Operation: Endeavor (When The Mission Ends) Read online

  Chapter 8

  Penelope let herself into the bookstore bright and early Sunday morning. The store would open for a few hours in the afternoon, but Sunday mornings were her time to catch-up on all the managerial tasks which needed to be done, from scheduling to bookkeeping.

  As she sat down to her desk, she mused over the previous night’s date with Damon. After they’d left the party, she’d taken him to a cozy little bar where they could sit at a table in front of the stone fireplace. They’d had a wonderful time chatting and getting to know each other. They got along famously and she’d been excited for the distraction from Colton. Damon was the type of guy she normally dated. They hadn’t lacked for topics of discussion the entire night, but when it came to the end of the evening, the kiss between them fell flat.

  Oh, there’d been nothing wrong with the kiss. Damon was an excellent kisser, but the zing just wasn’t there for her. She’d gotten more turned on when Colton zipped up her dress at the beginning of the night. That was the problem. She couldn’t get involved with Colton. He was everything she didn’t want in a guy. He was too serious, too by-the-book, too straight-laced. Plus he was her best friend’s brother and Cassie wouldn’t take it lightly if things ended badly between them. No, she was looking for someone exactly like Damon, someone who knew how to have fun.

  Maybe she’d just had an off night. Luckily Damon was in town for the next week, and they’d made plans to get together again. He was supposed to call her this afternoon to finalize things, which gave her an idea.

  She picked up the phone and dialed a number she hadn’t called enough lately.

  “Hello, Rocking M Ranch,” the masculine voice answered.

  She smiled. She loved all the guys out on the Martin Ranch, but Thomas was still her favorite. Even though things didn’t work out for them when they dated, they’d stayed friends in the years since. “Well, hey there sexy.”

  “Penny! What are you doing calling me this early on a Sunday morning? Are you coming out to visit us soon?”

  “I am. That’s actually why I called. I have a friend in town who I thought might enjoy a true Texas ranching experience.”

  “So he’s not from around here?”

  “No, he’s an archeologist here negotiating a deal with Texas Tech to get some students to come work with him on his dig.”

  “An archeologist? Really? That doesn’t sound like your normal fare. Where’s his dig located?”

  She laughed. “You know me well, but he’s a nice guy. The dig is on the Mexico/Belize border.”

  “Does he ride?”

  “I have no clue. It was just a spur of the moment idea, so I thought I’d run it by you.”

  “Penny, you’re always welcome to bring anyone out you want. We appreciate all you do for the ranch and want to keep you coming out as much as possible.”

  “Thanks, Thomas. I’ll let you know when we head that way. Regardless of whether he comes out with me or not, I’ll be out sometime this week to exercise some of the horses.”

  “Sounds good, Penny. I look forward to seeing you.”

  “Bye, Thomas.” She disconnected the call.

  A few years back, when she’d been doing the research on ranching for her Celeste DeMarco series, she’d discovered the Rocking M Ranch. Owned by Michael Martin and run by him and his four sons, she’d come to love the family and the ranch.

  But now she had work to do with her other passion, the bookstore. She sat down at her desk to sort through the piles of paperwork Alix left for her. One whole pile pertained to her writing as Celeste DeMarco. It included current contract negotiations, income statements, and the trickling of fan mail that came in. In this day and age, most people resorted to the internet for those sorts of things, but there were still fans who appreciated the written word of a letter. Unfortunately, the majority of those who still wrote physical letters happened to fall under the category of crazy… religious zealots and old-fashioned conservatives who viewed her writing as glorified pornography or worse.

  This pile definitely had a few of those in it, but there were also a few fan letters. There were a couple from women who thanked her for spicing up their married lives. She always liked those. One letter from a prison librarian who stated her books were always among the most popular among the inmates. She had to chuckle at that one.

