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“Y ou do offer a money-back guarantee on these readings, don’t you?”

“Pardon me?” Destiny stared into the elderly woman’s huge eyes, made larger than life by her thick prescription lenses.

“Money-back guarantee, missy. You said you didn’t see any plane crashes in my future. If I end up on an airliner that goes down in flames, I want my twenty dollars back.” As the woman spoke, deep lines of irritation formed on her forehead, right between her unblinking owl eyes.

The fake coins on Destiny’s gypsy costume tinkled merrily as her hand flew to her chest. Damn. Her necklace wasn’t there. Instead her mother’s heirloom lay in pieces, wrapped in a tissue at the bottom of her purse, where she’d placed it this afternoon. One wrong tug and it had broken, beads flying all around the small tent.

She could certainly use that little hematite heart about now to reflect some of this negativity.

These people never failed to astound her.

“Well, sure,” she replied hesitantly. “If that’s what you want.”

After all, if this old lady survived a plane crash that Destiny didn’t see happening, then the promise to pay back twenty dollars seemed a small price to avoid the aggravation she did see coming if she refused to agree to the request—and it certainly didn’t take any magical visions to predict that one.

“All right!” The lines disappeared and the big eyes finally blinked. “If you guarantee it, then you must be legit. I don’t care what my son said about you fortunetellers. I feel so much better now.” The old woman rose unsteadily to her feet and pawed through her enormous purse, dragging out another five-dollar bill. “This is for you. Extra. For being so sweet.” She beamed her happiness as she started for the exit, stopping at the tent flap and turning the full glare of her owl eyes back on Destiny. “But if my plane goes down, I want that back, too.”

Destiny nodded her agreement mutely and the woman disappeared through the opening.

“Another satisfied customer,” she muttered to herself as she pulled the cloth from the table and began to neatly fold it, tidying up in preparation to end her long day. As late as it was, most of the nearby workers would already have closed up. She hoped she hadn’t missed the last shuttle to the buses that would take her into town. Of course, she shouldn’t have agreed to the reading for that last woman, but she needed the money, even though all she really wanted tonight was to get back to her motel to see if there was any additional word from Jesse.

Her hand stilled in the act of smoothing the fold in the cloth as his name floated through her consciousness. She caressed the name with her mind. Jesse. The man who would help her locate her missing sister.

Four nights ago, she’d opened her email to find a message from him. He’d read her plea for help and he wanted more details. Immediately she’d responded, telling him everything, her sister’s disappearance, her job at this little Ren Faire in Virginia, everything.

Well, almost everything. She suspected the part about her having dreamed she should ask Coryell Enterprises to help her might be a bit much for someone to accept in an email. Sometimes her gifts were the sort of thing she had to work her way up to telling someone about.

She’d sent her response, expecting another long wait before she heard the company’s decision on whether or not they would help her.

Instead she’d gotten an immediate response back.

I’m on my way.

That was it. And not another word since.

But one thing she was sure of—this Jesse would be the man she had seen in her dream vision. He’d been big and strong, and when he’d reached out his hand and touched her, a sense of peace came over her, as if finally there was someone to share her burden. In that dream, she’d felt safe for the first time in well over a month. Here was someone to end this awful nightmare that began the day she came home from work to find Leah gone.

Then she’d awakened, standing beside her bed, reaching out, grappling for a hand that wasn’t there.

No matter. He had a name now. Jesse. And one day very soon, she’d look up and there he’d be, dressed all in black, holding out his hand, offering his help, just like in her dream. Only this time, she’d get to see a face to go with the rest of him.

A rustling of the tent flap jerked her from her reverie, sending a jolt of fear-induced adrenaline surging through her body. The fair had closed its gates over an hour past.

“Hello, Destiny.”

The owner of the deep baritone ducked his head to enter, straightening to his full height only after he passed through the tent opening.

Somehow his voice wasn’t quite what she’d expected. He wasn’t quite what she’d expected, though he was certainly big and dressed all in black.

“Jesse?” Her voice arched up in a plaintive question mark, cracking at the end in a way she hated. It always happened when she was nervous.

A frown fleeted across his handsome face, chased away by a smile that didn’t quite reach his hard green eyes.

