"I don't care how old and powerful he is," Jo interrupted impatiently. "I love you and I'm not letting him kill you without a fight."
Jo tugged her hands out of Nicholas's, and then turned a determined glare on the head of the Argeneau clan as she started across the room, saying, "Nicholas didn't kill that woman. He has no memory of killing her. We think someone drugged him and set him up to stop him from finding out something Annie had learned about the deaths of Armand's wives. We need to find out what that was."
She paused in front of Lucian Argeneau, swallowed, and added, "I love him. I don't know what I'll do without him. What good is living hundreds of years if you take him from me? Please don't?"
Lucian peered down his nose at her dispassionately. "You were doing very well in your arguments right up until you started into the lovey-dovey crap. And the begging at the end was just over the top. "
Jo stared up into Lucian Argeneau's cold face and felt a fury rise up in her like none she'd ever experienced. The man held the life of the man she loved in his hands. Her whole future rested in his palms and he stood their smugly critiquing her attempt to save both? All her fear and frustration balled into one blast of rage, and before Jo quite knew what she was doing, she was slapping the coldhearted bastard across the face.
"Jo," Nicholas barked with alarm and quickly dragged her behind him, placing himself firmly between her and his uncle as he said, "She's upset."
"So I see," Lucian said grimly.
Jo scowled and poked Nicholas in the side. "Don't apologize for me, especially not to Captain Crabby here who plans on killing you."
"It's all right, dear," Marguerite murmured, moving to Jo's side to run her hand soothingly up and down her arm, "Captain Crabby won't kill Nicholas."
"Marguerite!" Lucian snapped.
"Well, you won't," she said firmly. "Surely you've read everyone in the room by now and know further inquiry is needed before any decisions can be made about Nicholas's future?"
Lucian scowled at the woman for a moment, but then sighed and admitted, "Yes."
Jo moved around in front of Nicholas again to ask uncertainly, "You're not going to execute him?"
"No," Lucian said dryly.
"Really?" she asked, almost afraid to believe him.
"Yes really, I have no intention of killing Nicholas."
"Oh!" With joy exploding through her, Jo impulsively threw herself at the man to hug him in gratitude, saying, "Maybe you aren't such a bad uncle after all, Lucian."
"Yet."
Jo froze as the word reached her ears, and then pulled back to scowl at him. "What do you mean by yet ?"
For some reason that made his lips twitch with what she suspected was amusement. He then glanced to Nicholas and said, "She's rather tempestuous, isn't she? Impetuous as well. It is good you decided it wasn't safe to keep her with you on the run. She'd have been dead in a week… or would have got you killed." He paused and then added, "Although she may have done that anyway since you turned yourself in to save her. We shall have to see."
Jo's mouth turned down and her eyes narrowed on him unhappily. "I don't like you."
Lucian arched one eyebrow. "That's a shame. I quite like you."
"You could have fooled me," Jo muttered with disbelief.
"I often do," Lucian agreed. "Fool people, that is."
"He does," Leigh assured her, reentering the room with Lissianna following.
Jo glanced to the woman, wondering what on earth she saw in Lucian Argeneau, but then just shook her head and asked, "What do you mean you aren't going to execute him yet? Are you or aren't you?"
Lucian turned his gaze to Nicholas. "I'm not executing you now because I'm not certain of your guilt. I've read the situation in everyone's mind, including your own. There is no memory of your actually killing the woman. In fact, there's a rather suspicious blank space where that memory should be."
"I told you," Jo said triumphantly.
"So you did," Lucian agreed dryly with a nod in her direction. He then turned back to Nicholas to continue, "I intend to get to the bottom of this and find out what did happen that day. If you killed her and have somehow blocked it from your memory, you'll be executed. If not…" He shrugged and then said, "Jo probably will eventually get you killed with her impetuousness anyway."
Jo felt herself stiffen at the words, but then noticed a suspicious gleam in his eyes that made her think he was goading her and she merely muttered, "Ha ha."
"Ha ha, indeed," Lucian said dryly, and then turned to Mortimer. "Now, let's get Dee and Ernie ready for transport so that you can prepare Nicholas's cell."