Read Online Point of No Return by Rita Henuber - Free Book Online

and outposts around the world. She pushed her way past the glass doors etched with the company’s world atlas logo. Automated glass doors at the other end of the entry vestibule slid open and she walked into a large reception area. Across the room a woman who complemented the company image, rough ,sat behind a desk guarding more glass doors. Honey went to stand in front of the receptionist, who diligently ignored her.
    “Yes?” the woman finally said but kept her attention on three oversized monitors on her desk. Honey had no doubt one was connected to the outside cameras and the woman had watched her arrival.
    “I’m H. K. Thornton here to see David Bristol.” Honey offered her business card. In uniform, she thought adding rank and branch of service unnecessary. The woman, whose nameplate said Verna Barras, finally looked up, frowned and took the card. Honey removed her shades and performed a surgical assessment on the woman. Early thirties. Bottle blonde in need of a root touch-up. Good complexion. Damn poor job of makeup application around dark, savvy eyes. Overly whitened teeth. A thick weightlifter’s neck rose from a black polo bearing the company emblem on the left breast. She swept a calloused thumb over the card’s embossed eagle, globe, and anchor. This was a woman with hard experience, and not at a reception desk.
    Verna did her own accessing. It was more on the scale of an extreme fighter sizing up an opponent. All they needed was the cage. “ You’re Major Thornton?”
    Honey was tempted to say, not really, I stole her uniform and business cards and showed up here to confuse you. “Yes,” she said and smiled, using a professional, sarcasm-free tone.
    “Your appointment is for ten hundred, it’s just nine twenty,” Verna said, glancing at one of the monitors.
    “Traffic was light.” Honey noted her use of military time.
    “He’s busy right now.” The woman’s eyes cut to the glass doors that led to a cavernous hall and returned to tattoo Honey with a menacing look that didn’t quite do it.
    Honey surveyed the sofa, chairs, and a small desk on the other side of the reception area. “I’ll wait.”
    “Whatever.” Miss charming curled her lip and dropped the card like it was soaked in cat piss, returning her attention to her keyboard.
    Honey settled into a club chair, removed the iPad from her briefcase and prepared to look busy until Bristol wasn’t busy. The guard’s tattooing looks hit her again, and being a hard-look tattoo artist herself, she returned the favor until the woman turned away. She powered on the iPad and focused on a Quantico baseball league schedule as if it were top-secret material. Men’s voices drifted from the corridor entrance Verna guarded and after a few minutes the doors whooshed open. Honey angled her head slightly to see Bristol and another man dressed in a black polo like Verna’s, camo pants and boots. Combat boots for the man and ostrich cowboy boots for Bristol. As Kara said, the man wasn’t drop-dead gorgeous but average. Dark, close-cut military-style hair, small dark eyes like river pebbles and as cold. Angular nose and muscular body stuffed into a size too small polo shirt. A not-good vibe that stood the fine hair on her neck like porcupine quills.
    “Mr. Bristol.” Verna scurried from behind her desk. “This is Major Thornton.” She pointed to Honey as if there were twenty people in the room. “She has a ten hundred,” she added, advancing on Bristol. Honey caught an interesting hint of accent in Verna’s voice.
    “Sit down, Verna.”
    Verna stopped liked she’d walked into an invisible wall, clamped her jaw and shot Bristol one of her tattooing looks, which he didn’t see because his gaze was fixed on Honey. She stood. “Mr. Bristol.”
    Bristol stood with his feet planted wide apart, hands on hips. “ You’re from DoD?”
    “Yes, sir, I am.” He shook his head as Honey closed the distance between them, extending a hand. “My