Atlantium Trilogy I: Bride of Atlantis (22 page)

Richardson frowned. “You’re sure? Not
that I doubt your word, Mrs. Stanhope, but sometimes, after an
accident, people get strange ideas in their head. They’re confused,
don’t remember anything very clearly.”

“
There’s nothing wrong with
my memory. We were standing at the prow of the ship. Eric stepped
up behind me, told me he’d murdered my father. And then, before I
could react, he struck me and threw me overboard.”

Again Richardson and Heikes exchanged
a look. “Your husband murdered your father and then tried to murder
you? Is that a correct statement?”

Alexis nodded. “My father wasn’t a
wealthy man, but he had enough money to interest Eric, obviously.
Once he’d killed my father, all he had to do was to get rid of me
and he could have everything—the business, my father’s home, his
stocks—he was worth three quarters of a million, at
least.”

“
Well, ma’am—not that I’m
doubting your word, but something just doesn’t click here. If your
husband threw you overboard in the middle of the ocean almost two
months ago, how did you end up here? Where have you been all this
time? And who is this guy? He told the staff here that he was
related, but I can’t find any record of any relation by the name of
Thorson.”

Alexis glanced at Thor worriedly. Thor
shook his head ever so slightly, turned to look at Richardson and
Heikes … giving them a hard stare.

The detectives returned his stare with
piercing looks of their own. In moments, however, their eyes began
to appear glazed, their facial muscles sagged and they stared
blankly into space.

Surprised, Alexis glanced at Thor.
“What happened?”

“
They won’t remember I was
here,” Thor said flatly.

Confusion flooded through Alexis and a
terrible dread. “You’re going?”

Thor nodded. Bending, he kissed her
lightly on her lips. “I love you, Alexis,” he said when he
straightened, caressing her cheek lightly with his
fingertips.

Alarm ran through Alexis. “Thor?
You’ll come back for me? Promise!”

The pain in his expression told her
without words that he wouldn’t. He touched a finger to her
forehead. Despite her best efforts, Alexis felt herself sinking
into a dark pit. An almost overwhelming sense of despair engulfed
her.

“
Forget,” Thor
whispered.

Chapter Sixteen

The police were none too happy that
Alexis could not remember where she’d been when she had been
missing so long. They weren’t too happy about the fact that she
couldn’t remember how she’d come to be at the hospital
either.

The doctors shook their heads and
decided she’d experienced some sort of trauma that had induced
amnesia. They pointed out that it would’ve been enough of a shock
when she fell, or was thrown, overboard to induce a mild amnesia.
And, whatever had happened to her just before she’d been found had
further traumatized her. They couldn’t find anything physically
wrong with her so it was undoubtedly hysterical amnesia.

The DA was doubtful, but launched an
investigation. Alexis was adamant, amnesia or not, and filed for a
divorce even before she brought charges of attempted murder against
her soon-to-be-ex-husband. The end result was that Eric had been
arrested before Alexis left the hospital.

The wheels of justice ground slowly.
Alexis was in her sixth month before Eric went to trial.

In his first trial, Eric was sentenced
to ten years for assault and attempted murder.

A month later Eric and his accomplice,
his wife, Sylvia Johnson, went to trial for the murder of Alexis’
father. That trial lasted two months. The DA failed to win a murder
one conviction. Eric was convicted of second degree murder and
sentenced to forty years. His wife, Sylvia Johnson, received a
sentence of twenty years.

Alexis was beside herself. She KNEW
Eric and his wife had plotted her father’s murder. Unfortunately,
despite what she told them, the investigators were unable to prove
a plot to commit murder—not that they doubted her. But it required
evidence to prove premeditated murder and they were unable to find
that proof.

Finally, Alexis realized that she
would have to accept the justice she’d been able to obtain. It
wasn’t a full measure, but it was something.

Impending motherhood made it
easier.

She had little understanding, or
interest, in the construction company her father had left her. She
sold it and placed the money in trust. She would have felt guilty
about her decision if the company had held sentimental value for
her father, but the fact was he had grown weary of the construction
business long before he had enough money saved up to retire and
turn its operation over to a job supervisor. He wouldn’t have
expected her to keep it and try to run it herself. He would’ve been
surprised if she’d even considered it.

That being the case, she decided to
use the money to support her and her child so that she could be a
full time parent. At least until her child was old enough to start
school, she intended to devote herself to him. Afterwards—she
didn’t know what she would do afterwards.

She walked daily, determined to make
certain she was in good physical condition for her delivery. As she
entered her last weeks, however, she found that walking was
becoming more and more a penance, and less an exercise.

Foregoing the neighborhood walks,
Alexis began to take a twice daily turn around the garden. She had
begun to waddle as her body became more cumbersome, but it wasn’t
her awkwardness that kept her close to the house. It was her
certainty that she had no desire to be far from the phone when the
time came.

She was reclining on a chaise in the
garden, feeling, she was certain, and looking, like a beached
whale, when she saw the man again.

It was the third time she’d seen him
in as many months, trying to look casual as he leaned against a
tree across the road and studied her surreptitiously.

It had frightened her the first time
she noticed him. He was always dressed in leather, his hair long.
She’d thought he must be a biker, or a thug.

For a moment she hesitated, trying to
decide what to do. Finally, she rolled from the chaise and stood
up. Unfortunately, her stomach muscles were stretched to capacity
with the weight of her baby. Sudden shifts produced excruciating
cramps. She caught her stomach, bending over. Squeezing her eyes
tightly shut while she waited for the pain to subside.

