Broken Ties: A Tale of Survival in a Powerless World (Broken Lines Book 3) Read Online Free PDF Page A

said.
     
                  The click of the firing pin went off. Kalen let Mary go and the pistol dropped to the ground. Kalen picked the pistol up, dusting some of the dirt and leaves from the side. She tucked it back into her waistband.
     
                  Mary looked down at her hand. It was shaking. She closed her eyes, focusing her energy on forming a fist, trying to squeeze the adrenaline out of her body.
     
                  “Are we going to die?” Mary asked.
     
                  “Only if we want to.”
     
    ***
     
                  Frankie pulled a state map of Ohio from behind the lobby counter. He spread it out on the desk, and his finger ran along the paper creases from Cleveland to Carrollton. He snatched a pen from a jar and picked up a ruler from the desk.
     
                  He placed the end of the ruler on the center of Carrollton and marked a small line a few inches out. He made similar marks of equal length around the entire town. Then he drew a circle, connecting each mark on the map, which encompassed an area around Carrollton.
     
                  Frankie tossed the pen and ruler back behind the counter and stormed out of the lobby, grabbing a bag of chips from the food pile on his way out.
     
                  When Frankie made it to Jake’s room he was on the bed, cleaning his pistol. Frankie stopped at the doorway before he entered. Scanning the room he saw that the bed was made and the trash from their week’s stay had been picked from the floor.
     
                  “Housekeeping come by?” Frankie asked.
     
                  “What’d you find?” Jake asked.
                 
                  Frankie spread the map out on the bed adjacent from where Jake was sitting.
     
                  “Carrollton’s the only town for at least twenty miles in any direction. It’s just highways and woods until you get anywhere,” Frankie said.
     
                  “What’d Spence find with tracks?”
     
                  “Nothing. We think they went through the grass fields.”
     
                  Jake slid the rag along the barrel of the gun. He dropped a few bits of lubricant on the barrel’s rim, then wiped the excess clean.
     
                  “If they had transportation, we would have heard them. They must have gone on foot,” Jake said.
     
                  “Jake, whoever killed Garrett isn’t coming back. They’re long gone. The chances of us finding them are… aren’t there.”
     
                  Jake set the barrel of the gun down next to the other pieces on the bed. He tossed the dirty rag in the trash and picked up the different pieces of the pistol, examining each of them individually in his hand.
     
                  “Each part of this gun serves a purpose. They all work in an understanding that each element will do its job. The gun needs all of its parts to work properly, and when they do the outcome is exactly what the shooter intends it to be… deadly,” Jake said.
     
                  The pieces of the gun clicked into place as Jake reassembled the weapon. When he put the slide back on and slid the magazine inside, he racked a bullet into the chamber, clicking the safety off.
     
                  “This club works the same way. If we don’t follow through with our commitment of avenging our brother’s death, then we become as useless as a gun with no trigger. We lose our direction and our bond,” Jake said.
     
                  Jake pointed the pistol at Frankie. Frankie took a step back, folding the map in his hands.
     
                  “I’ll check the public records. See if there’s any property registered in the woods around the town.”

              Jake holstered his