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Authors: Andrew Gross

Reckless

BOOK: Reckless
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Reckless

Andrew Gross

To the memory of Eleanor Zorman—a devoted fan,
but an even better mother-in-law

Contents

Prologue

Beep, beep! Beep, beep!”

Part I

Chapter One

They entered the house through the sliding glass doors in…

Chapter Two

Remind me again,” Annie Fletcher asked, wiggling out of her…

Chapter Three

The gleaming white Dassault Falcon touched down gracefully at Westchester…

Chapter Four

They didn’t talk about it much. Over their coffee. The…

Chapter Five

About two miles down, Hauck hung a right at Cat…

Chapter Six

The bedroom had a few techs and detectives Hauck knew…

Chapter Seven

The Talon Group, Hauck’s new employer, was a worldwide security…

Chapter Eight

Roger Cantwell stared at his Bloomberg screen in dismay.

Chapter Nine

Over the next days, Hauck began digging into the background…

Chapter Ten

At the same time, Hauck did his best to keep…

Chapter Eleven

Within days, the first responses on Thibault began to arrive.

Chapter Twelve

Wednesday and Saturday nights Hauck coached a team of twelve-…

Chapter Thirteen

In the stylish dining room of her Normandy on Dublin…

Chapter Fourteen

Later, after everyone had left, Merrill took off her earrings…

Chapter Fifteen

It was after eleven, that same night, when Kevin Mitman…

Chapter Sixteen

It wasn’t them.

Chapter Seventeen

Roger Cantwell stared out at the dark Manhattan sky. The…

Chapter Eighteen

Once one of Wall Street’s most historic companies, Wertheimer Grant…

Chapter Nineteen

In her cluttered, windowless office, in the basement of a…

Chapter Twenty

Monday afternoon, Hauck sat in his car across the street…

Chapter Twenty-One

It took some time for the picture of Dani Thibault…

Part II

Chapter Twenty-Two

It was two in the morning and James Donovan was…

Chapter Twenty-Three

Thanks for coming in, Ty.”

Chapter Twenty-Four

The idea that Talon might use him as a kind…

Chapter Twenty-Five

His daughter Jessie came up for the weekend. Now that…

Chapter Twenty-Six

At 6:40 that Monday morning, Naomi came in from her…

Chapter Twenty-Seven

The second investment manager to die under suspicious circumstances quickly…

Chapter Twenty-Eight

On the way home, Hauck took a chance and stopped…

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Hauck finally made it home at close to ten. He…

Chapter Thirty

The cheers from the crowd and the thwack of the…

Chapter Thirty-One

The connection he’d found between Dani Thibault and both dead…

Chapter Thirty-Two

What Snell had found coursed through Hauck. Thibault had claimed…

Chapter Thirty-Three

Outside the garage, Hauck pulled the Beemer into the first…

Chapter Thirty-Four

The chief’s office had been relocated to the newly completed…

Chapter Thirty-Five

My name is Naomi Blum, Mr. Hauck,” the petite agent…

Chapter Thirty-Six

There might have been a time, years back, Jack “Red”…

Chapter Thirty-Seven

The man in the Burberry raincoat turned up his collar…

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Thomas Keaton, secretary of the treasury, to whom the Office…

Chapter Thirty-Nine

That Saturday night, at the Hamill rink in Greenwich, the…

Chapter Forty

Red O’Toole pulled the van into the crowded lot a…

Chapter Forty-One

Jared!” Hauck shouted toward the locker room and waited for…

Chapter Forty-Two

The Greenwich police arrived a few minutes later. The first…

Chapter Forty-Three

You have to learn to relax more, Ty.” April grinned…

Chapter Forty-Four

The phone that they removed from Sonny Merced’s body led…

Chapter Forty-Five

Hauck came around his desk. “I wasn’t expecting you today.”…

Chapter Forty-Six

News of the impending collapse of the American banking system…

Chapter Forty-Seven

Over the past few days Hauck had done his best…

Chapter Forty-Eight

Their food arrived, but neither of them felt particularly hungry.

Chapter Forty-Nine

The easy part was grabbing a few days from the…

Part III

Chapter Fifty

The international airport at Belgrade in Serbia looked like any…

Chapter Fifty-One

The next day Hauck was having breakfast around seven in…

Chapter Fifty-Two

They decided the best approach was to stake out the…

Chapter Fifty-Three

A woman whom Naomi pegged as around seventy, in a…

Chapter Fifty-Four

Maria Radisovic’s blue Opel pulled out of the small alleyway…

Chapter Fifty-Five

Inside the farmhouse, Dani Thibault was going crazy.

