Ready

by Lucy Monroe

  He was a puzzle she could not afford to get caught up in.

  He had said before that he didn’t do sex on the job and maybe that rule explained his coming to his senses before they did the deed.

  Regardless of his reasons, she should be grateful for his withdrawal, not feeling this aching void in the core of her being and a terrible temptation to go find his bed since he’d refused to share hers.

  Dusk shrouded the landing strip in shadows as Joshua landed his plane at the small municipal airport outside of Seattle.

  Although the touchdown was smooth, Lise’s stomach sank with the final decrease in altitude. She’d eaten a small breakfast and nonexistent lunch. Fatigue always affected her appetite, but this time it was more than lack of sleep that left her feeling blechy. It was the knowledge that they were at the end of their journey.

  The jet engines cut off, surrounding them in absolute silence. She and Joshua hadn’t talked for pretty much the entire trip, although he had invited her to sit in the cockpit with him. It had been interesting, but each mile closer to Seattle had increased her sense of oppression.

  “Traffic is going to be terrible getting back into Seattle this time of night,” she said, so she wouldn’t have to focus on what was really bothering her.

  Returning to her stalker’s orbit.

  Joshua shrugged as he pushed open the plane’s door, then lowered the stairway. “We can have dinner before going back into the city. If the traffic is still ugly, we’ll survive it.”

  “Do we have to go back to the apartment tonight?” she asked.

  One more night away wouldn’t make a huge difference, would it? She cringed inside at the spineless thought.

  “Let’s talk to Nitro and Hotwire and hear what they found out before we make any major decisions.”

  Knowing Joshua realized she didn’t want to go home made her determined not to give in to her emotional weakness.

  Besides, she had a book to finish. The delivery deadline she’d told Bella about had been real, just not unexpected. However, because her concentration had been off, Lise was behind her writing schedule and knew it would take a lot of work to get the book done on time.

  “I should get back to work.”

  He didn’t say anything, but put his hand out to help her down the steps.

  A man with blond hair and blue eyes, but looking every bit as intimidating as Joshua ever did, waited on the tarmac at the bottom of the stairs. Hotwire. She remembered from the brief meeting before her and Joshua’s flight to Texas.

  He stuck his hand out to grab one of the bags from Joshua. “Hello, Miz Barton. It’s a pleasure to see you again.”

  Hot Georgia honey rolled off his tongue, and she couldn’t help smiling at him as she let him guide her down the last couple of steps.

  “Where’s Nitro?” Joshua asked as he took her arm, putting his body between her and Hotwire.

  The look he was giving his friend was pure possessive male and totally confusing after his rejection the night before. He was acting like a stallion protecting his mare from a rival.

  How ridiculous was that? Not only did Joshua have no claim on her, but there wasn’t so much as a tiny test tube of sexual chemistry between her and the fair man. Unlike the explosion of combustible chemicals that erupted between her and Joshua whenever they got within three feet of each other.

  Hotwire waited to answer Joshua until they’d closed up the plane and started walking across the tarmac toward the parked cars. “Nitro’s keeping the apartment under surveillance. We’re hoping to lure the perp into showing himself while Miz Barton here is still gone.”

  “Why would he do that?” Lise asked, momentarily distracted from Joshua’s perplexing behavior.

  They’d reached the rental car and Hotwire pressed the remote unlock button. “We sent a few false signals on his bug, indicators that the electronics were breaking down. Then we cut the transmission completely this morning.”

  “You think he’ll believe it’s broken and try to break into my apartment to fix it?”

  “That’s what we’re hoping.”

  It couldn’t be that simple, could it? Lise thought what it would mean to her to identify the stalker and felt chills go up and down her arms at the prospect.

  Joshua opened the back door on the passenger side, indicating she should get inside. She did, but had to suck in air when he leaned across her to lock the safety belt in place.

  He stopped when his face was directly in front of hers. “Comfortable?”

  “Um…yes.”

  He nodded and stepped back, allowing her to breathe normally again.

  “So, what did you find in the apartment?” he asked Hotwire as the two men got in the front seat.

  Hotwire whistled softly and started the car. “This guy knows his electronics, but he’s not using high-end stuff. My guess is he doesn’t have the financial resources for professional equipment. He’s made modifications to amateur spy tech items that indicate he’s got a pretty good understanding of what he’s doing.”

  “What kind of spy stuff?” Lise asked from the back seat.

  Hotwire met her eyes in the rearview mirror, his expression as dark as Joshua’s eyes. “He had a transmitter inside your desktop computer. One of the pens in your pen cup had a transmitter as well, but the battery was dead, so we don’t know how long it has been there. One of your stereo speakers has a minicam transmitter—”

  “He could see me?” she interrupted, even more freaked by the reality than she had been when Joshua had mentioned it was a possibility in Texas.

  “Yes, but only when you were in certain parts of the living room.”

  Thinking about the direction her speakers faced, she knew exactly which parts. Her maple rocker was one of them, the place she spent most of her relax time. A knot formed in her stomach and squeezed.

  “What else?” Joshua asked, as if what Hotwire had said hadn’t been enough.

