Page 78 of The Players

“I have one of the van.” Tess sounded pleased. “You would think that gangsters wouldn’t want tracking chips in their car. This Keegan dude obviously didn’t get that memo.”

No, he wouldn’t have. The prick was all about spending money and showing it off.

“Send me the coordinates.”

He disconnected and the next moment, Tess’ message arrived. When he looked up, Sy just cocked his gun.

“This ends tonight,” he said, sounding so vicious that Vince knew by the end of the night, rivers of blood would flow.

He couldn’t wait to drown Keegan in it.

Keegan was holed up in an abandoned factory complex at the edge of the desert. There was no one around for miles. According to Tess, all cell phone activity came from the big gray building in the middle. Judging by the handful of cars in the front, Keegan didn’t have much firepower with him.

Sy had made sure they came with a full force to back them up. Everyone was there—the Bloody Ones, as well as every other Bratva soldier they had managed to muster up in record time.

“Let’s go,” Sy stated, pulling out his gun.

Vince saw the twins and Viking were already gone. They had scattered to their positions on either end of the biggest building in the middle. Vince and Sy strode out behind them.

They were met with gunfire instantly.

Vince and Sy ducked low and took cover behind a rusty silo. Then more gunfire erupted behind them, giving them cover. They started running toward the building. Two men were holding the door but were taken down. Once they made it to the door, Sy kicked it in and they surged inside.

It was a chaotic mess, and they had obviously caught Keegan off guard. Hardly a dozen men opened fire at them. Half of them were fleeing, only to be caught by the twins, who got inside from the back.

Vince left the scene for what it was, going room after room, kicking in doors, only to come up empty.

“Carmen!” Sy called out her name over and over.

They couldn’t find her. Panic gripped Vince’s throat. “Where the fuck is she?”

A bullet nearly nicked his head and he took cover. He looked up and came face-to-face with a young woman dressed in black and red.

Marni.

She stood at the edge of the staircase with two of Keegan’s men. He remembered Carmen telling about the fierce girl with pride in her voice. Whoever that girl had once been, Vince doubted she was still inside the woman clad in leather pants who pointed a gun at them.

Then, for some reason, Marni took a step back. Two shots rang and Keegan’s men dropped, revealing Marni standing behind them.

“What the—” Sy exchanged a look with him.

She pointed her gun to a door on the left, and then ran away, disappearing out of their sights.

Not wasting another second, they rushed up the stairs. When Vince pushed open the door, terror gripped his heart.

Carmen sat in the middle of the room, tied to a chair. Her body was limp and her head drooped. Thick, long curls hid her face from them.

Their beautiful Carmen lay in a pool of her own blood.

CHAPTER 29

SY

Sy’s only obstacle to Carmen’s room was a white uniform. A growl rose up his throat and he balled his fists, trying to temper his rage.

“Family only,” the nurse repeated, hands on her hips.

Fuck that. He wasn’t waiting for Jazzy to return from the bathroom to see her.

---