“I guess I’m lucky like that.” I looked down the beach, seeing a few stragglers but not much else. “Quiet tonight.”
“Enjoy it. We might not get too many more of these.” He crossed his ankles where they rested on the railing, the heavy boots making a thudding noise in the quiet of the night as he repositioned them.
I buffed my nails on the pajama shorts I was wearing. “I wasn’t going to ask but since the world’s going to shit and I’m at a lack for more appropriate small talk—“
“Figured he’d tell you about her,” he said with no surprise in his voice.
“Yes.”
“You can’t kill her and add her to your bucket list.”
Fate was right. He was edgy. This girl was getting to him and that could be very, very bad. “I can’t believe you’re sleeping with one of Malokin’s people. If you haven’t noticed, we’re at war with him. What are you thinking?”
“She’s not with him,” Lars’s voice was firm and more than a little defensive. His hand ran through his long black hair as he sighed. It took a full minute before he spoke again, less decisive this time. “At least I don’t think she is. Talking about fucked up relationships, how’s yours?”
“I don’t have a relationship.”
“Sure you don’t. You two walk around saying nothing about anything and pretend it’s completely normal. Worry about your own issues.”
He resettled the rifle in his lap as I stared at the chips in my nail polish in the heavy silence.
“We’re both screwed up. But your situation is still worse.” All I needed to do was stick my tongue out to make that statement complete.
He turned his head toward me and raised his eyebrows. “Care to debate that?”
I stared down at my nails again, thinking that having them plucked off one by one would be preferable. “I won’t talk about yours, if you don’t talk about mine.”
“Done. That was significantly easier than I had imagined.” He waved a finger toward my hip. “On to other subjects, I’m supposed to take a peek at that.”
“Sure.” I kicked my feet up on the railing beside his but with not nearly the same satisfying thud.
“I’m not going to see anything wrong with the tattoo, am I?” he asked as neither of us made an effort toward show and tell.
“Nope.”
“Care to share what the issue is?”
“Nope.”
“Understood.”
I stood and stretched out my arms with a yawn. “It’s been nice chatting with you, Lars. Sort of, anyway.”
“Back at ya, babe,” he said, using the top of the gun to salute me.
Chapter Twenty-Two
We all watched The Matrix the next night—for our own individual reasons. I’d seen the movie more times than I could remember and was looking for a mindless diversion while I waited to see if there would be retaliation from the recent hit on Malokin’s men. Luck would do anything that avoided being in the room she shared with Mother. I swore Mother was just there to annoy Luck. The Jinxes thought Neo was almost as cool as Fate and Murphy—well, he just went along with the plans usually.
When the doorbell chimed, every head popped up. People came and went constantly now. The only oddity about getting company was who would bother to ring before entering?
Fate rose and headed over to the door as if he’d expected guests.
“Hey, good to see you. Come on in,” Fate said to someone still out of sight.
“Thanks!”
No, that couldn’t be who I thought it was. Then he stepped in and I saw him with my own eyes. Cupid, dressed in his signature silk, a Louie Vuitton suitcase on wheels trailing behind him.
I stopped chewing mid-popcorn bite and looked around the room, gauging everyone’s reaction. I couldn’t be the only one freaked out about living with Cupid. When I hadn’t seen him recently, I’d figured he had some cloud to go hang out on. When he hadn’t made the meeting, I figured said cloud was a bitch of a commute. Not so lucky.
Taking in the expressions, it looked like we were all frozen in a moment of silent panic. The only thing keeping me in my seat was Fate’s warm greeting. He’d known he was coming. What was this about?
Fate stood next to him—not just close to him but he actually patted him on the back. “Cupid is going to be staying with us. He’s promised to be on his very best behavior.”
Cupid couldn’t have looked happier about it. So much so, I felt a twinge of guilt over the fact that I was fighting tooth and nail to not run from the room.
All of us tried to utter greetings in varying degrees of forced enthusiasm while keeping our distance. Knox, poor shmuck, rose and went to greet Cupid and shook his hand. Clearly no one had bothered to warn him.
While Cupid was distracted by Knox, and everyone else was distracted by Cupid, I got up, and this time it was me grabbing Fate’s arm and dragging him behind me. I didn’t stop until I got into the bedroom and shut the door behind us.
“What are you doing?” I nailed him with the question before the lock clicked into place. I waited for his answer even though I had my own suspicions. Fate had declared war on my libido. He’d said no more messing around, and this had to be part of his master plan. Cupid was full proof. He could get a girl in bed quicker than a bottle of tequila and Brad Pitt on bended knee.
He relaxed back against the dresser, not a hair out of place. “He needed somewhere to stay.”
“And he couldn’t stay with his people? Those little flying cherubs couldn’t whisk him away to safety somewhere?”
“He wanted to feel included.”
Yes, that was the Fate I knew. So worried about people feeling like they were part of the gang. I was having a hard time not choking on the bull he was spewing. “I will not stay here with him.”
“You can’t leave. You made a deal.” Fate plopped down on the bed as if he were preparing to take a nap.
“I didn’t agree to stay here with him.”
