The Slayer (Untamed Hearts #2) (41 page)

“Bullshit!” Tino shouted at him. “You were shopping! This was a suicide mission, and you were gonna go down in snowy flames!”

“Do we own this house?” Nova asked as he looked around at all of them. When Chuito shook his head, Nova looked to Tino. “Your voice could wake the dead.”

“So it was a good fucking thing I came down here,” Tino went on in a sarcastically low voice. “’Cause while we’re sitting there, his boy Angel shows up with a bunch of guys this motherfucker”—he pointed at Chuito—“thought was the heat, but I recognized as comrades.”

All the humor seemed to fall out of Nova as he said, “What?”

“Yeah,” Tino agreed. “So I let Angel’s boys jack the Ferrari, and we tracked them to the warehouse across the way, because the other warehouse Angel was using is a decoy. Now we’re hiding out here to check out the warehouse and see what the fuck is going on.”

Nova was a quiet for a long time while he absorbed that. Then he dropped his cigarette and stomped on it. “Okay.” He rubbed a hand over his face as he looked at them. “So this is a love story. I’m Italian. I like love stories.”

“Merda,” Tino groaned under his breath.

Nova pulled back and gave his brother a look. “What?”

“You don’t like love stories. You hate them.”

“Yeah, you know what, I do hate them,” Nova agreed as if all his anger had just sprung free at once. “I hate them more than anything because nothing will fuck up business faster than a friggin’ love story, and this one”—he gestured around the kitchen furiously—“is fucking epic. This
is
a threesome. It’s you being in love with my brother.” Nova pointed at Chuito. “Enough to jack his car and run away to Miami instead of just calling me and letting me help. And it’s you”—he pointed to Tino—“being in love with Chuito enough to follow him. But the part I’m not getting is you.” He pointed to Alaine. “There is one key piece of information that no one in this room has supplied. Why are you here, sweetheart?”

“They’re gonna get married.” Tino looked to Chuito with wide eyes. “You’re gonna get married.”

“I—” Chuito glanced to Nova. “Yes.”

“We are?” Alaine asked in shock.

“They’re gonna get married,” Tino said before Alaine could say anything else, and then pointed to her. “And she’s a lawyer. I hired her. It’s attorney-client privilege. She can’t narc on me.”

“Is that what she told you?” Nova laughed manically. “Did she tell you that you can just spill your guts to her about a crime that hasn’t happened yet because of attorney-client privilege? And you believed it?”

“I’m not going to say anything. It wasn’t nice to trick Tino, but I needed to know everything Chu was facing,” Alaine said in a rush. “I wasn’t lying when I said he’s my love story.”

Nova ran a hand over his face and took a deep breath before mumbling against his fingers, “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.”

“They’re gonna get married,” Tino said again. “If they get married, she can’t testify against him. I know that. Everyone knows that.”

“But she
can
testify against you.” Nova dropped his hand and looked at Tino. “This is an issue. And now there’s fucking Russians.” He walked away and put a hand to his face again. “Cazzo.”

“I wouldn’t say anything, Nova,” Alaine promised. “Jules knows—”

“No, she doesn’t,” Nova argued. “Do you think we sit around talking about whacking people in front of Jules? We would never put her in that position. We would never put Romeo in that position either.”

“Wyatt knows things. I mean, he doesn’t know. But he knows,” Chuito pointed out, his dark gaze narrowed at Nova. “I can’t let you hurt her, Nova. I won’t let you do that. Shit will get real very quickly. I will get scary in a way you can’t imagine.”

“Of course you will. It’s a fucking love story,” Nova said bitterly. “I have insurance on Wyatt. I have insurance on you. I have insurance on everyone who is part of my inner circle except for you.” He looked at Alaine sadly. “I don’t have any insurance on you.”

“She could’ve sold me out,” Chuito said as he looked to Alaine. “She came with Tino instead.”

“Okay, sweetheart.” Nova walked up to Alaine and put a hand over her eyes. She heard Chuito move, but Tino must have held him back as Nova went on. “I want you to stand here and close your eyes and imagine being arrested.”

Alaine didn’t want to, but she did. She closed her eyes behind Nova’s hand and imagined it.

“You’re a lawyer now. They hold you to a higher standard in the courts, but it’s not just the courts that are an issue. The Feds are questioning you, and they are assholes. They will say shit that scares you to death. They will paint the grimiest pictures imaginable. Life in prison in the most horrific conditions possible. They will lock you up and throw away the key, but they give you a choice. You could give them information—”

“I would never betray Chuito,” Alaine said, knowing it was true. “Even if it meant going to prison.”

