Page 1 of Bound By Fate
PROLOGUE
Life isn’t a guarantee.Each day is precious. How you live those days is up to you. Live in the past … or look to the future. Your choice…
* * *
The phone fellout of my hand and clattered to the floor as Dryerson came at me like a bull seeing red.
I lifted the gun and fired.
Bang … bang … bang … bang … bang … click … click … click.
1
KATIE
Warm water caressedover my flesh, falling to the tiled shower floor. The clear liquid swirled into the drain at a rapid pace, reminding me of a tornado taking down everything in its path. The vortex of contained mayhem sucking, pulling, and twisting everything inside of me.
That was what my life was now. A huge, uncontrollable storm knocking me all over the place and not allowing me to settle. The power of chaos swirled through to the very depths of my soul. There was nothing left that I felt power over. The universe cursed me, and nothing was right-side up nor did I feel it ever could be again.
Everything in my world had completely flipped in the past few years, and I had no idea who I was anymore. The woman I watched in the mirror every single day was a stranger … friend, foe, lover, or loser, I couldn’t answer myself.
Did I ever know who I was?
Born of a different name and different life, I had no identity then, a feeling I once found comfort in. Years later after leaving that life, that family, it was still the same.
I tried to straighten out things around me, working to follow in my sister’s path. She had ups and some really low downs but found her happy ... eventually. For me it hadn’t come with any type of ease.
I should be happy, and for a brief moment, I thought I might have it one day. Then, like everything else the rug swept out from underneath me; only someone like me deserved this pain. This sadness, heartache, and loneliness, I earned it all.
It was as if each section of my life was a domino and couldn’t stay upright to save my life. Instead, one fell and then another, then rapidly the whole lot tumbled to the ground in a fiery heap, catching in a blaze so hot it burned me every time.
No matter what I did, nothing—and I mean nothing—came out the way I thought it would. Even when I went the opposite way thinking it would be better, it ended up being the wrong way too. Every road I traveled was bumpier than the last, the terrain so distraught I kept getting stuck or thrown off at every turn.
Six months ago, I was kidnapped, tortured, and ended up leading my sister into the same fate. Guilt wasn’t even a strong enough word for how I felt about it.
Regret.
Shame.
Responsibility.
Liability.
Remorsefulness.
And everything in between.
All of it gnawed at me, crawling under my skin every second of every day.
My heart ached every time I thought about what I had done to Ensley. Never should I have called her. Never should I have told her where I was. Never should I have allowed Daniel, a crazed madman from both our pasts, to get anywhere near Ensley. But I did. Gave my sister to him on a silver platter.
I was terrified every second in his possession, but my actions that day were increasingly selfish. He told me he’d stop my pain if I called Ensley. My body hurt everywhere from his abuse, and I just wanted it to end.
I was wrong. So very wrong.
It never ended. Death would’ve been better. See, it wasn’t just that day and enduring the physical wrath of the madman. Nope, he haunted my every moment. Like a shadow looming, he was always with me.
Marked.
