Fated: Karma Series, Book Three

by Donna Augustine

  My jaw dropped open. “Didn’t you tell me recently you were going to get me in bed by hook or by crook? Well, you got me in bed and now you’re complaining?”

  He didn’t answer in words but made more growling sounds that I decided to interpret as an insult.

  “I’ve thrown up my hands and said what the hell, why not, and you’re still not happy?”

  “‘What the hell. Why. Not.’” Each word was repeated crisply.

  “Yes, exactly.” I stared at him in disbelief as he walked across the room as if he wanted distance from me.

  He sighed and then that turned into a growling sound of sorts too. When that was finally over, he still wasn’t done and let out a string of curses.

  “Where are you going?” I watched as his back retreated toward the adjoining bathroom.

  “Shower.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding me.” I put my fist over my mouth to hold back from screaming.

  “Nope.” His lips popping on the P as he pronounced it.

  “Why?”

  “Because you gave me the wrong answer.”

  “Do you normally quiz women when you sleep with them or am I just special?”

  “Just you.” Each word was coming out of a clenched jaw as if he were as annoyed as I was.

  “This is ridiculous. You’re really going to go take a shower?”

  He stopped and moved closer and for a second my heart flared as I thought perhaps he was coming to his senses and would stop making such a big deal out of this.

  He stopped short of me and ruined it by starting to talk again.

  “I think tonight was all about having a warm body.”

  “And what would be so horrible about that?”

  “Because right now I’m wondering if it could’ve been Knox in here and you’d have acted the same way.”

  “I can’t believe you just said that.” I yanked the blanket over me.

  “Yeah, well, I’m pissed off that I give a shit too but I do. When I fuck you, I want you to know it’s me, I want you to need me there with the very core of your being, clinging to me as if you’d die without it. I want it to be raw and real. Hell, even when Cupid was involved, at least I knew it was about us and not because I happened to be there when you were having a bad week.” He straightened and starting walking toward the bathroom.

  “Maybe if you hadn’t been such a dick the first couple times I wouldn’t be like this,” I yelled at his retreating back, not caring if the whole house heard me.

  He slammed the door.

  He dumped me twice, and I was still willing to sleep with him and it wasn’t good enough? I flopped back down on the bed. Why did everything in life have to be so goddamn complicated these days?

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Fate wasn’t in bed when I got up the next morning and I was glad of it. The morning after rejection might be even more uncomfortable than the morning after a good cuddle. What was most annoying was he walked out just as I thought we were warming up. I finally slept with him and got cut off for the effort. Last night was like having one spoonful of ice cream. I know there’s people out there who have that kind of restraint but I wasn’t feeling like one of them. Things were getting ugly. I needed some comfort and I was gearing up for a binge on it.

  Cupid was standing at the counter in the kitchen as I shuffled in, looking for coffee. I paused beside him and poured myself a cup. Leaning against the cabinets, I took in his silk pajamas and suave ways. Maybe I should have a little chat with Cupid. He did have his uses, after all.

  I measured his mood and angled myself in front of the nearest exit. He tried to smile at me but the corners of his lips were struggling to keep an upraised position. How the roles had changed. It wasn’t long ago that I was running from the room from him. Now look at me, blocking his path.

  I smiled, sipping my coffee, watching him watch me. Small talk, that was a good start. “So, how have you been?”

  “Good. And you?” His eyes narrowed in contrast to the warmth of his tone but he always had a voice that sounded like he’d just had sex.

  “Same. Thanks.”

  His lips started to twitch under the strain before he finally gave up the fight and dropped the hammer. “No.”

  Now he said no? Oh, I didn’t think so. I grabbed the coffee pot and topped of his mug for him. “No?” I asked, playing dumb.

  “Yes,” he said.

  “Wait, no or yes?” Life was so confusing when you didn’t actually ever say anything. How had I come to this place? This no man’s land of non-speaking?

  “Yes, I said no, I will not do it.” His chin went up.

  He was going to act like he was above it all? Now? After all the stunts he’d pulled and two more notches on his belt? No, he wasn’t getting away with that. Or he wouldn’t if I was willing to admit what I wanted. That was still up for debate.

  “Do what?” I added a healthy shrug of indifference to the end of the question, just in case he wasn’t clear on my nonchalance.

  “Let me, let you, in on a little secret.” He leaned in close, as if to impart a world secret. “I know when someone wants someone else. It’s my gig.”

  I scowled, pretending complete ignorance as I took another sip of coffee. I wanted this accomplished but in such a way as to still give me deniability. “I really don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  He kept smiling as he leaned closer. “I wouldn’t do it for him. I’m not doing it for you. I say when and how. I’m Cupid. No one tells me when to do my thing but me,” he rattled on as he went to the fridge, needing more milk.

  “He tried to get you to spell me?” He’d said he was going to play dirty but I was still surprised to find out he’d asked.

  His eyebrows rose and he put a hand over his mouth as he made a fake gasp of surprise. “I don’t know. Is what you’re doing considered asking?”

