Operation: Endgame

by Christi Snow

  In the video, there was someone who was obviously giving Cassie silent prompts off-screen, because she continued talking as if she was in the middle of a two-sided conversation.

  “Aw, Bernard Kleptofine…I love his character. He is so incredibly good at being bad. He is also a brilliant military strategist, but the key to his defeat in the game is the fact he’s not a team player. He forgets the number one rule of war strategy…you need to work within the confines of your team and use their abilities so they enhance the whole team. He gets so caught up in his own agenda and strategy he forgets to utilize his entire team. That’s how he ends up losing the game. You can’t fight a war as a single entity. It will never work as a strategy. You need a multi-pronged attack using all the abilities the team brings to the table to defeat your enemy. That’s how you win this game. Utilize your team. Utilize your environment. Utilize your abilities. Utilize your alliances. Utilize your opportunities. Utilize your intelligence.

  It’s the classic A-E-I-O-U strategy:

  *A-alliances & abilities

  *E-environment

  *I-intelligence

  *O-opportunities

  *U-Utilize them ALL and you will have a team effort!”

  After that, Cassie’s interview portion of the video ended and she turned to Jake. “So, did we learn anything from that? I don’t think I’ve had enough sleep or coffee to think this through the way we need to be able to do.” She rubbed tiredly at her eyes. “I’m going to grab a notebook so we can start listing exactly what we know, but first I need to refill this.” She lifted her coffee cup. “Do you want some?”

  “Sure, but I’ll come and fix my own cup.” Jake followed Cassie to the coffee pot where he snuggled in behind and wrapped his arms around her. “By the way, good morning, although I guess it’s actually afternoon.”

  Cassie turned and threaded her left arm behind Jake’s head to pull him down for a kiss. “I missed having you in bed when I woke up. I would have made it worth your while, if you had stuck around.” She nibbled at his throat and could feel his groan as he reached around and pulled her flush against his erection. She continued talking, “Unfortunately, you weren’t there, so now we have things to do, since it’s already,” She glanced over at the clock, “2:00 in the afternoon. Ugh, we’ve lost more than half the day. I need to call and check on War, and then we can get to that list.”

  Cassie started to turn out of his arms, but he held her close, while he whispered in her ear. “I’m going to wait on the coffee for a bit then and go take a shower while you call the hospital. A cold one, unfortunately.” The warm brush of his breath on her neck sent chills of arousal down through her spine. He pressed a slow lingering kiss at the juncture between her ear and neck. His voice was low and guttural when he added, “Or maybe we should shower together,” He continued to nibble on her neck, “for the sake of water conservation.”

  Cassie groaned but nodded her head, “You make a very good point. We do live in West Texas where water is a premium so we should conserve where we can.” She palmed his erection and gave his length a good long, hard stroke. She felt his whole body shudder in reaction. “Besides, it’s almost wintertime, a cold shower on top of the cold outside could increase your risk of pneumonia and we simply can’t have that.”

  Cassie watched Jake’s eyes darken measurably with desire, but it still shocked her when he reached down and swung her into his arms and strode down the hall to her bathroom.

  Chapter 40

  An hour later, both of them were considerably cleaner, and they were back in the kitchen to work on lists about the stalker.

  Cassie scowled down at the blank notebook in front of her, deep in thought. Lists were Julie’s thing and that brought up a good point. “I was thinking about what I said in the video about the best offense is to work as a team. I think we need to do that better.”

  “What do you mean? I feel like we’re working incredibly well as a team.” Jake had been standing beside her at the counter, but now he came up behind her and reached around to palm her breast. He felt her nipple immediately pebble as he began to kiss the back of her neck.

