BLOOD TIES (Decklan Jennings Thriller Book 1)

by Philip Duncan

  “Plus, it will give us some time to talk and get to know each other better. I believe that the better we understand each other, the better we will work together. Don’t ya think?” Langley said, trying to get Decklan to warm up to him.

  He tried his best to hold back his normal sarcastic, smart-ass tone. “Yup, sounds great,” Decklan replied.

  “Great, I’ll drive.”

  They hopped into Langley’s jet black Dodge Charger that had the window tint and rims to match. They drove around for about fifteen minutes before stopping off at a gas station to fill up.

  “Keep the pump running for me. I am going to run inside real quick. Do you need anything?” Langley said.

  “No thanks, I am all set,” Decklan replied.

  Ten minutes later, Langley came walking back out eating a candy bar and holding a Dr. Pepper.

  “That took a while. What were you doing in there?” Decklan asked.

  “Sorry about that. I was asking some questions to see if I could find out anything useful.” Langley said.

  “From a gas station?”

  “You never know who might have answers. Plus, it never hurts to ask.”

  They headed back out on the road.

  “Can I ask you a question?” Langley said.

  “Sure, why not?” Decklan replied.

  “Do you know of anyone who would want to hurt your family? Anyone at all? Anything could help.”

  “No.”

  “I need you to think really hard. Have you pissed anyone off lately? Did your wife have any enemies that you were aware of?”

  “Pissing people off is kind of my specialty, but no one in particular stands out. And as far as my wife goes, she was an angel. She would never hurt anyone and everyone who knew her loved and adored her.”

  “Everyone has secrets, Decklan.”

  “Not her, trust me.”

  “Okay, I’m sorry but I had to ask,” Langley finished.

  Several minutes passed by without a word. Then, something caught their attention: a group of shady-looking guys standing around a black SUV in an empty parking lot.

  “What the hell are they doing?” Decklan said.

  “I can’t say for sure, but from my experience it looks like a drug deal,” Langley replied.

  “A drug deal? Here, in my town. No way. I have never seen drugs here.”

  “Trust me, drugs are everywhere, which means drug dealers. Which usually means violence.”

  “You think those guys could be linked to my family?”

  “It’s definitely possible.”

  “We should do something,” Decklan said as he started to get out of the car.

  Langley grabbed Decklan’s arm to keep him inside the car. “Not so fast. You can’t just walk up to guys like this and start asking questions. That’s how you end up dead,” Langley said.

  “Then what do you suggest we should do? If there’s the slightest chance they could have something to do with my family, I can’t just let them get away.”

  “I get it, Decklan, but we have to be smart. I think we should follow them and see where they go. Maybe they will lead us back to their stash house.”

  “Stash house?” Decklan said, unsure what it meant.

  “Yes. Drug dealers typically have a place where they spend the majority of their time so they don’t draw attention to their own homes. It’s also where they stash their drugs, money, and weapons. Hence the name stash house.”

  This made sense to Decklan now. He had several missions that involved tracking down terrorists in safe houses across the world. However, doing so in a domestic environment would be much different, and in his own backyard, no less. He had no intel. He didn’t have a team of highly trained Rangers to help him. All he had was a hunch and Langley.

  Since they just stumbled across this, they had no way or time to develop a plan. They would have to figure everything out on the fly and just roll with the punches. Although the military prided itself on plan and then execution, Decklan had always been one to act on the fly and let the chips fall where they may. And he was damn good at it.

  “They are moving,” Langley said, as they were both watching. “Time to roll.”

  The black SUV pulled out of the parking lot and turned right down the road he and Langley just came from. They waited a few seconds before following behind. They managed to stay three cars behind in the right hand lane while the SUV stayed at a steady pace in the left. The only time they stopped was at red lights, and Langley was far enough back not to raise any suspicion.

  “I wish their windows weren't so damn blacked out. I wanna get a better look at these assholes,” Decklan said.

  “Don’t worry, this isn’t my first tail. I’ll make sure we get a great close-up of these guys before it’s all said and done,” Langley replied.

  They continued for another ten minutes or so before entering one of the wealthier neighborhoods in the area. Every house was at least six thousand square feet, and they were all well over a million dollars.

  “No way this is where their stash house is,” Decklan said.

  “You would be surprised at the kind of money these guys have. Depending on the volume of product they are running, they could afford ten of these lucrative houses without breaking a sweat,” Langley said.

  Decklan was blown away. He knew drug dealers could make good money but he had no idea it could produce this kind of wealth in his own town. Especially since he had no idea it was going on. He assumed if they could move that much product then he would have seen it or at least heard about it. After all, his little brother was the chief of police.

  The SUV finally pulled into a house at the end of a street in the back of the neighborhood. Langley wisely kept his distance, stopping about seven houses back. He pulled out a pair of military power binoculars and handed them to Decklan.

  “Here, take a look. I told you I would give you a close up. Tell me what you see.”

