Destined to Be Three (3 page)

“Always,” Katie-Anne jumped in merrily.

Jaycee forced herself to not acknowledge Katie-Anne. It would only encourage her.

Shannon widened her eyes in an exceedingly pathetic attempt to appear innocent and shook her head. “No, I’m not.”

Bullshit.
Shannon needed to sell that
garbage to some other poor, unsuspecting fool with a pea-size brain. “Shan—”

Jaycee stopped short when a full-bodied woman stepped in the room.
Destiny Isgood
.

The fortune-teller dressed exactly as Jaycee had expected. Decked out in outrageously loud-colored clothing, ostentatious jewelry, and a bedazzled turban, the strange woman was a psychic cliché fit for the big screen.
Hollywood could make a killing.

After her rude appraisal of Destiny, Jaycee glanced at Shannon then Katie-Anne. The little weasels had turned their faces away, making it impossible for her to see their expressions. Though, somehow, Jaycee knew her former allies-turned-adversaries were grinning like a couple of Cheshire cats.

Destiny Isgood pointed at Jaycee, her golden bangles on her wrist clinking together. “You sit. We talk.”

The woman’s brusque tone was unexpected. However, it was her Russian accent that snagged Jaycee’s attention. A red flag immediately went up. Two plus two wasn’t adding up to four.

Jaycee hadn’t ever heard of a Russian psychic. She rapidly rummaged through her mind, trying to recall hearing of any psychics from Russia. When nothing and no one came to mind, she told herself she was being foolish.
Obviously, Destiny Isgood is a psychic, and she is from Russia. Ergo, she is a Russian psychic.

Jaycee giggled at the absurdity of her thoughts, startling the women in the room. Destiny didn’t seem amused. She looked stony, her face giving nothing away.

A positively giddy Shannon turned back from the wall she’d been conspicuously inspecting for nonexistent cracks. “You should sit down for this.”

Why would she need to sit down for this nonsense? Another flag went up in Jaycee’s mind.

Katie-Anne seemed mesmerized by the dynamics in the room. Her eyes bounced from one woman to the next and then back again like a ping-pong ball. “Yeah, J, sit.”

Jaycee didn’t lunge for Shannon or Katie-Anne right then and there. She managed to keep her temper in check. However, when they left this loony bin, they might not be so lucky.

Taking a calming breath, Jaycee sat down in the plastic lawn chair facing the colossal table and waited for her “life-changing” reading.

Destiny skirted around the other side and took the seat directly across from Jaycee’s. Not speaking, she stared at Jaycee with piercing eyes as dark as midnight on a moonless night.

Jaycee fidgeted in the annoyingly rigid chair.
What do you see, damn it?

Finally, Destiny spoke aloud. “Your aura very dark. You sad and lonely.”

Jaycee grimaced and muttered cynically, “Isn’t everyone?”

Destiny took a deep breath and closed her eyes. A look of absolute focus crossed her face, and the temperature in the room dropped as if she were sucking the energy right out of it.

Without opening her eyes, Destiny declared with conviction, “They coming. They save you.”

In five impossibly short words, Destiny confirmed what she’d always suspected—they were coming for her. Gray and Cade hadn’t given up as she’d hoped, and this time she would lose.

I can’t breathe.
The crushing sensation in the middle of her chest made breathing nearly inexecutable, each breath being forced in and then out again. Her harsh-sounding breaths spread through the silent room.

“Breathe, Jaycee,” Shannon ordered sharply, her voice barely audible above the buzzing in Jaycee’s ears.

“You don’t know who she’s talking about,” Katie-Anne added without any confidence. She was clearly saying meaningless words because they sounded like the right thing to say.

“Of course I do,” Jaycee snapped. “I told both of you they would come, and they are.” She lurched out of her chair and headed for the nearest exit. “Fuck it. I have to go.”

Without a word or a backward glance, she ran.

* * * *

A full week had passed since her fateful visit to Destiny’s House of Horrors, and Jaycee was still running. She scampered through every aisle in the mini-mart, continually glancing over her shoulder like a damn escaped convict. This was insanity!

She’d spent the last seven days hiding in her tiny apartment, only leaving for necessities. Even then, she’d waited until the middle of the night to skulk around town in a giant pair of sunglasses, a baseball cap, and a ratty T-shirt under overalls that were two sizes too big.

Peering around the edge of the canned goods aisle, Jaycee sensed someone approaching her from behind. She quickly sped up and rounded the corner, hoping to avoid whoever it was.

The distinct sound of the click-clack of high heels came barreling for her.
Katie-Anne.
In self-preservation, Jaycee scrambled around her cart and took off, running as fast as her short legs would allow. Her escape was short-lived. Katie-Anne launched herself onto Jaycee’s back and knocked her to the ground in an unladylike heap of body parts.

“Shhhhaaaaaaannnnoonnnn,” Katie-Anne screeched. “I’ve got her!”

Jaycee panted and squirmed, trying to elude her captor. “Get the hell off me before I kick your ass,” Jaycee threatened between grunts and groans.

An inelegant snort came from behind Jaycee and Katie-Anne.
Please kill me and put me out of my misery.

“Looks like you’re doing a fine job defending yourself, my friend,” Shannon said sarcastically, walking up behind them. “Come on, Katie-Anne, get off her.”

