Chapter Six
Clayton spotted Jo just before she got back in the Range Rover.
“Jo,” Clayton touched her shoulder and Jo screamed as she spun around toward him.
“Oh my god, you scared me,” she was breathing hard and put a hand to her chest before bending over.
“Are you ok?” Clayton knelt down so he was face to face with her. He pushed the hair back from her face and rubbed his thumbs across her forehead and over her temples. “Shh,” he whispered in her ear.
Jo looked up at him, her breath beginning to finally slow and calm.
She paused and a question ran across her face.
“What is it?” Clayton pushed both of his hands back again, moving the hair away from her eyes.
“You…your eyes,” Jo stared into his eyes. “I think I need to sit down.”
“Why don’t you sit in the car,” Clayton lifted Jo from her elbow, “let’s get out of here.”
Jo obeyed without protest. She let him help her into the car, watched his body as he snapped her seatbelt into place, then watched him start the car and easily shift as they moved away along the streets that would lead them back to his house.
“Are you ok?” Clayton turned to Jo halfway through their ride. There had been something in her expression, something that made him think… but that was impossible.
Jo nodded but said nothing in response. His worry was overwhelming all of his other senses and Clayton felt he needed to test the waters and see just what it was his intuition was picking up on.
“Where did you go?” Clayton asked without turning to her. He watched the trees melt into one long green blur. Suddenly he felt that he needed fresh air, they both probably needed fresh air. He rolled down the top of his window.
“Where did I go? I went to the same place you went,” Jo said ignoring his second question.
Clayton felt his palms grow clammy, “I don’t think I understand.”
“Oh no, it’s me that doesn’t understand.” He could hear the hint of something unexpected in her voice and he wondered at it. If she really did know then shouldn’t she be running for her life? Shouldn’t she be screaming and running—jumping out of his car?
“But I am grateful,” her voice came low in almost sacred tones. “You saved my life.”
Clayton felt his heart beating heavily in his chest. He'd never told anyone. His parents had known, of course, it had come to him from his father's father. He'd been told his whole life that this secret, this thing, could turn him into a pariah, or a science experiment.
His grandfather had been killed by a hunter, his father had killed the hunter and was killed himself in the process. Clayton’s mother had lost her mind shortly after then simply slipped away.
It had been all too clear a sign of things to come if he let someone else in on his secret. If he fell in love, had children, tried to live a normal life, then he was bound to ruin other lives as well as his own. He’d decided on his work instead. He would have a thriving work life. He would be good in business, he would read, let his books keep him company, and he would never love.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to stay with me anymore,” Clayton felt his knuckles go white around the steering wheel.
“You want me to leave?” Jo’s calm changed in an instant, “I’ll be killed. You are the only one I’m safe with now.”
Clayton felt something flip over inside of him. He should have killed Jack when he had a chance. Mauled by a grizzly, that would be one way for him to go.
“When this is over, when they arrest Jack, you’ll need to leave,” Clayton said the words slowly.
“What if this is never over, what if they never arrest Jack?” Jo’s voice was rising in pitch and he could practically feel the panic drifting off of her.
“I’ll make sure of it,” Clayton lifted a hand, hoping to keep Jo from losing all sense of her calm.
The two didn't talk the rest of the way back to the house. Clayton didn't unbuckle Jo's seatbelt or open her door, of course, Jo was more herself and didn't need him to anymore.
“I think you’d better take a nap, you haven’t had any proper sleep yet,” Clayton came into the house and put his keys down.
He turned when he didn’t hear Jo respond. She was nodding lightly and already moving toward the stairs.
“I’ll have dinner when you wake up, I can keep it hot if you need extra sleep,” Clayton called after her. She looked on the edge of collapse, ready to fall over, and he could hardly blame her.
Clayton listened from the bottom of the stairs to Jo as she walked up. He heard her footsteps in the hall above, past the library, past his own room. He heard her door open and close and then all was silent.
He stood listening to the silence for a long time before walking around the house checking locked windows, doors, the security system that he never used, and noting what items in each room might make for a good weapon.
Clayton had dinner ready at its usual hour but there was no sign of Jo. He waited and still there was no sign of her. He put it all on to warm and sent Lincoln to check on her but she was sound asleep and it seemed better to just let her keep on sleeping.
With all that she’d been through and the very small amount of sleep she’d had in the past two days, Clayton thought it likely that she would sleep straight through to morning.