“Oh, it’s okay, though. They’ll give Chuito a free pass. They’ll send you two off somewhere tropical and romantic. You’ll never have to work another day in your life. You can live out your love story, or you can rot away in prison. Your choice. All you have to do is give them some key information about Tino”—Nova lifted his hand and looked at Alaine, the sadness etched over his handsome face—“or me.”

Alaine stared back at him, feeling something horrible lodge in her heart.

“Nova—” Tino started.

“There is no way the WASP princess is going to stand up to questioning. She has no reason to be loyal to us,” Nova assured all of them, and Alaine couldn’t even argue with him. “She will cave in five minutes. She is a liability. You two fucked up. Now you need to find me insurance.”

Alaine turned to Chuito, who looked like he might be sick.

“How the fuck—” Tino huffed as he stared at his brother in horror. “She just freaked out at the idea of throwing away dead rats. She can’t give you insurance. Look at her.” Tino pointed to Alaine. “She can’t do it.”

Nova held up his hands. “Figure it out. Come up with something else.”

Tino let out a laugh of disbelief. “Like what?”

“I don’t know.” Nova sounded like he meant it too, like this was genuinely a problem he didn’t have an answer to. “I have no fucking idea, but I hope you figure it out, because I don’t need that shit on my conscience. It’s your rule. It’s my fucking rule too. I don’t want this to be happening, but you know, if it comes between you and—”

“You let someone off before,” Tino argued. “If you did it once—”

“I regret that,” Nova growled at his brother. “I regret it every day of my life. I lie awake nights staring at the ceiling thinking about it. It eats at me that she is out there, knowing what she knows. I am not doing it again. You spent your love-story ticket, Valentino. You spent it a long time ago.”

“
Sei uno stronzo
!” Tino shouted at him. “
Un enorme fottuto stronzo
!” He threw up his hands at his brother. “You have no heart! You have nothing!
È morto
.”

“It’s not dead,” Nova argued with a cold, hard stare. “It beats, motherfucker.”

“You let him win,” Tino said simply. “He won a long time ago. He killed my brother. You are dead. I don’t even see you anymore, but I still cling to this reflection ’cause you look like him.”

Nova folded his arms over his chest, and Alaine could see tears actually glistening in Nova’s eyes, as if Tino’s words had struck a painful nerve. “I didn’t do this.”

“Yes, you did,” Tino said with such icy-cold confidence it gave Alaine chills. “You are choosing to be like him. You have no hope. You have no faith. She raised you to believe in love. She named you after it. You’re like him instead.
Tu sei morto per me
.” He turned and walked out of the kitchen, saying to Chuito, “Come on. Let this motherfucker waste away downstairs. I’m going to find a place to sleep.”

Chuito didn’t follow after him. Instead he stepped up to Nova and said, “I fucked up. I’ll admit that, but you know if you try to hurt her—”

“Get the fuck out of my face, Chuito.” Nova arched an eyebrow at him. “My brother just told me I’m dead to him because of his fucking bromance with you. You’re gonna kill me? Go ahead.” He held out his hands to Chuito. “You’re strapped. Shoot me. I don’t give a shit anymore, ’cause I don’t want to be in gangster’s paradise tonight dealing with this bullshit. I did this thing with Angel to help you, because it mattered to Tino. Now where are we?”

“The Russians are not here because Angel found them,” Chuito said with unflinching confidence. “They found Angel. They are looking for allies to go against you. They are building an army to fight you, and they would be doing it with or without Angel. Whatever this is, it’s bigger than my issues, but I am still gonna help your family deal with it because that’s what I promised to do. You told me to go to the mattresses if you needed me. Here I am, motherfucker. Thanks for paying me back for it.”

Chuito pulled away and grabbed Alaine’s hand. “Come on, mami.”

Chapter Thirty-Nine

They found Tino upstairs, straightening up what Alaine assumed had once been the master bedroom. A bed was in the corner, devoid of sheets, but the room was mostly clean, probably because Tino was throwing anything he found on the floor into the closet, using the light of Alaine’s phone.

“The rats will probably stay downstairs,” Tino said as he used an old shirt to wipe off a dresser. His handsome face was illuminated as he coughed from the dust. “They like to stay where the food is. There’s probably food left over downstairs. Old food.”

