Operation: Endurance (When the Mission Ends) (9 page)

She laughed. “No, I think I’ll stay at the hospital, but I do know someone who might be perfect for you all. She’s one of my self-defense students who lost her job at a law firm when one of the partner’s sons became too hands-on. From what she tells me, they’re working the business community to keep her from getting hired anywhere else. I have no idea how good she is at her job, but she’s fun and smart. I could see her fitting in with you guys at Mad Rob.”

“She sounds great. Do you have her name and number? I’ll pass it on to the guys and see what they think.”

Julie led him to her breakfast counter in the kitchen. She dug out her cell phone and transferred Toni’s contact information onto a sticky note.

“Why didn’t you mention anything about the attacks in Lubbock last night?”

She shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know. It just didn’t seem that important for you to know. I don’t think you’re in any danger from this guy.” She smirked at him.

“Haha, very funny. You didn’t think I would want to know that you could be in danger?”

She tucked her short hair behind her ear. “That’s very sweet, but there are hundreds of thousands of women in Lubbock. I think I’ll probably be okay. Besides, I don’t know if you remember or not, but I can hold my own.”

Suddenly the flash of Julie throwing him down into the snow that fateful Valentine’s Day flashed through his mind. His heart torqued at the thought of her body pressed up against his as he brought her to orgasm later that same evening. “Yeah, I remember,” he said, his voice hoarse. He needed to get out of there. He looked up to meet her eyes which had widened like she knew exactly what he was remembering. Yeah, it was definitely time for him to leave.

He reached across the counter and plucked the stick-it note out of Julie’s hand. “Thanks for this. I’ll get out of your hair now.
G’night, Julie.”

He stepped out the door and as it shut behind him, he paused for a moment and closed his eyes. He had to stop torturing himself with this. Resolved, he stepped forward to his door. Just as he grabbed the handle, the
lightbulb exploded above him, sending a shower of sparks and shattered glass onto his head.

He dove to the ground, searching the surrounding area for the cause, but nothing moved. There wasn’t even the normal neighborhood dog barking. Everything appeared to be perfectly calm, besides the frantic beating that echoed up from his heart.

He glanced back up at the darkened light. Was it possible that a defective bulb had somehow exploded, taking the shade with it? The permeating quiet told him that had to be the case. With another glance back toward the quiet street, he shrugged, a bit embarrassed. Talk about over-reacting. Thank goodness Julie had already closed her door. He’d have to get an electrician out to look at the fixture tomorrow after work.

When Chris got home, it was still early evening and a lot of the neighbors were out enjoying the lingering light and warm temperatures. Julie was on her hands and knees in her front flower bed. The sight of her toned thighs in her cut-off shorts would normally have sent his cock twitching. Today, nothing stirred, but he still enjoyed the view. He sighed internally, but couldn’t help the grin that escaped as he watched her for a moment. “Are you digging for buried treasure?”

She glanced up sharply, obviously surprised to see him standing there, but then she gave a rueful smile. “I wish. That would be so much more fun than the cache of earthworms I seem to keep finding.” She wrinkled her nose at him as she sat back on her heels in the lush grass. “I heard that work was good. Toni called me. She was so excited that you all hired her. Thanks for giving her a chance.”

“Thank you. She’s perfect for what we need. Besides, she seems really fun and we need someone like that to offset Colton when he’s in a bad mood.”

She quirked an eyebrow at him. “Because you and Jake never get in bad moods, do you?”

“No, never,” he said with mock horror. “My big brother has the market covered on that one.”

“Hmm-
mmm.”

“You act like you don’t believe me.”

“Your powers of observation are astounding.” She smirked at him.

“Speaking of observing, what exactly are you doing here?” He looked around her flower bed which was full of holes, but couldn’t see anything else going on. It didn’t look like gardening to him. From his experience, that usually involved plants and he didn’t see any of those. Instead there was just dirt and holes. “Are you building a tunnel network for the neighborhood squirrels?”

“No, smartass. I’m gardening.” She continued to dig.

He looked around again. He still didn’t see any plants. He leaned over to the side to see if maybe they were on the sidewalk leading up to the door, but nope, it was clear. “Um, Julie, doesn’t gardening usually involve plants of some sort? I’ve never been known for my green thumb, but I’m pretty sure about that little fact.”

She grinned up at him and he noticed a smudge of dirt on her nose. And now that he looked at that, he noticed that she’d developed a sprinkle of freckles across the bridge of her nose. God, she was beautiful.

She lifted up a small cup that he hadn’t noticed sitting at her feet. “I’m planting seeds. I’ve never been the best caregiver. I figure if I can manage to grow flowers from seed, then maybe I can work my way up to a puppy. But first I need to prove that I can keep something else alive.” A frown developed between her brows and his heart gave a little lurch.

“You want a puppy?” he asked softly.

Her eyes lit up. “I’d love to have a puppy. Someone who’d be happy to see me when I come home at night, someone to keep me company when I can’t sleep, you know, just a companion.”

“I do know.” Was it wrong that he wanted to volunteer for that job? “Puppies are great.” His voice cracked, but she didn’t seem to notice.

“Have you ever wanted one?” she asked him.

“Sure, when I was little I always wanted one, but when I got into the Air Force, I figured it wasn’t fair to have a pet with my deployments. It’s not right to have one you can’t devote the time to.”

Her voice was soft as she pointed out, “You could have one now.”

His eyes flashed to hers. “You’re right. I never considered it before, but you’re right. I could totally get a dog now. Maybe, after your plants grow, we could go find us some puppies.”

