Fated: Karma Series, Book Three (16 page)

He stopped in the middle of the aisle. “Don’t go there again,” he said, ignoring my question.

I stopped with him, wanting to hash this out as well. Better in the middle of a bunch of crazies in the grocery store than the bunch of crazies at the house.

I stiffened my spine and prepared for battle. “I have no desire to go there again. But you need to know—I’m not going because
I
don’t want to. Not because you told me not to.”

“Fine.” He shrugged and started walking again, as if the subject were no big deal and it hadn’t been a huge fight last night.

“Fine?”

“Yes.”

“Because you’re still getting your way?”

“Yes.”

“Only this time and because it’s what I want.”

“We’ll see.” He picked up a can of black olives. “Do you like Puttanesca?”

“So, how are you linked to them?”

He stuffed the can of olives into the duffle bag on his shoulder along with another one. “I think that’s what I’m going to make tonight.”

“Why do I even try?” I asked, looking upward, more to myself than him.

“Good question,” Fate answered anyway.

“Where have the guys been, by the way? What was the emergency last night?” I asked, seeing if I could get him to crack somewhere else.

He stiffened just the tiniest bit, and if I hadn’t been staring at his back like a lovesick teenager I would’ve completely missed the slip.

“Minor incident with some humans. Not a big deal.”

He was lying and I was going to grill him over it as soon as I got past my shock. Why, after all this time, was I able to read him when I never could before? I’d always been able to read people but never Fate. Unless it wasn’t me. Maybe it was such a whopper that even he slipped a little?

“What happened exactly?”

“Nothing major.”

Oh yeah, this was a biggie. Picking up my pace, I dodged in front of him, out past the end of the aisle. I wanted to make sure I could see his lying face when I hit him with my next question.

“Shit,” I said, instead of my planned inquisition.

I yanked on Fate’s arm and tugged him deeper, back into the aisle with me.

“What?”

“The guy I saved on the yacht, the one we couldn’t find for my bucket list? The one Malokin had already gotten? He’s here.” I motioned to the right of where we were.

Fate eased forward slightly and then ducked back. “And he’s leaving.”

My response was immediate. “Let’s go.”

“Agreed.”

With everything going on, I’d forgotten that there was one bright point. My bucket list was back on, and this time I wouldn’t hesitate.

We’d managed to track the guy ten blocks. The entire time I wondered why Malokin didn’t supply cars to all of his people. Not that I cared about their convenience; it was just that destruction was hard enough to look at when you were whizzing by at sixty miles per hour. At walking pace, it was too much to take in. Broken windows, burned buildings, looting—I was watching my home town fall apart piece by piece, my childhood memories slowly being torn down.

There was also the issue of other foot traffic. We’d gotten into it with a gang on the walk over when we’d had to duck into an alley. Watching Fate kick the shit out of five guys at the same time didn’t help my crush one little iota. I felt myself slacking off just to see him in action.

He’d given me a look after the fight that had me making excuses about not sleeping well last night and contradicting my earlier story of a great night. This crush I had on him was really screwing up my credibility. Fortunately, he hadn’t had enough time to dwell on my lack of performance, since we’d had to catch up to our target.

We followed the guy to a run down building, with no signs or markers that claimed the place other than a for rent sign that looked like it had been hanging there with no takers for quite some time. It looked like it might have been a strip mall at some point but had lost its purpose during an economic downturn because it was too far off the beaten path to sustain itself in anything less than a booming economy. The steady flow of humans walking in and out was probably the most foot traffic it had seen in years, possibly ever.

We got as close as we could without anyone seeing us before having to duck behind a partially broken brick wall. From there I watched the craziest and most degenerate of our current population enter and exit. “What is this?”

He pointed to the flow of people leaving. “They’re all armed. See the way some of them are testing the weight of their guns? It’s because they just got them. This place was empty a couple of days ago. Malokin must be setting up pop-up armories.”

“I guess we know where everyone is getting their guns these days.” Almost all of the people leaving were brandishing smaller arms. I was thankful that at least they weren’t arming them with automatic rifles and the heavy stuff, like we had.

“This doesn’t make sense. Why not keep the guns?” I answered my own question before Fate did. “Unless you want complete anarchy. You want the world to hit a point of no return, or at least be so far gone that you have such a steep climb back it could take decades. A world of such chaos and disorder it would be easy to step into the gap if you have even a modicum of planning and resources. He wants to be a dictator.”

