“He never gives me any privacy,” Tino mumbled, also speaking Italian as Romeo sat Nova up with practiced ease, because now that Romeo was fighting professionally, this was part of his everyday gig.
“So you just knock him the fuck out?” Romeo asked in disbelief and then grabbed Nova’s face, staring at him. Then he looked back to Tino in shock, because Nova wasn’t the easiest guy to knock out. “Actually, how’d you do it?”
“Shower door.” Tino winced. “And he sort of hit his head on the tile.”
“Merda.” Romeo patted Nova’s face as Nova blinked heavy-lidded eyes, shaking off the shock of the fall. “Casanova?”
“Fuck both of yous.” Nova’s voice was raspy, but he sounded fairly alert as he jerked his face out of Romeo’s grasp.
“He’s okay. He’s got a thick skull.” Romeo patted Nova’s cheek once more. “Last time you walk in on him in the shower, huh? I’m sort of impressed right now. Maybe I need to get rid of the dumbass I’m working with and make Tino my training partner if he can knock Nova Moretti out cold.”
Nova was awake enough to flick his hand under his chin and flip them both off. He leaned forward and rested his forehead against his knees, like the room was spinning.
“Get outta of the heat. It’ll make it worse. I’ll make you breakfast. You’ll be fine,” Romeo decided for him as he stood and winced when he looked to Tino. “Speaking of privacy.” He grabbed the towel off the rack and tossed it at Tino. “I’m going friggin’ blind, Valentino.”
Tino caught it and turned off the shower, but still he couldn’t help but point out, “This is my shower. You’re both in here when this is my time. What if I was jerking off? I could have my hand on my fucking dick, and he’d walk in and—”
Romeo held up his palms in surrender. “I’m out.”
He closed the bathroom door on the way out as Tino tied the towel around his waist. Nova was still sitting there, but as he woke up, his features went from mad to hurt. He glanced up at Tino, looking genuinely horrified. “You didn’t even have to try to do that.”
Tino just stared at him, wondering why he was so shocked.
“What do you think I do for a living, Casanova?” Tino kept his voice low so Romeo wouldn’t hear, and went back to speaking in Italian on instinct like he did when they wanted to keep things private. “I end tough guys who think they’re too badass to get caught. You’re not any different from the rest of them,” he said as Nova looked at him in that same confused, horrified way Tino knew so well. Like he couldn’t fucking believe someone who wore boots and jeans for a living could get the better of him. They all thought they were too good for an enforcer. Too fucking smart. Too protected. “Fucking accountants.” He stepped past Nova and opened the door. “Stay out of my shower. It’s the only time I have to myself. I don’t have to pretend to be someone I’m not. It’smytime.”
He was halfway down the hall before something else nagged at him, and he turned back around to glare at Nova, who was getting to his feet. “Brianna has a name too. You use it when you speak about her. I don’t want toeverhear that snarky, smart-guy tone when you talk about her. I want you to be reverent when you say her name.”
“Reverent?” Nova raised his eyebrows in disbelief. “Valentino, do you really know what that means?”
“Like you’re talking about the goddamn Madonna,” Tino assured him rather than get pissed about his condescending tone, because it was obvious Nova was still angry about the shower door. Nova usually started flexing his brain when he felt threatened, but Tino knew him too well to fall for it. “No one’s allowed to disrespect her in front of me. I’ve put up with too much in my life to listen to it,” Tino growled, and then he turned and walked to his room in Romeo’s apartment before he knocked Nova out a second time.
* * * *
Their cousin Angelo showed up for breakfast. He was the only family member they kept up with from their mother’s side, and Tino used to think he had a sixth sense for Romeo’s cooking since Romeo got out of the pen. Then Tino busted Romeo texting him. Something about Romeo, he liked having people around him. He liked having others to take care of. Maybe it was a prison thing. After being alone so much of the time, it changed him. Same with the fighting, and not the structured karate they grew up with, but the down-and-dirty MMA fighting Romeo did now. The anger and loneliness left a stain on Romeo’s soul that he was always trying to find a way to scrub out.
Tino understood, so he never said anything about it.
That was part of the reason why he camped out in the second bedroom of Romeo’s apartment instead of getting a place of his own. Not like he didn’t have millions of dollars in the bank thanks to the Brambinos and Nova’s guilt that had him investing it just to watch it double.
Tino could get another apartment in the building like Nova did, but he didn’t, though he liked his space more than Nova. He didn’t want to leave Romeo alone when he knew Romeo hated it. So Tino sucked it up, even if he had to be a guy for Romeo he wouldn’t understand on a good day.
Always on.
Always pretending to be what he should’ve been.
At first it was sort of fun, to create him, this great, fun-loving little brother. Tino liked to imagine he was what Harlem Tino would’ve grown into if Romeo hadn’t gone to prison.
If they hadn’t moved to Dyker Heights.
Without the basements and Mary.
“Okay, so I got one,” Tino said to Angelo, who was sitting across from him in his police uniform, already dressed for his shift. “This is a good one. You ready?”
“Hell, yes, I’m ready.” Angelo grinned, already rapt and waiting. “I love living vicariously through you.”
“I met this chick at La Bomba.”
“Hey, I heard they got raided last night,” Romeo cut in from the kitchen as he worked on cooking the bacon.
