Willing

Chapter 3

“You don’t have a flashlight,” Daniel said to her. “Wait and I’ll get one from the SUV.”

“Don’t worry about it. There’s a light at the bottom of the stairs. Dad’s safety room has everything.”

Everything turned out to be a supply of weapons sufficient to equip a small force, lights, food, a bed, two chairs, small table and the infamous footlocker.

“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.

“There was a fire at the mercenary school.”

Claire rushed forward and hugged Josie with one arm. “Are you okay? Can I get you anything? A cup of tea. I bought a new apricot blend. Maybe you want a glass of cold water.”

“I’m fine. I just want a shower and bed.”

“Right. Look, you take your shower, and I’ll make you a cup of tea. You don’t have to drink it if you don’t want to.”

From Josie’s description, he’d assumed Claire would be quiet, but the woman was a chatterbox.

“I wouldn’t mind some if you’re making it,” he said.

Claire and Josie both turned startled eyes on him as if they’d forgotten he was there. It was a new experience for him. He didn’t court female attention, but he didn’t seem to be able to avoid it either.

“Of course. My name is Claire.” She let go of Josie’s shoulder and stuck her hand out.

He shook it, impressed by her firm grip and steady brown gaze.

“Daniel Black Eagle.”

Claire looked at Josie as if asking for an explanation.

“It’s Nitro.”

Claire’s eyes widened, and she gasped. “Oh.”

He frowned at Josie.

“He’s dropping me off because my car was destroyed in the fire.”

Claire’s eyes filled with concerned dismay. “Oh, I’m sorry.”

“It’s all right. I’m alive and so is Dad. That’s all that really matters.”

“I’m not just dropping you off, Josette.” He liked that name and figured if Claire could use it, so could he. “Until we find out whoever is responsible for the fire, you and me are going to be like Rodgers and Hammerstein. Always together.”

She stared at him with nothing less than shock. “You can’t stay here.”

“Sure I can.”

“I don’t have a spare room.”

“Your sofa looks comfortable.” If a bit short, but it was longer than average.

The overstuffed couch looked a whole lot more amenable to sleep than a lot of beds he’d had over the years.

“That’s not the point. You aren’t staying here, Nitro.”

“I asked you to call me Daniel.”

She rolled her eyes, her frustration palpable. “Daniel…you cannot stay here.”

“Then you are going with me.”

“You’re being ridiculous.”

“I’m sorry you feel that way.”

She groaned, and he couldn’t help the smile that creased his lips.

She was damn cute when she was irritated.

“I’m a trained soldier. I don’t need a bodyguard.”

“Why can’t he stay here?” Claire asked as if Josie hadn’t spoken.

“You know why!”

“It would seem to me that would be the very reason to let him stay.”

“It’s a bad idea.” Josie frowned darkly at him.

He hadn’t understood anything the two women had just said except that Claire thought he should stay.

He turned toward her. “Someone tried to kill Josette’s dad with the fire, and she could be at risk, too. I’m going to help her find the culprits.”

Claire spun to face Josie again. “Someone tried to kill your dad? Where is he?”

He listened to Josie explain while he found a place in the hall closet for his duffel bag and weapons case.

Claire looked even more worried than she had when Josie arrived looking like a fire survivor, which she was. “You told me it was always better to have more than one soldier on a mission.”

“So?”

“This investigation sounds like a mission to me. I think you should let Daniel stay and help you with it.”

“He doesn’t have to stay in my house to help me.”

“Yes, I do.” He was done discussing it. She could argue until she was hoarse with it, but he wasn’t going anywhere. “Claire, you said something about tea.”

“Of course. Josette, take your shower while I make your colleague some breakfast.”

“He’s not my colleague. I’m not a merc anymore.”

“But you are going to work with him on a mission. That makes him your colleague.” Claire’s logic seemed to deflate Josie, who started down the hall.

“I’ll take my shower. Why don’t you cook Nitro some breakfast, Claire?”