  “I’m not asking you to do anything but if I were to ask something, or perhaps you just gathered a certain feeling, I would think you would do whatever you could for me since you owe me. And, of course, you gave me that whole spiel about being part of the gang? Gangs help out other gang members.” I rethought that sentence really quickly in my mind. Nope, nothing outright incriminating.

  “And here you are, asking for me to wrong you again.”

  “If you hadn’t screwed with me, I might not even be interested in…certain things.”

  Cupid laughed so hard, he started choking on his last sip. I watched as he walked over and had to spit out his mouthful of coffee into the sink. When he finally got his breath back, he turned and said, “Darling, you wanted him even when you hated him. Please, don’t try that bullshit on me. And what you’re doing makes absolutely no sense. If you both want it, and know you want it, what do you need me for? Just go at it already.” He stopped speaking as Luck sashayed into the kitchen in her sheer robe, negligee and furry heeled slippers before he continued, “This one can surely help you out with how to get things started. Unless that’s not the problem?” The corner of his mouth went up with ease now.

  “Help with what? What are you all talking about?” she asked with full red lips. If it were anyone else, I would think the morning appearance had more to do with having company but not with Luck. She never completely turned off the sex bomb.

  “Nothing.”

  Cupid pulled Luck over to him with an arm around her shoulders. My coworker, who would’ve run screaming from him a week ago, went willingly into his embrace simply because of the prospect of gossip.

  “Karma wants to bang Fate but I think he’s playing hard to get. Now, she’s trying to get me—”

  “Pure speculation,” I said, breaking his sentence.

  The interruption bought me all of a micro pause while they looked at me strangely with squinted eyes and then Cupid resumed. “She wants some of my mojo.”

  “You people are the absolute worst.” I couldn’t even muster up enough emotion to yell anymore, just turned to pour some more coffee. />
  “Well, this is an interesting turn of events,” Luck said to Cupid, as I lifted the lid off the sugar bowl and scrapped out the last half teaspoon.

  No more sugar? I couldn’t drink my coffee like that and I needed it badly. One person could only take so many insults in a small period of time.

  I pulled open a cabinet above me where I hoped to find some more, while Luck and Cupid continued to discuss my situation.

  “So he wants her but doesn’t want her. But, wants her again but now he won’t do it even though he does? I’m so confused,” Luck said.

  “No more than them,” Cupid replied.

  They both broke out laughing while I searched some more cabinets for much-needed sugar.

  Skateboards skidded across the hardwood floors, surely leaving marks, and the Jinxes strolled in.

  “What are the hooker and the love bus laughing about?” Bobby asked.

  “Goddamn heathens! Who finished the coffee and didn’t put on a new pot!” Billy started shouting.

  For once I was happy about their big mouths and the opportunity to change the subject.

  “Make a single cup.” I pointed to a Keurig machine off to the side.

  “I know you’re still fairly new and shit, but I only drink that blend.” His little finger tapped on a bag of gourmet grinds with a local coffee house sticker.

  “Why are there skid marks across my floor?” Fate asked from the doorway since there was no room left to actually enter the kitchen.

  Three blond heads dodged out of the kitchen, presumably to avoid taking responsibility for the marks on the floor. They were followed by Luck and Cupid who appeared to want to gossip in private for a change.

  Fate walked in, reached above the cabinet over the fridge and pulled out a large bag of sugar, which he plunked down next to the empty bowl, sitting lidless. He grabbed a coffee mug of his own, his side brushing mine as he made himself a single cup and then leaned a hip against the counter.

  “There’s more bags in there.” He tilted his head toward the cabinet he’d just opened.

  “Thanks,” I said and then waited to see if he would bring up the subject of last night because I certainly wasn’t going to.

  After a couple more sips I determined that would be a no on both fronts.

  “Where did you get all the sugar?” I asked, partly out of curiosity, since I hadn’t seen any in the stores recently, and partly to fill the horrible silence that had my fingers twitching.

  “I stocked up a couple weeks ago,” he said.

  My spoon stopped swirling mid stroke. “You did? On sugar?”

  He raised his eyebrows and made a face toward my coffee.

  “But how did you know I took my coffee so sweet?”

  He shrugged. “It was a guess.”

  “Based on what?”

  “You’ve never seemed to be able to beat that sweet tooth.”

  “I never fought it so why would I have beaten it?”

  “You’ve tried in the past.”

  “When?”

  “Not in your last life but many times before that.”

  “Did you have jobs with me in the past? With my fate? Is that how you know so much stuff about me?”

  All of a sudden Fate wasn’t leaning. “Some.”

  Murphy walked into the kitchen and coughed, the word “Bullshit,” was barely disguised by his ruse.

  “Murphy, I heard Bernie might need some help with the cats. Hear anything about that?” Fate asked, his eyes narrowing.

  Murphy’s jaw dropped a bit and then he finally replied, “Not a word.”

  Fate nodded, patted Murphy on the back and left the kitchen.

  The second he was out of earshot I rounded on Murphy. “What did you mean, Bullshit? Fate didn’t have jobs with me? Spill the beans.”

  He rapidly shook his head. “I was just coughing.”

  “No you weren’t.”

