“Do you ride?”
Kathryn frowned in confusion. “Ride? You mean horses?”
Donlon gave her a knowing wink, but had enough grace to say only, “Well, yes.”
“It’s been a while,” she said, her face hot with embarrassment as she belatedly realized the obvious innuendo in her words. “The grandparents I told you about died when I was very young, and their place was sold.” And why the hell was she telling him that?
“Excellent. Wear some jeans tomorrow night, then. You do own a pair of jeans, don’t you?”
Kathryn narrowed her eyes in irritation. “Of course. But why—”
“You’ll see.”
She stared at him, tempted to tell him where he could shove his cryptic comments, but then she remembered her brother and swallowed whatever she’d been about to say. She couldn’t come up with anything nice to replace it, however, so she simply turned on her heel and strode out into the hallway where Magda was waiting to escort her.
* * * *
Lucas leaned back in his chair and watched the lovely FBI agent storm gently from his office. She was good at concealing her emotions, good at keeping them from showing on her face, anyway. But he was Vampire. He didn’t need her face to tell him what she was feeling. And she was pissed as hell. Not at having her bluff called about the missing man being her brother. She’d clearly expected that, if perhaps not so soon. Mostly, she was pissed because she couldn’t figure out what to make of Lucas himself. She was attracted to him, though. She didn’t want to be, but she was. No denying that. Her arousal had been subtle, and she’d fought against it, but it was there. Especially to a vampire’s senses. He frowned briefly.
“You ever bed a cop, Nick?” he asked idly, listening to Kathryn’s and Magda’s footfalls fade down the tiled hallway.
With the FBI agent safely away and no longer even a potential threat to his Sire, Nicholas flopped down on the same visitor chair Kathryn had occupied moments before.
“Just one.”
Lucas focused on his lieutenant, one eyebrow raised in question.
“You remember Sandi Hager, down in Kansas City?”
“Sandi? I thought you were seeing her sister?”
“I was.” Nick shrugged. “Turns out the ladies didn’t mind sharing, if you know what I mean.”
“Shit.” Lucas laughed. “Those were some big women, Nick. You’re lucky they didn’t drain you dry.”
“Who says they didn’t? Worth every minute of it, though.” He grinned, then asked carefully, “You thinking about the FBI agent, my lord?”
Lucas tapped a finger idly on the chair of his arm. “Pretty lady. Great legs, world class ass, too. Must be a runner.”
“Yeah,” Nick said thoughtfully, then stiffened when Lucas shot him a hard look. “Not my type, though. Nope.”
Lucas stared at him a moment longer, then sat up. “Is Judy still working with Nightshade down below?” Judy was his head horse trainer, a human who’d been with him since he’d first bought this ranch more than fifty years ago. Judicious doses of Lucas’s blood kept her from aging, so Lucas didn’t have to look for a new trainer every generation. Most of the people working in Lucas’s stables were vampires, but horses were prey animals, and while there were plenty of prey animals who’d evolved to use the darkness for safety, horses weren’t among them. They needed sunlight, and that meant someone had to be there to supervise and work with them during the day, especially the foals.
“Far as I know,” Nick said, answering Lucas’s question about the young stallion.
“Good. Let’s get down there. I need to talk to Kurt about Daniel Hunter and see what he knows.”
* * * *
Kathryn followed Magda’s swaying hips down the hallway, wondering how the woman managed to walk on those heels without breaking an ankle. She had nothing against high heels. In fact, she appreciated the way they made her already long legs look even longer. But if she wore stilettos like those, she doubted she could stay upright. Not to mention, she’d tower over most everybody she met. And fuck Lucas Donlon for making her feel like a drab worker drone.
Jesus! Where the hell had that thought come from? She didn’t give a rat’s ass what Donlon thought about anything, much less how she dressed. Granted, he was a sexy guy. Okay, probably the sexiest guy she’d ever met. But he was a vampire! He wasn’t a guy at all. It was just her hormones reacting to his good looks. Maybe if she got out more, she wouldn’t go all vaporous at the sight of a good-looking man, er, vampire. She had to remember that. Vampire.
Magda led her directly to the front door and opened it. “Was there anything else you needed, Special Agent Hunter?”
Kathryn studied the female vamp. The question had been polite enough, but the tone had been something else altogether, and the subtext was clear: good-bye, and don’t let the door hit you in the ass on your way out. And wasn’t that interesting? She thought about Lucas and his comment that admiration was only a short step from obsession. Her brother Daniel was very good-looking and charming as hell. Women loved him and, even more, wanted to take care of him. If Magda had been the one who chose the photographs . . . Kathryn knew it was a long shot, but went for it anyway.
