Operation: Endeavor (When The Mission Ends) (21 page)

He’d already been half-hard ever since he’d laid eyes on the sleeping Penelope, but as he read a couple of the pages, his erection came on at full-force. Whoa, this was hot stuff. He looked back over at Penelope, hoping not to get caught, but this was good reading. He sat down and read a bit more. Fuck, he needed a cold shower.

He glanced back over at Penelope and thought about their issues. She was still sound asleep and her book gave him an interesting idea. Very interesting. He snuck back out of the loft to see what he could do about putting his plan into action.

Penelope rode her bicycle into the bookstore the next morning. Luckily her loft was only a couple miles away so it wasn’t that much of an inconvenience. She just had to watch out for the morning University traffic. It had been too long since she’d ridden. She flexed her wrist. Her fall seemed like a lifetime ago, but it was actually just a little over a week ago. Besides a bit of residual soreness, it almost felt normal. Soon she’d be able to start back with her yoga classes. She missed her normal yoga routine and the automatic stress relief it provided for her life.

And this morning she could definitely use the stress relief more than usual. When she woke up on the couch this morning, she was surprised to find she’d fallen asleep on the couch with all her writing paraphernalia around her. But even more surprising was Colton’s bag by the front door.

If he’d come home, why didn’t he awaken her?

The loft was empty apart from her presence. That was so weird. Why would he come home and then leave again without saying a word to her? It just didn’t make any sense. She thought back to the book she’d been writing. Did he see what she was working on?

Their relationship was already on shaky ground without adding that she wrote erotica into it. Most guys would think it was hot, but they were in the south where a lot of people, like her parents, would be scandalized and outraged. Surely Colton wasn’t that guy.

In fact, he’d given every indication that he liked erotica. But was there a difference in his eyes between enjoying it and doing the actual writing of it? Who knows? God, she was going to mess up her brain trying to figure out how the male mind worked.  And besides, she was jumping to some huge conclusions here.

It was probably just a case that he came home, saw her asleep and didn’t want to awaken her. That’s the story she’d stick to. She didn’t have a choice. She had too much to do to lose another day to worrying about where things stood between her and Colt.

As she entered the store, Jon called out a cheery “Hello,” from the upper floor.

“Good morning,” she called as she climbed the stairs. “What are you doing up here?”

He was in the Science Fiction section with mounds of books lying everywhere. He glanced up at her ruefully. “With the book signing coming up, I thought this section needed a good overhaul.” He looked down at the books spilling over the floor. “It got kind of out of control.”

She laughed. “So do you have a master plan here?” She waved her hand over the mess.

“Of course I do. You know, Sylvia Roberts is a huge author in the fiction world, but a lot of her fans are romance readers because she always has a love interest in her novels. I just thought we should compound on that in the store for that weekend. Every genre has books which also feature romantic story lines.”

Penelope nodded. She could see where he was going on this and it was a great plan.

“So I’m going through the section and finding the sci fi books that also have romantic story lines and turning them face-out. Maybe we can get some of her readers to cross genre lines.”

“I like this idea. Good thinking, Jon. You’ve only done the Sci Fi section so far?”

He nodded. “Yes, it takes a while, so it’s slow work.”

“Okay, when I get a break, I’ll start doing the same in the Mystery section.”

She just wasn’t sure when that break was going to happen. She needed to contact the newspaper and make sure her spots were ready to go. She also needed to check with Hannah to see if the online newsletter was going to make it out today according to their plan.

She turned back to Jon. “Hey, there weren’t any messages on the answering machine this morning, were there?”

“No, should there have been?

“Not necessarily, but I hoped Hannah called.”

He frowned. They were all starting to worry about her prolonged absence.

They’d never heard from her yesterday. She wasn’t answering her phone and she lived alone clear across town. Without a car to go check on her, Penelope was stuck worrying. Hannah was scheduled to work later this morning. Hopefully, she’d show up.

She walked around the quiet store, checking to make sure all the bookshelves were in order. The bell on the door tinkled and she felt a surge of relief thinking Hannah had made it, but it wasn’t Hannah who walked in.

“Hello, Mrs. Kincaid. How are you this morning?” Mrs. Kincaid was an avid mystery reader and one of their best customers. She read several books a week and managed to introduce the bookstore to lots of new mystery authors they never would have discovered without her.

“I’m good Penelope. It’s a beautiful morning. I got a call yesterday that my order was in.”

“Sure, let me find it for you.” Penelope went behind the counter to check their special order shelves. That was odd. There was a pile of Hannah’s things there too: some of her school books, notebooks, and a small floral zipper pouch. The employees weren’t supposed to leave personal items behind.

After she rang up Mrs. Kincaid, Penelope checked the clock on the computer. Hannah was officially twenty-four minutes late. She tried calling her apartment, but there wasn’t an answer. When did you know you needed to file a missing persons report? It was possible Hannah was just at her boyfriend’s house and decided to blow off her job for good sex. Penelope would probably believe that if Hannah hadn’t been acting strange for the last couple of weeks.

She called up to Jon, “Can you come down here for a moment?”

Jon bounded down the stairs. “What’s up?” He eyed the pile of things in front of Penelope with curiosity.

“I think these belong to Hannah. Do you know?”

He nodded. “Yeah, that looks like the pile of school work she brings to work on when business is slow. Where’d you find it?”

“It was under the counter with the special orders. I’m getting a bad feeling about her. I need you here as a witness because I’m going to violate her privacy and go through this stuff to see if I can find any clues as to what may be going on with her.”

