The Renegade Hunter (33 page)

"I know you believe that, and I tend to agree with you. He certainly doesn't act like someone who could kill a woman, but..." She paused and shook her head. "I just don't want you to get your hopes up and then crash if things don't work out."

"Hope is the only thing I have right now, Sam. I don't know what I'll do if we can't prove Nicholas didn't kill that woman."

Jo swallowed, and then said, "I love him, Sam. More than anything or anyone in the world. And I'm not going to see him die. I can't."

Sam closed her eyes and shook her head. "I'm so sorry."

"For what?" Jo asked quietly.

"For everything. This is all my fault. I didn't want to turn and leave you and Alex behind in ten years, so I had that party hoping you and Alex might be life mates for immortals."

"I am," Jo pointed out quietly. "And we'll find Alex someone too."

"But what if Nicholas is executed?" Sam asked worriedly.

Jo was silent, but then shook her head and stood up. "I can't think about that.

I won't think about it. Nicholas is innocent

and I'm going to find a way to prove it... either that, or I'll find a way to get him out of here and live on the run with him.

I'm not losing him now. I can't."

"Jo," Sam began worriedly, but she shook her head.

"Save it, Sam," Jo said quietly. "You aren't going to talk me into being reasonable. I'm not like you."

"What does that mean?" she asked with a frown.

Jo glanced away, but then turned back and said, "I just mean you're overly cautious. You think more with your head than your heart. Which is good in some ways, but it means you take the safer route all the time. No matter how you feel. You weigh and measure all the pros and cons and then base your decisions on what sounds least risky rather than what your heart tells you." She sighed and then added, "It's why you stayed with your ex so long after you should have left and why

you haven't let Mortimer turn you yet."

"I haven't let Mortimer turn me yet because it would mean leaving you and Alex in ten years," Sam said at once.

"Bullshit," Jo responded.

"What?" Sam asked with surprise.

"I said, bullshit," Jo repeated grimly, "You haven't let him turn you because you're afraid that he'll turn out just like your ex and suddenly stop loving you and start finding flaws. That's what happened with that jerk Tom, so the data tells you that could happen with Mortimer. You're just using Alex and me as your excuse."

"No, I-"

"You could have turned and then tried to find life mates for Alex and me,"

Jo pointed out. "You would have had ten years

to find them, but you didn't go that route... because turning would make it irrevocable." She paused and then said, "I'm turned now. What excuse will you use if you find Alex a life mate too?" •

Sam bowed her head and admitted in a low voice. "I don't know how he can love me, Jo. He sees me through rosecolored glasses right now, but how long will that last? One day he's going to wake up and notice that I have no boobs, and I have knobby knees, and-"

"Sam, he already knows that," Jo said quietly, and then glanced toward the door as a phone rang in another room. It rang twice and then stopped, and she glanced back to her sister with a sigh.

"Sam, Mortimer loves you as you are. And

from what I understand, that doesn't change between life mates."

Sam glanced up, her expression torn as she pointed out, "But Tom said he loved me too."

Jo sat down next to her again and took her hands in her own. She waited for her sister to meet her gaze and then said quietly, "Sam, the problem isn't that he'll fall out of love with you, but that you've never learned to love yourself." She let that sink in and then forced a smile and said lightly, "Besides, the nanos put us at our peak, right? So maybe they'll put some meat on your bones." She squeezed Sam's hand and teased, "You might even get boobs and finally be able to shed training bras."

"Nice," Sam muttered dryly.

Jo chuckled and then glanced to the door at the sound of approaching footsteps. Her eyebrows rose in question when she

saw Bricker appear in the doorway.

He glanced at them curiously and then said, "Mortimer sent me to tell you that Jeanne Louise is on the way up the drive."

"I guess I should make coffee then," Sam murmured standing up. When Jo glanced at her with surprise, she explained, "Jeanne Louise is young enough I gather she still eats and drinks."

"Oh," Jo murmured.

"There's no need for you to move, Sam," Bricker assured her. "Mortimer was putting the coffee on as I left, and the guys were helping him put together a tray of cookies too. In fact, I have to get back to help. You two just sit down and relax."

Jo and Sam watched him go, and then glanced at each other.

