Julian's Jeopardy

Chapter Ten

Sheridan's next few days passed in abject misery. The only person who would talk to her, through a closed, locked door, was Olivia.

Now more than ever Sheridan realized her mistake in not asking Jules for her family ring and leaving that very first day. Hanging around because of Jules had only hurt her, especially since she shouldn't have to work so hard to make Jules believe in her innocence. She thought she'd seen affection on his face when they'd been making love. Apparently, her feelings had been completely one-sided.

“I shouldn't have to prove myself,” she muttered and stared at the pale blue walls in her cell. “I saved Morgan's life,” she ended with a raised voice.

“And I'm glad of it,” Morgan answered back in a loud voice that boomed through the door.

Sheridan scrambled to her feet. Olivia had told her she had strict orders to watch over Sheridan, as well as to keep others away. As if Sheridan had any friend in this place clamoring for her attention. “You're not supposed to be here.”

“I can't stay away. What can I say?”

“Morgan…” Olivia said something else Sheridan couldn't make out.

“Go take a break, Olivia. You've been down here for three days, and your mate is trying my last nerve. Go on. I'll watch her.” Olivia grumbled. “Fine. But when something goes wrong, like it always does around you, I'm not taking the blame.”

“Sure, sure. Now get that cute little ass out of here.”

“I'm going. Don't have to tell me twice.”

Sheridan didn't hear any more and stepped back from the door. After a second it beeped and opened, and Morgan strolled inside. The automatic door closed behind him, enclosing them both in a very small space.

She glanced up at him, feeling the brawn and size of him so close. His bright green eyes regarded her with interest, and he remained with his back against the door while she tried to move as far from him as she could. She'd saved him, but he hadn't stood up for her. Maybe he'd come down here to beat an answer out of her.

She didn't know anything anymore.

“What do you want?” she snapped, hoping she didn't sound as nervous as she felt.

“I want you to tell me exactly what happened after you and Melissa entered that room.”

“I told Olivia what happened at least twenty times. Nothing of my story will change.”

Morgan sighed. “I don't want anything to change. I just want you to explain it again.”

Sheridan went through the same song and dance, wishing she'd done more than watch Melissa walk out the door with Raul.

Morgan frowned. “She said you should just go back to Ricardo.”

“Yes, for the tenth time. She practically hissed at me, and she had a really nasty tone. Then she waved her freaking hand at the door, and it opened. She gave me a killer headache until Raul warned her 'he' wouldn't be pleased, whoever 'he' is.

Then Raul put that gun to her head. But there was never any fear in her eyes.

Looking back on it, I should have known Melissa wasn't right.”

“Why?”

“Because after she was brought into the house, I didn't sense any pain in her. I can feel physical injury, Morgan.”

He nodded. “And you can't stop yourself from healing it.”

“Where'd you get that idea?” she asked, surprised.

“Jules and Mrs. Sharpe mentioned it.”

She snorted. “Well, they're wrong. Yeah, the compulsion is there to fix what's broken, but I don't have to do it. I won't break if I ignore someone's pain. But I'm a healer. It's what I do. I like to heal people. But I don't have to,” she muttered.

“Interesting.” His wide smile made him look even hunkier than usual, but it didn't deter her hostility. “I'm doubly grateful you decided to heal me, then.” She flushed, not amused. “It's not like you asked to be shot. And that's what's so weird about all this. Raul helped me escape from that lab two months ago. He had no love for Ricardo. I don't understand why he's suddenly helping him.” Morgan's eyes narrowed. “Are you sure Montaña is behind this?” She hadn't questioned his involvement. “Who else would it be?”

“Who else,” he repeated and paused. “Tell me what you know about Raul.” Before she could answer him, the door opened. Jules stood there, his expression shuttered. “Bring her into Sharpe's office.” He left before she could gather her wits to say anything.

Morgan sighed and stepped back. “After you.”

She gladly walked out of the tiny room into the laboratory corridor. As they moved down the hall, Morgan leaned close. “He never left you completely alone.”

“What?”

Jules disappeared up the stairs ahead of them.

“At night, when Olivia took her break, Jules stayed in front of your door. And he made sure to pop down to 'check your status' nearly a dozen times a day. What do you think that means?”