“You weren’t easy to find.” Blond shoulder-length hair, gathered up and fastened at the nape of his neck, danced along the top of his back as he looked around the small tent.

“Sorry.” Why the hell was she apologizing to him? This wasn’t the way their meeting was supposed to go. “Anyway, I thought we’d agreed to meet in town. You were going to call me when you got here.”

“Whatever.” He shrugged and then motioned toward the tent opening with his head. “Let’s go.”

“Go? Go where?” Something didn’t feel right. He didn’t feel right. “Don’t you even want to hear what I know about Leah’s disappearance?”

Instead of answering, he crossed the distance between them and grabbed Destiny’s wrist, jerking her up against his chest. The glitter in his eyes alone would have been enough to have her adrenaline flowing again, but the feeling that enveloped Destiny at his touch was the clincher.

Fear. Pure, unadulterated terror filled her mind as she tried to pull her arm from his grasp.

“You want to talk about your sister, or you want me to take you to her?”

His words stilled Destiny. “You… you know where Leah is?” How could that be possible? It couldn’t be if he was the man she expected. “You’re not Jesse. Who are you?”

He leaned in closer, his breath fanning across her face. “I don’t have time to waste on this. You’ll come with me. Now.”

His voice rumbled over her, through her, carrying a chill that tingled along her skin as if every hair on her body stood on end.

When she again pulled against his hold, he laughed, but there was no humor in the sound.

“I should have guessed,” he sneered. “No wonder Adira wants you found and brought to her. Well, little kinswoman, you may have the power to resist my compulsion, but you’re still coming with me.” He reinforced his words by tightening his grip around her wrist, dragging her through the opening in the tent and out into the dark Virginia night.

Destiny grabbed the material of the flap with her free hand, holding on tightly, hoping to slow the maniac down while she grappled for some way out of this situation. Damn the organizers of this place for having stuck her tent so far back in the trees. That’s what came of hunting out some backwoods, off-the-grid carnival. If she got out of this in one piece, she was going to raise holy hell with the manager.

“Let go,” the maniac growled. He jerked her arm, ripping the cloth from her grasp and slamming her up against his chest once again. With his free hand, he clinched his fingers around her upper arm and lifted, pulling her painfully up onto her toes as he glared into her eyes. “No more games. Just come along nicely and don’t make any noise or I’ll have to hurt you.”

His expression told her that he wouldn’t hesitate to do just as he said, and that doing it wouldn’t bother him in the least.

Surely there was still someone around. Her thoughts raced in circles, clouded by the panic she felt. The food stalls would still be cleaning up if nothing else. When they walked through the main fairground area ahead, she’d call out for help.

Having something remotely resembling a plan in mind now, she slowly nodded her agreement, and he let go of her upper arm, allowing her to settle onto her feet again, though he still held her wrist clamped like a steel manacle.

She followed along quietly until she realized he wasn’t heading toward the main gates. Instead he pulled her deeper into the wooded area. Once again, she tried to pull away from him.

“This isn’t the way to the exit.” She could hear the fear in the rising pitch of her voice but there was no controlling it.

He laughed again, a sharp, sarcastic bark of sound. “Employee parking lot exit. It’s much quieter back there than out front. You don’t pay much attention to your surroundings, do you?”

No, she hadn’t, but she vowed she wouldn’t make that mistake again.

Assuming she got a next time.

She stumbled along behind him as he pulled her through the trees until at last they reached the edge of the grounds and a tall wooden gate. He pushed through, dragging her after him.

Two ancient light poles cast their eerie glow over either end of a nearly deserted dirt parking lot, almost obscuring a dark sedan parked off to one side, all by itself.

This wasn’t good. She’d be totally freakin’ screwed if she let this psycho get her into his car.

Panic clouded her mind as her eyes darted from one end of the lot to the other, taking in the few cars sparsely scattered around. Directly across from them, a lone figure sat on a big motorcycle. He seemed to be looking in their direction, but it was hard to tell for sure in the shadows.

If she made her stand here, at least there’d be one witness, assuming Biker Guy was actually watching.

“No. I’m not going anywhere with you.” Bracing her legs, she clawed at the grip on her wrist with her free fingers as she pulled against his hold.

