License to Kill

by R. J. Blain

  We hadn’t lived together long before things had fallen apart, but I’d learned from his hotel habits that he appreciated the scent of green tea, as it didn’t bother his sensitive nose.

  That got him moving, and he joined me to check the tester bottles. Like me, he went on a rampage. “Obviously, I’m going to have to bring you here every few months and cruelly abandon you for the day so I can hide my personal shopping activities.”

  The woman at the counter giggled. “We offer spa services for men as well.”

  “You’re coming next time, Jake.”

  “And it seems I will be enjoying a day at the spa with my wife in a few months.” Jake carried his bounty to the counter. “If she missed anything in that scent of hers, please add it to the pile.”

  The woman smiled, checked over my selections, and gave a nod, going to the back and returning a few minutes later with a set of four bottles. “We’re in the middle of restocking, and the shampoo and conditioner are new in this scent. We also have the green tea in shampoo and conditioner.”

  “He wants them,” I told her.

  “Apparently, I need new shampoo and conditioner, please.”

  Several hundred dollars later, and with enough bags we needed Amelia and Mellisa’s help to carry them all, we escaped from the spa and returned to our room.

  I waited for the ax to fall, and once inside, I stared at Mellisa and waited for the verdict.

  “Why are you staring at me like that, Karma?”

  “I’m a mess, and I’m waiting for you to confirm this.”

  She shook her head, rolled her eyes, and headed for the fireplace, adding wood and kindling before lighting it. “You are physically a mess, yes. That will be corrected with time. Are you psychologically a mess? I will evaluate that in about two months, after I have a chance to do proper therapy treatments with both you and Jake. Amelia is on hand as my assistant for this, and she’s also here to be a stabilizing influence for you both. She is also here to monitor your scents.”

  Amelia tilted her head to the side. “She just came fresh out of the spa, and I can smell him on her from here—and he reeks of female fox. It’s underneath the perfume, but that’s only because the perfume is fresh.”

  That caught my attention. “Say what?”

  “You stink of male wolf.” Amelia made a show of pinching her nose closed. “I don’t want to know what scandalous things he’s been doing with you, but something has changed on the smell front.”

  “That is not what his father told me yesterday,” Mellisa replied.

  Both women stared at me before giving Jake their full attention, and I giggled at the open suspicion in their expressions.

  I took over tending the fire, leered at Jake, and said, “Pervert.”

  Jake sighed. “Really, Karma? Why am I getting tossed under the bus here?”

  “I am innocent of all wrongdoing. All I did was be a good little fox. You told me so repeatedly. I’m a good little fox.”

  “You are a good little fox,” he replied.

  “I am very confused,” Mellisa announced. “Amelia?”

  “Obviously, she was a good little fox, and he appropriately rewarded her for being a good little fox. If she’s much more of a good little fox, she’ll end up being a pregnant little fox, and she’s about twenty pounds underweight for that right now. Karma, has anyone taught you how to make sure your wolf is fertile in case you wish to become a pregnant little fox?”

  I blinked. “I mean, I knew it wasn’t precisely easy for Fenerec to have children, but I was unaware of a fertility problem.”

  Amelia chuckled. “It’s not a fertility problem. View it as evolutionary population control. If you want to have children, you’ll have to instigate having children. You basically have to bite him repeatedly, and you have to do so in such a way he begins producing fertile sperm. It’s a process that takes about eight hours.” She sniffed at Jake. “He is not currently fertile, so you obviously haven’t been using your teeth excessively.”

  As I had no interest in embarrassing myself further, I did not tell her I hadn’t used my teeth on him at all. However, I regarded her with interest. “I have to bite him if we, at any point in the future, want kids?”

  She pointed at a spot on Jake’s throat. “There, and you’ll want to use light nips. Bite him too hard, and you won’t get the result you want. We’re taught fairly early on as it’s much easier to prevent the males from becoming fertile when we know what we’re doing. Couples can figure it out on their own, but it’s pretty rough on the male, as he has to be encouraged to show off his stamina.”

  “For eight hours?” I blurted.

  “If a male wolf wants to become a father, he has to show his mate a really good time.” Amelia smirked, and she explored the room, trotting up the stairs for a look around before returning. “I see yours is pulling out all the stops. Nice place. How long do you have it for?”

  “Tonight and tomorrow night,” Jake replied. “I think she’ll have been fed enough by then to go a meal without dropping off right away. Once she’s fed, it’s game over. She goes right to sleep and stays that way for at least five hours. I got her some books she should like while I was out, so my current plan is to just relax in the room, read books, and do whatever she wants until it’s time to check out. She wants to find out about her birth parents.”

  “That’s on our list already,” Mellisa said, and she sat on the floor in front of the fire. “Are you up for making some plans, Karma?”

  I took my seat, wrapped in the blanket, and stifled a yawn before nodding. “He’s okay with getting his hands dirty. I already asked. Are you?”

  “I was born ready. I’ve already gotten the talk from Amelia, and my role is going to be a little tamer than yours, but I’m ready and able to be an accomplice however much is needed. My primary job is to provide therapy. You need it, he needs it, and to a certain degree, Amelia needs it, too.”

