Beast, Part Two (The Church #5)

Silence

chapter thirty-two

Lucien

“ You have to draw four, Hulk,” Gabe giggles.

I look over to a fuming Beast. We’ve been kicking his ass in UNO. At this very moment he has close to twenty cards in his hand.

“I refuse to draw more. Maksim is cheating.”

I fight to hold back my laughter.

Maksim shrugs. “I have no idea what you speak of brother.”

I look up to find Malia and Summer at the island, fighting back their laughter as well. I think Summer knew how much trouble we would get into when she bought this game.

Beast tosses his cards down. “I want a rematch,” he grumbles.

Gabe and Emory burst out laughing. I finally let my laughter out as well. It feels good to laugh. Feels like the house goes through long stints where we don’t laugh at all. Even the kids sometimes lack laughter. It makes times like this so much more special.

“You’re missing out, Seth.” I say into the silence of my head.

I remember the days when I wished I could get rid of my brother, and now I worry about him. He has never been absent this long. I fear that he may be gone for good. I don’t know how to handle that. He was my protector, a part of me. Yes, it took me a while to realize that. Now, I feel as if I’ve lost two people and not just one.

“Brother Beast, you have lost the last three games,” Many says in his nasally voice. “Maybe you are the problem.”

“Shut it, Many,” Beast snarls. He turns to Maksim. “Stand up. I want to check your pockets.”

“Babe,” Summer laughs. “It’s just a game. Let it go.”

“No,” Beast says crossing his arms over his chest. “I want answers.”

Malia snorts and shakes her head as she rolls out the dough for the banana bread she’s making.

I don’t know what we would’ve done in this house if not for Malia, Summer, and Brooklyn. They have all been constantly by our side. They are the light in this house that keeps us going.

“I have no reason to lie. I will prove I am just better at UNO than you,” Maksim stands up. “See, nothing.” Suddenly a ton of cards fall from underneath his shirt. The kids laughter fills the room. Beast leaps up from the table. Maksim takes off running, laughing the entire time, out of the kitchen. Beast chases him.

Emory signs to Gabe. “Come on. Let’s go see if your dad catches him.”

“Okay,” Gabe says, pushing his chair back and getting to his feet. In the past few months, the kid has learned a lot of sign language. No one has to translate for him anymore.

“Don’t leave us,” Many announces, tossing his cards down and following the kids out of the kitchen.

“I better go and make sure they don’t kill each other,” Summer laughs getting to her feet. She goes out after everyone else.

I’m alone in the kitchen with Malia. I stand from my chair and start to clean up the cards.

“That ended exactly like I thought it would,” Malia says with a chuckle.

I look over at her, taking in her large belly beneath her shirt. She’s seven months now. We found out we were having a boy a few days ago. With Brooklyn and Malia being so near their due dates, we’ve ramped up the doctor visits. We’ve even figured out the hospital the girls can go to when they go in labor. Thanks to our allies at the Church and D.O.E for making that possible.

“I know you will come back for that, brother.” I once again try to entice Seth into coming out.

Again, there is nothing from him.

Looks like I won’t have him or my father there to witness the birth of my child.

“What’s wrong?” Malia asks getting my attention back. “You were smiling and then it turned into a frown.”

She stares at me for a moment. “You were thinking about Priest, weren’t you?”

I don’t deny it. She wipes her hands on the kitchen towel and walks over to me. I turn to face her, grabbing her around the waist and pulling her into me. She places both her hands on my chest.

“That, and the fact that Seth has still been quiet.” I admit.

She lets out a deep breath. “Don’t worry, Seth will come back. He just needs time.”

Running a hand through my hair, I lay my forehead to hers. “I’m scared, Baby. For the first time, I feel helpless. What if this new plan doesn’t work? What if Seth never comes back, and we have to live our lives looking over our shoulder?”

Malia cups my face between her hands and lifts my head. Her brown eyes gaze up at me, as her brows pinch.

“What would your father say if he were here right now?”

I immediately laugh. Priest’s voice pops in my head as loud as if he was standing in front of me.

“He would say, stop fucking whining and do what needs to be done.”

Malia tosses her head back and laughs. “Then he’d pour up a glass of bourbon and go torture Albany in that sex dungeon.”

At this we both laugh until my laughter dies down and the only thing left is the pain of missing my father.

“I miss him,” I whisper.

“I know you do. He was an incredible man. And you need to remember he left behind four other incredible men for you to rely on.” She leans in and pecks my lips.

It starts off sweet and gentle, but soon turns hot and heavy.

“We weren’t even gone that long and already you two are about to contaminate the kitchen,” Beast says in the doorway.

It wouldn’t be the first time we contaminated a kitchen. I think back to Malia and me in her Grams’ house. That seemed so far away.

“Why did you break it up?” Maksim asks with a grin.

I glare over at my newly adopted brother. “Don’t make me kick your ass.”

He tosses his hands up in front of him as if he’s innocent.

Angel’s voice comes over the house intercom system. “Guys, I need you in the dining room. TR has an update.”

Maksim and Beast walk back out of the kitchen, leaving Malia and me alone again. I go back to kiss her, but she pulls her head away.

“Shouldn’t you be going?”

“They can wait.” I hadn’t had sex in weeks. With Priest’s death and Seth being silent, I wasn’t in the right headspace for it. Finally, I was ready.

She chuckles. “Tonight.” She places a kiss on my lips before going back to her bread.

“Ugh,” I groan readjusting my cock in my pants.

