UNEXPECTED DESTINIES
CONSTANCE RUTH CLARK
LYRICAL PRESS
KENSINGTON PUBLISHING CORP.
http://www.kensingtonbooks.com/
To my cousin, Shelley. Who else would tell me the truth about my characters so I could make them better?
Prologue
She’d never had a chance. He’d waited weeks for this moment, planning everything down to the last detail. This night had to be perfect. She’d teased him for months and now he was finally claiming the promises she’d given him with her eyes. She wanted him, he had no doubts about that. Her sin was that she’d made him want her. He hadn’t wanted to lust after such a slut, but she had waved her firm little ass in his face and made sure he saw her perky boobs through the tight skimpy shirts she wore. He was, after all, only a man. He hated her for making his cock hard whenever she walked by, smiling at him as if she knew what she was doing. Fuck her.
He’d tried to catch her by surprise. Her helplessness would make him superior to her, as if he finally had control over the lust she incited in him. He had planned to drive to a remote spot where any screams she made would be swallowed up by the darkness and go unheard. Where he’d be free to make her pay for the sin of his lust. It was just taking him longer than he’d planned to catch her, but he had no doubts that he would.
He was getting closer. She couldn’t afford to look back and find out how close,
she had to keep going. Her hand covered her abdomen protectively for a moment as she ran. Her baby’s life was at stake. There was no way she was going to let that monster kill her. Gasping in air, her lungs burning, she ran on, pushing her body harder than she’d ever run before, making her legs tremble from the strain.
“Jayne…” The taunting voice behind her was closer than she’d expected and not breathless like she was. She choked back a small shriek of terror and pushed her aching legs harder.
“He had to die Jayne, he knew too much.”
She choked back a sob at the monster’s words. She’d tried to forget that someone she loved so much was dead. To forget the sight of his body cold and still in her living room, blood pooled around his head, while that predator stood over him. She’d been lucky to get out of there alive.
“We can talk about this. Jayne.” He was beginning to sound pissed off. “I won’t hurt you.”
Liar.
There was no way he would let her live, she knew too much. In the distance she could hear a siren and wondered if it was because they’d found the body in her apartment. Will they think I’ve killed him?
“Jayne?”
His voice sounded more distant now. Somehow he’d lost her trail.
Thank God. Jayne ran. She wanted as much distance as possible between them before she stopped. Finally, her legs gave out and she collapsed. Shaking, she crawled under the branches of a nearby tree, sitting with her back to the trunk.
Her best friend was dead. Dropping her head to her chest, the tears she’d been holding back ran down her cheeks. She couldn’t stop kicking herself for not being able to save him.
Leaning back against the trunk, Jayne rubbed the heels of her hand into her eyes to wipe away the tears. Why hadn’t he fought back? It didn’t make sense. Taking her hands away from her eyes she opened them to see someone staring at her. Her heart missed a beat and the blood rushed through to her ears.
Chapter 1
Island of Forever, Palace Gardens
Soft breezes playing with the curls of her silky black hair and gently tugged at the white silk dress, doing all they could to distract and annoy. Agatha ignored them, concentrating on the scene before her.
Not another one.
Staring into the pool of water in the stone basin that served as her viewing pool, she frowned in dismay. Long ago, Hades, the god of the underworld, had charged Agatha with the task of reuniting soul mates. Hades’ wife, Persephone, had been upset when her father, Zeus, had torn them apart during an argument with his wife, Hera. It wasn’t as easy as she’d thought it would be. Mortals were surprisingly stubborn. Even when directed toward a course where it seemed there could be only one option open to them, they inevitably chose another, compromising their future happiness and making Agatha’s task difficult.
Stubborn humans.
Staring down into the pool Agatha sighed with frustration. This couple had been well on the path toward completion as young adults. Why were they living separate lives? Both were plodding along, believing they were happy, but deep down she could see that both felt there was something missing. Couples like this were the reason that Agatha suspected her task would never be complete. She would make sure they had found each other and move on to the next couple, but when she checked back, something always seemed to happen to break them up. If she didn’t know better she’d think she was being sabotaged.
I should have known better than to trust Hades.
Hearing footsteps behind her, Agatha waved her hand over the stone basin and the couple she’d been studying disappeared as the water shimmered. Turning, she faced the interloper in her garden.
“Having trouble?” Cupid strolled lazily toward her, hands in the pockets of his modern jeans. It always amazed Agatha how he could look completely at home and completely out of place at the same time.
His relaxed attitude was all an act. It had taken him a few thousand years to realize what she’d been tasked to do, but he’d taken it as a personal insult. She suspected he had sabotaged some of her matches and deliberately made it harder to complete her tasks. Seeing him come toward her she was sure her suspicions were correct.
How like a man to sulk in such a way.
“Nothing I can’t handle,” she said, smiling serenely at him and folding her hands in front of her.
He snorted and threw himself down on the stone bench opposite the path where she stood.
“From what I’ve seen, you have a bigger mess than you might realize on your hands.” He smirked, crossing one foot over his knee and lounging on the bench as if he owned it.
“Oh?” She’d perfected raising one eyebrow and put that talent to use as she looked down on him. Cupid shifted on the bench, his demeanor no longer casually comfortable.
Yup, he was starting to squirm. Good.
“What if you’ve got the wrong girl?” he asked.
“Impossible.” Agatha dismissed his question with a shake of her head and started to walk briskly down the path toward the garden entrance, the crushed white stone crunching quietly beneath her leather sandals.
“How do you know?” He caught up with her, jogging a little to keep pace.
“I just do.”
“I doubt you know as much about the business of love between humans as I do.” Cupid shrugged his shoulders dismissively. “After all I was born to bring them together. It’s just a job to you.”
Agatha gritted her teeth as she walked past a white marble fountain with a statue of a young girl pouring water into the pool. Annoying arrogance was why she avoided men, and