CHAPTER ONE
On two separate occasions Jenna had watched her cat play with a butterfly in the garden behind her house. The first time she had been sitting out in the open as the large calico leapt into the air, catching the Monarch in his paws; the second time she had stood inside the house, watching, through the glass door the cat had no idea she was there. Jenna still could not quite understand the concept. The first time the ragged old Tom had killed the butterfly immediately proceeding to eat the creature, wings, antennae, and all. The second time, when it had not been evident she was watching, he had batted it around for a moment and then lay on his side watching it drift up into the air. It was odd to her how one moment he could be so completely predatory and the next he could actually be gentle and merciful.
Jenna could not help but think of yet another in her life that held those same qualities, another only she could see. As she turned away from the television she could see him now, sitting on the chair beside the table with the lamp that had been a wedding gift from her mother’s boss. He watched her, one leg swinging back and forth, arms crossed over his chest in a semi-relaxed position as though he were waiting for the perfect moment to pounce. Jenna had just turned eighteen the day before and what was supposed to have been the most glorious day of her life, a day she gained her independence was a day she felt even more trapped than she ever had.
