Nicholas peered at her blankly as her questions rained over him. When she put it that way, it didn't really seem right. Surely she was correct and if he'd lost it, he'd have killed the woman there in the parking lot or at least remember something about getting her home, but… "Drugs don't work on us."
Jo paused and tilted her head. "No drugs? Not at all?"
"Well…" He hesitated and then admitted, "Weaker drugs will be removed by the nanos before they can do anything, and stronger ones wouldn't have as strong an effect or work for more than twenty minutes to half an hour."
"How long a drive was it from the hospital to your house?" she asked at once.
"Ten minutes," he said quietly. "I didn't want Annie to have to drive far to get to work."
Jo raised an eyebrow. "So you could have been drugged, taken home, the woman killed and set in your lap before you woke."
"Her blood was in my mouth," he reminded her.
She rolled her eyes and suddenly bounded from the bed and hurried from the room. Nicholas stared after her with surprise, and then threw the sheets and blankets aside to follow. He found her in the living room, bent over, picking up something from the table. His eyes slid over her bare derriere with interest totally inappropriate to the conversation they'd been having and he grimaced to himself, and said, "What—?"
That was as far as he got. At the sound of his voice, Jo suddenly straightened, turned, and threw a glass of wine in his face.
Nicholas gasped in shock, eyes instinctively shutting as the liquid splashed over him, hitting his face and upper chest.
"Oh look, you have wine in your mouth. Did you drink it?" she asked sarcastically.
Nicholas opened his eyes slowly to stare at her.
"Wake up, Nicholas," Jo snapped, setting down the glass. "This is your future. Stop just accepting that you killed the woman and start considering other possibilities, because the story you told me makes no sense at all, but everyone believes it and that can get you killed."
Turning abruptly, she walked into the kitchen. Nicholas simply stood there, watching her ass as she walked away. Once she disappeared, he glanced down at himself, noting that the wine was running down his body and dripping onto the carpet. He was about to go find a towel or something to clean up when Jo reappeared from the kitchen with a dish towel in one hand and a slice of cold pizza in the other. She tossed the dish towel to him and then dropped onto the couch and took a bite of pizza, glaring at him the whole while.
Nicholas grimaced and began to dry himself off under her glare, but then his lips began to twitch. The woman had thrown a glass of wine at him and was now glaring at him as if he was the one who'd done something wrong. Annie would have never done that. Annie had been like a soothing balm, a gentle angel. Jo was the opposite, a firecracker. Yet they'd both been his life mate and he could have lived happily with either, but he suspected life wouldn't be anywhere near restful with Jo. Or it wouldn't have been if he could have claimed her… and if what she was suggesting was true, he might be able to claim her someday.
"Right," he said suddenly. Finishing with the towel, Nicholas tossed it on the coffee table and dropped onto the couch beside her. "Let's do this."
Jo's glare immediately disappeared. Placing the nasty cold pizza on one of their used plates on the table, she turned to face him on the couch and said, "You saw the pregnant woman who looked like Annie in the parking lot… and then what?"
Nicholas sought his memories, but there just weren't any, which really was rather odd. Finally he said, "And then we were in my basement and she was dead."
"How did you get her there?" Jo shot the question at him like a bullet.
"I must have driven," he said uncertainly.
"In a blinding rage?" she asked dryly, and then snapped, "What happened to the gift for Carol?"
"I… don't know," Nicholas admitted with a frown.
"Okay, go back to what you do remember. You got out of the car and started across the parking lot. You saw the woman, she reminded you of Annie… Did she say or do anything ? Hello, or good evening?"
"I don't recall her saying anything," he muttered, searching his memory. "I think she smiled and…" Nicholas frowned.
"What?" Jo asked eagerly. "You're remembering something. What is it?"
"It's not much," he said wearily. "I just… She was walking toward me, she glanced up, met my gaze and smiled, and then her eyes traveled past me to something else."
"Probably to whoever it was who drugged you," Jo said with certainty and in that moment, Nicholas knew he loved her. She was so certain of his innocence, believing in it even when he didn't. Decker, his cousin and best friend, hadn't doubted his guilt when he'd seen him there in the basement. All of his family had accepted his guilt without hesitation. Even he himself hadn't doubted it these fifty years, but Jo, who had known him for only a matter of a couple of days, hadn't believed he was guilty for even a heartbeat… and he loved her for it… for that, and her spirit of adventure, courage, and intelligence and perky nature. He loved this woman .