Animal Instinct

by Kate Davidson

  “It’s funny how we do that,” Danny said, watching Jackie rub behind his horse’s ears. He remembered the first time he’d met her. She had been so devoted to horses, her love for them obvious in everything she did. That had been one of his favorite things about her. “We always carry the best things in our life and make comparisons. Even with people. I’ve known plenty of good women who were all unique in their own way. But I always…” He trailed off. Damn, he shouldn’t have gone there. But Jackie was different from the Jane he had known. She wouldn’t leave it there.

  “Compared them to me?”

  “I, uh, well… yeah. Yeah, I’d compare them to you,” Danny confessed. She was looking straight at him now, only absently stroking Giacomo’s cheek.

  “I did the same thing. Made it hard to date, I’ll tell you that much,” she said, a faint smile on her lips.

  Danny wished he knew how to tell her how badly he’d missed her over the years. He wished there was a way for them to just transition back into the relationship they’d once had without these moments of pain. “I’m glad I don’t have to miss you anymore,” he said, reaching up to tip the brim of her cowboy hat back so he could see more of her face. “Really glad.”

  “Me, too.” She stared at him the way she used to when they’d first started dating. Like she couldn’t believe he was real.

  “Look, I’m going to put all my cards on the table,” he said. “I still have feelings for you. I’ve done a lot of living since I lost you and I’m not the person I used to be. But you’re a part of who I’ve become. Dammit, I don’t think I ever stopped loving you.” He took her face in his hands and kissed her.

  Jackie had seen it coming. She had known it was only a matter of time before the topic of how much they loved each other came up. And when Danny had started talking, she could tell he was going to kiss her. She let him. Honestly, she felt like she needed to. She needed to know if all the old feelings were still there. It was important to her to finally know.

  So she kissed back. Jackie wrapped her arms around his waist, her hands splayed against his back as she pressed herself against his body to get the feel of him around her after years of being apart. She kissed him like she’d been dreaming of kissing him for years. His fingers moved gently through her braided hair while his palms brushed against her cheeks. She finally remembered how soft his mouth was, how lovely it felt to have him surrounding her. The pain of losing his child and then losing him coursed through her. The distant memory of being young, innocent and so willing to let others look out for her was bittersweet. That was the taste of their kisses now. Bittersweet.

  “Danny,” she said, easing out of the kiss but staying in his arms. “Danny, I was in love with you. It’s like you said. You’re a part of who I’ve become. You always will be. It would be so easy to be with you, to make a life with you. The problem is I haven’t done things the easy way for a very long time.” A pained understanding filled his eyes. They both knew what she meant. Somehow without her being aware of it, she’d outgrown her need for him.

  “It was worth saying,” he told her.

  “It was. And I’m glad you said it. Friends should always be honest with each other.” Jackie took his hand in hers and squeezed once, trying to communicate all that love she would always have for him.

  He squeezed back. Then he offered her a light grin. “Would have been perfect if you’d said yes, though.”

  She let out a soft chuckle and released his hand. “It really would have been. We could have become an urban legend. Perfect couple separated for almost twenty years reunited for happily ever after ending.” It sounded so ridiculously cliché now that she thought about it. “God, even the timing is right. Couldn’t have been more perfect if someone had planned it.”

  Jackie turned to walk away then her muscles locked, forcing her to a stop. She had trouble breathing as her own words echoed in her head. Planned it.

  “What is it?” Danny asked.

  She spun around, eyes wide. “Why did your dad want to move here? Why not just go to a different state? You could still run into people you used to know down here, as I proved when I ran into him. So why?”

  “Jackie, it was random,” he said. “Seriously, dad filed his request for a new identity with the relocation department and they mailed him the information. We only asked for a place with horses, not here specifically.”

  “But you got here specifically.” She started running and the horses all gave a start at the sound of her leather boots pounding against the stone.

  “Where are you going?” he shouted.