“I think I’ll spare him the pain and pour him a bowl of cereal.”

“I’d rather you cooked,” Josie threw back over her shoulder as she turned into a doorway to her left.

Claire just laughed and led Daniel into the kitchen where she pulled out a box of health-food-type cereal and a carton of organic milk from the fridge.

Handing him a bowl and spoon, she smiled wryly. “The last time I cooked, I set the kitchen on fire.”

He looked around him. The maple cabinets appeared to be in perfect condition. “It didn’t seem to do any lasting damage.”

“No, but the fire department wasn’t amused to be called out to put out a pan of flaming tofu dogs.”

“You called them to put out the fire?”

“The neighbors did. I was working on something on the computer and didn’t notice the smoke until the fire trucks arrived.”

He could not fathom being that unaware of his surroundings and shook his head.

Josie came out of the shower a half an hour later looking clean, but pale with exhaustion. Claire cajoled her into eating some cereal and then bullied her into bed.

Daniel added his voice to the other woman’s arguments, and Josie glared at him. “You’re not staying here.”

“Save it for after your nap.”

“Grown women don’t take naps.”

“You’re no good to me or your dad exhausted. Your brain isn’t even working well enough to realize my staying makes the most sense.”

That brought some more grumbling, but she turned smartly on her heel and stomped off, saying something about knowing when she wasn’t wanted.

He could have argued that particular point by the simple expedient of standing up from the table and revealing evidence to the contrary, but he found himself smiling as he watched the cranky woman disappear around the corner to the hall.

“I’ll look, but chances are he’s not using plastic for anything and he’s got an alternate identity set up somewhere.”

Daniel knew Hotwire was right, and the chances of tracing Tyler McCall’s whereabouts with the computer were slim, but they had to try. Because, frankly, unless Josie saw something in the journals he hadn’t, they had no other leads for finding her dad.

He’d been reading them ever since she went to bed and Claire had left for her classes. He’d learned a lot, but none of it relevant to the explosion and fire at the compound. So he’d called his friend Hotwire for his input.

“His disappearing act doesn’t make sense,” Hotwire added. “Why would he leave Josie to fend for herself if he knew the source of the threat and was hiding from it? Wouldn’t he take her with him?”

“Maybe Josie isn’t at risk.”

“Someone willing to blow up his compound to kill him would be willing to use his daughter to get to him.”

That’s what worried Daniel. “It’s not going to happen.”

“You said he had Josie call you before he took a powder.”

“Yes.”

“Then he didn’t leave her to fend for herself, did he? He knew you’d watch her back and better than he could in the state he was in.”

“Maybe.” But Hotwire was right. Tyler knew Daniel well enough to know he’d never abandon Josie to investigating the explosion on her own. Just as he had to have known Daniel would call his friends in to help.

“Besides, the guy’s brain isn’t exactly running on all six cylinders right now. For all we know, he’s had a flashback and is living in some Vietnam jungle in his head.”

“That’s what worries me.”

“You worried?”

“This is Josie’s dad we’re talking about here.”

“And you don’t want Josie hurt?”

“No.”

“Now, that’s very interestin’. I don’t remember you ever being overly worried about a woman’s feelings before.” The deliberately accentuated southern drawl needled Daniel.

“Drop it.”

Hotwire’s incredulous laugh irritated Daniel to the point of cursing.

“Tch, tch, tch…You’ve got to clean up your mouth. You’re staying in a woman’s house now. Didn’t your mama ever tell you it’s not mannerly to swear in front of a lady?”

His mother had been cursed at on a regular basis…every time his dad drank. “No.”

“Then take my advice. Clean up your mouth.”

“Josie’s a soldier, for crying out loud.”

“Ex-soldier and her roommate is a sheltered little thing.”

Claire hadn’t seemed all that sheltered to him. She had a mind like a computer and even the personality of one at times, but she hadn’t seemed particularly naïve.

“Why didn’t you tell me Josie was getting out of the business?”

