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

erupted as Decklan quickly shot back up to his feet. The big guy just lay there holding his arm, screaming in excruciating pain. This wasn’t the first person Decklan had done this to, so he knew just how painful it was. The fight was clearly over, and Decklan was hoping that Vladimir would accept the result as it was, and not actually make him go through with killing him.

“Well done, Mr. Jennings. Your skills match your reputation,” Vladimir said. “But remember, we had a deal.”

This was exactly what Decklan was hoping to avoid.

“Surely you can see your guy is in enough pain and I’ve done enough to earn your respect,” Decklan said.

“Respect? You had my respect before this,” Vladimir responded. “But a deal is a deal, after all. So either you kill him, and I leave you alone, or I kill him and then I kill you and your partner. The choice is yours.”

Fuck.

“Well, I don’t exactly have anything to kill him with, unless you want me to beat him to death,” Decklan said.

“Here,” Vlad said as he tossed Decklan a gun. “This is his gun. It’s a fitting end for him, don’t you think?”

Decklan could hear his wife’s voice. You are better than this. There is always another way.

But there wasn’t. Not in this situation. And he wasn’t even sure he was better than this. At least not anymore. As he watched the gun float through the air, everything seemed to run in slow motion and he noticed something on Vladimir’s wrist that was always covered up, but when he went to toss the gun, his sleeve pulled back.

Holy shit, the tattoo. It was you, Decklan thought to himself as he went to catch the gun.

For the first time since losing his family, Decklan finally had solid proof. It was him. Vladimir Ivanov was the man responsible for the murder of his family. Even if he didn’t pull the trigger himself, he called the shots.

Now Decklan had a choice to make. Use the gun he was just gifted and try his luck with taking out eight armed men, or kill the son of a bitch whose arm he just snapped, keep the deal with Vladimir, and get back to Langley as quickly as possible?

“What are you waiting for?” Vladimir asked, clearly growing impatient.

Decklan pointed the gun at his defeated opponent and looked at Vladimir. “Nothing.”

He fired three shots into his chest, walked over to Vladimir, handed him the gun and whispered confidently, “A deal is a deal. If I see any of your guys again, I’ll be coming for you myself.”

Vladimir took the gun and smiled. “I’ll be seeing you around, my friend.”

Decklan headed back into the club and walked straight through to the front and into the parking lot. He wanted to get back to Langley as quickly as possible to tell him about his revelation and that they could finally breathe a little, assuming Vladimir stayed true to his word.

Despite having just killed a man, Decklan was riding a high. He felt like this was his first break in a month, and it felt damn good. He decided to walk past his truck and go directly to Langley. He couldn’t wait until they were back at the house to tell him. He found his car sitting in the back of the parking lot and jumped in.

“Good to see you’re still alive. What the hell happened in there?” Langley asked.

“Long story short, I worked out a deal. We don’t tell the cops about his little operation and he stops trying to have us killed,” Decklan replied.

“How exactly did you manage that?”

“He wouldn’t agree to my terms unless I fought one of his men to the death. I think he assumed I wouldn’t stand much of a chance against his giant,” Decklan said.

“Giant?” Langley said. “What did this guy look like?”

“It was that same guy we saw last time. That giant skyscraper of a man,” Decklan replied.

Langley’s face turned white as a ghost.

“Whoa! What the hell is wrong with you?” Decklan asked, noticing the sudden change in Langley’s face.

“That was Victor you killed. He was Vladimir’s right-hand man. But that’s not the worst part. Victor was his nephew. Vladimir treated him like a son, and they were extremely close. He had been grooming him for years, eventually leaving him to take over one day.”

“Are you sure? He didn’t bat an eye when I killed him,” Decklan said.

“I’m sure,” Langley replied. “He doesn’t like to show weakness or vulnerability, but I can assure you that whatever deal you thought you had is off. You just killed the closest person to him, and I can promise you he is going to open the gates of hell and drag us down with him.”

“Just our fucking luck!” Decklan replied, no longer feeling good. “What are we going to do now?”

Langley stared off into the night. “Kill him before he kills us.”

CHAPTER 17

Decklan had just gone through an extremely dangerous and high stress situation in order to secure their safety, but it turned out that Vladimir had never intended on allowing that to happen. He had picked his nephew to fight him because he thought it was a sure victory. Victor was twice Decklan’s size, much stronger, and probably had no problem killing. It was a sure thing. Unfortunately for Vladimir and even more so for the now deceased Victor, Decklan was one of the few people in the world who could take him down. Now, not only did they still have a target on their backs, but Vladimir was about to ramp up his efforts tenfold until they were both strung up like slaughtered cows.

They decided to speed back to the house as quickly as possible and brace for what was about to come. Until now, they were only anticipating an attack but weren't a hundred percent sure Vladimir would ever make the move. Now, all bets were off, and Vladimir would be coming for them both. Back at the house, they