BLOOD TIES (Decklan Jennings Thriller Book 1) by Philip Duncan (book recommendations for young adults txt) 📕

the girl to a room, opened the door, threw her in, and followed behind her. The young girl's friend was too busy flirting with the other dealer to realize what happened.

“Wait here and keep an eye on them,” Langley said.

“Where are you going?” Decklan asked but Langley was already walking away.

Decklan watched as Langley headed straight for the same room the young girl was just taken into. Langley stood in front of the closed door, listening intently. Then, without hesitation, he slowly opened the door, stepped inside, and closed it behind him.

Oh shit. This can’t be good, Decklan thought.

It couldn’t have been more than a few minutes before the door opened again. Langley and the girl walked out, leaving Decklan wondering what happened to the other guy. Eventually, Langley made his way back over to Decklan after whispering something to the girl before leaving her in the hallway.

“Did anything interesting happen with the lovebirds while I was gone?” Langley asked, acting as if nothing happened.

Decklan shook his head no and asked a question of his own. “Did anything happen in that room that I should know about?”

Langley smiled and answered, “Let’s just say that asshole won’t be bothering anyone for a while.”

They stood there watching as the girl that Langley just saved was crying hysterically and grabbing her friend, urging her to leave. This raised suspicion with the dealer and he quickly realized that his buddy didn’t come back with the girl. It appeared that Langley wanted the girl to cause suspicion, which would prompt the dealer to go looking for his friend.

They waited for him to turn and go looking before they followed suit. As soon as the guy got inside and saw his unconscious and blood-soaked friend, he heard the door shut behind him. He turned around to find two men that he didn’t recognize: Langley Jones and Decklan Jennings.

“Who the hell are you guys and what happened here?” the thug asked, pointing to the unconscious body on the floor.

“Don’t worry about who we are, but we do have a couple of questions for you,” Langley replied.

“Fuck off. I ain’t gonna tell you shit.”

“You know, your buddy said the same thing and look how that turned out for him,” Langley said.

“I’m gonna gut you both like a pig,” the drug dealer said, pulling a knife from his waistband. “Do you have any idea who I work for?”

“As a matter of fact we don’t,” Langley replied. “Do you care to tell us?”

“It won’t matter if I tell you or not because you’re both going to be dead when this is all said and done.”

Clearly this threat had no effect on either of them as they listened to this guy ramble on. Decklan had been silent up to this point, as he was letting Langley work his magic, hoping they could get some useful information out of this guy before they knocked his teeth down his throat.

“I don’t think this is going to go down like you think it is,” Langley said. “We just need you to answer a couple of questions, and then we will let you and what’s left of your buddy over there leave.”

Leave? There is no way we can let these guys walk out of here after seeing our faces. He must be bluffing, Decklan thought to himself.

Then, without warning, the guy lunged forward with his knife, narrowly missing Decklan’s stomach. He reset and was about to try again, but Langley struck the guy right on the temple with a kick, leaving him out cold right next to his buddy.

“What the hell are we going to do now?” Decklan asked. “We can’t exactly get answers out of a couple of unconscious bodies.”

What came out of Langley’s mouth next, completely caught him off guard.

“Hurry, help me pick him up. We are going to take him back to your house,” Langley said.

“My house! Have you lost your damn mind?” Decklan said.

“You got any better ideas? He knows what we look like. We can’t just leave him here to wake up and run back to whoever he works for. We need to get him out of here so we have more time to get the answers we need.”

“And what about the other guy?” Decklan asked.

“Him we can leave. I knocked him out from behind so he never saw my face.”

“Okay, fair enough. But how do you expect us to just carry some unconscious guy through a crowd of people without raising any questions?”

“This is a college party, Decklan. People get blackout drunk and carried out all the time. No one will look at us twice.”

***

They laid him down in the back seat and Decklan sat in the back as well to make sure he didn't wake up and try something stupid. They arrived back at his house and carried him inside.

Decklan didn't want this scumbag on any of his furniture so they just dropped him on the floor in front of the TV, right about the same time he was coming back to his senses.

“Hey, where the hell am I? Who are you guys?”

Langley pointed at Decklan. “You don't remember him?”

The thug shook his head, indicating he had no clue who Decklan was.

“Are you sure? Look real close. Doesn't this place look familiar?” Langley suggested, hoping to jog his memory if he had something to do with the murders.

“Listen man, I don't know who you guys are and I don't know anything, I swear.”

Neither one of them were buying it. Clearly this guy would say whatever he needed to stay alive.

“All we need to know is who you work for and how we can get to him, and we will let you live,” Decklan said.

This flustered the thug. It was evident by the look on his face and sweat beading on his forehead that he was nervous.

“Even if I tell you, it won’t matter. I'll be dead when he finds out.”

“Who?” Decklan asked.

He didn't respond.

“Who is your boss?” he asked again, with a more forceful tone.

Silence.

Decklan pulled out his