“Because you bit my head off every time I said her name over the past year.”

“You’re no shrinking violet.”

“I’m also not stupid.”

“You’ve been helping her with her computer studies.”

“You make it sound like I’ve been breaking the Sixth Commandment instead of helping a friend change her life.”

“So now you’re friends.”

“Josie and I have always been friends.”

“Since when is friendship an automatic by-product of working with another merc?”

“It isn’t.”

“But you’re friends with Josie.”

“Unlike some people, I realized right off that not only is she a good soldier who can be counted on, but she’s also a sweet woman worth knowing.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You haven’t exactly gone out of your way to make friends with her.”

“I don’t go out of my way to be nice to anybody.”

Hotwire laughed. “That’s true, but I think your lack of enthusiasm for her company has hurt her feelings.”

He’d come to the same conclusion, and it bothered him. “I don’t dislike her, damn it.”

“Whoah…buddy, no need to go ballistic here.”

“I don’t go ballistic anymore.”

“That’s what I thought, but Josie brings out some pretty powerful feelings in you.”

“Like hell.” The only feelings he allowed himself to have for women were sexual. He would never give a woman the power to tap the deeply buried root of his temper.

“Whatever you say, but I swear if you don’t clean up your mouth while you’re staying in Josie’s house, I’m going to sic my mama on you. You’ll straighten up, or she’ll have your guts for garters.”

“She raised you and let you live. She can’t be all that bad.”

“She’s not, but she’s hell on your conscience if you disappoint her.”

“Mothers are like that.” His certainly weighed on his and probably always would.

He would never forget the sight of her, bruised and motionless, in that narrow hospital bed. He would never allow himself to forget it had been his fault either.

“Josie said you offered her a job,” Daniel said to banish the memories and change the subject.

“Yeah. She’s a natural with computers. Wolf and I both think she’d be a real asset to the business.”

“So your only interest in her is because of her computer skills?”

“I didn’t say that.”

Daniel’s heart actually stopped in his chest. Women fell all over themselves getting to Hotwire. Josie wouldn’t be any exception.

“You want her?”

Silence at the other end of the phone.

“Do you?”

“What difference does it make to you?”

“Just answer the question, damn it.”

“Whew…Lise said she thought your bad temper covered something totally different, but Wolf and I thought she was sniffing the wrong scent.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You want Josie.”

“We aren’t talking about me.”

“Don’t have to. It might have taken me a while to catch on, but I’m no backwoods Georgia farm boy.”

The temptation to drop the conversation was huge, but Daniel had to know. “Is there anything between you and Josie?”

“Friendship.”

He waited in silence, willing his friend to explain.

Hotwire laughed. “This is more fun than watching Wolf forget what he is saying when Lise walks into the room.”

“Hotwire.”

“I don’t want Josie.”

The relief that went through Daniel was too overwhelming to dismiss. “Good.”

“That doesn’t mean she doesn’t want me. I am, after all, a prime specimen of male flesh and have a certain amount of undeniable southern charm.”

Daniel’s reply was ugly and succinct.

Hotwire was still laughing when Daniel cut the connection.

Daniel relaxed against the overstuffed sofa back. Josie was still sleeping, and he’d decided to skim the earlier journals, hoping they held some clue because he’d found nothing in Tyler’s most recent one. So far all he’d accomplished was to get a pretty good picture of Josie’s childhood.

When she had said she’d had no choice but to become a soldier, he’d thought she meant her dad had pushed her into it, but it had been a lot more concrete than that. Her choice had been made when she wasn’t even old enough to give up playing with dolls.

Tyler McCall had started training his daughter in combat at the tender age of six. The same year her mother died. Some would say the man’s mind had finally snapped, and they might be right, but there was no denying he’d had his reasons for raising his daughter the way he did.

Tyler had seen things in Vietnam that would make any man leery of raising a child, particularly a daughter, in today’s world.

A furious yell hit his eardrums and cut his musings mid-thought.