George, Mary Lou - Prey (BookStrand Publishing Romance)

by Mary Lou George

  “Would it be okay to let the dogs out to play?” Jade asked.

  Hank looked at Gillian who smiled. “Of course. Here, I’ll do it.” She stood up and opened the door.

  As they ran out, Jade promised them, “Don’t worry, we’ll save your half of brunch for you later.” If it were possible for dogs to smile then Hank came as close to it as she’d ever seen.

  Stunned, she exchanged a look with Travis. She’d seen that smile yesterday when they’d been dancing. Travis nodded with a proud grin. “Yup, he smiles. I keep expecting him to ask if he can borrow the car. Hey Gilly, should we start a college fund for him?”

  Gillian laughed and squeezed his forearm. “I’m all for it, Sheriff.”

  The mention of Travis’s profession reminded Jade of her purpose. Over coffee, she told them about what she’d discussed with Ernestine earlier.

  They were both quiet for a few seconds after she stopped speaking. Jade looked from one to the other and could have sworn something unusual was happening. Then they blinked at each other and nodded, accepting Jade’s version of events without question.

  Travis said, “Gillian was pretty careful yesterday. She kept Hank or me close to her most of the time. She didn’t reach out to read anyone. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t something there.”

  Gillian nodded. “I can only read humans. I don’t read animals.” When she grinned there was excitement in her lavender eyes. “I’m amazed that you can. That must be so wonderful. If you got vibes from the dogs there yesterday, I’m willing to bet something’s wrong.” She looked at her fiancé in silent communication and then looked back at Jade again. “Why don’t you try to get something out of Hank and Maggie today? They’ve had a chance to sleep on it.”

  “That was the plan. Mind if I do it now? Outside?”

  “Do you need to be alone with them?” Gillian asked, “Because I’d love to see you in action.” Travis frowned, and Gillian’s eyes widened with feigned innocence. She batted her thick dark eyelashes at him. “Travis can do the dishes.”

  “That settles it then. Come on, Gillian.” Jade smirked at the big man still sitting alone at the breakfast table in the middle of a kitchen filled with dirty dishes. She tried to feel sorry for him, but couldn’t quite muster up the requisite amount of pity because, of course, women had been taking care of that duty and so much more since time began.

  “Fine,” he called after them, “but no re-washing the cutlery when I’m done. Do you hear me?”

  Gillian just laughed.

  Outside in the garden, she called to the dogs. They came running, Hank leading the pack. Jade sat down in the grass with Maggie and Hank sprawled out in front of her. She touched them sometimes and other times she just looked in their eyes intensely.

  It was impossible for Jade to explain the feeling to anyone, but communicating with animals was an incredible experience. Animals, both wild and domestic, didn’t think like humans, but that didn’t mean they lacked intelligence. Intrinsically linked with nature, their observations were utterly without judgment or self pity. Each creature simply loved being and accepted their lot in life with true grace. But animals were never fatalists. Jade knew that they understood nature and their place in it. They didn’t have questions about God. They knew. They understood. That knowledge gave them a serenity humans could never know. Jade was humbled by them and always grateful when they were willing to take the time and communicate with her.

  She wasn’t sure how long she’d spent with the dogs because just like them, she had a different awareness of time when she was with them. Finally, Jade thanked Hank and Maggie and stood up. The dogs collected Rags and went running off.

  Gillian looked like she could barely control her excitement. When Jade sat on the back porch stairs beside her, Gillian burst out. “That was cool! If I didn’t know what you were doing I would have thought you were just enjoying a quiet canine moment. I wish I could do that, know them that way.”

  “There’s no reason you can’t.” Jade said simply.

  Gillian frowned and shook her head, clearly mystified.

  Jade explained. “Your ability…if you touch me, you can experience what I feel, right? It would be nice to be able to share this with someone who understands.”

  Gillian’s eye’s lit up. “You wouldn’t mind?”

