Operation: Endeavor (When The Mission Ends) (13 page)

All three of them dissolved once again into peals of laughter. He gave Chris a wry look. “I’m not sure I want to know what they’re talking about. It may not be safe for us to be here.”

Chris grinned. “I don’t know. It may be fun to just join them.” He looked at Penelope again before he muttered to Colton, “I hope she’s not still taking pain-killers.”

Colton shook his head, “She’s not, but she’s probably going to want them again in the morning.”

Cassie got herself under control first and then she glared at the other two girls. “Hey, those are my brothers. No objectifying allowed.”

“Well, where’s the fun in that?” Julie started pouting as she looked longingly back toward the brothers.

Penelope just stuck her tongue out at Cassie, before adding, “Right. Just because you don’t think they’re sexy, doesn’t mean we don’t. Seriously, look at them.” Penelope waved a hand over at the two guys still in the doorway. All three girls turned to study them like they were measuring their dicks through their clothing.

Chris whispered under his breath, “You may be right. Maybe we should go somewhere else.”

“Pshaw,” Penelope said as she struggled to raise herself from the couch. She drunkenly stumbled over to the guys and then turned back to the girls and glared at them. “Stop it,” she looked specifically at Julie. Then she turned back toward Chris like she was approaching a wild animal. “Don’t let us scare you away.” She started pulling Chris into the room. “Come on in. We can share our wine or there’s beer in the fridge.”

Chris looked toward Colton entreatingly. Colt finally took pity on him. “Let’s just grab a beer and move to my bedroom. I have a couple of chairs in there and we can sit and talk.” At Chris’s nod, Colton strode to the fridge to grab the beers.

When Colton turned from the fridge, Penelope was right there. He inhaled her honeysuckle scent which went straight to his cock. “You aren’t still mad at me, are you?”

She shook her head. “Un huh.” She stepped forward so she was mere inches away from his chest.

He looked at her warily as he spoke softly. “Pen, what are you doing?”

She reached up and laid her palm on the flat of his abs and flexed her hand. She stepped forward another step so he could feel the heat coming off her body. “Me? You want to know what I’m doing?”

He nodded his head silently. Suddenly his throat was completely dry. His heart felt like it was pounding out of his chest. She had to be able to feel that under her fingertips.

She took the final step that put her body flush up against his. She leaned up and very slowly licked him along his neck right under his ear before she grabbed his lobe with her teeth. He shuddered.

“I’m just letting you know what you’re missing out on,” she seductively whispered into his ear. Then she turned and walked right back into the living room, drinking her wine, and swinging her hips as she went.

Colton had lost the ability to think. All the blood in his body had gone south. He couldn’t think of a time that he’d ever been this hard in his life. He closed his eyes and tried to gain control of his body when he heard a loud, “Ahem.”

His eyes flew open and locked with Chris’s. The bastard was smirking at him.

“Shut up,” Colton said.

“I didn’t say a word.”

He growled. “And if you want to keep walking, that’s the way you’ll leave it.” He grabbed the two bottles of beer and strode down the hall ignoring the curious glances from everyone but Penelope who ignored him completely.

* * *

Colton watched Chris crutch his way into the bedroom. He waved his hand at the other leather club chair seated beside the one he was already sitting in. “Have a seat.”

His rock-hard cock was strangling against the pressure of the zipper of his jeans. He took a long drag of his beer while he tried to get his body under control. This wasn’t the way he wanted to go into this discussion with Chris. The only good news was that little reverie between the two of them had obviously amused Chris. Instead of his normal scowl, Chris’s eyes were alight with humor. The bastard was laughing at him.

Trying to control his smile, Chris asked, “Do you want to talk about it?”

Colton practically growled. “No.” He ran a hand through his hair in frustration and closed his eyes trying to find his ability to concentrate. “No, that’s definitely not why I brought you here.” He sighed deeply and grimaced. “Sorry, this isn’t how I wanted to start this conversation.”

