The delivery kid had thrown the newspaper under the rhododendrons and I had to reach for it in the dirt. As I bent over, I noticed a car parked down the street with someone asleep behind the wheel. I squinted to get a better look. “Al?” I shook my head with despair. “What the hell is he doing here?” The old fraud—I’ll bet he slept in his car the whole night. My blood began to boil as I walked toward him.
I was outside the car in my robe, looking in at him. His hair had fallen across his head, and his features appeared sleep softened. He looked helpless and innocent sleeping behind the wheel, the utter antithesis of the man he truly was. Lying on the dashboard was a NJPD sketch of a man with a skin condition—no doubt Wrga. I had no doubt he would be apprehended in short order.
Al didn’t stir. I tried to communicate with him by sending a mental message, Wake up. He remained motionless. I rapped on the window with my knuckles. “Hey, Al, wake up.” I sighed. Do you believe this? He’s out like a light. I rapped on the window more insistently, but he still didn’t move. “Hey, Al! Wake up, would you?” The calamity that had befallen the Donovan family would pull all suspicion away from my father. Compared to the Donovans, Al Mather was a small fish that the press and authorities would have no interest in, an old man dying of … cancer. My throat tightened and I strained to see if I could see his chest rise and fall. “Oh, shit!” I couldn’t see any movement. I slapped the window with my open palm and then tried the door handle. It was unlocked. “Al,” I cried. I jostled his shoulder and he slumped forward. “NO!”
I couldn’t catch my breath and stepped back to pull fresh air into my lungs. My gaze was fixed on the back of his neck when I saw something and got closer. There was a purplish discoloration on the back of his neck. It took a moment for me to put two and two together, but then it hit me, Ligature marks. “Oh, Christ, it’s a thumbprint.” I fretted. “He’s been …” Just then I heard a powerful engine revving furiously. Tires squealed. I turned suddenly and saw a white SUV racing toward me. I spun around and raced toward the house with the truck bearing down on me, narrowly escaping as it sheared off the rental cart door. Without a moment of hesitation I knew that the dark ogre behind the wheel was the man everyone was looking for. It was the fugitive, the man I had failed to kill before. It was Sand. He must’ve followed Al, I presumed.
I raced through the open door but knew from the truck’s velocity that it wasn’t going to stop. I hit the deck as the wooden door flew past me. I scrambled behind the couch to shield myself from glass and debris that had exploded into the house.
I heard Grace cry out from the upstairs bedroom. Almost simultaneously I heard footsteps racing toward me from the bedroom on the main level. My gun was in the bedroom lockbox. In the span of a split second I visualized myself running into the bedroom, punching in the code, and retrieving my weapon.
The living room was filled with a cloud of smoke and the roar of the engine that was pinned up against the entranceway wall. Sand was a beast of a man, tall and unimaginably wide. He was wedged in and unable to squeeze out of the car because the staircase banister prevented the door from opening.
Thank God, I thought. There’s an opportunity. There’s hope. I looked back as I bolted for the bedroom. Sand was back in the driver’s seat, pulling the door closed and then slamming it repeatedly against the banister in an effort to fracture it.
I heard Liam cry out, “Chloe? Are you okay?”
I caught him just before he entered the room. His mouth dropped and his eyes flashed when he saw Armageddon taking place before him. I grabbed his arm and yanked him back toward the bedroom.
“What in God’s name?” He was trembling with fear.
“Run,” I said. “Go out the window. Get out of here now!” I opened the nightstand where I kept the lockbox.
“And leave you? Never!” He protested bravely. I saw him rip open the closet door and instinctively knew that he was going for his baseball bat.
I heard the sound of fracturing wood just as the lockbox door sprang open. I grabbed my Glock and pivoted, but it was too late. Sand was already bulldozing into the room. He had a gun in his hand, spraying shots wildly around the room. I dropped behind the bed and squeezed off the entire clip, each shot hitting him in his enormous chest and pushing him back farther and farther until he finally collided with the wall. A final fatal grunt came from his mouth and I knew that he was dead. I raced to Liam’s side as the gargantuan monster crashed to the floor.
