Beast, Part Two (The Church #5)

S. O’Cleary

chapter thirteen

Beast

A lthough Alicia and the D.O.E were able to track down Sam the same day I woke up, it took us two weeks to set up a plan to get close to him.

Those two weeks have been hell. My plan to keep Summer away worked. However, I didn’t realize how miserable it would make me to have her so close yet so far away. She no longer allows me in her room at night. The first two nights after she kicked me out, I would wait until she fell asleep to sneak into her room and sit in the corner.

Unfortunately, she woke up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom on the third night and kicked me out. Since then, she’s locked her door. I’m back to sitting outside the room all night. During the daytime, she speaks to everyone but me.

As hard of a pill it is to swallow, it is still for the best. The demon inside of me is still fighting to take her away from me.

“I will bleed her slowly and then fuck her corpse,” the demon growls in my head.

Shutting my eyes, I fight against the monster’s pull. It gets harder and harder each day.

“Beast?” Priest calls my name causing me to open my eyes and look at him.

We’re disguised as a lawn care service outside of Sam O’Cleary’s million-dollar mansion. The regular guys couldn’t work today due to some truck issues. We’ve been tampering with their trucks for a week.

“Focus,” Priest says reminding me we had a job to do.

A rock flies through the air, nearly hitting me in the face. I turn to Many and glare.

“We are sorry brother, Beast,” he says in his British accent. “We are not really good with a weed eater.”

I can’t fault him because none of us know what we’re doing. Hawk has dug up two flower beds. Seth is going in circles on the lawn mower and I’m not sure if he has cut a blade of grass. The mulch Zel is spreading looks as if he’s just tossing it in the air. Many and I are supposed to be weed eating while Priest is trimming back hedges.

Maksim is home today. Because of his relationship with Corbyn, O’Cleary would recognize him immediately.

The garage door opens, and a Hummer backs out the driveway. Inside is O’Cleary’s wife and two boys.

“The wife is on the move,” Priest says, his voice coming from beside me and through the earpiece.

“Is the house clear now?” Priest asks Albany. She’s back home keeping visuals on the cameras inside. It took the girls from DOE no time to hack into O’Cleary’s camera system.

“Yes, only O’Cleary and two staff members are left in the home. You still have that bodyguard at the door and the one outside with you.”

Priest and I both turn to the large burly man that’s standing at the top of the yard watching us wearily. He has yet to leave us alone.

“Alright, Zel. Take care of the guard,” Priest instructs.

Without a word, Zel walks over to the guard, he’s still spreading mulch as he goes. As soon as he’s close enough, he tosses the mulch bag to the ground, pulls out his gun and fires a tranquilizer into the guard’s neck. The guard is too slow to react. The tranquilizer guns were provided to us by D.O.E. We didn’t want to kill any innocent bystanders if we didn’t have to.

The guard drops to the ground. Hawk joins Zel, and they pull the man into the bushes before covering him with the mulch. The tranq should knock him out for four or more hours.

I toss the weed eater I’m carrying to the ground. Seth climbs off the lawn mower without cutting it off. The noise will serve to keep up the charade and distract anyone inside from knowing we aren’t still working.

We move as a unit toward the back of the house.

“Unlock the door,” Priest says to Albany.

There is a second’s delay before her voice comes through the earpiece. “Alarm is off, and the door is unlocked.”

People will never know how easy it is to break into computer-controlled alarm systems. Zel leads the way inside. We stay low with our tranquilizer guns out in front of us.

“You have a bogie coming around the corner to your left, Beast,” Alicia’s soft voice says in my earpiece.

I turn the corner and fire off a tranq. It hits the maid in the chest. She drops quickly.

“Thanks,” I say in response to Alicia.

“You’re always welcome,” she hums.

When I look to my right, Priest is looking at me shaking his head. He doesn’t speak as he goes back to moving through the house.

We quickly take down the second guard and the butler.

“Where is O’Cleary?” Priest asks.

“Upstairs in the shower. His room is on the second floor. Last room on your left.”

We follow the directions Albany gives us. Keeping our ears open and staying alert. The sound of the shower tells us he’s still in the bathroom.

Priest enters the room first with me bringing up the rear. We take up the full space of the room. I stand close to the door keeping my eyes on the exit. Priest sits on the bed. He will be the first person O’Cleary sees when he walks out. Hawk is on the wall beside the bathroom. It will put him behind O’Cleary. Seth is leaning against the wall behind Priest’s head. Many is beside me and Zel is on the wall across from me. We have every inch of the room covered.

