(2013) Shooter Read Online Free PDF Page A

you didn't snatch her?" he growled, now obviously suspicious.
    I bit back my frustration with this idiot of a man. "Why would I be bringing her back here?"
    I turned on my heel and stamped back to the car, not giving the guy a chance to say anything else.
    The drive home was rather less than eventful.
    "Julia… I had to." Was all I could force between my quivering lips. "I had to."
    "I know."
    I took my eyes off the road for a second to look over at her. She was smiling, and that meant that she wasn't too awfully pissed at me. Thank God.
    "I…"
    "Shut up, Grace." She sighed. "You know, I'm actually kind of proud of you, in a weird way. Could have gotten us both arrested, but you… you did the right thing."
    That managed to surprise me. "I'm still in deep shit."
    "Not if we just don't say anything. Nothing happened. You went in, found the bodies, we left. That simple. Kendall never has to know."
    I couldn't restrain the smile. "You'd lie for me?" as if I really questioned the fact. I knew she would.
    "Hey, don't get ahead of yourself. It's not a lie, so much as an omission." Julia folded her arms over her chest. "But to answer your question, I would."
    "Thanks, Julie."
    "Mph." Was her reflexive and ungraceful reply.
    I chuckled darkly and gunned the car faster down the dirt road leading back to the urban areas.
    "So, Kendall. Mind telling me what the hell's going on?" I rather impudently studied my fingernails, while lounging in the armchair across from Kendall's desk, in his office. I glanced up long enough to read his expression before glancing back down at my hand. He didn't look happy.
    "I would if I knew, Graecia." He steepled his fingers and looked at me through cold blue eyes, probably contemplating what he'd do about the situation. Maybe even about me, not that any of this was really my fault. Thankfully, though, he was clueless about little Liliana. That; he would have given me the metaphorical ass-beating for.
    Or maybe even the literal one. He's a tad unpredictable at times.
    Kendall was the kind of guy who seemed really mild, unless you knew him. Which was odd, because he had a wife and three kids, and really looked like a normal guy, if a bit quiet, if you weren't one of his employees. We had the rather exclusive privilege of knowing what he was really like. Cold, calculating, extremely intelligent. I sometimes suspected he was a sociopath.
    But that's just me.
    "There would only be one or two reasons why they would have already been dead. I don't particularly like either one." I matched his cool gaze and shrugged. "Maybe he just made too many enemies."
    "I don't think that likely. I think we were outbid. The firm might have hired extra in order to make absolutely sure that Caleb Holtz expired."
    I huffed with mild frustration. "That makes absolutely no sense. That wasn't done by a professional."
    "I didn't see the scene, so I wouldn't know. So what exactly makes you say that, Graecia?"
    "Whoever did it had no regard for any sort of crime scene cleanliness... they probably left an assload of evidence. It was a massacre." I kept my tone level and professional, trying to sound convincingly detached. I guess it worked.
    "That much of a scene, eh?" He raised one gray eyebrow.
    "'Bout made me lose my lunch. Honestly."
    "Well then that might be something to be concerned about. Hm… that is all." Kendall waved a hand in the standard 'go away' gesture.
    I complied, standing in one sweeping movement, nodded at him, and left, closing the office door behind me politely. In the living room, I was met with the inquiring gazes of both Julia and Daisuke.
    "What?"
    "Sooooo…"
    "Sooo what?" I blinked. WTF?
    Julia threw up her hands. "Little slow today?"
    Then it dawned on me. "No, I didn't get ripped a new one." I shook my head and walked to my room.
    For some reason, I didn't feel quite right for the rest of the day, just a little
off.
And I really couldn't figure out why, either. So I settled myself in my recliner chair and