Operation: Endeavor (When The Mission Ends)

by Christi Snow

  Cassie just nodded. “We can do it. You’ll help keep me organized.”

  Julie was in full-blown panic mode. She stood up suddenly. “I need a paper and pen.” She looked around the group as if one of them might have them handy. They all looked at her blankly.

  Cassie chuckled as she waved her inside. “There’s a notepad and pen in the kitchen drawer by the phone. Knock yourself out.”

  As Julie went into the house to gather her organizing supplies, it was Chris who commented. “That was good of you guys.”

  Cassie’s face fell as she looked worriedly back at the back door. “It gives her something else to focus on for the near future. At least to get her through the next few weeks and maybe that will make it easier for her in the long run.”

  “You’re a good woman, Cassie.” Penelope was close to tears again.

  “It’s what friends do. We stand by each other when one of us is hurting. Besides, she will have me way more organized than I could ever be on my own.”

  Chapter 31

  By Thursday, Colton, Penelope and everyone around them settled into an uneasy pattern. They were all on pins and needles waiting for the other shoe to drop but, so far, there’d been no word from whoever was terrorizing her.

  Colton drove her to work every day and then hung out at the bookstore during her shifts, scowling ferociously at any customer who he felt might pose a threat. It had only been two days so far and Penelope was already at the end of her patience with his hovering.

  Today was worse because she was conducting interviews for Hannah’s replacement. They needed the extra help in the store for the signing scheduled on Saturday. Unfortunately, a minimum wage retail job brought in lots of people who Colton felt were untrustworthy at first sight. As she exited her office with her latest interviewee, a flighty sixteen year old who didn’t even realize they still made print books anymore, Penelope felt old and just about at the end of her rope.

  So when she found Colton with her next candidate cornered demanding he show him his driver’s license, she lost it. The balding man looked small and terrified with Colton towering over him. The poor man’s eyes were darting about as he tried to find an escape around Colton’s mammoth size.

  Colton ignored her arrival and continued to glare at his prey.

  “Colton!” She said forcefully as she pinched his arm and dragged him behind her.

  He turned his glare on her. “Ow! What?”

  “Don’t you use that tone with me. Stop terrorizing my customers and wannabe employees.” She turned to the bald man, who still looked pale. She laid a soothing hand on his arm and gave him her most disarming smile. “I’m sorry about that. Are you Mr. Krazinski, my 2:00 interviewee?”

  “Yes,” he mumbled quietly, “but I’ve reconsidered and don’t think I want to apply anymore.” He scooted out around her and darted out the door.

  She watched him go in disbelief before turning to glare at Colton. “Dammit, Colton. What the hell am I supposed to do now? He was the last person I had to interview.”

  He shrugged, but looked a little chagrined when he said, “What about the girl? She seemed nice.”

  Penelope rolled her eyes at him. “Sure, if my business was selling lip gloss, she would have been perfect. Unfortunately, I sell books and she doesn’t even know what those are.”

  “Oh come on, it couldn’t have been that bad.”

  “Seriously, Colt. She straight out asked me how old all these books are because and I quote here, ‘they aren’t even making books anymore, right?’ He was my last hope and you just sent him scurrying out of here, peeing his pants in fright.” She waved her hand at the now shut door. “You’ve been terrifying my customers all day and you have to stop it.”

  Colton nodded and she finally thought she was making some headway through his stubborn brain. “You’re right. I need to take care of some Mad Rob stuff anyway, so you can just take the rest of the week off until they catch this guy. You’ll be safe with me and I’ll feel better when you’re not here. This guy knows you work here and that makes it too easy for him to target you, so taking off for the rest of the week is the right thing to do.”

  Her mouth dropped open and she was pretty sure she’d never in her life been this close to literally having her head explode off her body. The man was stubborn and impossible and completely hard-headed. She was ready to do him physical harm. It didn’t matter that he out-weighed her by 100 pounds of pure muscle. She was going to kill him.

