Operation: Endurance (When the Mission Ends) (25 page)

As they drove away, he asked, “So how have things been going for you, Slade? Did that little problem I took care of for you a couple of months ago work out?”

“Yeah,” the kid mumbled.

“Good, good, because now it’s time for you to show your appreciation for what I did for you.” He tossed Slade a manila envelope. “I need you and your boys to take care of this guy. He’s become a problem for me. I don’t care how you do it or what you do to him. Just get him out of my way. The details about where he lives and works are in there. Make sure you take care
of him when he’s alone. I don’t want any other collateral damage. Do we understand each other?”

Slade nodded.

“By the way, I heard your sister, Louisa, has a little problem. No worries. I’ll get it taken care of. Remember, you scratch my back, I scratch yours.”

The naked fear in Slade’s eyes made him smile. His problem would be taken care of soon. Slade knew the score and what would happen if he failed.

They pulled back up in front of the group of boys where he’d originally parked. Slade grabbed the door handle, but he stopped Slade before he was able to exit the car.

“Oh, and Slade, the guy has a bad left knee. You can take advantage of that. Just make sure you do it as soon as possible.”

As he drove away, he chuckled to himself. Soon, the neighbor would be out of the way and if for some reason Slade failed at his job, well, Louisa fit the profile for one of his special ones perfectly.

Number nine had been taken care of last night. Just a few more and then all would be right in his and Jocelyn’s world.

Julie squirmed as daggers of arousal slammed through her core. Whoa, Penelope had written an extremely hot book this time. Not that they were usually anything less than scorching. How Penelope had managed to hide that she was an erotic romance writer all these years when she was writing stuff like this, Julie had no idea. She slammed the notebook shut and flung the covers off her hot body.

After spending most the day sleeping off the lingering sickness, insomnia had struck tonight. She’d thought reading would help her to relax. Instead, now she was even more worked up and awake than she’d been when she crawled into bed.

Chris slept just a room away. It would be so easy to go and slip quietly into his bed and let nature take its course. They still had chemistry going for them. There was no doubt it would be good. Before Chris and that Valentine’s Day weekend, she hadn’t known what she was missing. Now she knew and that made the loss of that ecstasy that much more painful.

Aaron had told her that it was time for her to live. Wouldn’t this qualify as doing that?

Her nipples pebbled and ached. She rubbed across them, trying to ease the incessant need, but her own touch wasn’t going to do it for her tonight. She twisted in her bed, desire pulling at her. It had been so long since anyone else had touched her. Chris had been her last sexual experience and even though it had been amazing, fifteen months was too long to go without sex.

A low moaning, “No,” filtered down the hall.

Julie froze. That sounded like Chris. She scrambled out of her bed and down the hall to his room where his door was cracked slightly open and she could see him thrashing in the covers.

The sweat on his torso glimmered in the moonlight and her gut wrenched. His chest was covered with scars, both small and large. She knew in her mind that he’d been tortured, but seeing the effects made her sick for him. The pain he must have endured. She swallowed hard, unsure what to do. The odds were high he wouldn’t appreciate her intrusion, but she didn’t want to leave him while he was so obviously caught up in a nightmare.

Suddenly, he tensed. Julie held her breath, not knowing if she should stay or if she should go. With a shouted, “Oh Fuck! No!” Chris sat straight up in bed, his chest heaving. She rushed over to his side and lowered herself onto the bed beside him so she could reach her arms around him. His sweat-slickened skin felt chilled under her fingertips and she rubbed his back, pressing her chest into his side, trying to share her warmth. Shudders rolled through him and he continued to gasp for breath.

She curled her fingers into his hair at the nape of his neck as he slowly sank into her embrace. “It was just a dream. It’s okay. You’re safe now,” she whispered into his ear, not sure how awake he was yet. His chest continued to heave, but his arms reached around her to hold onto her as he trembled.

His muscles slowly began to relax into her as she held him, smoothing her hands lightly over the planes of the muscles of his back. She could feel more scarring here, but tried to smooth over the ridges. Her heart broke as she considered how he’d gotten them.

“Julie?” he croaked as he hesitantly touched her.

She leaned away from him so she could look at his eyes in the semi-darkness. His eyes still looked haunted. “Yeah, it’s okay. It’s just me. You had a nightmare. Do you want me to turn on the light?”

“No,” he rasped as another shudder travelled up his spine. “I’m sorry I woke you up.”

“It’s okay. I was awake. I was just reading.” She cupped his cheek softly. “Do you want to talk about it?”

He shook his head. “It’s always the same.” His voice broke. “Just a replay, because obviously it wasn’t bad enough to have to live through it the first time.” His chuckle sounded hollow and bitter.

She tightened her hold around him wanting to give him something else, anything else to hold onto. As she traced a ridge under her fingertip, she had an idea. She kissed his neck and then whispered in his ear, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry it happened in the first place. I’m sorry you’ll always have to live with the memories and nightmares. But maybe we can do something to displace some of those nightmares.”

She crawled up into his lap and he watched her warily. “Julie, I’m not sure—”

She silenced him with a soft kiss on his lips. “Let me,” she said seductively and then began tracing the scars running along his
pecs with her tongue and lips. Another shudder rolled through him as he moaned low and deep.

That moan went straight to her core and her panties flooded with arousal. As she explored the planes of his hard muscles, her eyes filled with tears at the sheer amount of scars that marred his gorgeous body. She kissed and caressed, as if the action could take some of his pain away from him.

His gentle hands swiped at the tears flowing freely down her face. “Don’t cry for me, Butterfly. Never cry for me. It’s okay. I’m okay.” His voice cracked with emotion.

