The hand on my arm jerked me backward.
“We aren't here for that.”
“How do you know what I'm going to do?”
“Because I'm not a complete idiot and I know their fate. You don't need to run to plant the evidence. We'll get there in plenty of time for that.”
“Get off me,” I said. The lawyer in me wouldn't admit to anything. I attempted to yank my arm loose but to no avail.
“You can't save her. This is her fate.”
Instead of pulling away, I stepped closer and got in his space. I'd handled my fair share of criminals, bullies and all around scary bad asses. Weakness didn't back them down. The only thing that happens if you run from a predator is a good chase.
“Get. Off. Me.”
He didn't budge but held his ground. It was exactly what I'd expected of him but like I mentioned, I wasn't one to run.
Instead of letting go of my one arm, he grabbed the other and stared at me with an almost confused look. “How the hell did you think you were ever meant to marry that guy?”
“What?” The question was bizarre in its randomness but no less painful in the remembrance. “Don't talk to me about Charlie.” The shock of the subject was quickly replaced by anger.
“You're right. It doesn't matter. The point is I'm trying to help you.”
“And I'm telling you not to.”
“I guess some people have to learn the hard way.” He shrugged but dropped his grip on me. No sooner was I off and running again that I fell flat on the ground, face to the dirt and gasping to inflate my lungs. I turned to give him a dirty look, sure he was the cause of my fall but he was ten feet behind me.
I pushed myself up, ignoring the sting of nettle beneath my palms and took off running again. A low-lying branch that I knew hadn't been there a second ago knocked me hard in the head. The blow had been so bad that my head spun and my vision dulled.
I moaned, now flat on my back as opposed to on my stomach. I felt a hand run over my forehead and looked up to see Fate leaning over me. His eyes were trained on my forehead where I was sure a large egg was forming and, for just a second, he looked softer, then his eyes met mine and they hardened.
“Are you ready to give up yet? It will just get progressively worse.” He stood up and crossed his arms. Standing in the same place from where he had just been squatting next to me
I stood up, a bit wobbly on my feet and without any offered aid from Fate.
“Are you done?” he asked after I wobbled slightly.
“I guess I don't have a choice.” I brushed off the twigs from my jeans and started walking again. How the universe knew I was willing to stay within my neatly penned box I didn't know, but nothing deterred my progress now. The desire still burned within me though.
I didn't consider myself bloodthirsty, but I wanted it today. I'd seen what that man was capable of. The snippets of what the woman's life had been like. She was probably better off dead than with him but why should she be the one whose life was stolen? If I was Karma, shouldn't I get some discretionary power?
“What if it's not enough? What if I don't agree?” I asked in a hushed voice as we approached their campsite. I could hear the screaming clearly now.
“We don't decide what the job is, we just do it.”
“This doesn't make sense to me. If the universe can stop me from killing him, why can't it do this itself?”
“Some people are just born slightly out of reach.”
“Of the universe?”
“Yes.”
“But why not have me kill him like the last guy?”
“I don't know. Maybe rotting in a jail cell for fifty years is the way things need to play out.”
“You're Fate. Is that what will happen?”
“If you do this, then yes.”
Neither of us spoke as we walked the final distance. I knew exactly what was going to happen next. I'd seen it like a movie clip replaying in my head.
We stopped right outside their clearing and then Fate made a move to walk closer.
“What are you doing? Is that safe?”
“They won't see us because they aren't supposed to.”
Fate walked into the area, not far from where they had their campfire. He was as clear as day, the fire illuminating him in an alarming way but neither of the occupants noticed him. But their chocolate lab was staring right at Fate.
The dog definitely knew he was there. I could hear a low growl but he didn't make a move toward Fate. The couple was too busy arguing to notice something amiss with their dog.
Feeling more confident, I stepped out beside him.
He leaned his head down slightly to the side. “You can talk.”
“How do they not see us or hear us? Are we invisible?”
“We’re just as tangible as we were a few hours ago, just shielded from view.”
The man went back from arguing to screaming again. He was carrying on and on about her flirting with someone, all while she denied it.
The man was twice her size and loomed over the small brunette. Her hands were shaking as she cowered. He'd hit her before, even if I hadn't seen it, I'd know it. The evidence was there in her very stature, the pleading in her large eyes. She was scared.
I wanted to scream at her. You knew what he was capable of. Why did you stay? Why didn't you leave before now?
I cringed because I knew what was coming. His large fist connected with her stomach. I flinched with the pain she must have felt. And I also realized, whatever was going to happen, right now he didn't intend to kill her. He hit her somewhere that could be hidden and not on her face. So what was going to changed things? That part I hadn't seen.
