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

wasn’t used to. Sure, they got snow up north, but it couldn’t have been anything like this. This was the kind of snow that was special to this cold, heartless city. Any place that Vladimir lived had to be a special kind of hell.

An hour had passed and they still weren't there, but they were getting close.

“Get your mind right, Decklan. We are almost there,” Teddy said.

Decklan straightened up in his seat, removed his seatbelt and leaned forward like he was going to pounce. Teddy’s words sent an endorphin rush through his body and he was ready to lock and load. He felt the car start to slow down, even more so than it already was, and it eventually came to a halt. Teddy put the car in park and looked over at Decklan.

“Look over there,” Teddy said, pointing over the dash. “That’s where the house is.”

Decklan looked, but couldn’t see anything. The snow was too heavy. “I can’t see anything in this shit. How do you know?”

Teddy smiled, knowing good and well the house wasn’t visible. “Trust me, that’s the direction we need to go.”

Having no other choice but to trust Teddy, Decklan agreed.

“Okay, if you say so. Let’s go.”

Teddy turned the car off, stuck the keys in the visor above his head, and got out. Decklan followed suit and they met at the trunk. They unzipped the bags and grabbed what they needed. Decklan picked up the sniper rifle and slung it over his shoulder using the strap. Not bothering to zip the bags back up, Teddy shut the trunk and they started making their way through the snowy terrain. The wind was starting to pick up, which made it near impossible to hear each other without yelling. After what seemed like a hundred yards, Teddy reached over and stopped Decklan with his arm.

“Use the scope of the rifle from here and see if you can get a visual yet,” Teddy said, loud enough for Decklan to hear.

Decklan pulled the rifle back over the same shoulder he slung it over, placed the butt of the gun to his arm and looked down the sights.

“Can’t see a damn thing!” Decklan said. “We have to get closer!”

Teddy nodded his head and they kept moving. They made it another fifty yards, or so it seemed. Who could really tell in this weather?

Again Teddy stopped Decklan and leaned in so he didn’t have to yell. “Try again.”

Once more, Decklan pulled his rifle up and looked down the sights. “Still nothing,” he said.

“Well shit, so much for my plan.” Teddy said. “If we can’t get some kind of visual before we get there, we will be flying blind.”

They kept walking and somehow the snow and wind were only getting worse, and the temperature was now single digits and dropping.

“All right, kid. Last try. Let’s see if you get anything,” Teddy said to Decklan, hoping to finally get that visual of the house they desperately needed.

For the last time, Decklan looked through the scope of the rifle. “Holy shit! There it is,” Decklan said excitedly. “Good thing you were right or else we’d be stuck out in the middle of nowhere to freeze to death.”

“What do you see?” Teddy asked.

Decklan slowly moved the gun from one end of the house to the other, scanning for anything and everything.

“I got two guys in a front room and I see two more guys up top, posted up as armed surveillance, it appears,” Decklan said.

“Can you tell what kind of heat they are packing?” Teddy asked.

Decklan adjusted his scope to zoom in. “Looks like they are both carrying an AK-47.”

Teddy looked over at Decklan. “If you had to, do you think you could take them both out?”

It had been years since he had attempted a shot at this distance and never in conditions like this. The velocity of the bullet would be drastically altered from the wind and snow, but he knew taking them out would give them their best chance, so he had to try.

“I guess there’s only one way to find out.” Decklan replied.

He lowered the rifle for a brief moment so he could try and get himself in the right mindset. Hitting a shot like this would require ultra focus, extreme precision, and a lot of luck. Plus, he would have to do it twice without any hesitation. If the shot wasn’t hard enough, he would have to do it lying down in the freezing snow because trying to shoot from that distance standing up wasn’t going to be an option.

He took one last deep breath in, and exhaled it back out. He assumed the shooting position, placed the rifle against his right shoulder and once more looked down the scope. He adjusted the scope until he felt it gave him the best visual possible, but it couldn’t be too closely zoomed in because he would need to laterally switch targets quickly after firing the first shot. Finally finding the sweet spot, he fixed the barrel on the first guy and whispered to himself, “See ya, buddy.”

He squeezed the trigger slowly until it hit the final stage, sending a round ripping through the snow and directly into the first guy’s skull. It was a direct hit, sending the guy back against the wall and dropping straight to the ground. Quickly, Decklan moved his sights over about eighteen inches to the left, where the only guy left standing looked confused and unsure what to do. Before he had the chance to sound an alarm or shoot back, Decklan pulled the trigger again, and again a direct hit right through his skull. Two shots, two down, perfect execution!

Teddy was watching through a pair of high-powered binoculars so he could see the impact of Decklan’s marksmanship.

“Hell yeah! Nice shooting, kid!” he exclaimed. “Let’s keep moving.”

Decklan got back to his feet, wiped the snow off his entire front, and they continued on toward the house. They got lucky with how the bodies fell and since he used a