Chapter 4: Chapter Four

Kara shuddered, her hormones raging inside her. Her skin burned, her forehead was coated in a slick of sweat and her cunt was damp.

I fucking hate this.

Was it those damn alphas? She’d spent plenty of time around alphas before, so what was it this time? Had it just been too long?

Temptation tore at her to call Liam. It had been years since she’d been that desperate, since she’d called him up to help her through the mindless lust, but she knew he’d come.

She snarled down at her hand when she realized she’d already dialed the number.

“Hey, kid.” Liam’s voice came out with that purr it always had, since he radiated sensuality even when he didn’t mean to.

She leaned against the wall, the night air not enough to cool her heated skin. “Hey, Liam.”

A rustle on the other end of the line and a muffled exchange let her know he was stepping away from the others, Torrin and Erik never far from him. A moment later, he responded, voice low. “You don’t sound well. Do you need me?”

The question made her pussy clench and her chest ache. God, yes, she needed him in the worst way, but she couldn’t bring herself to answer.

“Talk to me.”

She swallowed past the lump in her throat, the one made of all the frustration. “I hate this.”

“I know. Let me help you.”

His voice took her back to the other times he’d helped her, the times when they hadn’t kissed, when he’d spread her thighs and fucked her because she’d needed it, not because either had wanted it.

The idea of doing that again hurt more than the cramping of her stomach. It wasn’t a heat, not exactly, yet these episodes plagued her, often only weeks apart. She’d try to hold them off, to sate them with scraps of flings, but they always rose up again.

Blame it on my fucked-up body. The scars on her lower stomach burned, ugly and raised and proof of the injury that had broken her.

Kara closed her eyes and let her head strike the wall of the building softly, trying to rattle loose her brains.

It’s just instinct. Suck it up, cupcake.

“Where are you? I’ll come get you.”

“I can’t do this with you again.”

The softest sound echoed through the line. A purr? Only Liam would purr for her, as if the sweet sound would somehow make things better. “So we won’t fuck. You can come home, still. You always can.”

Home, meaning the house Liam shared with Torrin and Erik, the house she’d had a room in for years, no matter that she hadn’t slept there in so long.

Instead, Kara pulled in a shaky breath. She had no idea if it was her own will or the thought of another awkward round with Liam that had her reining in her hormones. “It’s okay. I’m okay.”

His sigh was loud and clear, but he didn’t push. When had pushing ever worked between them? Kara was the far more stubborn of the two. “You will call me tomorrow,” he demanded, using the tone that usually brooked no arguments and the one that never worked on her.

“Is that an order?”

“Yes.”

She smiled. “Then you know I’m not going to now.”

His chuckle said he heard the renewed control in her voice. A goodbye ended the conversation, and not a moment too soon. Kara had no desire to further showcase her weakness. No matter how good she was at what she did now, she’d screwed up before, and if anyone knew that past, it was Liam.

Mistakes like getting caught by the police, or fucking up a job—those were mistakes that didn’t sting. They happened.

This mistake was her body, and it struck a chord so much deeper than any other.

It made her feel broken, and there was no worse feeling.

But since that wasn’t likely to change, Kara relegated it to the little spot in her brain where it squatted, the place where it would reach out to swipe at her from time to time.

The lights of the cafe were bright and harsh, spilling onto the sidewalk.

She needed to pick up the cards, Justin having sent her a message that morning about having them ready.

She focused on the task, on what needed to be done. She’d pick up the cards and store them away for future use.

While she’d considered getting a pretty penny by selling them to the alphas, the thought of seeing them again made her want to groan in need. Why she reacted so strongly to them, she didn’t know, but the last thing she wanted was to throw her body even more out of balance.

Those alphas undid her, and while she loved herself some wild, no-holds-barred sex, she didn’t need what they did to her.

Kara walked past the waitress and into the kitchen, then used the code Justin had given her for the door tucked away near the back.

The moment she walked past it, she froze.

