Ready (2 page)

“Do you know who is stalking you?” he finally asked.

“No.”

“Why do you believe you’re being stalked?”

“I don’t just believe it, I
know
it.” As simple as his questions were, it was hard for her brain to form answers in her current stressed-out state. “I’ve gotten anonymous e-mails that make it obvious I’m being watched.”

“Did you try to trace the e-mails?”

“Yes.” She stopped, having lost the train of conversation, and then she remembered again. “It didn’t work.”

“Is that all that has happened so far?”

“It’s enough.” Which wasn’t the whole answer, but was as much as she was willing to share right now.

“Yes, it is,” he said, surprising her.

The fact that he had believed her when no one else had, not the sheriff back home, and not the Seattle police, was just sinking into her sluggish mind when he spoke again.

“You can tell me the rest of what’s got you so scared on the flight. No way do I believe you’re this out of control over a few e-mails.”

She didn’t have time for explanations
. She had to get him out of there, then she had to leave. She didn’t know where she was going to go, but she wasn’t going to sit around waiting for Nemesis to show up on her doorstep like Joshua had.

She grabbed his arm and started shoving him toward the door. “Thank you for stopping by. Tell Jake and Bella I love them.”

Her words were coming in short bursts and she wasn’t completely sure what she was saying…whatever it would take to get him to go.

He stopped in front of the door and didn’t budge. “I’m not going anywhere, Lise.”

“Of course you are—you’re going to Texas.”

“Not without you.” He put his hands on her shoulders, their warmth and strength making her feel safe, but that was an illusion she couldn’t afford. “I’ll watch out for our family. I won’t let anyone hurt them, or you.”

In any other circumstance, she would have believed him, but her unknown enemy had the advantage. The minute they stepped on a commercial flight, Nemesis would know where she was. He could beat them to Texas, or follow them. Either way, the risk to Jake, Bella, and little Genevieve was too great.

“Even you can’t stop a bullet shot from a sniper’s rifle, or a brake line being cut on a car, or—”

“Are you saying those things have happened to you?” he asked, breaking into the litany of fears that had plagued her conscious and unconscious mind for days.

“They
could
happen and I won’t be around my family if they do.”

Her mind was splintering again, trying to figure out the best escape route least likely to alert her hidden tormentor, while grappling with the problem of getting Joshua out of her apartment.

She yanked the door open. “I’ll call Bella and reassure her, okay?” Just as soon as she stopped somewhere with a phone.

Right now, all she wanted was to get into her car and drive forever, leaving her life careening out of control behind her.

Joshua said nothing; he just pushed the door shut again with his heel, his coffee-brown gaze never once leaving hers. He leaned back against it, crossed his arms, and waited with an attitude that said he’d wait there forever, but he was going to have his way.

Something snapped inside Lise.

Fine. He could wait there until hell froze over, but she was going to pack. She was leaving—not with Joshua, and not to Texas where she would put her family at risk, but she was going. She spun on her heel and rushed into the bedroom, a jumble of things she needed to take with her filling her fractured thoughts.

She was throwing clothes willy-nilly into a duffel bag when a beeping sound scared her, making her drop a pile of underwear onto the floor.

She stared at the multicolored cotton for several seconds before she latched onto the fact that the beeping sound was the phone ringing.

She grabbed the cordless phone from its base. “Hello?”

“Lise, your visitor left without taking you with him.”

Her already madly beating heart climbed into her throat at the computer-digitized voice she’d come to know much too well. “
Who is this?
”

“You should have gone with him. Family is supposed to be together on the holidays.”

“Why are you doing this to me?” she shrieked, feeling what was left of her control slipping away.

“An eye for an eye, Lise.”

“What are you talking about?” None of this made sense. Her life didn’t make sense. “I don’t know what you want from me!”

A strong arm settled around her shoulders and she screamed before realizing it was Joshua.

“You sound upset,” the inhuman voice taunted.

Joshua’s lips settled next to her ear. “Is it him?”