  Hotwire flicked a glance at Joshua before looking back at the road. “Her car has a sound and position transmitter in the antennae. It isn’t satellite connected, but he can follow her within a two-mile radius and she would never know it.”

  The whole trip from Texas to Seattle, Nemesis had been following her.

  He’d known exactly where she was at all times.

  Thinking of some of the small hotels she’d stayed at, the long stretches of deserted highways she’d driven, and the falseness of her sense of security in her anonymity made her stomach churn around the painful knot.

  Bile came up in her throat and she forced it back down. “Hotwire, could you please stop the car?”

  They came to a sudden but smooth halt beside the road. She unbuckled her seat belt, shoved the door open and jumped from the car. She sucked in air and tried not to give in to the sick sensation, but image after disturbing image flashed through her mind, making it almost impossible not to throw up.

  Suddenly Joshua was there, wrapping his big arms around her, pulling her into the heat of his body. “It’s going to be okay, Lise. Relax.”

  “He followed me…the whole time I thought I was safe, by myself. He was there, tracking me, knowing where I was every second of every day.”

  Joshua turned her body and she buried her face in his chest, inhaling his scent and letting the strength of his body infuse her own.

  “I know…shh…I know…”

  She believed him. Even though she could not imagine Joshua Watt afraid of anything, she believed that he understood her fear and empathized with it.

  The nausea finally passed, but she nestled against Joshua, unwilling to give up the haven of his arms.

  “Is she all right?” Hotwire asked.

  Joshua pulled away and looked down at her questioningly.

  “I’ll be fine.”

  “You sure?”

  She nodded. She turned to Hotwire. “Sorry about that. I shouldn’t let it get to me.”

  The blond man looked at her like he was measuring her mettle and then
his mouth creased into a smile. “You’ll do.”

  For some reason that made Joshua frown, but he kept his arm around her as he led her back to the car. Hotwire pulled out onto the road before Joshua spoke again.

  “So, you didn’t find anything that couldn’t have been planted when he broke into her apartment in Houston?”

  “Right.”

  “I haven’t noticed anything out of place.” She had assumed that had meant Nemesis had not broken into her current home, but now she wasn’t willing to make such naïve speculations. “You don’t think he’s been in my current apartment?”

  “No, ma’am, I don’t.”

  She didn’t know why that made her feel so much better, but it did. “Call me Lise.”

  “All right, Lise.” He drawled her name, making it sound like it had six syllables.

  She giggled at his Southern silliness.

  “Was anything traceable?” Joshua asked shortly.

  “No.” Hotwire turned the car into a restaurant parking lot. “The perp bought the kind of stuff they sell on dot-com sites for spyware. There’s too much of it out there to trace an individual purchase.”

  “What was the range on the audio transmitters?”

  “Two miles. He stuck with the same family of gadgets.”

  Joshua frowned, making no move to get out of the car. “Too bad.”

  “Why?” Lise asked.

  “His base could be anywhere within a two-mile radius of your apartment.”

  “And there are a lot of apartment complexes and neighborhoods around your building,” the blond man added. “He could be living pretty much anywhere.”

  Joshua unbuckled his seat belt and turned in toward her. “One good thing is that with all the domiciles around you, it would be really hard for the perp to use an ear-dish.”

  “What on earth is that?”

  “It looks like a mini-satellite dish, but it’s used to detect sound. Some have a range of more than one mile. However, in an area like your neighborhood, it is virtually impossible for the perp to lock in on your apartment without getting a lot closer.”

  “And people would notice someone in the street pointing a satellite dish,” she surmised.

  “In most cases, yes, but if he has a van that he’s made up to look like a technician’s vehicle, maybe not. We’d notice, though.”

  She presumed he meant Hotwire, Nitro, and himself.

  She sighed, realizing they were discussing the type of equipment that often made it into her books. “I don’t know why I didn’t think of that.”

  “No reason you should have.”

  “I write adventure fiction. While my heroines are more familiar with an AK-47 than a listening device, it still should have occurred to me.”

  Joshua just shook his head.

  Hotwire smiled and she figured he had women following him around like puppies after bacon with the kind of charm he exuded. Even if he was intimidating and dangerous in turn.

  “You’re a good writer.”

  She felt her eyes widen with surprise that he’d read her work. “Thank you. Did you read my books when you were at the apartment?”

  “No, ma’am…I mean, Lise, we were too busy doing the bug sweep before you got back.”

  “Then how…”

  “Both me and Nitro read your books when Wolf is done with them.”

  “Who’s Wolf?”

  “I am,” Joshua growled.

  Chapter 5

  She had no problem imagining how Joshua had gotten such a nickname. The man was pure predator at times.

  “You read my books…all of them?”

  His jaw went taut and she could tell he didn’t like having that fact revealed. “Anything recent.”

  She didn’t know how to take that. She wouldn’t think there’d be a lot of time to read in his line of work, but maybe she was wrong. “I guess you enjoyed them?”

  “Yes. I liked them a lot.”

  His praise warmed places left cold by Hotwire’s revelations and she smiled. “Thank you.”

