The Kid: A Suspense Thriller (Reed & Billie Book 3) Read online

  Praise for The Good Son,

  Book 2 of the Reed & Billie Series

  Stevens has ratcheted-up the suspense level in this 2nd in a series book to the point where I crave a 3rd book to be written by this fine author! – Amazon Reviewer

  A suspense thriller par excellence, and a must-read for fans of this genre. – Kindle Purchaser

  I've read both of the Reed and Billie series, and I loved them. The relationship between the two is developing. Enough twists and action to make this another great read from Mr. Stevens. I'm really looking forward to your next installment--I'm hooked on this dynamic duo. – Verified Reader

  Loved this second book in the series- who can resist watching the relationship evolve for this man and his canine partner (who are both mourning the loss of their partners). Terrific characters and suspense. More, More, More!!! – Kindle Reviewer

  Must love dogs. Great story and great characters. I hope there will be many more about Reed and Billie. It took a while for me to figure out the why, but I like a good mystery and this is one. Thanks again Mr. Stevens. I look forward to reading the next one. – Amazon Customer

  Praise for The Boat Man,

  Book 1 of the Reed & Billie Series

  Thrillers are some of my favorite reads because I love to be pulled into a story and through intense situations, all in the safety of my own home. I've read some pretty good ones lately and can now add to that list author Dustin Stevens' "The Boat Man". The story of Detective Reed Mattox, who is attempting to lay low after the death of his partner, yet is pulled into a pretty intense serial murder investigation. The killer is called The Boat Man and is name after Charon from Greek mythology, who carries souls across the rivers Styx into the world of the dead. This is essentially a story of vigilante justice and the mystery involved is a very good one. I found the read to be both intense and very enjoyable. Would definitely recommend and I now plan on checking out some of this author's other novels. – Top 500 Amazon Reviewer

  One of the best books I have read since getting my Kindle. The book is very suspenseful while dealing with a subject that has generated a great deal of controversy through the years. While reading the book there is a definite struggle between your heart and your brain over how you should be reacting to the events in the book. I wish every book I read was close to the quality I found in this book. – Kindle Customer

  Best book I've read in a long time and I read for hours every night. It was so good to read a police thriller without the main character being "saved" from himself by some hot woman. Fantastic character development and being a dog lover, loved that he is K-9 cop. The book held my attention and I didn't figure out what was going on until the end. I read so much that I rarely leave reviews but I want the author to know how much I enjoyed his work. I highly recommend this book. – Amazon Customer

  It certainly was a Thriller. I was intrigued by the complexity of sub-plots, the difficulties experienced by Maddox just trying to do his job; trying to do the right thing. Because doing the right thing is all we have to define our character once the cards are dealt. And in what was left of The Boat Man's mind he believed in his cause, too. First exposure to this author's excellent, engrossing work of art. – Amazon Reviewer

  I had never put much thought into the work life of highly-trained military and police dogs, and found it quite fascinating. Billie, along with the human she has trained to supply her with food, was an interesting character. The most interesting character was the Boat Man himself, both because of what he was doing and why and how he was doing it. It was impossible not to feel empathy for him. There were several other interesting people who helped make this book very readable. – Kindle Reviewer

  Other works by Dustin Stevens:

  Going Viral

  Quarterback

  Scars and Stars

  Catastrophic

  21 Hours

  Ohana

  Twelve

  Liberation Day

  Just a Game

  Ink

  Four

  The Zoo Crew Novels:

  Moonblink

  The Glue Guy

  Tracer

  Dead Peasants

  The Zoo Crew

  The Hawk Tate Novels:

  Fire and Ice

  Cover Fire

  Cold Fire

  The Reed & Billie Novels:

  The Good Son

  The Boat Man

  The Kid

  A Reed & Billie Novel

  Dustin Stevens

  The Kid

  Copyright © 2016, Dustin Stevens

  Cover Art and Design: Anita B. Carroll at Race-Point.com

  Warning: All rights reserved. The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work, in whole or part, in any form by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, is illegal and forbidden, without the written permission of the author.

  This is a work of fiction. Characters, settings, names, and occurrences are a product of the author’s imagination and bear no resemblance to any actual person, living or dead, places or settings, and/or occurrences. Any incidences of resemblance are purely coincidental.

  It’s so much darker when a light goes out than it

  would have been if it had never shone.

  –John Steinbeck

  Sometimes, only one person is missing, and

  the whole world seems depopulated.

  –Alphonse de Lamartine

  Chapter One

  The brakes were brand new, touchier than The Kid anticipated. Depressing the pedal caused the oversized SUV to lurch to a stop in a series of jolts, a far cry from the smooth deceleration he was expecting. With each spasm his upper body jerked forward a few inches before slamming back again, a small puff of air releasing through his nostrils, an audible expelling of the emotion balled within.

  Under different circumstances, his angst would have been aimed at the shoddy handling of the vehicle he was now seated in. It was an expensive ride, one far too pricey to be experiencing such shortcomings.

