Operation: Endeavor (When The Mission Ends) (11 page)

He nodded. “I have. Right now, she’s relaxing in the reading nook while we wait for Jon to arrive.”

“Good. Thank you for taking care of her. I know Penelope is grateful that she didn’t have to go to her mom’s while she recuperates. With their relationship, spending time with her mother isn’t exactly relaxing for Penelope. Actually,” Alix chuckled softly, “spending time with Anna isn’t restful for anyone.”

“I’m just glad I’m here so I can help.” He looked at her curiously. It was none of his business, but he couldn’t resist asking. “What happened between you and Penelope’s mother?” Penelope told him they didn’t speak anymore, but he had no idea why.

“That’s not my story to tell, but I have a feeling Penelope will let you in on it someday soon.” She gave him a wink. “You’re good for her.”

He smiled and chose his words carefully. “Don’t get any ideas about us. We’re just roommates. Pen is awesome, but it can’t go anywhere beyond that.”

“Hmm.” She looked at him with a single eyebrow raised which made Colton want to squirm a bit. Luckily, their discussion was interrupted with the tinkling of the door as Jon walked in.

Colton turned back toward Alix. “I’m going to take her home now. Remember, no one should be here alone until they catch the guy who attacked Pen. We still don’t know why he was here and he may try to come back to finish.”

She murmured, “Don’t worry about us. Just take care of our girl and see if you can get her to stay home tomorrow.”

He rolled his eyes at her. “You obviously don’t know Penelope as well as I thought if you think I could accomplish that.”

“Oh, I don’t know. I think you may have a better chance than the rest of us when it comes to Penelope.”

Penelope awoke and listened to the quiet of the apartment. She couldn’t hear Colton anywhere. She glanced at her bedside clock. She’d slept for three hours straight, and her body obviously needed it because she felt much better. Colton was right. She shouldn’t have gone in to the bookstore today… not that she’d ever admit that fact to him.

She gingerly rolled over and tested the aches and pains of her body. They were definitely still there, but she didn’t feel like a Mack truck had run over her in the last hour anymore. The headache, on the other hand, was still fully present, even after napping the afternoon away. She’d decided when she took the pain pills at lunchtime that those were the last ones she planned to take. She may have to re-think that plan.

When she came into the living room, Colton was sprawled on the couch reading the book he’d started at the bookstore. “Hey,” he said. “How are you feeling?”

“Better. Thanks. The nap helped.”

“Are you hungry?”

“I think I could eat.” She gave him a smile and then looked down at the coffee table. It was covered with bits and scraps of paper. “What were you working on?”

Colton scooped them up looking embarrassed. “Sorry about the mess. Just trying to figure out some of the details for Mad Rob… like what kind of planes to buy. It got kind of overwhelming, so I decided to dive back into the fictional world.” He gave her a meek grin.

Who knew that big, bad Colton could look so boyish and embarrassed? She liked seeing this side of him. “Planes, as in plural? How many are you planning on buying?”

“Two. One for the jump school and then one that we can use for charter flights. We’re also working a contract with Homeland Security and if that comes through, then we’ll have access to a third plane too.”

“Wow. You’re gonna be a big business tycoon aren’t you?”

“Not quite and we certainly aren’t there yet. We have tons to take care of.” He ran a hand through his hair. “I still haven’t even managed to talk to Chris about it yet.” He assessed her. “But right now, we have other worries, like what to feed you.”

She smirked at him. “Yeah, I can see where that should be right up there in your worries about what to do with the rest of your life.”

“Well, it certainly can be the most important thing for the next half hour.” He walked up behind her and nudged her toward the kitchen area of the loft. “Let’s go see what I can scrounge up for us to eat.”

They had just finished their sub sandwiches… a roast beef for Colton and a veggie for Penelope, when there was a knock at the door. Colton cocked a brow at Penelope as he headed toward the door.

She answered his silent question. “I have no idea. I’m not expecting anyone.”

