Live Free or Die Complete Series Boxed Set: Age Of Madness - A Kurtherian Gambit Series Hayley Lawson (ebook reader play store .TXT) 📖

Leandro heard someone call him and looked back. It was Kelvin, yelling at him for wasting a beer and saying he’d be sure to tell Massimo tomorrow.

“You just go ahead,” Leandro called back over his shoulder. Then, he slammed right into Ryder. He grabbed her arm, trying to stop her from falling.

Leandro felt a cold blade against his neck which had to be Carter’s. Douche.

He was just taken aback by her. She was smaller than he had thought because now he was looking down on her instead of being a wolf looking up.

She was still breathtaking.

Carter said something, breaking Leandro’s stare at Ryder. Leandro mumbled something to Ryder. He wasn’t sure what came out of his mouth because he was too focused on assessing the other man.

Leandro felt he was way better looking than Carter, as well as taller, and had more muscle. If Leandro hadn’t been in a hurry to get home and there wasn’t a blade against his throat, he might’ve smiled. Instead, he quickly flipped his wrist, and Carter’s blade fell into the former wolf’s hand.

Part of him hoped his cool move had impressed Ryder. He returned the knife to Carter. “I think you dropped this, mate,” he said with a wink before he took off running.

Ryder and Carter stopped at the edge of the forest to look at the town, since neither had seen anything like it before. The buildings were made of stone, and some even had windows. At the end of a street, there was a white building with a cross on top, with smoke coming from behind it.

Music was playing in one of the buildings, and people were hanging around there like it was the place to be. She hoped there were some civilized people here. Ryder looked at Carter as he picked at his teeth, then looked at whatever he pulled out and ate it.

Please let them be more civilized than him.

“Here goes nothing,” she said. They eased their way into town, not quite sure what to make of it. Ryder’s hand hovered over her knife. She looked down for a brief second, and a man slammed into her and grabbed her arm.

“Get off her, or I'll slit your throat,” Carter said, pressing the blade to the man’s neck.

The man instantly let go of Ryder and raised his hands. His breath smelled of beer. “It was an accident. Sorry, Ryder. I'll explain later.”

Wait, what did he say? Ryder looked at Leandro like she’d never seen him before—because she hadn’t. How did he know her name? Was he from the bunker?

The man made some cool move, and Carter’s knife was in his hand. He flipped it around and gave it back to Carter, and Ryder quickly grabbed her knife. That was some fast shit. She wouldn’t let him take hers.

“I think you dropped this, mate.” After he returned Carter’s knife, he took off.

“Who was that freak?” Carter asked as they watched the man run off barefoot in clothes that were clearly too small for him.

“Who the fuck knows. At first, I thought he was from the bunker, but he doesn’t have the tattoo on the back of his neck. Everyone gets the tattoo.” How did he know me? “Come on. Let’s find Fluffy.”

Terrier looked into all the rooms again with Mama Lou. There was still no sign of any more infected, so they came back to check on Natalie and the kids. He knocked on the kids’ door gently, trying not to scare them.

The door opened, and Natalie peeked through the gap.

“How are you feeling?” Terrier asked.

Natalie opened the door fully, looking relieved to see him. “I’m doing okay. I feel better now that the kids are all settled. That’s the best part of the day. When they are sleeping, I mean. Kids are exhausting.”

Terrier was a little surprised at her statement since she normally acted like she loved every minute with the kids.

Natalie noticed Terrier’s shock and decided to have a little bit of fun with him. “Every day I feel like I’m living in a damn madhouse that’s run by a tiny army. Every time I say no, I can hear the kids whisper, ‘ask again and again until she says yes.’”

Terrier’s face was a true picture of worry, like he thought she might have actually lost her mind.

Natalie couldn’t hide her laughter anymore. “I’m just joking with you. It’s all true, but I wouldn’t change them for anything.” Natalie cradled her swollen belly. “I just wish they could be free.”

He nodded. “Me too. Ryder will be back for them. He’d never leave them.”

“Do you really think he’ll come back?”

Now Terrier wanted to laugh. “One hundred percent. He’ll be out there trying to build an army to get the kids out. And if that fails, he’ll come charging in with all guns blazing.”

Part of Terrier didn’t want Ryder to come back, but he knew that wasn’t how she was. She didn’t stand for injustice, and she would never be able to rest out in the world knowing that people were still trapped in the bunker.

“I hope he gets back soon.” Natalie yawned. She covered her mouth quickly. “Sorry. It’s just been a long day.”

“I’ll watch over the kids while you rest,” Terrier told Natalie. She nodded, and he walked her to her sleeping area nearby.

The women’s sleeping area was in worse condition than the men’s, but unlike the men, the women did their best to keep it clean and fixed the parts which were broken.

Terrier was just thinking how quiet things were when something slammed against the glass floor above them, scaring the piss out of him. Natalie grabbed Terrier’s arm, and he instinctively wrapped it around her, pulling her close to protect her.

The thud had come from a man. It was Coby, and he was lying flat on the glass, his mouth opening and closing in a scream they couldn’t hear. They didn’t need to hear it. The fear on his face said it