Chris shook his head. “No problem.” He lifted his bottle to his lips. “As long as you have more of these, we can hang out all night while you figure out what the hell you want to talk about.”

“We have plenty. No problem there and I know exactly what I want to talk to you about.” Colton took a deep breath. He hoped Chris accepted this idea for what it was, an opportunity for all three of them, and didn’t fly off the handle. “I have a plan for a business and I want you to become a partner in it.”

“Okay, I’m listening.”

“We’d be equal partners: You, Jake, and me. I want us to start a flight business running a jump school and chartering service. There’s more…” Colton took a deep sigh and watched Chris closely trying to judge how he was reacting to the idea. “We already have leads on a couple of planes that would work for the business and we might have access to one other one, depending…” Colton took another deep breath.

“Just spit it out, Colt. What else?”

“I have an in on a Homeland Security contract to fly one of the C-27’s. If we won the contract, we would have access to one of those planes to run missions for them.” Chris paled as Colton watched him. “To do any of this, we have to have two pilots…you and me.”

“Just how long have you been planning this? It sounds like you’ve put a lot of thought into it already. Why didn’t you mention it earlier?”

Chris’s knuckles were white as he grasped the arms of the chair. Colton knew this wouldn’t be easy for him, but he had full confidence that Chris could do this. “I wanted to make sure Jake was in and I didn’t want to get your hopes up if it wasn’t going to happen.”

“Fuck, I’m not six years old anymore, Colton. I can handle more than a little bit of disappointment in my life, if you haven’t noticed. You need to stop trying to protect me or else we won’t be able to work together. You’re not my dad, no matter what the circumstances were as we grew up.”

Colton flinched, but tried not to let it show. “I realize that, but I’m still your older brother. I can’t help wanting to protect you. You’ve had to deal with way more than most over the last year. You can’t blame me for wanting to keep as much bad stuff away as I can. But that does bring us back to that bad stuff. If we’re gonna do this, I need you there 100%. Do you think you can run missions again?”

Chris rubbed a hand over his face. When he spoke his voice was very low. “I don’t know Colt. God, I want to fly again, but I just don’t know. I haven’t been in a cockpit since the crash. What kind of missions is Homeland Security running from Lubbock, Texas?”

“Obviously, I don’t know exactly since that’s classified, but I’m hearing rumblings about human trafficking as well as the normal drug issues between here and Mexico and South America. I can only assume it has to do with those. It will take a while to get everything set up and going, but to move forward, I need to know that you’ll be able to fly, both mentally and physically, in three months.” Colton watched him closely.

“Damn, Colt.” Chris looked up at him with desolation in his eyes. He spoke quietly. “I don’t know.” His voice broke. “I just don’t know.”

“Okay, that’s fair. The next question is, do you want to be? Do want to be a part of this? A partner in the company?”

“Of course, but…”

“No, there is no but to this. Chris what happened to you was awful, but it’s time for you to get past it and to do that, you’re going to have to work at it…both mentally and physically. For us to move forward with this, I need your promise that you’ll do that.”

Chris closed his eyes and looked pained, but when he opened them back up to look at Colton, he firmed his jaw and threw back his shoulders. “Okay, you have a deal. I promise I’ll be ready.”

“In that case,” Colton reached over to shake his hand, “welcome to Mad Rob.”

“Mad Rob?”

“Yep, that’s the name of our new company. Mad for Madsen; Rob for Robertson. Mad Rob, it was Penelope’s idea.”

Chris grinned at him. “I should have guessed. So, now are you ready to talk about what’s happening between you and the beautiful Miss Penelope?”

“No.” Colton said through clenched teeth.

Colton looked around the interior of the VW Bus uncomfortably. He was on-edge tonight and couldn’t pinpoint why. He just had a crawling feeling in his gut. It was the same kind of feeling he got when things were about to go bad on a mission. But as he peered around the interior of the Bus, he admitted to himself that it could simply be because he was so far out of his comfort zone. He should have ridden his motorcycle to this party.

