“You know, I think I’m going to leave as well.” He placed his glass on a nearby table and waited to see what direction I’d walk.
My car was parked across the street , but I couldn’t leave with him following me.
The shops across the street called to me like a beacon. I crossed, with him following behind me. Stopping in the center, I searched for the perfect place for his downfall.
He didn’t say anything, just smiled as if this didn’t bother him at all. His torture started with the sound of tinkling bells on the door and the perfume of melting wax. Let’s see how well he stood up to the candle shop. If that didn’t break him, it would be the Christmas store, next. He had no idea who he was up against. He’d be begging to leave me in a few hours.
Four hours later and I’d gone to every touristy shop there was. I stayed in each one until the shop owners eyed me suspiciously. I was about to cry mercy as I watched him. How the hell could he look so interested in a collie shaped key chain?
And more surprisingly, I hadn’t received a phone call. What had started out as a joke was quickly wearing down my nerves to nothing. They had to know Fate was with me, by now. Why weren’t they bombarding me with implied threats and other such nefarious outcomes? Did they think Kitty’s torture had finally put me under their control?
Had they succeeded? It was a repugnant idea, but there wasn’t any chance I’d tell Fate anything after the last time I’d seen her. It hadn’t even occurred to me. It was the first time since this began that I was seriously considering the possibility that they were controlling my thoughts. But I was making the just choices, wasn’t I? What decent person would risk their friend’s life?
When Fate put the Collie down and picked up a German shepherd, I’d already lost a sizeable amount of my control.
“I’m leaving, and without you.” Hands on hips, I dared him to say otherwise. “I thought we’d reached an agreement the other morning?”
He turned and surveyed me, still holding the shepherd and not anywhere near as agitated as I was. “I don’t remember that.” He turned back to the key chains. “What about the golden retriever?”
“I told you I was fine on my own and you accepted it.” I took a step toward him and then back again, not sure what to do at this point.
He put down the golden retriever keychain and gave me every ounce of his attention. I wasn’t the only one who seemed finished with the games. “I think you misunderstood what conclusion I came to. I’ve come to the point where I’ve accepted you aren’t going to be logical or make sane decisions. So, now it’s going to be like this.”
“Like this?” I was tense before I even heard his reply.
“Yes. Me, you, all day, every day.”
All the lightness was gone from his voice. He meant it. My eyes darted toward the door and back to him.
He was getting to me and I couldn’t handle pressure from another source. It was starting to cloud my judgment. No, he was bluffing. He couldn’t stay with me all the time, not with our positions.
“And what about when you have a job?” I asked and I couldn’t help but infuse the question with a little bit of an, aha, I’ve got you now attitude.
“I’ll take you with me.” He shrugged.
“And when I refuse? What are you going to do then?”
He smiled but it wasn’t warm; it was chilling. “I wouldn’t do that.”
He’d knocked me out twice, since I’d known him, and attempted it another time. He wouldn’t hurt me, but he had no qualms about playing dirty.
Shit. He had me and he knew it.
I walked over to the restroom with Fate following me. He came within a foot of the door before I stopped.
“Even in here?”
He stepped around me, surveyed the bathroom, and I guess not spotting any windows, deemed it safe enough.
Shaking my head, I went inside and dug out my phone.
“I need a favor,” I said in a hushed voice. “And you little jerks owe me after locking me in that stairwell. You ever want to see another bottle of scotch from me again, you’ll do this.” I gave the Jinxes the details and hung up.
Fate was leaning against the wall outside the restroom when I walked out.
“So, where to now?” he asked, as he followed me out of the last shop in the small outdoor mall. “I think there might be a stand over there, way back in the corner, we might have missed.”
I looked around the mall area and stopped in front of a couple windows I’d already looked at before. The Jinxes moved quickly. They’d only need five minutes, they’d said.
After ten had passed, I turned to Fate. “I’ve got some things to do at the office.”
“I’ll drive you.”
“I’m not leaving my car here. You can’t think I’m going to outrun your Porsche?” I didn’t give him a chance to argue as I walked toward the parking lot. His car sat not ten feet away, and I wondered how I hadn’t noticed that when I’d parked here earlier. “Follow me if you want, but I’m taking my car.”
I got into my Honda and turned the key in the ignition, letting the engine wheeze to life just for effect. It must have been enough, because he walked away and headed to his own car.
Not bothering to wait, I pulled out of the lot. Looking in the mirror, his car was still parked. His Porsche looked to have stalled.
Chapter 29
One Big Happy Family
My palms were sweating as I knocked on the suite door. After the canceled meeting with Luke, I’d figured we’d be meeting at an obscure location that had the benefit of no witnesses and no one to hear the screams. I couldn’t imagine why I was at another hotel suite, meeting with both Luke and Malokin.
I pushed my hair out of my face and shoved my shaking hands into my jeans pockets while I waited. The energy transferred to my feet and I had to consciously force myself not to pace.
What would they do to me? It would be easier on my nerves if I could go down fighting. It was the prospect of submitting to them, for Kitty’s sake, that pushed me over the edge. But I had the short stack, so I either went along or did something desperate. Desperation wasn’t a good place to operate from.
Luke opened the door and greeted me with the usual dose of underlying sadism in his eyes I’d become accustomed to. Without any words exchanged, he told me he’d like to nail me right where I stood. With him, sexual overtures never had anything to do with sex and everything to do with power.
He smiled, knowing I was rattled. He turned his back on me and walked into the suite, leaving me wondering just exactly what was to come. None of the possibilities seemed good, but I took a deep breath and followed him anyway.
I turned the corner and spotted Malokin. It was who I saw over his shoulder that made me freeze. Fate was sitting on the couch across from him.
What was he doing here? Was he the spy? Was that how Malokin knew everything? It felt like the floor was spinning, even though I was standing still. My first instinct was to lunge across the room and rip his heart out of his chest, but I couldn’t. As far as Malokin knew, coerced or not, I was cooperating.
Malokin stood and greeted me; Fate just stood.
It was a struggle to make my legs move, but I managed. No, he couldn’t be the traitor, could he? I’d slept with him.
“Karma, I think you already know Fate?” Malokin turned to him, a smile on his face. My lips formed one as well, even as I was planning to kill him if it were true.
Malokin was obviously pleased at having Fate here. Luke was smiling, but his looked more forced than even mine was. I could understand that. Fate could upstage anyone, and Luke wasn’t happy being second in command. Third must have seemed dismal.
“Please, have a seat, Karma.” Malokin waved me over to the couches to join the party. Luke followed behind me and was practically breathing down my neck as I went to sit on the loveseat. Before I could, Fate stood and wrapped an arm around my waist, to steer me toward the couch he’d been sitting on.