Headhunters by Charlie Cole Read Free Book Online Page B

seemed like a good guy, someone who might be
a friend one day. He extended his now clean hand and we shook.
    “Pleased to meet you,” I said.
    “Same here,” Tom chorused. His eyes darted over my shoulder
for a moment. He was suddenly serious. “Good morning, Christine.” Max and I
turned.
     “Christine! Meet Simon Parks,” Max began. “Simon this is Christine
Frost. She works with Tom on a lot of our searches.”
    Christine regarded me for a moment before shaking my hand.
She was a brunette, which I don’t find objectionable in the least, but her eyes
were black. Not dark brown. Black. Like the eyes of a great white shark. She
didn’t smile at first, then slowly the corners of her mouth turned up and I got
the feeling that I was in the presence of someone whose bad side I didn’t want
to be on.
    “Good morning, Mr. Parks. Nice to have you here,” she said.
Her voice was somewhere between a greeting and a warning. Max seemed not to
notice.
    “Simon will be joining us as a headhunter,” Max said.
    “’Headhunter’,” Catherine scoffed. “No one calls us that
anymore, Max.”
    “Maybe they ought to,” I said.
    Christine’s eyes locked on mine and I didn’t blink. Max
didn’t seem to notice and led us away.
    “Nice to meet you both,” I said over my shoulder.
    “You too!” Tom said, leaning out of his door. Christine said
nothing, just watching as we walked away. When we were a fair distance from
them, Max leaned closer to me.
    “Tom’s a good recruiter. Up and comer. He’s a junior me,”
Max laughed and squeezed my shoulder. I chuckled for his benefit. “Christine is
our senior recruiter. She’s tough, determined and takes absolutely no shit off
of anyone. I’m glad you didn’t back down. You show fear around her, you’ll have
to piss on your own desk to mark it as your own, otherwise she’ll take anything
she can get.”
    We strolled to the huge glassed-in room and I realized that
it was not in fact a conference room, but rather it was Max’s office. He
flicked on the light and illumined the entire place, revealing a polished wood
desk and cabinets, bookshelves and end tables. It was truly an executive
office, but unlike most old school executives, Max’s office had one critical
difference.
    On his desk sat a state of the art desktop computer and flat
screen monitor. That told me something about him. This was a man who took his
job seriously and did not leave the running of the business to other people. He
was willing to roll up his sleeves and work side-by-side with his employees. I
had to respect that.
    I noticed from my peripheral vision a woman approaching from
my right, but it wasn’t until Max addressed her that I truly took notice.
    “Jessica? Have you got a second?” he asked.
    The woman stopped and I saw she was on a cell phone call.
She told the person she’d call back and rang off, giving us her full attention.
    I’m not one to be taken by physical beauty. A woman is who
she is, not what she looks like. But this woman was truly, classically pretty.
Her auburn hair framed her face in soft curls. Her green eyes were lively and
inviting. I couldn’t help but want to talk to her. And when she smiled, I felt
like I could enjoy her company for quite a long while.
    “Jessica Madison, this is Simon Parks,” Max said. I’d begun
to grow tired of his introductions, but this one was a worthy exception. “He’ll
be working with us in recruiting.”
    “Hi! Welcome aboard,” Jessica said warmly. “I’m sure we’ll
be talking a lot in the next few days.”
    “Jessica’s our junior recruiter here, but she brings some
excellent background in corporate records and documentation. She’s our expert
in research,” Max filled in. “You two will be working closely together on
special projects.”
    “Nice to meet you,” I said. “I’m sure we’ll talk soon.”
    And then she was gone. Charming woman. I’d have to get to
know her better.
    “Your office is right this