Operation: Endurance (When the Mission Ends) (34 page)

A starburst of black began to creep into the edge of her very limited vision. She couldn’t pass out again. Toni wasn’t proficient enough to take on Pete by herself. Struggling to pull herself off
the floor, Julie finally managed to locate the two combatants, not realizing that their struggle had already gone quiet.

She was right. Toni hadn’t been effective for long against Pete. He had her hands cuffed behind her back. She was completely limp as he picked her up, tossed her over his shoulder, and lugged her down the hall. Julie couldn’t tell if Toni was still conscious or not. With another swipe at the blood dripping into her eyes, she frantically searched the floor for her purse. She had no idea if Toni had gotten a call through or not, but they needed help.

Panic and adrenaline surged through her. She had to get them out of this and to do that she needed some sort of weapon. She was already too compromised physically to take him on.

His footsteps sounded on the floor just as she got a hand on her purse halfway under the couch. As he rounded the corner, she swung it by the strap toward his head. It hit and his grunt gave her hope, but it wasn’t enough as his full weight dropped on top of her. She twisted her hips and slammed her right knee and shin against his chest. A sudden pinch at her hip had her eyes opening wide to see the syringe sticking out of the side of her leg. The sight of Pete’s sad eyes and his chest heaving to catch his breath were the last things she saw as blackness pulled her down again.

* * *

Julie awoke in a darkened bedroom, naked, duct tape binding her wrists and ankles to the corner posts of the twin bed. From the feel of her head and mouth, the drug still lingered in her system. She listened but couldn’t hear any movement. The house was quiet. A shudder swept down her spine as she considered what happened. Judging from her position now, things weren’t going to get any better. A ball of dread settled in her stomach.

She pulled at her bonds, but there wasn’t any give to be found there. She shivered.

“I’m sorry. Are you cold?” His low voice asked from the dark corner of the room. She hadn’t seen him sitting there.

“Pete?” Her voice cracked. “What’s going on?”

He stepped into the light. “It’s okay, Jocelyn. The pain is almost over.” He smiled at her, his eyes completely blank. This was not the man who she’d called her friend for the past year. He’d stripped off his shirt and Julie was surprised to see how much weight he’d lost in such a short
time. Along his torso were bruises from their struggle along with dried blood. A lot of dried blood. She had no idea who it belonged to.

She needed to keep him talking. “Who’s Jocelyn, Pete?”

He gave a small vacant smile as he reached over to grab a marker off the table. The table was full of various instruments including a couple more syringes. This was not good.

“She was perfection. I loved her and she loved me.” He walked up to her bound hand, opened the palm of it, and began to draw on it.

“What are you doing?”

“Giving you my heart, of course. You know this. I always give you my heart so that you can hold it in your hand when I’m not with you,
Joc.”

“Pete, I’m not Jocelyn.”

He frowned at her for a moment, confusion clouding his eyes. Then they cleared and he smiled. “No, you’re Julie. My thirteenth special one. Thirteen for how many years Jocelyn lived before they killed her. You’re the last. I’ll fix your sadness and then I’ll be free to finally join her in death. We’ll be together like it was always meant to be. My sweet Jocelyn.”

His eyes had gone vacant again as he stroked her hair softly. Then he went to the other side of the bed to draw with the marker on her other hand. She had to get him to snap out of this. Her stomach roiled. She couldn’t get sick now. She had to stay in control if she had any hope of escaping.

“How did Jocelyn die, Pete?”

He had been humming as he wrote on her hand, but now he frowned at the wall. “They killed her. I was mad at her. I was stupid. It was all my fault. She wouldn’t have sex with me so I made her leave. I wouldn’t give her a ride home and she had to walk. They attacked her when she was walking home. They made her have sex with them. They hurt her. They tortured her, mutilated her, and then they killed her. I know it made her sad to die that way,” he turned his focus on her, “just like you’re sad. I’m going to fix that now, though. By taking away your sadness, she’ll be free to be happy again. All of this pain will be over for all of us and I’ll be able to be with sweet Jocelyn again.” The tears rolled down his face as he talked.

