Karma (Karma Series) (10 page)

“
You can act like a cave man all you want, still not regretting it.” It was the exact opposite. I was invigorated by what I'd just done. I'd saved a woman, who I didn't even know had kids. The life I'd saved her children from was enough to make me smile, in spite of the rain now pouring down on me, or the angry man dragging me through the woods.

He finally stopped but didn't let go of me as he dug into his pocket with the other.

“You can let go you know. I don't have anywhere else to be.” I waved my free hand around toward the dark forest we were standing in.

He looked at me with such intensity I wasn't really sure if he wanted to kill me or fuck me. And not in an
,
I want to have sex with you because you're so special and pretty.
It was more along the lines of
I have a penis and you aren't listening to me.

Or maybe he did just want to kill me. I wasn't quite sure.

“Give it your best shot,” I replied in response to the look. It might have been nice to know which way he was actually leaning. It wouldn't have changed the reply so I figured I had it covered either way.

“
You think I couldn't?”

“
No. What I'm saying is I know you couldn't.” Geez, I really wished I knew if he meant murder or sex. I wonder if there was a way to slip that question in somehow?

He stepped so close I was afraid to breathe because I knew if I took a deep inhale, my breasts would graze his chest. He could be such a jerk but to my extreme annoyance, I was attracted to him.

“You overestimate yourself.” His voice was deep and husky and wasn't helping out my attraction issue. Neither was the proximity.

I instinct
ively laid a hand on his chest—and a really nice chest at that—because I wanted to touch him and my body had gotten ahead of my brain.

I pushed him away to cover up my real motives for the contact and I was surprised when he acquiesced.

With a little space in between us, my brain started functioning again. Thank god he was never in the courtroom with me. It would've been ugly.

“
I'm not overestimating myself at all. I know exactly who I am and I know what I'm capable of. If you think I'd be an easy mark, either as a human or as I am now, you need to brush up on your people skills. You don't know the kind of fight I have in me. I don't roll over for anybody, anytime. Ever.”

“
You think you could take me on?” His eyebrows raised, disbelief written in every ounce of his being from the spacing of his feet to the set of his shoulders. “You've tried before, just in case you don't remember. You couldn't even stop me from dragging you into the car and that was when I was trying to not hurt you.”

“I was also out of my mind then.” My stance spread a bit as I eyed him, both of us undeterred by the torrential downpour. “Go ahead, try it.”

His hands went to his hips, and his deep-set eyes seemed to sink a little further, as he stared at me.

And then I started babbling like an idiot. “I have no desire to sleep with you. As you said yourself, I was going to marry Charlie. He was a good man and nothing like you. Just so we are on the same page, that will not be happening.”

I saw his chest rise and fall as if my words infuriated him even further.

“I don’t remember asking you to sleep with me.” I thought he was done talking, but then he continued. “
Really
? You'd say no?”

“One hundred percent. No, one thousand percent.”
And it would mostly be from the guilt I felt over wanting you so soon after losing Charlie.

“First off, there is no such thing as a thousand percent and you'd melt like chocolate in my hands so you're full of it.”

“You really think I'd stoop to sleeping with you after him?”

We stood there, sopping wet and staring at each other. Then in a flash of movement, he was up against me, one arm curved around my back, the other hand in my hair angling my face to his.

I opened my mouth to protest, but it was muffled by his own. The lines of our bodies fit together like they were meant to be one. I didn't want to fit so perfectly to him but it just happened. Just like I didn't mean to soften to him but I couldn't seem to not. I had just been about to get married, I shouldn't have gotten weak over a kiss, but that's exactly what I was doing. All my blustering about Charlie fell apart the second his body touched mine.

But in my defense, to call this just a kiss was an understatement. There was nothing normal about this. I hadn't known a kiss could even be this utterly consuming. I was a grown woman, not a teenage girl. How could I be so affected? H
e could've taken me there in the middle of the forest, right that second, and I wouldn't have given a peep of protest. Rational thought left the minute he was pressed up against me.

He pulled back suddenly and looked even more pissed off than before he'd kissed me.

His phone rang, breaking the tension between us and interrupting any chance I had of finding out what had made him so mad now. If anyone should've been mad, it was me. He kissed me and I acted like it was my first kiss, not to mention the guilt. How could I have just done that?

Fate answered it but said nothing until he replaced it back in his jeans.

“We have to go to the office.”

He dialed another number and then spoke into the phone.
“We're ready.”

The spot in front of us g
littered in the dark, signaling the doors imminent appearance just as golf ball sized hail started to shoot down.

