JINXED: (Karma Series, Book Two) (13 page)

Chapter 21

Anything but Coal

“I need you in my office.” Harold was standing next to my desk five minutes after I’d gotten there.

“Sure.” The red headed bane of my office existence—if we didn’t include Fate on his bad days—had some sick sense of exactly when I wanted to speak to him the least.

His pace was brisker than normal as he walked back. I strolled while he waited. He shut the door behind me, a little firmer than I deemed necessary; it didn’t do my headache any favors.

I took the extra chair and reclined as much as I could, but it was a fairly cheap model with limited movement.

“I’ve heard about the manual.”

I debated whether I should just tell him now that I didn’t care or should I wait and leave him in some suspense?

“I’m guessing you don’t like it?” That was definitely stating the obvious.

“It’s against the rules.” His face was becoming tinged with pink.

“How was I to be aware of that? If I’d had a manual, I would’ve known.” Speaking to him as if he were five wasn’t my smartest move, but something about Harold brought out my most immature self.

“You can’t write all this stuff down!” He was quickly turning from pink to red.

My eyes made an obvious scan of the room. Stacks of papers were everywhere I looked. It was a ridiculous argument and I said so silently.

He stared back at me, refusing to take my hint, so I stood and grabbed a stack of
written down papers
and waved them in front of his face.

“You’re really going to make me spell this out?” I dropped the pile in front of him.

“A manual hasn’t been approved.” He was completely unbending.

I tilted my head back and stared at the ceiling. “Can you help me out a bit? I’m really not in the mood for this today, and I could use some support here. I’m not sure if you’re on vacation or what these days but come on, already. A girl’s got her limits.” I shook my hands at the ceiling.

Harold stood and pointed at me with his bony little finger. “Stop trying to go over my head to upper management!”

I managed not to laugh at him, but I couldn’t stop the smirk. A person only has so much control. If he knew what I was dealing with lately, he’d understand it was next to impossible to worry about him.

He leaned over his desk, placing his palms flat on its surface. “Don’t think I don’t see you.”

“Well, I certainly hope so, with those glasses.” I made a circular motion with my finger towards his face. “I’m not sure there are thicker lenses available, so it’s a good thing they’re working out for you.”

“That’s right, make your jokes.” His fist slammed the desk. “But I know there’s something wrong. I knew it when you first came on. I knew it when you walked in here one day, somehow different.” He leaned as far over the desk as he could. “And I know it now.”

“Well, I did get my hair cut and caught some rays last week. Could it be the tan?” I squinted like I was pondering the changes in my appearance.

“You don’t want to make an enemy of me.” His voice was soft and low, and the threat in it threw me over the edge. I was being threatened from every side these days, and I wasn’t going to let one more go unanswered.

I stood and inched closer to him, helping him out, since he seemed to be looking for the close proximity. “Now, let me tell you something. When I came here, I was looking for help and guidance. What did I get from you? You dumped me in a parking lot and shoved me off on Fate. Still, I went to you again, asking for help. What did you say? ‘Go figure it out on your own.’”

I straightened and walked over to his door, hand on the knob and paused. “So, you should understand if I’m figuring it out on my own, now. If you don’t like the way I’m handling things, you should figure it out on
your
own. You know why?” I let go of the door handle and walked back over to his desk and stabbed my finger down. “Because I. Don’t. Care.”

By the time I was done, he was leaning away from me. I turned and walked out, leaving his door wide open as I did. Every head in the office swung to look at me when Harold slammed it shut a minute later.

Bernie, not far from me, nodded his head toward the office. “What’s his problem?”

“He was looking for some together time and I said I felt like playing alone. He’s feeling a bit rejected.”

Bernie accepted this information with another nod, as if it were completely logical and normal. There were some perks to working in a place where everyone was crazy. Since I’d been here, not once had I heard anyone say, ‘No way, you’ve got to be kidding.’

I grabbed my notepad out of my desk drawer and headed over to my table. Technically, it was the office’s table, but I’d staked out my claim well enough that no one sat there.

“He’s back! The big guy’s in the house!” The Jinxes did know how to make an entrance. After they lapped the place on their boards, making sure they disrupted every possible person they could, they skidded to a stop by me.

“Really? Santa’s back? I thought he wasn’t coming until next week?” I immediately told myself to shut up. Too many questions all bunched together like that and I’d sound as nervous as I was.

“Got an early flight. Said he was starting to burn,” Bobby said. He leaned in close then, “Where’s our shit?”

I’d hoped they wouldn’t ask, but I’d been prepared anyway. The corner liquor store was on my way to work and a gallon of scotch, wrapped in the prerequisite brown paper bag, sat in my car. “In my trunk. My keys are in—”

“Don’t need the keys.” Bobby signaled to Buddy and Billy. “Our target has been located in the rust bucket.”

They called my car the rust bucket? Well that was just rude.

I watched them take off on their skateboards and hoped they could hold their liquor.

They cruised through the excited crowd. Crow was doing a little hop, Murphy was clapping and everyone was heading toward the door. Santa was here.

I’d wanted to meet Santa but not anymore. What if he knew I was on the naughty list? What’s worse than not meeting Santa? Meeting him and being told you were getting a lump of coal.

Luck, as happy as the rest of them, came running over to me. “Come on!” she said, and grabbed my arm, trying to pull me toward the door and everyone else.

This was the most animated I’d seen her since Kitty disappeared.

“I don’t know. He’s got so many people going to see him. I don’t want to inundate him when he’s just getting back. We should let him get settled in.” I leaned back, resisting her urging.

