Live Free or Die Complete Series Boxed Set: Age Of Madness - A Kurtherian Gambit Series by Hayley Lawson (pdf e book reader .TXT) 📗

turned too, and things just spiraled out of control from there. Carter showed us how to two-tap them.”

Massimo nodded in approval. “Good.” The man looked like he was holding in his emotions, and Leandro placed his arm around him.

Massimo turned away from the abattoir. “We’ll clean this up tomorrow. It’s been a long day.” Everyone nodded.

“How rude of me,” Massimo apologized, turning back around. “Where are my manners? It’s so nice to finally meet you, Ryder. You’re as breathtakingly beautiful as Leandro said you were. I’m Leandro’s Pops, Massimo.” Massimo held his hand out for Ryder to shake.

Ryder looked at Leandro and back at Massimo. “It’s nice to meet you, but I’m afraid I don’t know your son—except for when he bumped into me a few hours ago.”

Massimo turned and looked at Leandro, who held his head in his hand. “Leandro?”

“I overheard some men saying that they were looking for you,” Leandro mumbled, trying to veer the conversation away from how Ryder didn’t know who he was. “They were from Afana’s bunker.”

Ryder looked past Massimo and Leandro through the door to the outside for Sergei and Yegor. They should have been here by now.

“Mad! Move!” Ryder yelled as she threw her knife between the two men, who quickly got out of the way. They turned and watched the knife fly past them. It landed right in the approaching Mad’s eye.

Leandro wasted no time snapping the Mad’s neck, and the Mad dropped. Carter’s smug grin from earlier was gone, and now, it was his turn to raise an eyebrow at Leandro’s strength.

Leandro smiled at Carter. “You need two taps?”

Ryder was also impressed with his strength, but his dress sense was awful. Why do all the men around me have to be little boys trapped in men’s bodies?

“One thing I hate about Pinewood is all the damn zombies,” Massimo said, grinning expectantly. No one else joined him. “Did no one see what I did there?” Everyone else looked at one another, confused.

“What’s a zombie?” Ryder asked, frowning at the strange man.

Massimo sniffed and waved a hand at the rapidly cooling corpses. “My genius is wasted on today’s youth. For the record, you’re missing out on the best vampire movie ever.”

A cold shiver washed over Ryder’s body when Massimo said “vampire.” The thought of there being more than one Afana terrified her.

Leandro shook his head wryly. “Pops, movie trivia isn’t going to work if they haven’t seen the movie. And most people haven’t seen a movie in, like, two hundred—”

Ryder quickly interrupted Leandro. “Where are Afana’s men?”

“I sent them in a different direction,” Massimo told her. “They didn’t seem like very nice men. I hope they weren’t friends of yours.”

Ryder sighed with relief. “They aren’t my friends.”

“Good,” Massimo concluded. “Kelvin, you’d best get yourself home, or you’ll have a divorce on your hands.”

Kelvin looked at the broken clock on the floor. “You’re right. She’s going to be pissed. I’ll see you guys tomorrow. That is, if you two plan on staying.”

Kelvin headed home without waiting for a reply, leaving the four of them staring at each other.

“Where are you two sleeping tonight?” Massimo asked. “And you really need to get that blood cleaned off you quickly before you turn into a zombie.”

Ryder’s eyes nearly popped out of her head.

“Just joking,” Massimo explained quickly.

Leandro covered his eyes with a hand. “Pops, that’s not something to joke about.”

His father shrugged. “You’re welcome to get cleaned up at our house and get some rest,” he told Ryder and Carter. “It’s safe there.”

Ryder and Carter looked at one another. They both wanted to get the blood off them, and the fight had worn them out.

Ryder hesitated. “If you’re sure?” She didn’t like the idea of sleeping at a stranger’s house, but with these weird Mad people running around, sleeping under the stars wasn’t an option.

“We are.” Massimo waited for Ryder to look away, and he winked at Leandro.

“Do you own the bar?” Ryder asked Massimo as they walked to his house. Carter was by her side, and Leandro was next to Massimo.

“I do,” Massimo told her proudly. “Well, more like we both do. Leandro did most of the work to build and furnish it.”

She nodded. “It was quite impressive. I’ve never seen anything quite like it.”

“It was, wasn’t it?” He sighed wistfully.

“Pops, don’t get like that. I’m the moody one here. I can’t have you stealing that from me, can I?” Leandro placed his arm around his dad.

They were a funny pair. Leandro was huge compared to Massimo. Ryder had seen Carter sizing him up. Leandro was bigger and better-looking than Carter, but he was wearing ridiculous, undersized clothing, which made it hard for Ryder to take him seriously.

Massimo nodded. “Yes, our home would be very depressing if there were two grumpy old men living in it.”

“I’m not old or grumpy,” Leandro complained good-naturedly.

Leandro caught Ryder looking at his pants, which ended halfway up his shins, and his bare feet.

“I don’t normally dress like this,” Leandro told her quickly. “I was in a rush.”

“What, a rush for puberty?” Carter laughed, and Leandro scowled at him, clearly not understanding the joke. “Easy, tiger. I’m just playing. It looks like you and Ryder have both got the same sense of humor. None.”

“Hey!” Ryder and Leandro snapped at the same time.

“See?” Carter snickered. “Too easy.”

Changing the subject, Massimo said, “The place could stand a bit of a re-do. Maybe I’ll go with a different theme. American sports bar?” He laughed. “We couldn’t really have sports playing on the telly, could we? I’ll have to think about this.”

Massimo nodded to himself, lost in thought. The others looked at one another as they tried to work out what Massimo was talking about. Then they realized he meant the bar. While they had been speaking about Leandro’s clothes, he’d been thinking about the Old Dog.

Leandro sighed. “Looks like I’ll be making a few mall runs.” He smiled at Ryder.

What the hell is a mall run? And what the hell is a