Operation: Endurance (When the Mission Ends) (33 page)

“Why should I trust anything you say? And if I can trust it, what do you want from me in exchange for this information?”

“Don’t press charges against me. I got nothing against you personally, but this guy didn’t give me a choice.”

Chris gave a subtle nod. “Deal.”

Colton clenched his jaw, obviously not agreeing with the guy’s terms, but he didn’t say anything. He just remained at the ready by Chris’s side.

“You’re an upstanding citizen. I want you to report this to someone you can trust in the fucking LPD. I want this cop to pay for what he’s done.”

Every muscle froze. “Did you say cop?”

“Yeah, now you see my issue. I can’t go after Larson without having the entire fucking police department on my ass. It wouldn’t be any big deal if it was just me. Watching that fucker bleed out after I stabbed him would be worth prison, but I can’t leave my boys. They need me here to prevent a turf war.”

Chris didn’t care about the gang issues. He needed to get the guy back to the dirty cop. “You said Larson. Are you talking about Pete Larson? He’s the guy who ordered you to attack me?” A sudden icy dread snaked through Chris’s stomach. Why would Pete want him beat up?

“Yeah, but we weren’t supposed to just attack you. You weren’t supposed to be breathing the next day and because we failed, he went after my sister, Louisa. I don’t know if she’s still alive or not, but he’s got her. I know he’s got her. She always comes home. She’s a good girl and she didn’t show up last night. Maybe if you report it, they can find her before it’s too late.” His hands clenched into fists and he watched Chris to make sure he understood the information he shared with him. “Make him pay,” he demanded and with that, the guy took off running.

“Do you think he’s telling the truth?” Colton asked.

“I don’t know. He risks a lot if he’s lying just by coming here. Why would he lie? But why would Pete do this? He’s never seemed to have a problem with me and he’s a good cop. What’s going on here? Come on, we need to call Brian.”

Luckily Brian was in the area when they called, so he arrived within fifteen minutes. The two of them ushered him into the conference room.

He sat down and pulled out a notebook. “So, Chris you mentioned on the phone that you had some new information about the attack on you.”

“Yeah, when we arrived here this morning one of the guys involved that night was waiting for us in the parking lot. He said if I didn’t press charges that he had some information for us.” They proceeded to tell him what the guy told them. As they talked, Brian’s expression became more and more closed-off and unreadable.

When they were finished, Brian asked, “He said the missing girl’s name is Louisa?”

Chris nodded.

Brian pulled out his cell phone and placed a call. “Barnes here. Do we have an ID on the victim from last night yet?” His eyes widened at the information being relayed to him over the phone line. “Louisa Jenkins. She wouldn’t happen to be related to Slade Jenkins, is she?”

Brian listened for a moment more before he murmured, “Damn,” and sunk his head into his hand. “Okay, I’m following up on a lead right now. I’ll be in the office in about an hour or so.”

He hung up the cell phone and met their curious gazes. “I don’t know what’s going on here. We have a dead girl in the morgue who’s the sister of the local gang leader, but I find it hard to believe that Pete’s behind this, no matter what his problems are right now. It’s very likely some kid in this gang has an issue, since it looks like she’s the latest victim from our serial, and Slade is trying to protect his own. Regardless, I need to go talk to Pete. I need you two to keep quiet about this until I unravel it all. Don’t mention this to anyone else, especially Toni since she’s involved with Pete.

* * *

Julie was about to leave for lunch when her cell phone rang. “Hello?” she answered.

“Hey, Julie, it’s Pete.”

“Pete, how are you doing? We missed you in class last night.”

“I know, I’m sorry. There’s just a ton going on.” She could hear the strain in his voice. It didn’t sound like things were getting any better. “I was wondering if that offer to talk was still available.”

“Absolutely. In fact, I was just about to go on my lunch break. Do you want to meet me somewhere?”

“Actually, would you mind coming over to my place? I don’t feel like dealing with other people today.”

“No problem. I’ll even bring food. Does bbq sound okay?”

“Sure, that sounds great, Julie. I’ll see you in a bit.”

She gathered up her purse and debated texting Chris before she left, but then remembered they had a lunch meeting today at Mad Rob with some of the local contacts from the Department of Homeland Security. She’d just have to wait to catch up with him after work. Right now, she had a friend in need of cheering up.

* * *

As Julie crawled out of her car, clutching the bag of food to her chest at Pete’s house, she was surprised to see Toni pull up and park. She hadn’t noticed Julie yet as she gathered what looked to be her own bags of food out of the passenger seat. As she stepped away from the car, she looked down at her phone. Her stride faltered when she finally glanced up and saw Julie standing there waiting for her.

Toni winced when she noticed Julie’s bag of food. “Crap, I should leave. He’s just been so down. I was hoping to cheer him up with a surprise lunch.”

“Don’t be silly. He’ll love to see you, too. Seriously, what guy wouldn’t be thrilled to have two gorgeous girls come to his house for lunch when he’s down? Come on. Let’s go see what we can do for him.”

“Are you sure? He had no idea I was coming. I could leave and he’d never know I was here.”

“Yes, I’m sure.” She basically had to drag Toni up the walkway, but was sure that Pete wouldn’t mind the extra surprise. If he didn’t want to talk with Toni here, Julie could just come back after work.

Julie rang the doorbell and Toni cowered behind her, muttering, “I really should leave. He didn’t invite me and now I feel like a third wheel.

Julie rolled her eyes at Toni, but turned to smile at Pete when she heard the door opening.

“Hey, Julie. Thanks for coming.” He opened the door for her, but his eyes widened when he saw Toni standing behind her.

