Love Beyond Expectations Read Online Free Page B

been a Marine. She'd once watched him take down three neighborhood thugs using nothing more than the end of the broom he used to sweep the garage.
    However, one small man with a cane showed up, and her family went into some kind of catatonic state of terror. They'd always move after that, too. Some place smaller, some place her grandparents thought the man was less likely to visit.
    Ruby stood up and walked to the television to get a better look. He might have freaked out her family—and she never did learn why, her grandparents had taken that knowledge to their graves with them—but he didn't scare her.
    She wasn't at all interested in what he was selling. Instead, she focused on the way his lips moved. How and when he smiled, what moments he looked at the camera and when he glanced down. Truly, he seemed to be some kind of expert. The audience roared in applause. Ruby shook her head.
    Coffee. She should walk to the kitchen and see if any of the coffeemakers had survived the shake-up.
    Preacher Talbot shook his cane in the air, waving at the audience. All thoughts of caffeine fled her mind as her heart rate increased rapidly. "Holy cow."
    She reached out to touch the television. The top of the cane held a symbol. She'd seen it before, many times, as she stared at the book she couldn't make sense of. Both sides of the cane were covered in letters, but ones she knew.
    The cane…it was what she'd been searching for. A Rosetta Stone.
    "Leonardo," Ruby called over her shoulder. "Can you come in here please?"
    They had to steal that cane from a preacher. And maybe she was sick in the head, but it sounded like a lot of fun.

Chapter Three
     
    Dear God .
    Jacob Talbot knelt on his floor of his office with the bible clutched between his hands. It had been such a long time since the Lord had spoken to him. He'd always been so diligent, so devout in his faith, and God had always answered him during his afternoon prayers.
    Except not today. For the last hour he had prayed as hard as he knew how, yet for some reason there had been no answer.
    I'm sorry. I've been busy. But I have not forgotten you. Son .
    Jacob smiled. I have missed the sound of your voice today .
    Right .
    Sometimes the Lord could sound sort of surly. Jacob pushed that thought away. It didn't do to offend him, not after the way God had blessed him for so many years.
    What would you have of me today, Lord?
    The one you have sought for so many years. She is near. You need only seek her out, and finally, your task will be done .
    Jacob's heart picked up. It pounded hard against his ribs. Yes, this was what he wanted. Ruby. After all of the years of searching, he'd finally be able to fulfill his promise to God and destroy the baby he'd lost. The now-woman was destined to bring on the end of days. If he could have destroyed her as a baby, it would have been smoother but there was still time to stop the coming darkness.
    He would get to her and eliminate her. So help him, God.
     
    * * * *
     
    Sebastian looked at Jacob—such a little man, standing no more than five feet five inches—who knelt so devoutly praying to a God he thought was in front of him. Sebastian had manipulated the little preacher for over thirty years now. Never once had Jacob questioned him.
    The task had actually been harder when Sebastian had been bound by a body. Being incorporeal had some benefits. He could move around so much more easily. Jump from place to place without having to figure out how he was going to transport the body he'd assumed when he'd come to earth thirty years earlier.
    He'd failed miserably trapped as a human. Not one of the Outsiders was dead. Well, not yet. By the end of the week, Ruby would be no more. Wrapped up and delivered to the universe by the fool who killed her mother. Or, at least convinced the woman who had been handed Ruby to kill herself.
    Ruby's actual mother died when the rest of the Outsiders perished. That had been his doing. He could take some credit for