  “Apparently, killing even bad guys for a living can be psychologically damaging, so I get to undergo some base therapy. Also, being a lone wolf is psychologically damaging.”

  “I can bring you both into the pack,” Jake said. “I will ask my father first, but if he’s smart, he won’t complain about it.”

  “He won’t,” Mellisa promised. “I will correct him should he attempt to complain. And should he complain, I will tell you how to extract yourself from the pack bonds. Amelia can help me, and it’s possible Karma might be able to as well. I do not anticipate that being an issue. Your father is very receptive, and he will view it as necessary for preserving your status in the pack. As I am a bitch, I have made a recommendation of a psychologist to work with your mother. Your father has already agreed. By the time we return to Baltimore, I think you will find the pack to be far more pleasant and stable for you. I have taken a few steps you may not appreciate, however.”

  Jake scowled and sat in his chair while Amelia claimed the floor near my feet.

  The woman sniffed me. “That scent is pretty damned nice. I’m going to have to go get some for me, too.”

  “Better go before I buy out the rest,” I teased.

  She bounced to her feet, grabbed the keys from the stand near the door, and grabbed her wallet. “I’ll be back in ten minutes.”

  “Bring hot chocolate, please. Karma is a bottomless pit when it comes to hot chocolate,” Jake said.

  “You got it.” Amelia closed the door behind her.

  “That was weird,” I said, staring at the door. “Why didn’t she just buy some while we were there?”

  Mellisa shrugged. “She’s adapting to having people around. I’ve been working with her for a few weeks already, as she did not readily adapt to pack life. She’s afraid of being part of a pack while having a Fenerec’s base desire to be part of a pack. That she gets along so well with you is part of the reason she’s here, and since you’ve obviously been working to cement your mating bond, she’ll be able to cope. She probably just wanted a few minutes to be alone
. She’s having a hard enough time getting used to me being around all of the time. It does change part of our plan, as it means we’re going to need three RVs for this.”

  “One for us, one for you, one for her?” I guessed.

  “And campgrounds with space for three RVs.” Mellisa heaved a sigh. “I tried her in a house for a week. It was too much space for her to cope with. She’s been living in confined spaces for so long she is really uncomfortable in more open rooms. She’s fine outdoors, but larger rooms really bother her.”

  “Huh. I’m not the only one with problems?”

  “Frankly, I’m the only one here without problems,” my psychologist replied.

  I glanced at Jake.

  “She’s not wrong, Karma. She’s probably the only emotionally sound individual here, including Amelia. That’s why she’s here, so she can change that number from one to four. We’re just going to end up going about it in an unconventional fashion. Don’t worry about it.”

  Okay. I could try not to worry about it. “We’re a mess, Dr. Sampson.”

  “I know. If I need to adjust your husband’s attitude, I can help you with that, too.”

  “I don’t mind the current adjustments, although I’m not sure I should be this lazy.”

  “Be lazy. There’ll be plenty of time for physical therapy later. Right now, you need to add a few pounds. Once you’ve gained weight, then you’ll have to worry about that. For now, I’m going to work with Amelia to determine what our first course of action is, we’re going to go truck and RV shopping so we can work around Amelia’s current comfort zones, and we’ll take it a day at time.”

  “Okay. And if we decide to get our hands dirty? Are you okay with that?”

  “Okay with it?” Mellisa snickered. “Oh, Karma. I’m one of the masterminds of this show. I’ve been working on this mess since London. It’s part of the reason I was assigned to your case. I’m a part of the Inquisition, and while I usually don’t get to work in the field, they’re willing to make an exception this time. The Inquisition doesn’t understand why Karma has been targeted by this group so much, and they want us to find out. This goes far beyond an agent getting in the way of a kidnapping. If that was the motivation, you would have been targeted, too, Jake. But you weren’t. They didn’t care if they hit you, but you were never the goal.”

  “They wanted Karma, but she’s a smaller target. The rounds that hit me were them missing her.”

  “Collateral damage. They would have been happy enough to kill you, but Karma either saw something important or there’s something we’re just missing. My job is to help you three figure that out—and get you through this emotionally intact. Or as emotionally intact as possible. Some wounds only time can heal, and right now, we don’t have the luxury of time.”

  I could understand that. “So, where do we begin?”

  “We start with digging up old secrets. Who are you, Karma? Who are you really? What did you see? What do you know? We’re going to have to go back to the very beginning, from your birth, to find out what we’re missing. No stone will be left unturned.”

  “Then I guess we begin with my birth certificate. My real one. The black market ops have a copy.” I glanced at Jake. “Is it going to bother you when I tell you I’m not actually American?”

  “No.” Jake huffed, shook his head, and got out of his seat. “I’ll go make you some hot chocolate. As long as you’re not related to me, I don’t care what your ethnicity is, Karma.”

  “There is no chance we’re related. According to my original birth certificate, my name is Karma Dawa, and I was born in a remote region of Tibet.”

  Coming to a halt, Jake turned to face me. “Repeat that?”

  “According to my original birth certificate, my name is Karma Dawa, and I was born in a remote region of Tibet.”