Sheridan warmed, despite not wanting Jules's actions to affect her. The damned Circ had her tried and found guilty before listening to anything she'd said.

She shouldn't care how often he came near her cell. “Probably felt guilty.” They reached the stairs, and Morgan chuckled. “Jules doesn't do guilty. He leads, we follow. He's a controlling asshole who makes decisions for the whole team, Sheridan. He can't afford to be indecisive or to make the wrong decision.”

“And me? I'm a wrong decision?” she asked, annoyed.

“Not from where I'm standing. Without you, I'd be a dead man.” The earnest thanks in his voice stopped her on the steps. “You mean that.”

“Yeah, I do. Unlike the beasts that live here, I'm more intelligent, suave, and sophisticated. I know how to tell the good guys from the bad guys.” He tugged Sheridan with him up the rest of the steps.

She stared up at him in stunned confusion. Morgan thought she was one of the good guys?

They continued down the hallway to where Jules waited impatiently for them by Mrs. Sharpe's door.

Morgan kissed her on the cheek. “Thanks for saving my life.” The fury on Jules face when they passed him and entered the study almost made her incarceration worth it.

“Morgan, we're gonna talk later,” Jules rasped, his fangs plain to see.

Sheridan didn't know what the hell to think. For three days she'd been cooped up in that small cell with nothing to do but read the few paperbacks Olivia had offered. No one but Olivia had talked to her, and the misery of Sheridan's existence and her doomed future had lulled her into despondency. She had no reason to perk up just because Jules had spent the quiet nighttime hours with her. She hadn't known he'd been there. It shouldn't matter.

But for some odd reason, it did.

“Sheridan, please, come sit.” Mrs. Sharpe pointed her to a chair that seemed to be the center of everyone's attention.

Morgan sat down next to Kisho. Tersch stood by himself toward the back. Mrs.

Sharpe and Ava sat on the couch with Olivia next to them. And of course, Jesse stood near his wife. Sheridan didn't see Jack and didn't want to, not after witnessing his rage. Jules took the seat right next to her, and she tried not to be obvious as she scooted her legs away from the broad spread of his own.

“Sheridan, why don't you tell them what you told me,” Morgan suggested.

Jules turned to Olivia. “I thought I told you not to leave her room.” Olivia didn't meet his eyes when she answered. “Please. She no more staged Melissa's kidnapping than I did, and you know it.”

Jules growled.

“You don't think I did it?” Sheridan had to know.

“I don't. Olivia and Fallon don't,” Morgan said. “But the others aren't so sure.

Just to be clear, Sheridan told me she doesn't have to heal. It's something she needs to do, but doesn't have to do, which sheds a new light on things, eh, Jules?” Sheridan glanced at Jules, who stared at her with a brooding intensity that alarmed her, especially because it turned her on. “Sheds a new light on things?

What's he talking about?” she asked.

“Did you or did you not heal Morgan?” Jules rumbled, his beast staring out at her through a man's eyes.

“You know I did.”

“Why?”

She blinked. “Why? Because a man shot him. He would have died if I hadn't saved him.”

Jules held up a hand, and when his fingers turned into talons, everyone in the room stilled.

“Jules,” Mrs. Sharpe warned.

Jules didn't tear his gaze from Sheridan. He took his forefinger and slashed a deep wound across his forearm. It bled like a sieve, and he stabbed it again when it started to heal. “Fix this.”

Like she was a show pony. “Fix it yourself, you jerk,” she snapped. Her fingers itched, but she refused to be drawn into a game she didn't want to play.

Morgan sighed. “I told you.”

Jules shocked her by grinning. “Hell. That's a relief.” He wiped the blood from his arm but to her dismay, it kept bleeding, slower now, but a continuous flow.

“You're not healed.”

“I nicked an artery.”

“Stupid man.” She reached out and dragged his arm close. Sealing her hand over the wound, she pushed the healing energy into him. The returning lust and boost in energy she subsequently felt didn't surprise her, but it did make holding him awkward, because she wanted to kiss him better.

Dropping his arm, she scooted farther back in her chair and ignored the sudden blaze of desire in his bright eyes.

“So Melissa went with them willingly.” Kisho frowned. “That doesn't make sense.”

