Jo Goodman (58 page)

"How can you know that?"

"Because when you found it in the cushion I remembered how it came to be there. I was standing beside the chair, in the act of putting it in my pocket, when Rachael came into the room to change the linens. I must have missed the pocket and dropped it onto the chair instead."

Jonna was staring hard at the earring in his hand. "But Mrs. Davis gave me that one. She said Rachael found it in the laundry."

"She may have," Decker said. "But not in
my
clothes."

"Then whose? It's not as if there's been anyone else—" A tremor seized Jonna's hand as the answer was borne home to her. Her fingers tightened spasmodically around the earring. She looked at Decker and knew she was seeing a mirror of her own awed expression. "The night he came here," she said softy. "His clothes... they were bloody and... and I gave them to Rachael to take away. She must have found it later and—"

"We can't know she got it that way."

"There's no other explanation. How else could Rachael have come by it?"

Decker didn't want to think it, let alone say it. "Sheridan."

"No. You don't believe that. You can't. Grant was older than you, Decker. He couldn't have been your brother."

"Graham might not be either. Possession of the earring isn't proof by itself. It might have been stolen. Graham has a family, remember? Grandparents, parents, a younger brother. He never mentioned that he was missing this, did he?"

"No, but—"

"Surely he would have valued it. Rachael must have come by it some other way."

Jonna shook her head firmly. "No. She gave it to Mrs. Davis because it didn't belong to her. It was Graham's, Decker. You allowed yourself to believe it for a moment. I saw it in your face. Now you're trying to talk yourself out of it. Why don't you want to believe again?"

Decker looked down at the earring in his palm for a long moment, then back at Jonna. "Because twelve hours ago I let him leave Boston Harbor," he said quietly. "I let him go, knowing that he wants to disappear."

Jonna's own smile was gentle. She placed one hand flat on his chest and lifted her face to his. "
Huntress
was built for the chase," she said. Her violet eyes were bright now. She knew what could be done. "And you command her. What she can outrun, she can also capture. Twelve hours is nothing, Decker. You're Falconer. You can catch the
Siren."

He had never held anything so dear as Jonna's absolute belief in him. Decker's arms circled her waist. He bent his head. "I already have," he whispered against her mouth. "I already have."

The End

Want more from Jo Goodman?

Page forward for an excerpt from

WITH ALL MY HEART

The Thorne Brothers Trilogy

Book Three

Excerpt from

With All My Heart

The Thorne Brothers Trilogy

Book Three

by

Jo Goodman

USA Today Bestselling Author

WITH ALL MY HEART

Reviews & Accolades

"A winner! I didn't want the story to end."

~Stella Cameron

He came awake with a start. Sitting up reminded him how much pain he was in. He lay down again and closed one eye. Someone had already managed to close the other one for him. He explored the swelling gingerly. Even the lightest pressure from his fingertips made him groan.

He let his hand fall back to his side and flexed his fingers. They didn't feel bruised or broken. Hadn't he put up a fight at all? Then he wondered who he would have fought. Names and faces eluded him now.

Taking inventory of other body parts revealed a rather extensive list of injuries. In addition to the swollen right eye there was a lump on his forehead, dried blood under a possibly broken nose, a split lower lip, and ringing in his ears. And he had found all that before he got as far as his neck. Below his Adam's apple he discovered he had two ribs that were bruised or cracked, a dislocated collarbone, and swollen testicles.

Whoever it had been had worked him over good. The why of it wouldn't come to him.

He considered his legs next. They were sore but had largely been spared. His left thigh had received a few kicks, probably misplaced, he decided, when his attacker had aimed for his groin, but other than that he believed he could walk unaided. Where he might go was an unknown to him.

He applied himself to the problem of where he was. There were voices, footsteps, overhead. He was lying on the floor, but there were hammocks strung up in the room. They swayed as if a breeze were circulating around the four walls. There was no breeze, though. The air was close, stifling. The hammocks continued to swing.

It was natural, he supposed, that he hadn't noticed the room was rocking at the outset. It wasn't that he had been entirely unaware of it, but that he had misunderstood the cause. From the very first roll he had assumed there was a problem with his balance, something connected to the ringing in his ears. Now, as he watched the hammocks continue to swing, he realized there was too much rhythm in the motion. The room and its contents weren't spinning, merely swaying.

He was on board a ship. He couldn't imagine where.

With body parts accounted for and his immediate surroundings identified, he put himself to the task of making some sense of it all.

That was when he realized he didn't know his name.

With All My Heart

The Thorne Brothers Trilogy

Book Three

by

Jo Goodman

~

To purchase

With All My Heart

from your favorite eBook Retailer,

visit Jo Goodman's eBook Discovery Author Page

www.ebookdiscovery.com/JoGoodman

~

Discover more with

eBookDiscovery.com