  “I see four guys, three white and one black. Two of the white guys have full sleeve tattoos on both arms and the black guy is wearing a hat pulled down as far as it can go without covering his eyes.”

  “Great. Now, what about the other guy?”

  Decklan turned his sights to the last guy.

  “He looks much older than the rest. At least fifteen to twenty years. He is dressed in an expensive suit. All black with a black undershirt, top button undone and no tie. I think he’s the leader,” Decklan said.

  “Let me see,” Langley replied.

  Decklan handed over the binoculars.

  “Yes, I agree. That has to be the boss. But one thing is throwing me off,” Langley said.

  “What is it?”

  “Why would the boss go to a drug deal? Why would he put himself at risk out in the open like that when he has guys to do it for him? This would make more sense if it was a huge deal, but there weren’t enough people around for that to be the case. Something doesn't add up.”

  Langley stayed locked in on the leader. After about five minutes, the conversing stopped and two of them, including the boss, headed inside the house while the other two got back in the SUV and drove off.

  “What now?” Decklan asked. “Do we follow them again or sit here and wait to see if something happens?”

  Silence filled the car.

  “Langley, what’s our move?” Decklan said again, still waiting on a response.

  Finally he came out of his thinking and answered. “I think we should go back to your house and regroup.”

  “Regroup? What the hell for? We finally have a lead and you want to go back?” Decklan said, growing frustrated.

  The mood between the two couldn’t be more opposite. Decklan was fired up and ready to take action, while Langley was calm and restrained. As frustrating as this was for Decklan, having a cooler head around was a good thing. It would keep him alive and out of trouble.

  “I understand your frustration, Decklan. I re
ally do. But I need you to trust me. That is the only way this is going to work.” Langley said. “I have taken down guys like this for years and if I learned one thing, it’s not to rush to action. The more calculated we can be, the better chance we have.”

  Trust was hard for Decklan ever since he found out his dad was having an affair when he was in middle school. He walked in on his dad talking to his mistress one night when everyone was supposed to be asleep. His dad saw him and told him not to tell anyone, especially his mom. He said he was breaking it off. He said that was what the phone call was about. He was only eight years old at the time and looked up to his dad, so he agreed. Of course, he never really knew if his dad was telling the truth or not but he knew one thing for sure; he could never trust a man who would do something like that to his wonderful mother. And ever since that night, trust was a sensitive subject and something that was hard to earn with him.

  Langley took Decklan’s silence as agreement, so he started the car and drove back to the house.

  CHAPTER 10

  It was late in the afternoon now and the sun was starting to set. They both realized they haven’t had anything to eat all day. This had become Decklan’s new normal; he hadn't had much of an appetite since that dreadful night.

  “I don’t have much food here, but I am sure I can find you something if you are hungry,” Decklan said.

  “That’s okay. I was actually thinking about going and grabbing a bite to eat and maybe a drink,” Langley said. “You care to join me?”

  Decklan thought about the last time he went for a drink and how well that turned out.

  “No thanks, I’m not hungry,” he said purposefully ignoring the drink offer. He didn’t need to explain himself to someone he just met.

  “All right, I will be back in a couple of hours.”

  Decklan needed to shower and try his best to unwind and relax, if that was even possible anymore. The shower did help him relax, at least a little. After the shower, he headed back downstairs to his living room, which had become the only room in the house he found himself in for more than five minutes.

  He searched for the remote but couldn’t find it anywhere on the couch. Then he remembered that one of the men that night would have had it in order to play the horrific video of his family. He looked back over his right shoulder and saw it sitting there on the table directly behind the couch that sat under the giant living room mirror.

  He hesitated going for it, since the last time it was used, it completely destroyed his entire world. He finally stood up and walked over to grab it. Although it was just a remote, it felt like it could have weighed a thousand pounds. He wanted to put it down. Hell, he wanted to throw it against the wall and break it into a hundred pieces, but he couldn’t. He couldn’t move a muscle. He just stood there, holding it in his hand like an unpinned grenade.

  He looked up from his hand and stared at himself in the mirror. It was the first time in days that he actually looked at himself. He couldn’t believe how shitty he looked. Bloodshot eyes with dark, heavy bags under them. He looked like a strung out druggie or a law student who had been cramming for the Bar for the past week. His face was even thinner from the lack of food, sleep, and proper hydration. He was ashamed.

  Look at yourself. You are pathetic. What would your family think if they saw you?

  He had every excuse in the world to look and feel the way he did, but he couldn’t stand the sight of himself. He turned away in disgust and found himself back on the couch. Still holding the remote, he sat in front of his seventy-inch flat screen TV. No picture. No sound. He just sat there terrified of what would appear if he turned it on. So he didn’t.

  “Hey Decklan, I’m back. Sorry that took me so long,” Langley said, walking back through the front door.

  No response.

  “Hey man, are you okay?” Langley asked, wondering if Decklan had heard him the first time.

  No response.

  This time he stood in front of Decklan and snapped his fingers. “Hey, you all right, man?”