“I like that idea. Maybe we could get puppies from the same litter. That way they could visit each other.”

“Sounds like a plan, but first you need to get your flowers to growing, so get back to work.” He watched her work, not willing to let go of the moment. He didn’t want to face his empty house for the evening. “When you’re done, clean up and come over and I’ll put some steaks on the grill, if you don’t have other plans.”

“I don’t. That sounds good. Thanks, Chris.”

Chris began to head into his house but then paused, turning back to her. “Um, Julie, I’ll admit that I don’t know much about gardening, but I don’t think the holes need to be quite that deep for just the seeds.”

“Really?” She frowned down at all the foot-deep holes.

“Um, yeah, I think the seeds just need to be two or three inches down.”

She frowned and her mouth twisted to the side as she considered what he said. “Really?” She looked up at him questioningly.

He nodded at her. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure.”

“Oh, okay.” She looked around at all the really deep holes. She had such a forlorn look on her face that he wanted to give her a hug.

“The good news is that you have mastered the hole-digging part of gardening. You’re going to rock this.”

She nodded distractedly. “Maybe I should go in and check the internet for exactly how deep daisies need to be planted.”

“That’s a good idea, because honestly, I could be wrong about this. I’m gonna go start getting things ready for dinner, okay?”

“Sure, I’ll be over in about an hour. Does that work for you?”

“Perfect. See you then.”

* * *

As Chris entered his house, he flipped through the mail. Mixed in was an unmarked envelope. That was weird. He opened it and a slip of paper slipped out.

That was your warning shot. Stay away from her.

A cold trickle of dread snaked down his spine. What the hell?

Stepping out onto his porch he re-examined his busted porch light. Jagged edges of the
lightbulb and globe remained, but what caught his examination in the light of day was the small hole in the wall to the side of the fixture. Goddamn, that looked like a bullet hole. Someone had shot at him last night using a silencer.

Chris put the call into the police station, and then headed back into the yard to delay their dinner by another hour. Luckily, Julie didn’t question why which was good because he sure didn’t want to tell her that someone was taking pot shots at him.

* * *

Two hours later, Julie exited her house and was surprised to find Brian leaving Chris’s. With her house so close to his, it was easy to hear their conversation while she stood in her doorway, transfixed.

“We’ll run the ballistics on the bullet and see if there’s any DNA on the envelope or note. In the meantime, be careful and stay vigilant about your surroundings,” Brian said.

“Always, Detective,” Chris responded, but then he spotted her and his jaw visibly clenched.

Whatever was going on here, he didn’t want her to know about it. And unfortunately, she’d spent enough time with Detective Brian Barnes over the last year to understand that the sinking in her gut was probably not unfounded. Something was happening with Chris and it was probably dangerous. Bullet, Brian said. Her stomach took a nosedive.

Brian turned away from Chris’s door and spotted her standing there. His footsteps faltered for a moment, before murmuring, “Good evening, Julie,” and continuing toward his car.

She folded her arms across her chest as she met Chris’s gaze. “Are you gonna share with the class about what’s going on?”

He watched her for a moment and several emotions flitted through his eyes… reluctance, regret, even a bit of anger before he seemed to make a decision. He waved his hand at his shattered porch light. “Some kid was having fun and shot out my light.”

There was no way that was the whole story, not with Brian coming by. But was it her place to pry? Chris obviously didn’t want her to. They were supposed to be just friends, but friends would press for an answer, right?

“Yeah, I’m not quite buying that as the whole story.”

His jaw clenched even tighter.

She sighed, deciding to give him an out. “But you don’t want to share, so I won’t press it any further if you’ll answer me one thing.”

He gave a slow nod.

“Are you in danger?”

He watched out over the yard. “I don’t think so, Julie. I think it was just a prank. I’m new to the neighborhood. Someone was just messing with me. If it’s something more, Brian will figure it out.”

“Okay, I’ll leave it alone, besides you promised to feed me. I’m not going to tick you off so that you rescind my invite for dinner.” She really didn’t want to let it go, but Chris could be stubborn. She’d just have to figure out how to get the whole story some other way.

“Thank you,” he said and took his first good view of her. His eyes lit up with appreciation.

After she finished planting her seeds, she’d showered and changed into a sundress. It was probably too much for tonight, but after the grunge-work of digging in the dirt all afternoon, she wanted to wear something feminine and she liked the idea of looking nice for Chris. That look alone made the effort she’d put forth worth it.

“You look nice,” he murmured as she stepped inside his townhouse.

“Thanks.” She handed him a bottle of red wine. “I thought this would go well with steak.”

He glanced at the label. “I’ve wanted to try this wine. I’ve heard some great things about it.”

She walked further into the place, taking in the changes Chris had made to it. “Your house is looking nice.”

“Thanks. Cassie came by with some of the more decorative stuff so it doesn’t look like a total bachelor’s hovel.”

“I can’t imagine you ever living in a hovel. When did Cassie come by? I’ve been trying to get hold of her about a couple of things for the wedding, but I think she’s avoiding me.”

“Um, I’m not sure how to say this, but you may be right about Cassie. Is it something that you can just decide? I think she’d be totally okay with that at this point.” He looked so chagrined about that, she had to put his mind at ease.

“It’s okay, Chris. I know the details are crazy. I just don’t want her to look back on her wedding day and wish that she’d done such and such differently because she didn’t have a say in it.”

“Honestly, at this point, the only thing she cares about in the entire process is marrying Jake. She’s going to be completely okay with whatever you decide.”

Julie nodded. She could do that. She looked into Chris’s kitchen as he set about opening the bottle. “So what can I do to help?”