literal leigh 05.6 - karma inc

by Melanie James

  “That’s beautiful, Kelly. It’s exactly how I feel.”

  “How?”

  “Like our very souls were making love.”

  “Um...did I really say that out loud? Please don’t run away.” Mortified, I buried my face in his chest. “I promise I’m not an obsessed psycho.” My voice was muffled, but he understood.

  “No. I don’t think that at all. I’m glad you told me because I feel the same way.”

  “I feel like I should warn you, though. I’m not in the market for a relationship. So, please understand that I’m not plotting to get myself into one. I’m fine. I mean, of course if something develops as time goes on…”

  My head bounced up and down on Gabe’s chest as he laughed. I looked up at his face, and he seemed to understand my words were really nothing more than my brain thinking out loud as these new feelings attacked the force field I’d put up around my heart. He lifted his head so our lips met and he kissed me. Softly. He raked the fingers of one hand through my hair before caressing the back of my neck. Sitting up a little more, his other hand was now able to reach all the way down my back, over the back of my thigh.

  With just the right movements, which I can’t explain since I was so lost in that awesome kiss, he managed to coax my leg over him until I straddled him. I arched my back as his hands roamed every part of me he could reach, never once parting our lips. Gabe’s hands traveled to my hips, guiding me up, then back down. He had me right where he wanted me, and it was right where I wanted to be. Finally, our mouths broke free and I looked at his gorgeous face and smiling eyes. They were full of mischief. I could feel him under me. It was thick and large. He rocked his hips from side to side, rhythmically pushing up against me. He knew exactly where he was touching me with it, teasing me with his sexy grinding motion. Involuntarily, I shook my head a little from side to side, sweeping my hair over his face. “You’re something else. You know that?”

  My smile gave way to little gasps of complete bliss. “I know…what…you’re…doing…and it…feels…so…good,” I huffed as we both felt the tempo and heat between us rise. I had enough. I pulled my knees up along his sides, leaned back, taking control of the situation by carefully guiding him in. I love the way Gabe continued to caress me with his hands, maintaining that very intimate, caring bond, even as our morning lovemaking became intense and our bodies urgently raced to climax.

  I loved seeing the look on Gabe’s face and feeling his body shudder under me as he filled me. It was such a turn-on that I couldn’t control myself. Gabe watched my every move with a look of satisfaction. My rhythm became frenzied, my movements faster as I deliberately raised myself all the way up before coming back down with equal speed.

  Gabe pulled me down by the shoulders until our mouths met once again. His hands rushed through my hair and down my back. Our tongues danced together wildly in each other’s mouths. Without warning, my own urgency had reached the tipping point, and it surged like a powerful waterfall inside of me. The prolonged pleasure of my climax surprised me. It kept coming in waves. Gabe altered the position so he could deliver the final thrusts of his second climax and finally I collapsed on top of him. Neither of us could help it. We started to laugh, albeit laughs in between catching our breath, at how wildly hot we felt together.

  Curled on top of Gabe, our bodies still coupled, I began kissing him again. Gertie’s cheery voice caught me by surprise. Without a knock or any warning, the bedroom door flung open. “Hello! From the looks of the two of you, it’s a good thing I didn’t come in here a few minutes ago.” All I could do was raise my head to look at her. She laughed at us as she walked over to the bed, apparently unfazed by the fact that I was sprawled on top of Gabe, naked as the day I was born. She set a pair of shorts and a T-shirt on the bed. “I asked Randy for some clothes for you, Gabe. He said those clothes are really big on him so they might fit you. Come out to the kitchen whenever you are ready.” Gertie winked at me, gave me two thumbs up, and skipped out of the room.

  “If we intend to keep doing this at your place, we’ll need to make a do not disturb sign.”

  Chapter Thirty

  Another Interlude

  Kelly sat at the table. Her eyes were closed, her head rocked from side to side, and from the smile on her face, I could tell she was happily swimming through the emotional dream world with her werebear.

  “Marie, please snap her out of it. We’ve got to get to the point!”

