Dawn Endeavor 3: Julian's Jeopardy (18 page)

The glance he shared with Olivia didn't make sense.

Then again, nothing much did.

Sheridan started to get really scared. The men were no longer treating this like a mix-up. Instead, the accusatory glares and deliberate blame seemed to be settling on her. She turned to the one person whose opinion really mattered.

“Jules?”

He didn't answer.

Mrs. Sharpe frowned. “Sheridan, tell me again why you and Melissa went into the laundry room.”

“I told you. She wanted privacy. She was holding her side, then her stomach, which was odd, because I didn't sense any pain. But I wasn't sure. Everything was so tense, and she seemed scared. She's the one who wanted privacy. It wasn't my idea.”

“Wasn't it?” Morgan asked. “You locked the damned door.”

“I did,” she admitted and swallowed hard. “But Melissa asked me to.” Sheridan wasn't stupid. Melissa had deliberately set her up. But why? Why show her to be one with the enemy? And why the absolute hatred and venom in Melissa's voice when she'd talked to her? It made no sense. “Melissa isn't who you think she is. She opened that door with her mind. And she threw some kind of attack at me. It made my head hurt.”

The others scoffed in disbelief, and Kisho had to hold Jack back from attacking her.

“
Where’s my wife
?”

Sheridan didn't know what to think. She stood and immediately wished she hadn't. Tersch invaded her personal space and smiled. The grin threatened more than his scowls did. “Give me a few minutes with her.” He cracked his knuckles. “I'll find out the truth.”

She tumbled back onto the couch before Jules pushed the others aside.

Thinking he'd finally come to his senses, she wasn't prepared when he pulled her off the couch and dragged her away. Not toward her room, but toward the stairs leading to the basement.

“Jules?”

He didn't speak.

She had to run not to fall as he dragged her down into the laboratory. He strode through the corridor toward one of the locked rooms she hadn't yet explored and punched in a keycode. Then he shoved her inside.

“Jules?”

He didn't speak, but he didn't have to. The disappointment and anger in his eyes stopped her from saying anything more. The door closed, and a
snick
let her know it was locked.

Tried and convicted without a jury. Terrific.

Sheridan sniffed, determined not to cry. Then she sat on a cot, stared at the open toilet, sink, and mirror, and noticed the lack of anything else in the small room. Not room—cell. The tears started, and she couldn't stop.

Jules heard her soft sobs and wanted to pound his fist through the wall. Why the hell had she done it? What had Sheridan hoped to accomplish? Why take Melissa? None of this made any sense. To top it off, whereas before he'd sensed her guilt, now he felt nothing from the woman. Her grief robbed his ability to reason when it came to her.

He strode back upstairs before he did something he'd regret, like open the door to her cell and shake the truth out of her. Just as he was coming to accept the absurd
possibility
of falling in love with a strange woman in even stranger circumstances, he learned she was really the enemy.

Talk about a cruel twist of fate.

Once back upstairs, he interrupted an argument about what to do with Sheridan.

“We need to look into this. It doesn't ring true,” Olivia was saying. “Jack wasn't feeling scared. He was angry.”

Fallon nodded in agreement. “Excessively angry. And I couldn't read his thoughts at all. Or Sheridan's, when before I could read her easily. It's like someone doesn't want us to know what the hell's going on.” Tersch and Hayashi wanted Sheridan out on her ass.

Morgan remained quiet as he watched the others argue. He shared a glance with Mrs. Sharpe that didn't tell Jules anything.

“Come on, Jules. What do you think?” Hayashi asked when he noticed him standing there.

“I don't know what to think.” Jules exhaled a long, weary breath. “Why would Sheridan help rogue Circs burn down Jack and Melissa's house?” Hayashi added, “Why take Melissa?”

“But it's the how that bothers me most,” Morgan murmured. “Melissa acted like she was hurt, but when we asked her earlier, when we found her outside, she said nothing had happened. She was the one who wouldn't talk in front of me.”

“But you said Sheridan locked them in the laundry room,” Tersch pointed out.

Morgan shook his head. “She said Melissa told her to. When I heard Melissa scream through the door, she was yelling at Sheridan. Why would Sheridan let her alert me like that?”

“To get you in the room with them,” Tersch answered.

Morgan disagreed. “Then why have her buddies kidnap Melissa and shoot me, then Sheridan turns around and saves me?”

“See, that's what I don't understand.” Fallon clutched Olivia's hand in his.

“Sheridan's intelligent. All this did was put her under suspicion. The smart thing would have been to let Morgan die and take off with her friends.”

“Thanks.” Morgan scowled.

Fallon shrugged. “It's true. All she did by saving you was throw herself under the bus.”

“Yeah. And that doesn't make sense.” Olivia rubbed the back of her neck.

“Jules, you know Sheridan better than we do. Her shock and grief overwhelmed every other feeling she had. Once she settles down, I'll try to read her again.” He tried to piece the puzzle together. “When I was held captive, Sheridan healed me, and she definitely saved my life there at the end, before Morgan and Hayashi found me. If she and Raul were really working together, why help me escape? And when I was down, why not take me back to Montaña?”

“Unless the good colonel is up to something none of us knows about,” Mrs.

Sharpe added quietly. “We really don't know what Sheridan's motivations are. I get the sense she has to heal, that it's a compulsion with her.” Jules frowned. “She said something similar to me. So maybe she never wanted Raul to shoot Morgan. Maybe by doing so, he ruined her escape. Or he double-crossed her. Hell, I don't know what's going on.” Mrs. Sharpe didn't look happy. She seemed out of sorts, so different from the calm manner in which she normally held herself. “Here's what we do know. The security force is on its way. Admiral London is making a trip out here to see what's going on. Jack's wife is missing, and Jack is working with Ava right now to detail everything that happened, word for word, minute by minute, when he was taken from his house. We'll keep Sheridan downstairs for her safety and ours. Until we know more, that's how things will play out.”

“Yeah, that's a good idea.” Jules needed to get some distance from the situation. His beast was warning him to take note, that he'd missed something important, something that had to do with Sheridan. But damned if he could figure out what. He kept seeing Jack's panic over losing his wife and hearing Sheridan's heartfelt sorrow. Then he glanced at the bloodstained tear in Morgan's shirt and resolved to stand firm.

“Let's get those new guards locked in position. I don't want any new people but the ones we have out there right now. Get to know each and every one of them. And let's come up with a plan to answer our questions. I want this place on lockdown ASAP,” he growled at his team.

They nodded.

“Olivia, you're in charge of our prisoner. She so much as hiccups, you report it to me. But under no circumstances are you to go into her cell or have any physical contact with the woman. Clear?”

Olivia frowned. “Yes, sir.” She gave him a sharp salute. “Hard-ass,” she muttered.

“And don't you forget it,” he replied and almost ran over Tersch when he turned around. Jules shoved the Viking aside. “And you, quit breathing down my neck. I told you to give me some space.”

“Yes, sir.” Tersch gave Jules the same salute Olivia had. “Now let's track down some rogue Circs and have a barbecue. My beast is hungry.”

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.