The broken-down girl in my living room sure as fuck isn’t who I thought would be here when I got the fuck home.

Charlie is nowhere to be seen, and the seething rage that fills my veins is about to explode.

My Beth is missing.

The front fucking door is wide open, and I think this girl’s name is Sophia.

“Where’s my wife and son?” I ask gruffly as she stares up at me in shock.

My phone begins to vibrate and chirp in my pocket, but I ignore it as I move closer to her.

“Where are they?” I shout as I grab her by the shoulders.

She’s not answering me, only a small blubber comes out of her mouth.

“Johnny?!?” Charlie shouts as he comes racing down the stairs. His little shoulders are heaving as he slams into me.

“They took Beth!” Charlie wails as he wraps his arms around my waist.

Pulling him up into my arms, I growl.

“It was her father,” Sophia finally manages to say to me. “Her father and his goons somehow followed me here.”

“What do you mean followed you here?” I turn to stare at her.

My rage must show through my eyes because she takes a step back away from me. “How the fuck did you end up here in the first place?”

“Beth… She called me and I came to see her…”

“Beth wasn’t supposed to be calling anyone. This was the only safe place she could be!”

Fuck!

My phone begins to vibrate and chirp again. Pulling it from my pocket, I really don’t feel like fucking around with anything Simon has to say. Fucking, hell.

Sliding the phone on, I say into it, “Beth’s father took her.”

“And now another damn complication I have to attend to. Can’t you keep your damn woman under control?” Simon sneers into the phone.

“Simon, why the fuck are you calling me right now?”

“Sasha is on the move. We have a team set for grabbing him. We need you to be there…”

“Not happening. I need to get Beth back from her father…”

“Your love life is not my fucking concern.”

“No, but it’s Lucifer’s… If we don’t have her, we don’t have the Senator.”

“Damn you,” he mutters quietly, and I can just see the machinations turning over in his mind. “You won’t be able to get her. They have security…”

Glaring at Sophia, I pull Charlie with me as I move into the kitchen, away from the damn ears of some stupid girl. “I need James. We’ll go in tonight to get her.”

“We need James as a backspot with his rifle.”

“Not as much as I need him for his cat burglar skills.”

“I swear you Neanderthals need to keep your dicks in your pants.”

“Let Lucifer know the score; I’ll get James ready to go.”

“You’ll get no backup. If you fuck this up, your ass is out to hang, not ours. We’ll probably keep James, but you? No.”

“Nice to know you care so much, Simon.” I disconnect the call and head out to the living room.

“You put Beth in mortal danger…” I say as I lift Charlie in my arms.

“I swear, I didn’t know… How… How could I?”

She’s getting up from the chair she’s been sitting in, and with one fucking look she sits right back down. “Don’t fucking move.”

Setting Charlie down, I say, “Buddy, go into the kitchen and get a coke. I need you to play with some Legos for a bit… I’m going to call a friend and I need to talk to this girl here.”

“O…Okay. Are you gonna get Beth back?” he asks and his little eyes are full of tears.

The tears spill over onto his cheeks and I feel all that fucking rage enter my body again.

“Yeah,” I say with some anger in my voice. “No one takes what’s mine.”

“Good… her daddy looked really mean.”

I give as much of a reassuring smile as I can. It’s not like I won’t be bringing her back, but I am way too fucking angry to be much of the nurturing type right now. He takes it though, and gives me a brief hug around my neck. “Thank you. I like her lots, she said I was her child.”

“You are, and you’re mine. Now go get you some of that off limits coke. Sophia gets to watch you while you’re all bounced up on caffeine.”

“Okay.” He’s still not sure of everything, but I know he believes what I tell him.

Watching him walk away, I feel an ache in my chest. I’m a man of my word, and I failed them both when I said I would keep them safe.

But I can fix this.

Pulling my phone from my pocket, I dial James.

“What do you want, asshole?”

I laugh at that, because even in this mess, I remember James is on a counting-down-till-doomsday clock.

I cursed his ass, he knows it, and I know he knows that I know it.

“We got a job tonight. You ever hit a senator’s house before?”

“No.”

“Ain’t you the fucking chatty one?”

“Fuck you, take it back.”

“Not a chance. Anyways, meet me here at eleven. We’ll head out and try to get some good intel ahead of time.”

“Fuck you,” he says before hanging up on me.

Dialing Simon back, he asks, “What is it, Johnathan?”

“I need all the intel we can get on the good Senator. Full work-up, if possible. Also, I need to know what’s the proper amount of leverage Lucifer wants to use on the asshole.”

