Breaking Meredith (Disciples 4)

Every time I try to though, she finds a reason to distract me. Anything from walking around the office in just her panties, to asking for more of my favorite recordings.

But I can’t let her keep me from my searching for the Yakuza or Ahmed’s brother. The Yakuza front has been difficult to crack. We’ve gone through Garden City to look for their resurgence, but I’m not able to find anything worthy of merit. A few small gambling dens that we take a cut from, and protection businesses.

That’s it. No gang activity at all.

The initial ID reports on the one I killed came back a blank. Nothing on any criminal registry. If the Yakuza were smart enough to use two Caucasian males for the bombings it shows that they are willing to use outside contractors for hits.

That’s almost unheard of.

The Yakuza don’t use outsiders. But that doesn’t mean they didn’t get wise to the fact that we’re still on the watch for them in Garden City after the kidnapping of Lucifer’s wife Lily.

Well, we’re hoping that the Yakuza were the ones behind the bombing…

A small break in the explosive from Cherry’s house points to a Japanese manufacturer, but that could merely be a coincidence.

I’ve watched the traffic light feeds of the fleeing motorcyclist, and he ghosted our cameras as soon as he hit the city limits.

In my mind, and Lucifer’s, they are moving in and out of Garden City from another surrounding city that we don’t have a full toe-hold on.

It’s not surprising that we can’t cover every city in the state. Even if we wished we could. We need more manpower and more presence in every city if we want to be able to do that.

I know the two white males who set the bomb up in Lucky Tails ran from the city as fast as they could. We’ve searched everywhere, but from all reports they made it to Chicago and took a flight to Riga, Latvia.

From there I was unable to track their movements.

I doubt they were a part of the Latvian Special Tasks Unit. I also doubt that while they’re quite close to Russia that they are Russian either.

But if somehow the Yakuza and Russians are working together… they’ll both be executed with extreme prejudice.

The initial reports from the arson investigation show that the explosive was a common type used for demolition. But, the explosive had a surrounding of ball bearings and was mixed with a chemical compound agent.

When it exploded, the initial damage was caused by a large amount of C-4. Then the ball bearings combined with the chemical compound is what truly killed everyone in the club.

The total amount of dead are still sketchy to the public’s knowledge. Right now, we have the media on a slow drip of false facts.

Thankfully, we haven’t had a large outpouring of prayers and ‘in people’s thoughts’. It was a strip club… I think that alone has been enough of a discouragement. Sad but true. Most people out there think of strip clubs with the same revulsion as I do.

Or at least I like to think they do.

Asad has become a bane to my existence. No man should be able to disappear off my radar as thoroughly as he has. He arrived at McCarran Airport in Las Vegas, and like the damnable Yakuza bikers and the contract bombers, he’s fucking ghosted me as well.

Too much disappearing and then suddenly popping up in Garden City.

We never had this problem before. Lucifer and I both worry it will start to become a trend. We control the city too tightly for someone to land here or get away with much. But so far, all it’s taken is people from outside cities to drive over and cause mayhem.

Asad has yet to show up though. We haven’t seen him yet. But I have no doubt he will become far more of an issue before we’re ready for him to be.

“Simon,” Meredith say to get my attention.

“Yes?”

“You need to relax. I can tell you’re extremely tense from how white your knuckles are.”

Her words come out soothingly as she reaches over the center console to lightly rub my hands.

She’s right, of course. My brain hasn’t truly shut off when it comes to the outside world. Even if I wished it would, it hasn’t.

Forcing my hands to relax, I remain passive as her touch ignites my very soul. She should not have this damnable control over me like she does, but I feel helpless to stop her. She tests me to my very core, and I’m positive she does it to get a reaction from me.

She enjoys the game of give and take, pain and pleasure.

Slowing down at the gate of Lucifer’s compound, I wait for my security detail to enter in front of us. All the men of the inner circle have a security detail at their disposal now.