Pregnant with the Prince's Child (14 page)

Her heart sank. This was the coup de grâce, wasn’t it? This was the one thing she couldn’t explain away. “Yes,” she said in the soft voice of a lost one.

“Is it true that you were raised in his house along with his family?”

“Yes.” Gathering all her nerve, she raised her gaze to meet Pellea’s and try to get her to understand. “But that has nothing to do with this.”

Pellea raised a hand to stop her. “I’m sorry, Janis. I can’t just take your word for it. I should never have let you stay in the first place. It’s my fault.”

Janis choked and her eyes stung. “I…I’m sorry.”

Pellea didn’t smile. “I’ll have to look into this further,” she said. “Take care. I’ll send you word on how things are going.”

Janis watched as she left through the heavy steel door. Once it clanged into place, leaving her all alone again, her tears began to flow.

The next stop for Pellea was Mykal’s room. He was still asleep when she entered, but she got a washcloth dripping with cold water and applied it to his face. That did the trick and he was soon sitting up, squinting at her.

“Arrgghh,” he said.

“And well you might,” Pellea said. “You look like hell.”

He groaned again and tried to widen his eyes. “I feel like I have a very bad hangover. Either that or someone used me for shark bait during the night. What happened?”

“That’s what I’m here to find out.”

He closed his eyes, letting his head fall back. “Okay. Let me know when you come up with an answer,” he muttered.

“Mykal, listen to me. Someone drugged you yesterday. The nurse has run some tests and it seems to be true. Who could have done it?”

He tried to think but his brain wasn’t really ready for that yet. “I don’t know. The doctor?”

“No.” She looked at him impatiently. “You had a number of visitors, including Janis and your brother. Would either one of them have wanted you out cold for any reason?”

He tried harder, but all he got was static. “No. I don’t get it.”

Pellea sighed. “All right. I’ll come back later when you’re feeling a bit more alert. But remember. We’re trying to pull all the threads together on a few different stories of what might have happened. I’ll let you know as soon as we have all the facts.” She patted him and turned to go. “You just get some sleep and rest up.”

He groaned. Getting sleep and resting up were all he ever did anymore. He was sick of it. But he closed his eyes and the next thing he knew, it was two hours later and an attorney was sitting in the chair beside his bed, going through papers and telling him things he didn’t really understand.

Mykal stared at the attorney, Mr. Dreyfer, who had just said Janis had sent him.

“Why? Are you sure it was Janis?”

“Yes, I’m sure. She thought you needed representation. Someone to be on your side.”

Mykal stared at the wall, trying to figure this out. “She’s leaving, isn’t she?” he said softly.

“I believe she said she had business to take care of.”

“No.” His voice was rough and adamant. “She should be here taking care of my business. But she sent you to do it instead.” He frowned. “Not a good sign.”

“Janis is a wonderful young woman, but I don’t believe she has the legal background to understand.”

“Of course not. But she understands us and what we need better than you could ever do.” He shook his head and stared at the wall again. “No offense. But Janis is my wife and I’m afraid she just walked out in order to make things easier for me.”

The attorney left, saying he would be back again tomorrow when Mykal’s life had calmed down a bit. Mykal stared at the wall until the nurse came in to check his bandages.

“Hello, nurse,” he said, looking at her in a friendly manner. “Is the sun shining outside?”

“I’m sorry, sir, I have no way of knowing. We’re in a castle, you know. We don’t see the outside all that well most of the time.”

“Oh. Sorry. I didn’t know.”

She worked on him for a few more minutes and then pulled back as though finished with the job. He frowned at her thoughtfully. Just beyond her, he saw Janis’s satchel shoved into the corner. She must have left it here. But when?

That meant that she was still here in the castle, didn’t it? She hadn’t gone off and left him. Not yet. Maybe, if he could gather his strength, he could find a way to go after her. He would have to think about it.

“Nurse, could you tell me if Janis has been by today?”

The nurse’s face changed dramatically. “Uh…no, sir. I thought you knew. She was caught last night.”

That hit him like a thunderbolt. He stared at her, appalled. “Caught? Doing what?”

The nurse’s eyes got very big. “From what I heard, she was trying to drug you with pills, sir.”

“What?” How absurd. Utterly ridiculous. She had to be joking. “What?”

“Your brother caught her doing it.” She looked very satisfied. “But don’t you worry, she’s in the castle jail, waiting for justice to be served.” She smiled at him. “In the meantime, we’re on orders to make sure no one comes in this room without a witness.”

Janis, drugging him? No. Someone was making that up. Janis would never do anything like that. She had her moments. Like when he caught her stealing his work to give to her brother. But other than that, what had she ever done to make him angry? Nothing.

He closed his eyes and remembered things—Janis in a bikini, jumping off the side of the pool into the silver water. Janis cooking pizza and catching the ancient old stove in their apartment on fire. Janis, in his arms, making him think an angel was making love to him, a very sexy angel with breasts just made for his hands and skin like buttered honey....

His eyes shot open. He had his memory back.

“Nurse!” he called as he ripped out the needle to his IV. “I’ve got to get out of here.”

He looked down, glad to see he had on pajama bottoms and not some diminutive hospital gown. No pajama top, but that hardly mattered. No shoes. No time to find some.

“Sir!” The nurse had come in and was trying to stop him. “What are you doing? You can’t go out like that.”

“Oh, yeah? Watch me.”

A doctor came into the hall, trying to stop him as well.

“Sir, think of your position. You’re about to be named a prince. You can’t do this.”

“I have to do this.” As gently as he could, he moved the physician out of his way. “Now tell me how to get to the castle jail.”

