Taste of Karma
Death, Sin, and Vengeance walk into a bar…
They all want something from Karmen.
Bish wants to get even with Karmen for her interference in taking Dahlia away from him. Cipher wants to punish her for abandoning his arms and his bed. Váli has wanted her for centuries but she never seemed to see him.
When Bish and Cipher conspire to teach Karmen a lesson, Váli seizes the opportunity and offers his services—after all, Vengeance is his grace. Too bad for them, he’ll extract a little for his girl and eliminate them as competition at the same time. These bad boys are no angels.
Karma has no deadline…
I’m not afraid of them. I’m not afraid of anyone.
Sin betrayed me, Death wants me to pay, and Vengeance? He’s all right, but we work together too much. Our methods are very different. When those three Keepers put their heads together, my spine tingles in warning. They’re up to something and it’s hard to miss. I’ve played this game for far too long. Are they really sure they want to mess with me?
Bring it on, boys. I’m patient and it’s hardly the first time I got my hands dirty.
*Please note this is a reverse harem and the authors suggests you always read the forward in their books. Warning, this is a standalone tale with a fierce and feisty heroine, three anti-heroes who are forces of nature, and a tale as old as time, with elements of revenge, humor, and a little bit of karmic justice thrown in.
Yes, Karma is coming for you.
Don’t look away.
You know who you are.
Foreword
First, let us thank you for picking up Taste of Karma. When Blake and I first wrote Kiss of Fate, I swore, we both had so much fun. It has been a long time since I laughed like that and we took great pleasure in tagging the other by leaving the characters in jeopardy or in the middle of an OOPS moment. Still, we wouldn’t have it any other way.
Now, things to know, Taste of Karma is a standalone. Kiss of Fate was also a standalone. However, they are both set in the same world and characters you first met in Kiss of Fate also appear in Taste of Karma, in fact, two of them have very prominent roles. we do not think you have to have read the first one in order to read this one, that said, we would encourage you to meet the Keepers the way we did—through Dahlia’s eyes.
The best part of writing these books has been we don’t know who wrote what by the time we were done. Some lines and a scene or two stand out, but for the most part this book like the first one is all us.
Writing together was a treat and we look forward to doing this again. Sinner’s Keepers are definitely keepers in our book.
Finally, just a couple of housekeeping notes!
For those of you who have never read a reverse harem before, thanks for picking this up and giving it a shot. A reverse harem means the heroine will not make a choice in this book or any other between the guys in her life. It may take her a while to reach that conclusion, but it’s the journey that drives it. There are many ways to frame this kind of relationship, currently reverse harem fits it very well.
Thank you again for reading Karmen’s story and we truly hope you enjoy it!
When you finish, be sure to let us know whose story you’d like to see next! We have a lot of ideas.
—Heather and Blake
Chapter 1
Everything you do comes back to you. - Karmen
Karmen
Back to Sinner’s I went, hands stretched over my head as I slipped in the slowly closing door behind Hattie. Ugh, if I’d realize she was going to be here, I’d have just gone home and grabbed my end of the night drink there. Thankfully, Sunny was already there, and Hattie was making a beeline for him.
The panic edging Sunny’s gaze, however, gave me pause. Hattie didn’t even slow as she reached the golden-haired Keeper with the devastating pair of dimples and unholy sun-kissed bronzed skin. Her fist knocked him clean off the stool.
Every Keeper in the bar went still as Sunny slammed into the floor, his Nectar splashing all over him before the glass tumbler hit the floor. The crystal splintered, cracking into four hard pieces and scattering. Hattie followed him right to the floor and popped him again.
I half-froze because what the actual hell? Warm, familiar arms threaded around my waist and tugged me backwards against a hard chest as a chin tucked against my shoulder. The sizzle and crackle of masculine amusement licked over me.
“Someone was a bad boy,” Váli murmured, the dark delight in his voice beckoning me to join in with the fun.
“What did I miss?” I settled against him and dropped my arms to rest over his. We worked together often, and in fact, of all the Keepers I encountered regularly, Váli was the most like me.
We got along well. It was part of why I considered him, albeit briefly, for Dahlia. He took such fierce joy in his work. She might have been able to appreciate it and he would have loved a soul that would have let him wreak havoc on all those who’d wronged her.
Even those three idiot brothers.
Still, it worked out better ultimately. Dahlia was happy. Judgment had his brothers back. Zhan wasn’t drowning his sorrows. Tarus was still a dick, but really, what else did I expect?
“He went drinking with Cipher and Bish,” Váli explained, laughter eddying in his voice. I grimaced at the mention of the Sin and Death Keepers. Ugh. They’d been thick as thieves lately. I hadn’t missed their little confabs. That, and Cipher was always in the damn bar these days.
Didn’t he know I preferred my Sinner’s without the original damn Sin?
Hattie was still whaling on Sunny, and while he fumbled to catch her wrists, he wasn’t hitting her back. If anything, he was laughing.
“He has a death wish,” I muttered. Still, nothing about either of them triggered the itch in the back of my head, so I could afford to just enjoy the entertainment.
“Probably,” Váli said, then nipped my ear. I slapped his hand and pulled away. For a split second, his arms tightened like he wouldn’t let me go, but then they went slack and I stepped out of them. His dark green eyes glittered in the half-light, and the sharp cut of his squared jaw offered the promise of not only his stubbornness but also his ferocity.
The Nordic good looks were just part of the package. A smirk twisted his full lips. Clean-shaven, he’d shorn his longer hair a year earlier in a fit of pique he’d refused to explain. “I like the black,” he said, catching a lock of my hair and twirling it around his finger. “What happened to the blonde?”
“I was bored.”
What? It wasn’t a lie.
Threading my arm through his, he led me to the bar. “Drink?”
“Oh yeah,” I said, then stole a look over to where Hattie and Sunny were now grinding on each other as he damn near swallowed her mouth. “Guess trouble in paradise is over.”
My companion said nothing for a moment. The faint unfocused look to his eyes told me he wasn’t all with me. Hot-headed and impatient on the best of days, he wasn’t ignoring me on purpose. I left him to it as I took over getting us to the bar. Quetta lifted her chin at me when I held up two fingers. Excess always brought me the best, and she gave my companion a narrow-eyed, almost flinty look.