The Renegade Hunter (35 page)

"Well, it is a bad thing if you're all so set in your ways and used to Sourpuss Pants over there running things that you'll just let him slaughter an innocent man," she snapped.

"Mr. Sourpuss Pants! God, I love her Nicholas," Thomas crowed. When he noticed that neither Nicholas nor Inez looked impressed by the words, he added quickly, "In a totally sister-in-law type fashion, of course."

Nicholas and Inez hrrumphed together and then Nicholas turned to Jo and said, "Honey, you don't understand. Lucian is very old. He's also on the Council. He has a lot of power. He-"

"I don't care how old and powerful he is," Jo interrupted impatiently. "I love you and I'm not letting him kill you without a fight."

Jo tugged her hands out of Nicholas's, and then turned a determined glare on the head of the Argeneau clan as she started across the room, saying, "Nicholas didn't kill that woman. He has no memory of killing her. We think someone drugged him and set him up to stop him from finding out something Annie had learned about the deaths of Armand's wives. We need to find out what that was."

She paused in front of Lucian Argeneau, swallowed, and added, "I love him.

I don't know what I'll do without him. What

good is living hundreds of years if you take him from me? Please don't?"

Lucian peered down his nose at her dispassionately. "You were doing very well in your arguments right up until you started into the lovey-dovey crap. And the begging at the end was just over the top. "

Jo stared up into Lucian Argeneau's cold face and felt a fury rise up in her like none she'd ever experienced. The man

held the life of the man she loved in his hands. Her whole future rested in his palms and he stood their smugly critiquing her attempt to save both? All her fear and frustration balled into one blast of rage, and before Jo quite knew what she was doing, she was slapping the coldhearted bastard across the face.

"Jo," Nicholas barked with alarm and quickly dragged her behind him, placing himself firmly between her and his uncle as he said, "She's upset."

"So I see," Lucian said grimly.

Jo scowled and poked Nicholas in the side. "Don't apologize for me, especially not to Captain Crabby here who plans on killing you."

"It's all right, dear," Marguerite murmured, moving to Jo's side to run her hand soothingly up and down her arm, "Captain Crabby won't kill Nicholas."

"Marguerite!" Lucian snapped.

"Well, you won't," she said firmly. "Surely you've read everyone in the room by now and know further inquiry is needed before any decisions can be made about Nicholas's future?"

Lucian scowled at the woman for a moment, but then sighed and admitted,

"Yes."

Jo moved around in front of Nicholas again to ask uncertainly, "You're not going to execute him?"

"No," Lucian said dryly.

"Really?" she asked, almost afraid to believe him.

"Yes really, I have no intention of killing Nicholas."

"Oh!" With joy exploding through her, Jo impulsively threw herself at the man to hug him in gratitude, saying, "Maybe you aren't such a bad uncle after all, Lucian."

"Yet."

Jo froze as the word reached her ears, and then pulled back to scowl at him.

"What do you mean by yet?"

For some reason that made his lips twitch with what she suspected was amusement. He then glanced to Nicholas and said, "She's rather tempestuous, isn't she? Impetuous as well. It is good you decided it wasn't safe to keep her with you on the run. She'd have been dead in a week... or would have got you killed."

He paused and then added, "Although she

may have done that anyway since you turned yourself in to save her. We shall have to see."

Jo's mouth turned down and her eyes narrowed on him unhappily. "I don't like you."

Lucian arched one eyebrow. "That's a shame. I quite like you."

"You could have fooled me," Jo muttered with disbelief.

"I often do," Lucian agreed. "Fool people, that is."

"He does," Leigh assured her, reentering the room with Lissianna following.

Jo glanced to the woman, wondering what on earth she saw in Lucian Argeneau, but then just shook her head and asked, "What do you mean you aren't going to execute him yet? Are you or aren't you?"

Lucian turned his gaze to Nicholas. "I'm not executing you now because I'm not certain of your guilt. I've read the situation in everyone's mind, including your own. There is no memory of your actually killing the woman. In fact, there's a rather suspicious blank space where that memory should be."

"I told you," Jo said triumphantly.