  He shrugged. “It’s the truth. So, you haven’t totally cleared the apartment?” he asked Hotwire, effectively changing the subject.

  “No. We left her car transmitter intact. The sound transmitter in her computer is now broken and we’ve rigged the video transmitter to send a constant picture of her empty apartment. Nitro and I made sure no one could be aware that we’ve been inside her apartment.”

  Joshua inclined his head in acknowledgement. “We’ll have to take the jury-rig off once she’s home.”

  “You’re going to leave the minicam in?” she asked.

  “If it conveniently breaks, too, there’s a good chance he’ll figure out you’ve got professional help and he’ll become a lot more cautious.”

  She hated the idea of the stalker seeing her, even in brief glimpses when she was in the line of the camera, but she was willing to put up with it if it meant catching him.

  “So, you don’t think he’ll break in while I’m gone right now?” she asked Joshua.

  He shook his head. “Too risky. He doesn’t know when you’re coming back and you left your car behind, so he has no way of tracking your arrival. Everything about his behavior so far indicates that he plans his actions carefully.”

  She had to agree, but it was still very disappointing.

  “If he doesn’t try today,” Hotwire said, his tone encouraging, “we’ll keep your apartment under surveillance when you go grocery shopping and do other things that take you out of the building.”

  “He’ll know where I am,” she said, thinking of the transmitter they’d left on her car.

  “Which is all the better because he’ll be confident you aren’t anywhere near home.”

  She nodded.

  Hotwire eyed Joshua. “Right…if you’re hanging around, Wolf, ain’t no way he’s coming near.”

  “I’m not leaving Lise alone.”

  “Didn’t think you would, buddy, but you’re going to have to be covert when she leaves the apartment and you have to stay out of the line of sight of the minicam at all times.”

  Joshua just stared and Hotwire smiled, though it didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Guess I don’t have to tell you that.”

  “Are you and Nitro going home, then?” she asked.

  Hotwire shook his head. “We rented an apartment in your building.”

  “Did you check the other vacancies?”

  “No sign of unauthorized use.”

  “And the other tenants?”

  “Only three have taken apartments since Lise moved in and none of them fit our perp’s parameters.”

  Joshua dropped Lise off at her apartment, walking her inside but leaving when she got on the elevator. Although she knew he would come to her apartment later, an immediate sense of isolation overwhelmed her with the shutting of the elevator doors.

  A dark, silent shadow separated from the wall when she let herself in and she could only be grateful Hotwire had told her Nitro would be there. Otherwise her heart would have climbed right up her throat.

  However, not being surprised by his presence was a far cry from being prepared to meet the man again…particularly on her own.

  He was taller than both Joshua and Hotwire, and had the classic bone structure, long black hair, and unreadable expression of an ancient Apache warrior.

  She shivered even as she stuck her hand out toward him. “Hi, Nitro. Joshua said you would be here.”

  He didn’t smile and she got the distinct impression he didn’t do it very often, but he did shake her hand.

  “Thank you for helping me,” she said, her voice a lot lower than she’d intended.

  “Wolf asked.” He released her hand and stepped back. “I’ll switch the camera back to live feed.” He turned without another word and left her standing in the hall, feeling a little disoriented.

  For the next hour, he silently worked at her computer out of the line of vision of the minicam in her stereo speaker.

 
; She puttered around, made a cup of tea, and then took it into the living room. Flipping on the television, she curled up in her rocker, trying very hard not to show the discomfort she felt knowing that her seat could be seen via her stalker’s minicam transmitter.

  An hour later, Joshua arrived and she wanted to jump up and greet him, but she was supposed to be alone. She’d actually missed his presence, which was both foolish and pathetic. She could almost be grateful that she was being watched so she didn’t reveal her idiocy.

  She continued watching her show while Joshua and Nitro had a low-decibel consultation by her computer. The show ended five minutes later and she picked up her tea things to take into the kitchen. Walking to the sink, relief that she was no longer on candid camera released tension in her muscles she hadn’t even realized was there.

  “Nitro said you did a good job of pretending to be alone.”

  She turned from dropping the cup in the sink to face Joshua and had to suck in air from the impact. He was gorgeous, everything a man should be. It would be easier on her if there was some sort of flaw she could latch onto, but even the small scar near his temple was sexy.

  “It wasn’t hard,” she forced herself to answer without giving away the longing that grew with each moment in his presence and no amount of self-protective lectures could diminish. “He’s not exactly sociable, is he?”

  Joshua opened the fridge and pulled out a bottle of beer that hadn’t been there before she left.

  He twisted off the cap and took a swig. “He just came off assignment.”

  “So?”

  Was it just her, or had he come closer? She could smell the beer and a spicy scent she’d only known when she was around him. All male. All Joshua.

  Eyes the color of burnished walnut pinned her in place as his body moved, shrinking the distance between them. “It takes a while to start reacting like a normal person and not a battle-ready soldier.”

  She leaned back against the sink, trying to create a sense of space and failing dismally. “Do you mean to say this is your normal person mode?”