Operation: Endgame (4 page)

“How’s your mom doing?” She looked at him questioningly as they walked into the house. She headed into the kitchen and handed him a water bottle out of the fridge. Before the divorce, Jake’s mom had been a mousey, quiet, unhappy woman who for all practical purposes didn’t even seem to know she had a son, but something had changed within her after the divorce and she blossomed. She started a new business and done really well for herself. She still lived in Lubbock, but these days she traveled a lot so was rarely in town.

“She’s good. She asked me to apologize for not making it to the funeral. She wanted to be here, but she had business meetings in Portland this week that she couldn’t change or cancel.”

“That’s understandable. Tell her not to worry about it.” Cassie didn’t want to think about the funeral anymore. “Do you mind if I go take a quick shower to wash the sweat off?”

“No problem.” He looked at the dark circles under her eyes. He didn’t think she’d eaten much of anything all week and he doubted she was sleeping much either. She couldn’t keep going like this. “I’m gonna call and order some pizza. Okay?”

“Sure that sounds fine. You know the number right?”

Jake chuckled. “There are some things a guy never forgets and the phone number to One Guy Pizzeria is one of them. Go take your shower.” He waved her into the back of the house.

When Cassie came back out after her shower, she could hear the water running in the guest shower. Jake had opened a bottle of red wine, poured two glasses, and left them breathing on the counter. Cassie picked up one of them now and took a sip as she wandered over to her low bookcase to look at the multitude of photos she had in frames there. She let her fingers trail over the one of Chris in his flight suit she’d taken just last year. How was it possible he wasn’t here anymore? She couldn’t think about him right now or she would lose the calm she’d earned through her run.

She shook her head, moved away from the pictures, and headed out the French doors to the back patio. The terrace lighting was already on. But the strings of lights woven around the covered patio and umbrella above the bistro table needed to be plugged in. She needed the soothing ambiance the soft lighting provided. She sat down on the edge of the pathway and dipped her feet into the cool waters of the pool. Leaning her head back, she closed her eyes and let the sounds of the crickets and the night dip into her soul to soothe her.

She didn’t know how long she sat there before she heard the door open and Jake stepped out carrying the pizza and the bottle of wine. He sat them down and then said, “Let me go grab everything else. I’ll be right back.”

Cassie walked over to refill her wine glass, took a sip and sat down at the table while she waited for Jake to return. She studied him as he walked out the French doors. His hair was wet from his shower. He wore board shorts, an old fitted Mtn. Dew t-shirt, and his feet were bare. She could see his arm muscles ripple as he set his glass on the table. The man was sex on a stick. She thought back to Penelope’s comments earlier in the day and wondered if he had someone waiting for him back at the base.

Over the years, they learned their friendship had limits. They’d never been romantically involved besides a single steamy kiss after her senior prom, but it wasn’t for lack of trying on her part, at least during her teen years. As an adult, she realized the wisdom of his stance on that. She valued his friendship too much to risk it with a temporary relationship which would eventually fizzle out. Jake was a player and a confirmed bachelor.

Neither one of them were comfortable discussing their love lives. She sure didn’t want to hear about his playthings and Cassie learned a long time ago, the less any of the guys knew about her relationships, the better off her relationships would be. All three of her guys tended to be a tad overprotective when it came to her and dating.

Jake interrupted her ruminations by handing her a plate full of pizza. She didn’t even look at it before her stomach started to roll with nausea. Cassie looked away and made a face. “No thanks, Jake. I’m really not hungry.”

Jake set the plate down in front of her and growled. “Cassie you’re going to eat. I know you haven’t eaten anything this week. Besides, I ordered your favorite, which you know I can’t stomach, so you damn well better eat some of it.”

Cassie’s eyes flew to the plate in front of her and took in the pineapple and Canadian bacon cover the pizza. “You hate this pizza, Jake. Why would you order it?”

