Operation: Endgame (20 page)

He gave a quick nod and stepped back to let her take her shot. It wasn’t a great shot, but it at least hit the target, which pleased Cassie. Not bad for her first shot.

Jake let her continue shooting, coming in and correcting her stance periodically. By the time they were done, Cassie’s arm and hand were shaking with fatigue and the rest of her body was shaking with unrequited lust. Working closely with Jake and having him pushed up so closely against her was more than her overheated body could take. It had been way too long since she had been in close contact with a hard male.

She let Jake unload the weapon while she flexed her left hand open and closed trying to loosen the strained muscles. Jake reached over to her hand and started massaging it. It helped to relax her worn out muscles. As he rubbed, he felt the scar in her palm. He turned over her hand and examined the scar which ran the width of her palm. He lightly traced across it with his callused fingers, which sent chills skittering up her spine.

He looked at her, his eyes dark with emotion. “Do you remember the day we got these?”

She smiled softly. “Of course, I do.” She reached over and flipped over his palm to show his matching scar.

17 Years Ago

It had been Jake’s knife, but it had been Chris’ idea. Jake had been thirteen years old, and the twins had been eleven. They’d all been friends for about three years by that time. Jake was so excited about the new buck knife his dad brought home as a gift for him. It had caused a huge fight between Jake’s parents because his mother had not been happy about the gift, but the three musketeers thought it was the coolest thing ever.

Chris and Cassie had always maintained Jake was just like their lost triplet because they spent so much time together. All they lacked was the shared blood. So when Chris saw the knife, inspiration struck. He thought they should make Jake their true blood brother, by having all of them cut their palms and mingle their blood. Cassie hadn’t been as gung-ho about the idea as the boys, but she didn’t want them to think she was a wimp, so she went along with the idea.

Jake was in charge of the knife since it was his and his loyalty to the twins didn’t go so far as wanting to share it. Since she was the girl, the guys decided she should go first. That was probably the one and only time chivalry came into play in their friendship.

Jake peered at her with serious eyes. “Are you ready?” She didn’t trust her voice to stay steady so she just gave a quick nod. He grasped her left hand in his. Even then, his hands had evoked strength and warmth when they held hers.

They’d decided to do the blood bond with their left hands so they’d still be able to do their school work and normal things and maybe no one would realize what they had done. Jake rested the blade against her palm and quickly sliced across it. She gasped in shock. Never before had she felt that kind of burning pain, but she sucked in her breath and didn’t let the boys see how much it hurt. Immediately the blood started to well across her palm, so she gritted her teeth and said, “Hurry.”

Jake turned to Chris and quickly drew the blade across his palm. Chris wasn’t quite as stoic with his response. “Ow,” he squealed.

Cassie smirked at him as only a sister could and said, “Don’t be a baby. Come on Jake. We’re bleeding everywhere. Hurry up.”

Jake had turned pale when he noticed all the blood running down both Chris and Cassie’s hands. His hand was visibly shaking when he drew the blade to his palm, but he managed to score it all the same. Then all three shook hands so their blood co-mingled before quickly wrapping their palms with an old t-shirt Cassie had stolen from the house and torn into strips.

It had been a grand adventure and when all three of them had to suffer their individual punishments, it just bonded them more closely together. As adults, they’d all carried the matching scars with fondness.

As Cassie looked down at their matching scars sitting side by side, she felt a wave of grief for Chris. She looked up at Jake and gave a weak smile. “It was a very good day.”

He nodded his head. “That it was.” He kissed her softly on top of her head and turned her towards the door. “Let’s go home, okay?”

Cassie finally convinced Jake she would be safe enough to go alone with Derek to clean up their office. His mother had gotten back into town the night before and Cassie felt like he needed to go spend some time with her before she left town again. Cassie called Derek to let him know it would just be the two of them and to ask if he could give her a ride to the office. He picked her up at 9:50. There was no sign of the distress from whatever had been wrong with him on Wednesday. In fact, he was in really good spirits considering they were going to spend the day cleaning.

As he grinned at her for the fifth time within ten minutes, she finally broke down and asked, “What’s up with you today? You should not be this happy to be cleaning up this mess.” She looked at him suspiciously and when he quirked an eyebrow at her, the explanation finally occurred to her. “Oh my God, you got laid didn’t you?”

“Hey, a guy never kisses and tells,” but he was blushing all the way down to his roots. Cassie had never seen him react so vehemently to the mention of a significant other which was extremely intriguing, because Derek had more than his fair share of interested parties hanging around.

“Maybe not, but he usually doesn’t have such a reaction either. So, what’s the story?”

“Her name is Melissa. I met her a couple of weeks ago at The Mocha Mermaid. She’s just incredible. She’s so smart and funny and sexy. We have so much in common. I can’t wait for you to meet her.”

“She sounds great.” Cassie thought for a moment. “Are you bringing her to the party tomorrow night?”

Derek grimaced, “I’m not sure. I don’t think we’re doing anything else, but it’s still a new relationship. I don’t want to overwhelm her with everyone.”

“Hey, it’ll be great. Just a fun holiday party with some of my very friendly friends. Just bring a snack and alcohol so the rest of us can scope this girl out.”

Derek gave a warning, “Cassie…” but he was grinning so Cassie just gave him a look of innocence. He gave a deep sigh and said, “Just make sure everyone’s nice to her. I don’t want to scare her off yet.”

“No problem. I’ll make sure War is under control for the evening.” Derek flushed. Derek and War had never gotten along, but as the head of the department and one of her close friends at the University, she had to invite him. “I’ll make sure there are plenty of people there who can run interference between you and War. Come on, let’s get this done so I can get home and start planning a party.”

