Operation: Endurance Read online

  Operation: Endurance

  When the Mission Ends Book #3

  by Christi Snow

  Published by Christi Snow

  Edited by Mia Downing and Sarah Negovetich

  Cover Design by AM Design Studios

  E-book Formatting by AM Design Studios

  Copyright © 2013 Christina Snow

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN: 1484042778

  ISBN-13: 978-1484042779

  This book is a work of fiction. Any names, characters, events, or incidences come from the author’s imagination and are not meant to portray real persons or events.

  Texas Tech University and Lubbock, TX are real places, but again they are used only as settings in this very fictional world. Any similarities are purely coincidental.

  Dedication

  This book is for my team.

  The release of this series has been a labor of love and it hasn’t been just my labor. I have a huge team who stand behind me and support me. I am so grateful to have every one of you with me.

  My beta readers:

  These poor girls read these books when they are ROUGH and still love them, even with the flaws. I think these girls love the characters from this series just as much as I do…and I love them for it.

  Amy Castellano

  Amber Hight

  Anso Sjostrom

  Kim Muhl

  Michele Brown

  Missy Roemer

  and

  Mom

  My editing team:

  Mia & Sarah

  I love you girls, even when I’m cursing you. Especially, when I’m cursing you. You work to make me better and prop me up when I feel like I’m a hack. Thank you, Thank you, THANK YOU!!

  My cover designer:

  Amanda Matthews from AMDesignStudios.net

  Mande, you know I love you and your sense of style. You make my books look damn good and I’m so grateful to have found you!

  My eBook formatter:

  Ann Mauren from AMDesignStudios.net

  I could never do what you do with my e-files. You’re always so supportive and excited about the books when you send them back to me, formatted.

  My proofreader:

  Sabrina Roberts

  This girl is the last one to see the books before you do and she is invaluable at catching those final little glitches that the rest of us have missed along the way.

  Every single one of you make what I do possible.

  THANK YOU!!!!

  AcknowledgmentsThank you to every single reader who has sent me a note or email clamoring for Chris & Julie’s story. I love how much you love them.

  I’ll also admit that fact terrifies me.

  There’s been a lot of pressure to get this story perfect, but it’s not an easy story to tell when you have two wounded characters who are as messed up as these two. I hope you enjoy their story and it lives up to expectations.

  I knew it was going to be a tough book to write from the very beginning, but I don’t think I even realized how hard it would become.

  First:

  These two characters have been through so much. They DESERVE a great Happily Ever After.

  Hopefully, you’ll agree I gave them that.

  But also:

  This is the final book in this series….sob.

  Saying goodbye to these characters? NO! This has killed me throughout this book. The final book. All the characters from the last three books are here…being the great friends and lovers that they are within this group of six. Hopefully, the little glimpses you see will show you how happy they are going to be for the next 50-70 years.

  BUT… They aren’t going completely away. There’s still one more novella to come (you’ll understand who that involves by the end of this book). And next year, I plan to have a new romantic suspense trilogy featuring those sexy Martin men from the Martin Ranch who were introduced in Operation: Endeavor. Keep watching!

  Books In This Series

  When the Mission Ends Trilogy

  Book #1: Operation: Endgame

  September 2012

  Book #2: Operation: Endeavor

  January 2013

  Book #3: Operation: Endurance

  April 2013

  Book #.5: Before the Mission Begins

  Valentines 2013

  Book #3.5: Title Unknown

  Fall 2013

  Contents

  Dedication

  Acknowledgments

  Books In This Series

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Afterword

  Author's Note

  About the Author

  PrologueJulie panicked as the rough hand ripped the thin fabric of her bikini top. This wasn’t what was supposed to happen. She’d snuck the bikini into her clothes purchases, knowing it showed off her over-developed breasts so she looked much older than her eleven years. But if this is what older got you, well then she changed her mind.

  She tried to kick at him, but her small size was no weapon against the much larger fourteen-year-old Bradley pressed up against her. Her eyes watered in fear and pain from the bruising grip he had over her mouth and the legs which pinned her down. She tried to scream, but it came out as a muffled sound from behind his punishing hand. Besides, the only one here to hear her was Rachel, her older sister. Bradley was Rachel’s boyfriend and Julie didn’t want him to hurt her, too.

  She twisted her torso under him but that just seemed to excite him more. His eyes were positively gleeful as he looked down at her now exposed breasts. He licked his lips before reaching down and grabbing one of them hard. “You have more than a handful don’t you? And it’s all here for me.” He tightened his grip on her breast with a punishing turn. She couldn’t breathe as he pushed down on her more forcefully.

