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Back The Short Drop Save as PDF
Chapters (61)
  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright Page
  3. Dedication
  4. CONTENTS
  5. START READING
  6. PART ONE
  7. CHAPTER ONE
  8. CHAPTER TWO
  9. CHAPTER THREE
  10. CHAPTER FOUR
  11. CHAPTER FIVE
  12. CHAPTER SIX
  13. CHAPTER SEVEN
  14. CHAPTER EIGHT
  15. CHAPTER NINE
  16. CHAPTER TEN
  17. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  18. CHAPTER TWELVE
  19. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  20. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  21. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  22. PART TWO
  23. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  24. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  25. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  26. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  32. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  33. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  34. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  35. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  36. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  37. CHAPTER THIRTY
  38. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  42. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  43. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  44. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
  45. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
  46. CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
  47. CHAPTER FORTY
  48. CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
  49. PART THREE
  50. CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
  51. CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
  52. CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
  53. CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
  54. CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
  55. CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
  56. CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
  57. CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
  58. CHAPTER FIFTY
  59. EPILOGUE
  60. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  61. ABOUT THE AUTHOR

“Just did.”

“Are you kidding me, Dan?” Jenn said. “Give!”

Hendricks told them the story. To Gibson it was unforgivable. Hendricks had had a gun on the man who had killed his dad but let him go to cover his own ass. The same man who had hung Gibson by the neck and stolen Duke’s journals. That man was out there still. Free and untouched by all this.

Jenn was far more practical. “And you think this psychopath is going to honor your gentleman’s agreement? Because why? Because you were his version of ‘friends’? That’s insane.”

“I handled it how it had to be handled,” Hendricks said. “It’s not your fingerprints on the gun.”

They sat there in silence while Hendricks drank his beer. When he finished, it was the signal that it was time for bed. No one had anything left to say. In the morning, Gibson woke to Jenn packing her gear. Hendricks was already gone. They said good-bye in the parking lot of the motel. She gave him a brisk hug and handed him the keys to the car.

“Where are you going to go?” he asked.

“To get George.”

Gibson nodded. He hadn’t realized how much she cared for her mentor.

She hugged him again. “Go home,” she whispered. “For real this time. See your kid.”

“Let me help you.”

“I’ll call you if I need you.”

“If you . . . need me?”

“Exactly,” she said with a grin.

“Thank you for saving my life.”

“Thank you for coming back,” she said. “And don’t even think about hugging me again.”

“You know you’re going to miss me.”

They laughed.

“I just might,” she said.

CHAPTER FIFTY

CHAPTER FIFTY

Gibson was an hour north of Atlanta when the news came over the radio that Benjamin Lombard was dead.

Responding to a gunshot at 4:43 a.m., Secret Service found a nonresponsive Benjamin Lombard in his suite. He was transported to Emory University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. A single gunshot to the head. All indications pointed to suicide, but no official announcement was forthcoming. To Gibson’s way of thinking, a private justice had been served.

There was no mention of the vice president’s shoes, but that didn’t stop Gibson from wondering.

Sadly, at least according to the news, Grace Lombard had already departed for their home in Virginia. A protective narrative formed around her over the course of the drive—devoted mother and wife to whom fate had twice delivered catastrophe. The name of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was invoked in describing her.

Gibson found he didn’t care that Lombard was dead. It surprised him at first, but he found his apathy a relief. In the end, Lombard’s death righted nothing and made nothing whole.