“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.”

Kneeling down, he fiddles around with the lock to the kitchen’s mudroom before standing back up. “Got it.”

Nodding, I gently ease the knob in a circle before pushing it open. Three guards are outside the grounds, two in the guard shack, and one on patrol.

“Move in. The guard should be passing here in one minute.”

Walking heel to toe, we quietly move into the mudroom.

Shutting the door behind us, I say, “Alright, should be a guard moving around the first floor. We need to secure him first.”

Nodding his head, James walks first out of the small room and into the kitchen. We both studied the house’s layouts.

There shouldn’t be any issues beyond this guy.

After we get through here, we need to head upstairs to the second floor. First to Beth and the guard we believe that’s stationed at her door. Then we’ll move around a bend to the master bedroom.

From there, it’s a matter of subduing the two goons who are protecting the Senator.

Just because I’m not allowed to kill someone doesn’t mean I can’t carry a pistol with me. The gun alone gives me the ability to intimidate the goon we find in the living room.

My barrel presses tightly to his temple and my hand clamps over his mouth.

“Move, talk, or try to get help and you die,” I murmur in his ear.

He’s a professional though, so I highly doubt he’s really going to let me take him out of the fight easily.

Nodding to James, I watch as he pulls a hypodermic needle from the pouch on his wrist.

Grinning at the goon, James says in a low voice, “You’re going to take a nap now.”

That’s all the guy needs to start struggling against me. I don’t have the best of holds, but with a swift crack to the side of his head with the handle of my gun, he slumps into the chair.

I watch as the needle goes into his neck.

“What kind of cocktail did we just put in him?” I ask James.

Shrugging, he says, “No clue. Simon said it’s what dreams are made of, and should make him lose all control of his muscles. So he’s probably gonna shit and piss himself.”

I wince. “That’s mean.”

Nodding, he motions me towards the archway leading to the stairs then holds up his hand.

Inside his hand I see a little metal whistle.

What the fuck?

Turning to me, he says with a determined look on his face as he lifts the whistle to his mouth, “Take it back.”

“What?!?” I ask, incredulous.

“You know what I mean. Take it back, or you and me are going to have a really bad time.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?”

This fucker is crazy.

“I said take it back.” Putting the whistle in his mouth, he puffs up his cheeks.

“For fuck’s sake,” I say as I drop my hands and growl. “I take it back.”

He noticeably deflates and slips the whistle into his pocket. “Good, now let’s get moving.”

Stupid fuck. I had my fingers crossed the whole time.

He’s so going to be getting wifed up soon.

I go first. I holster my gun then pull out the tranquilizer pistol. It’s a Co2 shooting little thing, and thankfully it’s not a noisy bastard.

Making my way slowly up the stairs, I get to the first landing and then take it even slower up to the second landing. It’s here I need to be careful. I’ve got a hall to my left that should be empty, but to the right of the staircase should be another one.

There the goon will be watching Beth’s door.

Pulling a thin camera wire from my pocket, I attach it to my phone. Looking at the screen, I slide the wire around the corner.

There, louder than life, is the guard. He’s sitting sprawled out in his chair, watching something on his own phone.

I’m betting it’s porn.

Pulling back the wire, I motion to James that I’ve spotted our guy.

Slowly moving to the corner, I take careful aim with my gun and shoot.

This isn’t like the movies though, where some guy gets hit and he instantly falls down. Nope, he’s not out yet, but this is one of those extremely powerful, loopy drugs so that helps.

“What the?!” he grunts, before I slam directly into his side, headbutting him with all the force I muster.

James is there an instant later, shoving a piece of cloth into his mouth. Tape comes next, and then a good hard punch with my brass knuckles knocks the guy out of the fight completely.

James wraps his arms around the guy as I move to Beth’s door.

Testing the handle, I find it’s unlocked.

Opening the door, I move quickly into the dimly lit room. It’s not exactly what I pictured her room to look like.

The room is almost sterile in its stark emptiness.

There’s a bed with beige blankets and sheets. The walls are some type of light brown too. Carpet is a boring off white. Dresser is there, but it almost looks utilitarian. The only real piece of personality comes from the nightstand where a picture of Beth and a woman who I think is her mother is.

James pushes past me with the unconscious asshole who he drops to the floor with a heavy thump. “Fucking guy is heavy as shit. Fucker been eating too many twinkies.”

At James’s voice, Beth’s eyes snap open in stark terror before she spots me.

There is a small look of hope there in those hazel eyes as she slowly comes off the bed. Her lip is split and she has a big black eye from where her father must have struck her.

