She watched him for an instant. “But what if Walker’s not dead? He might need help.” She was already through the open doorway. “Maybe we should take him to—” She stopped as she saw Walker’s face. His mouth was wide open in a silent scream. His eyes were glaring into nothingness. His shirt was covered with blood.

“You couldn’t wait, could you?” Tanner was standing behind her. “I didn’t want you to see it. It only took a glance for me to see that they’d decided to play with him before they’d killed him.”

“Why?” she whispered. “Why would they do that?”

“Probably for the same reason that they’d come after him in the beginning. Orders. Volkov probably thought that I’d somehow learned about Sandrino’s game here and went to the most logical source. Those guys look like the usual hoods for hire you see at casinos around the world. Volkov probably sent them to find Walker and keep him quiet or punish him for squealing on him.”

“Then it’s our fault. We should have gotten him out last night.”

“If we’d seen it in our magic ball. He was well hidden. Volkov probably went to the Albanians, who have no trouble getting any information they want as long as you don’t mind that they might kill a few bystanders along the way.”

“He was so scared, Tanner. He knew what a monster Volkov is.”

“And so do you. That’s one of the reasons you’re this upset.”

“I’ve got to stop him. He hates me, Tanner. He’ll hurt anyone I love. He’ll hurt Maria.”

He pushed her gently toward the door. “Come on. We’ve got to get out of here. But first I’ve got to search those guys and see if they found anything on Walker that we can use.” He was already swiftly going through their pockets. “Here’s something…” He pulled out a yellow sheet like ones they’d been examining yesterday and glanced at it. “May help. May not.” He took out their phones. “And I’ll check their phone history before we leave and see if they’ve made any calls that might strike a familiar note. After that I’ll turn them off and let their boss come look for them.”

She watched him check their phone history and write down a couple of numbers. “Definitely the Albanians. Which means Anton and Volkov are either here or on their way. Okay, that’s it.” He got to his feet. “Let me go first and see if there’s anyone around.”

“No. I’ll go with you.” Then she had a sudden thought. “I forgot something. I’ll be right back…” She heard Tanner cursing behind her as she ran into Walker’s bedroom. She shivered as she went over to the bed. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “We were going to try to get you away. I promise that we’ll punish Volkov.” She was searching all around the bed and the floor. “Just this one more thing…” She found it and ran back to Tanner. “We can go now.”