Animal Attraction

Three

Dell and Adam walked toward the bar, side by side, looking like the brothers they were from head to toe. Of the two, Adam was two years older but they almost could have passed for twins. Dark disheveled hair, dark eyes, features as strong and beautiful as fallen angels. Mix that with his dark skin and six feet plus of solid muscle and testosterone, and there wasn’t a woman in the place not wishing they were going home with one of them.

Or both.

There were subtle differences though, if you knew them, and after working for them, Jade knew them well.

Adam was his usual unsmiling, serious self. Dell was much more open, already looking like he was having a good time, but the truth was that Dell could have a good time anywhere.

He was out of the surgical scrubs that so defined him at work, wearing a pair of jeans and a snug black T-shirt that made a woman want to drop at his knees and give him whatever he wanted.

But not her.

At least not in her waking hours. And what she fantasized about in the dark of the night was just that-fantasy.

He was smiling and would have looked younger than his thirty-two years-except for his eyes. His eyes said that he’d seen far more than his affable smile showed, and it had been those eyes to tell her eighteen months ago that she could work for him and be safe.

But safe was relative. And the fact was, she’d never seen so much male perfection grouped so closely together, and if you added Brady into the mix, it was a wonder that any woman in the place could put a thought together. These were rugged guys, built for stamina and the tough life out here that they all led. Not a single one of them were “city.” They’d never had a pedicure or worried about wrinkles or the cut of their clothes. They were real, as real as they came.

These qualities had a universal appeal, proven when Dell and Adam passed a table of three women, one of whom reached out and snagged Dell’s arm.

Jade recognized her as Cassie, a local rancher. Dell stopped and set a friendly hand on Cassie’s shoulder and she beamed up at him. So did the others at the table. This was because Dell could make ninety-year-old women preen and get infant girls to bat their eyelashes in his sleep.

He was the heart and soul of Belle Haven, and the rock of all of them.

This morning when she’d shown back up with the kitten in her carrier and informed him she was keeping her for a few days, he’d just smiled and said, “I know.” He’d known before Jade that she’d look into the strong, independent but down-on-her-luck kitten’s eyes and not be able to let her go.

Yet.

Lilah finally removed her lips from Brady and waved at Adam and Dell. “Over here!”

Since Dell was currently being hugged by another woman at the table, Adam got to them first.

“’Bout time,” Lilah said.

Adam looked at his watch. “We late?”

“Nope, I’m just on time for once,” Lilah said. “All my pretties got picked up on time today.”

These “pretties” could be anything from dogs and cats to the more exotic. Jade had seen her driving around with a duck, a pig, and a lamb, stuck on babysitting detail. The woman had more patience than anyone Jade had ever met.

Adam nudged Jade and she obliged him, moving over in the booth, making room. He looked back to where his brother was attempting to extract himself from the woman’s arms and shook his head. “I told him, keep your head down and keep moving, but does he listen?” He glanced at Brady and Lilah and grimaced when he found them lip-locked again. “Ah, man, come on.”

Brady lifted his head and smiled into Lilah’s eyes. “Been wanting to do that all day.”

“You flew me around all day,” Adam said, helping himself to Jade’s wine. “We’ve been flying S &R in Eagle Canyon searching for a lost hiker.”

Brady smiled at Lilah. “I can multitask.”

Adam shook his head.

Dell finally appeared, his hair looking like it’d just been tousled by a hungry female. Kicking Brady’s legs out of his way, he stepped around Adam and pushed his way into the booth on Lilah’s other side.

Jade knew he’d spent much of his day in surgery but you couldn’t have told that by looking at him. Or smelling him. He smelled like undiluted amazingness as he bumped a broad shoulder to hers.

“Show-off,” he said.

She’d organized his inventory before he’d gotten out of his second surgery. “Just trying to help,” she said demurely.

His dark warm eyes held hers for a minute. “Bullshit,” he said, letting the smile in his voice break through. “You couldn’t help yourself, Jade.”

“That’s Goddess Jade to you.”

He laughed, and as always, the sound did something funny low in her belly. Which was really annoying considering the fact that every other woman who came in close proximity to him felt the same way.

“So, what is it you did in your previous life again? Run the world?” he asked.

“Close enough.” Running her family’s medical center had been much like running a small country, complete with the politics that went with it. “I have skills. Got ’em from my grandmother Jade. I got lots of things from her.”

“Such as?”

“Well, she, too, was always right.”

Dell fought a smile and lost. With his warm eyes on hers and his hard thigh pressing to her own, Jade felt a silly little flutter.