Something’s wrong. It was a sense she’d developed from living in places where she needed to watch her back. She couldn’t pinpoint what it was at first, an overall feeling of discomfort closing in around her. She hadn’t brought her pistol, never did when heading around town because getting picked up with an unregistered weapon was a quick way to get attention she didn’t need. Instead, Kara reached into the pack at her thigh and pulled out her heavy pocketknife, using her thumb to slide the blade out.

Her steps were silent and light as she ventured deeper into the room, as the details that had set her off started to come together. The lights were off, and Justin never left the lights off. Even the constant glow of the computer screens was black.

Her eyes adjusted to the darkness, the only light slipping in from small barred windows that hovered near the ceiling. Pieces of his beloved tech were strewn about the floor, a chair turned over, the desk with all its drawers opened.

Amateurs. A professional wouldn’t have made such a mess. Each thing they touched, each item they moved increased the likelihood of leaving behind something to get caught. Kara’s best jobs happened when no one even knew she’d been there.

She passed the largest desk in the back corner where Justin kept his main computer, and she didn’t have to look closely to identify the body on the floor.

Justin.

Even if she hadn’t wanted anything serious with him, he was far too sweet a man to meet that end. Blood pooled beneath him, and a long open wound on his throat told her what had happened. Worse? A few of his fingers sat at angles they weren’t supposed to.

Her stomach rolled, and it almost made her proud that she could still feel sick when witnessing such violence.

Justin was always on her case about double-crossing people, about taking dangerous jobs, but it seemed he’d pissed off the wrong client. A person could only swim through their world so long before attracting the attention of sharks, and it seemed Justin had done just that.

Kara leaned down and brushed her fingers over the man’s arm. He had no mate or children, but he had a mother whom he cared for. She’d talk to Torrin and make sure the woman got the care she needed. They all owed Justin at least that much.

Even criminals stuck together.

When she pulled in a breath, knowing she could do nothing else, she rose. There were benefits to knowing those one worked with, and right then? It showed itself in Kara knowing exactly where Justin kept his sensitive data.

He’d never have told another person, guarding that location more than his own life. Dying was one thing, but pissing off a few of their clients by outing their secrets? That wasn’t something she wanted to even consider.

On a bookshelf on the far wall, Kara moved the sci-fi books he’d loved, revealing the wall behind. She pressed in the bottom corner, the panel popping free to show a keypad.

She put in the four-digit code—Justin’s mother’s birthdate—and the safe clicked open.

From inside, Kara pulled the contents. A few folders, three plastic cases with hard drives in them and a handful of USBs with number sequences on top she didn’t understand.

She found the four keycards, complete with blank fronts as she’d asked for, and the papers wrapped around them with information on how they worked. After folding them, she placed the items she needed in her bag, then sent a message to Erik about the rest. Torrin would love to get a look at anything left over there, and he could ensure the place was properly cleaned. She would have contacted Liam normally, but after their phone conversation, she couldn’t bring herself to do so. Erik would make sure everything was handled. They didn’t need the cops getting involved and finding potentially incriminating information.

On the top of a filing cabinet sat paperwork, part of the endless collection of horribly organized things Justin kept. What caught her attention was her name on the top file, or at least one of the many variations she used.

Kara Hamilton. The paper was wrinkled as if it had been handled often, with an old number of hers she’d gotten rid of long ago scribbled beneath it. She could almost see how Justin would hold it, crumbling it in his anxiety as he talked himself out of calling her. The idea that she’d never see him again hit her hard, but grief wasn’t something she had a place for in her life.

She left the cafe when Erik said he’d get there in ten minutes. She might have waited to see him personally, but the idea of seeing any alpha made her shudder. While she didn’t think about Erik like that, she didn’t need the temptation. She also wasn’t thrilled with the thought of watching someone dispose of Justin’s body.

There was a reason she’d always preferred work that didn’t deal with dead bodies—finding them, creating them or disposing of them.

She walked back to her apartment, trying to use the chill and random people to erase the entire night, to tell her she didn’t care about…anything.