“Stop it.” Her efforts hardly seemed to faze him as he pulled keys from his pocket and with an electronic beep-beep unlocked the car and pulled open the door.

Please let Biker Guy be paying attention.

“Let go of me or I’m screaming my lungs out. You won’t get away with this.”

The words had barely crossed her lips before she found herself pinned, her right arm lifted, her body pressed against the car as his intertwined fists applied pressure to the side of her neck, sending streaks of pain radiating out from the spot.

“I told you, no noise. You scream and I snap your neck. You got that?”

As if to prove his point, he tightened his hold, causing little blue streaks of light to flicker in the corners of Destiny’s vision as the pain in her neck and shoulder intensified so much she hardly noticed his forearms crushing her rib cage, preventing her from catching her breath.

“Where I come from, women aren’t real impressed with that macho bullshit, friend. I think maybe you should let the lady go like she asked.”

Biker Guy had apparently chosen to be more than just a witness.

“This doesn’t concern you, friend, ” the maniac holding her snarled. “So do us both a favor and head back to wherever it is you came from.”

As he spoke, his hands pressed into Destiny’s neck, sending pain shooting down her upper torso and arm, blackening her vision.

She blinked, feeling like the world closing in around her moved in slow motion. The other man’s response seemed to reach her as if from a great distance through a long tunnel.

“I’m afraid that isn’t going to work for me. The way I see it, you need to take your hands off the lady and step away. Now.”

With one last press of his fists into her neck, Destiny’s attacker let go of her to turn his attentions to the big biker. Slowly, she slid down the side of the car, landing on her butt in the dirt, her mind desperately playing catch-up through the pain to try to process what had just happened to her.

“Aw, see, now… I really don’t care for the way you did that,” Biker Guy said.

Destiny looked up in time to see the pretend Jesse take a swing at her unlikely rescuer, who dodged away, putting distance between them while pulling what looked like a small gun from his pocket. Fire crackled from the end of his weapon too fast for her to even react.

The man who had held her captive moments before lay on the ground, frozen in the act of lunging.

“On your feet. We have to get out of here before your friend there recovers. I figure we have about a thirty-second head start.” He still held the weapon, with what looked like strings hanging out the barrel.

Over her attacker’s screams for them to stop, a clicking noise hit her ears as Biker Guy reached out and grabbed her hand, hoisting her up to stand.

When their hands met, one thing became immediately clear. She didn’t understand how she knew, but she did. This was the man she had been waiting for. This was Jesse. In spite of everything happening around her, in his touch she felt the same peace and safety she’d felt in her dream.

Another series of clicks sounded as he pulled her along behind him, and when she stumbled, he scooped her up in his arms and ran the rest of the way across the lot to his enormous black bike.

Destiny took a deep breath. The pain, from whatever it was that guy had done to her, still consumed her upper body.

She stared at the motorcycle fearfully, knowing they had to get away, but on that? She was almost as terrified of riding on a motorcycle as she was of the big, blond psycho who was even now struggling to his feet behind them.

Surely Jesse didn’t think she was getting on that thing!

Obviously he did.

In fact, he plopped her on the back of it, shoved a helmet on her head, and with a quick “Hold on!” from him, gravel sprayed around them as they sped through the dirt lot and out onto the dark highway.

She leaned her head against his back, her arms clenched around his chest, her fingers knotted into his jacket. Closing her eyes against the dark that sped by them, she concentrated on pushing back her fears.

Jesse seemed to know what he was doing with this machine, so she’d simply have to put her trust in him. How he’d found her or been there when she needed him didn’t matter right now. And wherever he was taking her, at least it was away from that horrible man.

Though the wind rushed past, biting into her exposed skin, she found that by pressing herself closer into Jesse’s back as he leaned forward, she was shielded by his big body from most of it. The large helmet gave her a sense of being sheltered. She could hear the dull roar of the wind they passed through, but inside her dark cocoon, she breathed in the smell of Jesse. It surrounded her, permeating her senses. His aftershave or the essence of the man?

Whatever it was, it reassured her. Soothed her, in spite of the terror rolling around inside her gut.

With his arrival, another dream vision had come to pass, and now she would be able to find the next clue she needed to locate her sister.