Whispers of Fate: The Mistresses of Fate, Book Two by Deirdre Dore Read Free Book Online Page B

old-fashioned lovely, like a cameo or a black-and-white photograph. Today, when he’d seen her petting her dog, her white teeth flashing as she smiled, he’d thought about the one time he’d kissed her. He’d been angry—frustrated—but he’d never forgotten the taste of her—peaches and coffee. That’s what he remembered. Of course, then he’d thought about her voice mail, about the tirade he’d had to listen to from his captain after he’d arrested her for trespassing, and he’d snapped. He hadn’t meant to hurt her. Even though he always did, he never meant to.
    Tyler dropped the file and stood, walking over to the window and tilting down one of the slats in the blinds. The sun was setting and the town was quieting down for the night—only the theater remained busy. Even the local pub seemed mellow, with only one couple sitting out on the patio.
    He went back to the file and opened it to the beginning. He hadn’t read it cover to cover in a while—there could be something he’d missed. He thought of Tavey’s face when he’d told her his uncle was dying. He thought of how she’d looked when she’d saved his life all those years ago. He could talk to his uncle again, he decided. Early in the morning. Sometimes Abraham felt better in the morning, and Tavey would be in church, not knocking on his uncle’s door asking questions.
    He thought of the determined glint in her eyes, her frustration at hearing his uncle was dying. She might be in church, he amended, and shoved her out of his head so he could look at the file with fresh eyes.

6

    TAVEY COLLINS WAS of the firm opinion that some mornings required more coffee than others, but it didn’t look like she was going to get any before she had to leave for church. Her three idiot beagles, who had moments of insanity where they forgot their training, had hurled themselves over the back fence . . . again, and seemed to be headed east, onto Abraham’s property. Abraham who knew something about Summer. Abraham who was dying.
    “Damn it,” she cursed, her hair falling loosely into her face as she tugged on a disreputable pair of rain boots that had belonged to her grandmother. She hadn’t bothered dressing and still wore the red silk pajamas she’d slept in the night before.
    “Stupid dogs. Think with their damn noses. Next time it’s all females,” she muttered darkly, knowing it was Boomer who’d led the charge. She grabbed their leashes and a treat bag before heading out the French doors in her room. They opened to the back garden, which was fenced, but not high enough to block her view of the mountains to the north or to keep her dumb dogs from leaping over it.
    She turned right, toward the driveway, and jogged past her car, through the carefully manicured garden on the other side, and into the woods.
    The air was cool and damp, a typical spring morning, and it was early enough that dew still lingered, especially in the woods. Tavey hurried, following the path she’d taken through the woods since she was a child, listening to the sound of the beagles as they bayed. They were northeast of her, on the trail of something, probably a rabbit or a skunk. God help her if it was a skunk again, she’d had to throw away their collars last time and buy them new dog beds.
    She moved a little faster, listening to the air moving in and out of her lungs and the crunch of twigs beneath her feet. Stray sunbeams landed like liquid gold on the young leaves of the trees and caught dewdrops suspended in thick spiderwebs. Tavey was careful to duck under them when she could. Summer had called breaking them a “Kiss of Fate,” but the feeling had always given Tavey the creeps.
    Tavey’s eyes stung, and she blinked the emotion away quickly. The beagles were getting too far ahead. They would be on Abraham’s property soon, and if she didn’t stop them, they’d cross over onto the Havens’ land. She had to get dressed for church—she didn’t have time to chase