The Gates of Hell (Matt Drake 3) by David Leadbeater Read Free Book Online

bidding.”
    “No. It couldn’t—”
    “Yes.” Gates’s voice cracked as his whisky-fuelled charge of adrenalin clearly began to dissipate. “It’s not your concern, Jaye, my wife. I- I have always been a patriot, so the president knew within hours of her abduction. I remain…” He stammered. “A patriot.”
    Hayden hardly knew what to say. “Why tell me now?”
    “To explain my next actions.”
    “No!” Hayden shouted, banging the window in sudden terror. “You can’t do it! Please!”
    “Relax. I have no intentions of killing myself. I will help avenge Sarah first. Ironic isn’t it?”
    “What?”
    “That now I know how Matt Drake feels.”
    Hayden closed her eyes, but the tears rolled down her face anyway. Kennedy’s memory was already fading from the world, a heart once so full of fire now diminished to eternal night.
    “Why tell me now?” Hayden finally repeated.
    “To explain this.” Gates paused, then said, “Ed Boudreau has a baby sister. I’m sending you the details. Do—”
    Hayden was so shocked she interrupted the secretary before he could continue. “Are you sure?”
    “Do whatever you have to do to take this fucker down.”
    The line went dead. Hayden heard the email report chime out on her phone. Without checking she turned smartly and walked out of the room, ignoring the worried stares of Ben Blake and his sister. She walked over to Kinimaka’s little closet and found him working on a chicken and chorizo sub.
    “Where’s Alicia?”
    “Got her pass revoked yesterday.” The big Hawaiian’s words were distorted.
    Hayden bent in close. “Don’t be a fucking idiot. We both know she doesn’t need a pass. Now where is Alicia?”
    Kinimaka’s eyes widened into dinner plates. “Umm, one minute. I’ll trace her. No, she’s too sharp for that. I’ll—”
    “Just ring her.” Hayden’s stomach sank even as she said the words and blackness blighted her soul. “Tell her to get hold of Drake. He’s got what he asked for. We’re going to hurt an innocent person to get information.”
    “Boudreau’s sister?” Kinimaka seemed sharper than usual. “He’s actually got one? And Gates signed off on it?”
    “You would too”—Hayden wiped her eyes dry—“if someone just tortured and killed your wife.”
    Kinimaka absorbed that in silence. “And that makes it okay for the CIA to do the same to an American citizen?”
    “It does for now,” Hayden said. “We’re at war.”
     
     
     

CHAPTER ELEVEN
     
    Matt Drake had started on the expensive stuff. A bottle of Johnnie Walker Black was beckoning and looking none too shabby.
    Would the better stuff stifle the memory of her face faster? This time, in his dream, would he actually save her like he’d always promised to?
    The search continued.
    The whisky burned. He emptied the glass immediately. He refilled. He struggled to center himself. He was a man who helped others, who gained their trust, who stood up to be counted and never let anyone down.
    But he had failed Kennedy Moore. And, before that, he had failed Alyson. And he had failed their unborn child, a baby dead before it even had chance to start living.
    The Johnnie Walker, like every other bottle he had tried before, was making the desperation run deeper. He had known it would. He wanted it to hurt. He wanted it to carve a slice of agony out of his soul.
    The pain was his penance.
    He stared at the window. It stared back, blank, unseeing and unfeeling— dirtied to the point of blackness, just like him. The updates from Mai and Alicia were becoming less frequent. The calls from his friends in the SAS were still very much on time.
    The Blood King had made an attempt on Ben’s parents a few days ago. They were safe. They never knew the danger and Ben would never know how close they came to being victims in the Blood King’s vendetta.
    And neither would the CIA agents who were guarding the Blakes. The SAS did not need recognition or pats on the back. They simply