When Colton opened the door, the first thing Penelope spotted was a huge arrangement of white daisies. She peered behind it and spotted Damon’s anxious face. He muttered a quick, “Hi, Colton,” before he strode into the room toward her.

Colton gave a half-hearted wave behind Damon’s retreating back and muttered a sarcastic, “Hi, Damon. Want to come in?” as he shut the door.

When Damon reached her, he set the flowers on the counter and gently grasped her chin to turn her face, brushing the hair off her forehead so he could see her bruise.

“Damon—” she started, but he interrupted her.

“I went to the bookstore and they said you’d been hurt. Fuck, that looks painful. Are you okay? Why didn’t you call me? I know we haven’t known each other that long yet, but I thought we were friends.” He had a hurt look on his face but Penelope couldn’t decide if it was in empathy for her pain or the fact that she hadn’t thought to call him.

She reached up and rubbed his shoulder. “I’m okay, Damon. Really, I am. I was in and out of the ER within a couple of hours.” She gestured to the beautiful bouquet of flowers. “Are those for me?” At his nod, she answered, “Thank you. They’re beautiful.”

She looked closer at the bouquet when she spotted a bit of gold glimmering out of the front of it. She reached over and brushed the daisies aside to reveal a beautiful golden daisy, set in amongst the real ones. It was the same size as the real daisies and the golden metal petals appeared just as delicate as real petals. She could even see the veining on the paper thin gold. “What’s this?” She caressed the incredibly delicate golden flower.

He looked embarrassed as he said, “I thought you might need an extra little something to pick you up in your bouquet.”

Her mouth dropped open in shock. “This isn’t one of the flowers from the Golden Garden is it?”

He shook his head ruefully. “No, I wish they looked this good. From what we’ve uncovered they’ve been crushed under tons of dirt for thousands of years and will never look like this again.” He touched the delicate petals lightly. “This is a reproduction that our artists created based upon what remains of the few flowers we’ve uncovered so far. This is what we think they looked like originally.”

“Wow, it’s exquisite.” She examined the flower. “What are these markings?” There were tiny delicate marks etched onto the flowers which at first glance looked like a part of the veining.

Damon looked at her oddly. “You’re observant, aren’t you? We haven’t uncovered all the mysteries of El Regalo and that’s one of them. We think it’s some sort of code.”

He suddenly seemed uncomfortable talking about his project, which was very odd considering it was his entire life right now. Penelope looked closer at him. Damon was wearing relaxed fit jeans and a worn t-shirt. It was the most casual she’d ever seen him looking. There was an intriguing glimpse of a tattoo peeking out of his neckline and at the bottom of the sleeve on his right arm. He didn’t look sloppy, but something about him gave a feel of exhaustion. There were dark circles under his eyes which hadn’t been there the last time she’d seen him. She frowned.

He looked from Colton to her and then down to their dinner plates. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt your evening…”

“You didn’t. We just finished dinner. How are the negotiations working at the University?”

“I’m not here to talk about that.” He brushed off the inquiry way too quickly. Penelope felt a chill of worry for him.

He turned to Colton who’d been standing off to the side watching them interact silently. He nodded back to Penelope before asking Colton, “I get the idea she’s glossing over how she’s really feeling, so will you tell me? How’s she really doing?”

Colton gave a grimace. “Definitely not as well as she likes to think, but she’s doing better.” He looked critically over Penelope. “She doesn’t look like she’s at the edge of death anymore.”

“You really know how to flatter a girl, don’t you, Colt?”

He smirked at her. “Only telling it like it is, sweetheart.” But then his face got serious and he growled low at her. “If she’d stay home from work like I suggested, she’d be feeling much better.”

Penelope stuck her tongue out at him. Arrogant man.

He just gave her a slow smile. “And then she’d be able to act her age and not have to give into the fact that she knows I’m right.”