  Cassie closed her eyes at the perfection of the sensation and already felt her arousal ratcheting up again, even though she should be thoroughly satisfied from the three orgasms he’d just given her this morning. She wasn’t sure if she would ever get enough of Jake in her life and in her body. “Obviously, we work as a team extremely well.” Cassie’s voice was husky as Jake continued his ministrations, but she continued on, as she placed some space between their overheated bodies. “The team I meant was ALL of us…Penelope, Julie, Derek, and War when he gets out of the hospital. They’ve all been here throughout this whole thing and they might be able to give us a different perspective of what they’ve seen. I think we should all talk this through together. I think if we all work together, we could have a better idea of where this guy is going and what we could do as a group to get him stopped.”

  Jake looked at her thoughtfully and pondered what she was saying. “You’re right. That’s a good idea. Quite honestly, with this attack on War, it may be a good idea for everyone to close ranks. I don’t feel good about the girls being at home alone. I think we should tell everyone to pack a bag and move in here.”

  Cassie nodded. “Let me call everyone and we can meet here after everyone gets off work. In the meantime, we can go visit War in the hospital and see how he’s doing. I also think it would be a good idea to touch base with Brian and see if anything is happening on the investigation. He might want to come over to our meeting tonight too.”

  ***

  When they arrived at the hospital, they found Brian walking out of War’s room. He was talking on his cell phone, but held up his hand to them so they would wait while he finished his conversation. Cassie could see from his haggard expression he probably hadn’t gone to bed yet. The Lubbock PD obviously needed to add some detectives to their payroll, because this one was running himself into the ground with exhaustion.

  As he closed his cell phone, he looked over at them and rubbed at the tiredness in his eyes, but when he looked back up at Cassie and Jake, those same eyes were gleaming with satisfaction. “He finally made his first mistake. Actually, he made several of them when he attacked your friend, Mr. Hendricks.” He nodded his head back at the room. “I need to talk to you both about it, but,” He glanced back down at his watch, “I have a meeting with the forensics guys in ten minutes. Can I come by your house later, Cassie?”

  Jake was the one who answered. “Actually, we wanted to talk to you too. We have the girls coming over and left a message with Derek for him to come over tonight. We want to pool our knowledge and make sure everyone stays safe from here on out.”

  “Derek’s here.” He gestured back towards the door. “But that sounds good. I’ll swing by in a couple of hours, but now I need to go.” He gave a wave to the uniformed policeman by the door and strode off down the hall.

  Cassie looked after him worriedly. “I hope he gets some vacation time after this investigation is over. He’s working himself into the ground.”

  Cassie knocked softly on the door as she opened it. Derek was sitting in a chair beside War’s bed. He looked just as exhausted as Brian. He’d obviously stayed at the hospital all night. War appeared to be asleep. He was still pale, but his color looked considerably better than it had the night before.

  Derek looked up at them when they entered the room. He put a finger to his lips, motioned them back out into the hall, and followed them out.

  Cassie turned to him, “How’s he doing?”

  “He’s still in a lot of pain, but the doctor says he should be able to go home in a few days. The detective was here for about an hour, so he’s exhausted right now.”

  “You look pretty exhausted yourself. Did you stay here all night?” Cassie looked at him, concerned by his haggard appearance.

  Derek nodded. “I didn’t want him to wake up alone and in pain. He doesn’t have any fam
ily nearby, so…” His sentence trailed off.

  Cassie dug her keys out of her pocket. “We’re here now. Go to my house. Take a nap. We’ll sit with him.” Derek started shaking his head no, but Cassie wouldn’t let him argue. “You won’t do him any good if you wear yourself out from exhaustion. The guy who shot him is still out there and we have no idea if any more of my friends are in danger. Go to my house. There’s still a police officer watching it and there’s a security system so you’ll be safe. We’re closing ranks so no one else gets hurt and that includes you. I’m your boss. You aren’t allowed to argue with me on this.” She softened her voice. “War still has a lot of recovery ahead of him and he’s going to need you at full strength so you can help him.” She could see from the softening of his features that she finally had gotten through to him, so she pressed the keys into his hand. “Go. We’ll take good care of him until you get back, I promise. I’ll call the detective so he can let his guy sitting out front know you’re coming.”

