The Wild Zone Read Online Free PDF Page B

from behind one of the giant palms that lined the beach like sentries, laughing at his ineptitude and waiting to see what he’d do next?
    Should he give them something to see?
    Tom chuckled as he reached for the small handgun tucked behind the silver buckle of his heavy, black leather belt and concealed by his checkered shirt. Jeff would have freaked if he knew he was carrying, but what the hell? Contrary to public opinion, he didn’t always do what Jeff told him to.
    Tom had acquired four guns since returning from Afghanistan, none of them registered—two .44 Magnums, an H'R nine-shot .22, and an old Glock .23, which he rotated on a regular basis. His favorite was the .22, more a girl’s weapon really, because it was small, easy to hide, and relatively lightweight, although it never ceased to amaze him how heavy the damn thing actually was. He’d given it to Lainey on their first anniversary. Of course, she’d refused to touch it. Guns were a disaster waiting to happen, she’d lectured. He hadn’t argued. What was the point? Wasn’t Lainey convinced she was right about everything?
    Tom left the weapon tucked into his belt, raised an invisible gun into the air instead, pulled its imaginary trigger.
    That was when he saw them again.
    They were skipping along the water’s edge about thirty yards down the beach, their bare toes playing hide-and-seek with the incoming waves. Tom quickly slipped off his sneakers, groaning as he felt the warm granules of sand worm their way between his toes.
    “I can’t believe it’s still so warm out,” he heard Will say, the wind effortlessly transporting his voice along the shore.
    “Can’t ever be too hot for me,” came Suzy’s reply.
    Are they really talking about the weather? Tom wondered. What kind of morons do they admit to Princeton?
    “It’s kind of weird to think that there’s a whole other world going on under there,” Suzy remarked, stopping to peer out at the ocean, seemingly unaware of Tom lurking nearby.
    “Kind of neat, too,” Will said.
    Jesus, Tom thought. This was pathetic.
    Maybe Suzy thought so, too, Tom realized. Because she suddenly picked up her pace, her thin calves wobbling on the uneven ground. Will ran after her, forcing Tom to follow suit. Which was when Will abruptly stopped and turned around.
    “Shit,” Tom said, dropping his sneakers to the sand and reaching for his gun as Will walked briskly back toward him.
    “Dropped my sock,” Will called back to Suzy, falling to his knees and ferreting through the sand until he found it.
    Suzy was laughing as Will returned to her side, holding the limp, sand-covered sock out in front of him as if it were a dead fish. “My hero,” she said, still laughing.
    I could have been her hero, Tom thought, deciding to go to Brooks Brothers the next morning and help himself to one of those preppy button-down shirts. He quickly retrieved his sneakers from the ground, slapping them against his sides to rid them of sand, and followed after them.
    Will and Suzy continued along the beach for several more miles, mostly in silence, the waves chattering along beside them as they walked, Tom staying a discreet distance behind. Luckily, there were quite a few other people on the beach enjoying the warm night air, so his presence aroused no undue suspicion.
    “Let’s go to a movie,” Suzy announced suddenly.
    “Now?” Will asked.
    A movie? At this hour? Were they crazy?
    “Why not? It’ll be fun. There’s a theater just around the corner that’s open all night.”
    You gotta be kidding me, Tom moaned silently. Instead of going to a motel, they were going to the movies? Lainey was going to be furious.
    “Sure. I’m game,” Will said.
    “Shit,” Tom muttered, trailing after them. Lainey would kill him for sure.
    They stopped briefly at the road to put on their shoes, and Tom did the same. “Shit,” he said again as fresh sand from inside his sneakers attached itself to the underside of his toes, piercing