Liam was bleeding badly. He’d taken multiple hits to the chest and midsection. Shit, he’s bleeding from everywhere, I worried with my face already awash with tears. There were so many wounds I didn’t know which to apply pressure to first. “Dear God, help me,” I cried. My throat tightened as I ripped the sling from my arm, balled it up, and benignly applied pressure to the bloodiest wound, with my palms trying to stem the bleeding. I yanked the sheet off the bed and wadded it up, but it became soaked with blood upon contact. Shit! What do I do? I forced a smile but could feel how sad and pathetic it looked, the muscles of my face straining to appear hopeful. “It’ll be all right. I’ll get help.”
“It’s too late,” he whispered in a hoarse voice and smiled through his pain. “I’m your wingman, right?”
“Yes.” I shuddered and took his hand. “You’re my wingman, my love.” Please stay with me, I prayed. “You’ll be okay. It’s not that bad.”
Liam gazed into my eyes and coughed up blood. “You’re a terrible liar.”
I tried to smile for his sake and tightened my grip on his hand as he faded away.”
“We got him, you and me. We got the guy who killed Wallace.”
“We did,” I sniffled. “We absolutely—” I stopped in mid-sentence and burst into tears. Liam’s head had slumped to the side with his gaze cast through the window, straight and true at heaven.
~~~END~~~
Chloe Mather will return in Carnage of the Kill
I hope that you enjoyed Legends of the Kill. Now is the best time for you to review the book, so please click on the hyperlink and post a review while your opinion is still fresh: http://smarturl.it/g7s29m
For more information on Stephanie Chalice and Chloe Mather thrillers, and my other books, please visit my website: lawrencekelter.com.
Write to me at any time and sign up for my forthcoming newsletter: [email protected].
In the Stephanie Chalice Thriller Series
Full-Length Novels
Don’t Close Your Eyes
Ransom Beach
The Brain Vault
Our Honored Dead
Baby Girl Doe
Compromised (Spring 2015)
Stephanie Chalice Novellas
First Kill: Prequel #1
Second Chance: Prequel #2
Third Victim: Prequel #3
In the Chloe Mather Thriller Series
Secrets of the Kill
Rules of the Kill
Legends of the Kill
Carnage of the Kill (Summer 2015)
Other Full-length Works of Fiction
Counterblow
Kiss of the Devil’s Breath
Palindrome
Saving Cervantes
Season of Faith
About The Author
I never expected to be a writer. In fact, I was voted the student least likely to visit a library. (Don’t believe it? Feel free to check my high school yearbook.) Well, times change I suppose, and I have now authored several novels including the internationally best-selling Stephanie Chalice, and Chloe Mather Thriller Series.
Early in my writing career, I received support from none other than best-selling novelist, Nelson DeMille, who reviewed my work and actually put pencil to paper to assist in the editing of the first book. DeMille has been a true inspiration to me and has also given me some tough love. Way before he ever said, “Lawrence Kelter is an exciting new novelist, who reminds me of an early Robert Ludlum,” he told me, “Kid, your work needs editing, but that’s a hell of a lot better
than not having talent. Keep it up!”
I’ve lived in the Metro New York area most of my life and rely primarily on locales in Manhattan and Long Island for story settings. I do my best to make each novel quickly paced and crammed full of twists, turns, and laughs.
Enjoy!
LK
Table of Contents
SECRETS OF THE KILL Dedication
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Chapter 68
Chapter 69
RULES OF THE KILL Dedication
Acknowledgments
Book I: Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Book II: Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Book III: Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Book IV: Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Book V: Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Chapter 68
Chapter 69
Chapter 70
Chapter 71
Chapter 72
Chapter 73
Chapter 74
Chapter 75
Chapter 76
Chapter 77
Chapter 78
Chapter 79
Chapter 80
Chapter 81
Chapter 82
Chapter 83
Chapter 84
LEGENDS OF THE KILL Dedication
Acknowledgments
Book I: Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Book II: Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Book III: Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Book IV: Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Chapter 68
Chapter 69
Chapter 70
Books By Lawrence Kelter
About The Author
The Mather Triad: Series Boxed Set (Chloe Mather Thrillers) Page 68