“I just hate that you had to go through it. I want to be able to take away your pain.”

He frowned down at her. “I don’t want your pity, Julie.”

“That’s not—”

He scooted back to put some separation between their bodies, tugging the sheet up for modesty. He ran a hand over his face. “It’s late. You probably should go to sleep. I’m sorry I disturbed your night.”

“Chris—”

“Please, Julie,” he pleaded. “Please just go back to your room.”

She gave a curt nod as she leaned over and kissed his cheek. “Okay, for tonight, but we haven’t finished this. Not by a long shot.” She got off the bed and walked to the doorway. Looking back at him, his head hung in his hands and his shoulders drooped. This definitely wasn’t over. She wasn’t going to give up on them.

He watched her under the sweeping branches of the willow tree surrounding the pond in the small park. Like clockwork, she was here every Wednesday evening, crying underneath this tree. He’d spotted her the first time four weeks ago and had been drawn to her. She was perfect as one of his special ones. She was young, probably only twenty years old or so. Her dark short hair ruffled in the breeze coming off the pond.

Her pain was palpable and he planned to help her. He needed to help her. Only he could free her from this pain and in return, she’d help him in his quest to free Jocelyn from her pain.

He had a pretty good idea about why she chose this particular park to mourn in since it bordered the hospital property.

He slowly approached her, not wanting to startle her. He leaned up against the tree nonchalantly and crossed his arms. “My wife died there three years ago. It helps me to come back where she was last alive. I understand if you want to talk about it.”

She sniffled as she peered up at him with leery, watery eyes. She just shook her head and went back to watching the ducks on the pond.

He continued, using a kind gentle voice, working to lure her in and appear non-threatening. “The first year is the worst, but what they say is true, it does get easier. The key is to get to the point where you can sleep again.”

“I wake up and expect him to be there.” Her voice cracked as she spoke.

He nodded. “Yeah, that’s the worst. Between that and when you first arrive home, expecting them to be in the house somewhere and hearing only silence instead.”

She quietly began to sob again. He reached into his pocket to draw out a handkerchief. “It’s okay, it’s clean. I’m sorry I didn’t mean to make it worse.”

Taking the handkerchief from him, she shook her head. “You didn’t. I’m sorry. I’m just a mess. It’s actually nice to talk to someone who understands. It’s only been two months and there are days that it feels like I’ll never feel normal again.”

He nodded with understanding. “For what you’re going through, that is normal. It really is okay. It’s just part of the grief. By the way, I’m Tom.” He extended an arm out to her and gave her his most charming smile.

She smiled shyly back at him, the tears in her eyes breaking his heart. He’d help her.

“Hi, Tom. I’m Caitlyn.”

“Listen I know this may seem weird, but would you like to go get a cup of coffee and talk some more? It really does help.”

She looked warily around the park. “I don’t know. I don’t really know you.”

“Smart girl, but I promise you, I’m not an axe-murderer.”

She hesitated a moment before nodding. Julie always told her classes that most attackers were people who seemed perfectly nice. It was amazing to him how trusting women continued to be, but he was going to help in the end, so that was okay. She was going to be number ten.

As they taxied the airplane into the hanger, Chris turned to Colton. “I’ll finish up here and you can go over to Julie’s to pick up Penelope. It’s late and I know Pen needs to get to bed. They say these first few months of pregnancy are exhausting.”

Colton smirked at him. “Since when are you an expert on pregnancy?”

“I didn’t sleep much last night so I ended up messing around on the Internet for a few hours. I figured knowing what to expect the first few months during Pen’s pregnancy might be helpful.” He shrugged negligently.

“So, why weren’t you sleeping?”

“Normal stuff, nightmares.” And an amazingly sexy woman who’d visited his bed, driving him crazy. Chris pressed his thumbs into his tired eyes. He hadn’t gotten any more sleep after Julie had left the room and he was paying for it now. He didn’t understand what had brought on the change in her. Last night he saw glimpses of the Julie he’d known before, but the thought that she was in his bed simply because she felt sorry for him made him want to howl in rage and pain. He wanted her there because she wanted to be there. And, God, he really wanted her there.

The nightmare had still been too fresh to have a physical reaction to her while she was there, but flashes of her pressed against him tortured him in the most delicious of ways throughout the rest of the night. Getting a hard-on, he could still be thankful for the miracle of it, even if he had to deal with the blue-balls today. The one highlight of a perfectly miserable night.

Colton unbuckled from his seat and cupped Chris’s shoulder as he stood. “If you’ve got this, I’ll let Mick and you handle it and I’ll go pick up Penelope.”

“We got it. Thanks, Colton. It was a good flight.”

“It was. It will be even more enjoyable to do this though if you start getting some sleep. Flying tired sucks and it’s dangerous, too.”

Chris just gave a sharp nod, knowing he was right. “G’night.”

An hour later, Mick and Chris had finished with the plane. “Mick, I’m
gonna go do some paperwork in the office. I’ll lock up everything when I leave.”

“Okay, Chris,
g’night.”

Chris needed to wrap things up so that he could get home to Julie, but he just wasn’t quite ready to face her yet. Maybe if he wasted a bit more time here, she’d already be asleep when he got home. It was the coward’s way of dealing with her, but it was the best he’d come up with so far.

The problem was he wasn’t sure he could be strong enough to turn her away again. He knew for a fact he didn’t want to. He’d already decided that he wanted to explore this thing between them, but the last thing he wanted was for her to be there out of pity. Anything but that.

The draw between them was huge. If they gave into it, would it finally burn out? He knew he couldn’t have her long-term. That wasn’t fair to her. She deserved a life with a guy who could give her a family.