Dead Ink: A Karma World Romance (Karma Series Book 4) (19 page)

Something was very wrong. The biggest clue was that Faith couldn’t move, or much anyway. Her wrists were bound and pulled over her head, tied painfully tight with the roughest rope she’d ever felt. The last thing she remembered was getting a cup of tea in the kitchen at Cutty’s and then falling to the ground. It must have been the window. Cutty had left the one in the kitchen partially open. They might not have been able to cross the threshold but they must have shot her with something through that window and dragged her out somehow.

She kept her eyes closed, faking sleep while she tried to take in the sounds and scents of her surroundings. There was a damp chill in the air and the slight scent of mold. She must be in a basement of some sort.

Footsteps circled her and a vaguely familiar scent filled the air. She knew who had her and it was a worst-case scenario.

“I know you’re awake,” Keith said softly, sounding like he was less than an inch from her ear. His fingers trailed down her cheek and she pulled her face back as she opened her eyes, but his hand followed her movement.

She took in her surroundings. She was hanging from a large pipe in the ceiling. She wondered how strong it really was. Could she yank it down? She’d try the moment she was alone—if he left her alone.

Her gaze turned to him. She needed to remain calm and shield her feelings. “Why are you doing this to me? I thought you cared for me?” she asked, trying to keep her voice soft.

“I wanted to be nice to you,” he said calmly, giving her some hope. Then his face contorted with anger. “But you ran from me. I’m the one that found you. You’re mine. Not his. You’re mine or you’re nothing.” He grabbed a hank of hair and pulled it roughly back until her neck was strained. “Do you hear me?”

“Yes.” She had to stay calm.

“But he didn’t want you the way I do, did he? Is that why you were back at that other one’s house?”

“I made a mistake. I shouldn’t have left you.”

His grip on her hair loosened and then released.

“I was scared. That was why I did it.”
And you’re a homicidal maniac.

He walked around her, touching her waist and then his hand drifted up the side of her ribs all while she tried to hide her disgust. He wasn’t going to untie her if he thought she’d bolt from him again.

“When I saw you walking down the street that day, I knew I had to have you. You were so bright and beautiful. You were the purest soul I’d ever seen, so filled with joy and hope. The exact opposite of me.” His voice was wistful as he spoke. “Then when I met you in person, you were everything I thought you’d be. I would have been happy with you…for a while, anyway. Until I slowly drained everything you were. Then we’d be one in the same. Even Malokin wanted to see it happen. See someone so pure become tainted, see if it would work. Take the exact opposite of what I was and corrupt it. But I would’ve kept you, even after you were depleted, if only as a lesson to others. Or an example of how fleeting something like faith can be.”

Keith stopped directly in front of her, almost nose to nose. He grabbed her face with his hand. “Where is it?”

“Where’s what?”

“The mark he put on you.”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

He stepped back and his hand slammed across her face in a blow that would’ve sent her to her knees if she hadn’t been hanging there. Her teeth gnashed into her cheek and she tasted blood.

“Where is it, Faith?” he asked again in a patient tone, contradicting his actions.

She knew he meant the tattoo. The one thing that kept her cut off from him. She didn’t answer even though it was futile. He’d find it easy enough.

“You either tell me or I strip you bare to find it.”

She didn’t answer—couldn’t bring herself to tell him when she feared what he would do. His hand grabbed a fistful of fabric from the front of the dress she was wearing and wrenched it forward. The fabric tore easily, leaving her in only her bra from the waist up, but gathered at the small belt at her waist.

He scanned her skin as he walked around her. She felt his hand on her back where the tattoo was. “I’m going to get a knife and cut this off of you.”

She felt sick.

“Keith!” A second voice emanating from the single doorway in the corner spoke. It was Malokin. “We need to leave. You can play with her later.”

Keith let out a string of curses but then he walked out, leaving her hanging there.

Lars leaned against the table in Cupid’s office. “Fate, I don’t like that we haven’t seen him approach yet. He should’ve tripped off some of the wards I did yesterday.”

“I know,” Fate said, pacing in front of him. Fate always leaned. Pacing wasn’t a good sign.

“I think you should go drag Karma out of that office downstairs and we all get the hell out of here,” Lars said, feeling uneasy.

Then Lars heard someone in the distance. It wasn’t a human’s footsteps either.

“Malokin is here, isn’t he?” Fate asked, guessing Lars had picked up on something.

