Distressed: Enemy Of The State- Book 1 Read Free

stumbled on his hands and knees, the floor wavering like the ship in the middle of a storm, the ringing in his ears reaching a fever pitch. He looked to his left and saw Kasaika hovering above him.
    Kasaika slammed the tip of his boot into Dylan’s ribs, sending him flat onto his back. Dylan straightened and felt the sharp pain from his side radiate through the rest of his body. Kasaika picked him up by the collar and slammed him against the side of the wheelhouse then jammed the pistol into his temple. “When we get back to the mainland, we’ll pay a little visit to your son. How does that sound? You can sit there and watch us beat your boy for every time you struck one of us.”
    “You touch him and—”
    “You’ll what ? There’s nothing you can do but what we tell you to. And after we kill your son, we’ll go after your daughter and chop down every single member of your family until you’re the only branch left on your family tree. Then, after you’ve watched them all die, we’ll kill you.”
    The pressure from the barrel’s pistol against Dylan’s temple drilled into his skull. Just before Dylan thought the barrel would punch a hole in his head, Kasaika lowered the gun, and Dylan slid to the floor, his head still ringing.
    “We need to get out of here before more show up,” Kasaika said.
    With the rest of the bodies stripped of their life vests and dumped into the ocean, Dylan climbed the shambled steps of the ladder to what was left of the wheelhouse. The windows were shattered and splintered with bullet holes.
    Dylan’s hands started the engine and found the throttle absentmindedly. His mind was drowning along with the sailors facedown in the ocean. He reached into his pocket for the picture and looked down at his son. That was his life raft. And he’d hold onto it for as long as he could.

Chapter 2
    The plans were spread out on the table, and Richard Perry squinted at the drawing in the dim lighting the warehouse provided. The generators were already running low on fuel, and he wouldn’t be able to risk another shipment until next week, not with the amount of heat Kasaika and his men were pulling. Each day there was a new report about an incident with one of the operations. He couldn’t afford another slipup, not with what was coming.
    Perry leaned against the edge of the table for support. His spine seemed to twist and curve like a deformed sapling, even when he stood upright. He flipped through one of the schematics, and Sefkh burst through the door, panting and out of breath and bringing a burst of heat that filled the rest of the warehouse. “Kasaika was just boarded by the Coast Guard.”
    But Perry had already known what happened before the words left his tongue. “And now the Coast Guard is dead, along with two of your brother-in-law’s men, for his stupidity.” Perry gave the table a shove, which more pushed him off it than shook the table itself. “Tell them to finish the deliveries. I won’t be able to get him another ship until I get the captain a new set of papers. The ones handed over to the Coast Guard were recorded and compromised.”
    “Sir, the—”
    Perry took a quick step toward the door, and Sefkh backed away. “Need I remind you of what we’re trying to accomplish? Of what you and your men are risking their lives for? Of what I’m risking mine ?” Drops of saliva flew from his mouth, his cheeks flushed red, and he shoved Sefkh out of reach.
    “Yes, sir.” Sefkh turned on his heel and headed back through the warehouse, his head lowered. Perry walked back to the map on his desk and planted his finger over Washington, DC, then dragged it west across the rest of the country until it landed in San Francisco. “Sea to shining sea.” He muttered the words mockingly and then rolled up the sleeves of his dress shirt.
    Scars and disfigurements covered what remained of his skin. Perry ran his hands along the grooves and misshapen patterns and grimaced. He rolled the