She dropped her hand and stood back, assessing me. “Why are you acting so weird?”

“What do you mean?” I shrugged.

“What’s wrong with you?”

“Nothing.” She didn’t know what was wrong, but she knew there was something. For someone most people would write off as a flaky trollop, she had laser point instincts.

Oh no, she wasn’t getting more secrets out of me today. I plastered a smile on my face. “You’re right. I really do want to meet him. Let’s go.”

She relaxed and smiled as I stood and started to walk next to her.

I really hoped there wasn’t a physical list pinned in the office somewhere. Forget getting caught, everyone would know I was naughty!

It wasn’t like I wanted to be doing any of this or was trying to hurt anyone. Wasn’t saving Kitty a good reason? Hell, I only made sure people didn’t get hurt. If I was on that naughty list, I’d be giving Santa a piece of my mind.

Okay, time to get a grip. I was rationalizing and making excuses to Santa and I didn’t even know if I had been caught, yet. When had I changed from nerves of steel into bones of Jello? Death really had messed with me. I’d become rude, sarcastic and blood thirsty. Now I could add paranoid to the list. In the three minutes it took to get to Santa’s floor, I’d talked myself into—and back out of—innocence four times.

By time we reached Santa’s door, everyone in the building was there. Mother and her gardeners, the Tooth Fairy and his assistants, Death, Bernie—basically, everyone in the building—and all I could think of was the amount of possible witnesses to my shame. I was going to have to add self-absorbed to that list of changes since death.

The door opened to a sour faced elf. “You’re all here. What a shock,” he said, in perfect deadpan delivery. Put a glass of booze in his tiny fingers, and a cigarette hanging out of his mouth, he’d be ready for stand up in some little dive in New York.

“What’s with the cranky elf?” I whispered to Luck as we walked into a very unimpressive office, not much different than our own.

“It was his turn to work off season. They always get really prickly when they work straight through.” She waved her hand as if it were no big deal.

“Can’t he take some time off?”

“Yes, but none of them ever want to miss the prime season.” She was whispering now, since the elf we were gossiping about was giving us the eye, like he knew.

“Single file, you know the drill,” cranky elf said.

So, I’d be going in alone? It was something, at least. Luck rattled on as we made our way up the line. My
uh huhs
seemed to satisfy her enough, but it was a good thing she didn’t need more. I had no idea what she was even saying to me by time we made it to the front of the line.

“Make it sometime today!” the elf said as the door loomed in front of me, no bodies buffering the way any longer.

Luck gave me a shove from behind and my feet took over after that. The door looked similar to Harold’s, so when I swung it open, I was expecting a small square office of the bland variety.

Instead, I walked into the North Pole. The place was enormous, and I realized that just like with the stables, I wasn’t in the office building anymore. Elves were running here and there in a bustle of activity. Conveyor belts ran up and down in a maze of angled paths through the three-story room.

A freezing gust of air blew in from the right and some elves started shouting to seal it up, whatever that meant. I turned to see two large red doors, just starting to close on snowy fields that stretched as far as my vision could see. Reindeer, being tended by other elves, were walking into the large area.

“This way!” A small female elf grabbed my hand and started to tug me along after her, toward another entrance off to the side. A plaque above the rounded door read “Santa’s Office.”

“Go in,” she said, and motioned with her small hands for me to enter.

The whole place smelled like a bakery, but his office had the distinct smell of chocolate chip cookies baking. Santa himself was sitting behind his desk when I walked in.

“Hello,” he greeted me. He looked exactly as one would expect; long white beard, and a thick head of white hair. His cheeks were rosy and he truly did look jolly when he smiled at me. “You’re the new Karma.”

“Yes.” I smiled back, all the while waiting for the scolding.

“Would you care for a cookie?” He motioned to the heaped plate on the corner of the desk.

“No, thanks.” I didn’t want to get thrown out mid bite. He was Santa. He knew everything. Any second, he’d tell me to get the hell out of his office, throwing coal at me as I ran.

He stood up from his chair and walked around to the fireplace that blazed in the corner, lending the space a warm light.

“Would you like to sit?” He motioned to the two well-stuffed chairs in front of it.

“I don’t want to take up too much of your time. I can see you’re busy.” I made a step backward toward the door.

“I’ve got time for you.”

Guess I was going to have to see this thing out until the coal started flying. I watched as he sat. He was still smiling. I took the seat across from him. Maybe he didn’t know?

“I know why you’re nervous.”

Well, there went that.

“Karma, sometimes there are grey areas in life. Things that don’t fit neatly into wrong or right.”

“Okay?” At some point soon, my phone was going to start ringing like crazy.

He leaned forward and took one of my hands. “I trust you to make the right decisions.”

“And what would those be?”

“That’s not for me to tell you. Those are your choices. Your inner compass will point you in the right direction.” He nodded his head as he said this, as if he was imparting some great wisdom.

My jaw dropped as I contemplated grabbing him by the beard and screaming,
I’m glad you’re sure, because I’m lost right now and would someone care to fill me in on what the hell I should be doing?

Fairly certain that wasn’t the right approach, I tried to think of a better way to discuss the situation.

I never got the chance. Elves swarmed in, interrupting our discussion with a work order problem. He left, telling me an elf would show me out.

I’d missed my chance to ask him what happened if my inner compass was spinning around like a bad ride on the teacups. The only thing it was telling me was to go puke my guts up, and hang on for a lousy ride, because the operator was drunk.