Headhunters Read Online Free Page B

tree line and then realized that
if anyone were there, I wouldn’t see them until it was too late. I turned and
faced Kendrick.
    “I’m done. I’m out.”
    Kendrick looked at me, a bit taken aback.
    “I’m sorry?”
    “I’m resigning from Blackthorn.”
    Kendrick listened to me and I could see him processing every
word, everything I’d said and everything I hadn’t. Then I saw him look across
at the tree line and I wondered if he was thinking the same thing I had a
moment earlier.
    “I just don’t have it in me anymore, Randall. I can’t.”
    “Blackthorn is not a country club. We’re not a bureaucracy
that you retire from. We protect this country,” Kendrick said. I’d heard these
words before, but they still rang true. We’d been doing the right thing. The
right thing for the country. The right thing for us. But not the right thing
for my family.
    “I need to honor my wife’s memory the same way that you do,”
I said quietly.
    Kendrick’s head rocked back as if I’d just slapped him and I
wondered if my words had been too harsh. We rarely spoke of Rose now. We just
did our job. And we spoke of the necessary sacrifices we needed to make to keep
this country safe. Kendrick’s eyes came back and settled on me.
    “Is your decision final? No way I can talk you out of it?”
he asked.
    “I’m afraid not, my friend. My kids need me.”
    Kendrick nodded.
    “What will you do?” he asked.
    “Find a new town. A new job. Away from here, all of this.”
    He nodded again.
    “Headhunters never die, Simon. They just find different
heads to hunt.”
    He looked at me and his creased face broke into a smile. He
extended a weathered hand.
    “Good luck to you, son.”
    I smiled and shook it.
     
    ***
     
    I let myself into the house. I hung
up the keys and kicked off my shoes. I padded through the house to the kids’
rooms. David was snoring away, his blanket twisted around his body. I
straightened him out and covered him up. Mel was sleeping quietly, her
breathing just a soft purr. My sweet girl.
    I crossed the hall to the bathroom. I stepped inside,
flicked on the light and closed the door behind me, locking it. I reached into
the pocket of my coat and pulled out the Glock pistol. My hand shook as I held
it. What the hell was I doing? What had I planned to do with this damn thing?
Shoot my oldest and best friend?
    “Simon?” I heard Alaina’s voice through the bathroom door.
It jarred me, making me flinch at the sound of her voice.
    “Just a second. I’ll be right out.”
    “I’m going to pop some popcorn. Do you want some?” Her voice
was light and non-stressed. She had no idea what I was doing. I swallowed hard
and answered.
    “Sure. That’d be great. I’ll be right out.”
    “Okay!” she replied and a second later I heard the microwave
start.
    I turned back to the mirror and stared at my reflection.
Yes, in truth, I was prepared to kill Kendrick if that’s what it took to
protect my family. He was my friend and I trusted him implicitly, but Kendrick
believed in national security above all else. If I wasn’t part of the solution…
I didn’t know what that made me to him.
    I ejected the magazine out of the Glock and the dull black
magazine that held the brass shells slid out smoothly. I dropped the mag in my
coat pocket and then racked the slide, so that the shell in the chamber was
ejected into my hand. I locked the slide open and dropped the bullet and the
empty handgun into my coat pockets.
    I was going to kill my best friend, I stared at my
reflection in the mirror and tried to discern what was going on behind my own
eyes. What the hell was I thinking? What the hell had I become? Then I turned and
vomited in the toilet.
     

 
     
    Chapter Three
     
     
    I’m not proud of the way that I
handled Claire’s death. In retrospect, like anything else, I saw my mistakes. I
saw them coming like an 18-wheeler barreling down the road at me, getting
bigger, looming larger, the sound of the warning