Lucy Monroe - Willing

“What, was he preparing for Armageddon?”

Josie just shrugged. “Something like that. Dad didn’t trust the shirts in Washington to keep us out of war.”

That sounded like Tyler.

“Grab the journal and let’s go.”

She lifted the lid on the footlocker and pulled out a sealskin bag big enough to hold several journals.

“They’re in here. He didn’t say which one he wanted me to read, but he’s been keeping them as long as I can remember.”

“Do you need anything else from here?”

She didn’t answer, but took a minute choosing a selection of weapons, including a belt knife that had been clearly made for a woman. Tyler had said Josie wanted to leave the life of soldiering behind, but she had one final mission to carry out, and apparently, she intended being adequately armed for it.

“The rest should be safe if we bury the access again.”

He figured she was right, and they did just that, taking time to leave the debris looking like all the rest.

They were halfway down the mountain when he said, “You might as well get some sleep. We have to drive to my hotel so I can get my stuff before I can take you to your apartment.”

“You don’t have to take me. I can rent a car and drive myself.”

“Do you really think a small coastal town is going to have a car rental agency?”

“It’s not that small.” She bit her lip, obviously in thought. “I don’t think.”

“Look, I’m not leaving you to fend for yourself.”

“I’m a big girl.”

“Actually, you aren’t. You’re on the small size of average for a woman. It always puzzled me why you became a mercenary. You’d be at a major disadvantage during hand-to-hand combat.”

“I didn’t really have much choice, but as for proximity fighting, my dad taught me how to neutralize an adult male in one-on-one combat before I hit puberty.”

“Did he teach you the distinct disadvantages you faced in a hostile environment after it?”

“Men are more vulnerable than women, particularly women as boyish in their build as I am.”

“You aren’t shaped like a boy, and I wasn’t just talking about developing breasts.”

“Rape isn’t limited to women either.”

She was right, but her size ensured she would always be more at risk for that kind of thing than he was. She’d probably call him a chauvinist if he said so, but he was glad she’d chosen to leave the soldier for hire world behind.

Josie woke up as the big SUV came to a halt and its engine went silent. They were parked in front of a motel.

“It could take a few minutes. Do you want to come up or stay here?”

She still felt groggy, and her mind had a difficult time translating his words. “What…Oh, I’ll stay here.”

Her eyes slid shut again to the sound of his car door closing. The snick of locks going into place indicated he’d pressed the lock button for her safety.

A blast of cold air woke her again when he opened the door. Summer did not always mean warm sunshine on the Oregon coast, particularly in the morning. A cold wind kept things chilly until close to noon most days.

He tossed a duffel bag and a weapons case behind his seat before getting in. “I think we should get some breakfast before going to your place.”

She was so tired, the thought of food made her nauseous. “I’m not hungry.”

He reached out and cupped her nape.

The feel of his fingers against her skin shocked her into stillness. Nitro rarely touched anyone…except her, and inexplicably, he seemed to touch her all the time. But beyond that was the sheer physical sensation the slightest connection between them caused. In her vulnerable, just-woke-up state, it paralyzed her.

His thumb brushed against the underside of her jaw. “You’re pale.”

“I need more sleep.”

“No doubt, but you need to hydrate yourself, too. Especially after inhaling smoke.”

Come to think of it, her throat was pretty raw. She’d been too stressed to take stock of her aches and pains before now, but suddenly each discomfort was all too grating.

“I want a shower and clean clothes.”

His hand dropped away from her neck. “Hell, I should have thought of that before I checked out. You’ll have to wait until we get to your apartment.”

“House.”

“What?”

“I live in a house, near the campus. I share it with a roommate.”

“You can’t possibly need to share.”

She knew what he meant. Mercenaries were paid well, and she’d been in the business since she was eighteen. “I own the house, but Claire was looking for a place, and I offered to let her move in with me.”

“Why?” He sounded as if he could not imagine wanting a roommate, and probably he couldn’t. Nitro was a loner despite his close friendship with Wolf and Hotwire.

“She’s a computer geek who has a hard time communicating with anything not driven by binary code and electric impulses.”

“Sounds like a lot of fun as a housemate.”

“Actually, she is. We understand each other better than you might expect. Neither of us fits into the world around us, and that gives us a common ground. Besides, I like not being alone, having someone there when I get home from classes.”

“Why did you decide to get out of the business?” He didn’t sound condemning, or worried like her dad did when he talked to her about her decision to change her life.

Nitro just sounded curious.

“I woke up one day and realized being a soldier was my dad’s vocation, not mine.”

“So now you want to study computers?”

“Yes.”

“And Hotwire is helping you?” There was something in Nitro’s voice she was too tired to interpret.

“Yes. He’s amazing with a keyboard.”

“Being savvy with computers does not mean he knows what to do with a woman.”

He sounded jealous. She must be really tired if her mind was playing those kinds of tricks on her.

“If you say so.” She was the last person to comment on a man’s abilities in that area.

She didn’t quite catch the word that Nitro uttered in response. “What are you going to do once you’re done with school?”

“Hotwire offered me a job with his and Wolf’s new security consulting business.”

“Is that what you want?”

“I don’t know. I’m in an accelerated degree program, but I’ve still got several months before I have to decide where exactly I want to go with my new life.”

Nitro pulled into a gas station and got out of the car, then disappeared into the convenience store attached to the station.

He came back carrying a small carton of milk and a muffin. “Here. I don’t want you getting sick.”

“What about you?”

He reached behind the seat and pulled a bottle of water from the small cooler on the floor. “This’ll do for now.”

She drank her milk and ate the muffin, which settled her stomach, and then fell asleep again.

Daniel woke Josie on the outskirts of Portland for directions to her house. She gave them, and he found himself in a quiet neighborhood west of the city center. He expected her to live closer to the PSU campus, but she had bought a house in a residential neighborhood obviously designed for families. There was a park right across the street from her modest white ranch-style house.

He grabbed his gear while she climbed out of the car and followed her to the front door. She unlocked it and pushed it open.

“Josette, what in the world happened to you?” The feminine shriek came from a bespectacled woman about Josie’s height, but there the similarities ended.

Claire was soft and rounded, and where Josie’s hair was a dark reddish brown, Claire’s was the color of cooked carrots…or maybe a shade or two darker, but very red nevertheless. It sprang out from her head in curls she’d done nothing to tame. Her clothes looked as though she’d gotten them at a rummage sale. Worn and faded jeans, an oversized Portland State sweatshirt that had seen better days and tennis shoes that would have looked disreputable on a homeless person.