Page 13 of Beast: Part Two

I step out of the Charger, and button my suit coat. Glancing around, I check out my surroundings. Everything looks clear. The street is mostly vacant. A white Hummer is parked on the side of the road two houses down, but there is no one inside.

Seth comes over to stand beside me by the front of the car.

“Is it just me, or does it seem exceptionally quiet out here?”

It definitely wasn’t just him. The silence and the empty street caught my eye as well.

“Let’s get inside,” I say.

The three of them followed me up to the front door. Before I knock, I realize the door is slightly ajar.

I look over my shoulder, and without a word, I tell them to get out their guns. Pulling my Beretta out of my back holster, I slip the safety off and hold the gun out in front of me. We frame the door, two on each side.

Using my foot, I open the front door. Silence greets us. I give the nod that I’ll go in first. I walk through the door, my gun pointed out. Seth comes in behind me.

At first glance the house looks normal. Nothing seems out of place. However, on closer inspection I notice a single drop of blood in front of the closed office door.

“This doesn’t look good,” Maksim says, standing behind me.

I didn’t respond. Instead, I push the door open and step into the office. The sight before me is so graphic, if I didn’t know better, I would’ve thought Beast had been here.

“Oh shit,” Zel says, turning away from the sight.

“Not bad work,” Seth adds, stepping up beside me. “A little overkill with the tongue.”

Nailed to the wall, as if he was portraying Jesus on the cross, is a naked and bruised Robert. His head hangs down between his shoulder blades. His tongue has been removed from his mouth and is now nailed to the wall beside his head. But the most alarming part are the words written in what I assume is his blood on the wall above his head. No More Allies. The initials VC are signed beneath it.

“Victoria,” Maksim says somberly beside me. “Outside of me, she and Yohan are Corbyn’s most trusted. He must have found out his brother has been the one helping you.”

“How did he figure that out?” I ask.

“I’m assuming the phone call.” I turn to look at Zel. He’s holding up a smashed cell phone in his hand.

“Fuck,” Seth roars. “That was our only hope of getting out of this shit.”

Staring up at the mutilated body of a person I once considered a friend, I don’t have the heart to tell my son that he’s right. If we were ever going to get our names off that excommunication order and figure out how to take down Corbyn, Robert was it. Now we are back to ground zero.

Before I could say anything, the large, picturesque window in Robert’s office cracks and bullets fly in.

We all take cover. I jump behind the solid oak desk. Maksim slides behind the end of the bookshelf to my right. Seth leaps over the bar in front of me.

“Zel,” I call out.

“I’m here. I’m good.”

I can’t see him because he’s somewhere behind me.

“Maksim, Seth?”

“I’m good,” Maksim says.

“Flesh wound,” Seth groans. “But I’m good.”

“Did anyone get a visual of the shooter?”

“No,” all three say at the same time.

I peek around the side of the desk and once again bullets fly through the window, this time shattering the glass. I slide back just in time to avoid being shot.

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