Six months ago, he’d been commanding troops in a warzone and now he was riding around town in a VW Bus like a damn hippy. There was even a flower vase next to the steering wheel. How had he sunk so far so quickly?

He scowled toward the front seat where Penelope sat with Damon. The bird tattoo rose tantalizingly over the edge of her shirt. She wore some gauzy concoction that slid off her shoulders to rest at the tops of her arms. It left her shoulders deliciously bare and he wanted to take advantage of that and explore exactly where those birds flew over the rest of her body.

She was definitely the gypsy leader of this bunch. He scowled again as she laughed at something Damon said and reached over to touch his arm softly while they spoke. She needed to keep both her damn hands on the wheel if she wanted to drive.

He rubbed the back of his neck in irritation. He looked around again trying to pinpoint the source of this itchy feeling. As he did so, he realized the twins were watching him with matching looks of humor. It was eerie, and damn irritating, how alike they could look sometimes. “What?” he growled at them.

Cassie was the one who responded. “Why are you so grumpy tonight? We’re going to a party. You should be having fun.”

He shrugged and frowned again at the front seat. “I don’t know. Something just feels off.”

At this statement, Chris sat up and looked at him sharply. “Off, how?”

Colton growled. “I don’t know. If I knew that I would fix it.” He looked around again at their surroundings as they drove into Aaron’s neighborhood and then looked back at Chris. “Just stay sharp. Something doesn’t feel quite right.”

When they arrived at Aaron’s house, everyone piled out of the Bus. Chris and Colton were the last to get out and they walked toward the front door together. Colton once again rubbed the back of his neck. It felt like they were being watched but as he glanced around he couldn’t see anything out of place.

Chris looked around the quiet suburban neighborhood. “You feel it too?”

Colton gave a sharp nod. “Someone’s watching us.” He glanced down the street, but with the party, there were cars everywhere. There was no way to tell if there was a car there that didn’t belong. “Do you see anything?”

Chris shook his head. 

They were at the front door and Colton gave one final glance down the street before he entered and gave Julie a hug. “Happy Birthday, Julie.”

Julie was the tiniest of the threesome that made up Julie, Cassie, and Penelope. She barely even came to his ribs when he hugged her. Her diminutive size was emphasized by her dark pixie-cut hair and expressive hazel eyes. Right now they expressed pure joy and Colton was pretty sure a lot of that reason was standing right behind her. He reached over and extended his hand to the man. “Hey, Aaron. How’s orthopedics treating you lately?”

“Hey, Colton. I can’t complain.” He turned to Chris. “How’s the knee working for you?”

“Overall, it’s pretty good. It’s still a bit stiff, but coming along.”

Aaron looked at him sharply. “Are you doing your PT exercises? Maybe you should schedule some extra sessions with Julie?” He reached around Julie’s waist and tugged her to him.

Colton watched as a flush of red spread up Chris’s neck as he clenched his jaw. “Naw, my regular physical therapist is working just fine,” he said gruffly and peered out over the living room.

Chris avoided her gaze so he missed the flash of hurt that crossed Julie’s eyes. When she realized Colton watched her, she gave a little shrug of embarrassment. Curious.

“Thank y’all for coming. Aaron’s outdone himself. There’s a ton of food and drinks in the kitchen. Please feel free to help yourselves,” Julie said.

Chris crutched off in that direction without another word, so Colton turned back to their hosts. “Sorry about that. He’s still a little touchy about it all.”

Julie’s eyes were filled with sorrow as she watched Chris’s back. “Don’t worry about it Colton. We’re all friends here, but if he ever needs my help, I’m here. I can come by Cassie’s house to work with him if that would be easier.”

“Thanks, Julie. I’ll keep that in mind. Right now, I should probably catch up with him before he offends someone else.”