Read Online StrategicLust by Elizabeth Lapthorne - Free Book Online

female scream cut through the air. He
halted immediately and cast a far sharper glance at the three men.
    It was difficult to ascertain as the three large, beefy male
bodies were close together and effectively blocked the view from the street,
but Josh could barely make out a slender, dark-clad female behind them.
    He took a few steps into the side street, hesitant and wary.
Kate’s hand rested on his biceps. She was clearly ill at ease as she relentlessly
scanned the area.
    “I know you want to help her, Josh, but I can’t let you go
in there,” Kate whispered fiercely.
    “I’m not going to let them beat and rape her, Kate,” Josh
insisted vehemently in return.
    “No! Please!” the woman shrieked, further
strengthening Josh’s resolve.
    Kate appeared to waver, clearly wishing to help the woman,
but her duty of care to Josh was rigid. Josh helped her to make up her mind and
brushed past her to walk a dozen paces further into the street.
    “Wait!” Kate called out sharply. “If we’re going to do this,
I’ll go first.”
    Josh wanted to grumble about that, his instinctive machismo
rising. Yet, again, despite the traditional views he hadn’t even consciously
known about, he understood Kate’s need to perform her job and protect him.
    At that moment, two of the thugs began to beat the slender
woman. All thoughts of this being a potential trap flew out of Joshua’s mind as
he reacted on a gut level.
    “Hey!” he shouted angrily as he lurched forward to rescue
the woman.
    The group of men paused and turned around almost
simultaneously. Josh didn’t recognize any of them but they all stared
menacingly—as if they knew exactly who he was. The willowy woman
pressed her hands to the ground, partially stood up—still in something of a
crouch—and dodged around the men, running down the street. Her black suit skirt
and jacket were crumpled and askew, a button or two having been torn off.
    Josh’s stomach fell and in an instant he opened himself to
his magic and pressed a small trickle of power into his talent. His eyes
cleared, and with magic singing through his blood and veins the small street
came into sharp, crystal-clear focus. Everything became brighter, as if they
had all been standing around in the dark and suddenly the sun had come out or
someone had turned on a light.
    The scene stood in stark relief in front of his magically
enhanced eyes, a tableau set up for his benefit. Josh surveyed the entire scene
through his talent and tried to see the Strategy behind it. Part of him
believed it was a set-up, but the other part could not believe even villains
would beat up an innocent human woman just to ensnare him within their trap.
Those thugs had genuinely been whaling on the tiny woman—he could see the
bruises forming on her flesh as he took in every detail of what was before him.
    It took him only a few seconds to survey the scene through
his magic. Literally thousands of times Josh had used his Strategy talent to
discover the true agenda and meaning behind a series of actions. It took him
almost no time at all to ascertain that this scene had indeed been set up with
the specific objective of trapping him within it.
    The sound of the woman’s heels clacking down the street
seemed to echo in Josh’s mind as he tried to wrap his brain around the sheer
callousness of these wizards’ actions. No more than a minute could have passed,
but time almost seemed to stretch before him.
    “Josh, get back!” Kate shouted loudly, and he felt her shove
him roughly behind her, back toward the main city street.
    Even though Joshua could hear her voice reverberating around
him, the noise seemed dim to his ears. He slowly closed down his magic, stunned
by the revelation of the Strategy he had seen.
    This wasn’t just some run-of-the-mill ambush. Josh had no
idea how his magic had picked up on it—seeing the truth behind a Strategy often
was not a logical, explainable thing—but the number of thugs and their
positions