He nodded his agreement with her plan.

She hated to do this, but she pulled the pile of things that belonged to Hannah toward her. She flipped through the notebooks, but didn’t see anything. She handed one to Jon to see if he saw something she missed. Sucking in a deep breath because she was about to breach her employee’s privacy, she unzipped the small bag. There were a couple of tubes of lip gloss, some hair accessories, a few pens, and in the very bottom a little baggie full of powder. As she drew the baggie out, Jon’s worried eyes met her own.

“Drugs?” he questioned disbelievingly. “I never in a million years would have guessed she was doing drugs.” He shook his head as they both looked at the mysterious powder.

“Maybe we’re jumping to conclusions. Maybe it’s a powder supplement to add to water or something like that.” She hoped that was the case. The alternative, especially considering Hannah seemed to be missing, wasn’t something Penelope wanted to think about.

“I’m going to call a detective I know and maybe he can help us. I think it’s time to report her missing and someone needs to determine what’s in this baggie.”

She reached into the bag one last time to make sure she’d retrieved everything out of it. She could feel something else in the lining of the bag, but it appeared to be sewn in, so she would leave that to the police.

She sucked in a deep breath as she dialed Brian’s number. She’d never known Hannah to be anything but a conscientious, sweet employee. She found it really hard to believe that she’d gotten mixed up in drugs, but she couldn’t deny the evidence sitting right here in front of her.

“Detective Barnes,” he answered.

“Hi, Brian, this is Penelope Pruitt.”

“Hey, Penelope. I was planning to call you today.”

“You were? Why?” A ball of dread settled into the pit of her stomach.

He chuckled low at the sound of the worry in her voice. “You know it warms my heart when people get so excited about me calling.”

She smiled into the phone. “Sorry, but it seems talking to you always involves some sort of problem.”

“Too true. So how about you go first. Why did you call?”

“I have an employee, Hannah Porter, who seems to have disappeared. She hasn’t shown up for work the last couple of days. She’s not answering her phone either. I just found a bag of hers under the counter at the store and it looks like it may have drugs in it. I wasn’t sure what was the best way to proceed.”

“Calling me was good. I’ll come over there, say…” He paused. Penelope assumed he was checking the time or his schedule. “It looks like I can be there in about fifteen minutes to process the bag and take your statement. You’re at the bookstore, right?”

“Yes, we are. Thanks, Brian. I’ll see you when you get here.”

When Brian arrived, he processed the zipper pouch and everything in it, so he could take it in for testing. He also promised to go by Hannah’s apartment to see if he could locate her or get a lead on where she was.

Finally, he turned to Penelope, “So is there anything else you wanted to share with me?”

“Umm… no?” She looked at him, confused. “Is there something else I’m supposed to share?”

He leaned back against the counter, cocked an eyebrow at her, and crossed his arms across his chest. He looked really formidable that way. “I heard you had some excitement Saturday night.”

“Oh yeah,” she waved her hand in the air negligently, “the break-in on the Bus. It was weird at the time, but I haven’t heard anything else from the creep, so I guess he got what he wanted.”

“Hmm.” Brian looked thoughtful. “If anything else like that happens, I want you to call me directly. Don’t just call the police station.”

“Okay,” she said slowly. “You can’t possibly think all this is related can you? Hannah wasn’t even at that party.”

“The thing is, Penelope, you’ve had several strange things happening around here with very few clues. The only connecting thread is that they keep happening to you.”

A shiver ran down her spine at the ominous sound of Brian’s words.

“Not to worry you, but you need to remain aware of your surroundings and try to keep someone else with you all the time until we get this sorted. I’ll be in touch.”

“Thanks Brian. I appreciate you coming down.”

Colton worked all day to put his plan into action. He talked to Alix earlier in the afternoon and she said she would keep Penelope at the store until 6:00. She also let him know Penelope rode her bike to work. He felt a surge of disbelief at that little fact, but since he was working to convince Penelope he could curtail his controlling tendencies, he wasn’t going to give her grief over it. Instead he arranged for Cassie to pick her up after work and bring her directly to the loft.

He’d also been emphatic that Cassie not come up with her. That would be mortifying for everyone involved. Now he found himself with at least thirty minutes before Penelope showed up. Everything was ready and he was nervous.

He walked around the loft checking all the little details, hoping this worked and she didn’t laugh in his face. That would be humiliating.

He needed something to steady his nerves. He went first to the liquor cabinet where he poured himself a couple fingers of whiskey. Then he walked over to the bookcase to check out the books. Reading would help calm him down. The section where Penelope kept her erotica caught his eye.

He ran his thumb across the book that Pen mentioned earlier that would appeal to him, but it was another author’s books which caught his eye. Celeste DeMarco. She must be good. Penelope had nine books by her. He scanned the titles of the books and pulled out a couple which looked interesting.

He took another deep swallow of the whiskey and glanced around the loft as he tucked the books under his arm. Twenty-five more minutes. He took a deep breath, lit the candles, and left the instructions for Penelope on her arrival. With one final glance at the tools he laid there, he headed toward his bedroom, unbuttoning his shirt as he went.

* * *

Penelope was surprised when the bell above the door of the bookstore rang and Cassie walked in. “Well hey there, stranger. I didn’t know you were coming by today. Are you checking up on me to make sure I didn’t slit my wrists after yesterday’s emotional debacle?”

“No, I’m actually here at the instruction of my big brother.” She smiled mischievously which made Penelope nervous.

“Why would Colton send you here?”

“My instructions are to load up you and your bike and take you home.”