Operation: Endgame (26 page)

Cassie was still grappling with all the unbelievable details of what Derek was telling her. “So are you saying you want to have a future with War?”

“Honestly, I don’t know. Right now, I just want to have the option. He has to survive this. Our night together was…. I don’t know how to describe it besides… magical. It was his attitude the next day at the office that sucked. I just don’t know. I felt a connection with him I’ve never felt with anyone else.” He looked at her with such heart-breaking emotion filling his eyes. “Do you think he’s going to survive? There was so much blood.”

“I don’t know Derek, but I do know War is strong and stubborn as any man I know. You know as well as I do that he takes care of himself. He’s in great shape. He has to have good odds with those things in his favor.” She rubbed his arm. “Come on; let’s go get those coffees and head back to the waiting room.”

When they got back, there was still no word. Jake gave Cassie a questioning look, but she just shook her head. The secrets about War and Derek’s personal lives were not hers to divulge.

Several hours later, Cassie had dozed off on Jake’s shoulder. He reached over and shook her awake as the surgeon came into the room.

He addressed the group. “Are you all here for Warren Hendricks?”

As a group they nodded and he continued. “He survived the surgery and is stabilized. The next 24 hours are the most critical, but I think he’ll survive. The bullet was sitting very close to the heart and that’s why the surgery took so long. It was very delicate work. To complicate matters, Mr. Hendricks also took a hard blow to the head and is suffering from a mild concussion. He’s still in recovery and hasn’t woken up quite yet from the anesthesia, but when that happens, I’ll have someone come out and notify you.”

The doctor looked over at Brian whose badge was showing prominently on his belt. “Are you the detective on this investigation?” At Brian’s nod, he continued. “You should be able to talk to him as soon as he starts to come out of anesthesia, but like I said, he’s had a hard blow to the head, so I’m not sure how much he’ll actually remember from the attack.”

An hour later, Brian came out after a short interview with War. He shook his head at Jake and Cassie as he came into the waiting room. “Unfortunately, he’s still groggy and doesn’t really remember anything right now. Maybe as he comes out of the anesthesia better, he’ll remember more. I’ll talk to him again tomorrow.”

The door to the waiting room opened again and a nurse came into the room. She glanced over their motley crew and focused on Cassie. “Are you Cassie?” At Cassie’s nod, she continued, “Mr. Hendricks is asking to speak with you. You can come back with me.”

They arrived to the recovery area and she motioned towards a curtained area. “He’s back there and still pretty groggy. You can stay for a few minutes, but try not to stress him out, okay?”

Cassie nodded and turned to go to War.

She drew aside the curtain and whispered as she walked to the side of his bed, “War, it’s Cassie.” He was so pale and still. This was not the way she was used to seeing this big warrior of a man.

He slowly opened his eyes.

She took a hold of his hand, “Hey, you. You gave us quite a scare today.”

His voice was low as he said, “It wasn’t my favorite day either. You be careful. Dangerous.”

“Shhh, I know. Save your energy. I’m going to stay safe. Jake will make sure of it. Right now, you just need to concentrate on getting better.”

War gave a short nod and closed his eyes, but suddenly his eyes flew open again. “Derek? He was there?”

Cassie nodded and looked at him carefully, “Yes, Derek was the one who found you. He’s in the waiting room. He’s been here all night and I know he’d really like to see and talk to you. He’s worried about you.”

War’s eyes became guarded, so Cassie tried to sooth him. “He’s worried. He cares about you, War. Please let him come in and talk to you.”

War closed his eyes and swallowed hard. “You know?”

Cassie gave another short nod. “Yes. I was surprised, but I love you both. I never understood why you couldn’t get along. I just never guessed it was a symptom of something else.” She gave him a teasing grin. “He’s a good guy, War. So are you. Let him come in and talk to you.”

War nodded. “Okay, but first…promise…be careful.”

She kissed his forehead. “I promise. I’ll be back tomorrow to see how you’re doing. Get some rest and get recovered soon, War. I’m going to need my running partner back.”

When she walked back into the recovery room, Derek looked at her hopefully as she spoke. “He’s going to be okay. He wants to talk to you, but try not to upset him, okay?”

The relief showed on Derek’s face. “I guarantee you I won’t do anything to endanger his recovery. I need the big oaf to be better so I can beat him to a pulp for scaring me like that today.”

Cassie wrapped her good arm around Derek’s shoulders and ignored the tears filling his eyes. “He’s going to be fine. Go see him to reassure yourself, then go home and get some sleep. You’ve had a horribly long and dreadful day. Call me if you need me.”

