The Kill Read Online Free Page A

followed by the sound of bare feet padding across the wood floor. Manning squeezed his eyes shut, willing himself back to sleep. His fingers twitched and he started to drift off, only to be jerked awake again by a muffled cell phone belting out a tinny rendition of “Moonlight Serenade.” He gritted his teeth, waiting for the tune to fade.
    Finally, silence. And then, the nearby shuffling of footsteps on carpet. The creak of a floorboard. Manning lifted a corner of the pillow and raised an eyelid. Julia Farleigh approached slowly, a tray in her hands. Her silky blond hair hung loose and slightly mussed, flirting with the rhinestones that sprawled “Love” across the chest of her thigh-length pink T-shirt.
    A smile lit Julia’s face when she saw he was awake. “Hey, sleepyhead, I made you some breakfast.” She set the tray on the nightstand and the mattress sagged as she perched on the edge of the bed, curling one slender leg beneath her. She lifted a glass off the tray and offered it to him. “Here’s fresh-squeezed orange juice.”
    Manning tried to prop himself up on one elbow, flopped back on the mattress, and let out a moan. “Any chance you have some Tylenol to go with that?”
    She held the glass to his lips and he raised his head enough to swallow a gulp, letting the cold juice swish the thickness from his dry mouth.
    “You really shouldn’t take Tylenol, Manning. Not with the amount of alcohol you consumed last night. Haven’t you read the warnings?”
    He winced as he let his head sink back and closed his eyes. “That would sound like swell advice if I didn’t have a marching band banging in my head right now. Be a sport and get me a pain reliever, will you? And some vodka for the orange juice would be nice.”
    Julia let out a deliberate sigh and clunked the glass on the tray. “I have some Advil in the medicine cabinet. I’ll be right back.”
    “Moonlight Serenade” blasted again and Julia called out from the bathroom, “You might want to see who that is. Your cell phone’s been ringing all morning. Someone must really want to talk to you.”
    Forcing his eyes in the direction of the music, Manning saw his white riding breeches draped across a wingback chair next to the bed. He reached out and snagged them, fishing his cell out of the back pocket. The ringtone died as he flipped the phone open and squinted at the display: 7 MISSED CALLS. He scrolled down and saw that the first three calls were from Wendy Brooks, the hunt secretary. He glanced at his watch. Ten-thirty.
Shit
. He had promised to be at the racecourse by nine o’clock. Wendy had probably called to chew him out for not showing up.
    The other missed calls were identified as PRIVATE. That was no help. Should he place a call back? His thumb hovered over the SEND button when Julia emerged from the bathroom waving a bottle of Advil at him. He palmed the phone shut and tossed it on the bed.
    The instant the cell phone landed, it began to ring again.
Christ!
He snatched it up and glanced at the display on the front: PRIVATE. He flipped the phone open and held it to his ear as he extended his other arm to Julia, wiggling his fingers for the Advil.
    “Hello.”
    “Thank God, I finally reached you. It’s Thompson.” Thompson James’s voice bellowed from the receiver and Manning tilted the phone away from his ear.
    He held his hand out and watched Julia shake two tablets from the bottle. “One more,” he whispered. She gave him a look, but rattled the bottle until another pill dropped into his hand. He tossed the tablets into his mouth and took a gulp of juice.
    “Now’s not a good time, Thompson,” Manning said, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.
    “Well, make it be a good time.” Thompson’s voice cracked. “I’ve been trying to track you down for over an hour.”
    Manning smiled at Julia as she rolled her eyes at the phone. He reached up and toyed with the ends of her hair.
    “
Manning.”
    “Yeah, I’m here. So,