“Well, how do you think I feel?” Jesse asked. “I'm the mind reader, but I didn't sense anything from the pair. I still don't get anything from Jack. When are you going to let me at him again, Mrs. Sharpe?”
The smile she gave him chilled Sheridan. “No need to worry about Jack. He and I have come to an understanding.”
Jules rubbed his forearm, where Sheridan had healed him. “I don't understand Raul's part in this, though. So Melissa wants to give them an in. Okay. But why blame Sheridan?”
“I think Sheridan needs to tell us what life at that compound was like. We've already checked into the Vida Verde connection and found that Montaña was giving them funding under an assumed identity. I'm sure Olivia's aunt and uncle thought him just another investor. No wonder they sent Sheridan to him. What exactly do you know about Colonel Ricardo Montaña, dear?” Mrs. Sharpe asked Sheridan.
Too much. Sheridan remembered too clearly how he'd assaulted her, and she did her best to push the recollection to the back of her mind. But she wasn't fast enough.
Jesse straightened next to Olivia. “He assaulted you?” The other men seemed to grow angry on her behalf, whereas just moments ago, she'd been their enemy. “You guys need to make up your minds.” She tried not to blush at what Jesse might have seen, ashamed of what Ricardo had almost taken from her. “I'm either the bad guy, or I'm not.”
“You're not,” Ava and Tersch said at the same time.
Tersch clenched his jaw and missed the satisfied smirk Ava shot him.
Jules kicked Sheridan's foot to get her attention. “Look at this from our point of view. I disappear and come back with my memory skewed. Hazy images and feelings of something I'd rather forget, except for a certain redhead with crystal clear blue eyes, hands that can heal, and a body that—” He stopped himself, and Sheridan saw the others staring at him with open curiosity and smirking faces.
“That makes you what, Jules?” Morgan asked, all innocence.
“Asshole.” Jules muttered under his breath and ignored the question. “I remembered you, Sheridan.
“We've been dealing with Montaña for over a year, and his men attack us just after you're here? Do the math,” Jules said with a shrug. “You looked guilty as hell.
Especially after Melissa was captured and Morgan was shot, and he heard your buddy Raul thank you for your help.”
Sheridan bit her lip. “Well, when you put it like that, I see your point. But if you'd just listened to me before, I could have cleared this up.”
Jules snorted. “Oh really? When was that? Because according to Olivia, you only wanted to talk after spending a few hours in the lab.”
“Lab? Try cell,” she said with a huff.
Mrs. Sharpe interrupted. “Sheridan, this is important. Tell us about your time spent with Colonel Montaña. We need to know all we can about him.” Sheridan looked around her. Raul had told her these people were the enemy.
What a crock. He'd shot Morgan and worked with Melissa, for God's sake.
“So Raul told you we were the enemy, hmm? Interesting,” Jesse murmured.
“Stop reading my thoughts.” She gave Jesse a sharp look. “Let me tell it. I have a history with Ricardo Montaña, if you could call it that. It goes back several years.
I'm a botanist, like my parents. But it's hard to get funding to work. So with grants and an investment made by Ricardo Montaña, my folks have gotten by.”
“Ah, that's what I was missing,” Mrs. Sharpe murmured. “Go on, Sheridan.”
“Yes, well, Ricardo made his interest in me pretty plain a few years ago. He'd show up announced at our labs and bring me things, expensive jewelry, clothes… It was weird. I gave everything back, until he brought me a special flower.”
“Flowers, typical,” muttered Tersch.
She shook her head. “No, not just any flowers, but an unusual specimen with properties I'd been researching in the course of my studies,” Sheridan corrected.
“I've done a lot with this particular bloom, but it's a rare find. It grows in abundance in certain parts of the Amazon rain forest. I hooked up with the Vida Verde organization two years ago. I loved working there. But my work revolved around the Sheridan Rose, and I needed better access to the specimen.”
“Sheridan Rose?” Jules murmured.
Sheridan blushed. “The name is ridiculous, I agree, but it's what we called it.
The flower was abundant around Ricardo's compound. That's all I cared about.”
“I want to know how you got from Vida Verde to Montaña's lab,” Jesse said.
“Me too.” Olivia sounded worried. “Morgan can't reach my aunt and uncle, and my cousins haven't gotten back to us yet.”
Sheridan sighed. “They were the ones who recommended Ricardo's compound to expand my studies. At first, the place seemed like a dream. There really is a laboratory there, with real scientists working on various projects. I admit, I was so into what I was doing, I didn't pay great attention to what was going on around me.
But I did notice the weird guards.”
“Weird how?” Tersch asked.
“They were all, well, a lot like you guys. Big, muscular, kind of wild. They had a tendency to growl at me. No one ever hurt me or made any unwelcome advances, not until Ricardo…” She paused. “My friend Pedro told me about Jules. I couldn't believe Ricardo could keep a man in the condition he'd described. When I found him, I was stunned.”
Sheridan glanced at Jules. “He was bruised and bloodied. You all heal fast, but Jules had been tortured. It was terrible.” She swallowed the pain of remembering. “I healed him. And there was an instant connection between us.”
“I'll say.” Jules clearly remembered what else she'd done for him that first night.
Sheridan remembered their first encounter all too well herself. “During the next few weeks, I tried to sneak down whenever I could to help him heal. But I later found out Ricardo knew all about it. The night he attacked me, Ricardo told me he intended to marry me. That he wanted me to, um, wow. This is embarrassing.”
“Go on.” The angry look on Jules's face worried her.
“He said he planned to marry me, for me to bear his children. He told me that, right before he assaulted me.” She bit out the reminder. “Then Elena, his girlfriend, burst in, and he was with her.”
Tersch frowned. “With her?”
“They had sex,” Morgan explained, apparently reading the embarrassment on Sheridan's face.
“Yeah. That. He made me watch, and he used Raul to guard me.”
“I'll kill him.” The quiet in Jules's voice bothered her. He'd made a promise, not a threat.
Sheridan hurried to continue, aware of everyone's attention. “I managed to escape with Pedro's help. He was the head of security, and he gave me a backpack, some money, and the means to evade the cameras all over the compound. He also gave me the keys to help Jules. You probably know the rest. Jules and I ran through the jungle. He carried me most of the way, and then he fought the rogues and the mutant that attacked us. But in doing so, he was injured.”
“Wow. Jules, you really know how to live it up while you're off duty,” Tersch mocked, but his slow grin showed Sheridan how much he respected his team leader.
“Not just Montaña, but rogues and mutants. Not bad.” He raised his brow at Sheridan. “And you got the girl too, hmm?”
“Did I?” Jules asked.
Sheridan cleared her throat. “Grayson and Raul are the Circs who saved our lives. Raul took Jules back to that hotel and called the number Jules gave me.
Grayson took me to a deserted cabin in the middle of nowhere. I healed them, and we made plans to get me to back to Jules.”
“Why?” Ava frowned.
“Yeah, that's what I want to know.” Jules held his hand up, and her grandfather's ring flashed at her. “You said you wanted this ring. But why do I have it in the first place?”