No doubt this was how the women at the other table had felt when he’d focused his attention on them. At least she wasn’t simpering. She refused to simper.

“Are you always right?” Adam asked. “Or do we just let you think it because it’s easier?”

Jade took her wine back from him.

“Oh, and after you left,” Dell told her. “I took a few phone calls and squished a few more patients in for tomorrow.” He stopped to smile at someone waving to him from across the bar.

Jade poked him to get his attention back. Right in the biceps. Her finger bounced off him. “You didn’t have room in your schedule. It’s packed.”

“Yeah, but Mrs. Kyle’s cat is feeling ‘peakish.’” He shrugged. “Doesn’t tell me much, but Miss Kitty’s like a hundred, so it could be anything. She needs to be seen.”

Jade didn’t bother to sigh. It wouldn’t help. If there was an animal in need, Dell would work around the clock. “Tell me you did not even attempt to update the computer yourself.”

“Okay, I won’t tell you.”

“Man,” Adam muttered beneath his breath. “You never learn.”

Dell’s eyes were lit and Jade relaxed. “You’re just messing with me.”

A small smile crossed his face as he studied her. “How can you be sure?”

“Because if you’d messed anything up, you’d have brought me flowers, or you’d be kissing my ass like last time.”

“I’ll cop to the flowers, because you are one scary woman when you’re mad at me. But I’ve never kissed your ass.” He cocked his head and pretended to study said ass, even though she was sitting on it. “I’d be happy to do so, though. Anytime.”

She reached out to shove him, but he had lightning reflexes and grabbed her hand in his much bigger, darker one. His was calloused and work-roughed, and because that gave her an odd flutter, she pulled free. “Save it for someone that those moo-moo eyes actually work on.”

The band kicked into high gear. Lilah had pulled a reluctant Brady onto the dance floor.

“Better Fly Boy than me,” Adam muttered, and headed to the bar for a pitcher of beer.

Dell nudged Jade.

“In your dreams,” she said.

“What, is Goddess Jade afraid of something as innocuous as a dance?”

No, what she was afraid of was getting too close and getting sucked into his Hotness Vortex. She wasn’t afraid he’d ask anything of her she wasn’t willing to give.

She was afraid of what she was willing to give.

But you’re leaving, said the little devil on her shoulder. Her inner slut. You’re going back, you’re better now, what would it hurt to have him, just once?

Before Jade could thoroughly process this thought and take any action, Cassie appeared at their table. “Dell,” she said, tugging him up. “You owe me a dance.”

His smile was light. Flirty. But he shook his head. “Actually, I was just going to dance with Jade.”

“Go ahead,” Jade said. This was the little angel on her other shoulder. She wasn’t an inner slut.

Beaming, Cassie pulled Dell out of his chair. Jade shook her head at herself and headed to the bar.

Adam was there. He eyed Dell on the dance floor and he gave her a long look.

“What?” she asked, maybe a little snappish.

He just shook his head.

When Dell finally escaped the dance floor, he turned back to their table. Jade was back from the bar, and there was a guy trying to pick her up.

Poor sucker, he thought with a good amount of sympathy, watching as Jade shook her head. As Dell moved closer, he heard the guy say, “Aw, come on, Red. I’ve seen you swing your sweet thang in class, let’s take it to the dance floor.”

“I’m with someone,” Jade said.

The guy admitted defeat and moved off. Dell dropped into the coveted spot right next to her, sprawling out. “Hey, Red?”

She sipped her drink.

“Class?”

She shrugged.

“Oh come on. Tell me about swinging your sweet thang.” He accepted her eat-shit-and-die look and laughed.

She rolled her eyes. “So I take a line-dancing class once a week in the city.”

“Which clearly you’re not doing so that you’ll get picked up by guys in bars.”

“It’s for exercise.” She blew out a breath. “And because I sort of promised myself I’d do things for me. For fun. It’s the year of the fun for Jade.”

“Well, I’m all for that.”

At that, she cocked her head and looked at him. “You don’t think it’s silly?”

“Everyone deserves fun, Jade.” He smiled at her and reached for his drink. “Their own brand of fun.”

Jade’s eyes cut to Brady and Lilah, plastered up against each other on the dance floor. “What do you think of their brand?”

Dell took in the expression on Brady’s face, which held warmth and love and a whole hell of a lot of lust, and shrugged. It would be nice to know there was a woman waiting on him at the end of the day. He wouldn’t mind that. It was the emotional depth and level of attachment that bothered him. The love part. Love would take trust and blind faith. It would take allowing access to parts of him that he didn’t allow himself access to. “I’m not really cut out for it.”

