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
