THE PLAYERS: a MFM Menage Romance (Bad Romance Book 4)

by Shanna Bell

  “I would love to suck on them,” he whispered.

  Her pulse spiked and she closed her eyes so his lecherous look would disappear. He chuckled at her reaction.

  At least he’s reacting.

  Unlike Marni, who stands like a statue, looking lobotomized.

  She didn’t understand the connection between the two, nor did she care about it. Whatever had happened to that girl, she wasn’t to blame for it. Carmen could only imagine what she must have gone through. To see what had become of the spirited little girl from ten years ago was gruesome.

  “You kinda fell into my lap,” he said, as he looked back at Marni. “Seven saw you at Brian’s and decided to tail you like the good dog she is. At exactly the right time. See, a birdie told me the Bloody Ones are hunting Morelli as we speak. I heard Viking blew up his house. So, he’s out. Now, all I need is to take out Romanov and anyone backing him.” He grabbed her chin, his nails digging into her skin. “I’m gonna start with you. Leave that Polack and Spaghetti eater a nice surprise.”

  Sy was from Scandinavian descent, and Vince loved Mexican food more than Italian, but she didn’t think Keegan would be interested in hearing that. He was too busy telling about his grand plan of how tonight, reinforcements would show up, and he would take Kristoff out. By the end of his evil fantasy story, he was ruling the entire West Coast, like a king of old.

  Didn’t he ever get tired of hearing his own voice?

  When he pulled the tape from her mouth, she intended to ask him just that.

  Then he sunk his blade into her flesh.

  CHAPTER 28

  VINCE

  Being pissed didn’t begin to describe how Vince felt about Sy right now. Sitting in a private booth at Flux, he watched as Sy grabbed two glasses, a bottle of scotch, and walked up to him. The club wouldn’t open until the late hours, but Vince knew Sy’s ritual after a job—have a drink at the club before going for a run. Except, this time, he wasn’t just running to keep in shape. He ran from their woman, and that just wouldn’t do.

  “Someone tried to snipe me,” Sy growled, as he sat across him.

  “Last night?”

  “Yeah, at Morelli’s love shack. The bastard locked himself in and Viking tore the place down. Hell, he blew it up with enough C-4 to bring down a small country. Viking was…” He sighed. “I thought he would feel better after that, but I don’t think it worked. He’s still spitting mad, because Morelli didn’t face him. They found his body, all crisped up and barely recognizable. Then, we were just about done with the place, when someone took a shot at me. Missed me by this much.”

  So, someone took a hit on Sy during their raid on Morelli’s hideout. And it wasn’t one of Morelli’s men. They wouldn’t have been waiting outside. No, it was a shooter in murky shadows, someone who had wanted to take advantage of the chaos during the raid. After all, it would be all too easy to kill someone during it without getting noticed.

  Vince had had his suspicions for a while now. Someone taking a shot at Sy from a distance only confirmed his theory.

  “I might be able to help you with that,” he said.

  Sy cocked a brow. “You know something I don’t?”

  He slid a manila envelope over the table to him.

  “You and your damn informants with their files,” Sy muttered. “Couldn’t you have given me a heads-up if you thought someone wanted to blow out my brains?”

  “I didn’t think he would see you as a target.”

  Sy opened the envelope and pulled out a file. He stilled when he saw the info and pictures. “Fuck. I’m gonna rip the bastard’s tonsils out through his nose.”

  “Later. Let’s discuss something else first.”

  “Something else? What the fuck could be more important than this asshole trying to kill me?” He chugged down his drink and poured himself another.

  “Relax. I have eyes on your would-be murderer.” Vince swiped away Sy’s second glass. He needed him sober. “Let’s talk about you running away with your tail tucked between your legs.”

  A round of curse words followed. “I didn’t run. I left.”

  “Same fucking difference and you know it.”

  “She’s safer when I’m not around.”

  “Don’t tell me this bullshit about you leaving to protect her. You left because you wanted to protect yourself.” Then, he went for the kill. “I never thought I’d say this, Sy Skarsgard, but you’re a coward.”

  Sy jumped up. His eyes were blazing as he pointed a finger at Vince. The infamous Skarsgard temper was flaring up.

  “You take that back,” Sy roared. “Right fucking now or, friend or not, I’m gonna tear you up.”

  Vince took a sip from his whisky. “I don’t think so,” he drawled as he leaned back.