I can’t believe a man would do something like this to his own daughter. It makes my skin crawl with disgust for him.

“Johnathan?” she asks as if she can’t believe it’s me.

Nodding my head, I sweep her into my arms.

She feels absolutely right here in my arms. I don’t like the ‘love’ word, but I sure feel something like it in my chest as I hold her as tight as I can.

Her hands grab my cheeks as she pulls me down to a deep kiss. She shows absolutely no hesitation as she kisses me with all the passion inside of her soul. I’m momentarily stunned before I find myself returning the kiss with everything I have.

Pulling away from her, my cock is semi-hard as I say, “We need to get moving. Still gotta visit your old man before we get out of here.”

Eyes wide, she shakes her head. “He’s never going to let me go, Johnathan, not if he can help it… I’m so sorry I made a mess of…”

“Don’t start. It is what it is. This just speeds up the process of taking control of your father’s life.”

“Is Charlie okay?” she asks.

“Yeah, our boy is good. Passed out right before we left the house. I got your friend Sophia there watching him.”

“Thank god.”

“Time to move, guys. We need to secure the old man so I can get to stealing some shit. You got anything in here you want to take, Beth?” James asks as he looks around the barren room.

She goes to the nightstand and pics up the picture frame. Holding it to her chest, she shakes her head. “Nothing. He’s taken anything I ever held dear away from me already. I just want to go home.”

Home. She called my house home. Fuck that makes my dick swell. She’s going to look so good at home with a big, fat pregnant belly.

Pulling her into the hallway, we move slowly towards her father’s area.

Reaching the corner, I murmur to Beth, “Tell the men you need to talk to your father.”

She nods her head and sets the picture frame down on the floor before straightening herself out.

Turning the corner, she slumps her shoulders and her head goes into a meek, little submissive posture as she asks, “Can I speak to him please?”

“He’s sleeping. Come back in the morning,” I hear one of the men say.

“But—”

“Go away, or we’ll have to let him know you’re misbehaving again.”

I see Beth just barely turn the corner before she falls to the floor in an almost believable act. She makes it look like she tripped on something.

“Oh god… my ribs,” she gasps as she looks right at me and gives a small wink.

“Fucking hell,” I hear the other guy say as they move towards us.

She crawls past me, saying, “Please don’t hurt me… Please.”

One thug passes around the corner and stops in shock as I lift him up off his feet with a vicious uppercut to his chin.

The second man falls back as he gets slammed into by James. I’ve seen James tackle people before, and he’s not the biggest of Lucifer’s men, but when he slams into the second guy it looks like a NFL linebacker is taking out a junior high kid.

The man slams into a wall with his head leaving a sizable dent in the plaster.

Running over to the guy, I lay into him a couple of times with my knuckles before he’s out like his buddy.

Panting just slightly, I look over at Beth. She’s pulled herself into a sitting position and she leans against the wall we were just hiding behind.

“You okay, baby?” I ask as I kneel down in front of her.

Wincing, she holds her hand out for me to help her up. “Yeah, but my ribs really do hurt. They like to hit me where it won’t show.”

Growling, I pull her into my arms. “I swear I’m—”

“Remember the rules, John, no killing,” James says as he zip ties both guards before gagging and duct taping their mouths shut.

Begrudgingly, I nod my head. I don’t have to like it; I just have to do it.

We walk to the Senator’s door, and with hard kick from me, the lock shatters the wood holding it shut and the door flies open.

“Wake the fuck up, asshole,” James calls out as he runs into the room.

Sitting up straight, the Senator looks around in bewilderment.

I can only imagine this pile of shit’s thoughts as he looks around him. Probably wondering where the men who are supposed to be protecting him are at.

He’s there, sitting in bed, the lights from the hall showing him wearing actual fucking sleep pajamas, like he’s from the fifties or something.

“Hello, Father,” Beth says in a fake, cheery voice. I can hear the sickly sweet tone she’s using and it makes even me want to cringe. “Look who I brought home! It’s my husband, the dirty, foul-mouthed biker who’s going to knock your little darling up!”

Fuck, she even giggled at the end.

Laughing at him as he tries to go for his nightstand, I rush over to kick it away. The lamp goes flying into the wall where it shatters.

“Not a good idea, Dad. We don’t need to be bothering people at this time of night,” I say with a smirk.

“Whoever the fuck you are… I swear you’re going to regret this.”

“That’s no way to speak to your son-in-law. Anyways, all the phone lines and alarms are currently disabled.”

