Dead Ink(Karma Series Book 4)(30)

She sat like that for the next two hours, not once looking over at him.  As one client left and another replaced them, she'd look up and offer a  friendly greeting but it was as if he weren't in the shop. She didn't  look when he dropped a tray of supplies on the ground or cursed his  client loudly. When he accidentally knocked into a large bottle that  crashed loudly, breaking into a million little bits, she finally turned  and said, "You need some help over there?"

"Yeah, thanks."

She walked over and swept up the little pieces while he grabbed the  larger chunks but still didn't look at him. Then she started humming.  She had to be faking this Cinderella act but if she was, she was damn  good at it. And the more she hummed, the more he wanted to growl.

Didn't she know how normal women acted? He had just snubbed her right  after they'd had sex. Why wasn't she throwing a fit like the rest of  them? Making him have to call in Cutty, his emergency backup for chicks  out of control? She'd pitched a bigger fit over him checking out her  phone messages.

She walked away after she'd helped him clean up his mess. She stashed  the broom back in the closet and settled down in front of the mound of  papers. She leaned on the table and all he could think of was the way  she was arching her back.

Her phone vibrated on the counter beside her and he watched her answer.

"Hi," she said then leaned her elbows on the counter as she listened.  "That sounds great. I'll see you later," she said and hung up a second  later.

It was one of the guys. He knew that.

"We're done," he said to his client. The guy looked at the rough sketched lines.

"We are?"

"What, are you deaf? That's what I just said." Lars stood up and walked  out of the shop, letting the door slam as he did, leaving the client to  his own devices.                       
       
           



       

He guessed she didn't care as much as he feared she would. That was a good thing. The fact that he cared so much wasn't.



***



Lars was over at Fate's, helping watch his place, which she'd been told  was a prime target at the moment. She knew this because it was one of  the handful of words they'd said to each other today before she'd left  with Cutty to go have dinner with the guys.

She had the feeling that his disappearance tonight had much more to do  with what had happened last night than Fate needing him there. She  wasn't sure what his problem was. She should be the one who was angry.

As it was, she had to force herself to stay present while she sat around the table with Cutty, Bic and Angus.

"I thought we were going to lose this food for sure after you moved in  with Lars," Angus said in between shoveling bites of lasagna into his  mouth.

"No, I like cooking for you guys." She toyed with her own plate of food, losing her normal enthusiasm for the dish she loved.

"Or just refuse to cook for us, considering," Angus rattled on.

Faith wouldn't have thought anything of that statement if she hadn't  seen a guilty look pass between Cutty and Bic for just a fraction of a  second.

"Considering what?" Faith asked. "Why would I all of a sudden stop cooking for you guys?"

Angus looked at Cutty and Bic, who shrugged in innocence, leaving Angus  to fend for himself. "Um, you know, just the little things."

"Like what?" she pressed.

"Well, I mean considering Lars and Fate still act like you might somehow be with Keith or working for Malokin."

"I know, Fate thinks I'm evil incarnate," she said, trying to laugh off the sting she felt.

Faith had no delusions about what Fate thought of her. She could see his  distrust every time she had the unlikely pleasure of running into him.  Malokin only had interest in the lowest of the low. If you had anything  to do with him, you were pure evil-except for Karma, who seemed to have  reached some exempt status when she fell into Fate's bed.

And she knew that Lars hadn't trusted her but the timeline was off. They  didn't know he'd just slept with her. He wouldn't have done that if he  thought so poorly of her. Would he?

Her mind ran back over her recent memories with him. She tried to think  of anything he'd done that might have seemed untrusting, but there was  nothing that came to mind, not since their lunch and silent truce.

She took a bite of lasagna and was just starting to feel better about  things until Angus spoke again. "When you think about it, it's only  natural that he'd want to hire someone to check out your past. No one  could blame him for that."

Cutty dipped his head down and Faith heard his audible sigh.

"Who hired someone?"

Angus cleared his throat like his lasagna wasn't going down so hot. "Um, Lars?"

She got out of her chair and dug out her phone on a hunch. She looked at  installed programs but didn't see anything but she knew it was there.

They all avoided her gaze when she turned back to them.

"You've got spyware on my phone, too, don't you?"

"You have to understand where it's coming from," Cutty said.

"I do." And she wasn't lying. But it still hurt like hell. And they  didn't know she'd just slept with Lars. The guy didn't trust her enough  to not track her phone and she'd just slept with him? It was  humiliating.

And right now, she was stuck with them-with him. She didn't have  anywhere else to go, and as much as she'd like to let her pride dictate  her actions, Keith was still out there.

She sat back down at the table but the mood had gone south like a plane  into the Bermuda triangle, not knowing for sure if they'd make it out in  one piece.

She forced a couple more bites down, trying to keep up appearances,  until she just couldn't do it another moment. "When you're done, can one  of you guys give me a lift back?"

Cutty stood right away. "I'll take you now."

She nodded and thanked him as he went and grabbed the keys.

"Faith … you know-" Angus said, shaking his head.

"Shut up, you moron, you already did enough damage. Who knows what stupid shit you'll say next," Bic said.

"I don't have a beef with you guys. I get it." And she didn't. If she  were them, she wouldn't trust her either. What did they have to go on?  But they hadn't slept with her.

She said goodbye to Bic and Angus as she followed Cutty out towards his car.

She rode back to Lars' with her head still reeling from the recent  revelation. How the hell could Lars sleep with her if he thought she was  such a horrible person? He was kissing her, putting his dick in her,  and the whole time he thought she was the scum of the Earth? Who could  do something like that?                       
       
           



       





Chapter 27





The breeze off the ocean cut up what would have otherwise been a hotter  than hell night in the South. Lars sat on Fate's deck, rifle in his lap  and a keen eye searching the distance for signs of trouble. He didn't  have to be here. He'd helped Fate ward his place well enough that  Malokin wouldn't be able to get close but it was an easy excuse to get  out of dinner tonight. Faith was there, and he needed some time to  himself to figure out what was going on in his head when it came to her.

The house was quiet but he could feel the energy of their unsettled life  forces inside. They called to him like a siren's song that only someone  who was intimately acquainted with death could hear. The humans he saw  were worse. Still covered in their shells, he could catch the occasional  scent of fear and confusion carried on the breeze when they passed too  closely to the house.

They couldn't understand why people were becoming angry and it  frightened them. It was a strange scent that was achingly familiar to  the smell that preluded death and made him tense for want of action. It  was useless to fight the urge so he let the waves of it flow over him  like a pain he couldn't stop.

It was that constant lure from unsettled souls that had finally pushed  him over the edge and made him try anything, including Larissa's  witchcraft, in order to quit. He'd thought that this urge would go away  when he finally did. It hadn't. Even his closest friends had no idea how  sometimes he longed to steal the spark that made people go on.

As he leaned back in his chair he noticed that it felt like the urges  might have lessened a tiny bit. Nothing significant enough to know for  sure, but it felt like the desire to take a soul wasn't quite as strong.

Lars heard Karma's footsteps from within and gave up on the idea of any peace.

Lars looked over at her, hoping she'd simply poke her head out on the  deck, wave, and leave him be. She came outside took the seat beside him  instead.

"How are you?" he asked, even though he didn't actually care at the moment.

His eyes scanned her, searching for some visible display of her messed  up psyche. He knew she was an emotional mess right now. He had to give  her props, though. She looked like she was holding it together, if a  little bit ragtag.