And Able. Lucy Monroe

      “I don’t think you would have killed your own wife, Lester.”

      His gaze turned so cold it made her shiver. “You can’t let your emotions get in the way of a kill when you are a professional. I was a professional. The best.” Unmistakable pride laced his voice. “I would have done whatever I had to, but I didn’t want to face that kind of circumstance…so I never got married.”

      “Were you lonely?” she asked, thinking of her own future stretching out years ahead of her.

      Maybe putting up with sex was worth it to have a family, but then she’d have to deal with the vagaries of life and the risk that it could batter her kids the same way it had battered her. It didn’t seem fair to have kids in a world like the one that existed today.

      “Never got lonely. Life is too full of interesting things to see and do. You appreciate that when you see a lot of death.”

      “I imagine you do.”

      “I like having you and Queenie around now, though. She’s a firecracker.” He smiled, his expression warming about twenty degrees. “If I had known I’d meet her in a place like this, I would have moved in sooner.”

      “The feeling is obviously mutual. Queenie thinks you are a king among men.” Sweet and as bubbly as a bottle of soda pop, the other Belmont Manor resident had shown her preference for Lester from day one. Talk about opposites attracting.

      “She’s nuts. I told her about what I did, but she just thought it made me more mysterious. She even read my kill book. The working of a woman’s brain is a mystifying thing.”

      Not in the least offended, Claire laughed. “I suppose it must seem that way to you.”

      “JFK’s not as safe as he thinks he is,” Lester said, slipping back into the past.

      “I’m sure you’re right.”

      “I tried to tell Marv at the agency, but he said presidential safety wasn’t his detail. No one else in the government outside the agency knows I exist. They won’t listen to me.”

      “Who is Marv?” she asked, curious in spite of herself.

      “You know who he is. My contact with the agency. We were together in the war. He wasn’t much of a sniper, but he sure understood logistics.”

      “World War I?”

      “Yeah. You okay, Melba? You sure are asking some strange questions.”

      Every once in a while he called her Melba, and all she’d learned about the other woman was that she’d worked in some secretarial capacity for Lester a long time ago. His senility was growing steadily worse, but Claire still liked being around him. She didn’t care if he made sense. He was an interesting man and knew more about odd trivia than she did.

      She couldn’t stay and visit too long tonight, though, no matter how much she might want to. A group of politicians was coming on Monday to tour the facility. Apparently it was some part of a report they were doing on the living conditions of the elderly in Oregon.

      It was up to her and the rest of the junior staff to make sure the place shone with cleanliness and gave the appearance of a healthful environment. Not that it wasn’t usually clean, but this was like spring cleaning at the end of summer.

      Hotwire walked into his office and did a quick visual check of his equipment. A light flashed, indicating Claire’s alarm had gone off. He swore, adrenaline pumping into his blood, an immediate sense of impotency sweeping over him. What could he do for Claire from his home in Montana?

      Nothing. He didn’t like knowing that. Not one bit.

      Fortunately, the light was yellow, which meant she’d turned it off…or someone had.

      He grabbed the phone and dialed Claire’s number.

      She picked up on the third ring, sounding breathless. “Hello?”

      That breathy little hello instantly started him thinking of her writhing in the middle of an acre of silk sheets. The predictable effect of his imagination on his cock wasn’t exactly comfortable. He grimaced. “It’s Hotwire.”

      “Uh…hi.”

      “Is everything all right?”

      “Sure. Um…is there some reason it shouldn’t be?” She sounded guiltier than a kid caught sneaking out of her bedroom window after curfew.

      “Your alarm went off.”

      “Did you give the police instructions to call you if it did?” Her voice vibrated with outrage. “Don’t you think that’s a bit excessive? I do not need a baby-sitter. Seriously. What were you thinking? Don’t tell me this was Josette’s idea. Sheesh, I don’t know what you thought you could do about it, in any case.”

      He’d noticed before that she talked fast and furiously when she was concerned about somebody else, angry, or feeling self-conscious. He wondered which one she was at the moment. She sounded mad, but there was something in her voice that hinted at embarrassment, too.

      “Tell me about the alarm, Claire.”

      A big, heavy sigh came across the phone line. “Classes are over in another week and a half.”

      “So?”

      “Well, my final project in my Unix programming class is due. There’s a glitch in the program and I’ve been trying to figure it out.”

      “What does that have to do with the alarm going off?”

      “I forgot to use the remote code on my laptop to disarm it when I got home.”

      “There’s a keypad inside as well.”

      “I wasn’t thinking about the alarm. I told you, I was trying to figure out my program…I didn’t think about the alarm at all.” That was definite chagrin in her voice. “Not until it went off, anyway.”

      “Did the police come?”

      “You know they did.”

      In fact, he hadn’t. “Good.”

      “It wasn’t good. It was awful. I was a nervous wreck trying to explain the alarm to the police. What if they’d thought I was the one breaking in? After all, the house doesn’t belong to me.”

      “That’s highly unlikely.”

      She grunted, the sound one of pure disgust. “I was mortified. The neighbors came out and gawked. One of them even came over to make sure I was all right.”

      “How long did the alarm go off before you noticed it?” he asked, trying to control the amusement in his voice.

      “I don’t know.” She sounded petulant and he’d never heard her sounding that way.

      It made him horny. Heck, just about everything she did made him want her.

      “I’m surprised your neighbor came to check on you.”

      “He’s ex-military. A retired SEAL or something. You guys are all alike…interfering.”

      He laughed.

      She made a sound like steam escaping a teakettle, and he bit off his laughter.

      “That alarm is a big pain.” Something in her tone alerted him and he started running a diagnostic on the system from his computer.

      “No strange phone calls, or anything?” he asked, just to keep her talking while the system ran its check.

      “Other than this one? No.”

      “There’s nothing odd about one friend calling to check on another.”

      “I thought you were Josette’s friend.”

      “Is there anything that says I can’t be yours as well?”

      “Um…no.”