  “Karma, do you know what cats do to me? I sneeze, my eyes water and itch. They make me wish I were dead.” He sighed like someone truly exhausted or desperate and his eyes silently pleaded.

  “Okay,” I said and took my coffee to drink on the deck while I pouted. What kind of lame immortals are we to be taken down by some cat dander?

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Later that morning, I leaned against the doorframe of Fate’s office, which he was now sharing with Cupid, the air mattress sitting deflated in the corner. He was bent over some papers, an elbow on his desk and fingers at his temple.

  He looked up and I saw his face soften. I’d gotten used to that, the way he looked at me differently from anyone else, as if I were special. I’d thought perhaps it would’ve stopped after last night, but it was still there, at least for a bit longer anyway. I wasn’t sure what I’d do the day he stopped but I pushed away the thought. I had a purpose today and meant to accomplish it.

  I tucked my hands in my jeans and glanced down at the floor for a second before I spat it out. “I need a favor.”

  He nodded, giving me his full attention. I walked in and shut the door.

  “It’s about Charlie.” My tongue nearly tripped over having to mention Charlie to Fate, knowing he’d never cared for him and not sure of the reception of my request.

  “Your Charlie?” His eyes lost their softness.

  I nodded, not feeling comfortable with the word “your” preceding anything to do with him, especially when he was so clearly anything but that.

  “I’d like to get him and his new fiancée somewhere safe. You know, like you did with my parents? Once this situation calms down, if it does that is, I’m going to talk to…” I stalled on Knox’s name. “I’m going to ask for a raise so I’ll be able to start repaying you.”

  “Forget about the cost. Tell me why you want him gone?” He leaned back and rested his head on the seat, the picture of relaxation except nothing about this line of questioning made me feel calm. I had to turn on my courtroom skills to keep from fidgeting.

  “Because even if I’m not with him, I still want him to be safe. It’s not as if I suddenly can turn off all emotions simply because it’s over.” I walked about the room and fiddled with the plantation shades so I didn’t have to meet his unflinching stare.

  “You still love him?”

  “I’m not in love with him, but yes, in a way, I’ll always love him.”

  He nodded. “I’ll handle it this afternoon.”

  The mood in the room shifted slightly and the tension in my shoulders eased, the air coming into my lungs a little easier. I walked back to the door but paused before I left. “I’d like to be privy to the details.”

  “You’ll have to stay in the background. Even with everything the way it is, that might still be a problem.”

  “Understood.”

  ***

  Fate and I pulled up to a clinic in the middle of Myrtle Beach at two p.m. that afternoon. It looked like a makeshift emergency medical center that had been thrown up quickly in a closed down storefront. I’d heard of places like this and wasn’t surprised that Charlie would be running one. That was the epitome of who he was.

  From where we were parked across the street, I could see her, his new fiancée, helping out with the line of patients visible through the glass front. And then there was Charlie, appearing from the back room with his white jacket. The place was busy but he was still smiling like always. It had been one of the things I’d loved about him and still did, his easy smile.

  “How did you know he was here?” I asked.

  “His destiny has been on my radar for a while. There’s a remote island in the Pacific that he was going to do some pro bono work in a year or so. I checked it out and that area seems less affected than most places. It was a fairly easy tweak to push the trip up earlier.” I felt Fate’s eyes on me, not Charlie, as he spoke.

  “Was it always going to be her going with him?”

  “I don’t know that,” he said but I expected that to be a lie.

  I watched as Charlie stopped
to look at a file she was holding, his hand coming to rest on her back. He couldn’t resist touching her in some small way when she was nearby. The only thing that surprised me about today was it didn’t hurt as badly as I thought it would. I knew why I’d come.

  The feelings had been fading for a while. The thoughts of him coming less and less until recently, days would go by without him popping into my mind at all. But still, I’d needed to see him one last time. I’d clung to what might have been so firmly that I’d needed this goodbye, even one sided as it was. I’d needed to see them so I could wish him well, let him go and close the book on that part of my life for good. It felt more akin to losing a dear friend than a soul mate.

  I was okay.

  “Do you need to go do something?” I asked as we both remained seated in the car.

  “No. It’s already done. They’ll be packing tonight and catching a ride with a military plane early tomorrow morning. They’ll be there later that evening.”

  “Then why did we come here?”

  “Because I thought you wanted to see him.”

  I did. “I’m ready to leave.”

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Knox strolled into the garage as I hoisted up a box of supplies from a recent run Murphy and Luck had made. I dropped it onto the bench with a humph.

  “Want some help?” he asked, coming to stand beside me.

  “Sure,” I replied, more from obligation than truth. The hard-found quiet of the empty garage was already dwindling and I hoped he’d be a silent worker.

  Without speaking, he started lifting boxes and supplies to the upper shelves that I’d had a hard time reaching. Okay, maybe this wouldn’t be too bad.

  He stopped moving and turned to face me, a hand came down on the bench at his side and he looked downward, shaking his head slightly. This had the feelings of a speech of some sort coming on, and not a good one. The signs of disapproval were flowing off him like the stench of a mad skunk. I shoved a bottle of olive oil into an open nook as I waited for him to form the words to match his unhappy appearance.