Ready (8 page)

“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.

S
he 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?”

“Uh-huh.”

She mentally strained at the bond linking them so effectively. “Hotwire is a lot friendlier than either you or Nitro. Why is that?”

Joshua’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t let that sweet Georgia accent fool you. He’s every bit as deadly as me or Nitro.”

“I didn’t doubt it for a minute, but he’s also about as charming as a new preacher at Sunday dinner.”

The bottle landed with a thud on the countertop behind her and Joshua’s hands settled on either side of her. “Would you rather go to bed with a man who can charm you than a man who turns you inside out with passion?”

She swallowed and then licked her lips. “I wasn’t talking about going to bed with anyone.”

“Keep it that way.”

“Excuse me?”

“Don’t start thinking about Hotwire as a potential bed partner.”

Her hands came up to push against a solid chest that seemed to be pressing into her. “I can think of anyone I like.”

“No.” He kissed her. It was short, but powerful to the point of leaving her weak-kneed. “You can’t.”

Her fingers tingled from the heat of him. “Why can’t I?”

“Because you want me and when this job is done, I’m going to show you how much.”

“Conceited toad.”

His smile about finished the job his kiss had started. She was pretty sure she would have slid right down the cupboard if he hadn’t been so close and practically holding her up with his body.

“Conceit isn’t justified. Confidence is, and I’m confident the attraction is mutual.”

“Is it?” she asked, remembering his rejection the night before.

He pressed his pelvis into her and the hard length against her stomach answered her question before his sexy, “Oh, yeah,” did.

He kissed her again and she hung, suspended by the connection of their two lips, until he stepped back.

“It’s late. You need to get to bed.”

She nodded, mute from the kiss and sensual threat of his words.

“You can have the bathroom first.”

“Thanks,” she croaked out.

The shower helped relax her, but no amount of hot water or scrubbing could rid her mind of the image of her and Joshua together on a bed. After drying off, she pulled on a cranberry red t-shirt that had almost faded to pink, she’d had it so long, and a pair of white flannel pajama bottoms covered with miniature rosebuds.

She considered her image in the mirror ruefully. Sexy she was not. She looked about ten years old. She grimaced and stepped out of the bathroom.

Joshua was leaning against the wall.

He looked her up and down and the expression in his eyes made her feel like she was wearing a black silk negligee. So much for looking like a child.

“It’s free,” she said inanely.

He said nothing, but walked past her, allowing his arm to brush hers, the contact burning to the core of her.

She stood outside the closed bathroom door for several minutes as unwanted fantasies of his naked body occupying the same space she had just vacated teased her brain. The shower shut off and she realized she was going to be caught mooning like a love-struck calf if she didn’t get her tail in gear.

Five minutes later, she stood, stymied, on the verge of the living room with extra bedding and one of her pillows for him to sleep with. If she made up the couch as a bed for either herself or Joshua, Nemesis was bound to realize someone else was in the apartment because part of the couch could be seen through the surveillance camera.

A sound behind her alerted her that Joshua had come out of the bathroom and she turned. The question she was going to ask about sleeping arrangements flew right out of her head. He was wearing a pair of charcoal gray knit boxers and nothing else.

His body could have graced the cover of a body builder’s magazine…or
Playgirl.

Not that she’d ever bought one, but if the magazine ever had a series of naked pictures of Joshua, she might.

He nodded toward the bedding in her arms. “Is that for me?”

“Ye…” She had to clear her throat. “Yes.”

“Thanks.” He took a step toward her, his hand extended to take the blankets.

“Where are you going to sleep?” she squeaked out.

“In your bedroom.”

“Oh.” It made sense. He was a big man and needed the big bed more than she did.

“Where should I sleep?” she asked, as if it were his apartment rather than hers, which irritated her.

She was not a simpering, shy innocent, even if she did have hot flashes from the sight of Joshua in his skivvies.

“In your bed.”

Her mouth fell open. She hadn’t considered sharing a bedroom with Joshua.

“
I’m not sleeping with you
.”