  Luckily, Brian returned her cell phone to her the day before. She glared at Colton as she pulled it out of her pocket and started dialing.

  “Hello.”

  “You need to come over here and remove your big brother from my store right now before he stains my carpets.” Colton narrowed his eyes at her and started shaking his head. He tried to take the phone from her which just pissed her off more. It must have shown in her eyes because suddenly he backed off with his hands raised.

  Chris laughed. “He’s not already bleeding, is he?”

  “Not yet,” she said through gritted teeth, “but he’s getting real close.” He reached for the phone again and she held a single finger up. “And if he tries for my phone one more time, he’s going to lose a finger or five.”

  Chris continued to laugh, which just ticked her off more.

  “You obviously don’t care for his well-being at all, do you?”

  “Darling, I’m just glad to know I’m not the only person he likes to drive bat-shit crazy with his control issues.”

  Penelope growled in frustration.

  “Okay, I’m coming and don’t worry, I’ll bring reinforcements. We’ll get the over-protective big guy back under control.” He lowered his voice when he said, “I know he can be a pain in the ass, but he’s only like this because he cares. You know that, right?”

  She closed her eyes and sighed. “I know, which is why I called you before doing him bodily harm.”

  “We’ll be there in five.”

  “Thanks Chris.”

  Colton continued to glare at her as she hung up the phone. He was doing a bit of growling on his own. “Do I have to remind you that some guy is intent on doing you harm?”

  She rested her hand on the flat of his pecs. “I haven’t forgotten. Both Alix and Jon are here. I promise not to leave the store until you get back. I’ll stay away from the windows. In fact, I plan to work in my office the whole time you’re gone. Just give me a few hours of space. You’re smothering me.” She could see the worry and hurt in his eyes and she reached up to smooth the lines between his brows. “We can’t survive like this. A few hours, Colt. That’s all I’m asking. I promise I’ll be careful and diligent about that safety. Please.”

  Finally, reluctantly he nodded. “Okay, but Pen, no leaving without me by your side. Do not endanger yourself. We have no idea who we’re dealing with. Someone could come in randomly off the street and kill you.”

  He looked back at the front door and tensed up. “No, I can’t leave. It’s not worth it.” He shook his head. “I can’t take that risk.”

  “Colt.” He continued to stare at the door like someone was about to walk in with guns blazing. She reached up to grasp his chin so that he would turn and look at her. “Whoever this is, they need something from me. They can’t get it if I’m dead. That’s going to keep me relatively safe for now. Please, you have to relax.” She arched an eyebrow at him. “Am I going to have to tie you up again?”

  His eyes darkened at the suggestion. “Hmm, maybe.” He reached down around her waist and pulled her snug up against him so that she could feel his erection while he kissed her.

  They were both so caught up in the moment, they didn’t hear anyone come in until a humor-laced voice asked, “I thought you said she was angry at him? That’s not what Cassie does to me when she’s angry.”

  They both turned to look into the smirking faces of their four friends. Cassie punched Jake in the arm, but he kept his focus on Colton. “So are you gonna share yo
ur secret with your friends? How do you get her from mad to passionate in five minutes flat?”

  Colton looked down at her with desire before whispering in her ear, “Should I tell him the secret is rope?”

  He’d forgotten who he was messing with. “I dare you to tell him and exactly how it was used.” It was satisfying to watch Colton blush like that.

  He grinned as he pulled her back toward him. “Behave and we’ll continue this later tonight.” To the girls, he sternly said, “Keep her here until I get back. No one is to go outside.”

  Cassie saluted him and said, “Yes, sir,” before pushing him out the door.

  As Penelope watched them walk out, she heard Chris mutter, “Were you actually just blushing?”

  Penelope smiled to herself as she watched the door close behind them. Tonight… They hadn’t had sex since Aaron was shot. They both could use the physical release from all the stress. It was an intriguing thought.