“So you’ve tried it, then?”

“Not so much. You? I’m betting you have a spreadsheet for this, for meeting the right guy to give you a white picket fence and two point four kids.”

“Some things even my spreadsheets can’t do,” she said, and he laughed softly just as Brady and Lilah came back looking flushed and happy as they slid into the booth.

“Okay,” Lilah said. “It’s been an hour and no one has said one freaking word about the bling.” She spread her hands on the table. “Seriously?”

Jade’s eyes went directly to Lilah’s left ring finger, and the fat diamond there. “Holy shit!”

Lilah grinned. “I know, right?” She flashed the ring in each of their faces. “Brady had it made for me. It’s the most sparkly thing I’ve ever owned.” Turning to Brady, she clapped her hands to either side of his face and kissed him on the mouth. “I’ve never been all that sparkly, but I am now, cuz of you.”

Brady smiled up at her. “Sparkly, and you smell like a strawberry.”

“It’s the margaritas.”

Adam toasted to Brady and Lilah, and Dell added his congratulations, genuinely thrilled for them. Lilah felt like as much a sibling to him as Brady was. And though he might not quite get why two of his favorite people in the world wanted to tie themselves to each other and give up all the other possible options, it meant that Brady would be sticking around Sunshine. And Dell was all for that, so he grinned and topped off their glasses from the pitcher, giving Lilah the last of it and the most.

Brady slid him a look.

“What, you’re already going to have to pour her into your truck to take her home,” Dell told him. “Might as well make it a night to remember.”

Lilah laughed and slapped Brady’s shoulder, as if he’d been the one to say it. “It will be a night to remember.” Indeed, two sheets to the wind, she blew a strand of her hair from her face and waggled a finger at her new fiancé. “But just so we’re clear-we’re still not crossing that one last thing off the taboo list. I’m not that far gone.”

Adam looked pained.

Brady didn’t look concerned. He was smiling affectionately at Lilah, looking content and confident that he could talk her into anything he wanted, wasted or not.

“You have a taboo list?” Jade asked.

“You don’t?” Lilah asked.

Jade bit her lower lip and Adam laughed. “Jade has a list for everything.”

“True,” Dell said, studying her, getting nothing from her expression. She had quite the game face, his Jade. “You do, you have lists for everything.”

“Not everything.”

“Jade, you have a list for every situation, big or small, from when to brush your teeth, to how to handle every potential patient to cross my door. Hell, you’ve got a list on what’s in your purse and my office fridge and-”

“And don’t forget the list on how many different ways I could kill you,” she said, sipping her drink.

“Now that’s one I’d like to see,” Brady said.

Adam looked intrigued. “How many ways are there really to do that?”

“You have no idea…” she murmured serenely.

Dell laughed. “Come on. There’s no doubt in my mind, you have a list of sexual taboos. Tell us.”

“Yeah,” Lilah said, leaning forward. “Tell us! I might need to add to my list.”

“Why are we still talking about this?” Jade wanted to know.

“The question is,” Dell said, “why are you avoiding talking about this?” He smiled at her and though she blushed a little, she held his gaze evenly.

He didn’t have a hard time imagining Jade as a sexual creature. She was beautiful, innately sensual, from that full bottom lip, to her glorious curves, to the way she moaned while eating her hidden stash of chocolate from her bottom desk drawer.

What he had a hard time imagining was her having a one-night stand. Which meant that she’d have to let someone in close enough to have a relationship with before she had sex. And she wasn’t any better at that than… well, him. He got her, he really did. Because other than the people right here at this table, he never felt the overwhelming need to let anyone in, either. “Come on,” he coaxed, teasing. “Give us something from your taboo list.”

She smiled at him. “You should be far more concerned with what’s on tomorrow’s to-do list.”

“Ha,” Adam said to his brother. “You have a to-do list.”

“So do you,” Jade said, and Brady laughed.

“Nice deflection,” Lilah said to Jade. “You’re good at that.”

It was a definite talent, Dell thought, and let her have the deflection. They all hung out for another hour before Brady stood and grabbed Lilah’s hand. “We’re out,” he said.

Lilah smiled wickedly. “’Bout time.” She looked at Jade. “Can we drop you off?”

“No, that’s okay,” Jade said, shaking her head. “Go home with Brady.”

“You sure?”

“Very.”

