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

Decklan’s eyes widened. “That’s exactly what we are going to do, buddy.”

“Just promise me you will do it,” Langley said again.

“Okay, I promise.”

Langley’s attention turned to something on the ground next to his feet, and Decklan could see it as well.

Shit! Decklan thought.

“Langley! Don’t do it, man!”

“It’s been an honor getting to know you, Decklan. You’re a good man,” Langley said, as he bent down and reached for the gun on the ground.

Without hesitation, Vladimir yelled, “Kill them both!”

Decklan jumped forward and hit the ground, covering up as a flood of bullets began pouring into the house. Langley managed to get his hands on the gun but before he could turn around to shoot, his body was peppered with bullets. He fell back into the house, right under the stairs, with his face looking directly at Decklan.

Decklan looked over, still covering up, and watched as his friend bled out on his floor without being able to do anything about it.

You son of a bitch! We were so close! All you had to do was walk inside the fucking house.

After about thirty seconds of non-stop gunfire, it was finally quiet. Vladimir could see that Langley was dead, which was good enough for him. He ordered his men to stand down for a final time. The fight was over, for now.

“Mr. Jennings, I hope you learned a lesson tonight. I will be seeing you again, real soon,” Vladimir said, as he climbed into his SUV and drove off into the night storm.

CHAPTER 18

Decklan knew it was too late to save Langley, but he couldn’t just leave him there lying in a pool of his own blood. The sun was still a couple of hours away from rising and the rain was beginning to ease. Decklan was still trying to come down off the adrenaline high, but he knew, at least for now, the fight was over. He looked around to see the aftermath, and his house was completely torn apart. It looked like something straight out of the movies. Bodies, blood, and bullets everywhere. Glass was blown all over the floor throughout the house, and the front door was completely gone. It looked like someone quit a house renovation halfway through—minus the dead bodies and bullets, of course.

Decklan figured it wouldn’t be long before word reached the police and his brother showed up with a whole squad of cops. It would be the second time in less than a month that his house would be a crime scene. Only this time, he participated in the killings. He didn’t want to stick around for the cops to show up, but he didn’t want to leave Langley to be poked and prodded by a medical examiner and forensics team either. Unfortunately, he didn’t have a choice.

He leaned down to look at his friend one last time.

“I’m sorry, buddy. I let you down. This is my fault. I shouldn’t have left you alone. I swear on everything that I will kill Vladimir Ivanov, even if it’s the last damn thing I do. Go be with your wife and son. Rest in peace, soldier.”

He knew it was time to get his shit together and get the hell out of the house. He went throughout the house and gathered up all the guns and ammo he could. He grabbed his bag as well as Langley’s, since he wasn’t going to need it where he was going. Decklan knew he would need all the firepower he had to bring down Vladimir and the rest of his men. The only thing was, he had no idea where Vladimir had run off to. Decklan couldn’t risk going back to the strip club for information and he only ever saw him one other place, the house that he and Langley had followed them to when they first discovered his little operation. Well, little might be a bit of an understatement. Nothing about Vladimir or his operation was little. The only issue with trying to go to the house to find him was it would undoubtedly be swarming with security. Especially after their all-out war.

He only had one choice, and he didn’t like it at all. He was going to have to go to Parker for help. It was the only way he was going to be able to figure out where Vladimir was or might be going. He tossed all his stuff into the truck, leaving Langley’s car behind to be dealt with by the police, and sped off. He picked up his phone to call his brother.

“Hey Parker, I need to talk to you,” Decklan said.

“Hey Deck. What’s up?” Parker replied.

“Not over the phone. I need to see you in person.”

“You can come down to the station. I am in my office for a couple more hours.”

“Not the station. I need to talk to you as a brother, not a cop.”

There was a slight pause in response. “What does this have to do with, Deck?”

“Well, there’s no point in beating around the bush since you will probably be notified about it any minute now, but I need help finding someone who just killed my friend at my house.”

“Jesus! Are you serious? What the hell happened, Deck?” Parker asked with a concerned tone.

“Got into a shootout with a drug dealer that we have been tailing,” Decklan replied, knowing good and well that he just told the chief of police he had been doing something that could get him in a lot of trouble. “I can tell you the rest in person, but I really need your help and time is everything right now.”

“Okay, yeah. You got it, Deck. Meet me at my house in fifteen minutes,” Parker replied.

Decklan hung up the phone and headed directly for Parker’s house. It was on the other side of town, but the drive wasn’t that bad with no traffic, and there wasn’t much traffic this early in the morning. The only people out were runners and businessmen rushing to the airport.

Decklan