It was hard to tell for sure if any of what he was saying was real or if it was something related to some sort of childhood trauma. She knew how childhood trauma could mess with your mind. Somehow she had to get him to see the reality of the situation in the here and now.

“Pete, listen to me. I’m Julie and I’m not sad anymore. You’ve met Chris, right? Remember Chris? He’s makes me very happy. And remember Toni. She makes you happy, right?”

He glanced over at the doorway. “Yeah, I remember. It was all just a ruse, so no one would know.” He looked back at her, his eyes hardening with resolve. “You were the goal all along. The neighbor almost fucked it up, but you’re here with me now. This is the way it has to be. You’re perfect number thirteen. It’s okay. We’ll die together and then there won’t be any pain any longer for either one of us.”

She was trapped here and he planned to kill her. She couldn’t let that happen, not when she finally had something worth living for. Having her die like this would kill Chris. She thrashed on the bed, trying to get the tape to loosen, but there just wasn’t any give in it. She arched her back, determined to get free, even if it meant ripping her fucking hands off.

The bed dipped in between her legs and she stilled in panic. Pete loomed over her. While she’d been trying to pull herself free, he’d stripped off his jeans and was now naked and aroused. Oh God, no. He was going to rape her first. He leaned over her and she could feel his hot breath on her bare skin as he touched her breast.

“No!” she screamed as she tried to get away, but there was no way to escape. No, this couldn’t happen to her. No! “Pete, please don’t do this. Please don’t. We’ll get you some help. Something’s just gotten messed up in your head. Please don’t do this. This isn’t you. This isn’t what you want to do.”

His eyes had gone vacant again as he stroked her nude form. “I never got to consummate my love with you, Jocelyn, and that’s why you died. I’ll fix that now and then everything will be right so we can die in peace.”

He was hard against her and she shut her eyes, trying to shut out what was happening here. She needed to make a list, a list of reasons why this wasn’t happening. Her breath came in panicked gasps and she couldn’t hear anything over the pulse pounding in her head. With her eyes closed, she couldn’t even come up with a list. All she could see in her head was Chris. She needed her last thoughts to be of Chris, not this. Please, not this.

* * *

As Chris pulled onto the street where Pete lived, he panicked. “Colton, that’s Julie’s car in Pete’s driveway.”

Colton grimly nodded. “But Toni’s is here, too.” He gestured toward her car on the street. “They’re probably both fine. Like Brian said, this is probably just some gang ruse to frame a cop.”

As Chris parked the truck behind Julie’s car, they both shot out of it and trotted up to the front door. Chris was raising his hand to knock when a muffled scream and, “No!” came from inside the house.

“That was Julie!”

* * *

A cacophonous explosion sounded across the room and Pete fell on top of Julie. It took a moment to realize he was dead weight. She couldn’t even feel him breathing, just the quickly pooling puddle of hot blood flowing from him. Julie’s gaze darted to the doorway where Toni stood holding the gun that just fired. She still had a handcuff attached to her right wrist and the hold on the gun was shaky as she stood, staring in shock.

“Toni,” Julie said very quietly, not wanting to startle her. “It’s okay, honey. Set the gun down before you drop it.” From the amount of blood spreading across Pete’s back and the bed, if he wasn’t already dead, then he was going to be soon. “He’s not moving. Put the gun down and please come get him off me.”

Footsteps pounded as Chris came barreling into the room, his eyes wild with panic. That didn’t ease when he spotted Julie tied naked on the bed with an equally naked and shot Pete lying on top of her.

She’d never been so happy to see anyone in her life. “Chris,” she gasped, her breathing becoming more erratic.

He rushed over to her and yanked Pete’s lifeless form off her. Dropping him to the floor, Chris began ripping at the bindings on her ankles. His hands were shaking when he reached up to free her wrist. As the second wrist became loose, Colton draped a blanket over her.