  When she turned she noticed another pile of ARC’s waiting for Hannah. They seemed to be receiving more books than normal lately. She hoped Hannah had the time to handle them all, but it had been a while since she’d done one of the reviews. Maybe she would take something home to read and distract her from her new roommate.

  The night before, thoughts of Colton sleeping just a few yards away had kept her awake for hours. She wondered if he slept in the nude, whether he slept on one side of the bed, or whether he sprawled over the entire space. She needed a diversion.

  As she thumbed through them, one book caught her eye, The Gift of Serendipity. The cover was shades of dark purple and grey. In silhouette, there was an outline of a couple in a deep embrace. She flipped the book over to read the back copy.

  Serendipity had come into her parents’ lives very late and unexpectedly. That wasn’t the only thing unexpected about Serendipity. She had a very special gift. Unfortunately before she learned how to control it, that gift killed her parents.

  Now she’s just trying to protect the world. And Blake is just trying to protect her. In a world that doesn’t understand magic, they’re both fighting against the odds.

  Inserted into the book was a PR flier. She pulled it out. Across the top it said, ‘Abilene Authors…a new kind of AA feeding your addiction for books.’ She giggled. That was cute, definitely catchy. She looked back at the book and yep, the author was listed as Abilene Authors. Hmm, that was different. She flipped through the book. It seemed like a normal fiction book, but was written by a group?

  Looking back at the flier, there was a paragraph called About Abilene Authors.

  Abilene Authors is a like-minded group of writers based out of West Texas. Our members range from students to homemakers to active duty military. As writers we know that writing takes time, but as a group, we’re impatient. So we decided to combine our writing talents to create works of fiction you will want to read…right now. The goal: write good books, fast, with an output of six to nine books a year. We self-publish and do everything from the writing and editing, to the formatting and cover design. As a group, we work together to create a work of fiction we can be proud of and hope our efforts create a book you want to read.

  She smiled. She liked the sounds of this group and liked to support local independent authors whenever she could. Abilene was another Texas town located one hundred seventy-five miles to the east of Lubbock. If the book was any good, maybe she could have them come to the store for a signing.

  As an added bonus, the book sounded entertaining. A good, mysterious, dark romance. It was just what she needed to distract her during the late nights from Colton sleeping just a few feet away from her.

  * * *

  Penelope walked into the loft just as Colton and Jake, Cassie’s fiancé, shook hands saying something about a partnership. They were both wearing shit-eating grins and seemed very pleased with whatever they’d been discussing.

  “Hey guys.” Penelope glanced between the two of them. “Partnership?”

  Both guys grinned again, but Colton answered, “Yep, you’re looking at…” He looked at Jake. “We don’t have a name. We have to call ourselves something.”

  “Yep, we do, but now I have to go see Cassie. Email me and I’ll think on it.” Jake turned and rushed out the door.

  Penelope stood at the door as he disappeared down the hall. “Bye Jake,” she called after him. She looked over at Colton. “What’s his rush?”

  He looked pained. “He has time for one more booty-call with my sister before he has to head back to Arizona.” His mouth curled down in displeasure and Penelope laughed.

  “You kno
w, Cassie’s 28 years old. She’s been having sex for years.”

  “No, no, no, no.” He raised his hands to press them to his ears. “I realize you’re a friend of Cass’s, but in no way, shape, or form are you ever allowed to talk to me about my sister’s sex life.”

  He shot her such a disgruntled look that Penelope couldn’t help the giggle that slipped out.

  “I’m serious, Penelope. I can’t live here if we can’t have that simple rule. Let’s call it Colton’s Life Rule #1… No talking about my sister’s love life.” He looked at her sternly. “If we can’t abide by Colton’s Life Rules, then I can’t live here.”

  Penelope raised both hands in surrender and said laughingly, “Okay. I get it. No talking about Jake and Cassie’s hot and heavy sex-life.”

  He looked pained, so she took pity on him. “Just kidding. I promise, no more.” She made the motion of zipping her lips and throwing away the key and then gave him a considering smile. “I didn’t realize there were going to be Life Rules when I invited you to move in here. Are there any others I should take note of right now?”

