Blood Line (A Tom Rollins Thriller Book 1) by Paul Heatley (book recommendations based on other books .txt) 📗

“Remember, Carly, sex complicates. We can’t have any complications, not now, not when we’re so close.”

She nods.

“Do you want to know the key to any lasting and successful relationship?” Eric says. “A successful marriage?” He taps his wedding band again.

“Okay,” she says.

“Keep sex out of it. Goodbye, Agent Hogan.”

29

Tom is parked across the road from the bar where Peter Reid works.

Peter’s nickname, so Tom has been told, is ‘Terminator’. It didn’t take Tom long to see why. Peter is built like a tank. He’s all muscle. There isn’t a pound of fat on him. He looks like Schwarzenegger in his youth. It is a fitting nickname.

He waits for it to get later. To get dark. For the bar to close.

Tom has been in Harrow for two days now. This is the end of his second day. He has spent all of his time on recon. He has not left the car. He has eaten food bought from the drive-thru. He has pissed into a bottle. To prevent cramps, he has flexed and relaxed his muscles, particularly in his legs and lower back. Kept himself from seizing up.

He has been by every house. Has watched them for hours at a time. At Steve’s, there wasn’t much to see. Tom was able to catch glimpses of him as he passed by windows, but that was it. He stayed indoors. People came to see him. These people all looked the same. They were going to him to buy drugs.

Ronald Smith lives by himself. His house is at the end of a neighborhood, away from the other homes in the area. Like he is an outcast, a loner. Like the other people here don’t want anything to do with him, nor he them. His home is surrounded by dead grass. There is a rusted old car with a cracked windscreen under a tree. The tyres are flat. The car’s original color is unclear. The tree looks as though it once had a tire swing hanging from it, but the tire is gone, so that all that remains is an ominous rope. Ronald is clearly the oldest member of the Right Arm, in middle age. Earlier today, he left town for a few hours. Tom followed him only to the town’s limits, then turned and went back to his house. Resumed his parked position down the road, waited for him to come back, wondering if it would be today. He was gone for a few hours. When he returned, he unlocked his house, then went straight to the trunk of his car. He looked around. Convinced it was clear, he brought out packages from the trunk, carried them inside his house.

Shortly thereafter, Harry Turnbull came by. He took some of the packages away. It didn’t take a genius to work out that Ronald had picked up their fresh supply of drugs. Harry had taken them for distribution around town.

Harry also lives alone, but seems to have a girlfriend who comes and goes. Tom recognized her. The woman from the motel, the one who checked him in. Beth. He’s stored this information away. It may prove useful. He made particular note of the look on her face, too. She didn’t look happy to be going there. Even when Harry answered the door for her, she still struggled to force a smile.

Michael Wright, founder and leader of the Right Arm, lives on the other side of town, with his wife. They have an old farmhouse. It’s big. Harder to get close to than the others. Tom had to park back as far as he could. He watches through binoculars. There are trees at the back of the house. If Tom wants to get closer, he will have to park further away, continue through the woodland on foot. These are all details he commits to memory. He wonders how much of Michael’s activities his wife is aware of. Assumes it will be a lot, as she is always present, always with him. Harry is often there, too, though without Beth. Tom wonders how much she knows. How close she and Harry are.

Tom will take out Peter first. After hours at the bar. With his size, he is clearly their enforcer. The biggest threat. Killing Peter first will send a message. He can’t take out all of the Right Arm in one night, not on his own, and they’re going to become aware of something happening as he picks them off one by one. Therefore, he wants to give them something to be worried about. Something to be scared of. Something that will make them sloppy, prone to mistakes.

There may be others in the bar with Peter when Tom has to go in, but he has gotten a good look at the clientele. More than likely, they too are members of the Right Arm. He isn’t too concerned at having to prospectively hurt them. He is not going to let anyone get in his way.

Being in Harrow is hard. Closer to where Alejandra was, the ground where she walked, the town where she lived. The air she breathed. Tom remembers when she broke his heart. She didn’t do it on purpose, but that didn’t make it hurt any less. Tom was back off his tour, eager to return to Harrow, to find the girl he hadn’t stopped thinking about all the while he was gone. He’d reached out to Anthony, asking if he could stay over again. Anthony said, of course, no problem, “You’ll get to meet my new girlfriend.”

Tom wasn’t interested in Anthony’s new girlfriend. He’d be polite, of course, exchange pleasantries, but in reality, all he’d be thinking of would be Alejandra and how quickly he could disengage himself and go searching for her, back to the bar where she worked.

And then he met Anthony’s new girlfriend, and she was Alejandra. “Hello, Tom,” she said, Anthony introducing them both. Tom thought