Xander King BoxSet Read online

  Xander King Box Set Books 1-3

  Bradley Wright

  Contents

  Untitled

  Whiskey & Roses

  Untitled

  Also By Bradley Wright

  Copyright

  WHISKEY & ROSES

  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 21

  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

  About the Author

  VANQUISH

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  King’s Ransom

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  37

  38

  39. Girls’ Night Out

  40. Visions of Violence Danced in His Head

  41. Timber!

  42. A Quick Detour

  43. She Started It

  44. A King’s Ransom

  45. The Clock Is Ticking

  46. No One Knows

  47. Hide and Seek

  48. Yahtzee!

  49. Sometimes It’s Safe to Smoke

  50. Saving the World Is Hard, But Love Is Harder

  51. First Kisses Beat the Hell Out of Last Kisses

  52. It’s All Over but the Crying

  53. Time Will Tell

  King’s Reign

  King’s Reign Sample

  King’s Reign

  Vendetta (prequel novella)

  Copyright

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  About the Author

  King’s Reign

  THE XANDER KING SERIES

  Books 1-3

  1. Whisky & Roses

  2. Vanquish

  3. King’s Ransom

  4. Vendetta (prequel novella)

  For information on upcoming releases, contests, freebies, and deals on future novels, head over to www.bradleywrightauthor.com and join the reader team. I don’t write often, and I will never spam you or share your information. Thanks for being a part of the team. Talk to you soon!

  Also By Bradley Wright

  The Xander King Series

  WHISKEY & ROSES

  VANQUISH

  KING’S RANSOM

  KING’S REIGN

  (sample chapter at back of book)

  VENDETTA (prequel novella)

  Lawson Raines

  WHEN THE MAN COMES AROUND

  Bradley Wright/King’s Ransom Books www.bradleywrightauthor.com

  Copyright © 2016 by Bradley Wright

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, without prior written permission.

  Publisher’s Note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead,

  or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is completely coincidental.

  Whiskey & Roses/ Bradley Wright. – 4th ed.

  ISBN 978-0-9973926-0-9

  For my parents, Tom Wright and Deborah Wright

  It’s never an easy thing to follow your dreams. Once you make that difficult decision, it’s even harder to make those dreams come true. However, it is a hell of a lot easier when you have two amazing parents cheering for you all along the way. Picking you up when you fall down and reminding you that nothing great in life is ever easy.

  My dad showed me that I could be anything I ever wanted to be, no matter what it was or where I was from. My mom showed me that life is about more than just what you want to be. That it’s just as much about how you are as it is who you are.

  With the two of them in my corner, there is no such thing as failure. For me, that has always been the real dream come true.

  Mom and Dad, thank you for everything. I love you with all that I am.

  “None of us will ever accomplish anything excellent or commanding except when he listens to this whisper, which is heard by him alone.”

  -Ralph Waldo Emerson

  1

  The Legend of Xander King

  “Some people don’t deserve to live. One man is exceptional at making sure they don’t,” Director William Manning announced as he addressed the roomful of the CIA’s finest. “The decision that lies before us is whether we make this man an ally or an enemy. And I’m afraid we can’t afford the latter.”

  Just before Director Manning blasted into the room and uttered those chilling words, Sarah Gilbright sat alone trying desperately to keep from nervous-sweating through her blouse. She knew it wasn’t all that unusual for the director of the CIA to call a top secret meeting of the seven highest-ranking officials in the agency. However, it was highly unusual for the eighth person involved in that meeting to be a comparatively low-ranked special agent like herself. Sarah knew there could only be one reason she had been invited to a meeting so far above her clearance level: they had decided to do something about Xander King.

  Sarah fidgeted
in her seat and shuffled through her prepared portfolios. She felt as if she were back in college. The plain white walls of the square room, the cheap collapsible faux-wood tables, and the metal folding chairs were almost enough to give her that familiar college hungover feeling as well.

  That was when the heavy wooden door flung open, clanging against the painted cinder block wall with a loud crash, and Director Manning buzzed into the room. Though he didn’t look anything like the TV character, his clumsy, hurried entry reminded Sarah of Kramer from Seinfeld. No, Director Manning couldn’t have looked less like Cosmo Kramer. Manning's short, stout frame and his cloud-white hair made certain of that.

  Director Manning finished his morbid opening remarks about Xander.

  “Either way, enemy or ally, we’ve got to do something. Let’s get through this as quickly as possible.” His tone was more of a growl as he dropped his black leather briefcase onto the table. The button on his light-gray suit jacket seemed to be holding on by a mere thread.

  Sarah imagined the button on his pants probably shared a similar stretch.

  “All of you know each other, with the exception of Special Agent Sarah Gilbright here.” Manning pointed to Sarah.

  The palms of Sarah’s hands filled with sweat at the sound of her name among all those important people. This was a big damn deal. She played it off as best she could, tucking her long blonde hair back behind her ear.

  “Sarah, if you could please hand everyone a file and come up front with me.”