Spots danced in front of her eyes as Chris pulled her up into his embrace. “
Shh, relax Butterfly. You’re hyperventilating. It’s okay. It’s all over now.” The room had become an explosion of activity, but Julie couldn’t focus on any of it. For a single moment, her eyes met Toni’s bleak ones across the room and then the world faded to black.

Chris pulled himself into the driver’s side of the cab of his truck and looked over at Julie’s pale face, illuminated by the soft glow of the hospital parking lot lights. The harsh dark bruise on her head stood in stark contrast to the extremely pale hue of her skin and the edge of stitches. She wouldn’t meet his eyes.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to call Cassie or Penelope?”

She wrapped her arms around her waist as she shook her head. “No, I don’t want them to know about this.”

“Julie, they’d want to be here to help.” She’d hardly said two words to him since she’d regained consciousness. He didn’t want to think about what that might mean. She seemed so fragile and if she wouldn’t talk to him, then she needed someone here that she could talk to.

“No!” She looked up at him with fierce determined eyes. “I don’t want you to say a word about this to them. They both have too much on their plates already and don’t need any more worries right now.” Her voice softened. “Please, Chris. Please don’t tell them about this. I know they’ll find out eventually, but not tonight. I just don’t want to deal with anyone else right now.” Her eyes filled with tears as she looked out the window.

He blew out a frustrated breath. “Okay, for tonight I’ll agree, but only for tonight.”

She started to tremble in reaction to either the stress of the night or the thought of going home.

He reached into the back seat to grab his sweatshirt and motioned to the center of the bench seat. “Come here and put this on.”

He wrapped his arm around her and tucked her under his chin trying to shield her from the world. “Do you want to go to your house or would you rather stay at my place for tonight? Or if you want, we could even go to a hotel. Whatever you need to feel safe right now, we can do. Just tell me what I can do.”

He could feel her shivering and her voice cracked as she spoke. “Thanks, but can we take the long way home? I’m not ready to be there yet.”

“Sure.”

As they drove, the country music playing through his speakers lilted softly in the darkened car. Slowly she began to relax. The stress of the day paired with the movement of the truck made for a good sedative. As they drove in circles around Lubbock, Chris thought about the awful events of the day.

The bastard would never have a chance to touch Julie again. He’d died instantly from the bullet Toni shot at him. Thank God, because that saved Chris from serving a prison sentence for killing him. He laid a soft kiss on top of her head. She was asleep and now she was safe. He needed to keep her that way forever.

Finally, Chris couldn’t drive any longer. Exhaustion pulled at him. He parked his truck in front of his house and brushed the soft hair across Julie’s forehead. Another few minutes and it could have been a very different result to the day. As it was, he wasn’t sure what the extent of the trauma was on Julie. He had no idea if Pete had time to consummate the rape part of his attack. He hadn’t been allowed in the room while they examined her in the hospital. A chill swept over him. If he had, they’d deal with it.

“Butterfly,” he swept a kiss across her forehead, “we’re home. Let’s go inside and get you to bed.”

“Chris?” Her voice was thick and groggy with sleep as she reached for him. A moment later though, her eyes widened with fright as the memories of the day crashed down on her.

“Shh, it’s okay. You’re safe now. Come on. Let’s go inside.”

He ushered her into his house, but she paused at the doorway to his bedroom. She glanced around the room frantically.

Chris rubbed up and down her back, feeling helpless because he didn’t know what to do to help her.

Turning toward him, she whispered. “I’m so cold, but I need to be clean.” Her voice hitched. “Please can we take a shower?”

She said we. That was a good sign, right? “Absolutely, Butterfly. Anything you need.”

In the bathroom, he turned on the water in the shower to as warm as he thought she could take it and then gently helped her undress. She continued to quake. He knew a lot of it was a result of the aftereffects of adrenaline and pain.