I watched her bent over form, hoping the outcome I'd seen was wrong. Maybe it would be okay. She straightened and I saw a look in her eyes I recognized. Something had snapped. The fear was gone.
Oh no, lady, this was not the time to get some balls. This was a time for her to cling to fear because it might save her life. Fear isn't always bad. Sometimes it's the lighthouse on the shore telling you to steer out of the storm.
Don't do it. “Please.” I looked upward.
Fate turned to me and I thought I saw regret in his face as well but he turned back to the scene quickly.
She straightened to her full height of a foot less than him. “You bastard! I'm leaving you and if you try to stop me I'll fucking kill you!”
His hands struck out and were on her throat. He actually lifted her from the ground just by her neck. She grasped at his arms and clawed at his face. Her feet kicked wildly but never hit their target. He was choking her to death.
I didn't think about what I should do or not do, I reacted. Fate lunged for me but missed. I caught myself before I fell over the log that appeared in front of me. I ducked a branch and then another one, somehow untouchable now that I was desperate. I leapt on his back before he even knew I was there, and with a knowledge I'd never had in my human life, sprang into action. I broke the man's neck with a hard yank to the side.
He fell to the ground almost instantly and I fell on top of him.
The wind kicked up and loud claps of thunder boomed in the near distance.
Fate was at my side almost instantly pulling me off the guy but it was too late. I'd heard his neck snap and he wasn't moving. Nothing to be done now.
He knelt down next to me until his face was an inch from mine. “What the hell did you do?”
I looked down at the guy and then back at Fate. “I think I just gave him what was coming to him before he could screw that poor woman up any worse.”
I motioned to the woman I'd saved. She was staring right at us, eyes huge. Uh oh, she was certainly seeing us now.
“How? You shouldn't have been able to.” He was now looking right at the woman too, even though he was talking to me.
The woman was on her knees, still gasping air back into her lungs. Her eyes never left us.
“Who are you?” she managed to finally say with a raw vo
ice, the marks on her neck already angry looking. “Are you angels?”
I wondered what type of religion this woman believed in that murder seemed like a saintly act. The guy had been such a bastard, I wasn't sure I should fault her logic.
Her eyes darted back to Fate. But if she thought he looked like an angel, she really had a screw loose.
“No, we aren't,” I said.
“Watch what you say to her,” he said quietly under his breath. “Unless you want her to end up dead after all your handy work.”
“What's happening?” the woman said, looking from me to Fate.
I saw the minute he had determined the new way forward out of this. From his initial reaction, I knew I'd thrown a pretty big wrench into the plan so it wasn't a bad rebound time, all considering. It was better than mine anyway since I had no idea what to do now. My ideas had never gotten past taking out the big brute.
He turned to the woman. “Janet, you aren't going to tell anyone we were here. I know that's what you are planning to do right now. I also know the police will never find any evidence of us and you will land in jail.”
Fate had a strong presence by nature, but concentrated and in control as he was right now, I couldn't take my eyes from him. He was potent. I didn't want to admit it, but he lived up to every ounce of what you would expect someone in charge of people's fate would be.
“Do you understand me?”
When I didn't hear a response, I forced myself to look at Janet who was nodding.
“You will tell them that he was strangling you when he accidentally tripped.”
His presence was flawless but his logic was off. I cleared my throat to get his attention before I said, “That'll never fly in court.”
“I'm cleaning up your mess. You did your part, let me handle it now.” I held my hands up in surrender and let him continue.
He squatted down next to her. “Repeat that back to me.”
She repeated it back to him verbatim. When she finished, he nodded.
“That is going to keep you out of jail. Do you understand?”
She nodded again and he seemed satisfied.
“One last thing. He's got money hidden. I don't know where, but it's there. You'll find it if you look. It's enough to keep you and the kids going.”
Again, just a nod.
“You're going to be okay.” He gently cupped her cheek, as he said it. Then he stood up and grabbed my arm like he was an uncouth animal, yanking me after him into the woods as rain started to pour down on us out of nowhere. The forest was lit with flashes of lightning.
What was that all about? Why could he be so sweet with her?
“I can't believe you did that.” He wasn't screaming but he was beyond mad.
“I'm not sorry.” And I wasn't, not even a little. Murdering the guy didn't even seem to bother me this time. Maybe it would later? Could I just be in shock? Nah, it didn't feel like that this time. Much less traumatic the second time around. I guess you really did get over it.
I'd had clients tell me that but I'd never believed them. I also never thought I'd have the opportunity to find out either. Life's full of those learning moments.
I think my words pissed off Fate even more because his grip tightened and no matter how quick I walked, he seemed to up his pace just enough to have to pull me along.
“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 instinctively 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? He 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 glittered 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.
Chapter Twelve
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.
Karma (Karma Series) Page 9