“Yes.” Lars dropped his head, cursing himself when he heard even more sets of footsteps, way more than they’d anticipated.

“He’s got a lot of company.”

Fate cursed and then they both made their way to the door, signaling to the other guys to prepare.

Malokin was here and he hadn’t come alone, as agreed. That had been the deal. He’d meet Karma alone. It was a bit hypocritical to insult Malokin since they were waiting to spring their own trap. They’d expected him not to honor the agreement to show up alone but they’d miscalculated the numbers.

“We gotta go now,” Lars said to the guys.

“Why?” Bic asked. “I thought we were going to wait until we were sure he made it into the office where we could trap him?”

“He’s not alone.” There were a few worried looks but no one appeared to be surprised.

The guys at his back, Lars swung the door open and walked right into the ambush. No one hesitated because every moment mattered. They had to get downstairs to Karma immediately, and he wasn’t letting Keith walk out of here alive.

There had to be thirty of them squeezed into that hallway, but no one looked like Keith. He’d never seen him in person but he’d know him immediately. He’d watched surveillance footage of him, outside his shop, from when he’d shown up for Faith enough times to have his face burned into memory.

Malokin’s men came at them in droves while he wondered where Keith could be. He threw a punch right to one guy’s throat, taking him out instantly, to duck before a knife sliced at his arm.

He was taking blows and swings but luckily no one was shooting. No one would’ve been able to get a clear shot anyway, between the fighting and movement.

Malokin had probably anticipated catching them unawares, sitting in the office. They might have thwarted his plan somewhat but Lars was more than aware Karma was still on her own downstairs.

“I gotta get down there,” Fate said from where he fought beside Lars, shoulder to shoulder.

Lars looked down both ends of the hallway, seeing the line of guys waiting to get at them through the bottleneck.

“Fate, get the guys and duck into the office.”

“Are you insane?” Fate asked, in between taking a blow to his midsection and then giving the guy back twice what he’d just dished out.

“It’s the only way.”

“There’s too many.”

“I got this. Just get the hell out of my way so I don’t need to be concerned with it spreading too far,” Lars said, hoping Malokin’s men wouldn’t know what was coming. There was a reason he’d been the number one threat on Malokin’s list. “But do it quick.”

“Bic, Angus, Cutty, you hearing this?” Fate asked.

“Yeah. We hear you,” Cutty replied.

“On my count,” Fate said.

Decision made, Lars took in a long breath as he heard Fate count down. Filling his lungs to over capacity and letting his talents loose, death itself seeped into the air he’d taken in, infusing into it the way only so few had ever been able to do.

He fended off the blows coming his way as he tried to cover the guys’ retreat. The second the door closed, giving them some barrier, he let the air out of his lungs.

One after another, the men in the hallway grasped their throats and fell to the ground. With one end of the hallway clear, the guys burst back through the door and down to help Karma while he finished off the rest of the men who were scrambling to escape. He followed them down the hall and into the stairwell, all the way out into the parking lot before he turned back around to find the guys and his true target.

Lars walked into the office to find desks overturned and blood spattered everywhere. There were bodies on the floor and Bic, Angus and Cutty were walking around the place, making sure there were no threats left.

“What happened? Where’s Fate and Karma?” Lars asked as he started looking at the bodies on the ground, looking for Keith.

Cutty grabbed a pack of tissues that had fallen to the floor to try and wipe some of the blood from his hands. “We don’t know. There were more guys when we got down here. It was chaotic. We were fighting, and by time we stopped, they were gone.”

“What about in there?” Lars asked, moving toward an interior office nested within the larger one, frustrated he wasn’t finding Keith among the dead.

“Nothing but a pool of blood,” Cutty answered, following closely.

Lars walked into the smaller room and knelt by the blood. He took a long breath but couldn’t get any read off it besides that it wasn’t human.

He stood and looked around at the destruction. He didn’t know if they were dead or alive. He’d feared something bad was coming and here it was.

“Malokin is gone,” Cutty said, standing beside him.

“For good?”

Cutty nodded. “Positive. It’s coming through like Mike Tyson himself punched me in the gut.”

“Nothing on Fate and Karma?”

Cutty shook his head.

Lars walked back out into the exterior office again, looking for a body he might have missed. “Keith isn’t here.” Lars let out a curse but knew there were more pressing issues. “Someone should go by Fate’s house.”

“We will,” Bic said, from where he was standing beside Angus, and then left.