  “Tibet as in the place located deep in the Himalayans, as in the home of Mount Everest, with many people from there following Buddhism? That Tibet?”

  “That Tibet.”

  “And they named you Karma? As in one of the primary principles of their religion and culture?”

  Jake, apparently, knew more about my homeland than I did. “Possibly?”

  “Your ability to pun me just increased tenfold, and this disturbs me. What does Dawa mean?”

  “Moon, apparently. Or so I was told.”

  Jake looked me over. “I see you were aptly named. I like it. Okay. So, you’re Tibetan. You don’t look Tibetan to me, but truth be told, I wouldn’t be able to tell if someone was Tibetan even if my life depended on it. Is being so pale normal for Tibetans?”

  “I have no idea, but I don’t think so,” I admitted. “Maybe my parents got rid of me because my skin color is wrong?” I regarded my pale arm with interest. “I am about the same color of the moon some nights.”

  “I’m not sure what Karma being Tibetan might have to do with terrorists, but if you think there’s a link, we’ll look into it, Mellisa.”

  “It’s less that I think there’s a direct link between her ethnicity and the terrorists, but that her species is more a factor in their desire to kill her than anything else. Not all people give their children up for adoption because they’re unwanted. Some give them up to hide them somewhere safe. What if it’s not that she witnessed anything at all, but like the others in the case, she is the child of someone this group wants to manipulate and control? That’s the only guess I have that makes sense. And it fits their methods of operations. They’ve taken—and killed—many children in their quest to gain power. Or knowledge. What if Karma fits that bill, and her involvement with the Greenwich case exposed her heritage?”

  I frowned. “But if I’m Tibetan, what would that have to do with anything? Especially with the US government?”

  Mellisa shrugged. “Unless they’re after more than one government. Tibet is a part of China, so perhaps your parents are influential somehow in China? Or Tibet. I don’t know about the socio-political culture of China or Tibet. But we know people in the United States and the UK have been targeted by this group. China is not a far step. China is a global superpower, so it would make sense. So, that is our first step. Why you? And the only way we’re going to find out is if we go digging through your past.”

  I’d told Jake I’d wanted closure, and if it meant I had to go back to the days of my birth to accomplish that, I was game. “So, we go digging. I want to bring these assholes down, Mellisa.”

  “As do I. And when we do, we’ll leave nothing but the ash of their ambitions in our wake.”

  Dear readers,

  I hope you enjoyed the latest installment of Karma’s tale. Originally, this was supposed to be a duet. The book said otherwise. At 85,000 words, the story is not even halfway where I wanted the storyline for License to Kill to be.

  That’s on me. Sorry.

  As such, everything got thrown out of whack. Some changes were made. Some things remained the same.

  Old Secrets is the next novel in the Balancing the Scales series, and in an effort to actually finish this in a reasonable time, it’s getting worked on as a side project starting in February.

  At roughly the 80,000 mark into Old Secrets, I will evaluate where I’m at in my originally planned series, at which point I’ll decide if there will be a 4th novel or if Old Secrets actually finishes what I set out to do with Karma’s story.

  All that said, 2021 will bring a lot of change for me, including a significantly reduced schedule. Will I still release books often? Yes.

  Will I release a book every month? No. It’s simply not sustainable for me or my staff. In January 2021, I’m taking a week off to simply breathe. After that, I will begin working on the books slated for release in 2021. Here is the definitive schedule:

  Catnapped: a Magical Romantic Comedy (with a body count) releases on May 11, 2021.

  Client from Hell: A Magically Hellish Comedy (with a body count) releases on July 27, 2021.

  Booked for Kidnapping: Vigilante Magical Librarians Bo
ok 2 releases on September 7, 2021.

  Up in Smoke: The Fox Witch Book 2 releases on November 2, 2021.

  Whatever else I finish will be set up for a brief preorder cycle (for background reasons meant to preserve my sanity and allow for a streamlined release) as they are completed.

  You can expect four guaranteed novels a year moving forward, with “surprise! it’s a novel!” titles being released as I finish them.

  I realize this will disappoint some of you, but I can’t maintain the 15+ hour a day, 6+ days a week schedule I have been under for months. It’s not healthy, and it’s not sane.

  So, I’m fixing that so I can keep writing.

  Thank you so much for reading, thank you for your support, and I hope you had a good time weathering the storm with Karma and Jake.

  Things get better from here.

  ~R.J.

  About R.J. Blain

  Want to hear from the author when a new book releases? You can sign up at her website (thesneakykittycritic.com). Please note this newsletter is operated by the Furred & Frond Management. Expect to be sassed by a cat. (With guest features of other animals, including dogs.)

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  A complete list of books written by RJ and her various pen names is available at https://books2read.com/rl/The-Fantasy-Worlds-of-RJ-Blain.

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  RJ Blain suffers from a Moleskine journal obsession, a pen fixation, and a terrible tendency to pun without warning.

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  When she isn't playing pretend, she likes to think she's a cartographer and a sumi-e painter.

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  In her spare time, she daydreams about being a spy. Should that fail, her contingency plan involves tying her best of enemies to spinning wheels and quoting James Bond villains until she is satisfied.