The Karma Project

Chapter 3 - Action and Reaction

Brandon

"She hit me in the balls!" I yell. "With my own fucking bat."

The other three snicker amongst themselves as we make our way into our house, even Dean and that grade A asshat never laughs.

"You shouldn't have taunted her." Max shrugs.

Dean has The Sparrow thrown over his shoulder as I help Teddy get the garrote out of our vehicle. Teddy had insisted he needed it for 'future endeavors', whatever the fuck that means. The freak loves torture, I never really could stomach it. Don't get me wrong-- I enjoy murder but in my opinion it should just be swift. I find little use in dragging it out. Teddy calls it delayed gratification, I call it a waste of time.

We finally get inside of our home and we park ourselves in the downstairs family room.

"What should I do with uh-- her?" Dean nods his head towards the hogtied woman on his shoulder.

We all looked at the woman in his brace and let out a synchronized sigh. She's hot, like wickedly evil hot. I've never seen someone quite as intoxicating as she is, not to mention her smell. I could get drunk on the mint and rosemary scent wafting off of her ivory skin. 

"Let's get her in one of the guest rooms, the one next to my room." Max begins with a curt nod. "Dean, you go ahead and get her settled and make sure to lock the door behind you. No use in keeping her bound if she's locked up, so remove the ropes as well." Dean nods and starts his way upstairs, Teddy begins to follow.

"No Teddy, you stay here." Max orders.

"But--" Teddy protests.

"No Teddy. You can play with her tomorrow, there is a present for you in your basement." Max gives him a smirk.

A vile smirk grows on Teddy's face, "Can I kill it?" He asks.

With a sigh Max furrows his brows, only a beat of time passes before he answers, "That'll be fine. But make sure we get our answers first." and Max waves him off.

Quickly Teddy turns on his heels and saunters towards his basement door, skillfully twirling a dagger in his fingers. Teddy scans his keycard at the door and hurriedly pulls it open and yells, "Heeere's Teddy!"

There's a muffled scream and the sound of a chain rattling before Teddy slams the door behind him.

"What the fuck, man." I huff and turn to Max.

"He's got a few loose screws but he's our brother and he's good at what he does." Max shrugs and starts towards our kitchen.

Max stops at the bar and pulls out a crystal decanter filled with amber liquid followed by two glasses. He fills the glasses up to three fingers and passes one to me. I accept and find myself sitting on a leather chair in the living room spreading my legs and leaning back.

"So, what's the plan? With her, I mean. She's The Sparrow and literally is our enemy? So why are we keeping her in a room and not in the basement with Teddy's other play thing." I ask.

Max runs his fingers through his hair and joins me in the living room, sitting in a chair opposite of me. He doesn't answer immediately and continues to hold himself in a state of thought.

"I'm thinking she could be an incredible asset. I'd like to employ her to our team. Especially now seeing that she for sure isn't already within the operation. If we had her working with us, for us, we'd be unstoppable." Max explains.

I think on it for a second weighing the options, "True. But since we also know that she was never under our thumb to begin with, she was getting information somehow. We have to have a breach." I lean forward and put my elbows on my knees.

This grants me a long sigh from Max. "Exactly what I thought. And that leads me to the gift I left for Teddy down stairs. I only leaked the information on Peter's hit to one person. Mikhail Sanders."

I flash him a smile and lean back into my chair, "You clever bastard." I shake my head.

He tips his drink to me and smiles back, "And now that we have caught The Sparrow, I'd like to learn more about her before we officially invite her to the operation. Starting with her identity of course. She mentioned something about her father never mentioning her? Maybe her father works for us now." He explains.

I nod knowing that it'll be my duty to get as much information as possible. "I'll start with her phone, see if there are any emails or conversations that lead to her identity. But if nothing comes of that, then I'll have to track where her phone has pinged over the last year or so. It may take some time but there is no rest for the wicked." I throw back the rest of my drink and enjoy the burn as it slides down my throat and comfortably settles in my empty stomach.

I go to the stairs to head to my office, "Oh and Max?" I say over my shoulder.

"Hm?"

"Don't beat yourself up too much. There was only a one in a million chance that The Sparrow could have been a woman."

I leave him with that as I find myself back in my office with The Sparrows phone in my hands. I settle into my desk chair with a cold energy drink already popped open and a true crime podcast playing in the background and I begin.

On her phone, I open her photos app first and scroll to the oldest photo.

"Oh Sparrow, what have you been up to?"