“It does if she and Jack have been part of our problem from the beginning.” Ava leaned forward in her chair. “For a while now, we've known someone's been watching us. Hell, Jules. Remember when you first returned from Brazil? You told Mrs. S. that Montaña knew more than he should. How do you think that was possible? Sheridan just got here a few days ago. Not like she could have told him anything about life before you went away, now could she?”

“This sucks.” Tersch grumbled. “I played poker with those two. Hell, I ate Melissa's shitty meatloaf.”

“Well, how do you think I feel?” Jesse asked. “I'm the mind reader, but I didn't sense anything from the pair. I still don't get anything from Jack. When are you going to let me at him again, Mrs. Sharpe?”

The smile she gave him chilled Sheridan. “No need to worry about Jack. He and I have come to an understanding.”

Jules rubbed his forearm, where Sheridan had healed him. “I don't understand Raul's part in this, though. So Melissa wants to give them an in. Okay. But why blame Sheridan?”

“I think Sheridan needs to tell us what life at that compound was like. We've already checked into the Vida Verde connection and found that Montaña was giving them funding under an assumed identity. I'm sure Olivia's aunt and uncle thought him just another investor. No wonder they sent Sheridan to him. What exactly do you know about Colonel Ricardo Montaña, dear?” Mrs. Sharpe asked Sheridan.

Too much. Sheridan remembered too clearly how he'd assaulted her, and she did her best to push the recollection to the back of her mind. But she wasn't fast enough.

Jesse straightened next to Olivia. “He assaulted you?” The other men seemed to grow angry on her behalf, whereas just moments ago, she'd been their enemy. “You guys need to make up your minds.” She tried not to blush at what Jesse might have seen, ashamed of what Ricardo had almost taken from her. “I'm either the bad guy, or I'm not.”

“You're not,” Ava and Tersch said at the same time.

Tersch clenched his jaw and missed the satisfied smirk Ava shot him.

Jules kicked Sheridan's foot to get her attention. “Look at this from our point of view. I disappear and come back with my memory skewed. Hazy images and feelings of something I'd rather forget, except for a certain redhead with crystal clear blue eyes, hands that can heal, and a body that—” He stopped himself, and Sheridan saw the others staring at him with open curiosity and smirking faces.

“That makes you what, Jules?” Morgan asked, all innocence.

“Asshole.” Jules muttered under his breath and ignored the question. “I remembered you, Sheridan.

“We've been dealing with Montaña for over a year, and his men attack us just after you're here? Do the math,” Jules said with a shrug. “You looked guilty as hell.

Especially after Melissa was captured and Morgan was shot, and he heard your buddy Raul thank you for your help.”

Sheridan bit her lip. “Well, when you put it like that, I see your point. But if you'd just listened to me before, I could have cleared this up.”

Jules snorted. “Oh really? When was that? Because according to Olivia, you only wanted to talk after spending a few hours in the lab.”

“Lab? Try cell,” she said with a huff.

Mrs. Sharpe interrupted. “Sheridan, this is important. Tell us about your time spent with Colonel Montaña. We need to know all we can about him.” Sheridan looked around her. Raul had told her these people were the enemy.

What a crock. He'd shot Morgan and worked with Melissa, for God's sake.

“So Raul told you we were the enemy, hmm? Interesting,” Jesse murmured.

“Stop reading my thoughts.” She gave Jesse a sharp look. “Let me tell it. I have a history with Ricardo Montaña, if you could call it that. It goes back several years.

I'm a botanist, like my parents. But it's hard to get funding to work. So with grants and an investment made by Ricardo Montaña, my folks have gotten by.”

“Ah, that's what I was missing,” Mrs. Sharpe murmured. “Go on, Sheridan.”

“Yes, well, Ricardo made his interest in me pretty plain a few years ago. He'd show up announced at our labs and bring me things, expensive jewelry, clothes… It was weird. I gave everything back, until he brought me a special flower.”

“Flowers, typical,” muttered Tersch.

She shook her head. “No, not just any flowers, but an unusual specimen with properties I'd been researching in the course of my studies,” Sheridan corrected.

“I've done a lot with this particular bloom, but it's a rare find. It grows in abundance in certain parts of the Amazon rain forest. I hooked up with the Vida Verde organization two years ago. I loved working there. But my work revolved around the Sheridan Rose, and I needed better access to the specimen.”

“Sheridan Rose?” Jules murmured.

