Page 10 of Zeus's Sinner

Father Joseph is a good man, at least from what I've seen of him, he seems like he is. The man just has a knack for getting into trouble. He is always at the wrong place at the wrong time. Even right now with him here trying to help the community, he doesn't know that I'm here to find him.

As I'm making my way over to him, I see another man step up to the booth. The man is wearing a dark suit, wool jacket and dark sunglasses. If I were anyone else looking in on the interaction, I wouldn't have thought anything wrong with it, but I'm not anyone else. I'm a member of the Juric family, and I've been in countless situation where I had to make sure that no one was out to harm me. That man right there isn't just a local. He's targeting Father Joseph the same as me.

My eyes scan down the new man's body and I see the outline of the butt of a gun against his back and his boots look like they are military issue, meaning they’re good for running if needed. I watch as Father Joseph waves off one of the sisters before he walks off with this new man. A forced smile on his face and an unsteadiness to his gait. I follow behind at a good pace as I watch the man in the suit get closer and closer to Father Joseph's ear. Whispering aggressively at the man. I do my best to watch their mouths, and I see Father say something like I have it safe already. I just don't have it with me. That's all I can see from reading his lips.

I have to move in closer. I cover my face slightly and lean in. When Father Joseph takes a step back from the new man, I can very vaguely hear him say the words, "You just have to wait until the festival is over. I'll get it to you. Just give me a few days." he nods once at the man in the dark suit and then walks off back to the booth that he has with the other sisters. I could follow behind Father Joseph, but this new man is far more intriguing than anything that Father Joseph has to say.

I follow behind the new guy until we get to a particularly dense area and I lose sight of him. Before I can turn to go back the way I came, a large hand come up and pushes me into a secluded alley. I quickly turn on my heel, ready to defend myself. Fists are being swung in my direction before I have a chance to focus my eyes. All I can see are sunglasses and dark clothing, so I'm guessing this is the same fucker as the one who was messing with Father Joseph before.

"Why you got your fucking nose in my business, boy?" the man snarls at me, and I put my hands up to block one of his punches before throwing a haymaker of my own and landing it.

"I don't know who the fuck you are but if you're fucking with Father Joseph then that business is mine." I snap back at him right before he lowers his head and rushes me.

He knocks me down to the ground and leans up, beginning to wail on the side of my head and body.

"Your business? You dumb fuck, don't you know that your hold on what's here is already obsolete. You need to just tuck your fucking tail and run." The man stands and kicks me hard in the side. I watch as his hand reaches around towards his back. He's going for his gun. I don't know who he is, but he clearly knows who I am.

I kick out at his shin, and he falls backwards, not able to pull the gun out, "We never fucking tuck tail." I answer him before I mount him and begin my own round of fighting. He tries to wrap me up but all that ends up happening is the two of us rolling around, one trying to get the upper hand on the other.

"Hey! What's going on in here!" A police officer shouts out and the both of us lurch away from each other.

Fuck, this is the last thing that I need. Staying out of jail is probably the number one way to show the people back at home that I know how to keep a low profile.

"It's nothing officer, just a little misunderstanding. We'll go about our way now." The man in the dark suit says, and I nod, corroborating his story.

"Yeah, he was hitting on my girl. All over now." I smile, and the officer hitches his thumb over his shoulder.

"You go that way, and you go this way." The officer says, giving the both of us a death glare that wasn't all that menacing, considering he had a dollop of ketchup on the chest of his coat. He didn't want to bring us in any more than we wanted to be brought in.

The man I was fighting stares me down for a second before he does exactly what the police officer told him. I do the same while I pocket the wallet I managed to lift off my assailant while we were rolling around. There's no way that I'm going to be caught out in the cold if I have another enemy here. No, if he's here against me, I want to know who he is. There's only one way for me to find out. On the way back towards the exit of the festival, I pull out the wallet and check out the identification. It surprises me to see he has his legitimate health insurance card. The IDs are fake, and the photos are fake, but the health insurance card is real.

I thought Father Joseph only had problems with the Juric family, but seems like his problem right a lot deeper than just me.

6

Zeus

I'm sograteful to be out of the airbnb on the small island and into this three-star hotel, but still even with more amenities here it's nothing like what I'm used to. It's taken me near three hours to dig up information on my laptop that should have only taken me less than twenty minutes. The Wi-Fi here is a fucking joke and if you ask about a direct plug in the people look at you like you're stupid.

I pull the bag of ice that I've been using to soothe the ache on my ribs from the blows Desmon Imbue rained down on me. After looking into his identity, it was pretty easy to figure out who he's working for.

Rupert Giles.

This man was becoming an even bigger pain in the ass than any of us were expecting. We thought once we got rid of the Varva family that we'd be free and clear for a while. That's not the case with Mr. Giles. He's on a mission to fuck up everything as quickly as he can, and from what I can tell it's been working beautifully for him. The only thing that I don't know is what he has to do with Father Joseph not reaching out to us when he was supposed to be reaching out. Maybe he's having his life threatened. Perhaps he doesn't feel safe.

Once I finish digging up as much dirt as I'm going to find on him here, I pull up my phone and try to dial Sven. I need to keep him abreast of what's actually going on here.

Even though I want them to know that I'm capable of what I need to do, I'm not dumb enough to think that I can go up against this Giles man by myself. If it gets any worse over here, I may have to bring in some back up. Kaja or even Katarina will do.

I swipe on the display of my phone and look for Sven's number, I hit call but of course nothing happens.

I have no bars.

"Fucking, small ass, no technology having no man's land. Why the fuck do people even live here. It's fucking cold, and boring and fucking cold!" I repeat myself as I walk slowly around the small hotel room, trying desperately to find a spot where I can get a bit more signal than I already have.

Finally, after walking in big figure eight circles, I stand on the bed and manage to get three bars. I hit the icon for Sven again, and this time the call actually rings. I put the call on speaker, too afraid to move my hand and have the call drop. I'm not doing this shit again.

"Yes?" A woman answers, which surprises me.

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