“Because, right now, your stomach needs it more than mine does. Come on, Cass, eat up.” He looked at her with concern in his eyes. “Besides, I can just pull the pineapple off and pretend like it was never there. I’ve never understood why anyone thinks putting fruit on pizza is a natural idea.” Jake grumbled as he started picking the pineapple off his pizza.

Cassie knew he was just trying to guilt her into eating, but she appreciated his sacrifice especially considering how much he adored One Guy’s other pizzas. After she took a few bites, she started to feel better. She was surprised to find her stomach had calmed down and the pizza did taste really good. “Thanks Jake.”

He nodded at her and kept his attention on his food.

“When do you have to leave?”

Jake was stationed at Davis-Monthan AFB in Arizona. It was a full day’s drive from Lubbock and she knew he needed to be back soon. He’d been deployed right before Chris’ plane crashed. Cassie was foggy on the details as to how he ended up being part of the family notification process or when he got back from his deployment. She knew that wasn’t the way things normally worked, but she was thankful he was there so she didn’t want to question it too much.

He looked at her thoughtfully. “I have to head back tomorrow morning. Colton will be back in the afternoon and he still has another week of emergency leave so you won’t be alone.”

His look of concern pushed the buttons of her independence streak. “You know, I’m 28 years old. I can be by myself. I’m going to be fine alone. I’ve been alone for over six years. I’m a big girl.” She was frowning at him, so Jake raised his hands in mock surrender.

“When do you leave for your European lecture series?”

She decided to give him a break and with a sigh said, “They moved my lecture series back four days to give me a little bit of extra time to handle things here.”

“I didn’t mean you need someone here, but I know this isn’t easy for you, Cass.”

“This isn’t easy for any of us, Jake. Right now, I would just like things to get back to normal and quite honestly, getting back to work sounds perfect to me.”

“I can respect that.” Jake was nodding. “Are you excited about Europe?”

“Seriously? Of course, you know I am.”

With the release and success of the Endgame video game, she achieved some fame and now was called on by several of the television networks as a consultant for news reports and interviews. This summer’s guest lecture series was a huge honor for a professor as young as she was, but she was damn good at her job and definitely an expert on military history, tactics, and strategy, no matter her age.

“The trip’s going to be amazing. It’ll be six weeks of lecturing at some of the most prestigious Universities in Europe, including Cambridge and Oxford. Exciting doesn’t even begin to cover how I feel about it.”

She gave Jake a smile that was reminiscent of the adventure-loving Cassie he knew before the past week. Maybe she would be okay. He looked down at her plate. She’d eaten at least two pieces of pizza as they talked without even realizing it, so that was good. Very good. Now the goal was to get her back to sleeping. To that end, Jake topped off Cassie’s wine glass. He figured a little bit of alcohol would help her relax enough to sleep.

“Are you going to be able to spend much time with Colton while you’re over there?”

Cassie nodded. “We plan on spending most weekends together. Either he plans to meet me in the country where I’m lecturing or I’ll meet him in England. He’s the fill-in commander for a couple more months while his commander is deployed so he has to stay pretty close to the base, but he’s planning to sneak away for a couple of weekends. I’m worried about him. This mess with Dianna already had him pretty torn up. Now with Chris…” Her voice trailed off for a bit as she looked off in the distance. “I’m just glad we’re going to be in close proximity for the next couple of months. What about you? Do you know what you’re doing next?”

Cassie saw a flash of pain cross Jake’s eyes before he looked at her.

“No, I’m not sure.” He tried to laugh it off. “You know how it is with the PJ’s... we go wherever we’re needed.”

He gave her a weak smile, but Cassie wasn’t buying it. Something was off with Jake. She just wasn’t sure if she wanted to know exactly what was bothering him. “I think the Rangers are playing tonight. Let’s go in and see if we can catch the tail end of the game.”

“That’s a plan I can live with.”

