Operation: Endeavor (When The Mission Ends) (36 page)

The door suddenly opened and in walked a tall man in a business suit. He slowly clapped his hands together, each hit reverberating throughout the tense room like a gunshot. Two muscled men followed closely behind him. This had to be the guy in charge. “Oh, Thomas, you did always have such a flair for the dramatic. That’s part of the reason why I’ve kept you around as long as I have. Well, that and you do come up with some rather inventive methods to aid the little business we have going here.”

The man was younger than Penelope would expect a Mexican Mafia boss to be. He was probably in his early thirties. He wasn’t a huge guy, but he had a presence about him that signaled his power. He was Mexican and spoke with a lilting accent which said that English wasn’t his first language.

Thomas remained quiet as he watched the man walk into the room. She could see all his muscles tense up as he made an effort to hold himself in check and not respond to the man.

The man walked up to Penelope and looked her up and down. “You’ve caused poor Thomas a fair amount of trouble my dear.” He waited for a response.

Since she was pretty sure ‘Fuck You’ wasn’t going to go over well so she simply said, “I’m sorry. That was never my intention.”

He nodded and sat down in a plush leather chair, the only piece of furniture in the room. He had his elbows propped on the armrests and his fingers were steepled so that she could read the ‘PURE RULE’ tattoos on his knuckles. He wore his suit with a relaxed elegance, although the tattoos peeking out around his open collar belied the professional look. He was attractive, but had cold, soulless eyes.

He watched her for several uncomfortable minutes before finally saying, “But now we’re faced with a conundrum. You have my book. I have two prisoners and an operation going to hell faster than we can say ‘Texas ranch’. Do you have any ideas as to what we can do about this situation we find ourselves in here?”

She didn’t know how to respond to that so she just remained silent and watched him.

He turned his glare to Thomas and pulled a gun out of his pocket. Penelope couldn’t stop the gasp that escaped her lips at the sight of the weapon. A cold shiver snaked down her spine.

Thomas said, “Now wait a minute. Let’s not over-react. This is all fixable.”

“You think I’m over-reacting? Maybe I should just shoot her now for all the trouble she’s caused.”

He pointed the gun at her, but Thomas stepped in front of her. “You don’t want to do that. We can still get the book back and we can’t recover it if she’s dead.”

“You make a good point, so I think I’ll kill you instead.” He turned the gun on Thomas and then shot him point-blank in the head.

Penelope flinched violently as she watched Thomas’s body collapse. She was covered in his brain matter and gore. She stared down at his body in open-mouthed horror. Thomas was dead and somehow she’d been the cause of it. He had been a friend. And now he was dead at her feet. She dry-heaved, but having thrown up already, there was nothing left to come up.

The sobs shook her body. She was hysterical and knew that, but it was like watching herself through a television. She couldn’t stop.

The boss stood and took the two steps to get close enough to her to backhand her across her face. Her head snapped to the side and her face was on fire, but the hit did its job. She was refocused.

He started laughing as he told the remaining two men something in Spanish. They took hold of her arms and dragged her back to the basement.

This time they left her at the top of the stairs before they took her light and locked the door behind. She slowly felt her way down the stairs. Movement from below told her Damon was searching for her in the dark. “Penelope, are you okay? I heard a gunshot.”

Okay? Her stomach continued to roll and her legs were a quivering mass of jelly. She had parts of what used to be Thomas clinging to her. No, she was definitely not okay. But she didn’t need Damon to know that. “I’m okay. Stay back from the bottom of the stairs so I don’t fall over you.” Her voice sounded hollow and weak to her own ears. She was sure she wasn’t fooling Damon.

Finally she reached the bottom step, just as her legs gave out below her. She sunk to the ground and tried to gain control of her sporadic breathing. Damon inched up beside her and leaned into her trying to comfort her as best he could with his hands behind his back. “Shh, I’m so sorry, Penelope. You shouldn’t be here. I’m sorry.”