“Thanks Cassie.”

As they walked out of the hospital, Cassie was surprised to see the sun was already peeking over the horizon. “Ugh, it’s morning.”

Jake chuckled, “Just the way every morning should be started…with a positive attitude.” He gave her a teasing smile.

She smiled back at him. They were both exhausted and ready to fall into bed, but first they needed some sustenance. She grabbed his hand and said, “Hey, I can feel all that bad hospital coffee eating a hole through my empty stomach. Let’s go grab some breakfast and decent coffee at The Mocha Mermaid.”

Jake agreed. “That sounds like a good plan.”

As they walked into The Mocha Mermaid, Ricky glanced up from where he was working behind the counter. He flashed Cassie a quick smile, but then took a double-take as he took in her haggard, exhausted appearance. He scowled at Jake, and then turned his attention back to Cassie. “Professor, why is it each time I see you, you are looking more the worse for wear?” Again, he gave a dirty look to Jake.

Cassie gave a good-natured chuckle. “Just think, I used to come in here because Ricky could always make me feel better about myself with his glowing compliments.”

Ricky frowned. “Of course, you’re still beautiful, Professor, but you look exhausted. I worry about you.”

“I’m fine. We’ve just spent the night at the hospital waiting for a friend to come out of surgery.”

“Is your friend okay?” Ricky asked, concerned.

“Yes, thankfully, it looks like he’s going to be fine, but it made for a long night.”

A quick moment of distress crossed Ricky’s features, before he simply said, “Good. Good. Venti non-fat latte and a normal coffee?”

“Yes and can we add a couple of muffins to that too?”

“Sure.” Ricky handed over the muffins and coffees and added a final. “I hope your friend makes a full recovery. Take care of yourself, Professor. You need to be in top form next time I see you.”

Cassie gave him a smile. “I promise next time I come in, I’ll be back to normal.” She turned to Jake. “Should we take these to go? I’d like to get to bed as soon as possible.”

Jake gave her a leering look. “I like your way of thinking.”

Cassie turned and they walked out the door, both of them missing the look of hate and irritation which crossed over Ricky’s face before he turned to help the next customer.

Jake awoke to the wonderful sensation of Cassie snuggling into the warmth of his chest. They’d come home, quickly eaten their breakfast, and then tumbled exhausted into bed without a thought about anything more than sleep. But now, after a few hours of rest and with Cassie’s lush body pressed into his, Jake’s thoughts were definitely straying away from anything to do with sleep. But as he looked down into Cassie’s face, he could see the circles of exhaustion under her eyes so he simply shifted his erection and tried to enjoy the perfection of having her in his arms.

As she slept, he thought about the events of the last 24 hours. The stalker was playing a game. He was playing a game he expected Cassie, with her military tactical skills, to participate in, but why? What was this guy’s motivation? All of the letters had been signed –BK or Bernard Kleptofine, the bad guy from the video game Cassie had worked on. Jake had played the game, but he hadn’t watched the video clip of Cassie’s interview on the video in a long time. Maybe it was time to revisit exactly what she said. They might just find some answers there.

Jake eased out from underneath Cassie and went to find her gaming system. By the time he set everything up, Cassie came wandering into the living room, looking bleary-eyed and less than awake. She quickly stumbled over to start the coffeemaker as he booted up her section of the video. She handed him a coffee cup and snuggled in beside him on the couch. Yawning widely as she looked curiously at the screen. “What exactly are we doing?”

“Obviously, this guy has been triggered by something in this video.” Jake nodded his head at the screen which was going through the technical expert interviews. “I thought if we watched your segment of the interview, there might be something to clue us into what this guy’s next move may be.”

As Cassie’s image came on the screen, she couldn’t resist commenting, “God, I hate that shirt, but they wanted to show off my cleavage.” Cassie rolled her eyes, critically eyeing the dark purple wrap shirt which made her look much bustier than nature intended. She continued scowling at the screen, seeing every flaw in the interview.

Jake drew her face around to his and kissed her. “I think you look pretty hot, but you come across as intelligent too. I used to watch this video when I was missing you so much I hurt.”

Cassie gave him a sweet smile, and tried not to think ahead to when he had to go back to Arizona after the New Year. Denial was a wonderful thing and she planned on living the next few weeks fully immersed in it.

Jake drew her attention back to the screen. “If I remember right, this is where you start talking about the bad guy.”

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.”