  “Kelly, wake up.” Marie waved a small open jar under Kelly’s nose.

  “No! Let me get back to bed with Gabe. I was really enjoying that!”

  “In a minute, Kelly. While we all appreciate your attention to detail and the way you’ve told us about your sexual encounter with the werebear, it is my duty to inform you that you’ve incriminated yourself. According to our law, while a witch is free to enjoy gratifying sex with any paranormal creature of her choosing, it is expressly forbidden for any witch to have a romantic love interest with one of them.”

  “That’s only if I’m in love with a werebear. And that wasn’t the case.”

  Everyone, including Marie, let out a sigh. “Kelly, Kelly, Kelly. If only you could have heard the way you told us about Gabe.”

  “And saw the look on your face!” Added one of the council witches. “That was blatant love. No denying it.”

  “Whoever came up with a rule like that anyway? It’s asinine.”

  I shook my paw at Kelly. “Your case is precisely the type of case that is a good example of why we have that law. Look at it from our perspective. You’ve gotten yourself in way over your head. So far, it sounds like perhaps you and your friends were talked into a Faustian bargain with this imp named Barney. You let emotions get involved too easily when dealing with the demons.”

  “But…a werebear isn’t evil. Or conniving like an imp…or a demon,” Kelly pleaded.

  Gwendolyn interrupted Kelly. “And this Gisele woman? Perhaps Gisele is another demon you made a deal with? Maybe they put the werebear in your path to distract you. They knew if you fell in love—and love is a magical state of its own—you would blindly go about being their pawn, performing this Karma business. You just found out more dead bodies are stacking up on account of the black magic. But what do you care? You just stare into your lover’s eyes, you feel his hardness grinding into you, his hands caressing your breasts while he slid his big…hard…Goodness! When did it get so damned hot in here?” Gwendolyn panted, wiping beads of sweat from her forehead. “…and of all things, after hearing the gory news of two new dead bodies…you make love to the werebear some more! Madness I tell you.” She shook her long crooked finger at Kelly.

  Marie slammed her fist down on the table. “Hush! You old bag. You act like you’ve never been in lust before. And that’s all this is. Lust for a werebear. No charges can be brought on her for that. Now, let’s get moving. Anything else you want to ask her at this point?”

  I had many questions I knew would only be answered once Kelly went back into her trance and finished her tale. I wanted to know who Gisele really was and what her motive was to draw Karma, Inc. to Caldron Falls. I was curious about the ancient mill and the mysterious sounds coming from underneath. What about the strange people who owned the property? What did the ghost have to do with any of it? It was time to get the answers.

  “Kelly, one last time for you to go under the trance. I’m very curious and I’m wondering about so many things. Finish your story and tell us the rest.”

  “I’ll try. I think you’ll be surprised how everything fits together.”

  Marie and Kelly knew what to do and in a few minutes, Kelly was back in her Technicolor memory of that Sunday morning at the mill.

  Chapter Thirty One

  The Big Meeting

  Gabe threw on Randy’s baggy satin shorts and T-shirt.

  “Oh. My. God. Randy!” I covered my mouth. The shorts Gabe pulled on were dark purple, hideous, shiny things. The green T-shirt was printed with a huge image of
a bearded Winnie the Pooh, dressed in leather and chains. A slogan hung over the cartoon bear’s head. WHO’S YOUR BEAR?

  “What is it?”

  “Those clothes. That shirt! Why in the hell would Randy even have something like that?”

  Gabe looked down at the front of the shirt and promptly pulled it back off. “Why should I spoil his fun?” Gabe put the shirt back on and smiled. “We’ll see how funny he thinks it is.”

  Once I dressed, we joined everyone in the kitchen. Randy threw a pancake like a floppy Frisbee. It spun through the open dining area and was promptly snatched down by Barney’s pink elastic tongue.

  “What was that? Something just grabbed the pancake.”

  “Oh, not this shit again.” I smacked my hand against my forehead.

  Barney hopped up from his hiding place on the other side of the couch. “What’s the problem? There’s no ceiling fans in here.”

  “Again. What the hell is that?” Gabe pointed at Barney.

