Taste of Karma (Sinner's Keepers #2) - Heather Long Page 0,1
hell? Warm, familiar arms threaded around my waist and tugged me backwards against a hard chest as a chin tucked against my shoulder. The sizzle and crackle of masculine amusement licked over me.
“Someone was a bad boy,” Váli murmured, the dark delight in his voice beckoning me to join in with the fun.
“What did I miss?” I settled against him and dropped my arms to rest over his. We worked together often, and in fact, of all the Keepers I encountered regularly, Váli was the most like me.
We got along well. It was part of why I considered him, albeit briefly, for Dahlia. He took such fierce joy in his work. She might have been able to appreciate it and he would have loved a soul that would have let him wreak havoc on all those who’d wronged her.
Even those three idiot brothers.
Still, it worked out better ultimately. Dahlia was happy. Judgment had his brothers back. Zhan wasn’t drowning his sorrows. Tarus was still a dick, but really, what else did I expect?
“He went drinking with Cipher and Bish,” Váli explained, laughter eddying in his voice. I grimaced at the mention of the Sin and Death Keepers. Ugh. They’d been thick as thieves lately. I hadn’t missed their little confabs. That, and Cipher was always in the damn bar these days.
Didn’t he know I preferred my Sinner’s without the original damn Sin?
Hattie was still whaling on Sunny, and while he fumbled to catch her wrists, he wasn’t hitting her back. If anything, he was laughing.
“He has a death wish,” I muttered. Still, nothing about either of them triggered the itch in the back of my head, so I could afford to just enjoy the entertainment.
“Probably,” Váli said, then nipped my ear. I slapped his hand and pulled away. For a split second, his arms tightened like he wouldn’t let me go, but then they went slack and I stepped out of them. His dark green eyes glittered in the half-light, and the sharp cut of his squared jaw offered the promise of not only his stubbornness but also his ferocity.
The Nordic good looks were just part of the package. A smirk twisted his full lips. Clean-shaven, he’d shorn his longer hair a year earlier in a fit of pique he’d refused to explain. “I like the black,” he said, catching a lock of my hair and twirling it around his finger. “What happened to the blonde?”
“I was bored.”
What? It wasn’t a lie.
Threading my arm through his, he led me to the bar. “Drink?”
“Oh yeah,” I said, then stole a look over to where Hattie and Sunny were now grinding on each other as he damn near swallowed her mouth. “Guess trouble in paradise is over.”
My companion said nothing for a moment. The faint unfocused look to his eyes told me he wasn’t all with me. Hot-headed and impatient on the best of days, he wasn’t ignoring me on purpose. I left him to it as I took over getting us to the bar. Quetta lifted her chin at me when I held up two fingers. Excess always brought me the best, and she gave my companion a narrow-eyed, almost flinty look.
Yeah, not touching that one. Whatever he’d done to get on her bad side? He was on his own. I liked my drinks just the way they were.
“What are you doing here, hun? I didn’t expect to see you again this week. Isn’t operation hideout underway yet?” Quetta cocked an eyebrow as she pulled a glass from under the bar, her attention now solely on me as if the Nordic Keeper didn’t exist.
“In what dimension do you think I would ever be hiding out?” Didn’t she know who I was? Karma hid from no bitch.
“Come on, Karmen. Anytime you’ve been in the bar lately when Cipher is here, I’ve had the sudden urge to climb in the stock fridge and wait until the danger has passed. And, girl, as the Keeper of Excess, it’s hard for anything to penetrate my zero fucks given demeanor. Don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about.” She raised her brows and pursed her lips to the side like she didn’t even need me to answer.
“Yeah, well. Why does Cipher have to be here so damn much?”
Quetta rolled with laughter like I wasn’t serious. I was. I’d been coming here for decades, and that devil of a man had been here less than five times. Why every damn night all of a sudden?