Dead Ink: A Karma World Romance (Karma Series Book 4) Read Free Page A

Although her appearance made a little more sense if she’d gone through it by herself out there.
    “Transitioning?” she asked.
    “From mortal to what you are now, one of us.”
    “One of you?” she asked.
    She looked like she really had no clue. “Don’t change the subject. If he recruited you, why’d you leave?”
    “I couldn’t stay there with him. He was doing…” She started shaking her head as if she wanted to mentally rid herself of whatever she’d seen.
    “What? He was doing what?”
    “He had people, and he was doing horrible things to them. There was nothing I could do for them.”
    Her face told him everything he needed. Torture. Nothing surprising there. He’d get more information on that later but let it drop for now. She was a scattered mess as it was. He could get the details after he got the more important information. “How did you get away?”
    She looked surprised at the question. “I just left. I guess he figured I wouldn’t.”
    He leaned a hand on the counter beside him. “So, you’re telling me you just walked out ?”
    “Yes.”
    He turned and took a couple of steps away from her as he digested the whole story. It was so unbelievable that it almost became plausible again. If Malokin had coached her, given her a story to tell him, this one was idiotic or brilliant, because he had no idea what to think anymore.
    But he knew she was scared. He could smell it on her, hear it in the fluttering of her rapid heartbeat. At least that part was something he could be confident of. You can’t fake scared. Pheromones didn’t lie. Still, the idea of Malokin going to the bother of recruiting someone and then simply letting them have enough freedom to get up and walk out that easily made his suspicions rise up and stay there.
    “Go over there and sit.” He pointed to the free chair he used when he tattooed. She hesitated. He had to give it to her; she had some guts.
    He barked out, “Sit,” again, but with a bit more force, and it got her moving. He was scaring her more but a certain amount of fear would be beneficial to his cause now that he had some answers. He’d get cooperation easier.
    She sat in the chair he’d told her to but was pretty sure it was because he’d shocked her into action. He barked out, “Don’t move,” in a deeper tone. The last thing he felt like doing today was chasing her through the parking lot.
    He dug out his cell phone from his pocket as he kept an eye on her. He walked to the farthest part of the room he could and still keep her in his line of vision. He dialed Fate, the reason he was knee deep involved in any of this shit to begin with.
    “Here,” Fate said as he answered the phone.
    “I got an unexpected visitor you will be interested in meeting,” Lars said and then continued on to tell him everything he’d found out so far. “I need you and the guys to get over here and figure out what to do with her, because this is not going to be my problem. I want this mess out of my shop by tonight.”
     

Chapter Three
     
     
    Faith was still sitting in the chair he’d pointed to an hour ago, her heels perched on the edge of the seat and her knees up against her chest, arms wrapped tight around them. She looked scared.
    Only someone with a death wish wouldn’t be nervous in this situation. He knew what they were capable of, while she could only guess. Worse, they were all standing across the room, eyeing her up as if she were the main attraction in a circus sideshow, and she looked like she was expecting the knife throw to start soon.
    They might look like trouble but these four guys were solid. He’d been through thick and thin with them. Most of them had defected out of the agency that ran the Universe within a short time of each other. Fate was the only one still working for the agency, doing exactly what his name implied, helping to shift people’s fates. He was going along with the program but it was more of a ploy to keep an ear out and use