  Julie shut her eyes to get away from the reality of what was happening to her. She should have listened to her mother when she said Julie was too young for a bikini. She tried to ignore the teeth biting at her and retreated further into her mind.

  From here on out, she’d do everything her mother said: she’d clean her room, she’d be nice to her younger brother, Owen, she’d eat her asparagus, she wouldn’t complain about ballet class, she’d…

  No, no, no! There was a pull at her bikini bottoms and her eyes flew open. She struggled against him again, but it was no use. She couldn’t buck him off. She thrashed and with his distraction with her bottoms, she managed to free a hand. She pummeled at his face and scratched him with her nails.

  He redirected his attention to her face as he snarled, “You bitch,” and raised the hand that had been holding her mouth to hit her.

 
; In that moment, she screamed, but it was mere seconds before the hand was back as a fist that punched her face. The pain was immediate and edges of black closed in around her head. She welcomed the coming darkness, anything to escape the reality of what was happening to her.

  When Julie came to, the pain was immediate, but the clarity of what was going on was not. She worked to open her eyes, but they didn’t want to cooperate, especially the left one. Someone held her hand and immediately she began to scramble away. But it was Rachel’s voice speaking to her. “Shh, Julie, it’s going to be okay. He’s gone. You’re safe.”

  She finally managed to get her eyes open to look into the worried face of her sister. They were still out by the pool and she frantically looked around, but couldn’t see Bradley anywhere. “What happened?” she managed to croak out.

  Rachel was crying when she said, “I hit him with Owen’s bat and he took off. I stopped him before he…” she trailed off as she gestured down at Julie’s groin.

  Julie sat up. Rachel had covered her with a towel. She cringed in embarrassment and whispered, “What are we going to do? We can’t tell mom and dad.”

  They’d broken the rules. Bradley wasn’t supposed to be over when their parents were gone. Both girls wore skimpy swimsuits their mother strictly forbade. If they told their parents what happened, they’d both be grounded forever.

  Rachel shook her head. “We have to tell them. They need to know what happened. Besides they’re going to notice your black eye.”

  Julie scrambled up as quickly as her bruised body would allow. She wrapped the towel around her trembling form. Despite the pain it caused, she shook her head. She gestured down to the bat lying on the ground. “We’ll say we were playing around with the baseball and you hit me in the face with it by accident.” She had to convince Rachel to go along with this. No one could ever know what happened here. Rachel was the perfect one. The perfect grades. The perfect beauty. The perfect daughter. Now she just had to convince her to become the perfect liar.

  Rachel looked at her skeptically, but she could tell that she was beginning to convince her. “Come on Rachel. I know you don’t want to be grounded for the rest of your life.”

  She whispered, “What about Bradley? He was hurt after I hit him with the bat.”

  “Good.” Was it wrong to think that? That she wanted him hurt just as much as he’d hurt her?

  Rachel’s responding giggle was a little hysterical. “What if he tells someone?”

  Julie sighed. Sometimes it was debatable which one of them was the older even though Rachel was three years older than her. “Rach, he’s not going to tell anyone. If he did, he’d have to admit what he did here.”

  A shudder of revulsion spread down her spine. She couldn’t think about it right now. She started making a mental list of how to cover all their bases: convince Rachel to lie, find clothes to cover her bruises, find a baseball so their lie was believable, find a trash bag for the shredded bikini…

  Rachel interrupted her mental lists. “Okay, I’ll agree to this, but you have to agree to help me convince mom that we need self-defense classes.” She gestured toward Julie’s chest. “Looking the way you do, this isn’t the last time you’re gonna have a guy trying to push you to do something you don’t want to do. You need to know how to protect yourself.”

  Chapter 118 years later

  The man grabbed her in a chokehold from behind and Julie fought off the panic as her breathing became compromised. She reached up and grasped at the hand wrapped around her neck and yanked, twisting her torso and head as she moved. Never letting go of the arm, she immediately turned and kicked at his vulnerable groin with explosive aim. As he crouched in pain, she attacked again at his throat and eyes, focusing on his weak spots.

  When she finished, Officer Pete Larson lay moaning in fake pain on the mats. She turned to grin at the class. “Any questions?”

  “I think I need another instructor.” Of course it was Toni who piped up first. The attractive brunette was full of sass and she wasn’t afraid to show it. This was the girl’s second week in the self-defense class and they’d already learned she held nothing back. Her turquoise eyes sparkled.

  Oh, this should be good. “And exactly why would that be, Toni?”

  “I need some big ugly dude to beat up.” She gestured to Pete slowly levering himself up off the floor. “If he’s going to be the one attacking me,” she gave him a full-body perusal, “then damn, I’m going to let him.” The entire class giggled, obviously in agreement. Toni definitely kept the class entertained.

