Page 395 of Under Her Skin

Her attacker rolled her over, and Amalia realized she had been impaled on a shard of glass which now protruded from her side. She felt faint. Her attacker gave what sounded like a laugh and yanked the glass out of her. More pain. But she couldn’t scream or move. Then she heard Lena screaming. “No! No! Don’t, please don’t. I did what you asked me todo!”

Ama gave a gasp, pushing herself up into a sitting position just as the man drew the lethal edge of the glass across Lena’s throat. Ama screamed athim.

“No!”

But it was too late. Lena’s throat split open and she clutched at it as it began to gush blood. She looked at Ama, her eyes huge with terror and sorrow. “I’m sorry,” she croaked, and then slumped to the ground, pumping red, hot blood onto the floor. Ama tried to move, but the pain of the wound in her side made her struggle and her attacker easily picked her up. As he threw her over his shoulder, she caught a glance of Trevor and Dustin slumped outside the office. Were they dead? There was no one else in the conservatory this late, no one to know she was being taken. She screamed and yelled, but then her assailant slammed her head against the wall and knocked herout.

The news brokeas Enda was driving back from the airport and he nearly crashed the car. “No, no,please…”

All the radio report said was, “Murder at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music …two young women attacked. One has been confirmed dead. The other ismissing…”

He knew instantly.Ama.Jackson had followed through on his threats. As he turned towards the conservatory, he strained to hear the radio through the roaring of blood in his ears.Pleaseno…

His cell phone buzzed loudly and he pressed the hands-free. “Gallo.”

“Enda, it’s me.” Olivier. “Ama’s missing. Have you heard about thekilling?”

“Yeah,” Enda said, relief flooding through him. Missing. Not dead. “Ama’s beentaken?”

“Yeah. Jackson had someone on the inside, we think. Ama’s assistant. Ama’s security detail was drugged. They told us the assistant went out for coffee, as they were working late. The two bodyguards drank theirs, but they found Ama’s coffee cup still full. Look, where areyou?”

“I’m on my way to theconservatory.”

“Don’t go there. Come home. The F.B.I. are all over the scene and you being there will complicate things. The security guys are being checked out in the hospital, but they’re coming here after. We’ll coordinate the search for Ama and Selima fromhere.”

Enda pulled the car over to the side of the road and stopped. He hesitated for a moment. “He’ll kill her, Olivier. He’ll kill themboth.”

He heard Olivier sigh. “Not necessarily, Enda. Ama’s a smart girl. She’ll know to play up to his fantasies. To convince him she’s ready to be his. If he falls for that…who knows what Ama can make happen. We have to believe in hernow.”

Enda nodded, closing his eyes. “I do. I believe in her. But I can’t stay here doingnothing.”

“I know. Come home, brother, and we’ll get on ittonight.”

Raff strokedhis wife’s hair away from her face. Hours of surgery had saved her again, but it had drained her, and she had been sleeping on and off for a few days now, barely able to hold a conversation. A worried Raff asked the doctor about the possibility Inca may have suffered brain damage, but the doctor reassured him that wasn’t what was goingon.

“She’s just exhausted, Raffaelo, and in my opinion, she’s probably rocking back from the assault. I’ve been worried that she hadn’t seemed to process what happened, and I think this is that. PTSD is common in victims of assault, and especially with Inca’s past, this doesn’t surprise me. She’ll rally, I promise. In the meantime, Psych will helpher.”

Raffaelo had been relieved it was something they could handle together. It killed him that Inca had been targeted yet again; how much was one woman supposed totake?

Stella tapped him on the shoulder as she came to visit Inca. Raff smiled at her. “Thank you, Stella. It’s good of you tocome.”

Stella nodded. “It’s my pleasure. Why don’t you go home and get somerest?”

Raff looked back at Inca. She was sound asleep again, her breathing regular. “I will, I think. Call me if you needanything.”

He was almost homebefore the call came. “Raff …I havethem.”

Raff’s adrenaline spiked. It was his underworld contact. “Where?”

The contact named an abandoned warehouse outside the city. “You’re sure it’sthem?”

“Oh,yeah.”

Raff’s jaw clenched. “I’ll be rightthere.”

As he drove out of the city, he tried to stay calm and remind himself that these men might have information that could help them find Ama and Selima. That he, Raff, could ruin everything by killing them. Because, right now, that’s all he wanted to do—rip the bastard who had stabbed his beloved Inca limb from limb with his bare hands and smash the brains of the man who had held her, making her helpless toresist.

You’re not helping yourself here, buddy. But he couldn’t help remember the terror in his wife’s eyes as these men tried to killher.