“Some of the most horrific dictators rose to power amidst chaos.”

I surveyed the building again, taking in all the possible access points. “We’ve got to give it a try. We might not get a better chance. Even if we don’t find any information on Malokin, worst case, we take out some of his people. It certainly isn’t going to
hurt
our cause.”

Not often are Fate and I on the exact same page with things but when we both turned and looked at each other, in that moment we were utterly in sync. I could see the muscles tensing already and bloodlust in his eyes.

His hand lay on top of where mine was over my gun, holstered at my side. “Before we do this, just know it could amp up this fight. The official truce might be over, but neither of us has pulled the trigger since the condo burning down. I killed his people. He retaliated. We do this, we might be inviting direct open warfare.”

“Open warfare is coming whether we do this or not. It’s simply a choice of whether we wait for it to come to us or we meet it head on.” Even as I said the words, I knew he was probably more aware of it than I was. His statement had been for my benefit. My next words were for his. “I’m going into this with eyes wide open. I get it.”

“This was one of those things I was hoping you’d miss,” he said, looking straight ahead at the building.

It was another one of those honest moments that seemed to be sneaking up more and more often, and the effect wasn’t lessening per exposure.

“You ready to do this?” he asked, snapping out of whatever glimpse I’d just seen.

I nodded my head and tightened my ponytail.

“We get as close as we can without being seen. Anything iffy, we leave. If we can take a shot, we do. Agreed?”

I grabbed my gun from its holster and gripped it. “Sounds good to me.”

“If something goes badly, the other one gets out.”

Now I paused. “We just leave the other person there, knowing Malokin’s propensity for torture? You want me to agree to possibly leaving you in a pool of your own blood?”

“Yes.” His face was set.

There was only one answer that would do to get this show on the road.

“Fine.” I shrugged as I lied. I’d never be able to leave him for dead. The idea was as abhorrent to me as dying myself. Maybe more so and that was scarier than the building of gun toting crazy humans.

I tested the weight of my gun, knowing he wouldn’t really leave me either. He’d already had the opportunity and hadn’t.

I peered back over the wall, eyeing up our best chance to get close enough to do damage.

Fate edged closer and said, “Our only shot is approaching from the back of the building where no one seems to be going. The trees will give us some cover.”

“Agreed.”

Crouching down under the cover of the wall we headed off, taking several minutes to wind our way around to the back of the building without anyone catching sight of us. We made it to the tree line and then right up against the stucco side of the building where we could peer in the back windows unobstructed.

The room was packed with people. They appeared to be forming a huge line, all waiting to get arsenal from a made up concession stand where handguns were being passed out like hotdogs and peanuts at a ballgame.

He tilted his head toward the inside. “Do you recognize any of them?”

I looked back through the dirty window, happy for the layer of grime shielding us somewhat and the overcast day helping out. There were five nonhumans in there. It was easy to spot them among the others, who all had karma in varying shades of dingy to almost black. Two of Malokin’s men were at the table and the other three were closer to the door, monitoring the traffic in and out. I scanned each face “I only recognize the one. Do you think we can get all five?”

Fate took my place at the window as I moved to the side again, my back against the wall.

He pulled back. “I’m not sure. The humans toting guns aren’t going to want their party crashed or their free goodies taken away. They’ll probably join the fight.”

“We have to shut this down,” I said.

“We might be better off letting it run its course, then seeing if Malokin’s guys lead us back to where he’s holed up.”

“What if they don’t go back to Malokin for weeks? Meanwhile, all these new guns are hitting the street and we did nothing? I’m tired of doing nothing.”

“It’s not the smart move.”

“I can’t let this go on, not knowing if one of those crazy people is going to take one of those guns and shoot someone I know later on today.”

I held my breath, wondering if I was going to have to do this alone, until I saw his eyes shoot to the gun in my hand. “How much practice have you had lately?”

The air slowly leaked out of my lungs. “I’m decent. Not as good as I am with knives but I can hit what I’m aiming for.”

“Do you think you could take two of them out while I take the other three?”

I smiled. “Depends on how quick the second one moves after I shoot the first. I’m game if you are.”

“It’s cold blood,” he said, reminding me of my past shortcomings.

“Watching them pass out guns like that to a crazy horde that’s going to rip apart the only place I’ve called home? Trust me, there’s nothing chilly about my blood right now.” It was the exact opposite. I was gripping the gun hard in order to mask the anger shaking in my hands.