She reached up to him and gave a hysterical laugh as the ridiculousness of the situation hit her. “It’s not your fault. I’m here because of a book.”

“A book?” He sounded confused.

“I know.” Her laughter morphed into hiccupping sobs. “I don’t understand it either.”

“What was the gunshot?”

“Oh, just the boss killing Thomas because of this whole mess. His brains are all over my shirt. Did you know I used to date him? And now his brain is all over my shirt.” She shook and sobbed uncontrollably.

He curled his torso around her further. “Don’t think about it. Maybe someone heard the shot and will come investigate.”

She shook her head and slowly her brain began to function again. “I don’t think so. We’re at the far edge of the Martin ranch. They don’t come over here this time of year and I’m pretty sure we’re too far away from the main house for them to have heard it.”

“Did you find out what’s going on?”

“Yes.” She gave a hysterical sounding giggle, “Oh my God. All of this. Thomas is dead. Hannah and Aaron, too. All because I took a book out of the bookstore. From what I understand it’s a book that they’re using to transport information to the various branches of the Mexican Mafia.”

“Where’s the book now?”

“It’s in the saddlebag on Colt’s motorcycle.” She shivered at the thought of the unexpected danger she’d put him in. “I can’t let them know that though. I won’t endanger Colt’s life.”

“Penelope, trust Colton. He can take care of himself and maybe save you too. Just do what these guys say and let Colton figure out the rest. That may be the only way you survive this.”

Trust Colton. That’s what everything boiled down to, didn’t it?

Gone without a trace. How many people disappeared like that every year and their friends and family never found out what happened? To never know if they were dead or alive.

Never. Know.

The thought scared him to his very soul.

It had been three hours since he found out she was missing. Three hours that felt like three years. Every minute another section of his heart died.

He paced around the reading nook of the bookstore, trying to work through his aggression. They were all still at the bookstore, waiting for some word that never seemed to come. An hour ago, the group decided it was better to stay away from him and let him prowl the bookstore on his own. He didn’t know what to do and it was driving him fucking nuts. So he paced and held his cell phone, waiting for it to ring. Someone needed to call. He needed to know. Something. Anything.

He stared down at it, willing it to ring. He’d been doing that for so long, it actually startled him when it did ring. He fumbled it trying to hit the ‘answer’ button.  His heart went into hyper-drive, but he finally managed to hit the right fucking button. “Robertson here.”

“Colton, this is Bart. Is your girl still missing?”

“Yes, why?”

“Where are you?”

“Raider Readers on 19th Street.”

His voice was terse when he spoke. “I’ll tell you when I get there. I’ll be there in ten.”

Colton hung up the phone and continued to stare at it until Chris interrupted his reverie. “Who was that?”

“Bart Matthews. It sounds like he may have some information about Pen’s disappearance.”

“Bart from Homeland Security?”

Colton nodded mutely.

“Damn, what the hell is going on here?”

“I sure wish I knew the answer to that.”

Before either of them could contemplate it further, Colton’s phone rang again. “Robertson.”

“Mr. Robertson. You have something I want and I have something you want. I propose an exchange.”

His gut clenched. This was it. Finally, something was happening. He scrambled over to the register where he’d stashed his notepad and pen. “I’m not discussing anything with you until I talk to Penelope.” He heard some mumbling as the phone was passed.

“Colton?” Her trembling voice knocked the wind out of him and he just wanted to drop to the floor in thanks. Up until this moment, he really hadn’t been sure that she was even still alive.

“Pen, are you okay?”

“I’m fine, but Colt, I need you to listen to me very carefully.”

“Okay.”

“They need a book. It’s the book I use for my emergency reading, called
The Gift of Serendipity
.” He tried to focus on her words and not the shakiness of her voice. Just in case, he wrote everything she was saying down.

