Page 64 of My Instant Karma

I’m about to leave when a book falls off the shelf.

Picking it up, I read the title,The Karmic Cycle of Death. Opening the cover, I see a handwritten note.

T,

Knowledge is power.

— M.C.

Madam Carmen.

I don’t see anything else calling, so I need to vacate my illegal break-in. I wipe my prints off the door handle and shut the door with my sleeve.

Tossing the book into my oversized bag, I rev the engine and make my way back to the barracks.

My phone chirps.

Evan: We went out for a couple of jobs. Take as much time as you need to recoup today.

Convenient, but hopefully, not too convenient to be a trap.

When I arrive at the estate, the guys are gone. I place a tracker on Evan’s car since they took Dante’s SUV.

My oversized handbag conceals my purchases and my newly stolen book as I race up the stairs and crash into Chara. Great.

“Whoa!” She stumbles back and glares at me. “What the hell?”

“Sorry. I have to pee.”

Her eyes narrow. “No, you don’t. What’s up with you?”

“So your power is a bladder lie detector?” As soon as I say it, I know it’s true, at least the lie detector part.

It would have been nice if the guys gave me a heads-up on her powers, but if they are all in on conning me, then it makes sense that they didn’t.

“Yeah.” Chara crosses her arms. “So why were you in such a hurry?”

“I don’t want to see my team.” Not a lie.

“I thought you were all chummy. What gives?”

“I had a rough night, and if I don’t want to talk to them about it, then I really don’t want to talk to you about it.”

Chara softens her stance and confesses, “Sorry I laid into you on your first day here. It’s just… I don’t like the guys, and we have to haze the newbies. It’s part of the initiation.”

“I get it. Whatever.” I shrug. “It’s a shitty job.”

“You definitely have to have the stomach for it, but there are worse jobs.”

I don’t trust this newfound camaraderie, but I will take advantage of it. “Hey, speaking of which…” I see my chance to steer the conversation where I want it to go. “Is it true you met a death agent?”

“Yeah. We fought over a target,” Chara says, happy to share her juicy story.

“What?” My eyes bug out. “Who won?”

“He did, obviously,” Chara grumbles, a bit irritated by losing. “They are the bigger guns, aren’t they?”

I frown, thinking it over. “But how did you both have the same target?”

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