The Recruit (Book Three) Read Free

her gaze
dropped to his left arm, and blinked back the sudden tears.
    * * *
     
    “Come in!”
Mannie snapped.
    Reid opened the
door to Richard’s office and poked his head in. “Hey.”
    “Hey.”
    He hesitated
and then sat down in the chair across from Richard’s desk. Mannie
was typing something on the computer and he waited patiently for
him to finish.
    When he was
done, Mannie sat back and rubbed at his forehead wearily. “What’s
up?”
    “Just checking
in to see what the plan is.”
    Mannie laughed
bitterly. “The plan? I have no fucking idea, Reid.”
    Reid frowned.
“You’re temporarily in charge, Mannie. We need someone to take
control of the place. The recruits we have left are freaked out.
They’re talking about – “
    “I know!”
Mannie shouted. “Jesus, you think I don’t know what a fucking gong
show it’s been the last three days? Half our recruits are dead,
Richard is dead, Chen is missing his goddamn hand, Will’s gone
AWOL, and Hannah’s a fucking werewolf! You think I don’t know how
fucked we are?”
    “Okay, okay,
calm down.” Reid held his hands up in a soothing manner. “I just
thought maybe the Board of Directors had spoken to you.”
    Mannie,
breathing hard, closed his eyes for a moment. “Jesus, I’m sorry,
Reid. It’s just, Alison is dead and I…”
    He trailed off
and Reid nodded solemnly. “I know, man. I’m sorry.”
    Mannie took a
deep breath and blew it out harshly before staring at the
blood-stained carpet behind the desk. “The new guy should be here
by the end of the week. They’re sending a clean-up crew today, and
they’re bringing in recruits from some of the other facilities to
help us patrol until they can install better security
equipment.”
    Reid shook his
head. “The security equipment should have been in place months ago.
They were idiots to think that we didn’t need it. We’re a training
facility for God’s sake! You’d think they would have put extra
effort into protecting their new recruits.”
    “Yeah, well,
lesson learned.” Mannie said quietly.
    “Do you think
the vampires will attack again?”
    “Honestly, I
have no idea. I don’t know if there are other leeches out there who
know where this place is, or if that fucking Samuel brought his
entire army with him. We have to assume that others do know. I
talked briefly with Hannah after the shit was all over and done
with, and she said that although Samuel didn’t come right out and
say it, he implied that he was part of a bigger group. That
vampires across the country were working together and that they
would take out the facilities one by one.”
    “There’s no way
that’s happening.” Reid protested. “Vampires can barely stand each
other. Do you honestly think they could form large groups
country-wide without killing each other?”
    “That asshole
Samuel managed to do it.” Mannie replied.
    “Yeah.” Reid
sighed.
    “The Board of
Directors wants us to try and get things back to normal as quickly
as possible. They’ve informed me that we’re to return to training
classes by tomorrow.”
    “Tomorrow?”
Reid shook his head. “They do realize that one of our instructors
is lying in the hospital missing his damn hand and another is
running around the woods, right?”
    “They know
about Chen. I haven’t said anything about Will.” Mannie
replied.
    “Why not?”
    “Because the
Board of Directors is already freaking out that Will turned Hannah.
I have no fucking idea how they found out, but they know and
they’re not happy about it.”
    “He saved her
life.” Reid said quietly.
    “Yeah, but
there’s been talk that he did it for other reasons too.”
    Reid stared
thoughtfully at him for a moment. “We were both there when he
turned her. Do you think he did it for a reason other than to save
her life?”
    Mannie shook
his head. “No. And honestly, if I had been in his place, I would
have done the same thing. You’ll do whatever it takes to save the
woman that you