Operation: Endgame (8 page)

At the feeling of Penelope jostling her shoulder, Cassie looked over at her. Penelope was pointing at something to the side and her eyes were sparkling with mischief. She whispered into her ear, “Tis the season, Cassie. Have faith things are going to work out. Guess who’s here…”

Cassie followed the direction of Penelope’s finger and gasped. Oh my God, Jake was here. What did that mean? He started to move towards them and Cassie realized he was hurt. Oh no, what happened? She rushed over to his side with fear clutching her heart. God, had he gotten hurt out on a mission? What if it had been worse and he’d gotten killed like Chris? How would she ever have forgiven herself because she let this awkwardness come between them over the last few months?

She reached out and grasped him around his shoulders. “Oh my God, Jake, what happened? Are you okay?” She was looking frantically all over his body looking for other damage.

“Shhh, Cassie.” Jake reached up and cupped her cheek to urge her to look him in the eye. “I’m okay. It was a bad training jump...only a broken leg. It’s nothing to worry about. The cast comes off next week.”

Her eyes flooded with tears and suddenly the blood started to flow back into her extremities in relief. She shook her head at her over-reaction. “I’m sorry. You shocked me. You’re here. Oh my God, you’re really here,” she reached toward him as if feeling him could convince her, “and you’re hurt. What’re you doing here?”

“It’s okay, Cass. You don’t have to explain it to me. I understand. I’m sorry I scared you. I wasn’t thinking. I’m home for a while.” He answered vaguely and looked at her trying to gauge her reaction.

“Good. I’ve missed you, Jake.”

She gave him a tentative smile and with it the churning in Jake’s gut ceased and calm settled over him. He gave her a return smile, but then quirked his eye down to her mug. “What exactly is it you three are drinking to make you so jovial?” He said with a chuckle.

Julie and Penelope had been watching their exchange quietly, but now Julie shoved Jake the lid from the thermos filled with their steaming concoction. When he went to grasp it, she suddenly pulled it back. “Wait, are you on any painkillers?” At the shake of his head, she returned the cup to his hand. “Well then welcome home, Jake. Have some Mint Cocoa…Cassie’s creation for this holiday season. It’ll be interesting to see if a guy likes it as much as we do.” They all eyed him as he took a sip.

“Mmmm.” His eyes widened in shock as the minty chocolate hit his taste buds. “That’s like a liquid Thin Mint.”

Cassie grinned mischievously. “Yup. A
very adult
liquid Thin Mint.”

As Jake looked up, all three of them were grinning with huge sloppy smiles on their face. The alcohol content on this must be through the roof, for them ALL to be buzzing from it. Jake chuckled as he took in their drunken looks. “I hope you’re thinking fondly about it in the morning when your heads are exploding.”

“No worries.” Julie said. “We already decided we’re all sleeping at Cassie’s tonight. We plan to be in pain together. Friends to the very end…even hangovers.”

Penelope nodded her head at his cup with a mischievous glint in her eye, “Are you going to spend the night too? A guy at the slumber party could add an interesting element to the evening.” She gave him a wink.

Jake chuckled and shook his head, “I think I’ll nurse this one very slowly. That way, I can leave the slumber party to you girls. My mom is out of town. I’m bunking down at her house right now.” He glanced at Cassie trying to gauge her reaction to this conversation, but when her eyes met his, she ducked down and put her hands in her pockets.

Cassie slid her hand into her pocket and was surprised to find something there which hadn’t been there at the beginning of the night. Her heavy alcohol consumption meant she wasn’t thinking things through and it didn’t occur to her this might be something nefarious. She ripped into it and immediately saw it was the same yellow legal pad paper every other note from the stalker had been on. There was a simple type-written note on it which said,

May your holidays go off with a BANG.

P.S. I like peppermint too.

-BK

Cassie jerked her head around trying to locate anyone who might look suspicious who could have slipped the note into her pocket. She didn’t see anyone who was paying any attention to her at all. It was crowded with people jostling through the festivities. Cassie had no idea when someone could have dropped the note into her pocket, but the idea of her stalker being close to her, sent a chill up her spine.