Lilah hugged her and then she and Brady made tracks. Adam’s cell vibrated, and he excused himself out into the night as well. Dell looked at Jade, who was scrolling through her contacts. “Looks like it’s you and me. Come on, I’ll give you a ride.”

“No, it’s out of your way. I’ll call…”

“That guy from your line-dancing class?”

She sighed. “Okay, so I could use a ride.”

He walked her out to his truck and then had to clear her a spot in the passenger’s seat because he had a stack of work files, his hockey gear from the weekend league he played on, and some other shit he’d shoved into the truck and forgotten about. “There,” he said, tossing everything to the back.

“Thanks,” she murmured, and got in. “Your truck looks like your desk.”

True statement. “I have a little organizational problem.”

Her gaze met his. “I could help you with that.”

“Sure, if you’ll let me help you with your taboos list.”

“How do you know that you don’t have the same taboos?”

“I don’t have any.”

That shocked her into silence, and the rest of the drive to her place stayed quiet, though she was thinking so loud he could almost hear her thoughts.

The minute he pulled into her lot, her hand was on the door. She was in a hurry. He wondered which of them she didn’t trust.

“Thanks for the ride,” she said.

“Anytime, Jade.”

She glanced back at him, and in a purely feminine move, bit her lower lip, her teeth pressing into the plump curve. “So, tomorrow I thought I’d tackle your office.”

There was a light in her eyes. Lust, he thought, dazed. He nearly groaned. But the lust wasn’t for him, it was for his damn desk. She looked practically orgasmic at the thought of getting her hands on his messy office. “If only I could get you to look at me like that.”

They both smiled because they each recognized the lie. If she looked at him like that, he’d run like hell. He didn’t have anything against a good old-fashioned love affair. It was just that the love part wasn’t for him. He was missing the for-keeps gene, both the ability to love that way, and to be loved that way.

“You’re not a spreadsheet,” Jade said. “Or I would.”

“If you gave it a shot, I’d let you at my accounting system, too.”

“Don’t tease me,” she said, her eyes dilating with even more lust.

His own reaction was far more base, making him laugh, at himself. Time to call it a night before he did something really stupid. He leaned past her to open the door for her.

Jade’s eyes dropped to his mouth, lingering a moment before returning to meet his gaze.

He had the brief thought that he hadn’t called it a night fast enough because then one of them moved, he wasn’t sure who, but they were kissing. She made a soft sound of approval that went right through him, as did the hand she set on his chest, landing right over his heart as she pressed in closer. God, yeah. Closer. His hand slid around the back of her neck, over satiny soft skin, his thumb brushing the exquisite hollow behind her ear.

Her hands slid to his shoulders, his biceps, and dug in as if to hold him here, right here. But he wasn’t going anywhere. He liked her hands on him, liked her tongue in his mouth, and when she made that noise deep in her throat, the one that said she was as lost as him, he groaned, both in pleasure and with a good amount of what-the-fuckery, because he knew.

He was in trouble.

Down to the bone trouble, and he didn’t give one single shit. Knowing this was crazy, that they had no place to go with this kiss, he still slanted his mouth over hers and took more, took everything she gave, and she gave her all, her soft sigh as they pulled apart turning him on almost more than the kiss had.

Still, she didn’t move far, only a fraction of an inch, which meant that they sat there, still wrapped up in each other, noses touching, their exhales coming in fast pants on each other’s skin. One of his hands was still in her hair, his fingers brushing the nape of her neck, the other just brushing the swell of her breast. The temperature of the night had dropped considerably but here inside his truck it was at least two hundred degrees.

Sanity was painfully slow to return. It helped to remember that she was leaving in a month. Theoretically, that took him off the hook. She was going to be the one to walk away.

Pressure off.

“Okay,” she said shakily, finally pulling back.

Apparently the only one of them with a lick of sense.

“Not sure what that was,” she said. “But for now, I’m going to ignore it.”

He wasn’t sure how to do that but he kept his doubts to himself and got out with her.

She narrowed her eyes.

“Just walking you to the door,” he said.

“Fine.” She pulled out her keys. “But I’m going to still be ignoring this tomorrow.”

He’d be watching her try. “Night, Jade.”

“Night.” She didn’t go in right away.

He didn’t move, and not just because he hadn’t been inside her place and was curious.

Though he was curious, very much so.

But mostly he wanted a repeat of that holy-shit kiss. He wanted that bad. Because she was leaving. Which mean that he wouldn’t be the one to have to walk away, not this time.

