Freeing Destiny (Fate #2)
Read Freeing Destiny (Fate #2) Online
Authors: Faith Andrews
Freeing Destiny by Faith Andrews
Copyright © 2016 by Faith Andrews
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No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without the written permission of the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Except the original material written by the author, all songs, song titles and lyrics contained in the book are the property of the respective songwriters and copyright holders.
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Table of Contents
To my Gotta Have Faith peeps. I’m grateful for all of you each and every day. Thanks for being you and for allowing me to be me.
No, no, no, no, no!
I had to be seeing things. What was
she
doing here? Why was he with
her?
My eyes had to be playing tricks on me, or was it karma just kicking my ass?
Either way, I could not allow this to happen again! There was no way in hell one of those white trash bitches would ruin my life all over again by taking what belonged to
me
.
My
men.
My
family.
My
heart.
Not him! He’s mine!
I wanted to scream.
Get your disgusting claws off him and make your dirtbag clan just disappear for good already.
I lost the first time—sloppy mistakes and careless feelings. But
this
time—this time I was prepared. I learned my lesson while clearing my head, even if I had to distance myself and run away like a coward to do so.
But now I was back. And it was time someone paid.
Stella
“Stells, who’s that fine specimen over there, checking you out? Must be Jack, right? He’s freaking hot, in that buff-and-scruffy-but-knows-how-to-rock-a-tux kind of way. Too bad he’s related to that twit in a can.”
Twit in a can.
That’s a new one. We’d come up with many-a-name for Jack’s little sister, Aubrey Davis. The one with the most mileage was Princess Psycho—a personal favorite. But the princess was currently MIA—out of sight, out of mind, and far, far away. From what we’d been told, she ran off to sulk after she tried to screw over Mom and Caleb and wound up screwing herself. My mother and her relationship with her student was
nothing
compared to Aubrey’s scandalous bribe to get into Berkley. With so much at stake, her parents and her sister Emma were pretty pissed. And now, as I stared at Jack—the
other
Davis sibling—I couldn’t help but wonder what
he
thought of his bratty, psycho sister.
Trying my best to clear my mind of that bitch on this lovely day, I focused my attention on the beautiful man with the unfortunate luck of sharing Aubrey’s blood. Apparently, I stared a bit too long, prompting a nudge in my silk-covered rib from Nina.
“You should go talk to him. Caleb says he’s single.” Leave it to my twin to play matchmaker on the day of our mother’s nuptuals to her own fine young stud.
When Mom surprised us with the news of her impromptu wedding, Nina and I weren’t exactly thrilled. Aside from the obvious qualms we had about his age, my mom had only met Caleb—the first and only guy she’d been with since the tragic death of my father ten years prior—a few months before he proposed. But now, none of that mattered. The day was upon on us, my mother in her beautiful pale blue gown, preparing to exchange vows with the new love of her life at the altar they created at their favorite spot in the world. It was surreal and it made my heart leap in my chest to see Mom so happy. My mother deserved this day more than
anyone
I knew.
So I happily donned my tea-length cocktail dress, had my hair done, my makeup shellacked on, and surrendered to being the dateless bridesmaid at my mother’s wedding. I mean, Aunt Gina was going stag to the small ceremony, but Aunt Gina also wore stag better than George Clooney himself. I, on the other hand, felt like the third wheel. Being sans man had never bothered me—until now.
Clearing my throat and blinking back the sight of the handsome best man, I did my best to brush off my sister’s attempt at playing cupid. “Caleb introduced us earlier. Yes, he’s single. No, I’m not interested. You know I don’t do the one night stand thing, and I’m not about to get involved with someone who lives in California when we’re moving back to New York.”
“Stick in the mud,” she muttered, poking her tongue out like a five-year-old.
Two could play her immature game. “Pain in the ass.”
Jack chose that exact moment to bend over and dust something off his shoe, giving Nina more ammo. “Speaking of asses. Jesus, Stella you could bounce a quarter off—”
“How would your
fiancé,
Ryan, feel about you eye fucking our stepfather’s best friend?”
Nina rolled her eyes and giggled, then dragged her tongue across her teeth for the tenth time since applying the sticky pink gloss. “Ryan has nothing to worry about. You of all people should know that. I’m just looking out for you, that’s all. God, do I need to worry about
everyone
? First Mom, now you. I don’t understand how you ever . . .” She rambled on and on about her natural, noble instinct to care for the women in her life. I allowed her to do it, even though she was full of crap. I loved my sister to no end, but she was a selfish little thing. She probably only wanted to set me up with Jack so I’d have a date for
her
wedding and not be a target for her snobby socialite friends to poke fun at.
Stella’s so pretty, why’s she still single? Is she a lesbian? Does she think she’s too good for the guys at school? Ew, she’s probably a virgin, that’s got to be it!
I’d heard it all before . . . every ounce of annoying speculation. No, I wasn’t gay or snooty, but so what if I
was
a virgin? Was there anything wrong with wanting to be with someone special and not just screwing the next willing and able man to my left? Or in this case, my right, since Jack was already in position at the altar, next to the waiting groom.
Yes, I was a twenty-one-year-old virgin. There were worse things I could be—hell, I could be
Aubrey
, but for some reason my sister couldn’t understand that I believed in the old fashioned notion of love and saving myself for—okay, not marriage. I wasn’t that lame, but I did believe in finding a good guy before I gave it up. And I’d yet to find that good guy. He clearly didn’t attend San Diego State or I would have discovered him among all the random blind dates Nina and Emma had sent me on. And he
definitely
wasn’t lurking on some bar stool in San Francisco—although my mother had found
her
Prince Charming that way. It was fine. I had no use for a man right now, anyway. I was career driven, focused on my academic path, broadening my horizons. There was no room for a man in any of those scenarios.