Operation: Endeavor (When The Mission Ends) (8 page)

“But doesn’t bringing in a University help both of you?”

“Absolutely it does, both in funding and trained labor but,” his eyes took on a distant look as he thought about his project, “El Regalo has secrets to reveal and I’m just not sure I want to share them with anyone else.” He gave her a slight grin. “That sounds very egotistical of me, doesn’t it?”

“No, not at all. This is your life’s work. I can completely understand you want to be in control of it. Knowing my mother the way I do, I think you have a good reason for your concerns.”

He looked at her speculatively. “Okay, I have to ask, but try not to take offense.”

“Uh oh, should I be concerned?”

He smiled at her. “No, but I just don’t get it. I’ve met both your parents and you’re nothing like them. Where did you come from?”

Penelope gasped and then laughed out loud. “Honestly, I think they wonder that same thing all the time.” She smiled at him. “They had me late in their lives. Mom was 42 and Dad was 45 when I was born. I think they thought they were going to create a miniature version of themselves so they were pretty shocked by me, too. I spent the first years of my life trying to conform to their ideals, but I just couldn’t fit into that mold and it was really painful to try. Finally, I decided I just had to be me.”

“How old were you?”

Her smile was self-deprecating as she said, “Thirteen. The typical age when every girl decides she doesn’t want to live in the shadow of her parents’ ideals. It’s all rather cliché, isn’t it?”

“Maybe, but I like that you’re your own person.” He reached across and took hold of her hand and caressed it softly.

Penelope looked at his strong hands and willed herself to have some reaction to what he was doing, but there was nothing. This is how she imagined it would be to try to be romantic with her brother if she had any brothers. No chemistry. She looked up at Damon who watched her thoughtfully. He was such a nice guy and incredible looking, so why in the world didn’t she feel any chemistry with him? Could it have something to do with her way-too-sexy new roommate?

He gave a soft smile then said, “This isn’t working is it?”

She looked down at their joined hands. “No, but I don’t understand why. You’re a good-looking guy and we get along great. God, I’m so sorry.”

“No, don’t be sorry. Actually, I’m relieved. I hoped it wasn’t just me. But I have a good time with you, so can we stay friends? I’m still in town for another week and I’d like to spend more time with you…just as friends.”

“Absolutely! In fact, I wanted to see if you wanted to go out riding with me one day this week.”

“Like on a horse?” He looked uncomfortable with the thought.

She laughed. “Yeah, that’s what I was thinking.”

“Hmm, I’m really not much of a horse kind of guy.”

“Okay, it was just an idea. How about this? One of my other friends is having a birthday party Saturday night. Do you want to go with me?”

“Are there going to be any other hot single girls there?”

She laughed. “Probably.”

“Okay, I can do hot single girls much better than horses.” He looked relieved. “Yeah, I’d love to go.”

The next morning, Penelope was standing in the kitchen when Colton came into the room. She looked like she had rolled out of bed and moved to the coffee pot as a matter of habit. She was definitely not awake yet.

He chuckled quietly. He didn’t want to disturb her. Mornings were not her specialty. She might bite, although now that he considered it that might not be such a bad thing.

“Mornin’,” she grumbled.

He just smiled at her as he poured himself a cup of coffee. “How was your date last night?”

She slumped into one of the barstools at the edge of the kitchen and her eyes sunk back to half-mast. Penelope nodded and gave a non-committal grunt.

Colton chuckled. “I’m sure Dr. Lopez would appreciate that glowing report.” Personally, he was thrilled with it.

“It was fine. Fun.” She glowered at him as he continued to laugh at her. “It’s not nice to laugh at those who aren’t awake yet.”

“Sorry.” He tried to hide his smile. “But that does bring up a good point, what are you doing up this early?”

“I need to get some work done for a book-signing we have coming up, so I wanted to go into Raider Readers early.”

“Is it an author I know?”