“Mister Donlon said you did the decorating in here,” she said, gesturing at the beautiful house around them. “Is this a new residence?”
Magda tilted her head in a peculiar way, as if trying to decide whether to answer the question or stab her with a knife. Kathryn actually draped her hand casually next to her weapon, just in case, and saw the vampire female’s eyes follow the movement.
Magda showed her teeth in what Kathryn assumed was supposed to be a smile. “The original residence is a quarter mile from here. The property is old, but this particular house is fairly new. Lord Donlon oversaw the design part of the process. He had a very clear sense of what he wanted here and in the stables. But after that . . .” She shrugged. “He asked me to handle the interior. I know his taste, so I found a decorator I thought could handle it. She took me to some galleries, private showings, and I made choices. Carmichael was one of those, and when he found out whom the photographs were for, he brought the Ireland series to my attention.
“Do you honestly think I had something to do with your brother disappearing?” she abruptly asked, mockingly.
Kathryn shrugged. “It was only a question. I’m grasping at straws at this point, but maybe if I keep grabbing, I’ll eventually get the right one.”
“I see.”
“Do you? Do you have any family, Magda?”
“I am Vampire, Agent Hunter,” she replied coldly. “Whatever family I had, I have no more. My family is here now, with my lord . . . and the others.”
“Well, I have Daniel, and I won’t stop looking until I find him.”
Kathryn walked out the front door and down the stairs, beeping the locks on her SUV as she went. The truck was right in front of the house, and she was inside with the key in the ignition before Magda had even closed the house door.
Kathryn turned the key without thinking, but then sat for a moment, breathing deeply, trying to still her thumping heart. The very fact that it was pounding troubled her. She wasn’t a raw, rookie agent. Granted, at twenty-eight, she wasn’t exactly a grizzled veteran either, but Donlon was far from the first suspect she’d ever questioned. And he wasn’t even a suspect. She hadn’t thought going in that Donlon had a direct role in her brother’s disappearance, and, having met him, she was even more convinced of it. But she did think he could help her find whoever was involved. And given his admittedly protective attitude towards his people, she was worried he’d be more concerned with protecting his vampires than finding her brother.
Kathryn’s hands tightened on the steering wheel. She believed with all her heart that Daniel was alive, and she wanted him back. That was her goal. Her only goal. She closed her eyes, forcing herself to calm. If she wanted Daniel back, she needed to be smart about Donlon. He could help her, and he was attracted to her. He’d made that obvious. She didn’t mistake that attraction for anything other than lust, the desire of a charismatic male to carve another notch on his bedpost. But if that’s what it took to get his help, Kathryn would play along, although she wouldn’t play all the way into his bed. Not that sex with Lucas Donlon would be a chore. The man, or rather the vampire, was gorgeous. Unfortunately, he was also arrogant, snide and probably a killer, to boot.
The lights from the big front windows, which had been spotlighting her car, were suddenly doused, casting her into darkness. It reminded her that she’d been sitting there too long, and she put the SUV in gear, flipped on her lights and pulled away.
As she retraced her path down the winding drive, she wondered if sex with a vampire always involved blood. She supposed it did. In his videotaped interview, the now-deployed Marine who’d seen Daniel leave the bar had admitted that the reason he knew Alex was a vampire was because Alex had taken blood from him during sex. He’d offered the information readily and seemed almost proud of the fact, as if he’d scored a coup of some sort. He thankfully hadn’t offered any details, but there’d been a dreamy longing to his words, as if it had been a wonderful experience.
Kathryn couldn’t imagine it. How could having someone bite your neck hard enough to draw blood be anything but painful?
She came around the hill, drawing even with the barn and paddocks once again. There were more men out there now. She slowed down to watch and recognized Lucas among them. He’d taken off the leather jacket and wore only his black T-shirt and jeans. The jacket had emphasized the breadth of his shoulders, but without it she could see the definition of his chest and flat belly. No doubt about it, Lucas Donlon was sex in cowboy boots. He pushed a black cowboy hat onto his head, and Kathryn rolled her eyes. A black cowboy hat? And at night? Wasn’t that pushing the stereotype just a little? Lucas strode out into the middle of the ring. A huge, black horse immediately loped across the paddock, stopping right in front of him and butting its head against his chest. A human would have been knocked back a few steps by the force of that greeting, but Lucas didn’t budge. He only laughed and returned the greeting with a nose rub for the horse.
