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I shifted my weight restlessly as I waited for their response. It only took a matter of seconds.
My name doesn’t matter. I’ve got important information you should know about your close colleagues. Someone’s looking to screw you over.
My heart lurched. “What the hell?” I looked over at the skaters while I showed Rafael the response. “They say someone I’m working with is going to betray me.”
Rafael’s lips drew back from his teeth in a silent snarl. “It’s got to be one of that trio who came over from your mother’s ranks. Shit.”
I swallowed thickly. “I thought they’d done enough to show we could trust them.”
“So did I.” Rafael squeezed my shoulder. “This isn’t your fault, Lou. They really pulled the wool over our eyes.” He let go of me to pace toward the door and back, fury radiating off his stance. “But whoever it is, they’re not going to live to see another sunrise.”
His ominous words raised the hairs on the back of my neck. “We need to make sure we deal with the right one,” I said, and tapped out another message.
Are you going to tell me who? It’s not very helpful when you stay this vague.
Don’t worry. I’ll send you all the info you need.
I stood frozen as a series of images and videos popped up in the messages app. After a moment’s hesitation, I tapped on the first image.
It was a screenshot of text messages between two people.
The bitch deserves everything that’s coming to her, the first said.
No kidding,Rafe, the other replied.There’s no one better to get in there and do what needs doing.
I’m going to make MC pay for what she did to my brother and every other fucked up thing she’s pulled in this city. She’ll have no idea what hit her.
The bottom of my stomach dropped out. I didn’t know exactly what this was about, but it wasn’t that long ago that I’d heard a gangster back in Austin call Rafael “Rafe.” Was this something to do with him?
I swiped through a few more text messages that were more of the same: aggressive declarations from this “Rafe,” encouragement from whoever he was talking to, and another reference to a “MC” who he was planning to savagely destroy.
Rafael loomed in front of me. “What is it? What’re they saying?”
“I—I’m still trying to figure that out,” I said, fighting to keep my voice from shaking, and tapped on the first of the videos.
A young black man with familiar coiled hair and broad shoulders was stalking back and forth in a dingy basement room. His muscles rippled through his arms as he appeared to pump himself up. “I’m going to smash that harpy into pieces. Tear the whole Cordova family down and stomp all over them until no one gives a shit about that name. They’re never getting away with what they did to Edmundo.”
Several other men were gathered around him at the edges of the frame. They let out whoops of approval. “That’s right!” one of them shouted. “You get ‘em, Rafe.”
“She won’t see it coming,” announced the guy I could tell beyond a doubt was a much younger version of the Rafael I knew. “I’m going to get the bitch’s trust and fuck her over before she has a clue she made a mistake. Take them down from the inside out.”
“They fucking deserve it!” another guy hollered, and flung a knife toward a wall out of view. The camera swung to show a picture of a rose tacked to the wall, already pierced by a couple of other blades.
Rafael had gone still at the tinny voices when they’d first said his nickname. Now he lunged forward, snatching at the phone. “Don’t— You can’t watch that. It’s not what you think. It’s—”
I jerked backward so fast I bumped into the bedside table, making the lamp there rock. Hitting pause, I clutched the phone close to my chest, out of reach, and stared at the man I’d thought I’d known better than anyone in the world.
“It’s a video recording,” I rasped. “How could it be anything other than what it looks like? You obviously recognized it just from hearing what you were saying. I think I’d better watch the whole thing.”
Rafael’s hands opened and closed at his sides. He took a step toward me, his eyes wild. “It’s only going to mess with your head. You should listen to menow, not that shit from years ago.”
I stared back at him. “I’ll listen to you after I find out what all of that shit was. Or are you going to beatmedown to take it from me like you apparently wanted to do to all the Cordovas?”
The color leached from Rafael’s face, graying his rich brown skin. He didn’t reach for the phone again, even as his eyes burned a plea into me. “It’s only going to fuck things up.”
“I’ve already seen some of it,” I said. “I’d say things are plenty fucked up already.”
When I was sure he wasn’t going to tackle me for the phone, I sank down near the head of the bed and played the rest of the clip. And the next. And the next.