The slight darkening of her eyes said she was considering the same line of thought. He looked at her mouth but the moment had passed and she was shifting back, away from him.

Already ignoring.

Thankfully Jade’s workday was predictably crazy. Thankfully, because then she couldn’t think too much about the night before.

The Kiss That Had Rocked Her World.

Dell had indeed mucked up the schedule. This demoted him from wildly sexy to downright irritating. It took her all morning and quite a bit of juggling to get it back to a manageable pace but she did it. And to be honest, nothing perked her up or kicked her brain into high gear faster than a problem that she could solve with a spreadsheet.

The phones stayed busy and the waiting room at a dull roar thanks to the patients and the owners that filled it. She knew the chaos would drive most people nuts but it was an organized chaos and she felt right at home, the noise settling over her like a security blanket.

In her not-too-distant past, her day had been filled with grumpy, sick, tired, distraught, rude people trying to get medical attention. She’d discovered that she preferred animals any day of the week. They didn’t talk back, they didn’t scream in your face if you were five minutes late getting them into their appointment.

Peanut the parrot sat in her opened cage, eyeballing the room with interest, occasionally squawking out a “mew” or “wuff wuff” because she liked to be a part of every conversation. Behind Jade’s chair lay Gertie, Dell’s ten-year-old “baby.” The St. Bernard liked the chaos as much as Jade did and had decided she liked hanging out with Jade.

Gertie was currently snoring over the din.

The stray kitten was still with her and had gotten very attached to the carrier that Jade had been using to transport her to and from the loft. Jade kept it in a position of honor on her credenza, door open.

From the carrier, the kitten loftily surveyed her kingdom, looking down her nose at the waiting patients.

Jade had named her Beans because… well, she wasn’t exactly sure but the kitten seemed to like it.

“She still here?” Dell asked, coming through the front room holding a chart.

“Just until she gets fattened up a little.”

Dell just smiled, sure and confident and smelling amazing, damn him. “I am going to give her up,” she said. Tomorrow.

Okay, so maybe next week. It had to be sooner than later because Jade was going back to Chicago.

At some point.

“Would it be so bad to want to keep something in your life?” he asked.

She laughed. “Okay, Mr. Pot. Meet Kettle.”

“I have animals.”

“Just not women. At least not permanent ones.” She immediately clamped her mouth shut, with no idea where that had come from. With a shake of her head, she turned back to her computer.

Dell stepped to her side, but before he could say a word, Keith, their animal tech, squished in between them, reaching for the sign-in sheet with his usual cluelessness. He brought the patients to the exam rooms for Dell and took notes and stats. He divided a look between Dell and Jade. “What?”

“Nothing,” Jade said and nudged Dell out of the way.

When he was gone, Keith looked at her. “We in trouble?”

“No.” They weren’t in trouble. She was in trouble, all by herself.

Keith sighed in relief. He was a twenty-four-year-old mountain biker and mountain bum. He was great with the animals but more forgetful than anyone she’d ever met, and he moved slower than molasses. “Dude,” he said-just like he did every time Jade passed him in the hallway, assisting him in bringing the animals to the back. “You in a race?”

“No, but you could pretend to be.”

Keith merely grinned. “You know what you need?”

Yes. Yes, she knew exactly what she needed.

“You need yoga. Or Xanax.”

“What I need is you to move it.”

“Move it,” Peanut repeated.

Keith grinned. “I only move it on the mountain or in my bed.”

Jade sighed but kept cracking the whip. By pushing the patients along, continuing to fill and empty the exam rooms as fast as Dell worked his way through them, she made up even more lost time. This she used to help Adam as needed, who was working from the center today as well. He gave a S &R training class in the morning, and then puppy obedience classes all afternoon, and Jade helped him stay as organized as she could.

Eventually, sometime after five o’clock, the place slowed down. The last of the patients were seen. Jade was straightening up the front room when Bessie arrived from the cleaning service.

Actually, Bessie was the cleaning service. She came at the end of the day and sometimes at the lunch break as needed. “That’s my job,” she snapped at Jade, who was straightening out the waiting room.

“Move it,” Peanut said.

Bessie eyeballed the parrot. “I know how to make a mean parrot soup.”

Peanut ducked her head beneath her wing.

“I’m just trying to help,” Jade told Bessie. The benches were heavy and she knew Bessie’s back bothered her by the end of the day.

But Bessie’s eyes flared with temper as if she’d been insulted. “You think I can’t do my job?”