  She did as Manning asked and began passing around Xander’s file. She worried that her slim-fitting black skirt and tight royal-blue silk blouse might be inappropriate. She had decided to button one more button on her blouse in the bathroom just moments ago. She wanted the men in this meeting to take her seriously. The women too. She wanted them all to listen because of her merit, not because of her curves and slender waist, as had all too often been the case since she joined the agency.

  Director Manning continued. “Six months ago I gave Sarah an assignment to keep an eye on a man named Alexander King. I’m sure that all of you have heard the name at one time or another due to the legend of his time in our military, but his service to our country has taken on a much different role these days. Sarah is going to fill us in, and then we are going to figure out just what in the hell we are going to do about him. Sarah?”

  Sarah handed off her last file and took the podium in front of the deputy and executive directors, the head of admin, the head of espionage, and the head of public affairs for the Central freaking Intelligence Agency of the United States of freaking America.

  Wow.

  Her voice was shaky. “Good afternoon, everyone. It’s an honor to—”

  “Sarah . . . all due respect, spare us,” Director Manning broke in. “We have other things to worry about so please keep this short.”

  “Yes, sir, Mr. Manning. Alexander King.” She did as she was told and got right to it, swallowing the growing nerves and digging in. “All of you are familiar with the name?”

  The roomful of stuffy higher-ups all nodded in unison.

  Sarah continued. “The Alexander—Xander—King of today is known to the world as the billionaire son of Martin King, of King Oil. After his parents were brutally murdered in front of him, Xander decided not to follow in his father’s footsteps. Instead, he sold King Oil and, as you well know by his legend, as Director Manning put it, he joined the navy. If you will, please open to the first page of the portfolio.”

  “And he’s handsome,” Mary Hartsfield, Director of Espionage, remarked when she opened the folder and saw a picture of Xander holding a bottle of bourbon.

  “Mary, please. Could you wait till you get the portfolio home before you start drooling over it?” Director Manning scolded.

  The group laughed at Mary’s outburst, and Sarah, for the first time since entering the room, let the tension fall from her shoulders. She looked again, for probably the thousandth time, at the blue eyes staring at her in that picture and wholeheartedly agreed with Mary.

  “I’m with you, Mary, he is definitely handsome.”

  Director Manning rolled his eyes and motioned for Sarah to move on.

  “That bottle in his hand is from his own bourbon company—King’s Ransom—that he launched recently, and as some of you may or may not have heard, he has a horse by the same name running in the Kentucky Derby this coming Saturday. Those are the things he’s known for to the outside world. However, the reason we are here today is because of what the public doesn’t know, what Xander King doesn’t know we know, and the reason Director Manning has had me monitoring Xander for the last six months. Xander King is an assassin.”

  The air in the room changed, shifting with the dark word Sarah uttered, surprising them all.

  “Now, before you get the wrong idea about Xander, let me brief you on exactly what I mean.”

  Sarah turned the page, and the picture this time was of a beautiful dark-haired woman whose stern demeanor suggested she had seen her share of cruelty in the world.

  “If you’ll turn the page, you’ll find Samantha Harrison, or Sam, as Xander calls her. Sam had quite the reputation at MI6 in the UK for being what used to be an unparalleled agent. We aren’t exactly sure how she and Xander initially connected, but together they have formed quite a team. Sam is in charge of finding and coordinating the targets, and Xander goes about eliminating them. She is the coach, and he is the talent, if you will.”

  “Targets, Ms. Gilbright?” Mary asked.

  “Yes, targets. The scum of the earth. The most evil and vile human beings on the planet.”

  Deputy Director Richards, a silver-haired, tall, and lanky man, spoke up. “And he just kills them? No justice system? Vigilante style, he’s the judge and jury? I see now why we are here. This is a problem.”

  Sarah felt the mood in the room shift again, and she wanted to make sure she gave the rest of the facts in such a manner to show that what Xander was doing, though not legal, was just about the most noble and honorable thing a man with his particular set of skills could do. She had been watching him for months. All of the charity events he had hosted, all of the people he had saved by taking out these miserable targets. She didn’t want this audience to get the wrong impression of him.

  “Well, I understand your skepticism, Mr. Richards, but I assure you this isn’t some amateur running around killing random people he thinks might be doing bad things. Sam painstakingly researches each and every target, and if you will turn the page, I’ll introduce you to some of these evil people.”

  They all turned the page. There was a picture of a forty-something man with an emptiness to his stare.

  “The first man you see was killed by Xander three months ago. Jerrold Connors. Jerrold was—”

  “Hey, I remember this guy,” Deputy Director Richards interjected. “We were building a case against him when he was suddenly killed. Horrible, the things he was doing. Found a bunch of bodies in his shed?”

  “Yes, that’s the guy,” Sarah confirmed.

  “Awful. I remember, they were all drugged and tortured over a span of months, if I’m not mistaken.”

  “You are not mistaken. I’m glad you remember, Mr. Richards.”

  Director Manning cleared his throat. “Move along, Sarah.”

  “Right. The second target on the list, Mitch Boyle, was eliminated last month—”

  “Oh God.” Mary winced. “I remember him. He was the guy—the nurse—who was going around stealing newborn babies from the hospital nursery, then taking them home, killing them, and stuffing them like dolls.”

  “Good God,” the Head of Public Affairs blurted.