“Guess who I found in the parking lot. She looked like someone in need of a hot young stud so I brought her along with me, hoping there might be someone around here who could take care of her needs.”

They walked into the house as Julie talked.

Toni stepped up on tiptoe to give Pete a kiss on the cheek. “I’m sorry. If I’d known Julie was coming, I would have left you two alone, but she grabbed me in the parking lot and wouldn’t let me escape.”

Pete scowled, but Julie hoped it was just because of the surprise, not real irritation that Toni was with her. Surely with everything else going wrong with him, their relationship wasn’t on the rocks, too. It was probably more the case of him being a macho guy and not wanting to show any vulnerability in front of the new girl he liked.

Julie plucked the bag of food out of Toni’s hands and headed toward the kitchen to give them a few moments of privacy. As she moved further into the house, she was surprised at the disarray she found there. If she didn’t know better, she would think that Pete’s place had been ransacked. She glanced around the room, taking in the broken side-table lamp, the turned over chair and the general disastrous mess that faced her.

It looked as if there had been some sort of struggle here and then she saw the blood. Her heart stuttered. There was a huge puddle to the side of the couch, splashing up on the wall, and judging from the dark streak in the carpet, whoever belonged to all that blood had been pulled down that hall.

A small sound alerted her to Toni’s distress and she turned slowly to see her held captive against Pete’s chest. He had one arm around her throat and another wrapped around her holding her arms down. Adrenaline surged through Julie’s system and she slowly lowered the bags of food onto the couch. “Pete, what are you doing?”

How many times had she told her class that an attacker would more than likely be someone you already know? And here, Toni and she had both been caught unaware.

“She wasn’t supposed to be here. It was just supposed to be you, but don’t worry. I’m not going to hurt her.”

Julie experienced a mild surge of relief. She could see that he truly wasn’t trying to hurt Toni. He was being careful not to damage her windpipe, even though he continued to hold her very firmly. The question was, if Toni acted self-defensively or if Julie attacked, would that change?

Toni’s eyes held panic and a glimmer of trust as she looked toward Julie. This is what they trained for, but Pete knew Toni’s very limited moves. It was up to Julie to get her out of here safely. She needed to get his focus off Toni so he wouldn’t notice if she tensed. Her eyes were drawn to the trail of blood and a chill ran down her spine. “Pete, who’s down the hall? Who’s hurt?”

Pete frowned and for a moment, looked confused and distracted. “No one else was supposed to get hurt.”

She needed to take advantage of his distraction while she could, because Pete was almost as proficient at the martial arts as she was and she wasn’t sure she’d be able to best him.

For a split second, she met Toni’s eyes and then Toni stomped on Pete’s instep. At the same time, Julie attacked, swinging her right leg to kick at Pete’s kidney. Luckily, Pete had been distracted enough that the two-pronged attack took him by surprise and Toni slid out of his embrace.

Ideally this would be where they’d run, but with someone possibly hurt in the back room, they couldn’t leave and neither one was willing to abandon the other. But as she exchanged glances with Toni, it looked like neither one of them were at the point of being able to actually attack Pete either. They both cared about him.

They circled on either side of him, ready for him if he acted aggressively again.

“Pete,” Julie said, needing to draw his attention away from Toni so she could call for help, “what’s going on? I don’t understand.”

His face crumpled a bit. “I know you don’t, but I’m going to explain it all to you, I promise. You’re going to do such an amazing thing here. Your sacrifice will be worth it.”

A chill rolled down her spine at the madness glimmering in his eyes. What the hell?

Julie could see Toni trying to call on her cell phone out of the corner of her eye, but it didn’t look like her phone was working.

* * *

Chris and Colton walked out of the conference room with their new contacts from the Department of Homeland Security. The meeting had been to discuss the parameters of their agreement and mission for the DHS for the next several months and to work out the finer details about the employee security clearances for their upcoming missions. It had been a success.

But as they came out of the room, laughing and doing the small-talk thing, Chris was curious to see Jake sitting in the outer office instead of Toni. “Where’s Toni?”

“She went to lunch. She mentioned something about taking lunch to her boyfriend, but she should be back soon.”

Chris and Colton shared an alarmed look. They had no idea what, if anything was going on with Pete, but if something was, then Toni could be in danger. “You call Brian, I’ll call Toni,” he instructed Colt.

Neither one of them got an answer. “We could call Pete’s place and act like we don’t know anything.”

“That’s the problem, we don’t know anything,” Colton retorted.

Jake had been watching the discussion between them in silence, but now asked, “What the hell is going on? Why is Toni going to Pete’s place a bad thing?”

Colton rounded on him. “Are you sure she was going to his place?”

Jake nodded. “That’s what she said.”

“Do you have the wedding invitation list on your computer?” Colton asked.

“Yeah, but—” Jake began.

“Go get Pete’s address off it. Quickly. We’ll explain later, but Toni could be in danger.”

* * *

Julie barely had time to react when Pete came at her. He threw a fist first which she managed to block, but he quickly followed it by a side kick. The slicing pain through her side was immediate as was the lack of ability to breathe. Nevertheless, she managed to keep her feet below her and turned to round on him, grabbing hold of the leg he’d kicked at her, twisting it at the same time. That took him down to the ground.

He scrambled to grab her by the leg, but she stomped on his hand. His howl of pain filled the house, and he charged at her, tackling her low. As she fell back, the side of her head slammed up against the coffee table.

Pain burst through her head as the world faded to black.

* * *

The sounds of a struggle filled the air, but Julie couldn’t focus enough to see. He had to be fighting with Toni, but Julie had no idea who was coming out ahead. She swiped at her eyes, trying to clear them. Her fingers came away wet with blood. No wonder she couldn’t see anything.