The Renegade Hunter (4 page)

Jo closed the door behind her and crossed the room, headed for the bed. She was very tired and eager to climb under the covers and sleep. That was the thought circling through her mind as she passed the window and spotted the men on the lawn.

Pausing, she moved closer to the window and peered out, recognizing Mortimer and Bricker, but not the third man with them. They were quite a distance away, but the stranger appeared to be a good-looking man. She didn't recall meeting him at the party, however. Curious, she moved to the balcony door and slid it open to step outside.

The low rumble of the men's voices drifted to her on the night breeze, and Jo frowned at the cadence and rhythm of the stranger's voice. It sounded vaguely familiar, but she was sure they hadn't met. She watched them walk to the building at the back of the property, listening to them talk and trying to place where she'd heard the voice before. Even after they disappeared inside the building, the question of where she knew the man from continued to nag at her rather irritably. Jo had the feeling it was important, but couldn't seem to figure it out.

She was still fretting over the matter when the sound of a door closing drew her attention. Mortimer and Bricker had come back out of the building where her sister Sam said he housed his car collection, and were walking toward the

house. Jo watched them for a moment, but then turned and slid back into the house before they could spot her. She really was very tired and eager to climb under the covers and sleep.

Unfortunately, she now had a rather nasty headache.

Frowning, she raised a hand to the back of her skull as she headed for the bed once more, but her footsteps slowed and then stopped as she felt the bump there.

What the heck? Wincing as her fingers slid over the swelling, Jo changed direction, heading for the bathroom instead. She stepped into the small room, flipped on the bright overhead light, and then moved to the mirror, turning her head to the side in an effort to see the goose egg she had. Of course, that didn't work.

Grimacing, she started opening drawers and

cupboard doors in search of a hand mirror or something she could use to see the back of her head, but there was very little in the cupboards and drawers, just towels, washcloths, and various soaps.

Jo closed the last door and straightened with a sigh. Not only had she not found a mirror, but there was no aspirin or pain relievers of any kind in this guest bathroom either. It seemed, tired and eager to climb into bed and sleep as she was, she would have to go downstairs and find some sort of pain reliever first. There was no way she was going to sleep with her head pounding as it was.

Maybe she could find out what had happened to her head while she was at it, she thought. Jo had no recollection of bumping it or anything and certainly should, considering the whack she must have taken to cause the swelling there now.

In fact, she couldn't understand how she didn't recall what had happened to cause it, and began to worry that something might have been dropped into her drink tonight, one of those date rape drugs or something.

The thought raised enough worry in her that Jo suddenly wasn't so tired and eager to climb into bed and sleep anymore.

In fact, she was wide awake and alarmed as she slid into the hall. Jo was halfway to the stairs when she heard the front door open below. Heavy footsteps entered the house, and then there was the tap of high heels rushing up the hall.

"Oh, Mortimer," she heard Sam say anxiously. "What's going on? Decker brought Jo inside all blank-faced and wouldn't

tell me what had happened. He took Jo upstairs and sent her to her room and then went to check on Dani and Stephanie and hasn't come back. He was controlling Jo, wasn't he?"

"Yes, honey, he had to."

Jo froze in the upper hall at Mortimer's words. Decker had been controlling her? He had to? What the...

"Why?" Sam asked. "What's happened?"

"A rogue got onto the property," Mortimer explained. "One of Leo's sons.

He attacked Jo. It's all right," he added quickly as Sam gasped in dismay. "She's fine. Nicholas was following the rogue and saved her before he did more than bang her up a bit."

"Nicholas?" Sam asked even as Jo repeated the name in her head. She suddenly had a flash of the man she'd seen on the lawn with Mortimer and Bricker. They were standing in the dark and he was peering down into her face, telling her his name was-

"Nicholas Argeneau?" Sam spoke the name running through Jo's mind, and then added, "The rogue Nicholas Argeneau.

He was here too?"

"Yes. He was apparently tailing Leo's son and followed him onto the property to keep him from causing trouble. He saw him attack Jo and stopped him."

A moment of silence fell below and Jo eased for ward, moving close enough to the railing that she could see the tops of Sam and Mortimer's heads, but no more. She had no desire to be caught. Jo suspected they would stop talking if they knew she was there.

"So this Nicholas Argeneau," Sam said grimly, "the rogue Nicholas Argeneau... helped save Dani and Stephanie at the beginning of summer and has now, again, risked getting himself caught to save my sister?" Sam asked slowly in what Jo fondly thought of as her sister's lawyer voice. "Does that make any sense to you?"

"No." Mortimer sounded weary, and his hand came into view as he ran his fingers through his hair. "But that's what's happened."

"Why would he do that?" Sam asked, and then, voice serious, said, "Are you sure he's a rogue, Mortimer? A man who'd risk himself to save complete strangers just doesn't sound like a-"

"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 assured 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 sex 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 muffled 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 hell 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.

Jo managed to make it out of the house without being spotted. She paused just outside the sliding glass 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 grass. 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 glass 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 sister 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 glass 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 shining 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 passed 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