  He still had a pinched expression on his face. “I think I’m forever mentally scarred by the need for the first one, so I can’t think of any right now.”

  “Good to know. Let me know if that changes.” She gave him another smile. “So tell me about this new partnership. Does this have anything to do with your unemployment?”

  “As a matter of fact, yes. We’re going to start a flight company, offer a jump school, charter services, and hopefully do some contract work for Homeland Security.”

  Penelope’s face broke into a huge grin and she leapt into his arms to give him a huge hug. Colton was obviously not a hugger, since she felt him stiffen under her arms. If he was going to be her roommate, he’d have to get used to it. She liked to hug. “Colton that’s incredible. What a perfect solution for you guys. Is Chris in on it too?”

  Colton cleared his throat and she felt something else start to stiffen within her embrace. Time to let go of the big guy. She stepped back from him to give him his space and tried to hide her grin.

  “Yeah, we want to include Chris. We haven’t talked to him about it yet though, so don’t mention it to anyone until we get a chance to approach him, okay?” He gathered the papers he’d spread across the table, in obvious discomfort from Penelope’s embrace. Colton looked up at her and caught her perusal of him. He cleared his throat. “Well, I’m going to go to my room and do some more research.”

  “Okay. See you later.”

  It was several hours later when Penelope was reading that the idea came to her. She went running to Colton’s bedroom door and yelled, “Mad Rob,” grinning like a banshee.

  Colton looked up at her like she’d grown two heads. “What did you just say?”

  “The name for your company, Mad Rob. It’s perfect. Jake Madsen plus Chris and Colton Robertson: Mad Rob. It has a piratical spin to it which is so perfect here in this town. They love pirates here with the Texas Tech Red Raiders. You see pirate flags everywhere on game days.”

  Colton watched her and very slowly a grin spread over his face. “You’re right, it’s perfect. You’re brilliant. Thanks.”

  Chapter 9

  Penelope was running late the next morning. Colton had already left for the day as she exited the loft and ran into a guy in the hall about to knock on their door. He had an envelope in his hand.

  “Can I help you?” He was a young guy in a wrinkled uniform and he wasn’t in near the hurry she was.

  “I have a delivery for Colton Robertson.”

  “He’s not here right now. Can I sign for it? He’s my roommate.”

  “Sure, I guess.” He shoved his clipboard at her. “Just sign his name, okay?”

  She rolled her eyes at him and didn’t take the pen. “I don’t think that’s the way it’s supposed to be done.”

  “I don’t care. They don’t pay me enough to come back here.” He nudged the pen at her again.

  She looked down at her watch again. “I’m late and I don’t have time to argue with you. Fine, I’ll sign it.” She snagged the pen from him and started signing Colton’s name. “You’re lucky I’m trustworthy and will actually give this to him. Not everyone’s like that.”

  “Yeah, whatever.” He turned and walked down the hall toward the elevators.

  Penelope shoved the envelope in her bag. She didn’t have time to wait and headed toward the stairs.

  A couple of hours later, she was working at her desk in her office at Raider Readers when Hannah walked in. “Hey, Hannah. What are you doing here? I didn’t think you were on the schedule today.”

  She wore dark glasses and her long dark hair hung heavily over the sides of her face. She appeared to look everywhere in the room but at Penelope, when she said, “I’m not working. I just came by to pick up this week’s ARC’s to read for the blog.”

  Penelope was puzzled. Hannah was usually all smiles. She tried to get a closer look at her as she pointed over to the shelves along the wall. “I put them over there so they were out of the way.”

  Hannah nodded her head and went to grab them. As she reached forward, Penelope noticed a grimace of pain cross over her mouth. She also held her body more stiffly than normal. Alarmed, Penelope came around the desk to intercept her before she could escape the room. She pulled off Hannah’s sunglasses and couldn’t curtail the gasp as she saw the bruising all around her left eye. “Oh my God, what happened?”

