Animal Attraction

above the entry way of the center.

Heart in her throat, she put the car in gear and hit the gas. Don’t look back, don’t look back, don’t…

She looked.

Dell stood there in the center of the lot, hands on hips, a grim expression on his face.

Her tires squealed a little bit leaving the lot, but she didn’t slow down. From in her pocket, her cell phone vibrated. Swallowing hard, she kept driving.

She was nearly a mile down the road when her phone vibrated again. Still shaking, heart still pounding, she pried her hand from the wheel and grasped the phone.

She didn’t have to look at the screen to see who it was.

Dell.

With her vision already far too blurry for safe driving thanks to the tears she refused to acknowledge, she hit ignore and kept going.

Jade made it home and knew exactly how lucky she was to do it in one piece given her condition. Running on panic and adrenaline, she stumbled out of her car and got to her door before she remembered.

Beans.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” she murmured after she’d run back to the car for the kitten. “God. I’m the worst kitten mom on the entire planet.” Hugging the carrier close, she ran up the walk, up the stairs, unlocked the door and disabled her alarm.

Inside, she hit the switch that lit up the place like Christmas and then stood stock-still, her hand on the wall for balance.

Everything was in place and she was alone. Her purse hit the floor and she slid down the wall to sit on her butt next to it, gulping in air, still hugging Beans in her carrier.

“Mew.”

Beans wanted dinner. Understandable. But Jade’s mind was doing a rewind and repeat.

Dark parking lot.

Dark face mask.

Dark growling voice in her ear. “Do as I say, bitch, and I won’t hurt you. Yet.”

Dark fear as he emphasized the words with the cold muzzle of a gun thrust under her jaw.

Frozen with fear, she tried to turn her head to get a look at him, but he stopped her cold. He ran the tip of that gun from her jaw along her throat, over her collarbone and down, skimming her breast. “Let’s go,” came the low, rough voice. “Unless you want to spend some time out here with me first…”

The only sound in her loft was her harsh breathing until Beans gave another soft, questioning “mew.”

Jade opened the cage and let the kitten out. Beans wound her way around Jade’s legs, giving out a rumbling purr. She accepted a scratch behind the ears and then trotted off to the kitchen nook in the obvious hope that the bowl fairy had filled hers.

Jade let out a choked laugh and thunked her head back against the door. One little thing, a silly zombie mask, a frigging kid’s Halloween mask, and she was back to a complete wreck, worse than ever.

Her first instinct was to run. Hell, that’s how she’d ended up here. After the attack, she’d run to get her head on straight. She’d gotten in the car and driven west.

She’d ended up in Sunshine.

And she’d never left. She’d found this sweet place to hole up and had taken a job she was way overqualified for, just so she could do something well.

A safety net.

She’d needed the confidence booster, and at the time, she’d truly believed it a very temporary move. She just needed to find herself again, that was all.

She thought she had.

Clearly she’d been wrong. Clearly she’d been living in Denial City. She’d built herself a little fantasy here, a temporary geographical cure, that was all.

Now she had to decide what to do about that. She could pack and go. Again. Just get in the car and go. Maybe south this time. Arizona. California. Hell, she could hit Mexico and keep going if she wanted. She wrapped her arms around her knees and dropped her head.

But running meant once again leaving everyone and everything that mattered. And she’d already done that. She didn’t want to do it again.

The knock at the door had her jerking upright as if shot. She stared at it, still as stone.

“Jade, it’s me.”

Dell, of course. Who else?

“Let me in, Jade.” She covered her mouth and shook her head, like he could see her.

After a moment, the knock came again, less patient now, again accompanied by his low, unbearably familiar voice. “Jade.”

“Mew.”

Jade stared down at Beans, who was once again doing the head bump against her legs. “He’s never been here,” she whispered to the kitten. “Why’s he here?”

Because he saw your freak-out in the parking lot, you idiot. Because he came down to check on you and you sped off into the night. Because you didn’t answer your phone.

Pick one…

Leaning her head back on the door, Jade closed her eyes and fought with the conflicting urges to open the door and throw herself at him for the comfort she knew his very nice arms could provide or to continue to huddle in a pathetic little ball and pretend the world didn’t exist.

“I can hear you breathing,” he said.

Slowly she stood up. She could feel Dell on the other side, tall and strong, warm. Calm.

Waiting.

And he could outpatience Job, too. Once she’d seen him outwait a furious gelding who’d been out of its mind after being stung by a bee, so enraged that everyone had truly thought the poor thing would break its own leg, or worse.

Dell had stepped into the central pen while the horse ran in circles around him, and when the horse finally exhausted itself, Dell moved in, getting the thing to literally eat out of the palm of his hand.

Jade’s cell phone rang, and shock, it was Dell.

Since he wasn’t going to give up, she answered with, “Jade’s unavailable at this time. Go away.”

“Jade-”

“Leave a message at the beep,” she whispered, trying for sarcastic wit, which is where she felt the most comfortable while completely coming undone.

“I want to talk to you.”

“Sorry, you’ve been rerouted to the Office of Too Freaking Bad.”

He hung up on her and she breathed a sigh of relief. Which turned out to be too soon because his voice came through the door. “Open up.”

His voice was low. Calm, assertive. And she actually turned to face the door before she stopped herself. Don’t be the horse that needs taming! “Stop woman-whispering me.”

There was a pause, as if he was considering his options, weighing each against her mood. But unfortunately his silence was as compelling as his voice.

Dammit. “Go,” she said, even though he hadn’t spoken again. “Please, Dell. Just go away.”

“I can’t do that.”

She began to mentally compile a new list: Dell’s negative qualities. Stubborn. Single-minded. Nosy…

“I’m busy,” she said.

“You’re not.”

“Yes, I am. Very, very busy.”