  ***

  War slept peacefully until a nurse came in to check his vitals an hour and a half later. Immediately upon waking, his eyes flew to the chair where Derek had been sitting and Cassie could see them flash in alarm. He hadn’t spotted Cassie or Jake in the room yet, as they were sitting in the opposite corner talking quietly so as not to disturb him. So when Cassie saw him trying to find Derek, she let him know, “I sent him home to sleep for a little while. He looked exhausted.”

  War’s eyes drifted shut briefly in relief. “Thanks for that. I was worried something might have happened to him.”

  “Don’t worry. When he’s not here, we’ll keep him at my house where there’s police protection. No one else is going to get hurt, if we can prevent it. How are you feeling?”

  “Like someone shot me in the chest and left me to die.”

  “I’m so sorry you got dragged into this, War.”

  “Cassandra, this isn’t your fault. This guy’s a psychopath and he’s fixated on you. You have to be careful.”

  “I know. We’re being as careful as possible.” She glanced over to the chair where Derek had been sitting. “So, you and Derek, huh?”

  War’s features closed down as he mumbled, “No, he’s too young for me. Besides, he works for me.”

  “Last I checked you don’t really have control over who you fall in love with.” She glanced over at Jake, but quickly looked back at War.

  “You’re handling this better than I thought you would.”

  “I’ll admit, it was a shock, especially since I had no clue and you’re my ex-boyfriend. I probably should be offended about that somewhere in there,” She gave a slight grimace, “but it explains so much about the tension between the two of you that’s been going on for the past year. Thinking about it, I actually think it could be a good thing. I can see you two together, once you both get over your attitudes.” She gave him a soft smile of sympathy. “Just don’t shut him down before you really think about it, War. He’s a great guy and so are you. You could be good together.”

  Jake had been silently standing by as they talked, but now War turned his attention towards him. “You’re going to keep our girl safe aren’t you?”

  Jake gave a short nod. “He’ll have to come through me to get to her.”

  “From what I gathered, that’s his plan. You need to watch your back.”

  “Wait, you remember the attack now?” Cassie looked worriedly at War, as she reached over to grab hold of Jake’s hand.

  “Not all of it. I was unconscious at first because as I came into my living room, he was already there and knocked me out by hitting the back of my head with something. When I woke up, I was duct taped to the chair and had a horrible headache which made it hard to focus. I don’t think I ever saw the guy’s face. He was wearing a mask.”

  Jake interrupted. “Did he ever say anything?”

  “Yes.” War got a ferocious look on his face as he recalled. “He was mad at me for ruining Cassandra’s party with my argument with Derek. He kept calling her ‘my Cassie’ and he’s not happy you’ve shown up, Jake. He says you’re ruining his plans for proving his worth. He talked about having to modify his plan to show his superior skills against you.” War looked between the two of them. “This guy’s serious about this and has absolutely no compunctions about hurting anyone. Ironically, the feeling I got from him is he doesn’t plan to hurt Cassandra. He fully plans to win your heart and in his words, make you his.”

  Jake looked exasperated, “Then why did he run her off the road?”

  War shrugged, “I have no idea. I’m just telling you what he said and the feeling I got from him. The only reason he told me any of it was because he didn’t plan on me living.”

  Cassie reached over and took hold of War’s hand. “That’s just the first in a long line of disappointments for this guy.”

  Jake interrupted, “Do you remember anything else?”

  “Not really. Like I said, it’s all still really fuzzy.”

  At that moment, there was a soft knock at the door and Derek walked in. He immediately sought out War as he walked into the room. His relief at seeing War sitting up and talking was evident in his eyes. “Hey you. How’re you feeling?”

  War gave a slight smile, “Better all the time, but I wish I could say the same for you” He looked critically at Derek and the exhaustion in his eyes. “Did you get any sleep at all?”

  “I got a little bit, but honestly, I can relax better here. I need to know you’re safe because I can look up and see you.” Derek looked out the window with haunted eyes. “After yesterday…” He swallowed hard and then looked back over at War. “I just feel better being here.” He looked over at Cassie and Jake. “Thanks for staying with him while I was gone.”