A moment for directions and he was off. He wanted to run but he was pretty sure things were still too newly patched together to take the jostling. But he walked very fast and could tell by the reaction coming from everyone he passed that he made quite a spectacle with his bare, muscular chest glistening in the artificial light of the castle halls. But he didn’t care. He had to get to Janis before she spent another minute in that place.

He burst through the jail doors and looked into a pair of startled faces as the jailors realized who he was.

“I’ve come to get my wife,” he told them. “Give me the key.”

“Uh, I’m afraid we can’t.”

“Now,” he roared, and then he followed the inevitable glance they each made toward where the key was hung and got it for himself. Next, he was marching down the hall to the cell where she was standing at the bars, wondering what all the commotion was about.

“Mykal!” she cried when she saw him. “What are you doing? You’re going to hurt yourself.” But she was half laughing as she took in his casual attire.

“I’m coming to get my woman,” he told her.

“You can’t do this,” she protested happily. He stood there before her in all his glory, the pajama bottoms riding low on his beautiful hips, the muscles rippling in his arms and chest, and she nearly swooned.

“Really?” he said as he turned the key in the lock. “What the hell good is it being royal if I can’t even rescue my own wife from the castle jail?” He opened his arms to her. “Come on,” he said. “Let’s go.”

She flew into his arms and held him close. “You don’t think I was drugging you, do you?” she asked as he buried his face in her hair.

“Of course not,” he said. “And even if you were, I’d know it was for a good reason.”

That made her laugh again. He swept her out of the jail and out into the halls again. She was vaguely aware that Pellea was there, calling out directions to them, but she was too busy holding on to Mykal to pay attention. And then she found herself in Pellea’s garden and Mykal was kissing her just the way he used to. Birds were chirping. The waterfalls were sending music through the area. The scent of roses filled the air.

“Isn’t this Pellea’s room?” she asked.

“Yes. You wait here. I’ve got to make a few phone calls.”

She sighed and closed her eyes, settling into the sumptuous couch. Just moments before, she’d been lying on a thin cot in a jail cell, and now she was in the queen’s private suite. Mykal had ridden to the rescue this time. The winds of fate blew erratically, didn’t they? As long as they blew true in the end, it didn’t matter.

Mykal was back, still looking gorgeous in his pajama bottoms. He sank into the couch beside her.

“Pellea said for us to make ourselves at home,” he told her as he took her into his arms. “She knows we need some time to talk and she won’t be back for hours.”

“Hours,” she breathed, rubbing her face against his chest. “Hours to hold on to each other. Heaven.” She peeked up at his face. “So you know it was Kylos who was drugging you?”

“Yes. And I think I might know why. My memory seems to be back.”

“Oh!” She looked up into his face and laughed. “Now do you see? Do you remember what is was like when we were together?”

He nodded, smiling at her.

Her own smile faded. “Do you remember what I did?”

“You already told me all about that.” He pulled her close again. “I remember everything,” he told her, his voice low and husky. “I’ve got you back, now and in the past, and this time, I’ll never let you go.”

He kissed her and she melted into him, all heat and tenderness.

“Wait,” she said, struggling to come back to the surface and get a few things settled before they gave themselves up to pure passion and pleasure. “You said you thought you knew why Kylos was drugging you?”

“Janis, I’ve got my memory back. I knew about my parents dying in the accident before I even met you. I also knew their will gave everything to me to handle as I saw fit. But when I showed up injured, with no memory, Kylos and his lawyer friend, Leland, thought they saw their chance. They tampered with the will and were trying to sell the estate before I came back to normal and could stop them. The longer I was under sedation, the better chance they had of getting it done and taking off with the money.”

“Your own brother!”

“Yes. I guess we all get saddled with family members we’d rather not have to deal with,” he said significantly.

She looked into his eyes. He must know about her ties to the Gorgonios, even though she hadn’t had the nerve to tell him. And he understood. How had she gotten so lucky? She sighed and nodded. “What’s going to happen to them?” she asked.

“I’m afraid they will both be prosecuted for their crimes. I only hope that Kylos finally learns his lesson.” He kissed her nose. “But enough about him. I have something I have to explain to you. I’m sure you wondered, all that time you were in the camp, why I didn’t do something about getting you out.”

She drew in a shaky breath. “Actually, I did wonder at the time.”

“Of course. That was an awful day. I was so angry with you and I said some awful things. And regretted them almost immediately. But you were gone. I couldn’t find you anywhere. I nearly went crazy. I looked for you everywhere and no one knew where you’d gone. For days I searched and searched. I couldn’t find your brother, I couldn’t find any of your coworkers. Finally someone told me where Rolo’s new apartment was and I went over right away. He told me that he’d seen you being carted off by the secret police. It looked like you were going in the direction of the prison camp. So I put on my wedding ring and fired up my trusty old motorcycle and raced out there.”

Janis reveled in happiness. This was exactly what she would have expected him to do. But she had a question. “Why the wedding ring?” she asked.

He smiled and hugged her close. “I wanted to show you that my commitment to you was stronger than my work, my patriotism, than anything else in the world. It was just you. You are all that matters to me. And we’re going to be together through all this royalty nonsense. Nothing is going to tear us apart again.”

She shook her head, still worried. She just didn’t see how it could work. “Mykal, don’t you understand? There are just too many things against us.”

He pulled her up where he could look into her face. “Like what?”

“My betrayal, which is something you can say you’ll push aside, but you know it will always be there. Then there’s my time in prison camp. How many royals have been there? There’s the problem of my birth into the most notorious crime family in the nation. There’s the fact that my family almost ruined your adoptive parents. How could anyone accept that you might want me after all that?”