I wrapped my arms over my head and left the forest not knowing if we would've ended up rolling around on the forest floor
, beating each other or with limbs tangled in the heat of passion.

It was for the best.

It had been raining and hailing just as bad when we'd gotten back to South Carolina. What were the odds of an unexpected storm hitting both places at the same time? It was the first real inkling the powers that be were pretty pissed. I felt like a school kid in the principal’s office and I wasn't enjoying the experience. I was an adult. Being pulled out of my previous reality didn't change that.

I sat in front of Harold's desk, creating puddles with my drenched clothes and hair, as he flipped through his papers silently.

Fate stood holding up the wall off to the side, forming his own puddles. His shirt stuck to his skin, showing off the impressive physique I'd already felt first hand. The three of us were the only ones in the office – or the building, for that matter.

Fate hadn't spoken since we'd gotten back. The only contribution he was currently making to the situation was an occasional grunt of
annoyance, as he'd shake his head, obviously replaying the situation over and over again in his mind. But which situation? Both had seemed to piss him off.

“
Do you mind?” I asked after an especially loud grunt. “Your monosyllabic noises are very distracting.” Getting literally weak in the knees during our kiss hadn't improved my mood either. If he thought I was going to be an easy mark and that he'd walk all over me now, he was very mistaken. The sooner he knew that, the better.

He looked like he wanted to lunge at me. I smiled brightly back at him, my hands folded on my lap as if I weren't the least bit concerned.

Harold's fingers finally came to rest on a sheet that he pulled to the top of the pile in front of him.

“
I've been informed you went off plan. What happened tonight can not happen again.”

“
Sure,” I said and waited to see if either of them realized that wasn't technically an agreement. It was more along the lines of
sure, I understand how you would feel like that
. If needed, I'd do it again the moment I left this office and I wouldn't hesitate for even a second.

What else was there to do in that situation? That brute would've killed that poor woman and left her children in foster care. If I was Karma, even if it was only for a short time, I was going to do what I felt I should.

Unfortunately, such thoughts didn't help my current quandary. Time to unload some of the responsibility, if possible.

“I was surprised I even could do that. Maybe you should have informed me of how surprisingly strong I am? This might have been averted if I'd had more knowledge.”

“
You leapt on the guy’s back.” Harold made a noise that was a watered down version of the ones Fate was making, and then continued. “The point is, it can't happen again. That man was not slated to move on for another fifty years.” He waved the paper at me but not close enough to read. Harold really loved his papers. “Your actions have ramifications.”

“
I can see the problems that would create.”
But I won't agree to not do it again.
Dodged another. His patience will wear out soon enough if I kept this up. As far as Fate, I wasn't even going to think about
him,
right now.

I watched Harold flip through some more piles before he finally looked up again. His lips were pursed and it looked like a
couple of blood vessels were in danger of bursting.

“
You wanted her,” Fate said from where he was leaning, noticing how Harold was about to lose it.

I crossed my legs, making a squishing sound with the action.
“I'm so glad you finally regained your ability to form words. The grunting was
very
unbecoming.”

Harold cleared his throat, purposefully bringing the attention back to him
self. “I'm telling you right now, that can not happen again. I'll have your word on it.”

I was afraid it was going to come to this. They'd try and nail me down, maybe pull out another contract. I was a f
ormer lawyer, and not just a ho-hum one; I'd had a gift for it. They'd gotten the best of me once when I'd been weak and not in my right mind. That was galling enough. Let's see who got the best deal when I was in my right mind?

“
I'd prefer not to commit,” I said, like I was unsure if I'd be able to make it to a barbecue next week.

“
You have to.” Harold's face grew red as he stared at me. Fate was back to grunts and head shakes.

Then they said nothing. And the longer they went without words, the more suspicious I became. Time to start poking the bear and see what kind of teeth he really had.

“I told you, you made a mistake choosing me.” I shrugged, silently inferring that this was their problem, not mine.

“
You were the last name on the list of one,” Harold said. “You think I would've chosen you?”

He thought insult
s were going to work? I'd dealt with and defended the dregs of society. I'd heard worse on a weekly basis. I decided to poke the stick in a little bit deeper. “That's not so good for you because I really don't like orders, and I'm trying to figure out why I'm supposed to be taking them from either of you.”

Harold's breathing increased and his eyes flashed toward Fate for the briefest of seconds. He didn't know what to do with me and there was only one likely answer. He
couldn't
do anything.

I reclined into the chair and swung my arm off the back. Just to rub it in
, because I didn't particularly like Harold or the way he treated people, I kicked my feet up on his desk and crossed my ankles before I spoke.

