Live Free or Die Complete Series Boxed Set: Age Of Madness - A Kurtherian Gambit Series by Hayley Lawson (i wanna iguana read aloud .TXT) 📕

“We’ll chat more about that later. Clint will know we’re coming.” Carter and Leandro stood next to Ryder and Massimo.

Ryder shaded her eyes with a hand to look at the house. “How would he know?”

“Clint knows everything about people’s movements around here,” Massimo explained. “Before he came to Pinewood he was a bounty hunter, he retired here for a peaceful life.” He retired here? How old is he? Ryder stepped onto Clint’s wooden porch and raised a hand to knock, but she didn’t need to because the door opened. Clint didn’t look that old. He was in his late forties, maybe. It was hard to tell his age because his skin was baked hard as leather from years of being out in the sun, and salt-and-pepper stubble coated his jaw.

“Nice to see you, old friends,” Clint said to Massimo and Leandro. “Please come in. Excuse the mess. I wasn’t expecting guests.” His place was more than a mess. There were towers of dirty plates stacked high by the sink and piles of papers and unwashed laundry scattered around.

Ryder stifled a snicker when Leandro’s eyes locked onto the dishes.

Leandro spotted her reaction and shook his head. He wasn’t pleased that she’d busted him. She was going to think he was a clean freak…which he was.

“Thank you, Clint,” Massimo said.

Clint took a seat in a chair. Next to him on the small table was an ashtray with a mound of half-smoked cigarettes spilling out of it. It looked like he was making a sculpture out of them. The place smelled toxic, worse than the burnt smell at Massimo’s.

“Now why are you fine folks here?” Clint asked as he rolled a cigarette on his knee.

“We’re here to ask for your services, which we will pay for,” Massimo told him.

Clint licked his cigarette paper and shook his head at Massimo. “I’m retired, Massimo. My services are no longer for sale.”

“Don’t you want to go on one last adventure?” Carter asked.

“Adventure?” Clint raised his eyebrows at Carter as he lit the cigarette and took a deep drag. “Adventure? If my services are required, it’s never an adventure. More people will die, and I’ve seen enough death to last me ten lifetimes.”

Ryder’s heart fell. It looked like Carter’s charm wasn’t going to work here. Okay, Ryder, time to try out your sweet-talk. “Sir, please, will you help? We have to set them free...the women and children Afana is holding against their will in an underground bunker. They’re treated worse than slaves. Please don’t be a bystander and do nothing. I need your help…they need your help!” The words tumbled out of Ryder’s mouth.

Clint jumped up. “Why didn’t you say it was Afana you were after?” He frowned at Massimo. “You’ll need an army to go against him.”

“So is that a no?” Ryder asked. So much for sweet-talk.

“A no?” Clint broke into a wheezy laugh. “It’s a ‘fuck, yeah!’ I’ve wanted to get my hands on that bloodsucking vampire for years! I just haven’t had anyone idiotic enough to want to join me.” Clint looked at everyone in the room. “Shit, no offense!”

“None taken,” Ryder told him.

The guys agreed, since Clint had insulted all of them.

“Well, fuck!” Clint exclaimed. “What are we waiting for? Let’s go kill us a vampire!”

Chapter Ten

Ryder walked with Massimo and Clint.

The three of them chatted as they headed to Koda’s house. Leandro and Carter were off on their own. Ryder thought she should go and talk with Leandro soon to give him a break from Carter. Carter looked happy. She thought he might have been thinking about Natalie.

“Why do you hate Afana?” Ryder asked Clint. She knew why she and Massimo did, but she hadn’t expected people outside the bunker to dislike him as much as she did. Actually, that wasn’t true. Once she considered it, there must be countless people who hated him for enslaving their families.

Clint took a final pull on his cigarette and dropped it. “What’s to like about him?” He ground the butt under his heel forcefully. “Fucker has been terrorizing the people around here for too long.”

“True.”

Clint held out a hand to Massimo. “Not all vampires are like Afana. I didn’t mean to insult you earlier, Massimo, it’s just that I’ve not heard that monster’s name for years. I’ve tried to block him out, but you can’t hide from your past, can you?”

“That’s what I’ve been telling him,” Ryder agreed. She hoped that Clint would be able to help change Massimo’s mind about taking her blood.

Massimo accepted the handshake. “You didn’t insult me. Not all vampires are monsters, as my new dear friend told me,” Massimo said fondly to Ryder.

“The reason I can’t stand Afana is because he preys on the weak. He has no moral compass, just takes what he wants with no regard for the lives he ruins. I can’t abide people like that. When I was a bounty hunter, I would only go after people like him, people who had wronged the innocent in some way. I had morals.” He spat in disgust. “People like Afana were once in power, and they killed our planet. We should have wiped them all out before they did that. I’m not going to stay retired while there is someone like that living. I couldn’t live with myself.”

“Thank you,” Ryder told him.

“No, thank you! I’ve been waiting years for someone like you to come along and fight alongside me.” Clint smiled.

Leandro came over to Ryder, and Massimo and Clint slowed down while they talked.

“How do you put up with him?” Leandro asked Ryder. He tilted his head in the direction of Carter, who was busy threading long pieces of grass into his beard.

Ryder grinned. “I try to switch off. Just saying yes, every so often seems to work. He likes to listen to the sound of his own voice.”

Leandro chuckled. “He does. He talks even more than Massimo, and I really didn’t think that was possible.”

They both chuckled at that.

“Are we ever going to see Fluffy again?”