Read Where There's Smoke for Free Online Page A

making their home in his beard.
    The slight breeze changed direction. Her nose wrinkled and her eyes burned. She took a step back.
    Oh crap! Which was an apt enough description of the smell. What dumpster had he crawled out of? The guy had a distinct odor that drifted over to her like a black, rotting cloud.
    “Please, lady. Spare a war veteran a few dollars for a hot meal?”
    Oh, what the hell. She was feeling generous. She dug some money out of her purse and handed the bills toward him.
    One of her foster dads was a vet. Charlie was an okay kind of guy. He drank a little too much, and couldn’t hold down a job for more than a few months, but he never slapped her around like some of the others.
    The guy reached out to take her money, but instead grabbed her arm and pulled her into the alley. “Thanks, lady.” He grinned and raised a gun. “Now we’ll have us a good time. You ain’t never been fucked the way I’m gonna fuck you.”
    That’s what she got for trying to do a good deed. It was the story of her life. Someone always wanted to screw her over.
    She sighed. This wasn’t going to be pretty.

Chapter 4
     
    “You really don’t want to mess with me.” Destiny didn’t even try to struggle or break the mugger’s hold.
    “Yeah, and why’s that?” He grinned as he shoved her against the side of the brick building, his forearm against her throat. His face was only inches from hers. If he didn’t move, she was going to puke. His fetid breath became a putrid fog surrounding her.
    She pushed against his arm enough so that she could talk. This guy was starting to piss her off. “Because I can get real ugly.”
    “Not a babe as hot as you.” He sucked in air on a whistle as his slimy gaze slid down her body then returned to her face. “Sweetheart, I’m gonna make you scream.”
    “How about if I make you scream?”
    He was momentarily startled, then he smiled, showing yellowed teeth. “I like that even better. I bet you make men scream all the time.”
    “You tell me.” She drew in a deep breath and transformed into his worst nightmare.
    He screamed, immediately loosening his hold. His feet moved backward at a speed not known to mortal man—well, until he ran into the side of the other building. His body began to shake as bad as an unlevel washer on the spin cycle, then he took off running in the opposite direction with a disjointed gait.
    “I guess I was right. I did make him scream.” She straightened. “Veteran my ass,” she muttered, changing back into her human form. She smoothed her hands down the sides of her dress and turned to leave.
    Destiny stopped short. The same bum from the first day she arrived was staring at her. His slack jaw and wide-as-saucers eyes told her that he’d witnessed her transformation into a monster, followed by the panic-stricken vet bolting down the alleyway. His hands shook as he raised his bottle to his mouth and guzzled the liquid as if he could somehow block out the hallucinations that were plaguing him of late.
    Rather than drown his problems in alcohol, the bum should try changing his ways. No one ever did. People never learned. Not that she’d been any different.
    She shook her head and aimed toward her apartment. The night was still young, but she was in no mood to hunt for some poor bastard she could drag back to Hell with her.
    Nope, she wanted Chance and she was more determined than ever to have him. It was a matter of pride now. And she would have him. She only needed a better plan. Leaving her seduction in fate’s hands certainly didn’t work. No, as soon as she returned to the apartment, she would map out a foolproof strategy.
    She liked the sound of that—her apartment. She never really had a home. Well, not one all to herself, and this one was only temporary.
    Her mood began to lift. She rather liked the place where she was staying. A nice couple loaned her their apartment for the week—after she did a little trickery. They won an all-expense