  “No, I wouldn’t mind,” Jade said in a gentle voice. “What do I have to do?”

  “First, I want to assure you that I will go no further than your communication with the dogs. I won’t invade your privacy.”

  “I trust you.” Those three words had never come easy to Jade but she spoke them easily to Gillian.

  Understanding the meaning of the word gracious, Gillian thanked her with a nod and in a soft voice said, “It’s really easy actually. You shouldn’t feel a thing. I’ll touch you and get what you want to give me.”

  Jade relaxed as Gillian reached out her hand.

  Chapter 4

  Again, Jade lost track of time. She didn’t feel a thing. Gillian’s touch was so light, her exploration was psychically imperceptible. Jade wasn’t sure if she did it on purpose or not, but Gillian left a warm feeling behind when she retreated. It was beautiful.

  Tears ran freely from Gillian’s eyes as she whispered in awe, “You are so lucky. That was the most extraordinary thing I’ve ever felt and coming from me, that says a lot.” Her smiling face indicated even more. She positively glowed.

  Travis walked out in time to hear her words. He scowled. “Gill, are you talking about me again?”

  Gillian laughed through her tears. “Okay so it was one of the most extraordinary experiences I’ve ever known. Since I moved to New Crescent there’s a long list of them.”

  Still sitting on the porch stairs, Jade turned and leaned against the railing at the top. She put one foot on the stair on which she sat, and the other two stairs down, completely at ease. She looked up at Travis. “You want to hear what we learned? Or do you want to brag for a while, because if you’re going to brag, I’ll head out and you can start without me.”

  Travis made a childish face at her and that, along with his bed head hair, made him look ridiculously appealing. “Maybe another day when you have more time.” He lifted his head up and looked down his nose at her. “Spill.”

  Jade accommodated him. “Well, I wasn’t mistaken. There is something definitely wrong. Both Maggie and Hank can feel it, but can’t recognize its scent. It’s a living creature, but not animal and not human…or is it animal and at the same time, human? They don’t know, I don’t know.” She shook her head as if to clear it. “Whatever it is, it doesn’t come in peace. I figure the wind shifts and they loose the scent for the moment. But it always comes back and more frequently now.”

  Travis frowned. “That doesn’t help much in a law enforcement way. There’s nothing I can do at this point, but I’ll keep my eyes and ears open for anything that fits that sketchy description. In the meantime, you have to tell Sam.”

  Jade was surprised. “Sam? Why Sam?”

  Travis smiled smugly, obviously relishing the privilege of being the first to tell her. “Old Trust Fund isn’t as lazy as he led everyone to believe. He’s a bona fide veterinarian! Who knew? Sam even saved Hank’s life last summer. He’s built a sort of free clinic up at his place. Taken some of that huge inheritance his grandfather gave him and gone and done something charitable. If anyone has any information about the animals around here, it would be Sam.”

  Jade was impressed. She knew all about Sam’s inheritance. It had been a joke for years. His maternal grandfather died when Sam was just ten. To his parents’ horror, the old man left everything to Sam. So, at the tender age of ten, Sam Daniels was one of the richest people in the country. Not that his parents were hurting or anything. His father’s side of the family owned the powerful Daniels Pharmaceuticals. Sam called his father Satan and his mother Cruella DeVille. He loved his parents, he just didn’t like them very much and often wondered if he hadn’t been sw
itched at birth.

  Travis interrupted Jade’s musings. “Do you remember how to get to Sam’s place?”

  Jade looked at him as if he’d lost his mind. “Of course I do. I may be just plain boring Homo sapiens, but I’m not stupid.”

  * * * *

  The way to Sam’s place was embossed and foil stamped on her brain. She, Sam, Chase, Reggie and Travis had often gathered there. Sam owned the huge estate, even the long stretch of ocean front. She’d spent practically all summer on his beach one very formative year. Jade smiled when she remembered that particular time in her life. She’d had her first kiss on that very same beach. It happened just before her stepmother died. She looked back at that time as her Camelot. She had a home and was truly loved for the first time in her life. It was a magical summer.

