Page 14 of Sweet Animosity

Staring at the gray screen, I watched as a similar team to ours breached the office.

And discovered the bodies.

Anton motioned with his hand. “Looks like we weren’t the first to the party.”

The men dressed all in black with their faces concealed trashed the office.

Mac shook his head. “Or the only ones who wanted to know what Abakar was up to.”

The tallest of the men stretched out his arm, gesturing toward a set of metal filing cabinets.

The men in question pushed the cabinets aside to expose a blank wall behind them.

I rubbed my jaw. “They’re looking for a vault. Probably want the forged paintings.”

Anton fast-forwarded the video. “Yeah, well, they didn’t find it.”

We watched the screen as the men all turned in unison, then fled.

Mac nodded. “That is when we approached.”

“Anything earlier?”

Anton raised his arm and worked the remote. “It’s not pretty.”

He rewound to when a third crew entered even earlier. They were significantly shorter than the last.

With precision, they knee-capped Abakar’s first guard, then hit the second in the shoulder.

After incapacitating his security, they started in on Abakar.

Already seeing their handiwork lying in a pool of blood in the other room, I didn’t need to know the finer details.

I turned away from the screen.

While I should be focused on the problem at hand, my first thought was thank fucking God Vivian hadn’t walked in on that mess. I didn’t even want to think what those animals would have done to an innocent, unprotected woman.

Mac turned off the screen. “My guess would be that Southside gang. Word is Abakar was skipping town with the funds from that Van Strauss auction without paying his debts.”

Where the hell did Vivian fit in with all this?

As if reading my mind, Anton turned to me. “Did you get anything out of the girl?”

An erection.

I shook my head. “Not yet. I say we bring her back to the Four Monks.”

His gaze narrowed. “Are you sure about that? As it stands right now, there is a good chance she doesn’t know who we are. If we bring her to the club, that would no longer be the case.”

Fuck. He had a point.

I knew better. I just wasn’t thinking with the right head.

Mac cut in. “Judging by the video, neither group got what they wanted.”

Anton shrugged. “Other than the bastard dead.”

Mac gestured to him. “Very true. Which is what we wanted as well, so win-win.”

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