Nova nodded. “Fine.”
He packed up the rest of his stuff, and then Marcell said, “Moretti.”
“Yeah?” Nova asked as he stood.
“He’s not fine.” Marcell said it with a wince. “Your brother.”
Nova paused. His heart started beating faster, which was amazing when he was already strung tight with fear. “What’s wrong with him?”
“Lorenzo shot him.” When Nova sucked in a hard gasp, Marcell held up his hands. “In his thigh. It’s survivable, but—”
Nova turned and ran out the door, knowing Tino was probably bleeding in Lorenzo’s fucking basement and wishing for death. He wasn’t going to let Carlo show up and give him that option.
Unfortunately Carlo had enforcer friends who caught Nova and tried to hold him back because he’d made the fucking agreement. Nova slammed his palm into Sergio’s shoulder, knocking him off his feet. They obviously weren’t expecting that from someone on the commission, who had others to fight their battles for them.
Nova liked fighting his own battles.
He fought all the enforcers minus Carlo, who watched on the sidelines. Except he hadn’t had sleep in days, and there were too many of them. He put up a good fight, but eventually they pinned Nova in the hallway, all of them breathing hard.
“Jesus fucking Christ, Carlo,” Sergio growled. “What the hell are the Morettis feeding your accountants?”
Nova screamed, because this was exactly like the fucking basement, and he fought their hold again.
Fuck the commission.
Fuck any sort of grand idea Nova had about paying Tino back by saving his friends and all those other Lost Boys and Girls who’d been hurt by the system.
“I need your bike,” Carlo said to Sergio and caught the keys deftly when Sergio tossed them to him, even though he was still fighting to keep Nova pinned. “Iwillbe honest with him, Nova. I owe him that, okay?”
“You better be fucking honest with him!” Nova yelled at him. “You remind him what I’ll turn into if he fucking dies! You remind him, Carlo!”
He wanted to scream that if Tino died, Carlo would be dead to him forever.
But Carlo wasn’t supposed to have friends. He wasn’t supposed to give a shit. Nova wasn’t either. They both knew better, but they’d broken the rules, and they could end up paying for it in the worst way possible.
Carlo was gone anyway, disappeared down the hallway too fast, and Nova’s breathing was harsh and irregular. He couldn’t lose Tino, not for this.
Not because of the fucking Brambinos.
He started fighting again.
“Moretti, I get it, but you made an agreement,” Dante said in warning as he got down on his knees next to Nova. “We’ve all been here. You got the pass, but enforcers are intense about this shit. It’s like a fucking religion to them. If your brother doesn’t want that life, it’s his choice. Respect that.”
Nova elbowed Sergio and fought to turn his head. He looked up at the other commission members. They had all jumped up and followed him down the hallway when Nova lost his shit. It wasn’t the best first impression he could make, but Nova didn’t give a fuck. He stared at Lorenzo Campelli, who was looking down at him with wide eyes.
Nova broke his arm out the enforcers’ hold and pointed at Lorenzo. “You kept my brother, injured, knowing we were looking for him! Knowingwhywe were looking for him! Knowing that these fuckers sold him to your wife because you couldn’t get the fucking job done! Now his life’s on the line. You owe me, and I don’t want fucking money! I’m done taking cash for this merda! Cash is easy! I want somethingelse!”
“We’ll agree to that.” Marcell nodded for the Savios. “No one wants a war.”
“What?” Lorenzo turned back to Marcell with a look of horror. “Is that why you brought me?”
“Sacrificial lamb,” Dante repeated his words from earlier. He got back to his feet, making him hugely imposing over the rest of the commission, because he was unusually tall for an Italian, with a thick, powerful build to match. “And I get to watch.”
Suddenly Nova was breathing a little easier. The pressure of four enforcers holding him down got less intense. He kept his gaze on Lorenzo and said, “You better fucking run, puttana.”
Nova let him get halfway down the hallway before he elbowed Carlo’s buddy Sergio just because he fucking felt like it, making him curse, but Nova didn’t turn to see the damage.
He slipped out of the enforcers’ hold and took off after Lorenzo, who went for the stairs down to the restaurant, which was open. They wouldn’t close it for a meeting, that would be too suspicious, but they did come through the back entrance.
