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

beer, tucking it into his armpit so he still had a hand free, and quickly headed outside. He was already three bites into a replacement chicken leg and was too hungry to let Sergei stop him.

Sergei snorted in disgust and sat down at the table to tuck into his food. He sipped the beer reflectively. This looks better than anything I’ve ever eaten. The food in the bunker is shit.

“It’s good, isn’t it?” Yegor yelled. He really was the worst lookout.

“If you’re going to keep shouting, you may as well come in.”

There were no flies on Yegor. He was inside the house before Sergei finished speaking. He dumped his plate on the table and carried on eating.

Sergei leaned back in the chair. “This vampire’s got a sweet setup here, hasn’t he?”

Yegor nodded as he ate. “Mm-hmm.”

“Maybe we should tell Afana there’s another vampire living nearby. We could hunt him down after we take that prick Ryder back, and take this place for ourselves.”

Yegor swallowed and looked at Sergei with a cunning look in his eyes. “Sounds like a good plan, Sergei.”

Sergei reached over and slapped Yegor on the back. “It does sound like a good plan. A very good plan.” He finished the last bite of his food and stood up. “Come on, let’s find our guns. There have to be some other weapons in this house, too. We can’t let Ryder get too far ahead of us.”

Sergei went ahead of Yegor into the front room. His belly was full and his mind returned to his mission—finding Ryder. If he’d lost Ryder, he might as well say goodbye to his head.

Yegor didn’t move, just kept eating, so Sergei took a book off the shelf and threw it at the back of Yegor’s head.

He jolted forward in surprise. “What the fuck?”

“Come on!”

Sergei didn’t need to say anything else. Yegor got to his feet, bringing his plate with him.

Sergei knocked the books off the shelves. “It looks like there’s just junk in this room.” They went to the next room.

“There’s just one bed in here, he doesn’t have to share a room with hundreds of other men, the lucky fucker,” Yegor bitched chomping loudly as he ate.

Sergei moved away, both to get away from the noise and because he wanted to see what was behind the next door. He opened it and peered down the stairs beyond. It was pitch black.

“Grab a candle,” Sergei told Yegor.

Yegor did as he was told and grabbed a few sausages for his trouble.

With the candlelight as a guide, the men descended the stairs to Massimo’s vault. There was an acrid smell in the air.

Yegor sniffed. “There’s been a fire down here.”

Sergei sneered. “No shit. Come on, look for our guns.”

They searched the basement but found no sign of their guns. They’d have to settle for the knives in the kitchen.

The men were about to leave when Sergei spotted a metal safe. They immediately tried to open it, without success.

Sergei growled and kicked the side of the safe. “There’s got to be something important in here’.”

Yegor dropped the drumstick bone on top of the safe and tried the handle again. “It’s probably our guns.”

Sergei took a closer look at the safe. “It looks like you need a key to get in.”

“If I were a key…where would I be?” Yegor pondered. He walked around the room, repeating the same question, “If I were a key, where would I be? Where would I…”

Sergei cracked his knuckles menacingly. He was getting ready to shut Yegor up when he stopped pacing.

“I’d be under a pillow!” Yegor lifted the pillow on the bed.

There was a key under the pillow.

Sergei couldn’t believe his eyes. “No fucking way!”

Yegor hadn’t noticed. He was too busy nuzzling the pillow with his grease-stained face. “It’s so soft and fluffy, and smells like a summer’s day.”

“You dick, the key!” Sergei snapped.

“Oh yeah, the key.” Yegor threw the pillow across the room and picked up the key, holding it above his head like a crown.

He walked to the safe and started to insert the key, but Sergei stopped him.

Yegor had a giant grin on his face. “I found it.”

“Shut up,” Sergei said as he pushed the key into the lock, then opened the door. They both peered inside.

There were no weapons, just a magazine. Sergei pulled out the magazine and Yegor shined his light on it.

“Is that… Is that Mama Lou?” Yegor leaned over the magazine, his head so close that it nearly touched the front page.

“Back the fuck up.” Sergei pushed Yegor’s annoying head out of the way so he could have a look at the magazine.

He was shocked by what he saw. She looked like Mama Lou…but not the Mama Lou he knew since she was completely naked. On the top of the magazine, Sergei could just make out the words Big Beautiful Women.

Sergei turned the page, and there was another naked woman, and another on the next. The magazine was filled with naked women.

“Let me see!” Yegor snapped as he leaned in again, trying to get a better look. “I’d do her and her.” Yegor leered, pointing at two of the women.

Sergei snatched the magazine out of Yegor’s reach. “I’m keeping this.” He rolled up the magazine and put it in his back pocket, pulling his shirt over it.

Ryder had caught up to Carter, Leandro, and Massimo. The guys had bitched and bantered the whole way, leaving Ryder to her thoughts. She spotted a white building and knew they were at the edge of the town. Two humans, a werewolf, and a vampire walk into a small town. There has to be a joke in there somewhere.

Leandro caught Ryder smiling to herself. He saw her looking at the church. He remembered what a ball-ache painting that church for his dad had been. Massimo had decreed that it had to be white, and of course Leandro could never say no to his Pops.

Did he know how hard it was to get paint when the world