"Mortimer is domestic?" Jo asked with surprise.

"Mortimer does whatever needs doing," Sam said quietly. "He's good that way."

Jo nodded and wondered if Nicholas was like that too. He'd helped heat up pizza at Sam's apartment and had helped clean up her mess in the kitchen just a few moments ago, but she had no idea what he was like day to day. She supposed they still had a lot to learn about each other, and she just hoped she got the chance.

The sound of the front door opening made them both glance toward the entry.

Eager to meet and question Nicholas's sister, Jo hurried across the room, aware that Sam was following. She paused abruptly in the doorway when she saw the woman entering the foyer. Tall, shapely, and gorgeous, the brunette looked amazing in a bright red summer dress. She also had an air of command about her that didn't seem to suit a young immortal, at least not in Jo's mind.

"Jeanne Louise?" she said uncertainly as the woman turned and spotted her.

"No, dear. I'm her aunt Marguerite," the woman answered, eyeing her with lively interest.

"I'm Jeanne Louise," another woman announced as she stepped into the entry.

This woman was more what she'd expected, Jo thought as she took in her lover's sister. She was tall but slender, her hair midnight-black and pulled back into a bun. She was also dressed much more conservatively than her aunt, wearing dark

slacks and a white blouse.

"And this is her other aunt and my sister-in-law Leigh," Marguerite announced as a shorter brunette entered on Jeanne Louise's heels. "And this is Jeanne Louise's sister-in-law Inez."

Jo glanced at the woman with curly dark hair, and a darker complexion, and then to the next woman to enter, a blond replica of Marguerite who carried a small child in her arms as Marguerite continued the introductions with "My daughter Lissianna and her darling baby girl Lucy."

Marguerite turned back and smiled as she admitted, "Thomas was very mysterious on the phone and we were all curious so we decided to come with Jeanne Louise."

"Hell," Sam sighed behind her, and Jo could only silently agree. Unless there were two Leighs in the family, then they presently had Lucian's wife in the house. Great. There was no way they were going to be able to keep Nicholas's presence a secret from Lucian now.

"Aunt Marguerite!"

Jo glanced up at that alarmed cry to see Thomas leading the men up the hall, each of them carrying a plate of cookies, cups, or a tray with cream and sugar on it. At least he had been leading them up the hall, but stopped abruptly now and whirled to start pushing them back toward the kitchen.

"Oh, don't bother, Thomas," Marguerite said with amused exasperation. "I've already read these two lovely young women and know who they are and that Nicholas is here."

"Nicholas?" Jeanne Louise gasped. Jo glanced to her to see that she'd gone pale as she stared at the crowd of men, her eyes searching them for the presently hidden Nicholas.

"Come," Marguerite said suddenly. "Let's move into the living room."

She began to herd the women toward Jo and Sam and then said, "Sam, would you be a dear and show Lissianna somewhere she might lay Lucy down for her nap? She fell asleep in the car on the way over and doesn't need to hear this anyway."

"Of course," Sam murmured, and slipped past Jo to lead Lissianna upstairs.

"Come Jo, let's get settled in the living room, shall we," Marguerite urged, turning her into the room with a hand on her

arm. Glancing up the hall, she added, "And you boys bring the goodies... as well as Nicholas. There's no sense hiding him now."

Jo moved reluctantly into the living room, only to pause by the nearest chair and glance back toward the door for Nicholas.

"Thomas, you and Inez sit on the couch with Jeanne Louise," Marguerite ordered gently. "She's a little upset. Nicholas..."

She turned to the door as he entered behind the other men. "Come give me a kiss."

Nicholas moved to his aunt and she immediately pulled him into an embrace, murmuring, "We've missed you."

"Thank you," he said quietly as she kissed and hugged him.

She smiled and patted his cheek and then ordered, "You take the end chair there with Jo. We'll get this all sorted out."

Nodding, Nicholas released her and moved to sit in the La-Z-Boy Jo stood beside, then caught her hand and tugged, urging her to sit in his lap, but she shook her head.

"I want a coffee. Would you like one?" she asked.

"Yes, please," he said softly.

