Fated: Karma Series, Book Three by Donna Augustine

me.
    I nodded like I resented his watchful nature. I didn’t. I wasn’t sure why I acted as if I did. Maybe it was because to admit that I liked him worrying about me meant that I wanted him to care. That then reminded me that he didn’t care, at least not the way I wanted him to. Ta-da, it was better to not think of it at all. I was actually mad at myself for letting this train of thought take over in the first place. I was acting like a soft human again. Damn, it was hard to break that habit.
    Tugging my purse higher on my shoulder, I pointed over to a convenience store that had somehow managed to stay in operation and not be looted. Only about thirty percent of businesses could boast such a thing. That percentage was dropping rapidly and on a daily basis. Soon it would be down below ten percent, the same rate as a new restaurant surviving its first year.
    “You want a soda or something?” I yelled back to him, an afterthought as those southern manners I was still fighting reared their pretty little head like a game of Whack-A-Mole.
    “ Something .”
    I could see his smile in the reflection of the rearview mirror.
    Shaking my head, I pretended that I didn’t like the overtures. I was getting really good at all this pretending crap.
    I walked away and headed toward the store.
     
     
     

Chapter Nine
     
    The place was in relatively good shape, and I relished in the fact that I could still pick something off the shelf and not have to scavenge off the floor. It was a small perk but I’d always liked to think I was a smell the roses type, or as with this case, stop and taste the Ho Hos.
    The large tattooed guy behind the register, with piercings from ear to nostril, watched me hesitantly as if I’d try and kick his ass at any moment. Even though he was twice my size, and assumed I was human, so many were carrying weapons at this point that no one was totally safe. I understood.
    I gave him a smile and a wave, trying to put him at ease. He nodded and went back to flipping through last month’s issue of People magazine. I continued to peruse the offerings, unoffended.
    I grabbed a pack of Twizzlers off the shelf and looked at the sticker. “Ten dollars? Are you people crazy?”
    His left shoulder angled up toward his ear. “Supply and demand.”
    “Oh, well thank you so much, Mr. Harvard Economics. You ever hear of ethics or price gauging in those classes?”
    “Hey, no one’s forcing you to buy them.” He looked back down at his magazine.
    I tossed the Twizzlers back on the shelf and moved on, not sure if I was going to be purchasing anything but not ready to go back to the love bug yet.
    I forced myself to move on to the next overpriced package of empty calories as the Twizzlers continued to taunt me in my peripheral vision.
    The door squeaked open as my internal clock told me it was three minutes past my unspoken allowed time frame when Fate would start getting edgy. I couldn’t leave though, not while I had a raging debate going on in my head over whether two Ho Hos were worth twelve dollars. Those Twizzlers were looking like a bargain but I couldn’t get them now, not with Mr. Economics ringing me out and my prior statements. But I really wanted that damn twisted red licorice. Maybe I could make Fate buy them. I’d have my candy and my pride.
    “Mr. Healthy, you want some brownies?” I asked when a tall body cast a shadow on my package.
    I suddenly knew it wasn’t Fate. It didn’t smell like him and even though whoever was hulking behind me wasn’t touching me, it didn’t feel like him either. Fate caused a certain sizzle in my senses when he came close.
    It was probably some idiotic human drinking whatever crazy juice Malokin was handing out. I should handle him before I eat my snack. Didn’t want to fight on a full stomach.
    “No, that isn’t what I was looking for.” The voice was deep, and monotone. I couldn’t explain why, but I’d guarantee the guy who owned it had less IQ points than