Gods of Vengeance

By Thom Collins

United in passion. Driven by vengeance.

Owen Hazard, a young farmer, is dead. Murdered while he tried to prevent a robbery on his land. His older brother, Captain Mark Hazard, returns home for the funeral. Owen's best friend, Riley, runs the local pub. He has information about the night Owen was killed—he knows who was responsible. The police are doing nothing. Vengeance is their only option. United in their passion for each other and a thirst for revenge, Riley and Mark must take the law into their own hands if there's going to be any justice for Owen.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pride Publishing
• Release date: Mar 21, 2017
• ISBN: 9781786515261

Thom Collins

Thom Collins is the author of Closer by Morning, with Pride Publishing. His love of page turning thrillers began at an early age when his mother caught him reading the latest Jackie Collins book and promptly confiscated it, sparking a life-long love of raunchy novels. Thom has lived in the North East of England his whole life. He grew up in Northumberland and now lives in County Durham with his husband and two cats. He loves all kinds of genre fiction, especially bonkbusters, thrillers, romance and horror. He is also a cookery book addict with far too many titles cluttering his shelves. When not writing he can be found in the kitchen trying out new recipes. He’s a keen traveler but with a fear of flying that gets worse with age, but since taking his first cruise in 2013 he realized that sailing is the way to go.

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Gods of Vengeance

ISBN # 978-1-78651-526-1

©Copyright Thom Collins 2017

Cover Art by Posh Gosh ©Copyright February 2017

Edited by Sue Meadows

Pride Publishing

This is a work of fiction. All characters, places and events are from the author’s imagination and should not be confused with fact. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, events or places is purely coincidental.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form, whether by printing, photocopying, scanning or otherwise without the written permission of the publisher, Pride Publishing.

Applications should be addressed in the first instance, in writing, to Pride Publishing. Unauthorised or restricted acts in relation to this publication may result in civil proceedings and/or criminal prosecution.

The author and illustrator have asserted their respective rights under the Copyright Designs and Patents Acts 1988 (as amended) to be identified as the author of this book and illustrator of the artwork.

Published in 2017 by Pride Publishing, Newland House, The Point, Weaver Road, Lincoln, LN6 3QN

Pride Publishing is a subsidiary of Totally Entwined Group Limited.

GODS OF VENGEANCE

Thom Collins

United in passion. Driven by vengeance.

Owen Hazard, a young farmer, is dead. Murdered while he tried to prevent a robbery on his land. His older brother, Captain Mark Hazard, returns home for the funeral. Owen’s best friend, Riley, runs the local pub. He has information about the night Owen was killed—he knows who was responsible. The police are doing nothing. Vengeance is their only option. United in their passion for each other and a thirst for revenge, Riley and Mark must take the law into their own hands if there’s going to be any justice for Owen.

Dedication

To Liam

Chapter One

It rained the day they buried Owen Hazard at the church on Hammerscliffe Peak. None too heavy—just a misty drizzle to match the muted sky and the gray spirits of the mourners who gathered at the church and, later, the graveyard. They laid Owen to rest in the grave beside his grandparents. It was a family plot, and many tears were shed at the sight of his coffin going into it too soon. He was only thirty-three.

Riley Brook held his own tears in check. He had cried enough already—all of this last week. Let the others weep. They needed it now—he didn’t. His pain and grief had been replaced by colder, far harder emotions—anger and the unremitting need for revenge. The cold rain ran down his forehead, over his narrow brow and into his eyes. He didn’t blink it away, didn’t flinch as it dripped from the tip of his long, straight nose. He felt it on his neck and down the collar of his white funeral shirt, but it didn’t bother him. That kind of discomfort was irrelevant now.

The turn-out for the funeral was immense. The farming community came out en masse to honor their dead. Especially the loss of someone so young. A son, a husband and a father—the tragedy of Owen’s death touched every person in that ancient churchyard. Somber-faced men in long overcoats held the hands of wives and girlfriends, unified by the senselessness—a life over too soon.

Owen’s wife, Susan, mother of his three children, just about kept it together. Sandwiched between Owen’s sister, Julie, and Pam, her best friend from the village, her features were a transparent mask of suffering. Riley had never seen grief etched so large on a human face. His mother and father stood close by in bewildered misery—it was every parent’s greatest fear, to see their children buried.

Next to them stood a man who Riley had not seen in almost ten years. Mark Hazard, Captain Mark Hazard, Owen’s older brother. Though he was undoubtedly handsome, Mark’s face was devoid of any emotion. He stood rigid with his shoulders back and spine straight, as if he was on the deck of his ship, ready for inspection. Mark had changed little