“You read a lot so probably, but I can’t tell you who yet since the contract’s not finalized. That’s part of the reason I need to get to work. Also, I need to get going on the publicity for the event. What are you up to today?”

“I’m taking Chris to his doctor’s appointment and then planning to talk to him about Mad Rob.” He shook his head and thought about it for a moment. “At least that’s the plan. We’ll see what kind of mood he’s in first.” He hated how unpredictable Chris had become. He missed his friend. Before this happened, Chris had always been someone he could count on. Now he could hardly even talk to him without sending Chris into a rage.

She gave him a sorrowful look and reached over to touch his arm. “He’s going to get better. It’s just going to take a bit of time.”

“I know.” He tried to ignore the tingles running from her hand, innocently touching his arm, straight to his groin. “I’m trying to be patient. I just want my brother back.”

“Give him time.” She rubbed him from wrist to elbow.  “Speaking of time, I better go take my shower so I can get to work.” She started to walk away, but then turned around with a sheepish look on her face. She went over to the counter and pulled out an opened envelope. “I’m sorry. This was delivered the other day as I was leaving late for work. I accidentally mixed it in with my work mail and opened it. I only read the first couple of lines. I’m sorry. I honestly didn’t mean to invade your privacy. I promise, I’m not that roommate.”

He looked down at the envelope. This had to be the response he was waiting for from Dianna. He gritted his teeth and tried to keep his emotions in check. No reason to scare his new roommate with his issues with his ex. “No problem. Don’t worry about it.”

“Again, I’m sorry, Colton.”

He gave a clipped nod as she turned to head down the hall. He couldn’t resist watching the gentle sway of her hips under her short robe as she moved down the hallway. He dropped his head to his chest. He took deep breaths as he tried to calm down his libido. She’d simply touched his arm and he was ready to take her up against the wall. He was in such trouble. He had enough woman issues just dealing with Dianna. Besides it looked like Penelope was dating Dr. Lopez. She was off-limits. His brain knew it. Now he just had to convince the rest of his body.

* * *

Penelope arrived at Raider Readers with her mind still occupied with Colton. One thing was sure, her body couldn’t survive many more mornings with him looking so sexy and half undressed. She could just work later in the evenings rather than meet up with him in the kitchen. She barely functioned before 9:00 AM on a normal day, but throw in a lust inducing dose of Colton and she didn’t stand a chance of any brain activity happening for several hours.

She was at the bookstore a full hour and a half before opening time, so was surprised when she found the door slightly ajar. Penelope frowned. Alix hadn’t mentioned anything about coming in early today.

She pushed the door inward, but didn’t see anything amiss, so she called out, “Alix, are you here?” The front desk was right by the door and the register didn’t look like it had been touched. She continued into the store. Whoever was here, it had to be one of her employees. A burglar would have gone immediately to that register.

A grinding noise from the New Fiction room startled her, but as she entered the doorway to investigate, she realized it was just the rumbling of the heater starting up. It was always noisier early in the morning.

She jumped as a sudden single bang pounded from above. Her office was on the second story of the old house. Alix probably just hadn’t heard her when she called so she started up the stairs. “Alix? Hannah? Jon? Who’s in here?” She glanced around warily at the top of the stairs, but she still didn’t see anything out of place. When she got to her office doorway, the light was off and she couldn’t see a sign of anyone having been in there since she’d left the night before. Weird.

Maybe they simply hadn’t pulled the exterior door tightly when they closed the night before. Thankfully, it looked like the store was fine, but she’d have to talk to everyone about it to make sure it didn’t happen again. But that didn’t explain why the hair on her arms was still standing straight up. She needed to get all the lights on in the building so she could check all the rooms. There were too many dark corners right now for her to feel completely comfortable in the space.

With one last look around upstairs, she started to head back down to the first floor so she could turn on the lights and lock the door properly before she set to work. She didn’t need anyone walking in on her before opening time. She was jumpy enough already.

