"But why you?" Mac asked quietly.
Jill glanced sharply at the officer and swallowed thickly.
The man was looking suspicious and she suddenly felt terribly guilty, though she had nothing to feel guilty for.
"If he's never met you before, why did his delusion fixate on you?" Mac asked.
Squeezing her hand again, Nick jumped in to say, "Jill didn't know him, but he told her that he'd been watching her brother Kyle for a while and her as well, didn't he Jill?" he prompted.
"Yes." She nodded quickly. "This morning, when he first tried to kidnap me. He said he'd been watching my brother Kyle and his family since the project ended all those years ago and started following me after he saw me leaving and… er… finally decided that I was the one he should turn into a shape-shifter and experiment on."
"He tried to kidnap you this morning?" Mac asked with surprise. "Did you make a report?"
"I—No, I—I tried to call my brother right afterward to tell him, but there was no answer and I had promised to be in the parade…" She let her words fade to silence, knowing how lame they sounded.
"She thought it was a joke," Nick said, helping her out, then gave a laugh and a shrug. "What else was she supposed to think? She recognized his name from when he worked with her brother, but he was claiming she was some 'creature' and he was going to lock her up and experiment on her." He shrugged. "She thought it was a joke. It was only when he tried to get on our float at the end and then started chasing us around that either of us took it all seriously."
"Ah." Lou nodded as if that all made perfect sense. Even Mac relaxed a bit, though he wasn't looking wholly satisfied.
"The ambulance is here," Jay announced from the doorway and Jill shifted uncomfortably as she was reminded of the presence of all the partygoers. None of them were looking at her with anything but sympathy, however.
"Right," Lou said, drawing her attention back to the two men by the couch. "Let's get this fellow on his way to being settled in the hospital then, shall we."
Nick drew Jill back out of the way as the ambulance attendants entered with a gurney. They lifted John's unconscious form onto the wheeled bed, strapped him down and then took him out with Lou, Mac, and Maggie following.
Jill felt her shoulders sag as the room immediately began to clear.
Nick drew her against his chest. "How are you holding up? Shall we leave and go someplace and relax?"
Jill nodded with relief. "My place. I'd like to bathe and change."
Nick smiled wryly as he took in the ruined dress she wore. "It didn't last long, but it did look good on you while it lasted."
Jill smiled faintly and leaned her head into his chest for a hug, murmuring, "I suspect it may be a good thing that I own a clothing store."
"And I a shoe store," he agreed with a grin and she glanced down to see that she'd lost her shoes once more.
Wrinkling her nose, she peered around the room and then slipped from under his arm to move around the couch. A relieved sigh slid from her lips when she spotted the shoes he'd bought her.
"Here they are," she announced, bending to pick them up and slip them on.
"So it's only your clothes, my coat, and this dress that were lost or ruined in today's excitement," Nick commented. "Not bad all things considered."
"Yes, I could be locked in a cage right now being burnt or frozen," she said with disgust and shook her head at the madness, not to mention cruelty, of John's Heathcliffe's plans for her.
"Not so long as I live and breathe," Nick assured her quietly and slid his arm around her again the moment she straightened.
Jill didn't know if it was because he was finally free to do so, or simply a reaction to the fact that he'd nearly lost her to John Heathcliffe and his madness, but Nick seemed to need to keep her close now, and was always touching her. He had his arm around her as he made their excuses to his sister and promised they'd come back in the next day or so for a meal, then held her hand in the SUV all the way to her place.
Once they'd reached her home the touching took on a different tone. Nick started out just trying to be caring by running her bath while she collected a robe and towel, but then his efforts to help her get the ruined dress off saw them lip-locked. This time there were no sudden bursts of laughter or talking to force them apart and they ended up making love right there on the bath mat. A memorable first time to be sure.
A memorable second time followed when he joined her in the bath.
They were out and drying off when the phone rang. Pulling on her robe, Jill left the towel for Nick and rushed out to the end of the hall to answer the phone.