  Still looking at the blank TV, he finally responded. “Oh hey, sorry. I didn’t hear you come in. I must have zoned out for a minute.”

  “No worries, just wanted to make sure everything was okay.”

  “Thanks. Did you find that food and drink you went looking for?”

  “As a matter of fact, I found something better,” Langley said.

  This brought Decklan fully out of his trance. “What?” he responded.

  “While I was enjoying my drink at one of your bars, I overheard a couple of guys talking about scoring some glass.”

  A puzzled look passed over Decklan’s face. “Glass?”

  “That’s right,” Langley said. “That’s a street name for crystal meth.”

  “Are you serious? These assholes are selling meth—here?” Decklan said.

  “That’s what it sounded like, and I managed to hear when and where they were meeting. Tomorrow night, at some college party. Guys like this use parties to move their product because they can find drunk college kids with too much money who are willing to pay twice the price to get high.”

  “So what’s your plan?”

  “We are going to try and get one of them to sell to us.”

  Decklan was surprised by this response. “We aren’t in college and we sure as hell don’t look like we are.”

  “No one will pay us any attention. Everyone there will be too high or too drunk to notice we don’t fit in, and the dealers will be too eager to sell to think twice about it,” Langley said.

  Decklan wasn’t a hundred percent sure this plan would work but he didn't have much choice since this was their best chance. However, one thing did bother him…

  “What if something happens and this goes sideways? There will be a lot of kids that could get hurt if things get out of hand,” Decklan said.

  “I know, trust me. The last thing I want is to put anyone in danger, but this might be our only shot at getting close to these guys,” Langley replied, fully aware of the risks.

  They were both a little apprehensive about this plan, Decklan more so than Langley, but they decided that they had no choice.

  ***

  They were sitting outside the house where the party was taking place, only this time it looked to belong to some trust fund kid whose parents were probably out of town on some lavish vacation. They sat and watched patiently as college kid after college kid poured into the giant house.

  Must be at least a hundred people in there, Decklan thought to himself.

  They continued to be patient until they spotted one of the drug dealers.

  “Right there! Look. Those are our guys,” Langley said, pointing toward the house. “Let’s go. They probably won’t be in there long.”

  Guys like this moved like shadows in the night to avoid gaining any unwanted attention. Decklan and Langley got out of the car and started making their way toward the front door when they suddenly heard someone talking behind them.

  “Hey asshole, remember us?”

  They turned around and Decklan immediately recognized the group of guys. It was the same guys he just embarrassed in the bar less than a week ago, while he was hammered. Surely they know better than to try their luck while he was sober.

  “Who are these guys?” Langley asked.

  “Just a group of wannabe tough guys,” Decklan responded, brushing them off as a credible threat.

  “We were hoping to run into you again. Now that you can’t catch us off guard, we are going to teach you a lesson,” one of them said.

  “Listen man, I don’t want any trouble and I’m sorry for kicking your ass the other night. Now, we have somewhere we need to be, so if you will excuse us…” Decklan said as he turned away to keep walking.

  He was hoping they would leave it alone, but these guys had obviously been drinking and had even less sense than when they were sober, which wasn’t saying much.

  “T
here are four of us and only two of you, so I think we’ll decide when this is over.”

  Decklan smirked before returning with a typical smartass remark. “I must have hit you pretty hard the other night. Did you forget how it went last time?”

  “You got lucky last time. It won’t happen again.”

  Langley was watching the situation unfold in amusement, because he knew exactly what Decklan was capable of and it didn’t matter if there were four of them. Someone as highly trained as Decklan was not to be trifled with, especially when you paired that with a man who had nothing left to lose.

  He leaned over to Decklan. “We need to get in there now, before we miss our window.”

  “Go ahead. I won’t be long,” Decklan said without taking his eyes off the douchebags.

  Langley headed inside the party, leaving Decklan to fend for himself and having no worries that he would handle the situation with ease.

  “All right ladies, I ain’t got all night,” Decklan said mockingly.

  One of them standing to his left lunged forward with a big looping punch, only to miss by a mile. Decklan ducked down and came right back up with a quick but brutal uppercut. One idiot down, three to go. The next one charged straight forward like a linebacker looking for the quarterback. He hit Decklan in the stomach only to find that he couldn’t move him. He quickly found himself being choked unconscious and dropped to the pavement like a lifeless corpse. That was two.

  The last two left looked at each other in acknowledgement to attack together. They figured two on one would give them a better chance at success, which would usually be the case. The first guy landed a heavy leg kick to Decklan’s upper thigh, but did little damage. The other one went for a straight cross down the pipe, but hit nothing but air. Another attempt, missed again. Three more attempted strikes, all coming up short as Decklan bobbed and weaved like a world class boxer, which he could attribute to his extensive hand to hand combat training in the military.

  The main guy was clearly exhausted from throwing so many missed shots, so Decklan took this chance to throw a three punch combo that left the guy flat on his back. Three down, one to go. The only one left was the only guy who managed to land a shot, even if it was to no avail.