Destined by Lanie Bross Read Free Book Online

only get him into more trouble—with her, and with his coach.
    T.J. smirked. “What’s your problem?”
    “You.” Luc lowered his voice. Other diners had started to stare. “I know what you’re about. So stay away from my sister.”
    T.J. raised both hands. “She’s a big girl.”
    “She’s fifteen,” Luc said.
    “She can look after herself. Trust me. The girl’s grown.” T.J. smiled—his lizard smile.
    Luc couldn’t help it. He shoved his chair back and was on his feet before he knew what he was doing.
    “Luc!” Karen cried out.
    “Whoa, whoa, whoa.” T.J. stepped backward, nearly stepping off the curb, out of Luc’s reach. He’d lost his confidence. Now he just looked sweaty, and oily, and sorry. “Look, I’m serious. I haven’t seen your sister. Not for a few weeks, at least. Look, I hear she got into sometrouble last week.” T.J. licked his lips nervously. “I’m sorry, all right? But I had nothing to do with it.”
    Karen was gripping Luc’s arm. He could sense her staring at him, pleading with him, but he kept his eyes on T.J.
    “Just get out of here,” he practically growled.
    T.J. took off down the street. If Luc had been in a different kind of mood, he would have thought it was funny watching T.J. book it with his dark skinny jeans strapped halfway down his butt.
    “He’s right, you know,” Karen said quietly, after Luc had sat down. “Your sister has to learn to take care of herself.”
    “You don’t understand,” he muttered.
    “Then try to explain it,” Karen said.
    For a second, he imagined what he would say if he blurted it all out:
My dad’s been hitting the bottle again; my fifteen-year-old sister tripped out and had her stomach pumped. I’m worried she’s going to be like Mom
. Luc looked away. “I can’t.”
    Karen crossed her arms. “Right. As usual. Come on, Luc. You’re not her father.”
    “She’s my sister. She’s all the family I have,” Luc said, too roughly. Then: “Sorry. I’m just in a bad mood.”
    Karen sighed and rubbed her eyes. “No, I’m sorry. I know you have … shit going on. Lots of it.” Karen spun her water glass between her palms. She kept her eyes on the table. “It’s just sometimes I feel like I’m on the outside of all of it, you know? Like I’m locked out.”
    His anger dissolved. She looked so uncertain. Karen never looked uncertain.
    “I’m sorry.” He took her hand and laced his fingers with hers. “I’m here now and you’ve got all of my attention. And I’m all yours at the party tomorrow night, too. I’ll even get there early, promise.”
    “I hope you do.” There was an emotion on her face that he couldn’t quite read, but she blinked and it was gone. In its place was her trademark sexy grin. “You really don’t want to miss it.”
    After dinner, Karen wanted to go over to her friend Margot’s house, which had its own private screening room; Margot was having people over to drink and watch old horror movies. Margot’s talent was inventing drinking games for every kind of entertainment.
    But Luc was tired. He’d been at the gym at five-thirty that morning for weight-lifting and sprints and had run drills with the team for another hour after school. And that was
before
scrimmage—which Luc took as seriously as any real match. It went nearly two hours, and he played hard the whole time.
    Karen had said nothing when they split up, just given him a hug and a quick kiss, no tongue—but he could tell he’d disappointed her. Again.
    On his walk down Market Street, he tried listing constellations but got stuck after Cygnus.
    The wind was picking up. He’d been dialing Jasmine’s cell nonstop, but it went straight to voice mailevery time. After what had happened last week, they’d made a deal: she had to check in every few hours and let him know where she was and what she was doing. And she couldn’t be out past nine.
    But it was already ten, and it had been at least four hours since he’d heard from