“Then tell him to leave.” He stretched out his arms and tucked them behind his head and then had the nerve to yawn.
“You invited him here to...”
“To what?”
“Why me? Can’t you find someone else to sleep with to amuse yourself?” Someone that wouldn’t be torn apart when you moved on from her.
“Because I don’t want anyone else.”
If he had just stopped speaking then, I might have grabbed on to him with both hands and thrown caution to the wind, but he didn’t.
“I want to amuse myself with you.”
All the warm and fuzzy feelings from a moment ago were now cold, wet and soggy. I’d gone from warm plush teddy bear kind of feelings to something you found at the curb, discarded after a flood.
“Where are you going?” he asked.
“I’m going to go ask Cupid to stay somewhere else.”
“Really? You’re going to tell Cupid to go?” He acted like I’d said I was going to get the Jinxes to stop drinking. Then he started laughing.
“Yes. In the nicest way possible, I’m going to explain that due to his past behavior, it isn’t a comfortable situation.”
He got up from the bed and walked toward the door. I thought he was going to try and stop me but he opened it and took a step back. “It’ll never happen. That southern girl is going to rear her polite little head, but I can’t wait to watch you try.”
“You’ll see.”
“Please, I’m dying to.”
It took me a minute or two to track Cupid down in Fate’s office, while Fate himself dogged my steps. The door was ajar when I got there. The furniture had been moved to the side and an air mattress was in the middle. I was still nervous about getting too close but this had to be done. I could do this and be uncomfortable for a few minutes, or not and be waiting for a sex bomb to blow at any moment.
I tapped on the wood of the open door as I watched him unpacking his clothes onto a freestanding rack along the back wall. “Cupid? Do you have a minute?”
“For my favorite couple? Of course I do! Come in,” he said, smiling a hundred-watt smile and waving us both in. “Sit!”
I took the office chair and Fate perched a hip by my side.
“Cupid—”
“Please,” he held up his hands, “before you speak, I have to get something off my chest.”
I nodded, hoping it had something to do with how he wouldn’t be able to stay long.
“When Fate asked me to come here, I can’t tell you how happy I was. My job, well, it hasn’t always made me the most popular. There have been many a night I’ve lain awake, pining to be one of the gang. To now have you embrace me, along with Fate, it really means the universe to me.” He laid a manicured hand above his heart.
I was torn between wanting to ask him where he was still able to get his nails done or what exactly had Fate told him. This was going to be trickier than I’d initially thought. Still, if I dug deep, I had the social graces buried somewhere inside that would be able to pull this off without him being completely insulted.
“Cupid… I—”
“You know, I really thought after that last little nudge I gave the two of you that you were very upset with me. I only did it because I felt it was for the best. I’m so thrilled you aren’t holding a grudge.”
“I… You know, um… ” My words died and I forced a smile onto my lips. Looked like I was going to use those southern manners to go down gracefully instead.
I felt Fate’s hand land on my shoulder. “She’s trying to say she’s so happy you’re here, too.”
I let out a long sigh and then agreed; all the while my brain was silently screaming shit, shit, shit in my head.
Chapter Twenty-Three
“Are you sure it was safe to come by yourself?” Kitty asked as I sat beside her on the couch. A large throw with the image of a cat, which went with the rest of her décor, lay over her legs. I knew her legs were still weak from when Malokin had broken them. The reminder of her torture, some of which I’d witnessed firsthand, was one of many that still haunted me from the time Kitty had been held hostage. She still seemed hesitant to stand even though there was a healthy looking flush to her skin.
“Yes, it’s fine.” I peeked out her back window and saw Paddy rummaging through her garden and hitting her tomato plants with his cane. When he’d stopped by for coffee this morning, I’d told him he owed me after the meeting the other day. He’d agreed to come but preferred to remain outside and unseen. I could understand all that but I wasn’t sure what was so offensive about the red fruit.
“Sorry I haven’t been by that much lately.” I could fool myself by thinking there hadn’t been time. It wasn’t like I couldn’t find a rational excuse, with the world was going to hell. No one would think twice about it and Kitty wasn’t one of those people who looked for hand holding.
The truth was I’d been avoiding this visit. She had suffered greatly, still bearing the emotional and physical wounds, while I’d floundered. I was ashamed that she had gone through so much because of me. Logically I understood Malokin was the one who carried the blame, but emotions didn’t work in a logical way. I’d finally gotten her out of there but not before she’d paid the price for both of us, and now I was paying my share in guilt.
She didn’t speak about what she had been though. There were large slots of time that were unaccounted for and probably always would be. That’s how, even if I hadn’t seen any of it, I still would’ve known how bad it had been. Some pain went too deeply to speak of.
“How are you doing?” I asked as I petted one of the many black cats roaming her house.
“It’s been so nice seeing the guys again.” She smiled toward the back of the house, where Bic was putting groceries in her refrigerator, before she looked back to me and redirected the topic away from her. “How’s it going with you?”
“Pretty good,” I lied, not wanting to dump anything else on her plate.
She snorted loudly. “That’s not what I hear. Your fights with Fate are like the daily soaps these days.
