Ready. Lucy Monroe

nearly sat right down beside him, and only a last-minute spark of sanity had directed her to sit on the far end of the sofa. To cover her confusion at her own actions, she spent some time smoothing her skirt over her knees before looking up to survey the other occupants of the room.

      Judging by the way Joshua and her brother were eyeing each other, she wasn’t sure how much making up had gone on during kitchen detail. Jake she understood. He was feeling helpless and that was bound to come out in bad temper, but she could not comprehend what had Joshua so annoyed.

      Maybe he didn’t like the way her brother’s anger had upset Bella. He should know by now that Jake would do just about anything to make his wife happy. He’d never hurt Bella’s feelings on purpose.

      “So what are you going to do about Lise’s stalker?” Bella asked Joshua without preamble.

      “Your brother doesn’t have to do anything,” Jake slotted in. “Lise can move back to the ranch. I’ll hire a private investigator and light a fire under the tail of that no-account sheriff.”

      Lise had known that would be Jake’s answer. “I’m not moving in with you.”

      “She’s moving in with me.”

      She gasped and stared at Joshua. “What are you talking about?”

      “Like hell she is,” Jake thundered.

      “Want to bet?” Joshua asked, his voice smooth as silk.

      Lise shivered even if her brother looked unaffected.

      “If I leave Seattle, how are we going to track Nemesis?”

      His dark eyes spoke a message she didn’t quite understand. “I guess I should have said I’m moving in with you.”

      “That is not going to happen,” Jake said from the other side of the room, looking ready to get up and take Joshua outside to discuss it.

      There were times her brother reminded her of his prize bull. All testosterone and dominant male behavior.

      She dismissed him with a frown and turned to Joshua.

      “You’re moving in with me?” she asked, her voice a much higher pitch than she was used to.

      “That’s right. Until we find out who the stalker is and deal with him, I’m your faithful sidekick.”

      She couldn’t imagine him as anyone’s mere sidekick. “When you said you were going to help me, I didn’t for a minute think that meant you were going to move in with me.”

      “How else am I supposed to protect you?”

      “I thought that was what the new security measures Hotwire and Nitro are installing at my apartment were for.”

      “They’re backup.”

      “You are not moving in with my sister.”

      Joshua finally deigned to acknowledge her brother’s blustering. “I’m not threatening to seduce her. I don’t do sex while I’m on the job.”

      Lise spluttered while Bella stared in shock at her brother. “You’re charging her for your help?”

      “No.” She and Joshua said at the same time.

      Bella sighed with relief. “Then it’s not only a job—it’s personal.”

      Lise didn’t like the speculative gleam in Joshua’s eyes, or the smug expression on Bella’s face. The one time she and Joshua had gotten personal, she’d been completely overwhelmed. She didn’t need that kind of reaction to a man clouding her life. Not now. Not ever.

      “It’s not personal!”

      “It would be a damn sight easier for you to catch your stalker in Canyon Rock than in Seattle where no one knows you,” Jake asserted.

      “It’s not simply a matter of catching him.” She had to make him understand. This was important. “I thought about it a lot on the plane ride here and I’m through running. He’s not going to get the satisfaction of thinking he’s dictating my life anymore.”

      Joshua’s look of approval was in direct contrast to the ugly word that came out of her brother’s mouth.

      Bella just looked thoughtful.

      “Your determination to fight back might very well get you hurt, little sis.”

      “So could crossing the street during rush hour, but I’m not going to hide in my apartment because of it.”

      “It’s not the same thing!”

      “No, it’s not,” Joshua said before she could answer, “but staying in Seattle makes sense right now. Nemesis has escalated since the move. It’s only when he acts that we have a hope of tracing who he is.”

      “And how are you going to do that?”

      “By using counterintelligence techniques. Nemesis definitely has sound devices—and maybe even visual ones—planted in Lise’s apartment. That’s a damn good lead.”

      “You think he has visual?” Her skin crawled with images of some slimy guy in a dark room watching her go about her business. “Where?”

      “I’m not sure he does, but we know what he can’t see. The entryway, hall, or your bedroom. If he could, he would not have thought I left when you shut the door.”

      She hoped Joshua was wrong about Nemesis having any kind of visual, but she was sure now that her stalker had been listening to her every move and conversation in the apartment. She 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