  “Fuck you, Vince! You don’t know what it’s like to become like the assholes your junkie momma has been dating. The sick fucks who hurt you just because they can. I can’t live like that, knowing I can become one of those assholes with Carmen. She’s been through enough.”

  As Sy raged on some more, Vince took another gulp of the whisky that burned down his throat. Finally, Sy was letting go. It seemed Carmen hadn’t been the only one in need of spilling out her guts so she could heal again.

  Then Sy narrowed his eyes. “You asshole. Am I boring you?”

  “Nah. It’s just fascinating to see that a grown ass man such as yourself runs headfirst into a shoot-out, but when it comes to a small woman, you’re fucking scared.”

  This only ruffled Sy’s feathers more and for a second there, Vince thought they were going to end up fighting. But, Sy surprised him by sitting down again.

  “Must be nice,” Sy bit out, “to have had perfect parents. No baggage that wakes you up at night.”

  He knew he’d had it coming, but the words were still like a punch to the gut. Old, dark memories resurfaced, but he realized he had to come clean with his friend. If he didn’t, it would turn into an open wound and fester.

  “Every morning, I wake up to the image of my dead mother in the kitchen,” Vince said, and poured another drink. “It’s seared into my brain and won’t leave. I can’t help but think they left her on the kitchen block with her brains spilling out, just to scar me and my brother for life. Killing our father wasn’t enough. The Families wanted to set an example. I remember putting a towel around her head so Gio wouldn’t see her, but he wouldn’t have it. He just walked up to her, tore away the towel, and stood there for over an hour, without moving a muscle.

  “We all have baggage, Sy, but I’m trying to deal with mine. You think I didn’t think about how this could become Carmen? I’d die before letting anything happen to her. She’s my light, hell, she’s both ours, if you would just open your eyes. Ever since waking up to Carmen, the dead images of my mother have waned. She’s still there some mornings, but a hell of a lot less than before. So, man the fuck up and think about what you’re letting slip through your fingers.”

  Just as he finished, his phone went off. He looked at the display and put it to his ear.

  “Hey, Jazzy.”

  “Is my sister with you?” she asked in a voice that made him stop dead.

  “No. She went to the mansion to grab some stuff.” He hadn’t wanted her to go, but he understood her need for closure. If it were up to him, it would be the last time she ever went there.

  “I can’t reach her. I’ve called, like, five times in the last hour.”

  Ice suffused his veins. “Maybe her battery died. I sent someone with her. Let me make a quick call.”

  He saw Sy already pull out his phone.

  “That’s weird,” Jazzy said. “See, I’ve tracked her phone and the signal went dead a few blocks from the mansion, in the opposite direction to your apartment. I have Tess tracking her down.”

  Shit. Fucking shit. “Let me know if you find something.”

  Sy cursed. “She’s not picking up. Her bodyguard ain’t either. It goes straight to voicemail.”

  Th
e ice in his veins started to crack as a burn hit his chest.

  “Keegan!” Vince snarled.

  “Fuck!” Sy looked grim. “We searched for him all night. He was next on the list, but the fucker has just disappeared.”

  Vince started making phone calls. One after the other, calling in every marker he got. An hour passed, and another one, but they were still nowhere.

  Sy was growling into his phone. “Don’t give a shit if you think he left the state. He ain’t gone. Find the fucker. And round up a crew. The second we find him, I’m gonna go rip his head off.”

  More time passed by as they tried to get a hint on Carmen’s whereabouts. It was close to noon when Tess finally called.

  “Tell me you’ve got something,” Vince commanded and put his phone on speaker.

  “I never call when I can’t come bearing gifts,” she said, sounding affronted. “I followed several traffic cams and found Carmen in the back of a van at a gas station. There were two men in the car who have ties to Keegan.”

  Shit. It was as they had feared.

  “Ah, hell.” Sy brushed his hand over his head and looked ready to explode. The bartender who had been walking up to them with a drink, made a turn and backed away.

  “There’s more,” Tess continued. “I spotted another woman in the van, sitting next to the driver. I did some digging and I think it’s the girl Carmen is looking for—Marni.”

  It took a second to process that. “You sure it’s her?”

  “Positive as a paternity test. The aging software didn’t give an exact match, but she, most likely, is the disappeared girl, now ten years older.”

  It would make sense. The girl, the Bridemaker, and Keegan. It was a Bermuda triangle Carmen had gotten sucked into.

