Page 62 of All Out of Love

Vinnie shook his head. There were a lot of reasons why he couldn’t stand Sebastian Carrington. His twistedness was at the top of that list. “Sick bastard,” he said.

“And what about that car ambush?” Grayson asked Crates. “I was the target of that ambush, right?”

“Wrong,” said Crates as he continued to grin. “I told you you were clueless. She was the target.”

Grayson’s heart squeezed. “She? Who’s she?”

“You know who she is. That black bitch you’re fooling around with. After he saw her at his country club, he wanted her eliminated. He said nobody was contaminating his blood line. No Asian bitch. No Hispanic bitch. And no black bitch.”

Grayson and Vinnie both had frowns of confusion on their faces. “What are you talking?” Vinnie asked him. “Are you saying Gray’s old man hired you?”

Crates laughed, but they could tell he was laughing off his pain. “Bingo,” he said. “He hired me, and I hired Eddie Hudgens and Carlo Berrin.”

Vinnie and Grayson looked at each other in pure shock. As soon as they heard that Eddie was involved, they automatically assumed Billy Joshua had found out what happened to his daughter and was seeking revenge from any Carrington he could get his hands on. But that wasn’t it at all? A Carrington was behind the attack?

Grayson knew his father was despicable, but that despicable? “My father wouldn’t hire you to kill somebody he just met. There’s no way!”

“He’s protecting his bloodline fool,” Crates said. “How can you not understand that?”

Crates started coughing up blood and had to settle back down. “But it didn’t work anyway. Eddie died, but the bitch lived. But then I get a call from your father a couple hours ago.”

Grayson frowned. “A couple hours ago? About what?”

“He said there’s been a change in plans. He said you and Vinnie were together at your house. He wanted me take both of y’all asses out. He said something about some endorsement he’ll be damned if he makes. He said something about how the two of you know too much about his personal life and how y’all know where the bodies are buried and all that kind of shit. But when I was heading to your house to handle my business so I can get paid, y’all were just leaving. So I called your old man. He said for me to follow y’all and he’ll take care of the bitch. So I followed you. And look what it got me,” he said regrettably.

But Grayson looked at Vinnie. “He’ll take care of the bitch?” And it was in that moment that they realized what that meant.

Grayson and Vinnie both jumped up. Grayson pulled out his phone calling Toya, while Vinnie pulled out his phone calling his men helping to guard Grayson’s mansion. Grayson was already running out of the house.

But Vinnie pointed his gun at a still breathing Crates. He had to finish the job. “It never ends well when you latch your wagon to a lying sonofabitch like Seb Carrington. You should have known better, Crates,” he said, before he fired several shots. He glanced at his downed men, with pain in his soul, but then he ran outside where Grayson was already getting behind the wheel of his Mercedes. Vinnie ordered Pauly to send in a cleanup crew, and then he and Grayson took off.

Neither one of them could get any response from the guards on duty or, to Grayson’s horror, even Toya herself.

“We need to call 911,” Grayson said in panic as he drove faster and faster.

“No cops,” Vinnie said.

“They can get there faster, Vincent, because something’s wrong. Nobody’s answering their phones!”

“I know that. You don’t think I know that? But as soon as those cops arrive, all your old man has to say is that she attacked him and their riddle her little body with bullets. No cops.”

Grayson hadn’t even thought about that. But he knew Vinnie was right. Just like that Richard Lowe lied on Toya in Ocala and got her arrested.

Grayson pressed the button on his infotainment screen.

“Who are you calling now?”

“Father,” he said. But his father’s phone went straight to voice mail. It was turned off.

“Damn damn damn!” Grayson said angrily as he drove.

Vinnie looked at him. “You really love this girl hun?”

Grayson didn’t think he’d ever admit it to anyone but Latoya. “Very much so,” he said.

Vinnie nodded. “That’s a good thing.”

But Grayson was too deep in his head with worry to even hear him.