“I’m going to go see if I can get a trace on his phone,” Lars said to Cutty.

Cutty grabbed his arm before he could walk out. “Hang on. I want to call Faith.”

Lars took out his phone to do it instead, fear gripping him, but Cutty stopped him.

“She might not answer for you,” Cutty said.

Lars gripped his phone tightly and then forced himself to put it away.

Cutty, with phone already in hand, dialed her number. Lars could hear her voicemail kick in.

Cutty dropped the phone from his ear and looked at Lars. “She’s not answering and I’ve got a very bad feeling.”

Faith was just where Keith had left her when he walked back into the basement. The pipe had been much stronger than it looked. She hadn’t screamed at first, afraid of drawing some of the gangs that roamed the streets. Then she’d let loose, deciding she’d rather take her chances with them. It hadn’t mattered. No one had shown up, for good or bad.

He walked over to her face her, stopping about two feet in front of her. “Malokin is gone,” he said.

Even in her current situation, she felt some relief.

“You shouldn’t be happy. It means I’m probably going to die. It’s just me against them now, and I’m not stupid. They’ll get me eventually. But I’m not letting you live without me,” Keith said, and she watched as he moved about the basement. “Malokin’s gone, and he’s taken my future with him.”

“That’s not true. You can still have a life.” She tried to keep her voice calm and not rail at him, or call him the lunatic she believed him to be, especially as she saw him walk over to a pile of discarded debris and pull a length of chain from it. “With him gone, maybe you could take charge?” she asked, grasping.

He walked back over to her slowly and then behind her and out of view. “You idiot, it’s over. I just told you that. Things are going back to normal now. Take over what? I’m in charge of crap!”

“But why kill me? I’ve never done anything to you?”

“Because you will never be his. If I die, so do you. And when your boyfriend gets here, I want to see the pained expression in his eyes as I kill you.”

“He’s not my boyfriend. He won’t care what you do to me.”

She heard the length of chain rattle before it struck. A stinging pain ripped across her back, making her feel like the flesh was being torn from her body. An involuntary scream ripped from her chest. Her sore wrists, and the ache in her shoulders, now felt like a tickle in comparison.

“Keith, think about what you are doing. I can talk to them. I’ll convince them to leave you alone, they will.” It was flimsy but she was desperate. She tried to keep her voice as steady as she could, even as her body shook from the shock of what was happening to her.

“You’re a liar. They’ll kill me no matter what you say. Don’t lie to me!” His voice became frenzied as an even harder blow struck her back. “And I’m going to take every ounce of hope from you before I die.”

After the first several blows, just the sound of the clinking chain made her cringe, waiting for the next one. She might not be human anymore but the pain still felt horribly the same.

And then she realized, after everything she’d been through, this might be her final end.

***

When they’d reached Cutty’s house, it had been empty. A broken kitchen window and puddle of spilled tea left an ominous trail to nowhere.

They’d made a list of every known location they had linked to Malokin. Each place they entered, Lars lost a little more hope that they’d find Faith in one piece. 

When he walked into the fifteenth place on their list, and still there was no sign of Faith, he was ready to tear down every building on the entire East Coast if he had to.

Cutty walked up beside him. “We’ll find her.”

“I kicked her out. It’s my fault.”

“I don’t—”

“We both know it.”

“I think you need to take a break, just for a couple of hours.”

“No. You can, if you want, but I’m not stopping until I find her.”

“I’m not going anywhere.”

It was five A.M. when he stepped into the cellar of the hotel Malokin had used on one of his very first times in South Carolina. The moment they stepped into the building he could smell her scent. They searched the small hotel, which was only about eight floors, and he almost gave up hope until they stepped into the basement.

She was strung up, hanging from a beam above her head. Her dress was torn as she stood on her tiptoes, with only a bra covering her from the waist up. There were marks all over her body, bruises and welts crisscrossed over each other as if there wasn’t enough surface for the damage doled out.

She hung so still he thought she was dead at first, but then he heard a thready heartbeat. If she’d been alone, he would’ve had her in his arms in seconds, but she wasn’t. Keith was there. He was standing alarmingly close to where Faith was hanging, a knife in his hand.

“Look,” Keith jabbed at Faith’s back with his hand and she winced. Her head, which had been hanging down, pulled up slightly, looking as if it had taken every last ounce of energy she had to accomplish that small movement.