“Remember? I had it at your mom’s house when I was reading on her porch with Bart. I left it there. It’s on her bottom shelf. I’m pretty sure I shelved it by Celeste DeMarco’s book,
Acapulco Embrace
and your Air Force manuals. I love…”

Her voice trailed off as the phone was taken away from her and the male voice was back. “You have three hours to locate the book. We’ll meet you for the exchange at mile marker 341 on Hwy. 19 at 9:00. Don’t be late and come alone, or else your girlfriend will be dead.”

The line went dead and Colton’s brain started scrambling. Pen was giving him a message. His girl was smart. She’d started the message by talking about his mom’s house so he’d know it was all in code. There was no way for her kidnappers to know that his mother was dead. He just had to figure out what it all meant and quickly. Luckily, Bart walked in while he talked to her. Everyone gathered around and now they all looked at him with anticipation.

He looked first at Bart. “This definitely involves you or your office. She named you specifically. They’re demanding an exchange. Her for a book. I’m supposed to meet them in three hours at mile marker 341 on Hwy 19. She told me how to find the book in code although I know exactly where it is. Let me repeat what she said so you all can help me figure out what she’s saying.”

After he repeated the message word for word, they all looked at him puzzled. To Alix, Colton directed, “Go get her book that she mentioned and we’ll see what we can figure from that.”

Then he turned to Jake. “The book they want is in my motorcycle. I need Cassie to take you to my apartment to pick up my motorcycle. The book is in the left saddlebag. Drive the motorcycle back here, but before you do, pull the gloves out of that saddlebag, doing your best to hide the book in between them just in case someone’s watching. Slide it into your coat pocket and put on the gloves.”

As they left, he returned his attention back to the message. “Okay, everything about reading on my mom’s porch is a message since my mom’s dead and Pen knows that.” He looked at Bart. “We know Bart is you. That means she wants you involved and to know what’s going on. Maybe you should tell us what brought you over here.”

“Mainly it was just a gut feeling that this is all tied together. Our intel is telling us that one of the higher leaders in the Mexican Mafia is in the area. My office was called in on an investigation into a murder of one of Penelope’s employees. Signs are that she was tied to the MM. Honestly, I’m hoping we can find your girl and that will lead me to this leader so we can shut him down.”

“Question for you…”

“Shoot.”

“What is your intel showing the MM is doing here?”

“The normal for them: drug-running, human trafficking, and there have been some rumblings of weapons smuggling.”

Colton nodded. “That’s what I thought. I think that’s exactly what Pen is trying to tell us with the book.
Acapulco’s Embrace
means Mexico or the MM. Obviously this book they’re looking for means something. She also mentioned the Air Force. Could the MM be involved with something to do with the Air Force?” He turned his questioning glance toward Bart.

Bart frowned, obviously thinking it through. “Maybe something to do with Dyess Air Force Base in Abilene? Let me get some guys on it.” Bart made a call on his cell phone and relayed a message to someone within his chain of command.

Chris chimed in, “What if somehow they’re sending coordinates for their exchanges through the books? GPS coordinates, times, dates…things like that which could be hidden in the data on the front pages of a book or even a code somehow throughout the text.”

“That would make sense.” Colton tapped his pen on the paper. “That just leaves the porch and bottom shelf. What were you trying to tell me, Penelope?”

A thought occurred to him. He looked back toward Bart who had been on and off the phone with his people ever since he arrived. “Does your office have access to drones in the area?”

Bart cocked an eyebrow and looked around at the group, most without top-secret clearance, listening to their exchange before looking back at Colton. “I’m not really at liberty to say.”

“Good enough. I think I may know where they are.” He woke up the computer sitting at the register and with a few keystrokes found the online maps he wanted. “There’s an abandoned farmhouse, here.” He pointed at the coordinates on the screen. “I think she’s being held here. There’s no reason for anyone to be out there this time of the year. Pen told me they don’t use that side of the ranch until fall and it’s a long way away from the main part of the ranch. If you see people moving around out here, I’d lay odds those are the MM boys you’re looking for.”