  Sam Daniels was the first boy to ever kiss her. If she were honest, she’d have to admit, Sam hadn’t really kissed her. She’d kissed him. Driving to his house with Rags beside her in the car, Jade smiled as it came back to her.

  * * * *

  At the tender age of thirteen, Jade Adams was perhaps too young to be hanging around with her brother’s much older friends. Mentally, she did the math, Sam must have been nineteen. Wow, was he patient with her. Her all consuming crush on him had hit its zenith the night she’d sneaked out of her house and made her way to Sam’s private stretch of beach. Earlier that day, Sam had announced his plan to sleep under the stars since the next day he’d be going back to college and wouldn’t see New Crescent’s night sky again until Thanksgiving.

  Jade was in agonies thinking about his absence and hadn’t wanted him to leave town without knowing how much she loved him. Innately honest, she saw no reason to keep her feelings for him secret. Unaware of the sophisticated relationship games grown-ups played, she’d felt compelled to tell him. That night she headed for the beach with purpose.

  The moon was just a sliver of brilliant white in the sky, but even that tiny bit provided her enough light to make her way down the familiar path to Sam’s beach.

  With relief she saw that he was alone. She sighed, looked up to the moon and gave a word of thanks. She’d worried that Travis, Reggie or Chase might have decided to make it a party. But thankfully, she had him all to herself. Still pudgy and awkward, Jade crossed to him with studied care. She didn’t want to wake him. When she finally reached his side, she sat down gingerly. He was sleeping and Jade watched him for she didn’t know how long. At last, with a sigh, he turned from his side onto his back. Jade made use of the opportunity his lifted face provided and kissed him on the lips. This was no innocent kiss. She’d been practicing. Television had its uses. That summer, she’d avidly studied every soap opera kiss and picked up some tips. She felt confident that she knew what she was doing. After all, her pillow never complained.

  Looking back at it, Jade wondered how she’d summoned up the nerve, but she remembered the desperation she’d felt at thirteen. It was like she knew she was living on borrowed time. As if some voice inside her head was warning her it would soon come to an end. It did of course, but not before she’d had her moment with Sam.

  At first, the kiss went rather well, she’d thought. His lips had been soft and smooth but his chin and cheeks hadn’t been. They were so wonderfully different, hard and rough, so unlike her own. She liked it.

  Then, responding with relish, Sam moaned. Still sleeping, he’d taken charge of their kiss and shocked her down to her painted pinky toes.

  She pulled away, and Sam opened his eyes for the first time since she’d arrived on the beach. He looked at her blankly. He was breathing heavy and when he realized what had happened, he turned to her in anger.

  “What the hell are you doing here?”

  “I…I…just...” She had no idea what to say in the face of his anger.

  “Don’t you know this could have been very, very dangerous for you?” One look at her tears and Sam’s anger seemed to drain away.

  “I’m sorry Jade. It’s just that…you see, I didn’t know it was you. I wasn’t aware of anything. I was dreaming and I’m sorry if I frightened you. I’m so sorry about the way I responded to you.” He looked defeated, then, with his famous crooked smile, he put a brotherly arm around her shoulders and tried to comfort her. “Your first kiss should not have been with me…or that way. You deserve better than that. A boy closer to your age should have been the lucky guy so you could both learn together. That’s the way it’s supposed to be. I love you, Jade, but I’m too old to love you in that kind of kissing way. Do you understand?”

  She nodded, her lip trembling.

  He continued gently rocking her from side to side. “Please don’t feel bad about this, sweetheart. I’d hate for there to be awkwardness between us. Let’s talk it through until we can’t talk anymore and we feel normal with each other again. But first, I need to take you home. We can talk in your backyard so your mom and Chase don’t have me arrested.”