Sheridan blushed. “The name is ridiculous, I agree, but it's what we called it.

The flower was abundant around Ricardo's compound. That's all I cared about.”

“I want to know how you got from Vida Verde to Montaña's lab,” Jesse said.

“Me too.” Olivia sounded worried. “Morgan can't reach my aunt and uncle, and my cousins haven't gotten back to us yet.”

Sheridan sighed. “They were the ones who recommended Ricardo's compound to expand my studies. At first, the place seemed like a dream. There really is a laboratory there, with real scientists working on various projects. I admit, I was so into what I was doing, I didn't pay great attention to what was going on around me.

But I did notice the weird guards.”

“Weird how?” Tersch asked.

“They were all, well, a lot like you guys. Big, muscular, kind of wild. They had a tendency to growl at me. No one ever hurt me or made any unwelcome advances, not until Ricardo…” She paused. “My friend Pedro told me about Jules. I couldn't believe Ricardo could keep a man in the condition he'd described. When I found him, I was stunned.”

Sheridan glanced at Jules. “He was bruised and bloodied. You all heal fast, but Jules had been tortured. It was terrible.” She swallowed the pain of remembering. “I healed him. And there was an instant connection between us.”

“I'll say.” Jules clearly remembered what else she'd done for him that first night.

Sheridan remembered their first encounter all too well herself. “During the next few weeks, I tried to sneak down whenever I could to help him heal. But I later found out Ricardo knew all about it. The night he attacked me, Ricardo told me he intended to marry me. That he wanted me to, um, wow. This is embarrassing.”

“Go on.” The angry look on Jules's face worried her.

“He said he planned to marry me, for me to bear his children. He told me that, right before he assaulted me.” She bit out the reminder. “Then Elena, his girlfriend, burst in, and he was with her.”

Tersch frowned. “With her?”

“They had sex,” Morgan explained, apparently reading the embarrassment on Sheridan's face.

“Yeah. That. He made me watch, and he used Raul to guard me.”

“I'll kill him.” The quiet in Jules's voice bothered her. He'd made a promise, not a threat.

Sheridan hurried to continue, aware of everyone's attention. “I managed to escape with Pedro's help. He was the head of security, and he gave me a backpack, some money, and the means to evade the cameras all over the compound. He also gave me the keys to help Jules. You probably know the rest. Jules and I ran through the jungle. He carried me most of the way, and then he fought the rogues and the mutant that attacked us. But in doing so, he was injured.”

“Wow. Jules, you really know how to live it up while you're off duty,” Tersch mocked, but his slow grin showed Sheridan how much he respected his team leader.

“Not just Montaña, but rogues and mutants. Not bad.” He raised his brow at Sheridan. “And you got the girl too, hmm?”

“Did I?” Jules asked.

Sheridan cleared her throat. “Grayson and Raul are the Circs who saved our lives. Raul took Jules back to that hotel and called the number Jules gave me.

Grayson took me to a deserted cabin in the middle of nowhere. I healed them, and we made plans to get me to back to Jules.”

“Why?” Ava frowned.

“Yeah, that's what I want to know.” Jules held his hand up, and her grandfather's ring flashed at her. “You said you wanted this ring. But why do I have it in the first place?”

Sheridan tried to keep her mind and her thoughts her own, aware of Jesse's scrutiny on everything she said and thought. But she couldn't possibly tell him the truth—that she'd started to fall in love with him and wanted him to have it. “At the time, I didn't know Grayson or Raul, and that ring means a lot to me. You'd proven yourself trustworthy, and I thought I'd have a better chance getting it back from you than from them if they proved criminal.”

“But you went with them,” Tersch pointed out.

“I had to. Jules was in no shape to help me. He'd almost died. That…thing he killed was alien. That mutant? It had rows of teeth. It…it nearly chewed his arm off.” She shuddered just thinking about it. “And I could feel that Grayson and Raul needed healing. I offered to help them in return for taking care of Jules.”

“What was wrong with those Circs?” Olivia asked.

Sheridan expelled a breath. “I can't explain it. Grayson called it the thing that turned Circs rogue in the first place. Something Ricardo had perfected and injected into the Circs on the compound who weren't suffering from the initial Circe serum infection. I just”—she shrugged—“burned it out of them. It actually took some time to help them, because the malignant cells reformed after I'd burned them out a few times. But we got to the point where their bodies stopped making the foreign cells.