The shower water cuts off and I’m brought back to the night I killed Andrew. It was the night I promised Summer, I’d never leave her again. A promise I’ve had to break.

“It’s for her own good,” I remind myself.

The sound of drawers closing in the bathroom brings me back to the moment. We wait another five minutes for the door to open.

Samuel O’Cleary steps out of the bathroom in a fluffy white robe. He’s in his early forties. A businessman that inherited his family’s billion-dollar, multinational, confectionery, food, holding, beverage and snack food company. Their products are in every grocery store worldwide.

“Who the hell are you people?” he asks alarmed.

“You signed an excommunication order on us, and you don’t even know who we are?” Priest asks.

Sam’s eyes narrow before a slow smile appears on his face. I’m used to his reaction. The Royal Crown did not fear the Church.

Sam chuckles. “Oh, you’re part of that little Church thing,” he sneers walking further into the room. He goes over to his dresser and pulls out some boxers. Without a care in the world, he slips on his underwear underneath his robe before turning back to us.

“What can I do for you men?” he says cheerfully. “But make it quick, I have things to do.”

Priest turns to look at me. “You weren’t lying. They don’t fear us.”

I shake my head.

“Fear you,” Sam says laughing. “Why would we fear what we own.”

Seth starts to chuckle. Priest follows along with Hawk, Zel, and Many all joining. Priest stands from the bed, tugging on the sleeve of his jumpsuit.

“You own the Church,” he says walking up to Sam.

“Of course we do.”

“Except, you forgot something,” Priest says stopping in front of Sam.

“And what’s that?” Sam folds his arms over his chest.

“Thanks to you, we no longer work for the Church.” With those words, Priest pulls his actual gun out and places it at Sam’s cheek.

“Whoa. Whoa,” Sam says, the humor from his earlier tone is no longer there. “Wait a minute.”

“No, we won’t wait.” Priest slings Sam by the collar of his robe to the middle of the floor. He lands flat on his back.

“Let me tell you something about the Church.” Priest walks slowly over to where Sam is lying. “The Church, for all its flaws, creates damn good killers. They have a way of desensitizing you from the fear of death and the outcome of it. They teach you that pulling the trigger on a female begging for her life in front of her children is no different than stepping on a spider that somehow got lost in your bedroom.”

He squats down in front of Sam. Placing his gun at Sam’s knee cap.

“The Church creates perfect monsters. It’s why they have such strict rules. For instance, rather than letting one of its members go, they’d rather kill them off. They know that once you’ve been trained to kill you can’t shut it off. Once you’ve been conditioned to take a life without remorse or second thought, you cannot survive in the real world. It’s too dangerous.

“Now the part that you play in this story, is that you helped set free seven of the deadliest motherfuckers the Church has ever seen. And right now, six of them are in the room with you and they are pissed the fuck off.”

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry,” O’Cleary claims.

“I don’t want your got damn apology, O Cleary.”

“What do you want then?” he asks the million-dollar question.

Priest stands and then nods for O’Cleary to do the same. Slowly the man gets to his feet.

With a polite smile, Priest says. “I want you to withdraw your signature on that order.”

O’Cleary’s eyes balloon. “Are you mad?” he scoffs. “Corbyn would—”

“Corbyn isn’t here right now,” Priest says cutting him off. “So, you need to make the decision. Would you rather die now at the hands of my sons or face Corbyn’s wrath later?” Turning his back to O’Cleary, Priest walks over to the dresser and leans his back against it folding his arms over his chest.

He stares at O’Cleary waiting for him to make the decision. O’Cleary looks around the room, his eyes bouncing off all of us. When they land on me, he pauses. He stares at me as if he’s seeing a ghost.

“Yes,” Priest says. “That is Corbyn’s son. We also have Maksim with us.”

O’Cleary swallows then turns back to Priest. “I’ll withdraw my signature.”

Priest nods. “Smart decision.”

“May I ask one favor?”

“You’re not really in the spot to be asking favors,” Seth says what we’re all thinking.

Priest quiets Seth with a hand in the air.

“What do you want?” I understand why Priest asked this question. Phoenix explained to us that the RC loved favors. He also explained owing one or having one owed to you wasn’t a bad thing. These were some of the richest people in the world.

