Choke Point Read Online Free Page A

wrong.”
    He leaned over his desk from the front side and snatched up the phone. “Billie, what’s up?”
    “Jake’s been shot.”
    The unexpected words hit like a gut punch, and for several eternity-in-an-instant heartbeats he couldn’t muster a response. Without conscious thought, he reached over and pressed the INTER-LINK button on the phone, automatically recording the call on his computer. “Is he okay?”
    “No,” she answered, in what sounded like a major understatement. “He can’t breathe. They’ve got him on a ventilator.”
    This time he noticed the distinct intercontinental hiccup between question and answer, and remembered they were in Macau. “Is he conscious?”
    “No, but he’s hanging on. He’s fighting.”
    Of course he was fighting; she was talking about Big Jake Rynerson, a man who didn’t know the meaning of quit. “Then he’ll make it, Billie. Jake’s got the heart of an elephant.”
    “Absolutely,” she answered with a confidence that failed to hide the truth: hope mixed with fear, mixed with panic. “That’s exactly what I told the doctor.”
    “What happened? Tell me everything.”
    As she started into the medical details, Simon printed four words on a scratchpad—JAKE SHOT, HANGING ON—and handed it to Lara, who had followed him into his office and looked ready to burst with questions.
    By the time Billie finished, her voice was edgy with impatience. “That’s everything.”
    But it wasn’t, not even close. She hadn’t said anything about the shooting, and Simon could think of a dozen unanswered questions. How did it happen? Where did it happen? Was the shooting random or intentional? What happened to Jake’s security? But Billie Rynerson was a tough old West Texas broad, and he knew better than to push too hard or too fast. “What can I do?”
    “I need you to pick something up in D.C.,” she answered instantly, “and bring it out here. Jake was going to call, but…well, anyway, it’s very important. All the arrangements have been made. They’ll be expecting you.”
    “Sure. No problem. What—”
    “And I need you to stay here awhile. We need your help.”
    Of course he would go, as a friend, someone to hold her hand and help her through, but there was something in her voice, the way she said help that told him it wasn’t moral support she had in mind. “Is there something…” He didn’t know how to say it, didn’t want to sound reluctant. “Something specific…?”
    “We need you at the Pearl. The grand opening is less than a month off and we’re having problems.”
    “What kind of problems?”
    “Never mind that,” she responded, her tone impatient. “We’ll talk about that when you get here.”
    He hesitated, trying to read some meaning into her reluctance to say more. Were the problems and the shooting connected? “Billie, I’ll come, of course I will, but if you’re having problems at the Pearl, you need to get Caitlin out there.”
    “No,” she answered without a moment’s consideration, “we need Caity in Vegas.”
    “But—”
    “We’re at a chokepoint.” She hit chokepoint hard enough to make it echo over the line, a warning ping that had nothing to do with Jake’s current state of health. “We need someone we can trust.”
    “But—”
    “Kyra is already on the way. She’ll have all the details about the pickup in D.C. She’ll be at Teterboro Airport in two hours.”
    He realized it was useless to argue. Hurricane Billie was at full blow, her mind made up, and nothing he could say would alter her path. “Sure, I’ll be there. You just take care of—”
    She interrupted a third time, clearly wanting to end the conversation. “Gotta go, Simon. I’ll tell you everything when you get here.”
    Before he could respond, there was a soft click and the line went silent. Something about the way she said it— tell you everything —reverberated with innuendo. Billie Rynerson was not the kind to mince words, and she