She’d made it down two steps when she felt the presence behind her. She turned quickly, but only caught a glimpse of a dark figure before hands roughly pushed her and she tumbled down the curved staircase.

Colton stared down at his ringing cell phone and grimaced as he glanced around surreptitiously. He’d forgotten to turn it off when he brought Chris in for his appointment, but it was Penelope so he was going to answer it. The nurse sitting at the front desk flirted with him earlier, but now she glared at him. He tried to look repentant as he mouthed ‘sorry’, pushed the talk button, and slipped out the door of the office.

“Hey, Penelope.”

“Colton, are you still at the hospital?” Something was wrong. Her voice was weak and shaky.

His heartbeat raced as alarm set in. “Yes. What’s wrong? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, but I need a ride home. I’m in the ER. Can you come by and get me before you leave?” He could hear her sniffling like she’d been crying.

“I’ll be right there.” Colton took off at a run down the hall before he remembered Chris. He barreled back into the office and toward the reception desk. “My brother is Chris Robertson. When he comes out, can you tell…”

“Colton.” Chris hobbled down the hall on his crutches. “What’s wrong?”

“Penelope’s hurt. Are you finished?” Colton, who never got rattled, sounded frantic even to his own ears.

“Yes. Where is she?”

“ER. Let’s go.”

Colton tried to rein in his impatience at the slower pace he had to maintain because Chris was on crutches. When they finally arrived at the ER department, he rushed over to the reception desk. A woman, with a very sick-looking toddler, talked to the nurse manning the desk and Colton frantically looked around the room trying to find a glimpse of Penelope.

Chris reacted to the impatience strumming through him. “Calm down, Colt. You said she called, right?” At Colton’s nod, he continued, “So she’s not in that bad of shape. Just tone it down a bit.”

Colton swiped a hand through his hair. “You’re right, but goddamn, she sounded upset and she’s here somewhere. I didn’t even find out what happened, how bad she’s hurt.” He glared at the receptionist who still talked to the frazzled mother. “What’s taking so long?”

He looked around the active ER again, and spotted a familiar face coming out of a curtained area. A ball of dread developed in the pit of his stomach. He turned to Chris. “Can you wait here and see if you can find out where she is? I see someone who may know something, but I don’t want to lose our place in line if he’s not here because of Penelope.”

“Sure.” Chris looked over at the man curiously.

Detective Brian Barnes had been the lead detective with Cassie’s stalking and subsequent kidnapping the year before. Colton had a sinking feeling that his presence here wasn’t a coincidence. Colton caught up to him right before he got to the ER entrance. “Detective Barnes?”

Brian had been in the process of dialing on his cell phone when he turned at the sound of Colton’s voice. His face lit up with recognition and he held his hand out to shake hands. “Colton, how are you doing? Are you here because of Penelope?”

“Yes, but I was hoping you weren’t. I haven’t been able to find out anything yet. Is she okay? What happened? Where is she?” He glanced back at the curtained area where the detective had just exited.

“She’s okay, which is lucky since someone pushed her down the stairs of her bookstore.”

Colton scrambled to understand what had happened. He raised a shaky hand to thread through his hair. “Who would do that? Are you sure she’s okay?”

“Yes, she has some stitches, is really bruised, and upset. So far, it appears to just be a random break-in, but we’re investigating.” He gestured towards the curtained area. “Why don’t you go see her for yourself? She’s alone, so she’d probably appreciate the company while she waits to be discharged.”

Colton was already headed that way. He signaled to Chris as he walked that he’d found her. He took a deep breath to calm his rattling emotions as he reached up to pull the curtain aside.

When he walked in, her eyes were closed. There was a bandage on her forehead. She was extremely pale and he could see purple shadows under her eyes. She was dressed and he could see blood where it had dripped on her shirt, probably from her forehead. He continued his perusal of her body and noticed a string of angry purple bruises from her wrist, which was wrapped, on her left arm up to where they disappeared under the edge of her sleeve.