit nearly killed Jules too, and she just happened to be pregnant with Romeo’s twins at the time.

Nova and Tino’s nephews.

Italians, like Latinos, took that shit
very
seriously. One didn’t fuck with women and children and live to tell about it. Nova’s circle of nonexpendables had grown, and that incident nearly took out all but one of them. His response was swift and frightening, especially when he managed to escape going down for it.

Yet he still kept his job as underboss, working for his grandfather, the man whose son he’d just killed. Tino thought it was because they still needed Nova to run things. He was just
that
good.

Chuito thought it was because he was pretty fucking efficient at sending one very clear message anyone would be able to read.

Don’t fuck with Nova Moretti.

Chapter Thirty

Garnet County

November 2012

Crime was a virus.

It was contagious, and no one was safe from it.

No one.

Once it infiltrated, it started to spread outward, from one hand to the next, insidiously sweet and easy. The rules of the underworld were much more primitive than civilized society. Law enforcement was just another obstacle. One of many enemies trying to break into the cave. Defying them wasn’t an issue when it was survival of the fittest. Protect home first, and the organization second.

The underworld understood that in a way the rest of society didn’t.

Most organizations had rules revolving around that one rule.

Do not fuck with women and children.

Ever.

A made man in the Italian mafia could get whacked for screwing with another member’s wife. If he touched one of his brother’s wives, the gloves were off. The wronged man could kill him, and chances were the other members weren’t going to complain too much.

A Latino gangbanger could get smoked for the exact same thing. Mess with another man’s chica, and it was a sure bet it wasn’t going to end well.

The Russians were different, but Chuito was inclined to agree with Tino about them. Not having families. That shit was just weird.

What the fuck were they here for anyway? If not to protect their caves?

Alaine would probably have a fucking fit if she knew Chuito thought like that. His mother would too. So would Jules.

But Jules wasn’t complaining about Nova taking out his father to save Romeo’s life.

Chuito’s mother hadn’t said a fucking word about Marcos and Chuito avenging Juan and Tiá Camila’s deaths either. She knew. She just kept her opinions to herself and let them go on being primitive cavemen.

Chuito wouldn’t consider himself sexist. He loved women. He respected them. More often than not, they were smarter, kinder, and undoubtedly the better half of the human species. One gave birth to him and another held his heart, which was why he felt like they deserved to be protected by the big, mean cavemen God stuck them on this planet with.

And that idea wasn’t unique to Chuito.

Most alpha males could be reduced to that pretty easily, especially if they’d already caught the crime virus without knowing it. There were different strains, some more infectious than others, and Chuito had been in bed with the Italians for a while. He knew their particular strain was the
most
contagious.

There were a hundred mafia movies that romanticized them.

It wasn’t favoritism. The Cosa Nostra just made it seem so compelling.

Organized crime was
their thing
, and the way they did it was well aged and classy like fine wine.

There weren’t too many movies about Latino gangbangers unless they were the villains. That was because crime with the Italians wasn’t dirty the way Chuito knew it.

It was clean, in designer suits after big dinners that involved a lot of laughter and sibling affection. It was, at its core, designed to revolve around the basic principles humans evolved from.

Family above everything.

Protect the home front at all costs.

Anything else was expendable.

Money was nothing next to family. Nova had proved that the first time Chuito spoke with him. He threw a quarter of a million at him without even blinking, simply for caring for his brother.

But a fucker could get thrown into the ocean for reneging on an arms deal for the same amount. It wasn’t about the cash. It was about the principle. Everything they did was to protect the family. To keep them strong, invincible, powerful enough that intimidation alone kept enemies in line.

Who couldn’t get sucked into that ideal?

Maybe the Russians.

But there were no Russians in Garnet.

Just a couple of Italians, a Latino gangbanger, and a few badass rednecks who had caught the crime virus without realizing it. It wasn’t like Nova and Tino were leaving bodies in the streets. They were largely family motivated, with hugs and kisses, excited to be uncles and happy their brother found a woman like Jules to settle down with.

It was easy for Jules to overlook little things.

It was easy for Wyatt to overlook them too.

“Madonn’, Nova,” Tino said in annoyance as Nova swept for bugs in Romeo and Jules’s house. “You think I haven’t friggin’ checked the place? Oobatz.”