  “Gabe, meet Barney. He’s an asshole with legs. Technically, he’s an imp who was placed in a comical themed garden statue of a biker frog. But he lost his leather chaps due to a wayward fireball from my wand.”

  “Grab some food and join me down here,” Ezzy called out from the living room. She was busily writing on a large whiteboard propped up against the wall. “You like it? I zapped this up from the union office. Beats those old duty chalkboards we used to have. Come on, people, hurry up. We don’t have all day. The bodies are dropping faster than flies in this town.”

  I noticed someone else in the living room. I recognized the long, full head of loose curls of the young woman drinking a cup of coffee. “Morgan? Hi.” I didn’t need to ask why. She was wearing a pair of Ezzy’s pajama pants and a T-shirt. Ezzy gave me a little smile, and in return, I gave my coffee cup a lift and I winked.

  “Good morning, Kelly. Hi, Gabe.” She was staring at his shirt.

  “Hi.” Gabe pulled the bottom of the shirt out to show off the silly picture on it. “Randy’s clothes.”

  “Really? I had no idea you…you know.” Morgan looked surprised.

  “No.” Gabe laughed. “It’s not that! Not at all. I just needed to borrow some clothes.”

  Gertie snuck up behind me. “Isn’t it wonderful? Everyone is finding romance lately.” She let out a contented sigh. “I can’t wait to get home to Brad.” She lowered her voice. “And I bet Randy can’t wait to see Gary.”

  “Gary? Is that Randy’s man du jour?” I felt bad that I hadn’t heard about Randy finding someone he was actually serious about. Gary must be pretty flippin’ special if Randy’s been spending so much time with him. That alone is completely out of character for my brother.

  “I don’t think Gary’s last name is du jour, but Randy and Gary have been spending a lot of time together at the plantation.”

  “Cut the chit-chat.” Ezzy drew a circle with a red marker. “We have a mystery. It’s in our best interest to get all of the answers because it’s my opinion that Karma Inc., in fact, this entire coven is being set up to take the fall for a series of murders in Caldron Falls. At the center of our problem is one person. Gisele.” Ezzy wrote Gisele’s name in the circle. “We have the following people: Bella, Clyde, Sadie, Kurt, and Sherelle. They all have two things in common, they met untimely deaths and each of these people were targets of our Karma spells.”

  “What makes you think it was Gisele?” Randy asked.

  “None of our previous clients had victims that suffered fatally. Only the ones since Gisele approached us,” Ezzy answered. “Bella was Gisele’s personal victim. The other four were from clients selected by Gisele.”

  Gabe pointed at the board. “Bella died in the bookstore from being crushed. The others all died in the river. Beaten to death. Wouldn’t that clear Gisele? I mean, Bella was the only victim she named personally. Can we connect the others to Gisele? Otherwise, there wasn’t a motive for her to kill them.”

  “Good point.” I patted Gabe on the back.

  Morgan stood up and walked up to the board. “They all have something in common.” She reached her hand toward Ezzy’s marker. “May I?”

  “Be my guest.” Ezzy handed her the marker.

  Morgan wrote a name below all of the victims. “Jimmy Catania,” she said as she wrote it. “Bella was a reporter, too. I know for a fact she was planning on breaking a big story about Jimmy and some land development scheme he had up his sleeve. Clyde owed Jimmy a bunch of money for some other failed development scheme. Sadie knew about the breaking story Bella was working on, but didn’t know about Clyde’s debt to Jimmy until the day of the murders. Remember, Sadie managed to get the information and that’s what started the big fight between her and Clyde. In any case, they all had a connection to Jimmy.”

  Gabe rubbed his chin, thinking about what Morgan said. Then he added more information. “Yeah. I definitely think you’re on to something, Morgan. Kurt had a connection to Jimmy as well. The sawmill is right behind Jimmy’s cheese factory. I know I’ve had to write citations for illegal waste water running from the cheese factory into a creek on the sawmill property. Kurt obviously knew what kind of shady operation Jimmy was involved in. Who knows, he may have been getting a kickback from Jimmy to ignore it.”