Jake was still watching Cassie when he saw her pull something out of her pocket and read it. All the blood drained from her face and she suddenly looked terrified which sent him into high alert. He quickly moved to her side. “What’s wrong? What is that?”

She looked up at him with wide, frightened eyes and seemed to debate something, but then he saw her resolve set in. She thrust the yellow paper at him.

Jake read the note and cursed, “Fuck. That was in your coat? It’s the stalker isn’t it?” Jake’s entire demeanor went into high alert as he scanned the crowd around them. Both the other girls closed ranks as they realized something had happened.

Cassie swallowed hard and nodded her head. “It wasn’t there when we left. I’m sure of it. Wait, how did you know about him?” Cassie gave him a suspicious look.

Jake simply gave her a hard shake of his head as he scanned the area around them. “That doesn’t matter now. We need to get you out of here.”

Her eyes were wide and scared and knowing she was frightened made Jake’s gut clench. He quickly scanned the crowd. “Okay, everyone. Let’s get back to Cassie’s house right now. Penelope, you and Julie walk together in front of us. Cass, you walk right beside me. We need to get out of here. Now.”

It was a much more subdued and somber group that arrived at Cassie’s house than the one that left a few hours earlier. Unfortunately, when they arrived back at the house, there was more bad news in the form of a single black rose sitting on the porch. Jake wouldn’t let anyone touch it. They all simply stepped over it as they went into the house.

Once they were secured in the house with the doors dead-bolted shut, Jake called his contact at the police department whom he had talked to earlier in the day. Coincidentally Detective Brian Barnes, whom Jake had known since high school, was already the detective working on Cassie’s case. They’d talked at length during the afternoon, although Brian had been reluctant to share the details about what had been happening until Cassie gave him the okay.

As Jake hung up the phone, he turned towards the living room where all three girls were sitting talking quietly. “Brian’s on his way over, but I need to know now.” He looked at Cassie and she shivered with the anger she saw there. “What exactly has been going on here and why the hell didn’t you call either Colton or me?”

Cassie immediately got defensive. “No. You do not get to use that tone with me Jake Madsen, especially after you’ve done everything in your power to avoid me for the last six months.” She started stalking towards him and when she got right in front of him, she poked him in the chest. “Why the hell do you think I’d call you after that? Huh?” She didn’t give him a chance to answer while she continued to rant. “And Colton’s still stationed halfway around the world in England. He can’t do a damn thing from there except get frustrated and worried which doesn’t change the situation here one little bit. I’ve done everything I can to handle this. I’m trying to be careful. The police are working on it. They’re going to find this guy, besides so far, he’s just letting me know he’s here. He hasn’t threatened me or tried to hurt me.” Tears filled her eyes. She hated that she cried when she got angry.

Jake rubbed his hand through his hair in frustration and tried to gain control of his out of control emotions. He tugged her to him and kissed the top of her head. “Damn, Cassie. I’m sorry I haven’t been here for you, but I am now and we’re going to get this guy before he gets to you. I hate the thought he got close to you tonight.” He felt a shudder roll through her body and held her tighter.

As they stood in their awkward but comforting embrace, a knock sounded at the door. Jake didn’t want to let go of Cassie, but she pulled out of his grasp, moving towards the door. “That will be the detective.”

When she opened the door, the Detective was squatting on the ground, gloves on his hands, bagging the rose. He looked up at Cassie. “Hello, Cassie. I’m sorry I have to see you tonight.” He gestured down to the rose. “No note with this one?”

Cassie shook her head. “No. He slipped a note in my coat pocket at the Carol of Lights tonight. Let me go get it for you.”

“No, let me finish bagging this before I come in and then I’ll bag the note. Hang on a second.” He continued on the porch.

When he came into the house, Cassie made the introductions to Penelope and Julie, but Jake moved forward and shook the Detective’s hand. “Hey Brian. I wish I could say I was happy to see you again, but unfortunately that’s not the case.”