“You’re two of a kind, stubborn as all hell. That can be good or bad. It’s easier with two different types of people, when one is soft where the other is hard. You don’t have the clashes, the constant blows.
“But you two? No. You won’t come together easy. You knock into the other, setting off sparks with each collision. But eventually, after you’ve knocked and rubbed away all the hard edges, you’ll come together stronger for it.”
“We aren’t coming together,” I said, sipping my tea.
Her eyes rolled. “Yeah, I heard you were in denial too. Don’t worry, I wasn’t planning on harassing you today. I had something else I wanted to talk to you about. That Knox boy came by. He’s not a bad sort, and he’s agreed to put me in for early retirement.”
“You’re leaving?” I understood the desire and shouldn’t have been surprised but I was.
“It’s been a long road and I think it’s time to call it quits. It’s just…” Her voice died off as I watched her eyes fill with memories.
“Different now,” I said, finishing her sentence.
She nodded. “Bernie is going to watch after the cats until they get my replacement.”
“When?” I didn’t realize I’d grabbed her hand and was squeezing it until she squeezed back.
“As soon as I say all my goodbyes.”
My smile was weak. As much as I tried to muster up how good it would be for her to move on, the words didn’t want to come out.
“Sometimes endings are good,” she said, patting my hand.
“Do you know where you’re going to end up?” I’d heard stories of reincarnation that ranged from Indian princesses to Hollywood stars but I had a feeling that wouldn’t be Kitty’s path.
“Nothing grand.” Her eyes looked skyward and a look of whimsy appeared. “Maybe a florist. I think I want bright beautiful colors around me all the time, even in the winter when it’s the bleakest.”
“Will I see you again?”
She smiled. “I’d bet on it. Just maybe in another life.”
***
My step was heavier when I walked out of Kitty’s house, knowing that I’d probably never see her again. As much as I wanted to be happy for her, I couldn’t help but mourn her already.
“Paddy, thanks for coming with me today,” I said, as he came around from the side of the house.
“I was in the mood for some fresh air.” He took a breath so deep I could see his chest rise dramatically. “By the way, she’ll be okay,” he said as he exhaled slowly.
The pain hit without warning. I gripped the railing on the second set of stairs that led to the sidewalk in front of Kitty’s house, my hip on fire. The metal was hard in my hand as I squeezed, waiting for it to subside.
One of the most intense bouts I’d had, it finally started to abate after almost a minute of pure agony. My lungs were able to expand. I looked over at Paddy, dreading the questions he was sure to have.
Paddy wasn’t there anymore, or not a Paddy I recognized. A handsome male in his prime stood in his place, almost angelic in his fairness and beautiful features. Even his eyes squinted shut and his compressed lips didn’t detract from his beauty.
Then he was gone and the Paddy I knew was next to me again, looking much more frazzled than he had this morning. His eyes shot to where my hand had unconsciously come to rest over the area of my tattoo. There was something about his expression that made me uncomfortable, but I brushed it off due to the recent pain.
“How long?” he asked.
“A few weeks, give or take. You?” I asked, afraid I’d know what the answer would be but having no clue what it meant.
“Same.”
“Sharp pain?”
He shook his head but didn’t offer a description of what he felt. I took the hint and moved on to my next question.
“Do you know why it’s happening?”
“No. Like I said, when I gave you a piece of me, it was a first.�
�
We stood silently for a minute before I suggested we leave. The walk to the car was as quiet as the ride, and my unease in his presence was slowly gathering steam.
I wasn’t sure if the awkwardness was created by him, me or both of us. It might have been that I’d seen Paddy for who he really was. Somehow knowing him as one of them, in such a tangible way, and not the old man I’d come to know, made him more alarming.
Paddy disappeared a block before I pulled up in front of Fate’s, the only thing he’d said before vanishing repeating itself in my head as I sat there for a moment before getting out.
“When they don’t understand why I would choose the form of an old man, this is what I tell them. Most don’t see the old, they don’t stop and stare and say, ‘Who’s that?’ They hold the door for them and help them on their way. Why? Because the old aren’t a threat. They’re just something to be pitied. But it is the young who deserve the pity, for they have no clue what is heading their way.”
And then he was gone.
Chapter Twenty-Four
I’d been lying on our bed as I tried to convince myself that the pain I’d been feeling was nothing. That Paddy, or whoever that thing was, feeling unwell at the same time was merely a coincidence. After all, it didn’t hurt right now. It was simply growing pains.
But still, it might be time to voice my concerns.
The bedroom door swung open and Fate, the man I needed to talk to, was standing in the threshold looking like he’d just shot a Givenchy print ad. Black suit, black shirt and sunglasses; you had to wonder what it would be like to walk around the Earth looking that perfect.
“Where are you heading?” I asked, once I remembered not to stare and then took another several seconds forcing my eyes to stop doing exactly that.
“Where are we heading.” He laid a garment bag down beside me on the bed where I’d been hiding, or for appearances’ sake, pretending to read a book. “We need to meet an old acquaintance of mine. Put this on.”
Fated: Karma Series, Book Three Page 17