  Penelope didn’t realize she’d gotten lost in her daydream until Cassie waved a hand in front of her face. She turned to face her two friends. “Sorry about that. Let’s go up to my office. You all can hang out there while I get some work done. I may even have a bottle of wine or two in there.”

  Cassie said, “You keep wine in your office?”

  Penelope nodded. “Sometimes it’s necessary. This week it’s necessary.” She reached around Julie and gave her a hug. “How’re you doing?” The circles under her eyes said she wasn’t sleeping and there was an aura of sadness around her.

  “I’m okay, but I could really use a distraction.”

  It was Cassie who said, “Some girl time will do us all some good. I just need to grab one thing. You all go ahead up to Penelope’s office. I’ll be right up.”

  As they entered her office, Penelope saw the pile of books that Cassie went to get and she rolled her eyes at her. “So did you tell Julie?”

  Cassie’s eyes were sparkling as they all settled onto the floor around the coffee table. There was a couch, but the three of them discovered long ago that they were more comfortable hanging out on the floor. It was more relaxed for girl chat. “No, I figured it was your secret to tell.”

  “Yeah, sure, that’s why you brought all those books up.”

  “Call it a little nudge.”

  Julie looked confused as she looked between the two of them. “What are you two talking about?” She looked down at the pile of books Cassie set on the floor in front of them and blushed. “Never mind, maybe I don’t want to know.”

  Cassie shook her head, “Oh no, you definitely want to know this and I want to know more about how it happened.” She looked back over at Penelope with a challenge in her eyes.

  Penelope raised her hands in surrender. “Okay, I know when I’ve been beat, but we probably should open up the wine for this one.” She gestured to Julie who was reading the back of one of the books with wide eyes and more than a bit of trepidation. “I have a feeling she’s going to need it.”

  She found coffee mugs for all three of the girls and then gave Julie twice as much wine as she gave either herself or Cassie. “Drink up, oh innocent one.”

  Julie looked at them both suspiciously, but followed Penelope’s instructions.

  While Julie drank, Penelope got the phone call from Sylvia Robert’s publicist which she’d been expecting all day. She relocated to her desk since she was talking business. As she listened to the publicist, Penelope felt the need to top off her own wine glass and started to imbibe more freely. She grimaced at her friends who looked at her curiously. They could only hear her side of the conversation and she honestly wasn’t getting a chance to say too much.

  When she hung up the phone, she let her head bang on her desk a couple of times, before taking a long swallow of wine.

  “Bad news?” Cassie asked.

  “That was Sylvia Robert’s publicist. Sylvia’s the author who’s supposed to be here on Saturday. Since Lubbock has become such a hotbed of crime, she’s cancelled.”

  “What? Can she do that this late?”

  Penelope shrugged. “There’s a penalty clause in her contract for cancelling so late, but it’s really negligible in the grand scheme of things. The problem is that it’s too late to pull back my publicity and I’m going to have customers here with no author to show to them.” She closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead where a headache was beginning. “Okay, there has to be a way to make this work.” She took another deep drink of her wine and laid her head back down on her desk while Cassie and Julie watched her with concern.

  As Penelope laid there, the flier from Abilene Authors hanging on her bulletin board caught her eye. She yanked it down and immediately started dialing the number from it. “Please let this work,” she muttered as the phone rang.

  “Yo,” he answered.

  “Tony, this is Penelope Pruitt, from Raider Readers in Lubbock. We talked a few days ago.”

  “Hey, how’s it hanging? Everyone was stoked when I told them about your phone call.”

  “Good. I hope they’re really excited because I’ve had a cancellation by an author and hoped that maybe your group could come do a signing at my store on Saturday.”

  “Seriously? We’d love to come. Road Trip. Dude, that’s sweet! I’m not sure how many will be able to come, but I’d guess at least four to five of us could be there.”

  “That would be wonderful, Tony. My next question is: Do you all have any of your books stocked?”

