Ready. Lucy Monroe

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СКАЧАТЬ the crap out of me and I don’t like knowing you’ve been facing it all on your own, but that doesn’t mean I want you to leave now.”

      She hugged her brother back. “I just didn’t want you to worry.”

      He pulled away from her. “Do you really think I haven’t been worrying about you living alone in a city a couple hundred times the size of Canyon Rock?”

      “I—”

      “Don’t apologize again. Joshua is right—you’ve got nothing to be sorry for. I love you, Lise. You’re my little sister. I’ll always worry.”

      She couldn’t remember the last time Jake had told her he loved her and she could feel the tears tightening her throat. “I love you, too.”

      She didn’t know what else to say, but Bella came to her rescue. “Why don’t you gentlemen clean off the table and make up while Lise and I put the baby to bed. We can have dessert in the living room after you’ve both got your civilized manners back.”

      Lise was shocked when her brother agreed. Marriage to Bella had certainly mellowed him some.

      Half an hour later, Lise found herself sitting on the sofa with Joshua while Jake and Bella shared the smaller loveseat.

      She still wasn’t sure what had stopped her from taking one of the armchairs. When she’d come into the living room after helping Bella put the baby to bed, Joshua had been sitting on one end of the couch. And he’d looked at her in such a way that she’d found herself approaching him without conscious volition.

      She very 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 СКАЧАТЬ