Jake flipped over and looked at the clock. 2:37 AM. The game had gone into extra innings and they hadn’t gone to bed until around 11:30. So why was he awake? Jake sat up and looked around Cassie’s guest room, but he didn’t see anything out of place in the dark shadows of the room. Then he heard a whimper which sounded more animalistic than human coming from the direction of Cassie’s room. He quickly pulled on his boxers and was about to grab his shorts when he heard a blood-curdling scream that sent him running to her room.

Cassie couldn’t see anything clearly. Everything appeared through a haze, like looking through plastic vinyl. Every single inch of her hurt as she glanced around the room trying to get her bearings.

“
He’s despierto.” Someone spoke in broken Spanish from somewhere off to her left. She tried to turn her head to see who said that, but the pain in her skull was too much.

“
Chris, my friend, why do you not cooperate with us? We are your amigos now.” A swarthy man leaned down into her face while he talked to her and pulled her head up by the hair. Wait a minute. Chris? Oh my God, this wasn’t her dream. This was Chris. She could feel his pain. Every single breath he took felt like shards of glass were in his lungs.

At that moment, Chris drew in a shallow breath and expelled a harsh, but guttural, “Fuck you.” That earned him a fist to the side of his face and Cassie could tell he was about to lose consciousness. One of the men threw a bucket of water into his face. The four of them laughed harshly as Chris coughed and sputtered, trying to catch his breath.

At a signal, two men grabbed Chris up by his arms and moved to stand him in front of the man who appeared to be issuing the orders. The man in charge wore a mask to hide his identity. “You, my friend, are very estupido. You want to fuck?” He leaned right into Chris’ face. “I can make sure you never fuck again.” The man kneed Chris in the balls so hard Chris started to dry-heave. Cassie felt the spasms of pain shoot through his groin, lower back, and spread throughout his entire body. They were going to kill him if he didn’t start cooperating. Cassie felt herself whimper.

The man stood there, his eyes lit up with glee, while he waited for Chris to gather himself. He punched him in the ribs while the two men continued to hold his arms. “Feeling more cooperative yet?”

Chris just glared at the man through his swollen eyes.

“
Fine. We have other ways of making you talk.” The man gestured the fourth man who had been standing off to the side tending the fire. The huge man reached in, pulled out a metal poker and walked towards Chris. The tip glowed bright red in the dimly lit room. “This is your final chance to tell us about your mission before things,” he dropped his look to Chris’ groin, “get really ugly.”

Chris didn’t move. He didn’t even acknowledge that anyone else was in the room. He just stood there staring at the man with hatred in his eyes. No fear. Just hatred. The man in charge beckoned the man with the poker forward. As the fiery metal drew closer, Cassie started screaming.

Cassie was still screaming as Jake shook her awake.

“Cassie! Wake up! It’s just a dream.” Jake had both hands on her shoulders and was leaning over trying to wake her.

As she gained consciousness, shudders and sobs wracked Cassie’s body. She couldn’t catch her breath through the panic.

Jake pulled her into his bare chest as she sobbed. “Shhhh, it’s okay. Everything’s okay, Cass. It was just a dream.” He murmured into her hair as he rubbed up and down her back to try to calm her down. “It was just a dream. You’re safe. Shhhh.” He kissed the top of her head.

“Jake?” Cassie looked up at him with confusion, trying to get her bearings.

“Yeah, babe, I’m right here.” He pulled her into his chest again.

Cassie pulled in a deep shuddering breath. “Oh my God. Oh God, Jake. It was Chris. They were torturing him.” Cassie reached around his back and pulled him as close to her as she could as the sobs erupted again. “He’s alive. I saw him… and they’re torturing him.”

“Cass, shhhh.” He continued to rub her back. “It was just a dream. It’s just your subconscious’ way of dealing with the grief. It was just a dream. You’re okay.” Cassie settled into his chest and continued to sob and Jake could feel his own heart shattering. Her grief. His grief. The loss of his best friend. His guilt. It was all too much. The tears filled his eyes as he tried to calm Cassie down.