Page 396 of Under Her Skin
When he reached the warehouse, he sat in his car for a few moments, trying to steady his nerves. Como, his contact, came out to see him. “Hey.”
Raff nodded. “Hey. Thanks for doingthis.”
Como half-smiled. “This scum hurt your lovely girl. It’s mypleasure.”
Raff followed him into the warehouse. The two attackers were on their knees, bruised and bloodied. Como’s men had obviously beaten them. Raff didn’t care. His eyes fixed on the man who had knifed Inca so mercilessly. The man stared back andsmirked.
“Well, if it isn’t the whore’shusband.”
Raff’s fist smashed into the man’s jaw a second later, his temper unleashed. He beat the man almost to unconsciousness before Como pulled him back. Como bent his mouth to Raff’sear.
“My friend …stop now. Look at his accomplice …he’s scared. He’lltalk.”
Raff nursed his battered hand and stepped away from the coughing and breathless man on the floor. He looked at the accomplice, who turned wide, terrified eyes onhim.
“Please,” said the man, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry I helped him …I promise you, I thought he was going to torment her …I didn’t see theknife.”
Como made a disgusted noise. “Filthyliar.”
Raff took a step toward the man and he cringed backward. Como’s guard kicked him in the small of his back and he groaned. “I swear, friend, I didn’tknow…”
“…Who paid you?” Raff said in a grim tone. “And don’tlie.”
“Jackson Gallo. That’s what he,” he jerked his head towards his injured companion, “told me. He told me Gallo said he needed a distraction so he could send a message to his ex-wife. We were supposed to go kidnap your lady. That’s what he told me …he told me to grab her and hold her arms behind her. He had a camera. Said Gallo wanted to see her scared. What he meant was …he wanted to see her die. When he stabbed her …I panicked. Thought if I did anything, he’d kill me too and take the money for himself. I’m sorry about her. Iam.”
The man was jabbering now, and Raff felt pain shoot through him at his words. So, needless. So, cruel. He turned back to the stabber. “You. Talk, now. Anything. And I’ll think about sparing yourlife.”
The man spat blood on the ground. “I don’t know anything. Except what he just said. Gallo wanted her killed. Said it sent a message to not fuck with him. I asked him why he didn’t do it himself. He told me he couldn’t leave the States—that he was in ‘seclusion.' That’s the word heused.”
Raff chewed his lip. “Was this a phone call or videocall?”
“Video.”
“You recordit?”
The man shook his head. His nose was streaming blood. “No.”
Raff sighed in frustration. “Tell me about where he was calling from. The room. What was outside the windows? What was the roomlike?”
The man hesitated. “I got the impression it was …I mean, there were no windows that I could see and his voice sounded echoey. If I had to guess, I would say it wasunderground.”
Raff studied the man’s eyes. He had no reason to lie now; he faced almost certain death the minute Raffaelo gave the order. Even a hardened criminal like this man knew the only way to save himself was by helpingthem.
Raff turned away and walked back to Como. The other man leaned into him. “What do you want to be done withthem?”
Raff didn’t answer, struggling with his morality, and Como saw this. “Raff, whatever you need …we’ll deal with it. There need not be any link to you. Let me deal withthem.”
Raff bowed his head and rubbed his eyes. It would be so easy to just let Como kill them and deal with the bodies. But Raff knew of old how much the weight of responsibility would weigh on him. He’d had to kill before to save Inca’s life, and it hadn’t sat well with him, although he wouldn’t change a thing. Knox Westerwick had been stabbing Inca when Raff had killed him. This was a differentsituation.
He looked at Como. “No. They might know more. Give them to thepolice.”
“Are yousure?”
Raff nodded. “Very. Too much blood has been spilled already. They can go tojail.”
He knewhe had made the right decision for himself, for Inca, and for Amalia. Any information was critical now, and as he drove back to the hospital, he called Enda and relayed the information he had discovered. A tired, shattered-sounding Enda thankedhim.
“Is there any news, Enda?Anything?”