She nodded her head violently, making her neck ache, but no sound would emerge from her throat.

“I guess it will be you and me together in our lonely solitude on Thanksgiving. I can’t spend it with my family, either.” The phone clicked in her ear.

A hand tapped gently on her cheek. “Lise.”

Joshua’s voice.

He was there. She wasn’t alone.

How long had she stood in paralyzed fear? She didn’t know.

“The phone…” she croaked out, her throat unaccountably dry.

“What did he say?”

“Something about spending Thanksgiving together.” Stupid, weak tears filled her eyes. “He thought you’d gone and he taunted me about being alone.”

Joshua’s eyes narrowed at that. “We need to get you out of here.”

She looked at him, unsure of what he was saying. Was he still harping on her going to Texas?

“Pack some clothes. We’re leaving.”

Fine by her. Joshua could get her out of the apartment and then she could disappear. “Okay.”

“We’ll go to a hotel,” he said, even though she hadn’t asked.

That sounded so good, the tears burning her eyes spilled over. “Yes. A hotel.
Away from here
.”

He didn’t answer, just picked up the pile of cotton panties off the floor and shoved them into the duffel bag. “What else do you need?”

“I’ll do it.” The overwhelming relief of leaving her apartment galvanized her brain enough to allow her to tackle the problem of packing. She was ready in less than five minutes.

He looked at the small burgundy leather duffel bag and then at her. “Let’s go.”

Nemesis slammed his listening device down, rubbing eyes reddened and bleary from lack of sleep.

He hadn’t been prepared for her to leave the apartment.
She wasn’t supposed to leave the apartment
.

He would not tolerate interference in his schedule.

Fury filled him, tightening his stomach into knots, and the urge to lash out overwhelmed him as he turned and slammed his fist into the wall beside his computer, picturing Lise Barton’s face there as he did it.

Pain radiated up his arm, filling his stomach with bile.

He cradled his bruised hand against his heaving chest and forced himself to think. It was difficult. His thoughts kept scattering, chasing memories he could not afford to dwell on.

She had left the apartment, but she would not dare go to Texas for the holidays, not while she feared him following her.

She wanted to protect her family.

His lips twisted cynically. Sure. More likely she wanted to spend the holiday writing her treacherous books. Either way, she would not go far. She had to come back to her apartment and when she did, he would be waiting…watching, just like always.

No, her leaving with the man was not a showstopper. He had said something about staying the night in a hotel. Nemesis could find them. He was very good at finding information on the computer, although his abilities had not kept him employed after what Lise Barton had done to him and his family.

He shoved aside a half-eaten sandwich that had gone dry and stale while he listened to the discussion between the man and the home-wrecking bitch. Pulling the information file out from where it had rested under his uneaten meal, he flipped open the manila folder and started going through the list of people she had regular contact with.

She’d called the man Joshua, but there was no Joshua on the list.

Frustration gnawed at Nemesis.

He couldn’t look for the man if he didn’t have a last name. He would have to do more research before he could start searching credit card records to find them.

When he did, perhaps he would visit his vengeance on the man who dared to take the bitch’s side.

It took Joshua thirty minutes of evasive maneuvers before he was satisfied they were not being followed.

During that time he did not speak and neither did Lise, but tension continued to emanate from her side of the car. Once he pulled onto I-5 North, he flipped on the radio, letting the low-volume classical music fill the car.

“That’s nice.” They were the first words Lise had spoken since they’d left the apartment and she said them in an almost normal tone of voice.

“Music helps calm nerves.”

She gave a short, humorless laugh. “I guess I seem pretty stressed-out to you.”

“A little,” he said dryly.

She hugged herself as if she was cold, but the car’s heater was keeping the interior warm despite the low temperatures outside. “I feel stressed, to tell you the truth.”

“How long has he been stalking you?”

“I got the first e-mail six months ago.” She tugged her gloves off, affirming she wasn’t really cold, just upset. “I don’t know how long Nemesis was watching me before that.”

“What did it say?”

