Part 2 (1/2)

”He's a rogue, Sam,” Mortimer interrupted firmly. ”And I don't know why he did what he did tonight. Maybe he's trying to make up for the past. Just be glad he did and Jo is safe.”

Sam released a little sigh, and her head moved as she nodded. ”I should go check on Jo.”

”Leave her be, honey,” Mortimer said, and Jo eased a little closer to the rail to see him catching Sam's arm as she made for the stairs. ”Decker wiped her memory and put it in her head that she's tired and wants to sleep. Leave her be until morning. You might stir some of her memories if you talk to her tonight. They' ll be more likely to stay wiped if you leave her until morning.”

”Are you sure?” Sam asked, sounding worried.

”So long as she doesn't see Nicholas or Leo's son again, those memories should stay buried,”

Mortimer a.s.sured her. ”Now come on. I need to call Lucian and I'd rather not be too far away from you until we're sure Leo's son isn't still prowling the property.”

”Is there a possibility he is?” Sam asked with dismay.

”We think he's fled. The gate was open when the men went to search. We think he slipped back through the woods while Nicholas and Jo were kiss ing and slipped out through the gate when Bricker left his post to investigate the noises he heard.”

”Nicholas and Jo were kissing?” Sam asked as if Mortimer had said they'd been having s.e.x on a coffee table in the living room in front of the whole party. Jo understood, however; she was a little shocked at this news herself. She'd been kissing some guy she didn't know but who'd saved her from some guy who'd attacked her?

”I' ll explain in a minute,” Mortimer promised. ”I really have to call Lucian. Come on.”

”But why were they kissing?” Jo heard Sam ask as Mortimer led her away from the entry and into the library.

Much to Jo's regret, the door closed before Mortimer could answer. She would have liked to have heard that answer herself.

Jo stayed where she was for another moment, her mind spinning a little. Most of what had been said made no sense to her. Decker had wiped her memory and put it in her head that she was tired? She'd been attacked by a rogue, whatever that was, and some fellow named Nicholas, also a rogue, had saved her... apparently risking himself in some way to do so?

And she'd been kissing him?

It was the bit about wiping her memory that bothered her most. What did that mean? And how could it have been done? Oddly enough, however, while she wondered about that, Jo was also having strange flashes of memory in her head, just bits of memory that were very disjointed and didn't make a lot of sense. Mostly she just kept seeing the dark-haired man's face.

Raising one hand to her head, Jo closed her eyes as the headache she'd been suffering suddenly increased tenfold. Forcing herself to breathe deeply and not think at all, she waited for the intense pain to ease a bit. It had just reduced to being bearable when she heard the front door of the house open again.

Jo stiffened where she stood as what sounded like a small army stomped into the house. She heard the library door open then and Mortimer asked, ”Well?”

”All clear. He definitely got away,” someone answered.

”Right. I want two men on the gate in future. We stop all vehicles between the gates and do a thorough search, inside, outside, under, and on top before the vehicles are allowed past the second gate from now on. I don't want this happening again. Understood?”

There were several murmured agreements and then Mortimer sighed. ”Nicholas is locked up, but I couldn' t reach Lucian. I left a message, but he and Leigh have been traveling a lot since she lost the baby and it could be a couple hours before he gets back to us. So, in the meantime, I want you...”

Jo couldn't hear the rest of what he said. His voice had grown fainter, as if he'd turned back into the library, and the sound of shuffling feet as several people moved out of the entry completely m.u.f.fled the rest of his words. The men had followed him into the library, she supposed, and peered cautiously down over the railing when the sound of a door closing was followed by complete silence.

Sure enough, the entry was now empty.

Jo stared at the closed library door for several moments, and then began tiptoeing down the stairs. She didn' t know what the h.e.l.l was happening, but suspected the only way she was going to find out was to talk to the man who was locked up. Any other time she would have gone straight down and confronted Mortimer and Sam, but that bit about Decker wiping her memories as well as the strange flashes of memory that had come to her moments ago had combined to make her wary of doing so. And Mortimer had said that as long as she didn' t see this man, the memories would stay wiped.

If they really had messed with her mind, Jo wasn't giving them the chance to do so again. She would rather go down and talk to this Nicholas fellow who had risked himself to save her, get those memories back, and keep them. They were hers, dammit, and no one was taking them from her.

Chapter Three.

Jo managed to make it out of the house without being spotted. She paused just outside the sliding gla.s.s doors to the dining room to peer over the dark yard. She was pretty sure everyone was in the house right now, but considering the events of the evening, it certainly couldn't hurt to be cautious.

Aware that the longer she took, the better the chances were of getting caught, Jo gave up her position by the door and broke into a run, sprinting straight for the back building. She was actually pretty impressed with her speed as she flew across the gra.s.s. She'd never been much for athletic pursuits, prefer ring things like rock climbing and diving for physical activity, but her feet were pedaling so fast they seemed to barely touch the ground.