  “Oh man, let me think. The Gift of Serendipity doesn’t release for another couple of months. You have the proof copy, but we had another romantic suspense called Spirit Betrayed that released last month. It’s intense.”

  “That sounds perfect. Do you have stock of it you could bring with you?”

  “Oh yeah, no problem. We got it covered.”

  “Thank you so much Tony! You’re really saving me by doing this at the last minute. I’m looking forward to meeting all of you. The signing is at 12:30, so if you all could be here by 10:30 that would be great. I’ll send you the details and directions.”

  “Thanks, Penelope.”

  She turned back to Cassie and Julie who watched the conversation with interest and gave them two thumbs up.

  “Whew, that’s a relief. Although it will be interesting to see how Sylvia’s fans take to this group if they’re all like Tony. He’s an interesting guy.” She rejoined them on the floor.

  “Who are they?”

  “A writing group out of Abilene who write and release books as a group. It’s bizarre, but from what I’ve read, their books are pretty good.” She nodded, happy to have found a solution quickly.

  Now she refocused on her girlfriends. She leaned over to pick up the books Cassie brought up. “Sorry, I got sidetracked there. I think we were about to talk about these.”

  She looked at Julie who radiated discomfort. “What Cassie is dying to let you know is that I’m Celeste DeMarco.” She held the book up in front of her and pointed to the author’s name on the cover.

  “What? You write these? Seriously?” Julie looked shocked, but also a little intrigued.

  Penelope nodded. “Yep.”

  “Now I want to know how all this began.” Cassie trailed her hand over the pile of books. “You’ve obviously been doing it for a while.”

  Penelope nodded. “Since college. At first, it was purely for the shock value. Rebellion. Alix and I were playing around one night and found some erotic artistic photos. The first idea came from there.” She held up her first book. “And this book was born.”

  Cassie took it from her hands and started reading the back cover with Julie looking over her shoulder.

  “I never planned to get them published. I shared the first couple with Alix because she knew about the inspiration. She was the one who submitted them. It was a complete surprise when she came to me with the first contract. These books are how I paid for the store.”

  Julie looked at her curiously. “I always thought Alix loaned you th
e money to buy the store.”

  Penelope nodded. “We’ve just always let that impression stick. It was easier than explaining how a recent college graduate with no real income managed to buy and start a bookstore.” She shrugged. “It’s actually the other way around. Alix works for me.”

  Both girls flipped through the books, reading little sections, and taking turns looking at her with awe and a bit of disbelief.

  Julie paused and looked up from a particular passage. “So,” she hesitated looking really embarrassed. She looked back down at the book as she asked, “Do you do all this stuff?”

  “Oh, God no!” Penelope laughed and Julie looked relieved. “I do lots of research. I’m not a prude, but some of this stuff is out there even for me. These books are all about the fantasy. I just have a very active imagination.”

  Penelope couldn’t resist teasing Julie a bit more. “Although they do make for great inspiration in the bedroom. There are always elements from each scene that will work for just about anyone.” Cassie looked intrigued while Julie looked shell-shocked.

  “Does Colton know?”

  Penelope nodded at Julie’s question. “Yes, he’s the one who blew my cover to this one.” She quirked her eyebrow at Cassie. “He discovered my secret when he was cleaning up the apartment and found some of my writing notebooks. He doesn’t seem to mind it too much.”

  Cassie snorted. “I can’t imagine any guy having issues with this kind of imagination.” She lifted the book with the tied up cowgirl on the front of it.

  They all laughed, but Julie turned serious as she took another drink of her wine. “Seriously Penelope, this is fabulous. I admire you. You see what you want and go after it, no fear.”

  Penelope looked at Julie in disbelief. “Did you miss the part where no one has known about this for nine years?”

  “I know, but it’s not just this.” She looked down at one of the books in her hands. “You live your life to the fullest and you don’t let anything or anyone stand in your way. You grab onto life and live it.” Her eyes filled with tears as she talked.