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

deserves to go through what you are going through and my heart is broken that my husband, your brother, had a hand in it. I hope you can forgive me for my ignorance and one day find peace and happiness again. I can’t be certain where Parker is going, but I do hope you find him. I love my husband very much, but I would never be able to forgive him or look at him the same again. I will tell your family you love them! Goodbye!

Love,

Emma

Decklan wasn’t sure what to think but his heart did go out to Emma. Too many people had died, and all that blood was on Parker’s hands. He folded the note back and put it in his pocket as he turned to leave.

He called the police to inform them that there was an apparent suicide at the residence, but he didn’t mention that Parker was on the run. He didn’t want to risk the police getting involved and getting to him before he could. Plus, with everything that had happened, Decklan couldn’t be sure that there weren’t other cops in on it too. If that were the case then he would eventually pay them a visit, but right now he needed to find Parker.

He drove away from the house and back home. He didn’t know where Parker would run off to and hide like the coward that he so clearly was. Decklan racked his brain for anything that could potentially be a good place to start. He was pulling back into his driveway when something clicked.

Holy shit! I know where he’s going. Camp Alkulana.

He quickly put his truck in reverse and headed back out on the road. He headed north, wanting to get there as fast as he could. He knew his brother had a head start, but he wasn’t sure how long. Although he wasn’t one hundred percent sure, something in his gut was telling him there was no other place he would go. However, if he was right, Parker would probably suspect Decklan figuring it out, which could only mean one thing…he was going to be ready for his arrival.

Several hours had passed and he was over halfway there. The path was almost a straight shot up, so the drive seemed quick, but he still had a few hours to kill. Decklan seemed to find himself in this similar situation a lot lately. Alone, traveling somewhere away from home, with time to think and reflect. Everything Decklan had been through in his life made living inside his own head difficult most days, but that had increased dramatically over the past month. He had lost his entire family, a friend on a similar mission, his sister-in-law, and now he was probably going to have to kill his little brother. This was a lot to bear, and most men would crack under this pressure, but Decklan was wired differently, and he would stop at nothing to get the job done.

A few more hours had passed, and he was now driving through the beautiful mountains of Virginia, which meant he was getting close. If he was only thirty minutes away, then that meant Parker was already there and probably holed up in one of the cabins spread across the miles of property.

Camp Alkulana was a place they both spent most of their summers when they were kids. Their mom was the camp nurse and they made friends with a lot of the camp counselors and kids. They both enjoyed being outdoors and running around getting into trouble, like most boys. From what Decklan could remember, he only had happy memories here. It had been a time before his and Parker’s relationship had started to turn for the worse. Now, it was going to be the place where they were going to talk about the murder of his family and chances were only one of them was leaving that place alive.

Decklan turned into the camp entrance for the first time in twenty years. He slowly drove his truck down the gravel drive. Camp Alkulana didn’t have a lot of money so having a paved entrance was never in consideration. Decklan remembered there had always been a tradition when someone was coming to camp for the first time that year that they would honk their horn as they drove in, letting everyone know of their arrival. This was another good memory, but this was not something he was about to do in this situation.

As he approached the end of the gravel drive, he could see Parker's car.

I knew it.

Looking past Parker’s car, he could see the dining hall that was also the kitchen and craft area. It was a large wooden building, like all of the buildings here. Decklan could smell the biscuits and gravy and freshly cooked bacon. Unfortunately, this was all in his memory, since it was wintertime, and no one was here, much less cooking. It was funny how a memory could bring back such strong and vivid senses from so long ago.

He pulled his truck into the parking lot about twenty feet down from where Parker’s car was. He got out of the truck and could hear the the ice-cold mountain water that ran directly through the middle of camp. He grabbed his rifle from the back seat, made sure his 9mm was in his holster and loaded, and began working his way into camp. There were dozens of buildings to work through and there was no way of knowing which one Parker would be in. He was fairly sure that Parker wouldn’t want to kill him, but he also didn’t know what kind of mental state he was in. He was going to be anxious, paranoid, and feeling guilty, which could potentially make him very unpredictable and dangerous. Decklan wanted to be ready for anything.

As he reached the top of the small gravel hill, he stood in front of the dining hall and looked around. It had been so many years