"So you did," Lucian agreed dryly with a nod in her direction. He then turned back to Nicholas to continue, "I intend to get to the bottom of this and find out what did happen that day. If you killed her and have somehow blocked it from your memory, you'll be executed. If not..." He shrugged and then said, "Jo probably will eventually get you killed with her impetuousness anyway."

Jo felt herself stiffen at the words, but then noticed a suspicious gleam in his eyes that made her think he was goading her and she merely muttered, "Ha ha."

"Ha ha, indeed," Lucian said dryly, and then turned to Mortimer. "Now, let's get Dee and Ernie ready for transport so that you can prepare Nicholas's cell."

"Cell?" Jo asked indignantly. "You're going to lock him up?"

"Yes," he said calmly. "And I'm going to have you locked up as well."

"What?" Now Nicholas looked furious. His eyes were frigid silver as he stepped up to his uncle, fists clenched and growled, "Locking me up is one thing, Uncle, but Jo hasn't done anything to deserve being treated like a criminal."

"She's already plotting ways to help you escape in case I can't get to the bottom of this," he said quietly.

Nicholas turned to Jo with surprise and she felt herself flush guiltily. She actually had started thinking about ways to get him out of there. It seemed she was still incredibly readable.

"Maybe she is," Nicholas acknowledged reluctantly as he turned back to his uncle. "But, still, she hasn't done anything wrong yet. You can't lock her up for something she might try to do. Besides, I'll talk to her. I'll-"

"Locking her up with you will keep her from getting herself or anyone else killed with her amateurish efforts to break you out," Lucian interrupted firmly.

"Amateurish?" Jo squawked. "I got him out, didn't I. I picked the damned lock and set him free."

"Very impressive," Lucian assured her and then turned to Mortimer to say,

"Make sure they're only given plastic utensils and don't allow them anything small enough to use to pick the lock this time."

"Crap," Jo muttered irritably, wishing she'd stopped to think before speaking. Her eyes narrowed on Lucian as she thought she saw his mouth twitch, and then he turned to Nicholas and continued.

"I will have Ernie and Dee transported to the Council for judgment.

Mortimer will remove the cot from one of the cells and have a double bed moved in to replace it." He turned to Jo and Nicholas and said, "We shall give you candlelight and wine and roses and put a curtain on the cell so that the two of you can entertain each other safely and in privacy while I look into the matter of Annie and the mortal."

"Wouldn't it be easier just to keep them locked in one of the rooms in the house?" Sam asked with a frown. "It would be much more comfortable and-"

"And only mean four men would have to stand guard at the hall and balcony doors," Lucian interrupted dryly, and then shook his head. "We are already shorthanded. They go in the cells."

Sam didn't look pleased, but did nod unhappily. However, she also asked,

"Can they have books or a television or

something out there so they don't get bored?"

Jo thought her sister's concern was very sweet but totally unnecessary. It was hard for her to imagine growing bored with Nicholas around. Judging by the arched eyebrow Lucian turned on Sam, he thought so too.

"They are new life mates, Samantha," he said dryly. "As you still are yourself. Do you really think a television is necessary or would even be turned on?"

"Oh, right," Sam muttered, flushing as Mortimer grinned and slid his arm around her waist.

"Indeed," Lucian said dryly. He then glanced over the group and raised his other eyebrow. "Well? What are we waiting for? Let's get to it so these lovebirds can enjoy Nicholas's reprieve."

"Right." Mortimer turned to the group. "Bricker and Anders, you're with Nicholas and Jo until we put them in the cell. I'll get some of the men outside to help me with Ernie and Dee. Sam, honey," he said, his voice softening notably when he glanced to her. "Maybe you could make a list of what you think Jo and Nicholas will need in the cell and start organizing it; clothes, sheets, which bed to take, and so on?"

"Of course," she murmured.

Nodding, Mortimer kissed her quickly and then turned to head out of the house, Lucian on his heels. The moment the door closed behind them, Nicholas's aunt Marguerite stood up. Jo eyed the woman, still amazed that she could be seven hundred years old, but her voice had the ring of authority as she said, "The girls and I can help you with the list and gathering the things on it, Sam. And perhaps Thomas and Greg could help with shifting the cot from the cell and moving a double bed out?"

"Of course," Thomas and Greg murmured together.