  “Tell me you have a location.”

  “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.

  He saw her 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.

  Someone put a hand on his shoulder. It was Vince.

  “Back down, Sy. She’s gonna call security.”

  “Like I give a crap,” he growled. Seeing Carmen with blood oozing out of her had cracked something inside him, and he wasn’t sure if it would ever mend. He’d never felt so powerless and on edge before.

  A loud ringing started inside his head, overpowering every other sound. His vision, however, was crystal clear and latched on to everything surrounding him. The Emergency Department had six rooms. The corridor had four lightbulbs and a nurse rushing from one side to the other. She held a lunch bag in her hand. How could everyday life just continue as if nothing had happened, while his life had imploded?

  “Dr. Oliver,” the nurse exclaimed, when a balding man in a white coat stepped out of the elevator.

  Sy was about to grab the man’s stethoscope to get his attention when Jazzy came around the corner. The second she spotted the doctor, she latched onto the man.

  “Carmen Russo. I’m her sister. Please, tell me. Is she okay?”

  The good doctor looked uncomfortable with the wall of men surrounding him, but Sy didn’t give a fuck.

  “The surgery went well,” he said in his professional doctor’s voice. “She’s stable but not awake yet. She needs her rest. We’re doing everything we can to save her and the baby.”

  “Baby?” Jazzy looked shocked.

  Sy froze and saw Vince turn into a statue next to him as well.

  The doctor eyed both him and Vince. “Are you the father?”

  Vince nodded. “We both are.”

  If the doctor thought anything of that, he kept it to himself. Smart man.

  Shit, he was going to be a father. He’d fucked up by leaving Carmen, but that was going to change now. Everything was gonna change. She didn’t know it yet, but he was going to stay so close to her, they would have to pry him away with a crowbar. It didn’t matter who the biological father was; that kid would have two fathers, an army of uncles, and anyone who came too close would feel Sy’s blade.

  But first, he had to wipe away all and every threat to his woman and kid. Keegan and Morelli were out. The first was spiked onto a cactus in the desert, his carcass left for the picking. Kristoff was creative like that. Morelli was blown into a million pieces, courtesy of Viking. Which left Sy with only two little errands to run.

  He couldn’t stay here and just wait. He’d go mad.

  “Call me when she wakes up,” he told Vince. “I have some unfinished business.”

  “Manila envelope?” Vince asked, referring to the envelope he gave him, reading him like he always did.

  “That, and a promise I need to keep,” he said, grim.

  He went home to pick up his gear.
First on the list—dear old Mom and the latest fuck-up she was shacked up with.

  He found her exactly where he’d left her; in a rundown apartment in the bad part of town. He was greeted by the rusty smell of hard water in the corridor and the blasting sound of a TV coming through the thin walls.

  Not bothering to knock, he bashed in the door and tore past the thin doorframe.

  A yelp sounded. His mother jumped up, her feet skittering over the peeling linoleum floor.

  “Sy?”

  His eyes went over the chipped cabinet doors and crooked blinds, until they landed on her boyfriend, who lay passed out on a worn couch.

  When he stepped up to him, his mother jumped in front of him.

  “What are you doing here?” she shrieked.

  “You think I didn’t know what you did?” He’d called Brian to rip him a new one for letting Carmen mud fight, only to find out what had really happened. The bastard had even made it home. After all, by throwing Carmen before the lions, he’d paid off part of his debt. He got to live to see another day unscathed. Or so he thought.

  “Remember what I said I would do to your junk ass boyfriend if you ever stole from me again? Guess what? You stole Carmen from me!”

  He took out a wrench from his back pocket, pushed his mother aside, and went to work. As he splintered every bone in the loser’s body, howling screams filled the room, leaking outside through the cracks in the ceiling. But, as expected, no one came.

  Half an hour later, it was time for job number two. He’d saved the best for last—the snake in Carmen’s garden. Franco’s former enforcer and Carmen’s trustee, Raul. The slick asshole had rented a secluded chalet somewhere in the woods, probably thinking himself safe there. Part of him even admired the man. In a way, Raul had protected Carmen by killing that bastard in the club as a tribute to her. Sy could even understand him taking a hit on him, trying to eliminate the competition. But filling a closet with women’s clothes, all in Carmen’s size, buying her favorite perfumes, soaps, books, and having an exact replica of her kitchen made? That screamed kidnapper-to-be.