BLOOD TIES (Decklan Jennings Thriller Book 1), Philip Duncan [bill gates book recommendations TXT] 📗

unbreakable and he would do anything to protect her. But he had failed. To him, she couldn’t rest peacefully until the men responsible no longer had breath in their lungs. He didn’t care what he had to do or how he had to do it. All he knew was that he would move heaven and earth to make sure the job was done. Then, and only then would he allow himself to rest.

He managed to pull himself back together and find what he came down here for. Now the question was where to sleep? He didn’t want to sleep in the living room since Langley was in there. He didn’t want to sleep in his room even though it wasn’t going to be in the bed. Finally, he decided that he would sleep in the hallway between all three rooms. This way, he would feel as if he was protecting their memories like he should have protected them when they were alive.

***

Another restless night and it was morning again. Decklan slithered out of his sleeping bag and worked his way downstairs with heavy feet and heavy eyes. He caught a glimpse of himself in the hallway mirror. The dark bags under his eyes seemed to be getting bigger and darker by the day. He hadn’t had a decent night's sleep since that dreadful night.

“Morning.” Decklan said, as Langley was already up and working on his second cup of coffee.

“Good morning. How’d you sleep?” Langley replied.

“Like shit. You?”

“Not too bad.”

Decklan grabbed his favorite mug out of the cabinet and poured himself a cup of coffee. It was the only mug he used. They sat down at the kitchen table enjoying their black coffee in silence. After all, silence was something Decklan was used to in this house now. It used to be filled with laughter and joy, but now it was filled with a silence so heavy it was like he was being slowly crushed between two walls.

“I got an idea for today,” Langley said.

“What is it?” Decklan replied.

“I think we need to take a break from all this shit and do something to help bring our stress levels down and try to refresh.”

Decklan looked at Langley with confusion and a bit of frustration. “Take a break? How in the world do you plan on doing that?”

“I don’t know yet, but I think it would be good for both of us.”

“What does it matter anymore? It’s not like I have anyone to live for.”

“I disagree,” Langley replied. “I don’t know your religious beliefs, but I believe in God and I think your family is watching you from Heaven. I think they would be disappointed to see you like this.”

This statement didn’t sit well with Decklan. “What the hell do you know? Don’t talk about my family. You didn’t even know them.”

“I am sorry. You’re right, I didn’t know them. But I know how I felt when I lost my wife and son. I handled it like you. I didn’t sleep, mainly because I couldn’t. I was so hell-bent on revenge that I almost drove myself into an early grave. Then one day, I asked myself this question… what would they say if they could see me now? What would they be thinking if they were watching me from above? I knew they would be disappointed with me and would want me to turn myself around and do something about it.”

Decklan knew Langley was right and everything he was saying made perfect sense, but it was hard to look at it that way.

“I get it,” Decklan replied. “But maybe we just handle things differently.”

“Maybe so, but from where I am standing, we are one and the same,” Langley said.

“Okay, maybe I could use a break, for a little bit,” Decklan replied. “I am just afraid that if I stop trying to make things right, it’s going to feel like I don’t care, and my family deserves better than that.”

“Trust me, no one is going to think that. Not me, and especially not your family.”

As they sat there, finally on the same page, Decklan had an idea. “I think I know what we can do.”

“Great, what is it?” Langley said.

“We have a boat at a port just a few miles down the road. We could take it out for a bit and get away from all the noise and chaos. It’s something I do when I need a break from the world.”

Langley’s eyes lit up. “That’s perfect, Decklan.”

They got ready to leave, but not without making sure they had some firepower with them just in case, because they knew they had a potential target on their backs. They hopped in Decklan’s truck and headed out. They arrived at the dock and it wasn’t too busy, seeing it was in the middle of a work day, plus there were a lot of wealthy people in this area and most of them spent their time out of town for work.

“There it is.” Decklan pointed to the end of the dock. “That’s our boat.”

“Holy shit, Decklan. What exactly do you do for work?”

Decklan smiled. “Not me, my wife. I was lucky enough to marry an ambitious woman who was able to turn that ambition into a lot of money. She owns… I mean owned… her own consulting business. She did pretty well for herself, which meant I was able to be a stay-at-home dad. I was pretty damn lucky that she married me.”

Langley let out a light laugh. “I get that. I married way out of my league too. She wasn’t rich or anything, but she could have had any man she wanted and for some dumb luck reason, she took a chance on me.”

“I guess you were right back at the house,” Decklan said.

“Right about what.” Langley replied.

“You said we were one and the same. It turns out we have a lot more in common than just Vladimir.”

Although they hadn’t known each other long, Decklan felt closer to Langley than he had to anyone in