Pushing Katie-Anne aside, Shannon bent down and helped Jaycee up.

“Much obliged.” Jaycee nodded her head in thanks then whirled around to face Katie-Anne with bloodthirsty eyes. “What the hell was that? Have you lost your fucking mind, Katie-Anne? We’re in the middle of a damn store! I’m going to kill—” She stopped midsentence when cold metal brushed against her wrist, followed by a soft click.

Confused, Jaycee looked down at the handcuff snapped around her wrist. Her shock gave the two women the leverage they needed. Katie-Anne grabbed her other arm, thrusting it behind her back toward Shannon’s waiting hand so she could snap the handcuff around that wrist.

“You bitches,” Jaycee sneered as they ushered her out of the store. “I hate you.”

Katie-Anne and Shannon didn’t acknowledge her. They were too busy chatting merrily about rubbish and strolling through town as if it was perfectly normal to pull a handcuffed woman behind them.

Then again, their behavior
was
perfectly normal, not to mention acceptable, in Serenity. No tongue-wagging or eyelash-batting for any sort of relationship in her hometown. People living in conventional relationships coexisted with people in not-so-conventional relationships, and ménages made up a large percentage of the town’s population.

By the time they stepped into the parking lot at Buddy’s Bar and Grill, Jaycee had cursed her way through most of the alphabet. She’d reached
T
in the few minutes it had taken to trek across town. “You foul-smelling thundercunts!”

And still, their prattling carried on without a break.

When they hauled her past the clunker she’d named Sally, Jaycee dug in her feet. Disregarding her, they yanked her around the truck of her dreams.

Jaycee wanted to stop and salute the luxurious, black Ford F-450, but that wasn’t going to happen. Her friend’s asses were on fire to get her into the bar and nothing would stop them, not even a drool-worthy truck.

Arriving at the entrance to the bar, Shannon jerked open the door, and Katie-Anne shoved Jaycee inside.

* * * *

“When do you think she’s going to get here?” Cade asked Gray for the hundredth time since they’d arrived.

Gray forced himself to breathe. No need to give away how anxious he was to see Jaycee. He’d fucked up three years ago, and he worried about the past getting ready to repeat itself. With Cade already about to jump out of his skin waiting for their woman to arrive in this pitiful excuse for a bar, Gray didn’t plan on giving him another reason to worry.

“Gray.” Cade interrupted him. “Are you going to answer me?”

Gray knew his first task—calm his best friend and lover. If they had a chance at success, it would be together.

“Cade, she’ll be here soon,” Gray assured in a tone that comforted but still held enough authority to brook no argument. He held out his hand to Cade. Without hesitation, Cade clasped it and slid closer to him.

Turning his head, Gray hid a smile. Affectionate by nature, Cade always latched onto any physical connection Gray gave him. Gray wished he could give Cade more, but he struggled with being openly affectionate. He could thank his parents for that.

A child’s life is easily fucked up by parents like his. Watching their relationship spiral out of control had nearly ruined his relationship with Cade and Jaycee. His mother spent years feeding him bullshit about how free-spirited women like their Jaycee couldn’t handle the things he needed from her. He’d denied his nature and his love for Cade because of some misguided obsession with protecting Jaycee from something she never needed protection from in the first place.

The front door of the bar swung open, and Gray leaned back so he could see but couldn’t be seen. He watched as his sister forced Jaycee inside.

Gray held his breath, waiting to see if Jaycee noticed them and hoping she wouldn’t. He wanted to approach her, not the other way around. The element of surprise gave them the upper hand and, with her, they needed it. The little spitfire had one hell of a mean streak they didn’t want to deal with right now. Her eye-for-an-eye mentality was a real pain in the ass.

In the past, Jaycee had loved to get her ass in the middle of a mess and expected him to bail her out every damn time. Then, when he got her home, he’d sit her down and lecture her within one inch of her life without doing what he wanted to do most, bend her over his knee and spank the luscious curve of her ass until it turned red. Cade would have been his wingman, counting each slap until he reached the magic number.

Normally, Gray loved to make a woman’s ass blush, but not their Jaycee. She needed to be taught a lesson or two. By the time he finished with the little she-devil, her ass would be as red as the color of her dream car.

He smiled indulgently, remembering the car she’d lusted after since the day she started driving, a 1968 Shelby Ford Mustang GT500 in candy-apple red. A couple of weeks before she’d left, he bought her one as a surprise and paid to have it tweaked to the exact specifications she fantasized about. He’d never even had the chance to tell her about the damn thing.

Gray exhaled when Katie-Anne propelled Jaycee toward the counter. Their sweet, clumsy woman tripped and nearly fell before his sister righted her.

As Jaycee stumbled her way across the bar, Gray couldn’t take his eyes off her. Their blonde-haired, blue-eyed woman was prettier now than she’d been three years ago. From her long, curly hair to her smooth, creamy skin, she took his breath away.

Jaycee seemed smaller, but it could have been his imagination. Their height difference had always been substantial, but not as much as hers and Cade’s. His partner stood two inches taller than he did. What would it feel like with her petite body sandwiched between their much larger ones?

Gray shouldn’t have allowed his mind to go there. His dick twitched and flared to life.
Fuck.

Shannon, who had followed the women inside, turned and winked at them.