JINXED: (Karma Series, Book Two) Read Online Free

who was a couple of bodies over, turned her head in our direction.
    “Hey!” Kitty said, clearly alarmed and only hearing the tail end of the sentence when I’d raised my voice.
    “Sorry, Kitty. I didn’t mean that literally. No one is beating a cat.”
    With Kitty seemingly appeased, I turned back to Fate and concentrated on keeping my voice lower. “You want me to be up front with you? I don’t want to have this conversation because we’ve already had it. Weeks ago. What I said then still stands.”
    I’d told him I wasn’t going to work with him and I didn’t see why it would be a good plan now. I didn’t care if there were more bad guys out there like Suit, the thug I had killed. Unless forced, I wanted nothing to do with the situation. Back in another life, I used to tell my clients that if they wanted to live a clean life, they needed to stop walking around in mud piles. It was time to follow my own advice.
    I tried to infuse my voice with a confidence that left no room for argument. “ Nothing has changed.”
    His head bent until his forehead was almost touching mine. “Exactly my point as well. Nothing has changed,” he hissed.
    Our whispered conversation was disturbed by Cupid yelling outside the door. “Hey! Can you let me in? I’ll be good. I promise!”
    We all froze as eyes shifted from one to another, trying to determine who would be our spokesperson. The least likely candidate took the bait.
    “No!” Bernie yelled back. The small statured leprechaun had a disproportionately deep voice but a bluntness and lack of tact that was exactly what you’d expect when you saw his permanent grimace.
    “But I just want to visit.” Cupid’s voice sounded childlike.
    Eyebrows rose across the room like a Mexican wave going around a baseball stadium; we all were at a loss for what to do. His entreaty tugged at my emotions, as well as everyone else’s, but I had to remind myself that he played dirty.
    “He won’t leave. Someone is going to have to go out there,” Crow said. “ Someone is going to have to sacrifice themselves and take one for the team.”
    “Literally,” Luck said, as she buffed her red nails against her low cut blouse.
    “I say we send you out.” Bernie was looking directly at Luck. “You’ll sleep with anyone. No harm done.”
    “I will not!” Her hand shot to smooth down bed head hair.
    “Even now you stink of cologne, and you’ve got a hicky on your neck.”
    Luck threw some of her dark hair in front of her shoulder. “No, I don’t.”
    “Yes, you do!” Bernie, quite a bit shorter than Luck—even standing on the table—started to wave his arms at her, trying to shove her hair out of the way. She pushed him away and that set off another round of shoving throughout the room.
    Harold tried to jump over Death, who was between him and his desk. “My papers! You’re scrunching my papers!”
    This shoved Kitty toward the Tooth Fairy. One of her cats, which had been sitting on her shoulders, screeched and lunged toward the Tooth Fairy, who started shrieking.
    “People!” Murphy held up his hands and shouted over everyone, interrupting the squabble. “I will do this. I will go out there.”
    All movement ceased and every pair of eyes in the room swung to Murphy.
    “No, Murphy, you can’t!” Luck started into action and clung to his arm as if he were about to throw himself into Mount Vesuvius.
    “Don’t fret, my dear Luck. I’ll be okay.” His chin held high, he was playing the stoic hero to perfection.
    “Murphy,” she cried.
    It was very hard not to mock this overly dramatic demonstration, but I held back. It wasn’t from kindness, though. If Murphy was willing to fall on his sword—quite literally—I certainly didn’t want to draw attention to myself. I was still recouping from the damage the last curse had created.
    Maybe if that hadn’t happened, I wouldn’t be so acutely aware of Fate on every fundamental level.
    Banging started on the other side of