Free Cheat (Karma Inc. Book 1) by Gillian Zane Page B

loud enough so I could hear. I felt like such a conniving bitch, but my plan was now formulated.

    * * *
    I caught a taxi from the restaurant back to my apartment complex. It felt so odd to not be tired after a night like this. I had been drinking for the last three hours and didn’t even have a buzz. I guess that luxury wasn’t available in the afterlife either.
    The streets were dead at this time of the night, so the black SUV trailing the cab from a distance wasn’t hard to spot.
    “I changed my mind,” I told the driver. I looked up another access point for my complex, one that I wouldn’t be using a lot. “I want to go to my friend’s house. The address is 1578 Nightingale, that’s by the mall.”
    The cabbie nodded and turned right to head in the other direction. It would take me longer to get home, but this access point looked like it was in an open apartment complex. I don’t know who was following me, but this way I couldn’t be cornered in a lobby.
    I watched as the SUV made the turn with us and my mind started reeling. Who could be following me? Was it some kind of Afterlife thing? Did they keep tabs on their operatives and this was the only time I’d noticed?
    My stomach lurched at my other thought. It could be Drake. He seemed determined to find out what was going on with me. Could this be him? I had given him a home address. I looked on my phone at my ID. The address listed was one I didn’t recognize. It wasn’t even an access point, obviously fake. Could he be trying to figure out where I lived?
    “Pull over here,” I said to the cab driver as we neared the complex. I touched my phone to his credit card reader and added a tip. “Thanks,” I said as I slipped out of the vehicle. He only grunted and pulled away quickly.
    There was no such thing as good customer service anymore.
    I hurried across the street to the main building of this new complex. I looked over my shoulder but I couldn’t see the SUV. Maybe it was in my head, a coincidence, and I was getting paranoid?
    There was a key code box to get into the apartment complex, but when I touched the door I felt the familiar pull of recognition. I typed in the universal code for our complex and the door opened. When I walked through I was blinking back the daylight and standing in the lobby of my complex. Home.
    I marched right into Brandon’s office.
    “Who is this guy you had me talk to, Brandon? This Drake guy? I think he was following me and then he showed up at the bar looking for answers. He doesn't believe any of the lies I’ve told him.”
    “I don’t know, Cassie, he was recommended.” He stood up and hovered around me, not knowing what to do.
    “How does that happen? How do you get your orders?” I asked curiously, wanting to know what the hell was going on.
    “I get the files delivered sometimes, other times it's through a text message or email from some anonymous admin that works in our division headquarters. There's a liaison, her name is Mel. She’ll bring me some of the cases and relay any messages I have back to the Powers That Be. I texted her about your issue with memory loss and she gave me Drake’s card with explicit instructions that you weren’t to reveal what you are.”
    “He knows there’s something off about me. He’s an investigator for God’s sake. I think he followed me tonight.”
    “You’re just being paranoid, Cassie. Even if he does dig, there is nothing he can find out. Your information is air tight. He might think you’re hiding something, but there will be no way he could guess what you are really hiding,” he laughed and put a hand on my shoulder to reassure me.
    “It’s your first case, it would stress anyone out. Go relax a bit, get some downtime, try and nap. Sometimes you can shut off, it’ll do you a world of good.” He gently pushed me toward the door of his office.
    “But, what if he doesn’t stop? He seems very intense and set on figuring out what’s going on with me. He