She felt a hand touch her
shoulder.

“
Do you need
help?”

Slowly, as the muscles relaxed
fractionally, Alexis straightened, looking up at the man. Her heart
nearly stopped in her chest when she met his gaze. Her thoughts
scattered in confusion. “Why?” she managed to gasp out.

He frowned, perplexed.

Alexis felt a sob tearing at her
throat. “Why did you leave me? Didn’t you love me
enough?”

His expression contorted with pain for
a moment before he subdued his emotions. “You mistake me, I think,
for someone else.”

“
Don’t! I know you! If I
were blind, I’d still know your voice. If I were deaf, I would
still know your touch.”

He swallowed with obvious difficulty,
his expression uncertain now. “You do not know me.”

Alexis shook her head. “I thought I
did. You said, once, that you loved me. Was it so easy to
stop?”

He took a step back, white now. “You
cannot … remember.”

Alexis swallowed with difficulty. “I
remember, Thor. I have always remembered. Why did you try to take
that from me too? If you didn’t want me anymore, you should’ve at
least left the memories, not tried to take them from
me!”

Thor looked away. “It was because I
loved you, more than my own life, more than my own happiness. I
could not bear to cause you pain. I set you free because I loved
you. I tried to take the memories so that you would only know
happiness.”

Alexis went to him, placing a hand on
each cheek, forcing him to look at her. “You did all of this for
me? Because you love me?”

“
Yes.”

“
And I am free to
choose?”

Thor studied her a long moment. “You
felt you did not belong with me.”

Alexis shook her head slowly. “I think
I always knew that I belonged with you. I just didn’t realize until
you brought me back here that you were my home, where ever you are,
where ever we stay.”

“
You are
certain?”

Alexis nodded.

Thor lifted his hand, touched her
cheek. “I have wanted no one but you since I first saw you, wanted
only to live my life with you, to grow old loving you. I want you
for my wife, my life mate.”

Alexis studied him. “And will we grow
old together?”

Thor nodded. “On my honor.”

“
Then take me with you. Take
me home. I want my son to know his father, who is the most
wonderful human being I’ve ever known.”

Thor’s arms came around her, squeezing
her so tightly against him that the baby began to kick furiously.
He drew back, looked down at her rounded belly in
surprise.

After a moment, he grinned, resting
his hand against her belly, chuckling as he felt the baby pelting
his hand.

His expression became pensive after a
moment. “Only wonderful?”

Alexis frowned in
incomprehension.

His lips twitched. “You thought, once,
that I was magnificent.”

She tried to look disapproving, but a
chuckled escaped her. Reaching down, she cupped his sex firmly. His
eyes widened. “Absolutely magnificent. I think you are the most
magnificent … swordsman that ever lived.” She released him, rose up
on her tiptoes and kissed him. “But I love this part second best,”
she murmured against his lips.

He laughed. Lifting her arms, he
placed them firmly around his neck, then leaned down and scooped
her into his arms. “Close your eyes, sweetheart.”

Her eyes widened. “Now?”

He nodded. “My son is anxious to see
his father.”

“
But … but … it’s broad
daylight. Someone will see.”

Thor laughed. “But will they
believe?”

The End

Also available from NCP by bestselling
author Madelaine Montague ….

Nocturnal

by

Madelaine
Montague

Chapter One

Pain and fury filled Raphael as he
raced through the dense brush in a mindless quest for freedom.
Adrenaline drove him else the pain from his wounds might have
overwhelmed him. Fear ate at his mind, as well, but it was a
distant voice, drowned by the frustration and anger because the
fear wasn’t for himself. It was fear of failing.

He had almost had the
bastard!

For months he had tracked the
ringleader of the men that had killed his woman and their unborn
child. Patience was not one of his virtues, but his rage had grown
cold in the year since Concepcion’s death. His determination had
hardened in the weeks he had lain fighting for his own life and the
months after that that he had spent regaining his strength with an
agonizing slowness that had been maddening while he chaffed at his
quarry’s trail growing colder and colder.

He had tracked him, though, halfway
across two continents.

His stupidity had nearly gotten him
killed, but he had wanted the bastard to look in his eyes and know
that he was going to die because of Concepcion. He hadn’t wanted to
send the son-of-a-bitch to hell wondering.

He hadn’t expected to be interrupted,
but he should have anticipated the possibility.

If they hadn’t taken him completely
off guard, he could’ve finished the bastard before he left. Now he
was wounded again, pretty fucking badly, he thought, if the blood
he was losing was any indication.

He couldn’t stop to examine it,
though, because he could still hear them following, could still
hear a random shot from time to time as the trigger-happy morons
spied something they thought might be him and fired at it. The
darkness and the thickness of the woods were his only allies and he
had a feeling he was running out of allies.

Almost on the thought he bounded from
the woods and onto a narrow, two rut track. Tall weeds sprouted
from the soil on either side and along the narrow center strip, but
he was exposed and he bounded across the track and into the woods
on the other side.

He paused there to catch his breath
because he couldn’t do anything else. The adrenaline that had kept
him going thus far was rapidly draining away from him now and he
could feel weakness seeping into every muscle in his body. Panting
for breath, he tipped his head back to look up at the trees for
cover.

He tamped the impulse. He would be too
exposed. If he had been stronger it wouldn’t be such a bad idea. It
would give him a vantage to watch for the hunters. It would give
him a strategic advantage if he was able to fight back, but he had
a bad feeling he would come out the loser in his current
state.