Free Operation: Endgame by Christi Snow

wouldn’t come to this. She’d hoped she could tell Colton and Jake after the fact, when the guy was caught and put away. Her guys were much too protective of her on a normal day, never mind when there may actually be a real danger. But looking at Jake’s rigid stance, Cassie knew she wouldn’t be able to avoid this discussion.
    She took a deep breath. “Honestly, I’m not exactly sure how long it’s been going on. At first, it was simple little things like hang-ups from unlisted numbers on my phones, but you know; those still may not be related. It seems like I had those all through the summer, both here and even when I was in Europe. Once school started back up in August, there were little things….footsteps outside my office on the weekends, but no one was there. I had vague feelings I was being watched, but I wasn’t getting much sleep. Finally around the end of September, early October, I went to see a therapist thinking I was suffering from paranoia. My therapist gave me some sleeping medication, but suggested I confide in some friends,” Cassie nodded and smiled at the girls, “to see if they saw anything suspicious happening around me. It was weird, because almost immediately, the stalker stepped things up so there was no doubt what was happening.”
    Jake frowned at her. “How did he step things up?”
    “I’ve received several notes, both here and at the office. I even got one at a hotel once when I was out of town for a conference. One made it into my briefcase during class, although I don’t know how long it was there to try to pinpoint who could have placed it there. The black roses started a couple of weeks ago. The initial delivery was a bouquet left in my locked office while Derek and I were both out. Then there have been a couple of singles left in various places…on the hood of my Toyota FJ, on the lectern of the lecture hall. He’s definitely getting braver and coming closer to me with every delivery.”
    Jake looked over at Brian. “Do you have any clues as to who could be doing this?”
    Brian shook his head. “It’s someone familiar with the videogame she worked on, because he signs his notes as Bernard Kleptofine or BK which is the villain’s name in the game. It’s a tremendously popular videogame though, so that doesn’t narrow things down much. Other than that, he doesn’t leave us any clues…no fingerprints, no DNA. Obviously, it’s someone who can get close to her without arousing suspicion, but on a University campus with over 30,000 students, that isn’t giving us much to go on. He appears to know her schedule very well and that worries me.”
    “Okay, so you have no idea who this guy is. What are you doing to protect Cassie?”
    Brian shook his head, “Everything’s been benign so far. He hasn’t even made an actual threat, much less attempted an assault, and until that happens, we can’t do much besides send a squad car down her street more often than normal to keep an eye on things.”
    Jake looked at him in disbelief. “That’s bullshit, Brian. Are you saying you can’t do a damn thing until he actually tries to hurt her?”
    “I’m sorry, Jake, I really am, but this is a college town and young guys tend to lose their heads when it comes to females. If we provided protection for every stalker case, we would have to quadruple our force and still wouldn’t have enough manpower to handle any other type of case. Unfortunately, this is the way it is. That’s why it’s important for Miss Robertson to stay diligent in her own security.”
    Jake growled in frustration then ran a hand through his hair while looking at Cassie. “Well, darling, I do believe you’ve just gotten yourself a live-in bodyguard. I’ll put my stuff in the guest room.”
    Cassie looked at him in disbelief. “But…” she stuttered, although he was already out the door to get his stuff out of his truck. What the hell? She had hardly spoken to Jake in six months, and now he was moving