“I don’t think there’s rats,” Chuito whispered as he studied Tino. “Tino—”

“You can sleep here. I flipped the mattress for you. It looks clean. I checked it,” Tino said as he looked over to them. “It’s the only bed. The other rooms are empty.”

“But that’s not fair,” Alaine argued.

“This used to be my job. I’ve dealt with a lot of bullshit for the Borgata,” Tino said dismissively. “I can sleep on the floor. You have your own bathroom. There’s another one down the hall Nova and I can use.”

Alaine looked to Chuito, whose face was lit up by the moonlight coming in through the curtainless window. He seemed at a loss, and Alaine didn’t know how to fix it.

Tino moved to walk past them. For one horrible moment, Alaine thought Chuito was going to let him go; then Chuito caught Tino’s arm.

Tino’s dark eyes glistened in the moonlight as he said, “He’s not gonna take her out. Being vulnerable scares him, but he’s not heartless. Sometimes he thinks he is, but—”

“I won’t let him take her out.” Chuito sounded so confident about it Alaine believed him. “It’ll be okay.”

“You could take the money. I have it for that. Insurance, I guess,” Tino explained as he looked away. “In case.”

“We don’t have to run,” Chuito whispered. “We’ll make the Russians and Angel go away, and then we’ll figure it out.”

“Maybe you should run,” Tino countered as he looked to Alaine. “Take her and go. Get out.”

“I made a promise, Tino.” Chuito sighed. “Nova got Marcos out.”

Tino rolled his eyes at that. “Fucking loyalty. I hate it. All these favors, they cost so much. Blood and pain and—” He looked to Alaine again. “They’re too expensive.”

“Where is she?” Alaine asked him softly. “The love-story ticket you spent?”

“New York.” Tino shrugged. “She got married. Some fucking accountant. Like a
real
accountant. The kind who doesn’t need insurance.”

“Penny loafers and a Corolla,” Chuito supplied for him.

“Yeah.” Tino nodded as he gave them a sad smile. “I keep her playbills. I order them online. It’s stupid. Bad habit, since I can’t watch the shows anymore.”

“She’s an actress?” Alaine asked.

“And a dancer.” Tino gave her a genuine smile. “Amazing dancer. Broadway dancer.”

“Wow,” Alaine whispered in surprise. “That’s something.”

“Legs for miles.” Tino raised his eyebrows. “Great legs. Dancers have great legs.”

“Of course.” Alaine laughed as she said it. “I’m sure she’s beautiful.”

“Yeah, she is.” Tino nodded and looked to the door again. “She made life a little easier for a while. Anyway, sleep good. I’m gonna go crash somewhere.” He grabbed Chuito’s face and kissed his forehead the same way he usually did to his brothers. “We’ll figure it out.”

“I know,” Chuito agreed and then turned as Tino walked out and closed the door.

Alaine waited until she heard his footsteps echo down the hall and turned to Chuito. “You’re just gonna let him walk away like that?”

“What am I supposed to say?” Chuito shrugged. “I can’t fix that. Tino is more noble than me. He got his girl out before this shit stained her. Look at where I am. We are in a serious situation right now. I never wanted this to touch you, and look at this—” He gestured at the room. “Coño.” Chuito walked over and sat on the bed. He buried his face in his hands. “Every decision ends badly. Every single fucking one.”

“There are no happy endings,” Alaine finished for him.

“No.” Chuito shook his head. “Not anymore.”

“You don’t want to run?” Alaine asked, though she knew the answer as she sat down next to him on the bed.

“Running never ends well. Look at what happened to Romeo and Jules,” Chuito pointed out with a sad look at her. “It took them less than a week to get caught by the mafia. They were lucky. They lived. Barely. Besides, Nova is really fucking smart. He has a photographic memory. I don’t think it’s possible to run from him, and running makes it look like we’re scared, like we got something to hide. If we stay in, if I make myself valuable enough.” He shrugged. “He’ll let it go. Like Tino said, he’s not heartless. It’s just, in this life everything is so extreme. There’s so much to lose. Life. Freedom. Your humanity. Your conscience. I used to think crime with the Italians was too pretty, too clean, but it burns them too. They go down just like the rest of us. Any pendejo can go down.”

Alaine felt tears sting her eyes and then roll down her cheeks. “I did this. I should’ve let you go. Now—”

“I did this.” Chuito lifted his head and looked at her in the moonlight. “I did this a long time ago. I’m just really sorry.” He looked around the room again. “I didn’t want you to ever see this place.” He reached out to her and wrapped a hand around the base of her neck. “Come here.”