Breakout

Beast

Five Years Later…

Stopping in my tracks in the middle of the woods, I tilt my head toward the sky, shut my eyes, and take a deep breath. After five long years, I'm finally free.

The morning after my night with Summer, I watched her sleep for two hours. I thought about taking her and running. I ran the pros and cons through my mind. Gambler did it for years and only got caught when he was ready. I could have done the same. However, not without Hawk, Many, Zel, Lucien and Seth.

I wasn't going to leave the Church and leave my brothers and Priest behind. They are my family. They deserved to be happy. So, I gave up the opportunity to run with Summer in order to free all of us.

It was the hardest decision I've ever made. Even when I turned myself in, I struggled with the choice. That caused me to serve a five-year confinement punishment.

The confinement meant I couldn't leave my prison apartment in Church headquarters. They tried to enforce a no visitor rule, but Priest ended that quickly.

Although I spent five long years staring at the same white walls, it was worth it. I needed that time to prepare. Now I know in order to get everyone the happy ending they deserve I must finish what Gambler started.

Pushing through the rest of the crop of trees, I come out on the other side to find a simple black sedan. Albany is leaning against the car. Her head is down and she's looking at something in her hand. I realize it's a phone when she sticks it back in her pocket. She then looks at her watch.

I purposely kick a nearby rock, causing it to scatter through the foliage on the forest floor causing a ruckus. Albany turns around with her gun aimed at my head.

"Relax, it's me," I say, walking out of the trees.

"Everything went well?"

Dipping my chin to my chest, I head to the trunk of the car ready to get started with my mission. The faster I get it done, the sooner I can get back to her. Mine. My Summer.

Even the memory of her has that fluttering feeling in my stomach going off. I spent a lot of those five years studying every detail of that night, of her. I now know the flutter feeling is my desire for her. I clench my hands into fists at my side.

"How are the guys?"

I ask about my brothers because I have to keep myself distracted. If I don't, I will run to her and him. Now isn't the time. I pull the black shirt over my head and toss it into the trunk of the car. Picking up the new shirt, I put it on.

"Hawk and my sister are safe. Maybe even expecting their first child."

I don't miss the way her tone drops, and her eyes shift down when she mentions her sister. As tough as Albany tries to be, I think the decision she made to leave them all behind eats away at her. But that isn't my battle. I've done all I could to set her on the right track. It will work out. If I know Priest the way I think I do, he will come for her soon.

"Lucien has come to terms with himself, and he and his girls are doing good last time I checked. The kid loves him just like you said she would. Even Many and Zel are in line for their future."

Taking off the heavy combat boots, I place them in her trunk and quickly put on my preferred ones.

"You can relax now. You did everything right. You deserve a break."

Not yet. But she doesn't need to know that. There is still so much that needs to be done.

"And you?" I ask instead.

She laughs. "I already have my future. I don't need anything else."

I don't call her out on her bullshit. She's in love with Priest and won't be happy until she has him back in her life. When she told me she was pregnant and I suggested she fake her death, I already had a plan to get her and Priest back together.

She points to a black duffle inside her trunk. I look inside and find stacks upon stacks of cash. What the hell is this? Most of my money should have gone to Summer and him.

I point to the bag without asking a question.

"It's a going away present."

Shaking my head, I tell her, "No." I go to zip the bag, but her hands cover mine, pausing my actions.

"It's my gift to you."

"Put it with them."

"They are taken care of. I promise they want for nothing."

From the pictures Albany sent me, I can tell that Summer and my son are fine. Before any plans to save my brothers came into fruition, I had to make sure that Summer was okay. I told Albany all she needed to know about Summer in order to get her to go to rehab. It was not an option for her not to go.

When Albany came to me and told me Summer was pregnant, I dealt with mixed feelings. Part of me was happy to know that she would forever have a part of me with her. However, another part of me worried about what my demons would do to my child. I'm flawed.

Even before my mother did her damage to me, I was already different. It wasn't just the autism that made me stand out. Priest and the psychiatrist at the Church are the ones that told me I was on the spectrum.

However, there is something else. Something others don't know about. Something Mother called possession.

I blink, realizing I've been staring at Albany too long without speaking. Zipping the duffle bag, I drop it at my feet. I then turn my attention to the other bag in the trunk. Opening it up, I make sure everything I requested is inside.

"Does it look good?" She asks.

Dipping my chin, I zip the bag and pull it out of the trunk placing it at my feet as well. Reaching in my pocket, I pull out the flash drive.

Albany believes she wants the truth of what happened to her mother. She has no idea the pain that truth will cause her.

She eagerly reaches for the flash drive, but I pull it back.

"You sure this is what you want? Not all answers bring closure."

"I don't want closure. I want the truth and revenge."

No, she wants to belong. She believes that this will help her feel complete. She doesn't realize it yet, but she has everything she needs around her to make her whole. She turns away from me, trying to hide her pain and her truths.

I'm not worried about Albany. I have already put things in order for her happiness too. Everyone wins in this game. Well, everyone but me.

"You're too flawed,"my mother's voice taunts in my head.

"She's lying and you know it."Right on time Priest's voice comes in to tell me I'm making the wrong decision. I know he doesn't agree with how I'm handling this thing between Summer and I, but he's wrong on this one.

Holding the drive back out to her, I allow her to take it from me this time.

"How did you even get this?"

She flips the little black rectangular device over in her hand.

"I took a visit to one of the record keeper's apartments. I luckily found two of them together. I cut off the head of one of the record keepers with a box cutter. The other one gave me the information without much argument."

"When they find the bodies, will they know we took it?"

