“Well…what am I going to do?”
“Don’t worry. You’ll find something.”
As they climbed out of the boat, three monks appeared at the end of the dock, smiling broadly. Both Quinn and Orlando gave them a deep wai.
“Welcome back, Khun Jonathan.”
“Khob khun, krap,” Quinn said.
He took Orlando’s hand, put his other on Garrett’s back, and walked across the dock to the temple grounds.
__________
“THANKS, QUINN,” THE client said. “We’ll see you the day after tomorrow.”
“Right. See you then.” Nate hung up.
The job he’d just taken was a simple one. In fact, as was often the case, the client wasn’t even sure he would need the cleaner’s services, but was hiring Nate as insurance just in case. Once the gig was done, Nate thought he might take a week to go visit Liz in Paris.
He looked across the room. “Puerto Rico. Ever been there?”
Daeng, sitting on the couch in the living room of Quinn’s Hollywood Hills home, shook his head. Instead of heading straight back to Bangkok, he’d come to L.A. to visit some old friends from his high school days. Nate had offered him the guest room at the house.
“Interested in going? They’ve budgeted me for an extra man.”
A shrug. “Why not? Sounds like fun.”
“Fun? Hopefully it’s boring, but I guess we’ll see.” He paused for a second. “There are a few rules we should probably go over first.”
“You’re the boss.”
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
As always, there are many who I will forget to mention, so apologies ahead of time for my lack of memory and unintentional slights. Yes, I make mistakes. All. The. Time.
Huge thank-yous to editor extraordinaire Elyse Dinh-McCrillis and excellent friend/author/book-cover designer Robert Browne. Thanks to Danielle Perez for guiding me through the origins of Quinn, helping him (and me) mature as a character (and author). Suzette Pirozzi for the Italian translations. Any mistakes would be mine.
To my friends old and new who keep me sane—and slightly insane—thank you. And Ronan, Fiona, and Keira—you, as always, are the reasons I smile every day.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Brett Battles is the Barry Award-winning author of over a dozen novels, including the Jonathan Quinn series, the Logan Harper series, and the Project Eden series. You can learn more at his website: brettbattles.com
Becoming Quinn
Every Identity Has an Origin
This Is Jonathan Quinn’s
Most careers begin with an interview and a handshake. Others require…something more.
Meet Jake Oliver. The day will come when he's one of the best cleaners in the business, a man skilled at making bodies disappear. At the moment, however, he’s a twenty-two-year-old rookie cop, unaware his life is about to change.
In a burning barn a body is found—and the fire isn't the cause of death. The detectives working the case have a pretty good idea about what went down. But Officer Oliver thinks it’s something else entirely, and pursues a truth others would prefer remain hidden—others who will go to extreme lengths to keep him quiet.
Find Becoming Quinn in the Kindle Store
“A pure delight.”—Jeffery Deaver,
author of Edge and the Lincoln Rhyme novels,
on the first Quinn novel, The Cleaner
“Quinn is one part James Bond, one part Jason Bourne.”
—Nashville Book Worm
The Project Eden Thrillers
Sick & Exit 9
Sick
Daniel Ash wakes after midnight to the cry of his daughter. Just a bad dream, he thinks. She’s had them before. Stepping through her doorway, he expects to find her sitting up in bed, frightened by a nightmare. But the nightmare is his. It’s real. And it's just beginning.
Something is burning Ash's daughter alive. Something horrible that is spreading beyond the walls of their home and taking no prisoners. Soon, Ash’s world threatens to come apart at the seams as a team of armed men in biohazard suits bursts into his house. But these aren’t the good guys. They haven’t come to save Ash’s family. They’ve come to make the problem go away.
But Ash refuses to disappear. He wants only one thing: to find those responsible. Because humanity is on the brink of extinction. And man is pulling the trigger.
Exit 9
Before, it was just a test, a little demonstration to see if the virus worked. It did, and so much better than its creators could have ever hoped. But the testing phase is over. It’s time for Project Eden to take the next step.
If Project members have their way, humanity is about to get a reboot. It’s up to Daniel Ash and the others in the outnumbered resistance to keep the Project from severely downsizing mankind. But can their small force succeed in the face of a plan decades in the making? The human race had better hope so, because if Ash and his friends don’t succeed…
Find Sick in the Kindle Store
Find Exit 9 in the Kindle Store
“You think Battles was badass before? He just cranked it up to 500 joules. CLEAR!”
—PopCultureNerd.com on Sick
“Sick is Brett Battles at his best.”
—Tim Hallinan, author of the Edgar-nominated
The Queen Of Patpong
The Logan Harper Thrillers
Little Girl Gone & Every Precious Thing
Little Girl Gone
Logan Harper isn't looking for redemption. He just wants to live in peace and forget his troubled past. But one morning his quiet life is upended when he interrupts the attempted murder of his father's best friend, Tooney. The next thing he knows, Logan is on his way to Los Angeles, searching for Tooney's missing granddaughter and uncovering a sinister plot connected not only to Tooney's past, but also to the boardrooms of corporate America. As the odds stack up against him, Logan must fall back on old skills from the life he'd rather forget. He's made a promise, and the only way to fulfill it is to bring the girl home alive.
Every Precious Thing
It was supposed to be a fun weekend, a celebration of a marriage and growing family. Alan Lindley couldn't have been happier...until his wife Sara disappeared. Asked by a mutual friend to help look for her, Logan Harper is sure he'd discover a wife who simply wanted out of the marriage. What he finds instead is a woman who didn't exist, a diabolical plan, and people who would do anything to keep it a secret, including taking the life of the person most important to him. What would you do for those precious to you?
Find Little Girl Gone in the Kindle Store
Find Every Precious Thing in the Kindle Store
"The best word I can use to describe his writing is addictive."
—James Rollins, New York Times bestselling author
The Pull of Gravity
From Brett Battles comes a different kind of novel, one Edgar Award-nominated author Tim Hallinan calls "a mesmerizing thriller of the heart." It's a story of love, tragedy, and those searching for redemption.
Jay Bradley thought he could leave the Philippines behind. But though he's started a new life with a woman he loves, he's still tormented by questions from his past.
He returns to Angeles City where he once worked as a papasan watching over bargirls. On the surface, he's there to sell his stake in a bar on the notorious Fields Avenue. In reality, he's come back to find Isabel, one of his old dancers, and the only person who can answer his questions and quiet his demons.
Because death is seldom an ending, and often haunts those left behind.
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THE DESTROYED
Cover art copyright © 2012 by Robert Browne
Cover Images:
Colosseo, Roma © fabiomax.com - Fotolia.com
Checking aim © Yuri Arcurs - Fotolia.com
All rights reserved.
THE DESTROYED is a work of fiction. Names, characters, busin
esses, organizations, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
For more information about the author, please visit www.brettbattles.com.
Table of Contents
Book Description
PRAISE FOR THE JONATHAN QUINN SERIES
ALSO BY BRETT BATTLES
This one's for charter Team Quinn members Bill Cameron and Robert Browne.
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 25
CHAPTER 26
CHAPTER 27
CHAPTER 28
CHAPTER 29
CHAPTER 30
CHAPTER 31
CHAPTER 32
CHAPTER 33
CHAPTER 34
CHAPTER 35
CHAPTER 36
CHAPTER 37
CHAPTER 38
CHAPTER 39
CHAPTER 40
CHAPTER 41
CHAPTER 42
CHAPTER 43
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Becoming Quinn
The Project Eden Thrillers
The Logan Harper Thrillers
The Pull of Gravity