“We stayed far away from Ricardo's compound, deep in the jungle. I know both men wanted nothing more to do with Ricardo, so I don't understand why Raul would have done what he did. Why he shot Morgan. Then again, he was the one who told me lies about your team to begin with,” she mused.

“Let me guess, that we're all thieves, murderers, and mercenaries?” Kisho glanced at Morgan with a half smile.

Morgan muttered, “Ass.”

Sheridan nodded. “Yes. You wanted to know why I'd come here if I was so scared of you. I wanted my grandfather's ring. It's priceless to me.” The truth, for so many reasons. “What Raul told me didn't fit with what I'd known of Jules, but then, we were in danger, and I didn't really get to know Jules that well.”

“Well enough, I'd say.” He glared at her. “So you took Raul's word. And you took a job here in Circ central. Why?”

She sighed with frustration. “I don't know. I guess I wanted to believe that Raul was wrong, and I thought if I could spend some time here among you, I'd figure it out. I didn't like thinking I couldn't trust my own instincts, which had told me to trust you. And if I was wrong, I just thought I could convince you to give me my ring back. Then I'd take it and disappear.”

Tersch snorted. “Not likely.”

“Oh?”

“Jules has had a hard-on for you since the minute you stepped through that door. You really think he'd let you walk off without his say-so?”

“Gunnar, language,” Mrs. Sharpe reprimanded.

“Jeez, Gunnar.” Ava coughed to hide a laugh.

Jules surprised Sheridan by agreeing with him. “He's right. No way are you leaving without my permission.”

“Excuse me?” Sheridan scowled.

“Now this is where it gets good. We need popcorn,” Jesse said in a loud whisper to Olivia.

“I thought the whole point of this discussion was to learn about Ricardo Montaña.”

“And you, Sheridan Keyes. It's very important we know as much about you as we can,” Mrs. Sharpe said.

She didn't miss the satisfaction on the woman's face…or on Jules's.

“There's not that much more to know. My name is Sheridan Keyes. I'm a botanist who can heal injury with my hands. But other than that, I'm actually pretty boring.” Sheridan wanted nothing more than to escape all the drama. She didn't like being the center of so much attention, even if the winds of blame had finally shifted from her.

“You're far from boring, Sheridan,” Jules said in a low tone that made her entire body take notice. “You sated my mating heat with those hot little hands. And the rest of you…” His study left little to the imagination.

“Jules,” she hissed, more than discomfited, especially since she recalled what she'd been trying to ignore. Tersch had witnessed her slutty behavior earlier. Could she possibly be more embarrassed than she was right now?

“Now that is something special, Sheridan. Did you help the other Circs with their mating heats as well?” Jules asked, his voice suspiciously quiet.

“No!” She wanted to sink through the chair in humiliation. “Grayson and Raul didn't want that from me.” Well, Raul had wanted it, but she hadn't desired anyone but Jules.

“I called it,” Jesse murmured.

Olivia nodded in agreement. “I feel it. Can't understand why Jules doesn't, though.”

Sheridan wished she could just up and leave. “What more do you want from me? I told you the truth. I have no idea where Ricardo's compound was because we traveled at night. And when I left, it was under Grayson's guard. Raul just took off one day, and I hadn't seen him until he showed up and shot Morgan. Melissa is your traitor, not me. So why don't you just let me out of here.” She glared at Jules. “And give me back my ring.”

He shook his head and stood. “No can do, baby. We have a few more things we need to discuss in private. I'll talk to you guys later.” In a heartbeat, he'd hauled Sheridan out of her chair and into his arms.

“Quit it. You're always grabbing me.” Sheridan felt as if she were drowning in a sudden wave of sexual desire.

“Oh, man, not again.” Tersch groaned and practically leaped out of the way when Ava reached for his shoulder. “I'm out of here.”

“Wait, Gunnar. I want to talk to you.” Ava followed him out of the study.

“That girl has no patience,” Mrs. Sharpe muttered. “Go talk some sense into Sheridan, Jules. The rest of you, stay here. There are some things we need to do.” Sheridan protested, but no one listened. In minutes, she stood in Jules's locked bedroom with nothing but time, and a rapidly receding distance, between them.