"What bodies?" I ask with a smile. By the time they find those two, they will be nothing but a sludge of liquid.

My time is up. I still have a lot to do. Picking up the two bags at my feet, I turn to walk away.

"Gabriel," I stop when she calls my name. "Are you sure you don't want to see them."

More than anything in this world.

"You got work to do, Boy. Leave that whore and bastard where they are,"Mother taunts.

"I have to… feed first. I can't face them without eating." The red haze has been riding me for years. I've been holding onto it, allowing it to build up. I need to exorcise it.

"Be safe," she says softly. "And be careful. Pope isn't going to let you go easily. He's going to make you public enemy number one."

I look back at her over my shoulder. "Pope isn't my concern nor is he my enemy."

I've always known of Fox's plans to use me as his very own puppet. I knew it the moment he first laid eyes on me. But Fox isn't my problem, he's Priest's issue. My job is to finish what Gambler started. It's time I take down the Church.

"If Pope isn't the enemy, then who is?"

"My enemy is higher up." I continue walking.

That is all she needs to know. I'm thankful to Albany for all her help, but she can't help me with this. Her concern now, should be Priest and Charlie.

"Who's higher than the Pope?" She calls out behind me.

I stop, as I remember Gambler's words to me that night five years ago. "When they broke away from the Catholic Church, they didn't go independent, Beast. They aligned with something much worse."

"God," I say. Although, I still had no idea who God was.

Before I turned myself in the morning after I killed Gambler, I went back to his house and collected the information he had. The only thing I was able to take back to the dungeon with me were the three flash drives.

I had Lucien smuggle me in a laptop and cellphone my first week in confinement. All the guards were too scared to come into my space, so no one ever found the contraband. The rest of the info is hidden in boxes at my apartment.

I've studied those flash drives for five years, taking in all the information I could. Now, it's time to clean house.

I leave Albany standing in the road. Her job for me is done.

***

Making it back to the brick apartment building I took Summer to that night, I use my code to enter the building. I smile at the reminder of her.

Stepping inside, I walk into the foyer. I don't have to worry about neighbors or anyone disturbing me, the entire building is mine.

I take the stairs to my main apartment, not the one I took Summer to. I open the door and walk inside. The place has been cleaned and kept up by the cleaning crew I hired.

As soon as I walk in, I enter the living room. A dark gray sectional faces the wall that separates the living from the one bedroom. There is no other furniture other than a coffee table and a lamp. There are no pictures on the walls or decorations around the room. I only have the basics to survive. To my left is the dining room and kitchen, all open to the living room.

I place my duffle bags down and head into my bedroom. I make quick work of showering and getting dressed.

Not long after entering my main living quarters, I make my way out of the unit and down the hall to my tech-based unit. Other than the main living space, this is my second most used space in the building.

Opening the doors to the remodeled apartment, I'm greeted with a set up similar to my brother Lucien's. In the center of the room is a round table. On top of the table are all the files I took from Gambler. They are still in the boxes he left them in. The rest of the room is one giant computer desk. Nine monitors surround the desk. Four on each side and one large screen in the middle.

Pulling out the chair in front of the desk I take a seat and sign onto my computer. I take the information from the smaller screens and move them to the big monitor.

Gambler spent years tracking down all the menus in Church files that didn't add up. Either the person on the menu didn't fit the crime, or the crime didn't deserve a menu. He had thousands of files like this. However, nothing leads me to a singular person.

It seems that the cases were going through all the right channels to get approved. Bishops are getting the names of the targets; they get them signed off with the Cardinals. Afterwards they place them on a menu and hand them over to a Deacon. All standard practice.

I figured the best way to figure out how these cases are getting into the Church, is to start at the beginning, where the crimes begin.

A picture of a driver's license pops up on my screen. Detective Dennis Chambers. Eight years ago, he found himself on a Church menu. His files said he was a crooked cop that was despised by his fellow policemen. He was charged with everything from abuse of power, to planting evidence, to battery, to wrongful deaths. At first glance it looked as if he deserved everything he got.

However, after reading up on him and the article written after his death, nothing was adding up. Not only did other cops praise him, quite a few civilians spoke on how kind and caring he was.

I decided to look into his last case. It involved the sexual assault of a sixteen-year-old black girl named Tiffany Williams.

A new license pops up on the screen. Jason Averil. The man suspected of raping and nearly killing Tiffany. Not only was Dennis killed before the investigation was complete, Tiffany recanted her story on the stand. While sobbing, she stated that she'd made it all up. She took a lot of heat for that and only six months later, she took her life.

I check the flight itinerary again for Jason. He's flying back home tomorrow. I have plans to meet him there.

I clear the computer screen in front of me. My hand hovers over the mouse. Once again, Summer and Gabe pop up in my thoughts. I promised myself that I would stay clear of them. They didn't need me. I would do nothing but cause them harm.

Even though I know those words to be true, I hit the mouse and open the screen to the camera system. When Albany set up the house for Summer, I had her hire a security crew to come in and set up cameras on the outside of the house. Despite how bad I wanted to put them inside, I refrained. It would have been torture watching her and not being able to touch her.

I access the outdoor cameras.

The first view is from the front porch and driveway. The car I picked for her is in its regular spot. The street out in front of the house is clear. I chose that neighborhood for the low traffic and the safety. I switch to the back door cameras. The yard is clear, other than a few balls lying in the grass and a plastic toy house.

I close out of the cameras, feeling settled even though I didn't see them.

I have work to do. My plans are simple, figure out who is running the Church and eliminate them, make sure my brothers and Priest are safe, set Summer and Gabe up for life, and then disappear forever. I just have to stick to the plan.