Page 118 of Beautifully Wounded

“Yes,” Mex mutters.

“How?” Conrad Marx snaps from behind me.

“Uh, well…” Mex shifts uncomfortably, his gaze darting to mine, and when I nod, he continues. “Two died by gunshot, and two, well… It’s hard to tell if it was the bullets or the way their necks have been sliced open to know which killed them.”

“Fuck.” I hear all four Marx brothers curse behind me.

“Show me,” Riggs barks, pushing past me and shoving Mex back through the door.

“Is that fucking necessary?” I snap, turning to Kendrick, who looks fucking pissed.

“Emotions are high, man. And at least two of the dead are Riggs’ men, so you’ll have to excuse him for caring.”

“Alright. Alright. Emotions are high for everyone.” Liam intervenes, putting himself in between me and his brothers.

Fuck. This isn’t good, and while I should be focusing on what’s happening here, all I can think about is returning to Abbey.

Maybe it’s because she’s so opposite to the lifestyle I lead that has me wishing to be there instead of here doing my fucking job. I only just fucking met her, and really, she’s just someone I’m crossing paths with briefly, so why the fuck is it her I’m thinking about continuously rather than the fact two of our men have been killed.

“What the fuck is going on, Ringo?” Kendrick snaps, dragging me back to reality.

“That’s what I’d like to fucking know.” I snarl over Liam’s shoulder to his seething brother.

“Obviously, none of us know what’s happening,” Conrad barks, thank fuck.

At least he’s not automatically blaming us for this breach, unlike Kendrick, who seems to want to point the fucking finger at me.

Liam turns to face me, gripping my shoulder. “Let’s take a look.” He gestures to the open door, so I suck in a breath that’s meant to be calming, but fucking isn’t, and turn on my heel to check out the scene.

As soon as we step inside, it’s apparent that there was a fight from the start. The first man we come across is one of the Marx security, his throat slashed with two bullet wounds in his chest, and his gun lies mere inches from his fingers.

“Check that.” I point down at the gun. “See if he managed to fire a shot. Maybe we were lucky enough that they managed to shoot one of the attackers. We can keep an eye on any reports of gun shot wounds checking in for help at the hospitals.”

“Good idea,” Liam says from behind me, and he kneels beside the lifeless man, checking his gun with his gloved fingers, before looking up at me and shaking his head. “No rounds were fired.”

“Sounds like he was taken by surprise.” Conrad grunts, and I nod.

The Marx security personnel are well trained, more so than our men, which means whoever broke in managed to do it without alerting anyone until it was too late.

We move forward, taking in the rest of the scene. The office is a bloodbath, the other three men there, but it’s clear there was a gunfight.

“Riggs, get a team here and take samples of every drop of blood in this room,” Kendrick orders. “I want to know if there’s any blood that doesn’t belong to our men.”

“On it.” Riggs nods, taking out his phone and making the call.

“Do we know what was taken,” I ask, dragging my gaze from the horrific scene of our dead men, and face the warehouse, packed with medical supplies.

“At a glance it’s hard to say,” Mex offers. “Nothing stands out since it looks like nothing was touched, but we won’t know until we do a full audit.”

Fuck. This will take a few days.

“We’ll get a team of ten down here to get started.” Conrad suggests and I nod, my eyes catching on Smitty as he strides in with more of our men at his back.

“Someone tell me what the fuck happened!” He booms, and I don’t miss the way Oswald Marx rolls his eyes before turning to face my President.

That kinda pisses me off. He should have more fucking respect.

As Mex starts filling him in, my phone vibrates with an incoming call, and I frown when I see Brody’s name flashing across the screen.

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