Capri's Fate (32 page)

Ch
apter Twenty-Nine

"I so don't want to go."
Capri rubbed her forehead as she stared at Kat.

"Like I haven't figured that out." Kat propelled her friend to the door. "This is the
your last Saturday night in the big city, and I'm not staying here, sitting on the couch watching reruns of Dawson's Creek."

"But you like the Creek."

Kat placed her fists on her hips. "Capricious, I swear, if you don't leave this apartment with me, I'll tell the FBI about the flash drive you found."

"Fill your boots. I pounded the shit out of it with a hammer then flushed the various pieces all over the city. Let them find it and piece it back together. I don't know who's it was or how it got there. I didn't even check to see what was on it." She picked up her purse. "
Oh, what the hell. Let's go party. One more time."

Capri
led the way out of the apartment, to the elevator and out of the building. Kat hailed a cab and gave him directions to the Sexy Nights Dance Club.

After settling inside,
Capri sighed. "You know, if you'd just move to Michigan, we could still party on Saturdays."

Kat raised one eyebrow. "Me? Out in the middle of nowhere?"

"The winery's not in the middle of…well, okay, yes it is. But did I tell you, the new head vintner is hot."

"How hot?"

"In your terms, fuckably hot."

Kat rubbed her chin. "Well, I could take my vacation and help you move."

"Oh, Kat." Capri threw her arms around her friend. "My apartment is a two-bedroom. You can stay with me. And I'll pay all the expenses getting there. My severance pay was very, very nice."

Pulling her cell phone out of her purse, Kat grinned. "You got a deal. I'll text Dr. Payne."

Capri hit her hand on the protective glass. "Stop the cab!"

The cab driver signaled, cut across a lane and parked by a curb.

"What's up?" Kat stuffed her cellphone back into her purse.

"Out."
Capri pointed, after sliding a twenty to the driver. She climbed out, grabbed Kat's hand and pulled her to a storefront.

Mannequins in red teddys, black leather corsets and frilly, white negligées stood posed in sexually submissive and dominating positions. "What are we doing here?" Kat glanced sideways at
Capri.

"Is it open? Is the store still open?"
Capri pulled on the handle. The door didn’t move. She jerked it. "Damn."

"We can come back."

"No." Capri pounded on the glass.

A tall,
brown-haired man crossed the store and jerked his thumb at the darkened OPEN sign. "Can't you read? We're closed."

Capri
pointed at the item dangling from the black leather corseted model's hand. "I'll pay you two hundred dollars for those."

The storeowner raised an eyebrow.
Capri pulled her carbon credit card out of her wallet. With a loud click, the door was unlocked and pulled open.

Ten minutes later,
Capri exited with a pair of red, fuzzy handcuffs nestled in the shopping bag.

"Okay, will you tell me now why you freaked out and had to have them at this exact moment in time?" Kat waved at a cab.

"Thall said I had to choose the link between him and I. Red, fuzzy handcuffs became a sort of private joke. When I saw them, I knew they were the link that would've bound us together."

A cab stopped.
Capri followed Kat and slid into the taxi. When they were seated, she told the cabbie her address then leaned back against the seat. "I don't want to party. I want to go home and wait for next Friday then get on with my life." She held up the bag. "But I am keeping these as a memory of Thall. My love. My Fate."

Kat chuckled. "
Capri's Fate."

Capri sat on the bench, by the lake, in the warm late September sun and licked her chocolate ice cream. Life wasn't perfect, but she was content. Some of life's little wrongs had been righted.

Dickerman was arrested for corporate espionage
—although, she was amazed that such a doofus could pull off anything that complicated. Much to the annoyance of the FBI, he swore there was no second flash drive. Capri suspected Atropos hid it in her apartment, hoping to cause her trouble. But she'd never know and had resigned herself to not caring how it got there.

She settled into working with her brothers and enjoyed spending much more quality time with her parents. Kat worked at the winery as a receptionist and tour guide. She had a new love in her life, and moved into an apartment not far from where
Capri was living. But Capri suspected Kat would be moving into the head vintner's house before Thanksgiving.

Her cell chimed. Probably her mother asking her if she wanted to come over for supper.
Capri swallowed the last bite of ice cream cone, wiped her fingers on a napkin then tossed it into the trash. When she opened her purse, the fuzz on the handcuffs tickled her hand as she searched for her phone. She always carried them in her purse, a continuous reminder of Thall, the joy he gave her and how much she loved him.

She closed her eyes and pictured his face. Dark hair, bright smile, constantly changing eye color.

A flutter of a breeze tickled her neck.

"Do you happen to own a pair of
red, fuzzy handcuffs?"

Capri
's heart skipped a beat. She snapped her face to the right. "Thall!"

Wrapping her arms around his neck, she kissed his cheeks, the end of his nose and his mouth. "I knew you'd come back. I didn't want to believe you were dead. You can't be dead. You're a Fate."

Thall started to speak. She placed a finger on his lips. "I have to say this now. Before something else happens, I love you, Thall. I want to be with you. Forever."

Thall cupped her cheeks and stared into her eyes. "I love you,
Capri. I fought and challenged my way back. There was no way I was spending eternity alone. But you must answer my question. Do you happen to own a pair of red, fuzzy handcuffs?"

Capri
giggled, pulling a pair from her purse. She dangled them on her finger.

He held them in his hand then clasped one of the bracelets around her wrist. "For eternity."

Capri locked the other around his wrist. "For eternity."

Thall raised an eyebrow. "That's a long time."

"Yup."

She leaned closer and kissed him. As she expressed her love with her mouth, the handcuffs faded. Breaking off with a gasp, she glanced down. "Oh, no. They're gone."

Tears welled up in her eyes. "Did I do something wrong?"

Thall shook his head. "No, you did everything right. We are linked. The bonds may be invisible, but they have the strength of eternity."

Capri stood and held out her hand. "Let's go home and make love."

"
You read my mind."

The End.

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Capri's Fate

Copyright © 20
13 Daryl Devore

Cover art by
Kayden McLeod

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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All sexually active characters in this work are eighteen or older.

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