Arrow's Rest by Joel Scott (best books to read all time .TXT) 📗

and his escorts, the man turned and waved and Jared had his first look at James Albright.

His first impression was one of thickness. Everything about him suggested strength, from the wide shoulders and barrel chest down to the muscular thighs. His forearms were half as big around again as Jared’s, and thick wrists connected to large-knuckled hands. One of his fingers was crooked and judging from the swelling had been recently sprained or broken. There were no other visible signs of damage. Jared figured he must weigh at least two hundred and forty pounds, and then Albright swivelled sideways on the barstool and Jared got a clear look at the depth of the man and revised his estimate up another twenty. The word mesomorph flashed into Jared’s mind from a picture in an old high school textbook. He thought Sullivan would have had small chance against this man in a boxing match with proper rules, let alone in whatever passed for a contest here.

Albright waved him to a seat and poured out a drink from the bottle in front of him. “Forty-year-old scotch, the very best,” he said. “Although, I hear you’re not particular.” He slid the glass across and lifted his own in a mocking toast. “To new friends,” he said. His voice slurred on some of the words and Jared first thought the man drunk, but then he saw the faint bruising around Albright’s lower face and realized the impediment was caused by the dislocated jaw Sullivan had mentioned. Even in repose the man had a strutting animal confidence, the primitive alpha attitude enhanced by the large powerful body. “I’ve been looking forward to meeting you. I believe we have some things in common.”

Jared said, “I doubt that. From everything I’ve heard, you’re as crazy as a shithouse rat.”

He knew Albright had no intention of letting him leave the boat in any case and saw no point in making nice. If he’d had any hopes about his future prospects, the fact that they’d put him in with Sullivan had removed them. The lawyer was a dead man walking, and Albright wouldn’t let anyone familiar with those circumstances loose to speak of it.

“Now, now, Jared, don’t be so hasty. You haven’t heard me out yet. I guarantee that what I have to say will be of interest to you.” Albright took the extra glass that sat before him and poured a shot into it and set it in front of the empty stool between Jared and him.

“We have a guest coming to join us for drinks before dinner,” he said. “She should have been here by now, but you know what women are like. They like to make us wait, don’t they? You’d better see what’s keeping her, Travis. Now, where was I? Oh yes, things we have in common.”

Jared stared at Albright and felt a cold paralyzing chill settle over him. Surely the man was bluffing. Cat had more sense than to come on board with him. She’d turned down the position, and there was no way in hell she could be out here. Albright was watching him, the trace of a smile on his face as the silence stretched.

Jared was damned if he’d be the one to break it. He picked up his drink and swung round on his stool and checked out the room. It seemed strangely bare, only a single dining table surrounded by several chairs, a lone couch in front of a big-screen TV, and a roped boxing ring in the corner where Albright must have played out his sick games with the lawyer. It contained none of the trappings you would expect to find on a boat purposely designed for combining business with pleasure. There were no pictures on the wall, no occasional tables to hold lamps or drinks or snacks, no cozy corners for private meetings or trysts. Patches of darker coloured wood on the floor indicated where rugs and furniture had been removed. Ripped panelling in two of the corners showed where fitted shelves had been torn out. Jared thought it resembled a spartan army barracks more than a luxury yacht.

“As you can see, I’ve done a little redecorating,” Albright said with a sweeping gesture that encompassed the room. “I found it a bit cluttered in here for my liking. I’m going with the minimalist look, stripping down to the bare essentials. It’s my newfound philosophy in life. No more keeping up appearances. It’s all about what really matters from here on.”

“I would have thought Ivery might have had something to say about that,” Jared said.

“Not going to be a problem, I can assure you. But enough about me.” He slid off the bar stool and bowed towards the end door. “Our guest has arrived.”

It was Cat. Shoulders back and smiling as she entered the room flanked by Clint and Travis, but Jared knew her well enough to see how shaken she was. She walked towards them and slid onto the bar stool Albright held for her and turned towards him.

“Hi, Jared. This is a nice surprise. I didn’t realize you were joining us.” Cat was putting up a brave front and he would follow her lead, but he heard the slight tremor in her voice that she couldn’t quite hide.

To his relief she appeared uninjured. Jared suspected Albright craved an audience for his actions, someone who cared for Cat present when harm arrived for her. Or maybe it was the other way around, as the lawyer had inferred. Having no real feelings of his own, the man needed to experience vicariously what normal people felt. The psychological equivalent of the physical lack of pain receptors Sullivan had talked about. What was it he’d said? Congenital analgesia? So emotional analgesia then, and he needed to see someone else experience what he couldn’t. Or, to put it more succinctly, the man was a raving fucking sociopath.

If it had been within his power to destroy Albright at that moment, Jared would have done