  “To get some answers!” She skidded into her office and nearly launched herself at her desk as she scrambled for the phone. Once she had a grip on it she dialed her father’s cell number. After three rings he finally picked up.

  “Hello, Jackie.” Caller ID was such a great time saver. “What - ”

  She cut him off. “Good, you’re there. About three or four months ago, was there anyone new around the ranch? Someone who asked a lot of questions or just seemed a little off? Or maybe someone who acted completely normal but maybe a little friendlier than a stranger should be?”

  “Jackie, what’s the matter? You sound - ”

  “Daddy, I hate to be a bitch but I really need you to focus right now. Do you remember anyone weird?” Her father was silent on the other end of the line for one agonizing minute before he found the answer she wanted.

  “One of the grooms vanished about a week before I left for L.A. and we never heard another word about him. He’d only been there two months and no one was familiar with him. But… he said something to me before he left. He said I should bring Giacomo to L.A. myself. That I might enjoy the break and…”

  “And?” she prodded, her boot tapping nervously against the floor.

  “And that I might find something interesting.”

  She went still again as she absorbed that. “Of course,” Jackie said. “Look, dad, I’ve got to go. Sorry if I freaked you out.” She hung up on her father’s protests, grabbed her purse off the ground by her desk and sprinted out of her office.

  Jack Tanner’s apartment building was in the very center of Los Angeles. The traffic was hellish a majority of the time and Jackie did not have the luck of somehow slipping into the city when it was less hellish than usual. Her patience was not in the best shape once she finally got to Jack’s, although she calmed a bit when the security guard manning the front desk immediately let her go when she told him her name. Apparently Jack had put her on a list that granted her immediate entry. It was nice of him.

  She tapped her foot impatiently as the elevator rose up at the speed of oozing syrup. Jack had a penthouse that took up the top floor all to himself. Although technically it wasn’t really to himself since it also doubled as a hospital for the vampires and their donors. She didn’t envy him his position. He probably never had five minutes go by without a crisis. Maybe she should have called first. About the time she was thinking that the elevator door slid open. She gave a mental shrug. No point now.

  Her boots clunked against the black tile floors and once again it occurred to her that changing out of her ranch clothes might not have been a wasted fifteen minutes. Jackie shook her head. Really, there were more important things going on than presentation. She knocked on the door, trying not to fidget as the security camera in the corner whirred as it focused on her.

  The door swung open and there stood Liam. Jackie stared at him in shock. It hadn’t occurred to her that he would be living with Jack. She thought maybe he’d left town or was hidden in some kind of underground bunker. Clearly that wasn’t the case since he was standing in front of her looking delicious in denim and a partially unbuttoned royal blue silk shirt. His eyes fixed on her face with an intensity she wasn’t sure how to interpret.

  “Jacquelyn,” he said and she got the feeling he was treasuring the sound of her name. Then abruptly he snapped back into his old casually sarcastic self. �
�Did you have an emergency for the good doctor? I should warn you that he just fell asleep for the day and he tends to bite when people wake him up.”

  Her plan had been to drill Jack about the particulars of vampire business but Liam would be such a better source. Plus, she’d get to yell at him. She was dying to yell at him. “You’re an idiot,” she said. This stunned him enough to allow her to slip by and enter Jack’s apartment. She hadn’t lingered the last time she’d been there so the details had been a little fuzzy. Now she refreshed her memory of Jack’s perfectly welcoming living room with the decorative fireplace at the center and white leather couches arranged around it. Orange and red pillows contrasted with the whiteness of the couches and significantly warmed the otherwise cold gray room. The bar helped, too. She shrugged out of her lightweight jacket and tossed it on one of the couches as she waited for her host to respond.

  “I’m a what?” Liam demanded.

  Jackie had to struggle not to grin at how long it had taken him to shake off the shock. The door slammed shut and she turned to face his scowling face. “You’re an idiot,” she repeated. “Don’t feel bad. You aren’t alone. I was so stupidly happy I didn’t see what was right in front of my face. But you’re still at fault.”