An hour later, Derek got an emergency call from Melissa. As he listened to Melissa talk, he glanced worriedly over at Cassie. “Mel, I’m sorry. I can’t leave yet.” He glanced around the office. “Isn’t there anyone else you can call?” He nodded absently while he listened to Melissa.

Cassie waved her hand in front of him to get his attention and mouthed, “What’s going on?”

“Hang on Melissa. Let me talk to Cassie for a minute.” He covered the mouth of the phone while he explained to Cassie. “Her car’s broken down and she’s stranded. Anyone else she could call has already gone home for the holidays.”

“Well, go rescue her. She needs a White Knight and you’re just the guy for the job. We’re almost done here. I can finish up.”

“No way. I promised Jake I wouldn’t leave you here alone.”

“He’s ten minutes away. I’ll call him to come pick me up. In the meantime, I’m armed, so I’ll be just fine.”

Derek looked between her and his cell phone, obviously torn, so Cassie pushed.

“You like this girl, right?”

He nodded.

“Well, I can promise, the fastest way to lose her is to leave her stranded on the side of the highway in December. That’s not something a new relationship can recover from.”

He looked at her seriously for a moment and looked out into the quiet hall. “Okay, okay, you convinced me. Thanks Cass.” He yanked up his jacket and started to jog down the hall, telling Melissa he was on his way.

Cassie shook her head and grinned as she locked the door behind him. Young love.

Cassie continued to work, until the bulk of the office was clean. She looked down at the two bags of trash which needed to go to the dumpster, but called Jake first to come pick her up. He was really unhappy about the fact she was there alone, but she’d convince him not to kill Derek. She convinced him that he could understand the needs of young love.

She picked up the two bags with her one good hand, but then thought better of it as she thought about Jake’s tirade she had just listened to over the phone. She set them back down and reached into her purse. She grabbed her new handgun, made sure it was loaded and the safety was on. She then stuck it into the waistband of her pants on the left side so she could reach it easily if needed.

The dumpster was down the hall from her office, then out the other end of the building past the English department, and across the parking lot. There weren’t many people around. Mainly professors cleaning up last minute grades and offices in preparation for a month off for the holidays. She nodded her hello to several of them as she took the bags out to the overflowing dumpsters.

As Cassie started across the parking lot, she didn’t see anyone else around besides the building’s stray cat that was curled up asleep in the sunshine on the pathway. The cat lived behind the building and all the professors and TA’s took turns scratching her neck and bringing her treats. Someone had nicknamed her Coed midway through the year and the name had stuck. Now, as Cassie walked, she clicked her tongue and greeted Coed, but the tabby didn’t acknowledge her presence. Not too surprising, Coed was a cat. She would only acknowledge someone when she felt like it.

Cassie started to skirt around the cat which still hadn’t moved, when she felt her blood run cold. Coed wasn’t lounging in the sun. What Cassie thought was a shadow, was actually a puddle of blood draining from the cat’s slit throat. Cassie was sure Coed was dead, but she had to be sure so she dropped the trash and started to reach down towards her. She saw the cat’s eyes flicker, but then heard a small pop which occurred a split-second before the cat’s head was completely blown off.

Cassie stood there in shock for a second before her reflexes kicked in and she dropped to the ground. Someone killed Coed with a silenced gun and now she was standing out here in the open like a sitting duck. She pulled out her pistol and flipped off the safety. There were too many people around for her to take a shot, unless it was at close range. She simply didn’t have enough accuracy with her left hand yet, but it made her feel better to have the gun in her hand. She looked back down at Coed’s body and tried to figure out which direction the shot had come from. She glanced around, but couldn’t see any movement. Looking at the splatter from the cat’s body, it looked like the shot had come from somewhere around the neighboring math building.

All of these buildings were built with covered pathways along the perimeter with bricked columns at regular intervals. It was behind one of those columns that the shooter was probably standing, but those columns offered cover for Cassie too. As she skirted behind one, she felt a bullet pass close by and saw the shrapnel fly as the bullet embedded in the column next to her. Cassie tucked herself in closer behind the column.

Once Cassie felt like she was somewhat in a secure position, she debated the wisdom of what to do next. She’d left her cell phone in her office so she had no way of calling for help. She still didn’t see anyone around, but was afraid an innocent student or University employee was going to wander through and end up like poor Coed. In the end, Cassie decided the best plan of action was to shoot her gun into the air and hope someone heard the shots and called the police.

Cassie fired the gun quickly into the air in three distinct shots and cringed at the noise and the effect this may have on her job. For some reason University officials didn’t like it when they had to tell student parents there had been an occurrence of violence on campus. Having a professor shooting and being shot at on campus definitely fell into that realm.

Jake stormed into the history building, ready to take off some of Derek’s body parts for leaving Cassie in the office alone. Cassie had been in the hospital less than a week ago. What was it going to take to convince her she was in real danger?

Just as he had that thought, Jake heard gunshots coming from the back of the building and he took off running. When he got to the door which led out behind the building, Jake flattened up against the wall so he could slowly peer out around the edge of the door. He could see two trash bags and an animal of some sort lying on the path, but he couldn’t see anyone out there. He quickly crossed to the other side of the door frame so he could look out the other direction and that’s when he spotted Cassie crouched behind a column with her pistol clutched in her left hand.

He looked around trying to see where the danger was coming from, but he couldn’t see any movement. He flipped open his cell phone and dialed 911, while keeping an eye on Cassie.