Ready. Lucy Monroe

      “What did it say?”

      “That I shouldn’t buy so much junk food. I’d just made a chocolate run to the grocery store. My current work in progress was giving me fits and I didn’t feel like cooking, so I bought a lot of easy prep meals and snacks, too.” Her soft voice echoed with pained vulnerability.

      “He was watching you pretty closely, then.”

      She shuddered. “Yes.”

      “What did you do when you got the e-mail?”

      “I shift-deleted it like I do all my junk mail. I thought it was weird, but it didn’t occur to me that it was the beginning of something sinister. He didn’t say anything about why he was writing me.” The now flat and unemotional tones of her voice were at odds with the near hysteria she’d been exhibiting earlier. “He never does…not in his e-mails, not in his calls. He just makes sure I know he’s watching me.”

      “When did you realize it was a serious problem?”

      “When he called. I got good and scared then. He talks through a computer digitizer and it was really eerie, you know?”

      “Did you go to the sheriff?”

      “Not then.” She sighed. “I still thought I could handle it. He hadn’t threatened me or anything.”

      “What happened to change your mind?”

      “How do you know I did?” she asked, sounding curious.

      “You wouldn’t have moved away from your family and home if there was another solution open to you. So, I figure you went to the authorities, but they couldn’t do anything for you.”

      “It was more like a case of wouldn’t, but you’re right, something did happen that made me realize I really wasn’t safe.”

      “What?”

      “He broke into my apartment. I came home after visiting Bella at the ranch to find the things on my computer desk altered just enough for me to know someone had been there.”

      “What did the sheriff say when you reported it?”

      “He thought I was being a publicity hound, that I was making it all up to get media attention.”

      “Why in the hell would he believe something so stupid?”

      “He used to work for the Houston police force, and a woman did that very thing. She was a self-defense instructor and the free publicity got her a boatload of clients, I guess.”

      “He refused to take you seriously because he’d been burned once by a false report?” Joshua had a hard time believing it.

      “A lot of manpower got wasted and it left the detectives involved looking stupid, not to mention really jaded about the whole stalker issue. The sheriff ended up leaving his job and moving to Canyon Rock. He wanted concrete evidence I was being stalked before he would open an investigation and I couldn’t give it to him.”

      “Idiot.”

      “I thought so at the time, but I’ve got to admit I didn’t push too hard. I didn’t want Jake to find out, and things get around in a small town. So, I went home and had my locks changed, but Nemesis managed to break in again.”

      “Did you report it?”

      “Yes, but this time the sheriff was really belligerent. He told me he didn’t have the manpower to stake out my apartment and I still didn’t have concrete evidence. After all, nothing had been taken.”

      “Bastard.”

      She shrugged.

      “So, you moved across country to get away from the stalker.”

      “I’d researched the problem and read about several cases where stalkers had hurt the family or loved ones of their victims. It disturbed me.” Her hands twisted together and her face averted to look out the side passenger window. “I started having nightmares. Then, during one of his phone calls, Nemesis mentioned seeing me with my sister-in-law and baby niece. That’s when I decided to move.”

      He understood her choice, but it hadn’t been the smartest one. Moving away from the small town where she was well known had actually made her more vulnerable to her stalker.

      Chapter 2

      Lise smothered a yawn as Joshua led her into their hotel room. Exhaustion was catching up with her and pretty soon she’d need toothpicks to prop her eyes open.

      “I’m sorry,” she said after a jaw-stretching yawn took her by surprise. “I’m just so tired all of a sudden.”

      Joshua dropped his bag on the bed nearest the door and shrugged out of his coat. “When was the last time you slept a whole night?”

      She crossed the room and plopped down on the end of the other bed, her legs so tired they didn’t want to hold her up anymore. “The night before the last Seahawks game.”

      His dark eyes glinted with curiosity. “What happened?”

      She told him about the incident on the street after the game, reliving the fear and frustration of that night while she took off her own coat and tossed it onto a nearby chair.

      “You could have been killed.”

      “I don’t think he meant to really harm me at all.” She’d thought about it a lot. “Traffic moves pretty slowly after a game. I think he just wants me to know what kind of power he has over my life.”

      The word Joshua said was one she didn’t even use in her writing. “Did you go to the police?”

      “Yes.” For all the good it had done her.

      Joshua went to the window and slid an expandable bar into place so that it could not be opened; he then shut both the privacy curtain and the drapes. Each movement made her feel a little bit safer, a little more protected.

      “What did they say?”

      “The sergeant who took my statement didn’t believe that I was pushed, but he filed a report anyway. I insisted.”

      “Why didn’t he believe you?”

      He’d thought she was an ignorant country bumpkin who could not tell the difference between being shoved in the back and jostled by the crowd. It still made her angry. “There were no witnesses to corroborate my story. No one else saw Nemesis push me, even though there was a huge crowd around me.”

      Joshua opened the door and put the DO NOT DISTURB sign on the outside before turning back to face her. “Probably because of the crowd.”

      She nodded, trying to swallow another yawn and not succeeding. She’d been scared for so long, the relative safety of being with Joshua had released her body from the constant adrenaline rush of fear. The inertia of total exhaustion was taking over.

      He dug something out of his bag and put it on the door under the privacy lock. “Has Nemesis been in your Seattle apartment?”

      “Not that I know of, but he left a red rose on the seat of my car. It was locked in the parking garage at the time.”

      “Did you report the incident?”

      “Yes, but it was the same story as before. I didn’t have proof and wasn’t taken seriously.” The same sergeant had taken the report, and the fact that the doors had been locked had convinced him she was some kind of kook. “I think the police sergeant and the sheriff back in Canyon Rock are related.”

      Her attempt at humor fell flat. Joshua’s handsome face didn’t even crack in a smile. “So, you cancelled your trip to Texas and decided to deal with this on your own again?”

      He sounded less than impressed by the possibility, but she nodded. “I didn’t have a lot of choice. I’m not putting my family at risk, no matter what.”