Read Destiny of the Heart (Viking Destiny) for Free Online Page A

she knew was a man by the
smell of him.
    She tried to push away, wrinkling her nose as the
pungent odor filled her nostrils, but his meaty arms held her
firmly in place as they came up and encircled her midsection.
Without thinking, Kristen began struggling and kicking her
captor. She heard him grunt once, but he didn't loosen his grip
on her. Moving on to the next tactic, she opened her mouth to
scream, but was cut off by a rough shake and then squeezed
so tight she could barely breathe.
    “One sound outta ye missy and you be swimmin' wif
them fishies, if ye catch me meanin'.” He leaned close to her
ear as he said it and shivers of revulsion went up and down
her spine.
    Kristen's mind swam as she tried to grasp reason of the
situation. She didn't recognize the voice, and it was too soon
for her stepfather to have found out that she was gone. There
had been several attempts made on her life recently,
something she was sure had to do with her mother's past, but
those attempts had always been subtle and made to look like
an accident. This was far too overt to be anything but
coincidence, so she surmised this fellow must work for the
captain of whatever ship was responsible for the smuggling
that was going on.
    Once the fear had subsided, she was able to think like
her mother taught her. The man was holding her too tight, and
she'd never be able to get away unless she got him to loosen
his grip. Once she accomplished that, she could get to her
knife and cause some serious damage to his person.
However, he must have sensed her thoughts because he
tightened his hold on her to the point that she could barely
breathe.
    Before panic took over, she focused her mind on her
mother's teachings. Marie had told her that whenever
someone bigger than herself held her in just such a position,
she had an advantage as a woman. Kristen relaxed her
shoulders and went limp in the man's beefy arms. She caught
him off guard, and he loosened his grip just enough.
    “Bloody 'ell. The damn wench 'as gone and fainted. I
knew me was...”
She wasted no time listening to his complaint.
Springing into action, she planted her hands on his shoulders
and brought one knee up as hard as she could to his stomach.
Her mother had made her practice these drills incessantly as a
child, so she was well prepared, and her kicks were as
powerful as most any man's. In her assailant's surprise, he'd
completely released her so he could hunch over to catch his
breath. He soon realized his mistake; Kristen was not a
woman to be trifled with.
“Now see 'ere, missy. Me orders are to make sure ye
don't be runnin' off ter tell tales, ye understand. I mean ter
follow them orders.” He eyed her warily as she backed away
and pulled something from her skirts.
"I don't give a damn what your orders are, sir. You stay
back, or I'll cur you to pieces and feed them to the fish, if you
catch my meaning." She replied flippantly.
The man laughed, and it reminded Kristen of twp pigs
grunting. She wrinkled her nose in disgust as the noise only
served to irritate her further. Her skin crawled in anticipation of
the came next. She was going to have to bloody well fight this
man and the knowledge did nothing for her nerves since he
was as massive as a ship.
To her horror, he jumped at her and brought his
hammer of a fist down to her jaw. The sheer force of the hit
not only knocked the knife out of her hand, but also sent her
body tumbling backward several feet, slamming her into the
cave wall. She struggled to breathe and her eyes teared up
from the pain of it all. Her head was spinning, and no matter
how hard she tried to focus it, she couldn't seem to clear the
blur in her vision. Apparently one hit wasn't good enough
though because the man charged toward her again. She felt
her muscles clench and bile rise to her throat.
As the man got closer, a light entered the cave and
Kristen was able to see more than just shadows. She looked
at her attacker warily,