  Tonight, though, whatever mechanical failures there may have been did not even register with him. It was the first time he had ever been behind the wheel of it, the exorbitant asking price one that he had not had to pay.

  Within an hour or two it would be cast away, nothing more than a prop, a tool needed for the completion of his task.

  Instead, his emotion was a contorted mass of competing feelings, each just as strong as the others, all demanding to be realized and acknowledged. Anger, hatred, vengeance, even a bit of sorrow, all wrapped into a tight package and hermetically sealed in his nether regions, threatening to burst out at any moment, at the very least to consume him from within.

  The SUV finally came to a full stop with a mighty squeal of rubber against rubber, the hulking mainframe of the car rocking forward a few inches before settling back onto its chassis. The moment it came to a rest The Kid jammed the gearshift into park, needing both of his hands free for what lay ahead.

  Sweat beaded across his brow as he sat in the driver’s seat, thick sunglasses on despite the late hour. Their purpose was explicitly for this moment, meant to protect his vision as he stared into the rearview mirror, a pair of fluorescent flashers passing from one headlight to the other in the automobile pulled off the road behind him.

  In equal three second pulses they passed from end to end, making a quick revolution around all four corners of the square lamps before jumping to the opposite side. Above them a pair of silhouettes could be seen seated in the front seat. On the right was a short, squat man, his bulk dominating much of the space. Beside him sat a man so tall the top of his he
ad was hidden from view, as if jammed into the hood of the car.

  The Kid felt his pulse tick upward, staring back at them.

  It was the right car. It had to be.

  Sliding his right hand over to the passenger seat, The Kid extended his grip over the gnarled grip of a .9mm Beretta. Keeping his movement hidden from view, he pulled it over onto his lap and passed it into his left hand before reaching across and taking up the second of the matching pair.

  Keeping his fingers outside the trigger guards, The Kid squeezed the handles on both tightly, the muzzles for each pointed in opposite directions as they rested across his thighs. Veins stood out on the back of his hands as he stared down at them, feeling the reassurance of cool resolve flood through him.

  It was time.

  The second part of his plan was finally here.

  A light breeze passed through the interior of the SUV as The Kid sat and waited. He watched as the two men behind him seemed to be in conversation, their heads rotating toward each other and back again behind him. No doubt they were running the plates on his car and making sure there was nothing outstanding before approaching, making him wait in a way that only cops could.

  It wasn’t like they ever considered that the people they were pulling over had lives they needed to get back to or that their evening wasn’t already ruined enough.

  As each moment ticked by The Kid felt his animosity grow, the feeling only serving to reaffirm his actions.

  Outside, an 18-wheeler sped past, laying on the air horn twice in succession as it went. With the windows rolled down, the sound reverberated through the interior of the car, rattling through The Kid’s head, his pulse jumping just slightly.

  Fighting the urge to raise his middle finger to the trucker getting a good laugh at his expense, The Kid remained completely stationary, only his eyes moving as he alternated glances between the car in his rearview mirror and the guns on his lap.

  A full eight minutes after coming to a stop, he watched as both doors on the car behind him swung open. A bevy of misshapen shadows were visible as a man climbed from each side of the car, both adjusting their pants before slamming the doors shut and stepping toward him.

  Once more The Kid felt his pulse rise. His breath caught in his throat as he slid his index fingers beneath the trigger guards, counting the seconds in his head as his targets walked closer.

  It was time.

  For Big.

  Chapter Two

  “Touchdooooooown!”

  Reed Mattox drew the back end of the word out more than a half minute, raising his face toward the ceiling, letting his voice roll from deep in his diaphragm. The only other sound in the aging farmhouse was the commentator of the game prattling on, his voice completely drowned out by Reed’s bellow of excitement.

  When at last his lungs could take no more, his body aching for air, he lowered his gaze back to the television, a smile plastered across his features. Onscreen a wide receiver for the Oklahoma Sooners was accepting the congratulations of his teammates, the entire stadium a frenzied sea of crimson.

  “Did you see that catch?” Reed exclaimed, on his feet in front of the couch, wringing his hands before him.

  On the floor nearby his detective partner Billie, a 65-pound solid black Belgian Malinois, looked up at him beneath heavily-lidded eyes, her entire being a visual depiction of how little she cared.

  For the first month of the season, she had ebbed and flowed with Reed on every trial and tribulation of the Sooners football team, spending three to four hours every Saturday pacing from her bed beneath the kitchen table to the couch by Reed’s side. Now well into October, her enthusiasm for the sport had faded, watching Reed with a detachment that seemed to be equal parts amusement and disdain.

  “Bah,” Reed said, waving a hand at her as the screen cut away to a replay, the receiver running a perfect wheel route to gain a few feet of separation. From there it was on the quarterback to lay it into the back corner of the end zone, the receiver snatching it from the air with one hand, his other encased by the defensive back trying to cover him.

