Page 60 of All Out of Love

But Pauly looked at Vinnie as if he couldn’t believe it. Was this for real? Could Grayson Carrington actually love somebody other than himself?

But Vinnie didn’t look at Pauly at all. Because he knew his brother. He knew, deep down, that the true love of a good woman was all Grayson ever wanted. Vinnie understood that. Because it was all he ever wanted too.

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

In a small shack of a house in a wooded, secluded area in west Baltimore, Carlo Berrin was seated in the only chair in the house. Vinnie stood in front of him, with Grayson and Pauly on each side of him. Two of Vinnie’s armed men stood behind the chair. Carlo had already been worked over so badly that his face was swollen and his eyes were nearly shut.

That was why Vinnie was shaking his head. “Poor Carlo. I remember when your ass was hot shit. Now look at you.”

Grayson was abhorred by the condition of their prisoner, but he had no sympathy for the man whatsoever. Not after what he and Eddie Hudgens put Latoya through. It could have been her car that flipped. She could have been the casualty instead of Eddie.

“I don’t know if you realize this,” Vinnie said, “but my guys did a number on that face of yours, Carlo. A face, to be honest with you, that already couldn’t afford to have no numbers done on it. But they did a pretty good number on yours. What did you tell them to deserve such terrible treatment?”

“I didn’t tell them shit!” Blood spewed from his busted lip when he spoke.

“Not a good idea, Carlo.”

“I don’t know nothing, Vinnie! I kept telling them I don’t know nothing. But they beat my ass anyway!”

“Because you’re lying,” one of the two armed guards said.

“I’m not lying!”

“Gotta be,” said Vinnie. “Otherwise, we would have to believe that you was driving by, saw Eddie trying to run a Porsche off the road, and you decided to join in for the hell of it. You don’t know nothing, but you just join in. You expect me to believe that bullshit, Carlo?”

“I don’t know nothing!”

Before Grayson could blink again, Vinnie lifted his leg up, and with his expensive dress shoe he kicked Carlo so violently that Carlo flipped over the chair he was sitting in and his slender body slammed against the wall. He cried out in agony.

But Vinnie’s two men hurried and grabbed him back up, stood the chair back on its four legs, and slammed him back down in the chair.

Vinnie was leaned over, with his hands behind his back. “Your ass still don’t know nothing motherfucker?!”

“I was paid to do the job,” Carlo said quickly. Then he looked up at Vinnie although his swollen eyes prevented him from seeing him clearly. “It was just a paycheck for me.”

“Was it a kill or a scare?” Vinnie asked him.

Carlo hesitated, which told Grayson all he needed to know. “A kill,” Carlo admitted.

“Who was the target? My brother?”

“I don’t know! I was told to follow Eddie. Whatever Eddie did, my job was to back him up.”

“Eddie works for Billy Joshua,” Vinnie said. “You ain’t never worked for Billy. Why would you be willing to back up one of Billy’s guys?”

“Because Eddie don’t work for him no more.”

That was news to Grayson and Vinnie. They even glanced at each other. Billy Joshua was the father of the hooker Grayson’s father supplied with drugs at the family lake house. Drugs that caused the girl to overdose and die. Grayson called Vinnie in to dispose of the body, but they all assumed if any heat came down, it was going to come from Billy Joshua. But Eddie no longer worked for him?

“I never heard any chatter about Eddie being kicked out of Billy’s outfit,” Vinnie said.

“He wasn’t kicked out. He left on his own accord. He wanted to freelance.”

“Eddie Hudgens a hired hand? Get the fuck out of here!”

“I’m telling you the truth. I was hired as his backup.”

“Hired by who?”