Her eyes met his and he could see the pain shadowed in them. A rage grew within him, the likes of which he’d never experienced.

“He’s finally made it in time for the finale! Isn’t that nice of him?” Keith said, a psychotic laugh echoing through the basement. He closed the several inches between him and Faith until he was standing right behind her, his knife raised to her throat. “Are you ready for the show, Lars? Should we do it quickly or drag it out a bit longer, for entertainment value?”

Keith would do it. Lars could see the crazed look in his eyes. He didn’t doubt him for a second.

“Do you have any sport to offer yourself? Maybe something to keep her alive a while longer?” Keith asked. “Perhaps you’re willing to gouge out one of your eyes to save her some pain?”

“Keith, you’re wrong. I told you he doesn’t care for me,” Faith said, the pain she was feeling leaking into her voice.

Lars couldn’t tell if she believed what she’d just said or if it were for Keith’s sake.

“You’re lying,” Keith said.

“He kicked me out. Didn’t you?” she asked Lars.

Lars nodded slightly, the guilt flooding him as he did. But he couldn't let this be the end. He swallowed back his emotions. He needed to get her out of here.

He visually measured the distances. He could kill Keith where he stood this very instant; but being so close to Faith, she’d die with him. But if he could get Keith even a couple of feet farther away, it might work.

“Do it,” Faith said, looking directly at Lars, as if she had read his mind.

“Shut up. Don’t speak,” Keith said, pressing the knife more firmly to her until a trickle of blood ran down her throat.

“Do it,” she repeated, not caring.

Lars looked at her, bloody and battered but still so strong.

“Cutty? You need to leave,” Lars said.

“Again?” Cutty asked.

“Yes.” He heard Cutty step out of the room while Keith gloated, having no idea what was going to happen.

“Take me, too,” Lars said to Keith as he raised his hands above his head, trying to lure him closer.

He moved a little closer, hands still raised, and acted like he was going to get to his knees. Keith let a few inches of space grow between Faith and himself. For the second time in one day, Lars let death seep into his breath.

Keith took another slight step away from Faith, and it was going to be barely enough clearance, but he could do it. Lars was in range and started blowing a stream of air toward Keith, avoiding Faith as much as possible.

Keith’s hand immediately went to his throat and he fell to the ground under a second later.

“Hold your breath,” Lars quickly said to Faith.

The emotions that had been rushing at Lars surged to the surface. He grabbed the discarded knife and cut through the ties holding her up as he grabbed her, lifting her off her feet. He got her out of the basement as quickly as possible so she wouldn’t take in anymore of the poison he’d released.

Cutty was waiting for him just outside the building, having had the forethought to grab a comforter from one of the hotel beds. He quickly helped Lars wrap it around her unconscious body.

“Is she okay?” Cutty asked as he looked at her limp form in his arms.

“She didn’t get much of it. I think it was the pain of the injuries that knocked her out,” Lars said. “Let’s get her back to your place.”

“My place?” Cutty asked surprised.

“Yes,” he said. “You said it yourself that she didn’t want to speak to me before. How do you think she’ll feel about me now?”

Cutty tried to disagree with him but Lars ignored him as he got in the passenger seat of Cutty’s car. Lars didn’t blame Faith for the disgust she’d feel for him after all of this. He held her close, trying to forget that this was going to be the last time he’d feel her in his arms.

***

“Is she okay?” Lars asked from where he sat on Cutty’s couch.

Cutty poured himself a drink and then joined him in the living room. “She’s roughed up pretty bad but she’ll be fine. I woke her up long enough to get some painkillers in her and she went right out again.” Cutty sighed and leaned back. “It’s not your fault. Not what happened to Faith, or Fate and Karma. Wherever they are, whatever happened, it was their choice.”

Lars rested his forehead in his hands before they raked through his hair. “Any sense on where they are?”

There were a lot of bloodstains in the office downstairs but none of them had actually seen what had gone down. Fate, Karma and Malokin had been in the smaller interior office.

“That I don’t know.” Cutty took a swig of whiskey. “It’s not your fault. And, Lars?” He waited until Lars looked up at him. “It’s not her fault, either.”

“I agree. It isn’t her fault.” But he did have a healthy dose of the blame. If she had been at his place, this never would’ve happened. But at least they were gone now, Keith and Malokin.

Lars stood, feeling that old haunting emptiness fill him again.

“Where you going?” Cutty asked.

“Back to my place.”

Cutty shook his head but let him go.