Brian nodded his head. “I don’t blame you one bit on that one. Believe me, I understand.”

Cassie looked at the two of them curiously. “Wait a minute. When did you see him? Exactly how long have you been in town, Jake?” Cassie looked at him suspiciously.

“Now, don’t get your dander up Cassie. I got in this afternoon, but since you didn’t feel fit to call me, I’ve been checking around to find out what was going on with you. I talked to Brian this afternoon, but he wasn’t able to tell me any of the details, which you ARE going to remedy tonight. I want to know exactly what’s been going on here and exactly how long it’s been happening.”

Cassie exchanged looks with Julie and Penelope. She hoped it wouldn’t come to this. She’d hoped she could tell Colton and Jake after the fact, when the guy was caught and put away. Her guys were much too protective of her on a normal day, never mind when there may actually be a real danger. But looking at Jake’s rigid stance, Cassie knew she wouldn’t be able to avoid this discussion.

She took a deep breath. “Honestly, I’m not exactly sure how long it’s been going on. At first, it was simple little things like hang-ups from unlisted numbers on my phones, but you know; those still may not be related. It seems like I had those all through the summer, both here and even when I was in Europe. Once school started back up in August, there were little things….footsteps outside my office on the weekends, but no one was there. I had vague feelings I was being watched, but I wasn’t getting much sleep. Finally around the end of September, early October, I went to see a therapist thinking I was suffering from paranoia. My therapist gave me some sleeping medication, but suggested I confide in some friends,” Cassie nodded and smiled at the girls, “to see if they saw anything suspicious happening around me. It was weird, because almost immediately, the stalker stepped things up so there was no doubt what was happening.”

Jake frowned at her. “How did he step things up?”

“I’ve received several notes, both here and at the office. I even got one at a hotel once when I was out of town for a conference. One made it into my briefcase during class, although I don’t know how long it was there to try to pinpoint who could have placed it there. The black roses started a couple of weeks ago. The initial delivery was a bouquet left in my locked office while Derek and I were both out. Then there have been a couple of singles left in various places…on the hood of my Toyota FJ, on the lectern of the lecture hall. He’s definitely getting braver and coming closer to me with every delivery.”

Jake looked over at Brian. “Do you have any clues as to who could be doing this?”

Brian shook his head. “It’s someone familiar with the videogame she worked on, because he signs his notes as Bernard Kleptofine or BK which is the villain’s name in the game. It’s a tremendously popular videogame though, so that doesn’t narrow things down much. Other than that, he doesn’t leave us any clues…no fingerprints, no DNA. Obviously, it’s someone who can get close to her without arousing suspicion, but on a University campus with over 30,000 students, that isn’t giving us much to go on. He appears to know her schedule very well and that worries me.”

“Okay, so you have no idea who this guy is. What are you doing to protect Cassie?”

Brian shook his head, “Everything’s been benign so far. He hasn’t even made an actual threat, much less attempted an assault, and until that happens, we can’t do much besides send a squad car down her street more often than normal to keep an eye on things.”

Jake looked at him in disbelief. “That’s bullshit, Brian. Are you saying you can’t do a damn thing until he actually tries to hurt her?”

“I’m sorry, Jake, I really am, but this is a college town and young guys tend to lose their heads when it comes to females. If we provided protection for every stalker case, we would have to quadruple our force and still wouldn’t have enough manpower to handle any other type of case. Unfortunately, this is the way it is. That’s why it’s important for Miss Robertson to stay diligent in her own security.”

Jake growled in frustration then ran a hand through his hair while looking at Cassie. “Well, darling, I do believe you’ve just gotten yourself a live-in bodyguard. I’ll put my stuff in the guest room.”

Cassie looked at him in disbelief. “But…” she stuttered, although he was already out the door to get his stuff out of his truck. What the hell? She had hardly spoken to Jake in six months, and now he was moving in with her?