Chapter Fifty-Six

They watched Thibault for another day from the same hillside…

Chapter Fifty-Seven

Look!”

Chapter Fifty-Eight

Naomi wound her way down to the farmhouse. She waited…

Chapter Fifty-Nine

The lights were from a car coming up to the…

Chapter Sixty

Hauck turned away from Thibault, glancing at the overhead TV…

Chapter Sixty-One

The two men approaching from down the alley stepped closer.

Chapter Sixty-Two

Hauck raced back through town to Thibault’s farmhouse to pick…

Chapter Sixty-Three

They drove on past Thibault’s car in silence. Naomi was…

Chapter Sixty-Four

The young girl trembled a bit, clearly scared.

Part IV

Chapter Sixty-Five

They arrived at Heathrow midday Saturday.

Chapter Sixty-Six

The al-Bashirs walked a couple of blocks toward Park…

Chapter Sixty-Seven

All at once, the defiance in Marty al-Bashir’s face…

Chapter Sixty-Eight

Behind the closed doors of their study, Sheera looked at…

Chapter Sixty-Nine

Annie Fletcher picked out the set of spare keys to…

Chapter Seventy

The car that came to take al-Bashir and his…

Chapter Seventy-One

That wasn’t them! That wasn’t them!”

Chapter Seventy-Two

Empty, dejected, Hauck found his way back to Naomi, who…

Chapter Seventy-Three

By the time they made it back to al-Bashir’s…

Chapter Seventy-Four

Naomi motioned Hauck inside with a concealed wave, closing the…

Part V

Chapter Seventy-Five

Hassan ibn Hassani passed through customs at JFK and found…

Chapter Seventy-Six

Hauck flew back to New York on Sunday. Eight A.M.

Chapter Seventy-Seven

Naomi flew back to Washington that Monday afternoon and went…

Chapter Seventy-Eight

That first night back, Annie came over. Mondays, Hauck generally…

Chapter Seventy-Nine

The e-mail flashed on Naomi’s laptop when she logged…

Chapter Eighty

He was getting ready to leave when his cell rang.

Chapter Eighty-One

She did jog on it.

Chapter Eighty-Two

Peter Simons was skimming the Wall Street Journal in the…

Chapter Eighty-Three

Naomi was at Reagan International, waiting for the government jet…

Chapter Eighty-Four

Red O’Toole leaned against the car and stared out at…

Chapter Eighty-Five

Two large black Suburbans pulled up in front of the…

Chapter Eighty-Six

Peter Simons was pleased.

Chapter Eighty-Seven

They took the Amtrak Metroliner back to DC.

Chapter Eighty-Eight

Hauck’s body went rigid with determination.

Chapter Eighty-Nine

Hauck froze, focused on Naomi, as O’Toole made his getaway.

Chapter Ninety

Only moments before, Thomas Keaton had stood behind the president…

Part VI

Chapter Ninety-One

The resignations of Thomas Keaton and his chief counsel sent…

Chapter Ninety-Two

He sat in the BMW looking out at the pleasant…

Epilogue

Agent Blum…Mr. Hauck…”

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Other Books by Andrew Gross

Credits

Copyright

About the Publisher

PROLOGUE

London.

B
eep, beep! Beep, beep!”

Amir, “Marty” al-Bashir’s six-year-old son, raced his motorized Formula One model around the dining room table, almost crashing it into Anna, the Lebanese housemaid, as she brought out their Sunday lunch of flatbread and spiced lamb.

“Amir, watch out!” his mom, Sheera, yelled. “You’ll run Anna over. Marty, is it not possible for you to tell your son to stop?”

“Amir, listen to your mother,” Marty called from the den, distracted. He and his older son, Ghassan—they called him Gary—were crouched in front of the wide-screen TV in the midst of a crucial football match. Manchester United versus Chelsea. The match was scoreless with only seconds remaining in the first half, and Man U was his son’s favorite team—they had just acquired Antonio Valencia, his favorite winger and the hottest foot in the game.

“Oh, no, look!” Gary shouted as Marty focused back on the screen. A Chelsea attacker had curled a thirty-meter beauty just inside the left post, an inch beyond the Manchester goalie’s outstretched dive.

“Damn, now look what you’ve made me miss, Sheera,” Marty groaned, deflated, “a goal!”

“A goal, big deal. Your son is driving that thing around the house like Jenson Button. Amir,
listen
…” Sheera’s voice grew firm. “If you don’t stop this instant, you can forget about going to Universal Studios when we are in L.A.
Do you hear?

BOOK: Reckless
7.22Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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