Blood and Ashes: Joe Hunter: Book Five by Matt Hilton

Author:Matt Hilton [Hilton, Matt]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Action & Adventure, Thrillers
Publisher: Hachette UK
Published: 2011-02-03T09:19:27+00:00

Chapter 30

At face value Jared Rington was an anomaly. He was built like a pro-fighter, but he was no brain-damaged pug. His features had more in common with those of his Japanese mother than his Scottish-Canadian father, and yet he spoke with the drawling twang of a country and western singer. He was an imposing man whichever way you looked at him, but he was also quick to smile and carried gentleness within him that was belied by his capability for extreme violence which smouldered beneath his surface like a lit fuse. Like me, he was an Arrowsake alumnus, a graduate of that school of hard knocks, but following his demobilisation he’d managed to integrate himself back into society without carrying the same baggage that weighed me down.

I was damaged. I’m well aware of that fact. On leaving the military, I also had tried to settle back into the mundane life of a civilian, but the impulse to atone for what I perceived as a black mark on my soul ensured that I’d never know peace. Diane left me, though we loved each other, because she didn’t want to see her husband die. Diane knew I wouldn’t – couldn’t – change, and I was the first to admit that she was right. Often I’d reasoned that morality made me a good person, but my knack for embroiling myself in trouble argued against that. The saving grace was that I was helping decent people, and by that virtue it made me decent, too. That was my lot in life. My creed was simple: I didn’t like bullies and I’d go down kicking and screaming before I’d let them have their way. The only problem with my creed was that those loyal to me were dragged into my personal quest, and there was no one more loyal to me than Rink.

Rink would probably love to shake some sense into me, but at the same time whenever I stepped into the fray I didn’t have to look over my shoulder to know that my friend was standing right there. That was a given.

I’d just done showering, shaving and pulling on fresh clothing when the big man proved the point. He grabbed me in a spine-cracking bear hug, told me how happy he was to see me, then set me down. His face was like a thunderhead growing on the horizon.

‘Hunter, most guys take off to Vegas, play the slot machines, maybe hook up with a gal for some no-strings fun, but not you. They come back with empty pockets and a shit-eating grin on their faces. When you told me you were taking a couple days out, I thought, great, go an’ do some fishing or hiking or whatever. ’Specially when you headed off to the ass-end of the Alleghenies, I thought, surely he can’t get himself in trouble up there . . .’

Rink gave me the eyeball.

‘What do you want me to say?’

‘For a start, you can tell me why you didn’t even mention why you were coming up here.

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