Free THE THOUSAND DOLLAR HUNT: Colt Ryder is Back in Action! by J.T. Brannan Page A

the general told you he doesn’t want him harmed,’ I heard a voice shouting, and as my vision cleared I could see Hatfield standing there, pistol in his hand. ‘Now back off,’ he continued, ‘and I mean right now.’
    The crowd slowly shrank away, murmuring and muttering to themselves but obviously not wanting to cross Hatfield. And why would they? Even if he wasn’t their commanding officer and meal ticket, he was an ex-Delta commando with a loaded handgun; they would have to have been crazy to argue.
    ‘Come on,’ he said to me as he approached. ‘Get on your feet.’
    He ignored the other men scattered unconscious on the dining hall floor, and stepped over the man I’d slammed in the balls with the fork, who was still screaming in pain, and helped me up with one huge, callused hand.
    ‘You’re not exactly endearing yourself to the men here,’ he said with a half-smile, ‘are you?’
    I tried to smile back, though the bruising was already starting to make it painful. ‘They just haven’t got to know me yet,’ I replied, and Hatfield chuckled to himself.
    ‘Well,’ he said, ‘that guy right there on the floor with the fork in his balls is the brother of one of the guys you beat up with that metal baton of yours yesterday.’ He watched the man writhing on the ground for a few moments before turning back to me. ‘But maybe we’ll leave the formal introductions for another day. Why don’t you get yourself to your room and clean yourself up? We’ll be starting work soon, and you don’t look so good.’
    I nodded my head, and wiped the blood from my mouth. ‘Yes sir,’ I said in agreement.
     
    Although the company left a little to be desired, the accommodation was as good as Badrock promised. We were in a block close to the main house, a huge log cabin purpose built as a bunk block for security personnel; but it was a far cry from the places I’d lived in during my time in the military. Here we had private rooms with en suites, a full bar with open fire places, a Swedish sauna and an outdoor hot tub. There was the dining room too of course, and I’d already got to know that all too well.
    Turned out dogs were welcome too, at least if you worked here, and Kane had soon settled in to our luxury suite as if he’d been born to it.
    The girl was gone, but we’d had a good time the night before, and some more good times before breakfast too; Kane had been so embarrassed he’d gone to hide in the bathroom.
    I watched him look at me now as I limped back into my room, face bruised and bloody – but it was only a cursory glance, used as he was to seeing me that way. Just another day at the office, I suppose he thought, and he soon got back to the serious business of sleeping.
    As I eased out of my clothes and got the shower running, I considered the fact that – even after the story I’d given him about what I would tell my ‘client’ about Benjamin Hooker – Badrock surely still wouldn’t trust me completely, might think that I’d only accepted the job in order to investigate further. Which was true of course – I had no intention of going back to Kayden with anything less than the entire truth. But I knew I was going to have to do my best to appear as if I really wanted to be here.
    There was also the danger from the other security personnel, as I’d just experienced back in the dining room. Some of them wanted me dead, plain and simple. They’d tried it once, and I had no reason to believe that they wouldn’t try it again.
    Except I knew Badrock would order them to leave me alone, and who would want to go against the general? They’d had their shot and blown it; perhaps things would cool down now.
    I wondered, idly, about the possibility of Badrock making some sort of link between me and my alter ego as the thousand dollar man. It was unlikely though – my name wasn’t connected to the legend, even in that Washington Post exposé a few years back and – as far as I was aware – not