  “Are you going to elaborate on that point or do I have to guess?” he asked with a distinctly acidic tone.

  “You didn’t tell me anything about the whole vampire society thing until you almost killed me. Even then I practically had to use the jaws of life to pry the answers out of you!”

  “You never wanted to know,” he said, still not moving from where he’d been when he slammed the door shut. Jackie wondered if he was keeping still because he thought he might scare her if he showed just how frustrated he was. The thought pissed her off.

  “I didn’t give a crap if you wanted to know that I had a baby ripped from my womb. I just told you. And you haven’t told me a damn thing about the Left Hand,” she added, leaning against the back of one of the couches and crossing her arms over her stomach. “I may have been recently traumatized any time I tried asking but that isn’t the kind of information that can wait until I’m steady on my feet, Liam.”

  “Well, you aren’t missing out on much, Jacquelyn. We don’t know a damn thing about him except he wants Los Angeles,” Liam snapped before he stormed past her to the bar in the back of the room. Jackie quickly straightened up and followed.

  “What?”

  “He’s caused chaos for the vampire community with the media attention. If things keep going they way they have been some smart humans will figure out there are several hundred vampires living in the area. We can’t afford to be exposed. Clearly he doesn’t share that fear since he’s leaving corpses around the city and we can’t hide all of them before they get seen. It was bad enough when he was just killing random humans and donors. Now he’s killing vampires. My people are evacuating the city as fast as they can. If this goes on there’ll be no one left but his cronies. He wants this city’s morale crushed and he’s doing a damn fine job.” He had never been this frank and honest about his world. It almost made her too nervous to offer him her theories. Jackie let out a shaky breath. She would just have to suck it up and try anyway.

  “Whoever the Left Hand is, they’ve been trying to get me out of your life long before they tried killing me.” Liam gave her a confused frown. “Daniel Wallace is back in the picture.”

  “That would explain why you’ve been so blissfully happy,” he bit out, reaching for the crystal decanter filled with scotch. It hurt knowing he’d been so easily forgotten. Some stupid human boy swans back into her life and suddenly he didn’t exist. She’d even managed to weaken their bond with all her joy and embracing life with the living. Dammit, why did he have to be the last to know he wasn’t the man for her? His grip on the decanter tightened and it shattered in his hand. Glass and scotch splattered across the bar’s surface. Liam scowled, brushing glass off his hand as he stepped away from the dripping mess. “Damn.”

  Jackie’s eyes flickered from his stormy expression to what was left of the decanter on the bar. Then she ran her anxious fingers through her hair, letting out a huff of breath. “Yeah, I have been happy. He forgave me for running and he told me what happened to our child wasn’t my fault. I’ve been fucking ecstatic.” She gripped Liam’s elbow before he could walk away, making him face her. “We kissed.”

  Liam had to concentrate very hard on not jerking his arm away from her. With his emotions in the state they were, he might hurt her by accident. Hurt her as much as she was hurting him.

  “We aren’t in love anymore.”

  The vortex of pained thoughts halted. “You aren’t?”

  “No, you idiot. He’s too perfect for me now. I need a guy who drives me crazy half the time. I need someone to argue with me when I’m pissed. For fuck’s sake, Liam, it used to be that he’d ruined me for all other men. Now you’re the one who’s done that. Congratulations!” She shook her head, letting go of his arm and taking a step back. He stepped forward and she realized they had a habit of following each other around, rarely letting more than a yard or two get between them. “But that’s not the point. I have to tell you about the Left Hand - ”

  “Fuck the point,” he growled, taking her face in his hands and making her look straight at him. “Fuck the Left Hand. I want to hear what you mean when you say I ruined you for other men.” She glared at him but he could hear how fast her heart was beating. He could smell her nervousness.