Damon watched their by-play with interest, before he turned back to Penelope. “You need to take care of yourself. I’m holding you to your promise of taking me to that party Saturday night.”

“Aw, that’s right. I did promise to introduce you to some hot single ladies didn’t I?”

“That you did, so I need you to be at 100%, because you know if some hot young thing wants to take me home, I’ll look like a cad if you aren’t feeling better.” He waggled his eyebrows at her.

“Well, in that case, I promise not to get out of bed until Saturday night. We can’t have my infirmity interfering with your ability to get laid now, can we?”

Damon smiled at her, but the smile didn’t quite reach his eyes. “As long as your priorities are intact.” He glanced down at his watch and frowned. “I better go. I have an important call coming in about thirty minutes.”

He reached over and brushed the hair off Penelope’s forehead once again. “Get better, Penelope…oh, and stay away from crazy robbers wanting to throw you down the stairs.”

She grabbed his hand. “I will. I promise.” He started to pull away, but she didn’t let go.

Damon looked back at her questioningly and she could still see the shadows in his eyes so she gently asked, “Are you okay?” She didn’t like to see one of her friends hurting and she definitely had the feeling that Damon was hurting.

He gave a quick nod and headed toward the door. “Just perfect. As always.” He started to open the knob but had a second thought and turned back toward Colton. “Keep her safe,” Damon said, and then he left the apartment.

Colton locked the door behind Damon before turning back to Penelope. He looked at her curiously. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but I was under the impression that you two were dating.”

She gave a weary smile. “I know, right? He’s like my perfect guy. Oh my God, did you see that tat?” She gave Colton’s hard body a once-over. “You don’t have any tats hidden under there, do you, Colt?”

He frowned at her and rolled his eyes, ignoring her question. “Penelope, focus. We were talking about you and Damon.”

She waved a hand dismissively. “Oh yeah. There isn’t going to be any Damon and me. No chemistry.”

She was still looking at Colton, trying to imagine him with tattoos. It just didn’t fit his persona. She shook her head to clear it and then wished she hadn’t when a stab of pain shot out from her temple.

“Have you taken any pain pills lately?” Colton was already headed into the kitchen and picking up the bottle off the counter, which he brought to her with a bottle of water.

She reached up and took them from him, with a murmured, “Thanks.” As her fingertips brushed his, a tremor snaked up her arm. Yep, there was that chemistry she didn’t have with Damon. She glanced at Colton’s lips. Would kissing him elicit more of a response than Damon’s kiss had? This jittering, this moment of connection, this chemistry told her yes. As she watched his eyes darken, she knew he felt it too. Chemistry. Just why the hell did she have it with Colton, one of the most domineering, controlling, serious men she knew?

He growled into the phone. “What the fuck happened? How did she get hurt?”

“I’m sorry. She showed up and I panicked. No one was supposed to be there that early. You said it would be clear.”

“So you decided to hurt her? You could have ruined everything.”

“I didn’t mean for her to fall down the stairs. I was just trying to push her aside so I could get out of the building before she called the cops. She wasn’t supposed to fall, but I called an ambulance right away.”

“You called the ambulance? What phone did you use?”

“Don’t worry. I used the store phone so they wouldn’t be able to trace the call back to me.”

He rubbed his forehead in frustration. Incompetent idiots…every single one of them. They continued to screw this all up. He should have hired a professional for the retrieval. “Okay, I’ll take care of this. Just note for further operations, in no way, shape, or form is the owner of the bookstore supposed to get hurt. We need her. If something happens to her, you will pay with your life. Do you understand?”

“Ye…yes, boss.”  The voice that answered was shaky so he knew he’d made his point, but now he had to find another way to retrieve The Gift.

Colton sat up with a start and glanced around his darkened bedroom. What had awoken him? His heart was pounding, so he knew it wasn’t a natural thing. Then he heard it…a whimper coming from Penelope’s room. He flung the covers off and ran out of his room toward hers.