  Pete flushed red and Julie worked to hide her smile as she glanced back over at him. The guy was a sweetheart and with that hot body and those dimples, he definitely kept their Krav Maga self-defense classes swooning.

  “Yes, he’s pretty, but keep in mind that seventy-three percent of rapes are perpetrated by men the victims already knew. Pretty or not, they are physically stronger than you and you need to know how to even the odds against them. That’s why you’re here. So now it’s time to beat him up for a while, and luckily for us, he brought a few of his fellow friends from the police force. And, yes, they’re pretty too.”

  She gestured to the back of the room where two more of Lubbock’s Police Department’s finest were leaning up against the wall, waiting to become targets.

  Pete mumbled under his breath, “I really hate this part of the class.”

  An hour and a half later and Julie walked out of the training room with Pete, Lyle, and Stephen. “Thanks, guys. We couldn’t do this without you.”

  Lyle asked, “So does that mean we can talk you into going out for a beer with us?”

  “Thanks, but not this week. I need to get home.”

  Pete looked at her with concern in his eyes before he pulled her to a stop. “Guys, go on. I’ll catch up with you in a moment.”

  She glanced at him curiously as the guys walked on. “What’s up?”

  “I hoped to get here early tonight to talk to you. You still aren’t sleeping, are you?”

  Her stomach sank as she shook her head in denial. She didn’t want to have this conversation. “I’m fine, Pete.”

  “No, you aren’t. Anyone who knows you can see that. You look awful.”

  “Aw, thanks. You know just how to make a girl feel all mushy inside.”

  He rolled his eyes at her. “I’m worried about you. You’re gonna make yourself sick. It’s been a month since Aaron died and I know his murder was a shock, but Julie, you need to take better care of yourself.”

  She felt like he’d hit her. Hardly anyone mentioned her boyfriend’s sudden death to her anymore. They simply pretended it didn’t exist and that plan suited her just fine. She didn’t want to talk about the gaping hole in her heart. It was better to just work around it and pretend like it didn’t exist.

  She tried to change the subject. “I did some research online last night and I think we could improve our classes.” She started searching through her purse. “I made a list…”

  Pete grabbed hold of her arm. “Julie, stop.” He pulled a card out of his wallet. “I think you need to talk to someone. This is a therapist that the department uses. He’s really good.”

  “You think I’m crazy?” Why was this so shocking? She knew she wasn’t functioning well, but she thought she’d been hiding the fact from those around her.

  “No, but you aren’t working through your grief over Aaron’s murder. I think you need some grief counseling.”

  The lump built in her throat. She had to escape from the concerned look in Pete’s eyes before she lost it completely. She grabbed the card out of his hand and crammed it into her purse with a quickly mumbled, “Thanks.” Running down the corridor of the hospital, she prayed she wouldn’t run into anyone she knew.

  By the time she made it to her car, the tears were flowing, she was gasping for breath, and she was on the eighth thing to add to her grocery list: olive oil, skittles, baked beans, tuna, toilet paper, corn starch, bacon, or
egano.

  Slowly the calm settled back over her and her breath steadied.

  She was fine and in control.

  She was fine and in control.

  She was fine and in control.

  If she said it to herself enough times, maybe she and everyone else around her would believe it. She fingered the card she’d shoved in her purse. Did she need to talk to someone? No, she’d learned a long time ago that she could deal with these things all on her own. She was strong. She had coping mechanisms. She was in control of her life. She could do this.

  Chapter 2Chris Robertson looked down into Julie’s upturned face and a shudder of desire travelled down his spine. He was the luckiest bastard alive to have her here with him. She smiled at him with a look that could be described as nothing short of pure mischief. God, he loved to see her with that look. To finally see her without the ever-present grief shadowing her eyes was enough to make his cock twitch and swell with interest. She was so damn beautiful. How did he get so lucky to have her kneeling before him now?

  The white lace corset with black ribbons crisscrossing up the sides showed off the perfect amount of her mounding breasts. She knelt in front of his standing position and he could see the full length of her, from those fuck-me high heels to her matching lace thong with a bow at the top of her incredible ass. He reached for her, but she shook her head at him and warned, her voice laced with arousal and desire, “No hands or else I won’t take care of that for you.”

  They both looked to where his naked cock stood at full attention against his abdomen. The moist heat of her breath raced across his most sensitive skin. She was so close. He wanted to arch his hips, but knew that would just give her an excuse to prolong her torture of him.

  Instead he begged, “Please, Butterfly.”

  She looked up at him with a single eyebrow raised as if to question his desperation.