Much to Jo's amazement, the room cleared out quickly then, everyone moving off to perform his task. Everyone but she, Nicholas, Bricker, and Anders, that was.

They all stared at one another for a moment and then Nicholas said, "I'd like a moment alone with Jo." When Bricker glanced to Anders in question, he considered the matter and then shrugged and said, "The men will still be on the balcony outside the guest bedroom and we can guard the hall. It should be all right."

Bricker nodded. "Okay."

Nicholas urged Jo to her feet and out of the room. The hum of voices was coming from the kitchen as they made their way to the stairs, and Jo supposed the women were in there making their list.

They were stepping off the stairs into the

upper hall when Thomas and Greg came out of the room Jo had woken up in, one carrying a mattress all on his own, the

other the box spring. Nicholas urged Jo nearer to the wall to let them pass and then urged her to continue on to the room.

Anders stepped inside and crossed the room to check and be sure the men were still out on the balcony. He opened the door and leaned out to have a word with them and then closed the door, nodded to Nicholas and Jo, and then slid back out of the room, pulling that door closed as well.

"Well," Nicholas murmured, glancing to the bare bed frame and headboard still remaining in the room. He then urged her toward the two overstuffed chairs arranged by a small round table at the opposite side of the room. He settled himself in one and drew her into his lap.

"I'm sorry about all of this, Jo," he said finally, running his hands soothingly up and down her back and thigh.

"You need to stop apologizing to me, Nicholas," Jo said quietly, leaning into his shoulder. "None of this is your fault.

You're a victim here too."

"Maybe, but you wouldn't be about to be locked up in a cell with me if it weren't for my baggage. Had I stuck around fifty years ago, maybe this all would have been solved ages ago."

"Or maybe you would have been executed, or murdered, or maybe you wouldn't have been skulking around after Ernie that night and he might have taken me and I'd be just another Dee or dead,"

she pointed out. "Besides, I can think of

worse things than being locked up with the man I love for a while... in a cell with a double bed."

"And wine and roses," he reminded her wryly.

"Hmm," Jo murmured, but shook her head. "I suspect Lucian was teasing about that. Your uncle doesn't seem the romantic type."

"You're probably right, that was probably sarcasm," Nicholas agreed with a grin. "But I bet you ten thousand kisses that Aunt Marguerite will insist Sam put them on the list anyway."

"You can have the ten thousand kisses without the bet," Jo assured him with a smile and then placed her hand to his cheek and said solemnly, "I love you Nicholas, and whether it's in a cell or this room or a cheap motel, there isn't anywhere I'd rather be than with you."

"I hope you feel the same way if this drags on for ten or twenty years," he said on a sigh.

"I feel that way now, and will feel that way forever," she assured him solemnly, and then frowned. "Surely they can sort it out faster than ten or twenty years?"

"I hope so, but..."

"But?" she asked.

Nicholas grimaced, and then pointed out, "It's been fifty years and we don't have much to go on. And while I don't think the Council would execute me without being certain that I did it, they might be reluctant to set me free without the same certainty that I didn't."

"So... what?" Jo asked with alarm. "They'd just keep you locked up here forever?"

"No, not forever," he said slowly, considering it, and then said quietly, "But they might keep me locked up for the length of the life I was accused of taking."

"You mean fifty or sixty years?" Jo asked with dismay.

"More like eighty or ninety since there was a baby involved," Nicholas said quietly, and when she stared at him wide-eyed with horror, quickly said, "I could be wrong. I'm just guessing based on various different decisions they've made over the centuries."

"This has happened before?" Jo asked, and thought she might be hyperventilating now. Eighty or ninety years? Dear God, she thought, so much for school... and her job would definitely be toast if she didn't show up for that long. Although, she supposed marine biology wasn't a very practical career for a vampire, and managing the bar had just been a temporary gig anyway while she attended school.

Sighing, Jo forced herself to calm down. Everything would work out. It had to. And if it didn't and they ended up spending eighty or ninety years in a cell together... well, from what she understood they'd have centuries together afterward, and maybe the Council would give Nicholas time off for good behavior as well as already having had to live on the run for fifty years. And maybe they'd cut the time in half or something because she would be sharing it with him.