“Can you let me do my thing?” Nova called from the living room.

“Fine, do your thing,” Tino said and gestured to himself, even though Chuito was the only one who could see him. “We’ll just sit here fucking sweating it out. It’s not like I was up all night watching Jules almost bleed to death.
Again
. I’m not friggin’ tired or stressed out or anything.”

“How bad was it?” Chuito asked in concern.

“Holy shit.” Tino dropped his head to his folded arms on Romeo’s kitchen counter. “You should see all the blood upstairs. I’ve seen a lotta motherfuckers bleed in my time, but—”

“
Chiudi la tua fottuta bocca, Valentino
!”

“What’d he say?” Chuito asked curiously.

“He told me to shut the fuck up.”

“I don’t want to hear about it anyway,” Chuito decided as he took a deep breath. “At least she’s okay now, and the babies are okay.”

“Yeah.”

They were all stressed out and tired. Jules had hemorrhaged when she went into labor. She’d nearly lost the twins. She was still in intensive care, and Romeo was there to be with her and the babies, but the doctors had assured them everyone was going to be fine.

That wasn’t why Chuito, Tino, and Nova were meeting up, midday, despite no sleep the night before.

In the pandemonium, it had been revealed Wyatt shot someone before they’d been able to tell him his sister was bleeding out. Wyatt and Jules had a weird way of mirroring chaos in their lives. Clay said it was a twin thing. It sort of freaked Chuito out.

The guy Wyatt shot was alive, but the situation was “complicated,” as Nova put it. The fact that Chuito was at this little meeting told him it was probably more than complicated.

And Chuito wasn’t real sure how Wyatt, a sheriff, ended up needing Nova to handle his issue, but it couldn’t be good. Chuito had firmly believed if anyone was immune to the crime virus, it was Wyatt Conner.

Obviously, he’d been wrong.

“Okay.” Nova set the electronic device he’d used to sweep for bugs on the kitchen counter and then leaned against it, eyeing them both. Chuito had hung out with Nova a few times over the past year, but the two of them weren’t friends, not the way he and Tino were. There was very clear hesitance in Nova as he eyed Chuito with that hard gaze and asked, “Garcia, how loyal are you to the Conners?”

Chuito glanced to Tino and then turned back to Nova. “Are you asking me if I’d smoke someone for them?”

Nova thought about it for a moment before he nodded. “Yeah, that’s what I’m asking.”

Chuito pulled back at that, shocked. “What happened?”

“We have this rule in Cosa Nostra.” Nova rubbed at the back of his neck. “To get a job done, we make sure one man doesn’t know what the other man is doing. Everyone has a job, a small one, but the different players don’t know all the details. Together we get it taken care of, but no one has enough information to sell out the entire organization.”

“I appreciate that,” Chuito said with a laugh. “But I’m not in the Cosa Nostra. I need to know some fucking details before I take someone out.”

Nova gave him a stern look. “Tino said you were a friend of his.”

“And I wouldn’t expect Tino to take someone out without telling him why either,” Chuito assured him. “The respect goes both ways, Moretti.”

“I want to know details too,” Tino added. “What the fuck happened?”

“The guy Wyatt shot.” Nova looked away and shook his head. “He raped Tabitha. Wyatt didn’t handle the news well. Is that enough details for you?”

Chuito felt something hard and painful stab him in the chest. He’d seen a lot of terrible shit in his life, but rape was a particularly sore subject for him. So much so he couldn’t even find a way to speak for a second.

“Why is the fucker still alive? Tabitha’s his
wife
.” Tino sounded as stunned as Chuito felt. “Why didn’t he shoot him a second time if he didn’t hit the mark?”

“Because he’s Wyatt. He’s got friggin’ ethics to complicate shit for me.” Nova shook his head in disbelief. “And that’s only half the problem. The two of them have some long-standing issues. This fucker could put Wyatt down. For a long time. Can you imagine what prison would be like for a sheriff? They’d have to keep him in solitary the whole friggin’ time.”

“But—” Tino started as if that was hard to believe. “You can fix that, can’t you?”

“I can’t fix it, Valentino.” Nova sighed as he looked at the two of them. “I wish I could, but I can’t. We have to sink this problem. Permanently. There’s actually two of them. I need to sink Tabitha’s brother too.”