“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.
Chapter 4
Daniel met Josie halfway down her hallway, his blood pumping with combat-ready adrenaline, but he could see no threat.
Unless he counted the small, barefoot woman vibrating with rage, her green eyes shooting retribution fire at him. “I am not a demon!”
“I’m glad to hear it.”
The growl that emanated from her throat would have done a grizzly bear proud. She was royally pissed, and apparently he was the reason.
Rather than being concerned about that salient fact, it was all he could do not to drag her body against his and kiss her until he didn’t know his own name anymore. She turned him on in pretty much any mood. However, passionate anger was too close to passionate desire not to impact his hormones like a freight train running full steam ahead without a brake.
Not to mention her clothes, or lack thereof. If she normally slept in tiny T-shirts and short shorts like the pink ones she had on, he was going to expire from lust his first night in her place just thinking about it.
From the murderous expression on her pixielike face, he guessed she wasn’t on the same wavelength as he was at all.
She smacked his shoulder with her open palm. Hard. “Nor did I attempt to seduce you!”
“Uh, Josie…Are you all right?” Maybe she had a little of her dad’s paranoia. Or a bad dream?