The man looks up at me then orders. “Get out of my house before I have you killed, you little shit.”

Raising my hand, I reach back to punch him before he screeches, “Not in the face!”

That gives me pause.

Looking over at Beth, I ask, “The face?”

She shakes her head. “No, because that’s his moneymaker. You hit him there and it ruins whatever your plans are.”

“Ah.”

Well, I guess I’ll go the other route for now.

Motioning to Beth, I say, “Baby, I need to talk to this pile of shit, and you might not want to hear what’s going to be said.”

“Trust me, nothing will matter to me. This is the last time he’s ever going to see me,” she says as she sticks her chin out.

Fuck it, it’s her choice.

Sitting down on the edge of the bed, I snap out a fist at the man’s stomach.

I don’t punch him with my full strength, considering I still have my brass knuckles on, but it’s enough to make him start heaving and gasping for air.

Grabbing his messy hair, I throw him off the bed and onto the floor before me.

“Careful, John. Dude likes being on his knees in front of guys,” James laughs.

Senator Norton begins to tremble as he lies there in front of me. He looks like he’s about to cry, and it makes me feel so damn warm inside.

“Let’s get right down to it. We’ve been watching you for a good long while there, Dick… You like the word dick, don’t ya?” I say as I kick my foot out at him, catching him in the leg.

He doesn’t respond and I look over to James. “You got the video file, buddy?”

“Dude, why did you guys have to put it on my phone? Even I feel dirty watching it.”

Shrugging, I point to the Senator. “Show the man his past sins.”

“See, things are kinda wonky, Dickie boy. All those votes to stop same-sex marriage, to end civil rights and shit… And you like to get it in the ass from big, black men. You’re the classic example of a pile of shit.”

The video plays, loud sounds of grunting coming from the speakers.

Beth’s eyes widen as she comes around to look at what’s on the screen. I feel sorry she looks, but what can I do? She wanted to stay.

“Holy shit. I… He…”

I nod my head. “Yeah, the guy giving it to him is wearing a superman cape… I have no clue what kind of kink shit this is. But your dad is a one hundred percent hypocrite, man-in-the closet type of fuck.”

Turning away from the phone, she says, “I think I’m going to wait outside of the room...”

“Don’t blame ya.”

“See, tiny dick,” I say as I lean down to watch his face. A face that is showing the pure horror of a man who’s about to lose it all. “We don’t mind what you do in your life, but you sure as fuck wanted to control other people.”

“What… What do you want?” he asks in a whisper.

“You in the Governor’s seat within the next two years,” I say. Motioning to James, I order, “Go get his safe and all the electronic shit you can find. I want a copy of anything he wants to hide.”

“Got it,” he says as he jogs out of the room.

Looking up at me in astonishment, the Senator asks, “What?”

“Well, you see you’re in a position ripe for advancement. Where you’re at now isn’t as valuable to my boss as where you can be. We get you there and you keep your life as it is. Minus your daughter. She’s coming with me.”

“But… but I…”

“Lucifer wants this for you. I suggest you nod your head right now.”

The man goes deathly white at the name. He should. Someone like Lucifer holding your life in the balance tends to make people listen up.

But then he has to go and say, “You can’t take her. I refuse to allow—”

Fuck the ‘no face’ rule. I backhand him so hard his head slams into the carpeted floor. Standing up from the bed, I pull him by his hair and he screeches.

“Stand up like a man, pussy,” I growl.

When I have him finally standing up like a man, I say, “That’s your only warning. You will never get a second warning from my boss. Do you understand? What we say goes from now on. We will ruin you professionally, then in the dead of night, sometime in the future, I’ll take your life.”

Tears spill down his cheeks as he begins to whimper like some little bitch. “Okay… Okay… Please don’t…”

“We’ll be in touch with you real soon, Senator Norton,” I say and let go of him. “And for fuck’s sake, stand up like a man.”

Straightening up slowly, he tries to look like a man, but in his eyes I see the little coward bitch he really is. Fucker hit his daughter like a scumsucking pile of shit.

Turning my back to him, I start to walk away.

Wait I forgot.

Turning around to him, I say, “One more thing.”

“What is it?” he asks with a sigh.

Grabbing him by the shoulders, I slam my knee into his balls.

Air rushes out of his lungs as I say, “Tell your fucking guards on the ground to go home for the night. Do it in the next five minutes or I’ll come back and remind you how much I hate you.”

Walking out of the room, I grab Beth by the hand. “Let’s get going, baby. I’ve got a surprise for you once we get out of here.”