“
You can't do anything to me, can you?” I posed it as a question even though I was certain of the answer. “Furthermore, I don't think this has ever happened, has it? I wasn't supposed to be able to do what I did and save that woman. And if the entire universe couldn't stop me, what can you do?” I saw Harold's eyes dart to Fate again, who looked like he wasn't listening anymore, even though I knew he was.

Harold rose and leaned forward.
“I'll keep you here until you fall in line, contract or not. You want out? You better not pull one of those pranks again!”

I looked at him calmly, his head hovering above where my feet still perched.

“No, I don't think you will.” I crossed my arms as I rocked my chair on the back two legs. “You don't like me. You'll get rid of me the first chance you can.”

“
How do you know I won't do it just to spite you?”

I laughed a little before I answered.
“That's an easy one. You won't do it because that's what I'd do. When it comes down to it, I'll do anything to win. And you and me,” I pointed back and forth between us, “couldn't be more different.”

Harold was practically huffing now but didn't try and deny it. He stood over his desk while I continued to recline. Our silent standoff was finally broken by the sound of Fate's laugh.

“Why are you laughing?” Harold demanded.

“
Cause she's right.” He nodded in my direction but never actually looked at me.

“
Now, gentleman, I'm exhausted and need to get some sleep, if you don't mind.” I stood and walked out of the room, digging out my phone to call a taxi, since Fate had driven. I left the two of them to discuss me in private while I exited the building.

I was standing out front by the curb, the phone pressed to my ear, when Fate came out. He grabbed it from me, closed the lid and handed it back.

“I'll drive you,” he said calmly.

He started walking to where his car was parked. Wait for a taxi for ten minutes or be home by then? I followed him to his car.

He didn't speak until we were on the road. “You came very close to crossing a line tonight.” I'd thought he was calm. I might have been wrong. “Do not mistake me for Harold.”

“
Don't threaten me. It's not a tactic I respect or respond well to.”

“
Just like in a human life, there are lines you don't cross. If you put me in that spot again, I'll do more than threaten.”

“
And what would those lines be? I've got some lines as well and you seem to have no issue trampling over them,” I said as he pulled into my parking lot.

“
Don't press me.”

“
Why? And while we’re at it, what exactly is going on between you and Harold? What do you have on him?”

“
Absolutely nothing.”

“
But there's something there. I can practically taste the tension between the two of you.”

“
You've got two weeks left here.” He pulled into my lot. “Is it worth it?” He nodded toward the door, silently telling me to get out, and I obliged him.

He peeled out of the lot. I guess he wasn't staying tonight.

***

Fate was still gone when I got up the next morning, or I thought he was. I heard him somewhere below when I went to have coffee on my deck

“She's sleeping.”

Not anymore I wasn't. I didn't know who he was talking
to and I didn't want to lean over the deck and alert them I was there. I slunk closer to the side, as far as I could get without hanging over the rail.

“
Do you think she's going to lead us to him?” his unknown companion asked.

“
I don't know, but she's the best tool in our box.”

“
And Harold?” The way he said his name indicated it was a question asked often.

“
Useless, like usual,” Fate replied.

“
You going to tell her?”

“
Definitely not. She's completely unpredictable. Head strong, stubborn—”

If Fate hadn't been cut off, who knew how long the list would've
gone on, but it sounded like he was just getting going. I couldn't really fault any of his statements either. They sounded pretty true.

“
And pretty hot. You working anything in that angle?”

“
Not worth the cost,” Fate said.

That stung a little. He didn't have a problem the other day.

“How's that?”

“
She's too human.”

“
Which is exactly what you normally sleep with.”

“
You should leave before she gets up.” Fate's voice. “I don't want to have to explain you. Don't come here again unless I give you the green light. Not while she's here.”

“
Sure.”

I heard steps retreating and I ran back inside to see if I could catch a glimpse out the back kitchen window that faced the road. The back of a man with tattoos and long black hair walked away, with Fate by his side.

I didn't recognize him from the office but that didn't mean he wasn't from one of the other suites. If he wasn't, who was he? We weren't supposed to be able to even tell anyone else about us. I knew first hand how ominous that was.

So, the guy was either one of us and in the loop, or maybe the ominous feeling I had was just a loud bark with no real bite?

There was only one way to test it, and I wasn't ready to jeopardize someone's life to find out. I'd have to check out the suites. If he was in the building, I'd find him.

And if he wasn't?

And why did they care about my killer? What was the connection there because Harold didn't seem to care that much.