Buying Beth (Disciples 3)

“Is that all?” he asks with a sigh of annoyance. He must have spoken to Lucifer already. He knows I’m going to get my way.

“For now. If I need anything else, I’ll let you know.”

“One thing, Johnathan, before you go. Lucifer has mandated this is a strictly no-kill operation.”

“Got it,” I say before disconnecting.

It figures. A dead body at the Senator’s home would cause too much of a stir right now. We could probably get away with it, but it wouldn’t be good for business. Especially if we want the Senator on board with our future for him.

Turning to Sophia, I say, “Tell me everything you can about Beth’s home, her father, and his security.”

“What the fuck is she doing here?” James asks as he walks into the house. Sophia is sitting on the couch with a sleeping Charlie by her side.

“What’s wrong, James?” I snicker. “Why are you getting anxious around females all of a sudden?”

“Fuck you. What’s with the chick?” He doesn’t even bother looking at me, he’s glaring at Sophia.

By the look on her face, I don’t think that’s the first thing she expected him to say and do the moment he walked into the house.

“She got traced here by Beth’s father.”

“Hmph. So now we got to bail your woman’s ass out of her daddy’s little prison?”

“That about sums it up. Though, while we’re there, we get to do some larceny, if you’re up for it.”

His face lights up with a smile. “Now that’s something I’m always up for.”

Motioning him towards the kitchen, I tell Sophia, “You can take Charlie up to his room if you need. There’s a guest bedroom upstairs.”

“But I want—” she stammers.

“What you want right now doesn’t mean shit. You got Beth into this mess, now I have to get her out of it.”

Her eyes go wide and she has to blink away tears before she says, “Look, I didn’t know he would be following me.”

“That doesn’t matter. Beth is in danger because you pushed her too hard.” It’s probably not fair, I’m laying the full guilt trip on this girl, but when push comes to shove, I need this girl here to protect Charlie like she told Beth she would.

“I know…”

“Then do what she asked. Take my boy upstairs, put him to bed, and then settle in for the night.”

“I can’t stay the night, my dad…”

“Your dad will understand. Tell him this is Lucifer’s decision, and that you are safe.”

“Who the hell is this Lucifer everyone has been talking about?” she asks as she lifts Charlie up and heads towards the stairs.

“The devil of course,” James says.

Shaking her head, she heads up the stairs. I watch James, though, while she’s moving, and his eyes are glued to her ass the whole way.

Yep, he’s next.

“Alright, asshole. Let’s get to the compound. We need to get some shit that won’t kill people.”

It’s the fucking loadout strapped to my body that feels wrong. Non-lethal bullshit darts and shit.

How the fuck am I supposed to do shit like this if I can’t fucking kill someone?

They’re going to have guns and orders to kill on sight.

Not me, nope.

I’m going to be fucking shooting god damn blanks like a neutered dog.

“Looks pretty easy to get in. They have a rotation window in the southeast corner of the estate that gives us three minutes to waltz right through to the south entrance,” James says as he looks over the dark estate.

We could have done this job during the day, when there would be less security around with the Senator at his office, but I figure we need to put the fear of hell into Mr. Norton.

I gotta give it to Simon, I don’t know how the fuck he messed up with all the intel we needed to remove the fucking Doctor, but the Senator’s home intel is really fucking good.

We’ve got guard rotation, security system overrides, and he’s even worked his way into the Senator’s personal computers.

Yeah, this fucker is going to go down. We just need to get in there without killing anyone and get back out.

Fuck, when did life get so fucking complicated that I can’t resort to fucking killing someone?

Hopping over the small hedge surrounding the backyard, I count to thirty before I motion for James and start moving. We rush through the grounds, both moving in a straight line.

No bobbing and weaving for us.

We found a very small blind spot on the video feeds and that’s our avenue of attack.

Once we get to the house itself, we’ll have Simon cut the feed to a loop of the last five minutes. No cars or lights have gone across the grounds in that time, so we should be good as the video shows nothing but the normal outside.

Pressing myself up against the brick wall, I nod to James. “Get the lock on the door.”