Ready. Lucy Monroe

it would mean to her to identify the stalker and felt chills go up and down her arms at the prospect.

      Joshua opened the back door on the passenger side, indicating she should get inside. She did, but had to suck in air when he leaned across her to lock the safety belt in place.

      He stopped when his face was directly in front of hers. “Comfortable?”

      “Um…yes.”

      He nodded and stepped back, allowing her to breathe normally again.

      “So, what did you find in the apartment?” he asked Hotwire as the two men got in the front seat.

      Hotwire whistled softly and started the car. “This guy knows his electronics, but he’s not using high-end stuff. My guess is he doesn’t have the financial resources for professional equipment. He’s made modifications to amateur spy tech items that indicate he’s got a pretty good understanding of what he’s doing.”

      “What kind of spy stuff?” Lise asked from the back seat.

      Hotwire met her eyes in the rearview mirror, his expression as dark as Joshua’s eyes. “He had a transmitter inside your desktop computer. One of the pens in your pen cup had a transmitter as well, but the battery was dead, so we don’t know how long it has been there. One of your stereo speakers has a minicam transmitter—”

      “He could see me?” she interrupted, even more freaked by the reality than she had been when Joshua had mentioned it was a possibility in Texas.

      “Yes, but only when you were in certain parts of the living room.”

      Thinking about the direction her speakers faced, she knew exactly which parts. Her maple rocker was one of them, the place she spent most of her relax time. A knot formed in her stomach and squeezed.

      “What else?” Joshua asked, as if what Hotwire had said hadn’t been enough.

      Hotwire flicked a glance at Joshua before looking back at the road. “Her car has a sound and position transmitter in the antennae. It isn’t satellite connected, but he can follow her within a two-mile radius and she would never know it.”

      The whole trip from Texas to Seattle, Nemesis had been following her.

      He’d known exactly where she was at all times.

      Thinking of some of the small hotels she’d stayed at, the long stretches of deserted highways she’d driven, and the falseness of her sense of security in her anonymity made her stomach churn around the painful knot.

      Bile came up in her throat and she forced it back down. “Hotwire, could you please stop the car?”

      They came to a sudden but smooth halt beside the road. She unbuckled her seat belt, shoved the door open and jumped from the car. She sucked in air and tried not to give in to the sick sensation, but image after disturbing image flashed through her mind, making it almost impossible not to throw up.

      Suddenly Joshua was there, wrapping his big arms around her, pulling her into the heat of his body. “It’s going to be okay, Lise. Relax.”

      “He followed me…the whole time I thought I was safe, by myself. He was there, tracking me, knowing where I was every second of every day.”

      Joshua turned her body and she buried her face in his chest, inhaling his scent and letting the strength of his body infuse her own.

      “I know…shh…I know…”

      She believed him. Even though she could not imagine Joshua Watt afraid of anything, she believed that he understood her fear and empathized with it.

      The nausea finally passed, but she nestled against Joshua, unwilling to give up the haven of his arms.

      “Is she all right?” Hotwire asked.

      Joshua pulled away and looked down at her questioningly.

      “I’ll be fine.”

      “You sure?”

      She nodded. She turned to Hotwire. “Sorry about that. I shouldn’t let it get to me.”

      The blond man looked at her like he was measuring her mettle and then his mouth creased into a smile. “You’ll do.”

      For some reason that made Joshua frown, but he kept his arm around her as he led her back to the car. Hotwire pulled out onto the road before Joshua spoke again.

      “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…”