  Drawing in a full breath of air, Reed raised his face to bellow at the ceiling again when his cell phone erupted on the coffee table in front of him. Stopping his movement cold, he rocked forward at the waist and reached down, snatching up the implement without looking at the screen.

  “See, some people appreciate a good play,” Reed said to his partner, the same smile in place as he took up the phone and pressed it to his face. “Did you see that?!”

  A moment of silence met his ear, stretched out just long enough that the smile fell from Reed’s face as he pulled the phone back and checked the screen. He had expected to hear the voice of his father on the opposite end, sending up a similar yell of adulation, the two performing the same two-part verbal dance they had all but perfected over three-plus decades of watching football.

  Instead, the number was from someplace far less enthusiastic.

  “Sorry,” Reed said, a flush of heat rising to his cheeks. “Watching the game.”

  “Reed?” the familiar voice of Jackie, night dispatch for the 8th Precinct Reed worked out of, asked.

  “Yeah,” Reed said, taking up the remote and extending it toward the television, turning off the sound to the game. In the wake of it the house fell quiet, players continuing to move across the screen in muted silence. “What’s shaking, Jackie?”

  Another moment passed before Jackie whispered, “There’s been an accident.”

  Still unfazed in his excitement for the game, Reed took up a half-full bottle of Heineken from the table beside him and swigged down a long drink. “I’m not on tonight, Jackie. I think Ike and Bishop are the call crew.”

  A low sob sounded out over the line, the smile falling completely from Reed’s features. Leaning forward, he lowered the bottle back down to the table, Billie sensing the shift in his demeanor, her head rising from the floor as she stared at him.

  In the 10 months Reed had been with the 8th, they had handled the full gamut of cases. He himself had worked a revenge killer and a truly bizarre case of someone targeting people for organ donation. Some of the other detective teams had covered everything from drug deals to grand theft.

  Never once had Jackie batted an eyelash, much less shed a tear.

  “What happened?” Reed asked, already feeling his mouth go dry as he waited for a response.

  “I...” Jackie started, her breath coming in ragged bursts. She paused a moment, as if contemplating whether or not to continue, before simply saying, “They’re at Mercy West, both in surgery right now. It’s bad.”

  All thoughts of the game fell away. On the opposite end of the room Billie pushed herself to her feet, her eyes a pair of moist discs staring unblinking back at him, waiting for any sign of movement.

  “We’re on our way.”

  Chapter Three

  The lights above Mercy West hospital stood out bright against the ambient glow of Columbus as Reed angled his truck into town. Bypassing his police-issue sedan, he sat up high behind the wheel of the aging rig, Billie on the passenger seat beside him. With her bottom resting on the cloth cushion, she braced her front paws against the dash, her tongue wagging out of her mouth as they made their way forward.

  It had taken less than 10 minutes for Reed to transition once the call came through. In rapid fashion he had killed the television, swapping out his gym shorts for a pair of jeans and sneakers. The Oklahoma t-shirt he was wearing he left on, pulling on a zip-up hooded sweatshirt before heading out.

  His gun and his badge he left behind.

  He was not going to work. He was going to show support.

  It was true that every precinct had a couple of guys that took it upon themselves to give new hires a rough time. As the longest tenured crew working out of the 8th, Pete Iaconelli and Martin Bishop had focused in on Reed with laser-like intensity, keeping him under close scrutiny for three solid months. Not until they had been forced together on his first major
case did things begin to thaw, only recently approaching anything resembling collegiality.

  Despite that, Reed held no ill will. This was his second precinct, and after more than a decade in law enforcement, he knew how things worked.

  Ike and Bishop had given him a hard time to make sure he passed muster, not out of malice. Even if they had, moments like this rose far above any internal pissing matches. Law enforcement was often referred to as a brotherhood, and even though Reed was only child, he liked to imagine the depiction was apt.

  They could pick on each other, but damned sure nobody else could.

  Pushing the accelerator as hard as he dared, Reed pulled up in front of Mercy West, a gleaming structure of metal and glass in the western suburb of Hilliard. Standing more than a dozen stories tall, it towered over the surrounding neighborhood, parking lots spread wide around it.

  Following the signs, Reed went straight for visitor parking and pulled into the first available spot, clipping Billie to her short lead and hopping out alongside her.

  Hygienic facility or not, she was an officer and had just as much right as anybody to be present. So certain of that fact was Reed, especially given the events of the night, he almost dared someone to say something as they made their way to the front entrance.

  An oversized pair of glass double doors parted for them as they stepped inside, the ambient temperature several degrees warmer than that outside. Despite it being half past 11:00 on a Saturday night the entire front lobby was nearly full, an even mix of officers in uniform and others dressed to match his civilian attire. It was clear at a glance who was still on duty and who was off for the evening, everybody besides essential personnel dropping whatever they were doing the moment the call went out.