He motioned for me to look through the window with him and then signaled to the left. “I’ll take those three. You take the two on the right.”

My yacht guy was in his three. “No, I need to take out the guy we followed.”

“Bucket list.” He nodded.

“Bucket list,” I confirmed.

“Going to make it a little trickier, spread out like that, but I respect the list. Take the three and I’ll try and pick up your slack.”

“You respect the list?” My voiced hitched progressively higher until I didn’t recognize it by the last word.

His eyes scanned mine before they squinted and he scowled. “Now you’re going to get all soft on me?”

“No! I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said brushing off the fact that him respecting my bucket list felt like the first time a boy had handed me a stuffed animal at a carnival.

He took one look at me and sighed aloud. “I save you from gang rape? No big deal. I tell you I respect your sicko murder list and you turn into a puddle of mush?”

“You can mock the list all you want now. I know you respect it.” I squinted back at him.

“Just get ready. You aim left. I aim right. We’re about to hit a hive with a stick. Take your best shot. Once they spot us, we run like hell before all those guns turn on us.”

“I ever tell you I like your style?”

“Actually, yes, you have.”

“I have?”

“Think really hard.”

Oh God, it must have slipped out one of the times we’d had sex because the guy did know how to move.

“There are two cracks in the glass. You take the lower, I’ll take the upper. We go on the count of three.”

I moved into position and leveled my gun at the guy on my bucket list. “Count away.”

Three came quickly. I pulled the trigger and the first name on my bucket list could officially be marked off. Everything after that was a blur. I took the next shot and clipped the second guy in the leg. After that, a clear shot become impossible. The inside of the building looked exactly like Fate had warned, a swarm buzzing around chaotically.

We started receiving return fire at a rapid rate and I ducked just as a bullet shattered the rest of the glass. Just as I squatted down, the ache in my tattoo, which had been leaving me alone recently, decided to rear its head and stick out its teeth. The pain sucked the air from my chest and the strength from my legs.

“Fun’s over. Time to go,” Fate said, not looking at me but at the ensuing chaos. He reached over and grabbed my hand, tugging me after him.

Instead of following, I stumbled.

“Are you hit?” His eyes were scanning me quickly.

“No. Just a cramp or something.”

He pulled me to my feet and tossed me over his shoulder, taking off with me in tow. The humans didn’t put up much of a chase. Even with my weight, Fate was too quick for them anyway. Plus, they’d already got their free guns.

We were several blocks away when the pain finally started to subside.

“I’m good,” I said, breathless and still recouping from the pain and bouncy ride.

“What the hell happened to you?” he said once we slowed down.

“I got a cramp,” I said defensively.

He bent toward me and his face scrunched up. “You got a
cramp
?” he asked in disbelief.

“Yes. Sometimes the tattoo cramps.” I knew I was underselling the situation but I didn’t know how else to describe it. It was a cramp, and I didn’t want to blow it out of proportion.

His expression was already changing from annoyance to something I didn’t want to deal with. I’d known the mention of the pain originating near the tattoo was going to give it a different meaning.

“Let me see it.” He pointed toward my hip and stepped closer, forcing me to back up. He was following me, an intent look on his face.

“Why? You want me to light up the alley like the Fourth of July?”

“I want to see it.”

“Fine. Look.” I tugged down the side of my pants and pulled back the bandaging. “See? No freakier than normal,” I said as I pressed the tape back, hoping it had enough sticky left in it to hold.

“Lars is going to look at it.”

I nodded. Lars did the tattoo but I had a sinking feeling he wasn’t going to be able to fix what was going wrong.

I hopped around on my feet a bit, trying to infuse my appearance with good health and excitement, only partially faked. “How many did we get back there?”

“We got them all,” he said, and I could see my excitement chipping away at his doubts over my tattoo.

“All? What about the guy I clipped in the leg?”

“He was an easy shot, limping as he was.”

Now I really was jumping around the alley and Fate was openly smiling at my enthusiasm. “I wish I could see Malokin’s face when he finds out we got five of his people! And my bucket list officially has a check!”

I was almost skipping as we started to walk back to where we’d left our car at the market. “Five of Malokin’s men down. Four for you and one for me. Maybe three and a half from you. I did make that one guy easier. I think I deserve partial credit on him.”