This was why she’d never moved from the city—she needed the noise. Being alone with no sound to distract her beyond her own scattered thoughts terrified her. No, she’d take the loudness, the busyness, the fact that even at three in the morning, folks walked the streets.

The suburbs weren’t the place for her.

The front door to the lobby of her building had no doorman, because she didn’t want someone noting her comings and goings. She took the stairs two at a time, ready to swallow down enough vodka to fall into such a deep sleep she didn’t have to think anymore. Not about Justin. Not about the alphas. Not about any of it.

Inside her apartment, she threw closed the locks and tossed her bag on the table.

She grasped the hem of her top, ready to pull it free and strip down, when her gaze landed on the window, the one that sat open despite her always closing and locking it before leaving.

An arm closed around her throat before she could react.

The body behind Kara was large and solid, the strong arm tight around her neck. She smelled beta and male, with hot breath full of garlic turning her stomach.

“Stay calm and you won’t get hurt.”

The thought that he’d broken into her apartment irked her. Sure, she stole things, but she stole them from other people. Someone stealing things from her seriously pissed her off.

The man loosened his grip slightly when Kara didn’t resist. Always underestimating me.

With the new grasp, Kara had room to maneuver.

She’d never been a patient person, and that was no different. She lifted her boot and stomped on the man’s foot with her heel as hard as she could.

A grunt left him on a whoosh of exhaled breath, and his arm loosened more.

Just enough. Kara dropped her weight, unsettling the man’s balance further, and drove her elbow backward. She struck him in his side, too low to hope for broken ribs, but hell, she could only do what she could do.

She darted forward, but before she made it a step, something yanked her backward.

He’d gotten his fingers into the back of her shirt. The fabric tore.

Damn it, I like this shirt!

She slammed into his front, and when she twisted to land a jab, something struck her cheek. The hit was solid but weak enough that she knew he’d pulled it.

Despite the ringing in her ears, she wanted to laugh at the idea that he had bitch-slapped her.

“Stop fighting me,” he snarled as they toppled to the floor, bodies twisting as they fought for purchase.

Kara didn’t give in to shit, and she wouldn’t give in to him. Her knee hit him in the balls, and she took a good chunk from his forearm when she bit down.

Even so, Kara wasn’t a close-quarters expert. She was small, which meant she lacked the strength and stamina for a prolonged hand-to-hand fight.

She couldn’t overcome the sort of bulk the man carried if the fight lasted long.

Which meant she needed to finish this fast or it wasn’t going to end in a way she liked.

The man hissed out more commands, telling her to settle down, to relax.

“Fuck off,” she snapped, twisting to slam her elbow into his jaw.

He caught the move, pinning her arm down, effectively ending the battle. She could hardly draw breath, let alone move, his large body above her, trapping her.

“Who hired you?”

The words stilled the fight. This wasn’t just a random break-in?

It made her feel mildly better.

“Your mom.”

“I don’t want to hurt you. My name is Thompson, and I am only trying to find out who hired you to steal the keycard.” He leaned in close.

She saw her chance.

Kara whispered, and he frowned, coming even closer.

She threw her head back, striking him as hard as possible in the nose. A crunch sounded, the thing so damned rewarding, even as blood poured from Thompson.

He released her arm and sat up, grasping for his face. She twisted, then pulled her knees toward her chest and drove her heels against his chest.

Thompson tumbled backward, and she rolled to her feet, a throbbing in her shoulder she could cry about later.

She was quick as she darted, grabbing her pack from the table.

A crash echoed behind her, as though he had risen and knocked into something.

Fuck him, she wasn’t about to turn around and look.

The locks gave under her quick hands, and she yanked the door open.

A shot rang out, a bullet striking the wall beside her.

Well, there goes my security deposit. Suddenly the noise didn’t seem like enough.

She darted out, but the gun went off once more and a searing pain in her arm said it had grazed her.

She left Thompson in her wake, her speed finally helping her as she took the stairs to the lobby, then darted into the darkness before he could follow.

This was all the fault of three alphas, and she would damn well make them pay for it.