  Hannah wouldn’t meet her eyes when she said, “I was in a bar Saturday night when a fight broke out. I was simply standing in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

  Penelope gently reached up and lifted Hannah’s hair, which caused Hannah to wince. The bruise was shades of blues, greens, and dark purples and spread from her eye all the way across her temple and up to her hairline. She’d obviously tried to cover it with makeup, but the bruising was too bad and couldn’t be covered. “Hannah, this is bad. Has a doctor seen it? Were the guys responsible arrested?”

  Hannah wouldn’t meet her eyes as she mumbled, “It’s fine. It actually looks worse than it really is. Listen, I have to go.” She lifted the books gingerly and then moved quickly out of the room. “I’ll start sending you the reviews on these tonight.”

  “Hannah, wait.”

  Hannah looked up at her with leery eyes.

  “Don’t worry about the books tonight. I know you have to have a headache to go along with that.” She gestured toward the bruise. “Just rest tonight.” She looked closely at Hannah until she was forced to meet Penelope’s eyes. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

  Hannah nodded jerkily, gingerly pushed the glasses back on, and moved out of the store as quickly as she could, clutching the stack of books to her chest.

  Penelope followed her out of the office and into the store. Jon, one of the store employees glanced up as she approached. “Was that Hannah?”

  Penelope nodded and looked thoughtful as she watched the closed door. She turned to Jon and asked, “Hannah hasn’t ever mentioned if she’s dating anyone has she?”

  He shook his head. “She’s not dating anyone that I know of. Is she okay?”

  Something wasn’t right there. That seemed to be more serious than getting tangled up into a bar fight. Hannah was young. It would be so easy for her to get mixed up with the wrong kind of guy. “I’m really not sure,” Penelope responded. “Can you let me know if you hear anything?”

  “Sure.”

  “Thanks.”

  As she settled back into her office and paperwork, Penelope was distracted by her worry over Hannah. She mindlessly opened the mail and sorted it when she opened a letter which began,

  Don’t think you can dictate to me. We’re divorced now and I will not be bullied.

  Penelope stopped reading and her eyes flew to the bottom of the letter, where it was signed by Dianna Cassidy. She glanced back at the open envelope. Damn, she’d accidentally opened the envelope that had been delivered fo
r Colton. This was from his ex-wife.

  Penelope closed her eyes and rested her head into the palm of her hand. What a fabulous way to make a good impression on her new roommate, accidentally opening his very private mail. Penelope groaned. What a stupid thing to do. She resisted the urge to read any further, although her curiosity was killing her. She’d respect Colton’s privacy.

  * * *

  The next day, Penelope was enjoying a nice Italian dinner with Damon when Hannah called. “Penelope, hi it’s Hannah. I’m sorry to bother you.”

  “No problem.” She sent a look of apology to Damon for interrupting their dinner. “What’s wrong? Are you okay?”

  “No, I’m fine, but I looked through the books I took home last night and I think I’m missing one. You didn’t happen to put one somewhere else in the office did you?”

  “Oh, Hannah, I’m sorry. That other book completely slipped my mind. One of them caught my attention so I set it aside. I’ll do the review on it, so you don’t have to worry about it.”

  “Umm,” Hannah stuttered for a bit and Penelope could hear stress in her voice when she said, “But I need to read that one. I was looking forward to it.”

  “It’s okay, Hannah. I know I don’t do the reviews very often, but I promise you I remember how to do it.” She gave a self-effacing chuckle. “You can read the book after I finish with it, but without the pressure of having to analyze it. I know it’s been a long time since you had the chance to just read a book for fun.”

  “But I don’t think—”

  Penelope could hear the stress in Hannah’s voice, which she had a feeling had nothing to do with a missing book. “What’s this really about? Did something else happen last night?”

  She heard a sudden intake of air and what sounded like a sob come across the phone.