  Barney hopped up to the board. “Yeah, until you busted him. Then he probably thought Kurt was the one who squealed on him, went behind his back. Got whacked for it, the secretary, too. She would have known about all that stuff because she worked in the office, screwing the boss, you know.”

  “Exactly what I was just thinking, Barney.” Ezzy rubbed his bald little head.

  “Just remember, I’m still your guy, Ezzy. I don’t mind sharing.” He patted Morgan on the ass before climbing up on Randy’s shoulders. “I’ll be tapping both of ‘em one day, boyo. You’ll see. Once I get into a good human form, I’m thinking of having Morgan dress up as a unicorn while I do her. Hey! You know what? I might even give it to your sister. While I’m at it, you might as well grab your ankles, too.” We were all laughing by that point. “Laugh now, bitches, you’ll be begging for it later.” Barney complained quietly, something about having blue balls since the fall of the Roman Empire.

  I interrupted Barney’s funny rant with a serious question. “Wait! So now we’re saying that Jimmy Catania is behind this? Or is it Gisele?”

  “Or both?” Morgan added.

  “Hmm. Interesting. Perhaps Gisele is working for Jimmy Catania.” She drew a dotted line between the names. “Perhaps Gisele came up with a novel way to take out his targets in a way that implicates nobody, except for Karma Inc.”

  “I’m not convinced, yet. We just don’t know enough about Gisele or Jimmy Catania to make that sort of connection. We need more information,” Randy wondered aloud. “Hey, Kelly. Do you remember Uncle Carmine ever mentioning a guy named Jimmy Catania who worked in the garbage business?” When Randy said “garbage business,” he was using the mob slang for the mafia.

  “I’m sure I have. But there were thousands of Sicilian immigrants who used that name. Catania is a major city in Sicily. I can ask him, though. I’d have to see him in person for a question as sensitive as that. It’s worth a shot.”

  Ezzy wrote a note on the board about contacting Uncle Carmine. “All right, this is the way I see it. In order to avoid getting these murders pinned on us, we need to take down the real culprit, or culprits. These are our next steps.” Ezzy jotted down several short notes as she talked. “We need to pin down Jimmy Catania and Gisele. Kelly and Randy, see what you can learn about Jimmy Catania. Now as far as Gisele goes, I thought ahead. I didn’t trust Gisele from the day I met her. When she wanted to look for a dress in Millie’s shop, I suggested she pick out one of Gertie’s sarongs. I did that for a reason.”

  “Ooh! I know! Can I say something now?” Gertie raised her hand, hopping up and down. “Ezzy knows I always add some magic into the dresses I make. Just ask Kelly, or Lindsey, or Leigh. Anyway, those sarongs can be found
. You know, tracked down. If Millie would have been there, she would have told Gisele the standard sales pitch: those dresses are so special they have a psychic powered locating option. It was a little extra feature I conjured up to help them sell.”

  “A locating app, like the kind you can get for your phone?” Gabe asked.

  “Exactly. The only catch is, only Millie’s psychic powers can make it work. That way she could tell her customers that if they ever lose their dress, like in a lost suitcase or something, they can come back to the store. Millie would be able to play around with her crystal ball and hey, presto! She can track them. It was a little scheme we came up with so Millie could look like a better psychic to her customers. It didn’t help sell a single one. Millie said the customers were worried about their big brother tracking them. Who would care about their brother? Not everyone even has a brother. Geesh!”

  I could tell Gabe was about to explain Millie’s use of the big brother reference, but I silently waved him off. There was no point in starting an entire new conversation on a topic Gertie just wouldn’t understand. I was still trying to figure out why Gertie and Millie even thought there was a huge part of the population who sweated through the anxiety of a lost sarong. I’d owned a lot of dresses and never lost a single one.

  Gertie smiled. “Millie is going to be so excited to finally track one of the dresses down.”

  “Hey, I can find out if there are any open environmental cases about the Catania plant. Maybe that reporter, Bella, tipped someone off before her popularity crashed, so to speak.”