Fated: Karma Series, Book Three by Donna Augustine Page B

a fight was coming. This wasn’t bluffing and showmanship.
    Eddie reached out with his club-like hand and grabbed my arm, yanking me to him. Immediately I knew something was off. I felt like a rag doll. The guy was freakishly strong, even for one of us.
    One hand wrapped around my back as the other groped my breast. “Nice and full, just how I like them.”
    “Wow, what a charmer you are. I’m even getting foreplay and dirty talk.” There went my mouth, taunting him when I should’ve been trying to calm him down, especially since I couldn’t budge him. I was torn between pure rage and full blown “I really stepped in it this time” panic. He shouldn’t have been that much stronger than me.
    No, I couldn’t get nervous. Panic was bad. So was rage. This wasn’t anything worse than I’d already dealt with. It was certainly less intrusive than a wiretap on my entire existence, like Malokin had done. Plus there was the truce. They wouldn’t kill me. They couldn’t.
    Remain calm and talk to him. “Listen to me. We have a deal with your boss. You can’t do this. It would be very bad for your newly burgeoning career. Don’t you want to be Mr. Second Bad in Charge someday?”
    He smiled. His teeth were perfect but that made him as appealing as getting bitten by a viper with gleaming scales.
    “You’re right. I can’t off you. No one said shit about having a little fun with you.” His eyes looked even smaller when he smiled like he was.
    I was shoved backward, the metal shelves of the rack pressing into my spine. His hand went from my breast to my hair, gripping it and pulling back on my scalp painfully as his mouth tried to close over mine. He didn’t want to have sex with me. He wanted to humiliate me and it looked like he had some experience at the job.
    I pushed and shoved but he still didn’t budge. What the hell was up with this guy that I couldn’t move him even slightly? Eddie the pickpocket had just shown his value for recruitment. It wasn’t that I’d grown weaker; he’d become much stronger.
    When his tongue shoved into my mouth, I bit down hard and then gagged on the taste of blood. He yanked back quickly, yelling out in pain.
    “Grab her arms,” Eddie said to his two companions.
    “You’re not grabbing anything,” I said, but Eddie still had a grip on me, and no matter how hard I punched or pulled, I couldn’t break it. Without being able to get clearance, both arms were grabbed and I was soon being turned and shoved face down over the ice cream fridge.
    I struggled, pulling at my arms and seeing what leverage I had. The two holding me down weren’t as strong as the dick I’d saved but they had an arm each and they weren’t holding back. It felt like both limbs had the entire weight of each man bearing down on them. I yanked at my arms again and again, refusing to give up easily.
    And where the hell was Fate? Was he taking a nap in the car?
    A thought hit me like a kick to the teeth. Maybe he would let this happen to maintain the truce and limit the damage. Maybe he was out there right now, watching everything happen but wasn’t going to get involved. The idea made me sick but he’d already said as much just the other night. I was in this alone.
    I never thought I’d be this vulnerable again. I was Karma, for fuck’s sake. How did this stuff keep happening? But there I was, stuck like an insect in sticky tape, and I’d been just as oblivious to the trap as the damn fly. Helpless, that was me. Again.
    It was strange how my mind went to the oddest thoughts as I was about to be raped, like the way I couldn’t stop surveying the ice cream in the case below me. I was going to be violated as I stared down at my favorite Toll House ice cream sandwich. Even if they didn’t kill me, I’d never be able to eat one again.
    The fact that I was even thinking about an ice cream sandwiches probably meant I was already mentally screwed up from this. Shouldn’t I be crying? Screaming? Was I