recoiled at the idea of some shadowy figure listening to her live her life.
“Our best chance of catching Nemesis is to use his own equipment against him.”
“And if that gets my sister killed, or raped?”
“That’s not going to happen.” Joshua’s extreme confidence soothed the jangling nerves inside her, even if it didn’t calm her brother down appreciably. “And there’s no reason to believe this is a sexual fixation. In fact, as we’ve discussed, the crime seems more vengeance-related.”
“Which does not mean she’s not at risk.”
“I agree.”
“Please. There’s no reason to believe I’m in any physical danger.”
“Have you forgotten being shoved into traffic?” Joshua asked.
She’d deliberately left that out and she didn’t appreciate Joshua revealing it.
She gave him a look that told him so. “If he’d wanted to hurt me, he would have pushed me into traffic when a car was coming. I wasn’t in any real danger.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Jake was back to looking furious.
She felt ready to explode herself. Joshua’s view of what her brother needed to know and hers were about as far apart as the north and south ends of the ranch.
She pressed her lips together, remaining stubbornly mute.
If he wanted Jake to know every little detail so bad, Joshua could tell him.
He did.
“And the Seattle police didn’t do anything about it?” Bella asked with outrage.
“No one saw me get pushed,” Lise felt compelled to explain. “The sergeant who filed my report thought I’d been jostled by the crowd.”
Joshua’s dark brown gaze was filled with purpose. “I can get the police to take her seriously. We can even bring the FBI in because Nemesis crossed state lines to stalk Lise, but there’s only so much they can do. We’re better off handling this on our own.”
“Why?” Lise asked, having liked the sound of making that annoying police sergeant listen to her.
“The authorities are hampered by rules and procedures.” He paused so his next words had maximum impact. “We aren’t.”
She shivered at the menace in his voice.
“Which does not mean you have to move in with my sister,” Jake asserted before Lise could say anything else.
Joshua crossed his arms over his chest and stretched his long legs out in front of him. “What exactly is your problem with me being Lise’s bodyguard?”
“You want her.”
“No, he doesn’t—”
Joshua shocked her by interrupting her hasty denial. “If I do, what’s it to you? She’s well past the age of consent, not to mention having been married before.”
“You said you don’t do sex on a job,” she reminded Joshua, her heart thumping in her chest at an alarming rate.
Before Joshua could answer, Jake was saying, “Damn it, you can’t deny it. I’ve seen the way you look at her—it’s like a hungry wolf ready to devour its next meal.”
Lise had felt like that meal once, and it was not a memory she was comfortable with. “Joshua and I are not involved.”
“And if they get involved it won’t be any of your business, Jake Barton.” Bella’s tone left no doubt she thought her husband was being unreasonable.
“She’s my little sister. How can you say that?”
“She’s also a twenty-eight-year-old woman. Get a grip.”
“This is ridiculous.” Lise couldn’t believe how off-target the conversation had gotten. “Joshua is helping me, not threatening me with bodily mayhem. I’m grateful and you should be, too, Jake, because if Joshua hadn’t offered to help, I would have disappeared rather than put you and your family at risk.”
The next afternoon, Joshua went looking for Lise.
She’d disappeared after lunch and he didn’t like the idea of her being alone, even on the ranch.
She’d been quiet all morning, even playing with Genevieve in a subdued way. She’d avoided him as much as possible and he wanted to know why.
He found her standing on the edge of the small pond, her stillness so complete, she seemed a part of the land.
He stopped a few feet behind her.
“I used to come here when I was a little girl and life seemed unfair.”
Her awareness of his presence startled him. His quiet approach had surprised trained soldiers.
He shifted to stand beside her. “Did it help?”
“Sometimes.”
“You’ve been avoiding me all morning.” He looked sideways at her, but could read nothing in her still profile.
“Jake thinks you want me.”
“I do.”
She turned toward him and the deeply troubled expression in her eyes tugged at him, but he could not reassure her to the contrary.
“I’m not interested in a relationship, Joshua.”
“You made that clear the night of Genevieve’s christening.”
He hadn’t been thinking about a relationship then, either. He’d been thinking about sex—hot and consuming, but temporary.
“I thought I did.” She chewed on her bottom lip. “Why did you come to my apartment in Seattle?”
“Because Bella wanted you here for Thanksgiving.”
“I see.” Lise’s tense stance relaxed a little. “She asked you to come and fetch me.”
“No, Bella didn’t ask me to come.”
Lise was back to looking worried.
“I thought you were trying to avoid me because of what happened between us last year. I came to apologize and bring you to Texas with me.”
“You were going to apologize?” She sounded shocked by the possibility.
“Yes.”
She crossed her arms around her waist, hugging herself. “You don’t have anything to say you’re sorry for. You didn’t force me to do anything I didn’t want to.”
He hadn’t forced her,