A little sigh of relief slipped from Jo's lips when she reached the door to the building and found it unlocked. She eased it silently open and then slid inside with one nervous glance back at the empty yard. Once she had the door safely closed behind her, Jo paused to get her bearings. She was standing in a small lit hall with gla.s.s windows running along either side of her. The windows on her right revealed a large, well- lit garage with several vehicles inside.

Every single one of them was an SUV.

It didn' t look like much of a car collection to her. The SUVs all appeared to be brand- spanking-new. She was getting the distinct impression that Sam hadn't been completely honest with her about things.

Deciding that was something she was definitely going to have to take up with her s ister later, Jo slid her gaze to the windows on her left and found herself looking into a dark office. There was a desk, filing cabinets, chairs... Her eyes paused on a large, boxy- looking shape and she squinted a little, trying to make out what it was. When that didn't help, Jo moved slowly to the open office door. She reached inside and felt along the wall on the left and then the one on the right, relieved when she found the light switch. The moment she flipped it, light exploded overhead. It left her blinking briefly, but then she was able to see that the large boxy shape was a medical refrigerator with a gla.s.s front revealing row after row of bagged blood.

Jo gawked at the sight, bewilderment rolling through her as she tried to sort out what that could be about. Was Mortimer a closet hemophiliac or something? The question slid through her mind as she took a quick glance over the rest of the office and then flipped the light off again. There was a small window in the room, and she didn't want to alert anyone at the house to her presence by having lights s.h.i.+ning in windows where there shouldn't be lights.

At least not until she knew what was going on, Jo thought as she eased away from the office door and peered around. A hallway ran off the left side of the small hall she now stood in. It was well - lit and had three doors leading off it-two along the opposite wall, and one on the same side as the office. Not really doors so much as cell doors, Jo realized as she pa.s.sed the first one and saw it was made of bars one would expect to find in a prison. This first cell held a small cot, a sink, a toilet, and nothing else. It was empty, and Jo continued on her way, quite sure she would find the man named Nicholas in one of the other two.

She was right. While the lone cell on the left also had no one in it, the second one on the right held a man. He lay flat on his back on the narrow cot in the room, hands under his head, and legs crossed at the ankles in a completely relaxed posed. He also had his eyes closed when she first saw him, but either she made a sound without realizing it, or he simple sensed her presence, because his eyes suddenly opened and his head lifted, turning in her direction.

”Jo.” He spoke her name softly, but it was enough. The sight of his face and the sound of his voice triggered a whole landslide of memories in her mind. Images and sensations flickered through Jo's brain one after another. They were all out of order and disjointed, a kaleidoscope of confused scenes flas.h.i.+ng one after the other, and they were accompanied by a searing pain as what felt like a hatchet slammed into the top of her skull.

Screaming, Jo grabbed for the top of her head as her legs buckled. For what could have been seconds, minutes, or hours, she was aware of nothing but the pain. Then it began to ease and she slowly became aware of her surroundings again.

The first thing Jo realized was that she was lying on the cold concrete floor. She lay curled on her side in a fetal position with her hands over her head. Fortunately, her head wasn't bleeding. The pain had been inside, not from a hatchet that had split her skull open, she realized, and then slowly became aware that someone was speaking to her, voice urgent as he said her name over and over again.

”Jo. Are you all right? Jo, talk to me. Jo?”

Nicholas, she recalled. The man who had risked himself to save her and got locked up because of it. Jo closed her eyes briefly, taking another moment to let the pain ease further, but he continued to call her name with what sounded like growing agitation. She wanted to say something to rea.s.sure him she was all right, but the pain had left her panting and breathless, and all she could do was remove one hand from her head and wave it weakly to let him know she was okay. The moment she did, she felt something brush the tips of her fingers. It startled her eyes open, and she tilted her head enough to see that Nicholas was now lying on the floor of his cell, his arm extended as far through the bars as he could reach, which was just far enough to touch the tips of her fingers with his own.

Releasing a little sigh, Jo stretched her arm out a bit until he could actually hold her hand with his own. Nicholas fell silent then, but his expression was still concerned. Jo was still too spent to rea.s.sure him, however, so simply lay still and allowed her eyes to close briefly as she tried to sort out the collection of memories that had just bombarded her. They were all there now; the party, the walk, the attack... Nicholas. He'd kissed her and she'd kissed him back and it had been...

Jo closed her eyes again. Those two kisses had been pretty wonderful, like nothing she'd ever experienced, and the man had saved her from that other fellow. If what she'd overheard Sam say was true, he'd also apparently helped save two other women earlier in the summer... So why was he locked up in this cell?

”Jo?” She tilted her head again and peered at Nicholas.

”Are you all right?” he asked.

Jo nodded slowly, and when the action didn't bring on any more pain, let her other hand slip away from her head.

”I'm guessing they wiped your memories and you just got them back?” he asked quietly.

That made her eyes widen in question. ”How-?”

”I've seen it before,” he said dryly.

Jo simply stared at him for a moment and then pulled her hand free of his to sit up.

Nicholas did the same, s.h.i.+fting to his hands and knees, and then maneuvering himself to sit cross- legged on the other side of the bars.