I make my way into the dining room. Maksim and Beast are sitting down at the table. I take a seat at the head where my laptop is. Angel is standing up at the whiteboard. We now had three names marked out. It’s only been three days since Hawk killed Nolan. We were moving quickly through the siblings. If we wanted to clear them out before Corbyn caught wind of what we were doing, we had to move fast.

Zel enters the room with Many on his heels. Hawk comes in a little later pulling a shirt over his head. He takes a seat across from Beast.

“Alright, TR,” Angel says out loud. “We’re all here.”

“Your plan is working,” Takar’s voice comes over Angel’s phone speaker. “Corbyn believes you guys are behind the house attacks. He has no idea you’re going after his kids. However, he has been going around bragging about you boys chasing your tail.”

“Which means he isn’t desperate enough yet,” Zel says leaning forward in his seat.

“No. Not enough to make a mistake,” Takar confirms our thoughts. “I’m afraid you’re going to have to go harder.”

Angel sighs, racking a hand through her short haircut. “Alright, thanks TR. If anything else comes up, let us know.”

“Will do.” Her phone disconnects leaving us in silence.

“How many homes have D.O.E hit so far?” I ask.

“Last time Ari talked to Kyra this morning they’d taken down twenty-five of his homes,” Many answers. “Still no sign of him.”

Sitting back in my chair I let out a deep breath. “We knew he wouldn’t be in any of those homes. I’m not shocked. I still say we continue the attacks.”

“I agree,” Angel says.

“Same,” Beast and Maksim says at the same time.

“I agree, but I think we need to do more,” Zel says. “He’s not feeling the pressure yet.”

“We’re killing off his kids and burning his homes. What more can we do?” Hawk asks.

Yes, we are taking out his children, but he still doesn’t know that. He has no idea the army he created is being slowly dissolved.

"A man like Corbyn isn't easily rattled," I say as I stroke my chin. “We need to hit him where it hurts the most.”

“How do we do that?” Many asks.

“We hit his pockets,” Beast says.

“Ummm, Kyra and I are good, but it would take months and a lot of time to take down a global industry like Corbyn Inc.”

Don’t get me wrong Kyra and the computer whizzes at D.O.E are fucking talented, but taking down a corporation like Corbyn’s would take time. It would take us all working around the clock to bring it down and we didn’t have that kind of time. Corbyn would have so many safety features in place that he’d be alerted as soon as we started digging.

“I’m not talking about his legal business.”

My brows pinch as I stare at Beast. “What are you talking about?"

“Little brother is right,” Maksim says, placing his elbows down on the table in front of him. “Everyone in the Royal Crown has two types of income. The legal and the illegal. The type of money it requires to make moves in the RC requires way more than your average salary could maintain.

“Corbyn, like every other member, has another source of income. Corbyn is an arm’s dealer. If you wanted to hit his pockets, that’s the way to go.”

“Aright, so how do we do that?” Hawk asks.

“Adam,” Maksim says. “We all had jobs for Corbyn outside of being his personal bodyguards and hitmen. I was the one that collected the money and debts from the members of the Royal Crown. But Adam was in charge of the money from the weapons.”

“So, if we want the money, we go after Adam,” Zel replies.

“At the end of each week, the money is all brought to a single location and counted before being shipped overseas to Corbyn’s offshore accounts. I don’t know the exact locations, but I do know he uses churches to count and hide his money.”

“We need to find those churches,” Many says turning to me.

I pull up google on my laptop and search the number of churches in NYC. “There are 6000 churches in NYC alone.”

“Narrow the search down to catholic churches,” Maksim says with a shrug. “He’s catholic.”

I do as he says, but I also cross-reference the churches with Corbyn’s name as either a member or a donor.

“Bingo,” I say. “It seems like Mr. Corbyn has a strong affiliation with about five catholic churches around the city.”

“Put them on the screen,” Angel directs.

I cast my computer screen to the large monitor in the room.

“Not bad,” Angel says. “We can hit all five this week.”

“Slight problem,” Zel says. “If Adam is the money man, wouldn’t we run across him? And if we kill him, it will alert Corbyn we are after his kids.”

Zel had a good point. We needed to make sure he never figured out what we were doing.

“Not necessarily,” Maksim says. “Lucien, I need you to track all movements of Adam while we hit the churches. If we kill Adam while robbing one of the churches it will look like a case of wrong place wrong time to Corbyn. He won’t sweat over the loss of one of us dying in the midst of a robbery.”

“I’ll keep an eye on his movements. Is there any way we can find the schedule for the money drops? That will be the best way to figure out how to get to Adam.” I say.

“I’ll ask Kyra to look into it,” Angel says. “She can go back through the camera systems of all the churches to see when the drops were made.”

“I will advise you,” Maksim says. “Adam won’t be an easy take down. I, Zeke, Archie, Victoria, and Yohan all liked to work alone. But the other three have their own personal bodyguards. You won’t just go up against Adam, you will go up against his men as well.”

“I’ll do it,” Beast says shrugging. “When the time comes, I’ll go in.”

“Can’t be you, brother. If we go into one of those churches on money count day, there will be guards all around that building. You look too much like Corbyn. Adam’s men will recognize you immediately.”

“He’s right,” Angel says. “When we go after Adam, we will need someone they won’t recognize, is good with stealth, and is crazy enough to run headfirst into a church with guns blazing.”

For the first time since Priest’s death, I feel Seth stir inside me.

“Someone call for me?” he asks in my head.

A wide grin spreads across my face. “About damn time you showed up.”

“Yeah, yeah. Let me out, nerd.”

Speaking to the room, I tell them, “I know the perfect person for the job.”