Ready by Lucy Monroe

Hotwire’s belief that Joshua wouldn’t mind her prying, but why bother correcting him? For some reason he believed Joshua’s feelings for her involved more than lust.
    If she argued about it with him, she might foolishly allow him to convince her.
    She hugged her Dana to her chest, intrigued by Hotwire’s other comment. “What do you mean, a savior complex ?”
    “Joshua figures he’s got to save the world. He’s risked his life for other people so many times, I think he sees it as a way of life.”
    “But he’s not proud of what he does.”
    “No. He figures that since he gets paid for it, that negates the good he does.”
    “But he doesn’t get paid for all of it, does he?” she guessed.
    Hotwire shook his head. “No, he sure don’t, but don’t go thinking that counts any with him. It doesn’t.”
    “What about you—does it count with you?”
    The charming Georgia boy transformed into an emotionless mercenary before her very eyes. “We’ve all got our reasons for doing what we do.”
    She didn’t let the transformation faze her. She just grinned wider. “I guess you do, but I’m willing to bet that Joshua isn’t the only man around here with a savior complex.”
    She emulated Joshua’s wink and turned away before Hotwire could answer.
    She heard nothing but silence behind her for several seconds and then the sound of furious typing on the desktop’s keyboard reached her ears.
     
    Joshua laid aside his notes. He had a few letters written by potential suspects from the manila folder Lise called her “weird” letter file.
    While Lise had not saved envelopes, she had noted on each letter what city and state or country it had been written from. She’d also jotted down if the letter came from a penal institution and which one. That was something, but finding the people who had written the letters wasn’t going to be completely straightforward.
    He stood up and stretched before going to the edge of the living room. Lise defiantly sat in the maple rocker that was in direct line to the hidden camera and typed away on her small black keyboard.
    “Ready for a break?”
    She didn’t respond and he waited until her fingers stopped their rapid clicking on the small keyboard, and then he asked the question again. Hotwire got like that sometimes and Joshua had learned to wait for the opportune moment to break his concentration.
    She looked up, her expression dazed. “A break?”
    “Yeah.”
    “I…” She looked down at the keyboard in her lap and started reading out loud to herself, then said, “Maybe in a little while,” before going back to reading the words aloud.
    “Okay.”
    Soon she was typing again. From her zombie-like tone, he figured a little while was going to take longer than a few minutes.
    He walked over to where Hotwire was working on her computer and dropped the stack of letters beside him. “See what you can find out about these people.”
    His buddy nodded. “You got it.”
    “I’m going for a run—you okay to stick around here for an hour or so?”
    “Sure.” Hotwire grabbed the letters and started shuffling through them. “Could take that long to get preliminary locations for these.”
    “Thanks.”
    “No problem, Wolf. She’s unique, your Lise.”
    “She’s not mine.” Even if he got her into his bed, she wouldn’t be his.
    Not permanently.
    She inhabited a fairy tale world of heroes and White Knights. In her world, princesses gave their hearts to princes, not the soldiers who served them.
    But he was going to possess her body sexually, so long and so well, she’d never forget him, no matter how many Dudley Do-Rights came and went in her life.
     
    Lise looked up from her Dana when she heard the outside door close. Had Hotwire left?
    Her gaze traveled to the clock on the wall. Three o’clock already? Her stomach growled, letting her know it had been a long time since breakfast. She stood up and did almost a complete backbend, cracking her back and stretching