Page 37 of The Players

When he neared the foot of the bed, she tried to bolt. Sy yanked her right back on the bed. He placed his arms around her, effectively boxing her in.

“Traitor!” She thrashed her body and tried to get away from him, but Sy wouldn’t budge.

“I’ve tried,” Vince said as he started to unbutton his cuffs. “I really did. Hoping you would see the danger you’re in without me having to show you. Without me having to punish you.”

“No, no, no! You bastard.” She struggled, trying to break free of Sy’s hold. “Let go of me,” she hissed.

“You’d better hold still, doll. The more you struggle, the more it will hurt.”

“I hate you!”

Sy sighed. “That was inevitable.”

Carmen was cursing now, close to hyperventilating. Vince didn’t like doing this to her, knowing she would hate him even more for it. What was worse though, was the fact she actually believed he would hurt her the way Franco had.

He dropped onto the bed and pulled her body over his lap.

She was sobbing now, cursing in both English and Italian. Her tears tugged at his heart, almost making him stop. But no. If he did, she would always defy him. This had to be done.

“I had no idea you could be so foul-mouthed. Guess the prim and proper English tutor has a more expanded vocabulary than I gave you credit for,” he taunted, taking a page from Sy’s book.

Then he gave her ten. He continued until her ass had turned a nice shade of pink and she cried all over the bed.

He bowed close to her.

“You are not allowed to put yourself in danger. You might not like to hear it, but there’s still a target on your back. Obviously, you don’t care, putting yourself in between explosive situations. If you don’t care about your gorgeous ass, Carmen, then why should anyone else?”

Those words made her stop squirming and after that, she took the remaining slaps in stride.

***

After leaving an exhausted Carmen in bed, Vince took a shower. Then he dropped onto the couch in the rec room. Sy was sitting there, watchingPlanet Earthor some other animal documentary.

He dialed his sister-in-law and a few moments later, he stared into her frown on the big screen.

“Vince. Do you know what time it is?” Tess was one of the best hackers in the world, but a morning person she was not.

“Of course,” he said, playing dumb. “It’s half past—”

“No, it’s too early,” she muttered. “I’m going to charge you with the double rate for this.”

“What happened to the family discount?”

She frowned. “Luca is being an ass, so I’m not sure how much longer we’re going to be family.”

“What was it this time?” he asked. “You broke into an animal shelter again? Or a Big Pharma testing on monkeys?”

“Hey, what makes you think I did something?” she sputtered. “Maybe Luca did something real stupid. I mean, he’s a man, after all. Doing stupid stuff kind of comes with the job description.”

She looked ready to give an online seminar on the subject.

“The reason I’ve called is because of your excellent skills with a computer—”

Luca appeared behind Tess. “She refuses to stop looking for her sister,” he explained.

Tess rolled her eyes. “Would you stop searching for Vince if he had disappeared, and had men chasing after him?”

“I would if he had tried to kill me,” Luca said. “And I definitely would if he had stuck it to the twins. You know they’re going to find her, one way or the other. I just don’t want you to get caught up in that mess.”

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