This one's only half visible, hidden behind an island farther into the kitchen. She has an apron over the top of a similar uniform, a chef's knife out of her reach, eyes vacant.
"What is this?"
The thudding in my chest hits like a hammer, reverberating through my skull. Loud in my ears.
If he killed his entire staff, it's because he didn't want any loose ends.
"Where the hell is she?"
I shove through my brothers, pushing deeper into the house.
"Ro!"
I pass another body—then another.
"Ro!"
There's a trail of blood ahead, like someone was dragged, and I race to follow it, leaving the others to chase after me.
It leads through an atrium, not up the wide staircase, but into a library.
"Sev, wait!" Eli shouts after me, but I'm not stopping.
If there's someone waiting to shoot me through those office doors, they better not fucking miss.
I kick them open and blink at the sound of gulls coming from the open window.
At first, I think the office is empty, and I want torage, until I see a set of blue eyes staring blankly across the room.
"Goddamnit," Atticus roars, stepping past me into the room. He bends to check the woman's pulse, as if there's any chance she's still alive when her brains are splattered all over the floor.
"Is that…" Eli trails off, standing next to me, staring down at the dead woman with familiar dark hair and facial features who, without a doubt, is Ro's mother.
I'd have known it from her features alone, but my grip tightens on my Ruger when I see the necklace.
Ro'snecklace…
Around her dead mother's throat.
I turn, finding the other body—a hired gun. Dead from a neck wound.
There are bloody scissors on the floor. Broken glass and shelving all over this side of the room.
My stomach turns.
"She fought," I find myself saying, knowing it's true.
My baby fought for her life here. Maybe for her mother's life.
And then she was injured. Dragged out.Taken.
She fought, and we weren't here.
She…
I hit my temple with the side of my gun, needing to clear the racing, spiraling thoughts. Snap myself out of this.
But it's not working.