  “Hey, I don’t need a babysitter.” War looked fiercely at Derek, but there was a certain tenderness to his eyes Cassie had never seen before.

  She interrupted what promised to be an argument between the two of them. “That’s the new rule for everyone. We all need to keep someone else with us at all times. There’s more safety in groups. Which reminds me, from here on out everyone’s staying at my house.” She directed her comments to Derek. “When you leave here, you need to head over there where there’s police protection. The same goes for you, War, when you get sprung from here. We’re not going to allow anyone else to get hurt. I’m not losing any of my friends.” Cassie looked down at her watch. “Speaking of friends, Penelope and Julie should be at the house soon, so we should head out.” She leaned over and kissed War on the forehead. “Feel better soon.” She looked at Derek with the same concern. “Try to get some sleep tonight and call us if you need us for anything. We’ll be back tomorrow.”

  When they arrived at the house, Brian was standing outside talking to the uniformed police officer watching over the house. He joined them as Jake unlocked the house. His eyes were gleaming with the promise of something positive.

  As they entered the house, he started telling them the good news. “We’re about to nail his ass. I’m just waiting for a final phone call from the forensics lab and then it’s just a matter of getting a judge to sign the arrest warrants. We’ll be making a couple of arrests.”

  “Seriously?” Cassie asked him, “This is honestly about over?” The details of what he said finally computed with her brain. “Wait, a couple?”

  Brian nodded, “We have two arrest warrants coming, and probably more after that. I can’t tell you the details until after the arrests are made, but it’s just about over. I need you all to stay here tonight while everything goes down. I don’t want anything more to go wrong at this point.”

  Cassie was nodding when the doorbell rang. She looked at her watch. “That’s probably Julie and Penelope. They’re staying here with us tonight.”

  As Jake opened the door to the girls, Brian nodded. “That’s good. Remember, everyone stay here tonight. I’ll be in touch after we have them in custody.”

  “You can’t tell me anything
more?” Cassie asked again.

  Brian shook his head. “No, I’m sorry. We can’t do anything to tip these guys off. They have connections and will be gone if they realize we’re onto them.”

  “Can you at least tell me, is it someone I know?”

  “Yes,” and with that, he was out the door.

  With that single syllable, Cassie’s mouth had fallen open as she turned to Jake and said quietly, “I actually know the person who’s been doing this to me? How is that possible? How could I not know? Who could it be?”

  Jake enveloped her in his arms in comfort. “Hey, don’t jump to any conclusions about your judgment of people until we find out who it is,” and kissed her on her forehead.

  Penelope and Julie exchanged puzzled looks before Penelope chimed in, “I think we missed something important here. Does someone want to clue us in?”

  “They’re making arrests tonight. They think they’ve figured out who this psychopath is, although,” she looked over at Jake, “it sounds like it’s psychopaths, plural, doesn’t it?” Cassie shook her head. “I can’t believe this is finally almost over.”

  Julie reached into Cassie’s fridge and pulled out two beers which she handed to Jake and Cassie. “You two have had a long day. Why don’t you go out on the back patio and get some fresh air. Penelope and I will make some dinner and then you all can catch us up on what exactly has been happening while we eat.” She pushed them out the door.

  ***

  Cassie sipped her beer and looked at Jake who was staring pensively out over the lighted terraces along the back fence. She felt a sinking feeling in her gut that had nothing to do with the stalker’s actions, at least nothing directly related to the stalker.

  As she watched his face, a face she knew almost as well as her own, she realized she honestly had no idea where things stood between them. The sex was phenomenal. She loved him and she had no doubt he loved her, but that didn’t change the fact he was tied to the Air Force and she was tied to her career here at Texas Tech. Now when it looked like things were wrapping up with the stalker, would he even want to stay in Lubbock through the holidays or would he want to head back to his life in the Air Force in Arizona?