  Sam Daniels was always a man of his word. He’d ended up spending most of the night with her, just talking about whatever she’d wanted to talk to him about. In the morning they’d parted steadfast friends, and when he hugged her goodbye he whispered in her ear, “I’d give anything to be thirteen again.” He sighed and kissed her on the forehead.

  Her crush had ended, but she’d never stopped loving him. Her feelings for him deepened, but changed after that night.

  * * * *

  As Jade pulled up to the house, she noted that not much had changed at Sam’s house. It was as familiar to her as any other place in town. On closer inspection, however, Jade noticed a new building out by the stables in the distance. Instinctively, she headed in that direction. She could have driven, but she preferred the oh-so-familiar pathway. Rags was new to this place so every scent he picked up was unfamiliar and strange to him. Cautiously, he stayed close to her side.

  The new building meshed with the rest of the place just beautifully, and she wondered if he’d relied on Reggie’s eye to make it so perfect. She walked in through what appeared to be the most likely entrance.

  Sam was carrying a stack of files when he looked up and saw Jade standing there. He smiled and lifted a hand in greeting. A couple of the file folders he was holding slipped. She hid a grin as he was forced to execute some pretty acrobatic damage control in order to keep the whole stack of files from landing on the floor in a mess.

  He looked at Jade with chagrin. “Hi, Jinx.”

  Jade burst out laughing, and so did he. Jinx was an old nickname Sam had given her. Usually so graceful, Sam Daniels could be a bit of a klutz around Jade. It was uncanny and was the source of a great deal of humor in their childhood. Reggie, Chase and Travis had always wanted her around when they had some sort of bet with Sam because he was destined to lose when she was near. Jade had started to feel bad about it, but Sam refused to let her run off. Instead, he crowned her his own special Jinx, and they’d laughed about it. She grew to like the nickname. It was wonderful to hear it again, on this day, at this place.

  “What brings you out this way today?” Sam asked.

  Jade nodded at the setup he’d created. “Nice digs. Travis finked. You have to come out of the closet now. You work.”

  He laughed. “Yeah, but can that be our little secret?” He hugged her and led her into his office. It looked pretty much like any other office except Jade could see the examining table in an adjoining room.

  She figured there was no sense beating around the bush so she told him all about what Maggie had communicated to her at the wedding and what she’d learned earlier from Hank and Maggie together. She waited for him to scoff and laugh it off, after all a veterinarian was a scientist. There wasn’t much room for the supernatural in that profession. She didn’t expect him to accept what she was able to do and braced herself for his skepticism.

  He frowned. Silence settled around the office as Jade waited for his inevitable reaction.

  “What about Rags here, your dog? Does he feel anything? Or is it only ou
r hometown dogs? So to speak.” A light flickered in his eyes as he recognized her reticence.

  She tried not to show her surprise. “Rags hasn’t indicated anything to me, but he wasn’t with me at the wedding, and New Crescent is brand new to him. Many scents around here are strange to a newcomer.”

  He leaned back in his chair. “I’ve noticed the same kind of animal behavior lately. Granted,, I don’t have your ability but...” he paused and smirked at her, “who does? And, by the way, wow! That’s just cool! Anyway, the horses are restless, the cats are cranky, and I’ve never seen the dogs this nervous. I’m glad someone else has noticed it too.”

  “So what do we do? They obviously have better senses than we do and they’re trying to tell us something.” Immensely relieved Jade was earnest now that she knew he took her seriously.

  “Well, isn’t that where you come in?”

  “What do you mean?” She looked at him with uncertainty.

  He sighed. “You’re the only person I’ve ever known who can do what you can do. And again, wow! You have the edge. Somehow you’ve got to get more information from the animals.”

  “And just how do you suggest I do that? Hang out in woods and hope to meet a bear who’s willing to discuss it with me?” The preposterous image made her giggle.

  He frowned and with mock seriousness, said, “We both know that’s just silly. Bears are notorious tall tale tellers. You could never trust what they told you.” He smiled then sobered. “How about you start with some of my horses and the other animals I have here in the clinic?”