Bessie was somewhere between fifty and one hundred. Hard to tell exactly. Time hadn’t been kind, and neither had gravity, but Bessie had been cleaning offices in Sunshine for decades and wasn’t ready to admit defeat. “I think you do your job better than anyone I know,” Jade said.

“Then leave me to it,” Bessie said.

This was a nightly conversation. Jade lifted her hands in surrender and went back to her desk to close up.

Keith left, as did Mike, Dell’s animal nurse. Dell, done seeing patients, was holed up in his office, hopefully catching up on returning phone calls and making final notes to the animal charts and other various but necessary paperwork.

Adam came in from the outside pens, bringing a blast of autumn air in with him. He had a golden retriever puppy tucked beneath each arm. There was a woman with him. “Thanks so much for today,” she was saying as he walked her to the door. “Timmy’s already in the car, but I just wanted to confirm we’re on for this weekend, for the special-needs kids.”

“I’ll be there,” Adam said.

“It’ll mean so much to the kids. Your dogs just have such a way of reaching them. Having you bring your puppies, letting the kids see how you train and treat them, is such a wonderful experience for them. We can’t wait.”

“Looking forward to it.” Adam nudged the door open with his foot for her. He walked out with her and then surprised Jade by coming back inside, still holding two pups.

“Heading out for the night,” he said. “I’ll walk you to your car.”

One of the puppies barked happily, earning him a low, authoritative look from Adam. The puppy seemed to smile at him but obeyed and fell quiet.

“I’m not ready yet,” Jade said. “I’m backing up the files right now.”

Adam nudged his chin in the direction of Dell’s office. “Then call him when you’re ready to go.”

“Believe it or not, I think I know how to find my car.”

Adam didn’t return her teasing smile, just shook his head. “Another animal clinic was hit last night. No one walks to their car by themselves.”

“You are,” she pointed out.

That did make him smile. He was over six feet, solid muscle, and intimidating as hell. “Don’t worry about me,” he said, lifting the puppies higher. One licked his nose, the other licked his chin. “I’ve got guard dogs.”

Jade came around her desk, kissed each puppy and opened the door for them. Then she went back to her desk. “Gertie,” she said. “Go to Dell.”

Well used to the night routine, Gertie trotted off to Dell’s office, where she’d wait patiently for her master to take her home.

Jade covered up Peanut, then settled Beans in her carrier. She slung her purse over her arm, dimmed the lights, then stuck her head into Dell’s office.

He’d had a long day and was still in his scrubs and white lab coat, sprawled in his big leather office chair talking on the phone. He had his feet up on his desk, his laptop in his lap, and he was hunting and pecking keys with an impressive speed for someone using only their pointer fingers. He had his cell phone open and on speaker, and at first she thought maybe he was consulting, as he often did for the other vets in the area.

That or going over the stack of paperwork she’d left for him. They had plenty of it, the most pressing tonight being the blood drawn from a jet-setting Boston terrier heading for England on a month-long vacay with his owner. The sample needed to be sent out to a lab authorized to give a rabies-titer clearance proving the dog had an adequate level of rabies antibodies to avoid Britain’s quarantine. But… big surprise, a soft female voice was speaking.

“I’ve got a steak on the barbecue with your name on it, Big Guy,” that female voice said.

Big guy?

Dell’s dark eyes warmed at the sight of Jade. “Sorry, Kel. I have work.” His hair was even more disheveled than usual. He’d shoved his fingers through it. He did that a lot when he was tired or frustrated, and today he’d been both. He’d lost a very ill cancer-ridden cat on the table, not entirely unexpected but never easy.

I’m going, Jade mouthed, and waved to indicate she was heading out.

“Wait,” he said.

“I’ll wait as long as you need,” the woman said.

“Sorry,” Dell said, putting his feet down and setting his laptop on the desk. “I meant Jade.”

“Who’s Jade?”

Jade rolled her eyes at Dell and left his office. The man was gorgeous as sin, and incredible at what he did for a living, but if he couldn’t see that he went through women like other men went through socks because he insisted on choosing the wrong women, it was really none of her business.

Not that she was one to talk. She hadn’t exactly been successful in the relationship area herself, especially lately. “People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones,” she murmured to Beans as they stepped outside.

It was a relatively mild night, but she could hear the rustle of the dry leaves on the trees. They were getting ready to fall. The ground crunched beneath her heels as she walked across the parking lot. She was halfway to her car when it happened.

A figure darted between her car and Dell’s truck. He was tall, lean, and had a face chalk white with hollow, sightless black eyes and a black mouth, gaping wide open in a soundless scream.