  “I’m in love with you.” The tension drained out of her body and her heart calmed. Then a wry smile twisted her mouth. “Would have thought you’d figured that out by now. Dumbass.”

  Liam couldn’t stop what happened next. He threw back his head and laughed. He laughed harder than he had for a very long time. “You ridiculous woman,” he whispered, pulling her against his body and kissing her until she was gasping for breath. “Thank God I’m in love with you or I might have to kill you.”

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  IT WOULD NEVER CEASE to amaze Jackie how easy it was for Liam to slip into her life. No matter the time or the distance, it was as if there was always a place waiting for him. Having him with her felt more natural than having him gone. Once that might have caused her to panic. Now, basking in the fact that Izzy had been right about the two of them being completely in love, she couldn’t be more content. She’d forgotten earlier that day she’d been kissing another man. The drama of Danny’s return had ceased to matter to her. It had completely slipped her mind after Liam had finally owned up to his feelings. Perhaps a declaration of love shortly followed by a death threat wouldn’t work for most people but it made her smile.

  Unfortunately, though she would have liked to spend the rest of the day and night catching up on all the kisses she’d missed with Liam gone, there was something more important she’d come to discuss. An ambitious, homicidal vampire was roaming Los Angeles. If she wasn’t mistaken, some of the Left Hand’s representatives had been roaming a little farther north during their time in California.

  “Here’s what I’ve figured out,” she explained once Liam had finally settled down enough to listen. He lounged on the sofa and watched her pace, eyes on her slim legs as they passed him. “Whoever the Left Hand is, he’s been trying to get me out of the way from the beginning. Max got involved with Sofie right after you and I met. Oh, and Danny and his father did not move here by chance. I didn’t mention it but when I was at your party I met Danny’s father. He was a vampire.”

  “Hold on.” Liam held up his hand with a dangerous expression. “His father lived in northern California with Daniel?” Jackie nodded. “And he was relocated to southern California in the exact same area you live?”

  “That’s what I’m saying. Danny told me relocation is just supposed to be random selection.”

  “It is. It’s also supposed to put considerably more space between the vampire and his former place of residence.” He straighte
ned up on the couch as his eyes went black. “Someone in the relocation department isn’t working for us, clearly.” Liam was not a fan of traitors.

  “But if you’re in charge, wouldn’t you know where the new vampires in town come from?” she asked.

  “Information about a vampire’s past life, apart from their finances, is always destroyed. Partly for security and partly to keep us from slipping back into that old existence. It’s also generally considered impolite to ask about a prior incarnation if you don’t have a close relationship with the vampire in question.” Liam flexed his hands, trying to work out the desire to hit something. He wished he hadn’t wasted all of Jack’s scotch on a fit of temper.

  Jackie started pacing again. “So that’s definitely the Left Hand’s work. I also asked Dad if there’d been anyone suspicious around at home. He said one of the new ranch hands had just vanished shortly after working there. The timing is too neat for a coincidence. Not to mention the fact that he told dad that he might find something interesting in L.A.”

  “If someone was on the inside, that would account for your father's miraculous appearance at the horse show you just so happened to be attending,” Liam said, his expression getting stormier all the time.

  “I thought that. I also noticed that shortly after our first official date someone took a shot at me,” she said. His head jerked up and if any of that sudden rage had been directed at her she would have been very nervous.

  “Son of a bitch!” he snarled. “How did I miss that?”

  “We both missed it. With the Crawley business happening, I don’t blame us. The point is that the Left Hand has been keeping tabs on our relationship and routinely trying to derail it. Killing me would have taken me out of the game, which is clearly what he wants. However, even if he didn’t manage to get me killed, the attempts could end our relationship. Either I would get fed up with the danger or you would try to force the issue of becoming a vampire. On paper, someone like me would automatically resist the idea of turning her life upside down for a man and would probably dump his ass if he even suggested it.”