“When you return to the Church, may I call on your services personally?”

Although the thought of doing kill for hire doesn’t sit well with me, we knew this would be one of the things that the RC would want in return. And seeing that we’ve been doing it for them all this time without knowing, there is no reason to stop now.

“As long as your kill is within our standards, we have a deal,” Priest says. “Now make that call.”

We didn’t leave O’Cleary’s home until he’d successfully called all the heads of the family’s that didn’t sign the EO and withdrew his name. He did warn us before we left that Corbyn, and the others would know something was up. We explained, we didn’t give a shit.

We walked back into the ghost house two hours later. Her laughter is the first thing I hear when I enter the home. It even overpowers the Soca music. Like a moth to a flame, I follow the sound of it. She’s in the kitchen. As soon as I step into the room, I freeze as fury wraps me up in a tight embrace.

She’s at the stove cooking. Maksim is beside her trying to steal something out of a pot she’s stirring. She playfully shoves him away, but he doesn’t budge. He tickles her, causing her to bend and laugh. He sneaks his fork into the pot sampling what looks like spaghetti.

“Kill him,” the demon growls. I lose my control.

It’s as if I can see myself moving but can’t stop it. Charging over to Maksim, I yank Summer away from him and sling her behind me. My gun is out and at his temple in seconds.

“Easy, Brother,” Maksims says, his electric green eyes glaring up at me.

“Beast, stop this,” Priest shouts.

“You are trying to take her from me.” When I speak, I notice the voice is different. It sounds nothing like me. The laughter in my head tells me who is talking. “ Pull the trigger,” the demon whispers.

“Look at me, Beastie,” Maksim speaks slowly. “I would never do that to you.”

“He’s lying,” the demon snarls. “Blow his brains out.”

“Son, listen to him,” Priest states. He’s standing beside me now. “Fight it,” he says lowly.

Closing my eyes, I try to take deep breaths. I have to regain my control.

“Fight this,” I repeat in my head.

“You will never win this battle. I am who you are,” the demon taunts. When I open my eyes all I see is Maksim tickling Summer. It quickly turns into a vision of him fucking her against the kitchen counter. I bring my gun back and slam it across his face.

“You fucked her,” I bellow.

Maksim spits out blood onto the floor at my feet. I'm still holding my gun to his head, my hand at his throat.

“I would never disrespect you like that. That’s just that voice in your head talking nonsense.”

“Listen to him, son. Maksim has been nothing but a brother to Summer.”

I once again try to clear my head. To get the demon out of my thoughts.

“He’s lying,” the demon purrs. “Kill him and her.”

“It’s lying to you, brother,” Maksim pleads. “Summer isn’t even my type. I prefer my women like that of the twins.”

“Hold the fuck up!” Seth shouts. I cut my eyes over to him. He’s standing behind Maksim along with Zel and Many. I imagine Hawk must be somewhere in here as well.

“Relax, crazy Twin,” Maksim says. “I will not steal your girl from you.”

“You know what, I think I’m on the voice in your head’s side,” Seth says holding his arms up in surrender. “Kill his ass, Beast.”

“Seth, will you shut the fuck up,” Priest argues. “Let your brother go, Beast. He’s telling the truth.”

“Kill him,” the demon shouts. “Kill them all.”

I shut my eyes fighting to regain control. I was losing this battle.

“Summer, are you okay?” Someone in the room asks.

My eyes spring open and I turn to find Summer clutching her arm close to her chest. My stomach sinks down to my feet. The memory of me grabbing her and shoving her behind me pops up in my head.

The demon recedes and I successfully push him to the back of my head. My arms fall to my side. Priest quickly grabs the gun from my hand. Without acknowledging him, I go to Summer. I try to touch her, but she flinches. Everything around me freezes.

The demon laughs. “She’s afraid of you now. You’ll never win her back.”

I start to feel claustrophobic. Glancing around, I notice everyone is watching me. They aren’t looking at me like I am their brother or friend. They stare at me as if I’m a monster. In this moment, I fear that I am. Without another word, I storm out of the kitchen.

“Gabriel,” Summer calls after me.

“Let him go. He needs the space,” Priest says.

I don’t stick around to hear anyone else. I leave out of the house, putting as much distance as possible between me and the people I’m fighting to protect.