Page 13 of Knot Your Karma
“Including what?” Reed prompts.
“There’s this other dealer. Runs a shop called What Goes Around. Specializes in maritime antiques.”
“And?”
“And nothing. She was helpful, knowledgeable, said she’d keep an eye out for anything matching the compass description.”
“But?”
Heat crawls up my neck, and I’m grateful they can’t see my face. “But I can’t stop thinking about her.”
The silence on the other end of the line is deafening.
“Oh no,” Reed says finally. “Oh, this is happening, isn’t it? You met someone. I can hear it in your voice—thatI’m definitely about to make this situation exponentially more complicatedtone.”
“I’m not making anything more complicated.”
“Dec,” Reed continues with growing horror and amusement, “please tell me you did not just catch feelings for someone involved in your brother’s mess.”
“I didn’t catch feelings.” I lean my forehead against the window. “I just... there was something about her. Something about her scent.”
“Omega?” Adrian asks.
“Yeah. But not just any omega. There was something...”My pulse jumps as I remember vanilla and sea salt, the way it made my protective instincts go quiet and alert at the same time. “Familiar. Like I’d been looking for that particular scent my whole life.”
“Oh, fuck,” Reed says with feeling. “Dec, please tell me you didn’t just meet our mate while investigating your brother’s missing heirloom. Please tell me this isn’t turning into some kind of cosmic joke.”
“I didn’t meet my mate.” I lie because deep down I already know who Karma is to us.
“You sure about that? Because you sound like a man who just got hit by the mate recognition truck.”
I close my eyes and let myself remember—the way Karma’s expertise lit up her whole face, how she moved through her shop like she belonged there, the way my alpha instincts went quiet and protective the moment I caught her scent.
“Okay, maybe I’m not completely sure. But even if I did... I can’t explain it. There was something about her that felt important. Like she’s connected to all this somehow.”
“Connected how?” Adrian asks.
“I have no idea. But my gut says she knows more than she told me.”
“Your gut or your alpha instincts?” Reed asks.
“Both.”
“Well, this isn’t going to be complicated at all,” Reed says cheerfully. “Oh, I love this game. Let me guess—she’s gorgeous, sweet, knows exactly what she’s talking about, and probably has some kind of mysterious past that’s going to make your life infinitely more difficult.”
“This isn’t a game, Reed,” Adrian says.
“You’re right, it’s better than a game. It’s like a Hallmark movie, but with more theft and family dysfunction.”
A car drives down Main Street below, headlights sweeping across the antique shop’s dark windows.
“All right,” Adrian says, cutting through Reed’s commentary. “We’ll be there tomorrow. But Dec?”
“Yeah?”
“If this omega turns out to be involved in Blake’s mess, you need to be prepared for the possibility that she’s not what she seems.”
Cold dread pools in my stomach, cutting through the warmth of remembering Karma’s smile. “What do you mean?”