She moved to the coffee table where the men had set the trays and plates and quickly poured both herself and Nicholas a cup. She then moved back to hand Nicholas his before seating herself carefully in his lap. Jo sipped at the bitter liquid as she watched the others milling around getting themselves coffees and some taking cookies, but then they all began to settle into seats.

"We can make room here on the couch, Aunt Marguerite," Thomas said as the chairs began to fill up.

"Good,, then Lissianna or Leigh can sit there. I think I'll take the rocking chair since I'm now a grandma. Everyone else find a seat where you can."

"I'll bring some chairs from the dining room," Bricker murmured, heading out of the room with Anders on his heels, but Jo hardly noticed. Her surprised gaze was on Marguerite as the woman settled in her rocking chair. She didn't look anywhere near old enough to be a grandmother.

"I'm over seven hundred years old, dear. Old enough to be a great-great-great-great-great grandmother or more if fate

had been more accommodating," Marguerite said with a little sigh as Lissianna and Sam returned with Bricker and Anders on their heels. Each of the men carried two chairs.

"Well, there we are then," Marguerite said once everyone was seated. She glanced around the group, her gaze pausing on Jo. "So you think our Nicholas is innocent of murdering that mortal and hope Jeanne Louise knows something that will help prove it."

Jo blinked in confusion, and then grimaced as she realized the woman must have read her. Jeez, she really needed to learn how to guard her thoughts, Jo decided, and leaned forward to set her mug on the coffee table.

"Nicholas isn't innocent," Jeanne Louise said in a low, angry voice. "He killed that woman."

Jo peered at her, anger rolling up inside her until she saw the sad, tormented look on the woman's face. She looked ready to cry and was obviously upset to think that her brother could have done such a thing. Forcing her anger back down, Jo asked quietly, "Do you really believe that?"

Jeanne Louise looked at Nicholas uncertainly, but then said, "Decker saw him do it."

"Decker saw him with a body" Jo corrected gently.

"He said there was blood all over him," she argued in a firm voice, and Jo sat back with exasperation.

"You people and your seeing-is-believing!"

"Jo," Nicholas said in warning tones as she leaned forward to pick up her coffee.

"I'm just going to drink it," she muttered, and proceeded to do so. As Jo lowered the cup, she glanced to his sister and asked, "But if I had thrown this on you, Jeanne Louise, and you were covered with coffee, would it mean you drank it? Or even that you spilled it?"

When Jeanne Louise just stared at her, eyes widening slightly, Jo said firmly, "Nicholas didn't kill that woman. He has no memory between when he first spotted the woman in the parking lot and when he opened his eyes in his basement to find her lying dead in his arms. Someone set him up. And if it wasn't Decker, then they got super lucky that he showed up when he did, or I bet they somehow arranged for him to show up."

"But how could they have managed it?" Jeanne Louise asked quietly. "How did they get Nicholas there with the dead woman in his arms?"

"Drugs would be my guess," Jo said, and when Jeanne Louise merely bit her lip and looked uncertain, she shifted impatiently. "Look, it doesn't matter if you believe in his innocence, I do. So just tell us if you know what Annie might have wanted to tell him."

Jeanne Louise sighed, but shook her head. "I don't know."

Jo sagged with defeat, sure the girl wasn't even trying because she didn't believe.

"Jeanne Louise," Marguerite said softly, suggesting she thought the same thing.

"I don't," Jeanne Louise insisted. "We talked about loads of things. Her work, my work, family, shopping, movies, men..."

She shrugged helplessly. "Everything."

"Wasn't there anything she talked about more than others?" Jo asked pleadingly.

"I'm sorry, no. Not that I recall," Jeanne Louise said unhappily.

Jo sighed and glanced around the room. "Well then maybe she mentioned something to one of you?"

When her gaze settled hopefully on Marguerite, the woman's gaze turned apologetic and she shook her head. "I'm sorry, dear. I really want to help, but we only met three times. The first time was when she and Nicholas first got together, and she was quiet and shy then. The second time was at the wedding, and we didn't get a chance to talk much at all, and then the last time was a couple weeks before she died. She and Jeanne Louise came for a visit while Nicholas was away, and as I recall..." She paused and frowned. "I think she mostly asked me about Armand."

"Armand?" Jo asked.

"My father," Nicholas told her.