“That I shouldn’t buy so much junk food. I’d just made a chocolate run to the grocery store. My current work in progress was giving me fits and I didn’t feel like cooking, so I bought a lot of easy prep meals and snacks, too.” Her soft voice echoed with pained vulnerability.

“He was watching you pretty closely, then.”

She shuddered. “Yes.”

“What did you do when you got the e-mail?”

“I shift-deleted it like I do all my junk mail. I thought it was weird, but it didn’t occur to me that it was the beginning of something sinister. He didn’t say anything about why he was writing me.” The now flat and unemotional tones of her voice were at odds with the near hysteria she’d been exhibiting earlier. “He never does…not in his e-mails, not in his calls. He just makes sure I know he’s watching me.”

“When did you realize it was a serious problem?”

“When he called. I got good and scared then. He talks through a computer digitizer and it was really eerie, you know?”

“Did you go to the sheriff?”

“Not then.” She sighed. “I still thought I could handle it. He hadn’t threatened me or anything.”

“What happened to change your mind?”

“How do you know I did?” she asked, sounding curious.

“You wouldn’t have moved away from your family and home if there was another solution open to you. So, I figure you went to the authorities, but they couldn’t do anything for you.”

“It was more like a case of
wouldn’t,
but you’re right, something did happen that made me realize I
really
wasn’t safe.”

“What?”

“He broke into my apartment. I came home after visiting Bella at the ranch to find the things on my computer desk altered just enough for me to know someone had been there.”

“What did the sheriff say when you reported it?”

“He thought I was being a publicity hound, that I was making it all up to get media attention.”

“Why in the hell would he believe something so stupid?”

“He used to work for the Houston police force, and a woman did that very thing. She was a self-defense instructor and the free publicity got her a boatload of clients, I guess.”

“He refused to take you seriously because he’d been burned once by a false report?” Joshua had a hard time believing it.

“A lot of manpower got wasted and it left the detectives involved looking stupid, not to mention really jaded about the whole stalker issue. The sheriff ended up leaving his job and moving to Canyon Rock. He wanted concrete evidence I was being stalked before he would open an investigation and I couldn’t give it to him.”

“Idiot.”

“I thought so at the time, but I’ve got to admit I didn’t push too hard. I didn’t want Jake to find out, and things get around in a small town. So, I went home and had my locks changed, but Nemesis managed to break in again.”

“Did you report it?”

“Yes, but this time the sheriff was really belligerent. He told me he didn’t have the manpower to stake out my apartment and I still didn’t have concrete evidence. After all, nothing had been taken.”

“Bastard.”

She shrugged.

“So, you moved across country to get away from the stalker.”

“I’d researched the problem and read about several cases where stalkers had hurt the family or loved ones of their victims. It disturbed me.” Her hands twisted together and her face averted to look out the side passenger window. “I started having nightmares. Then, during one of his phone calls, Nemesis mentioned seeing me with my sister-in-law and baby niece. That’s when I decided to move.”

He understood her choice, but it hadn’t been the smartest one. Moving away from the small town where she was well known had actually made her more vulnerable to her stalker.

L
ise smothered a yawn as Joshua led her into their hotel room. Exhaustion was catching up with her and pretty soon she’d need toothpicks to prop her eyes open.

“I’m sorry,” she said after a jaw-stretching yawn took her by surprise. “I’m just so tired all of a sudden.”

Joshua dropped his bag on the bed nearest the door and shrugged out of his coat. “When was the last time you slept a whole night?”

She crossed the room and plopped down on the end of the other bed, her legs so tired they didn’t want to hold her up anymore. “The night before the last Seahawks game.”

His dark eyes glinted with curiosity. “What happened?”

She told him about the incident on the street after the game, reliving the fear and frustration of that night while she took off her own coat and tossed it onto a nearby chair.

“You could have been killed.”

“I don’t think he meant to really harm me at all.” She’d thought about it a lot. “Traffic moves pretty slowly after a game. I think he just wants me to know what kind of power he has over my life.”