KARMA COLADA

Chapter Thirty-Two

SHE should've known better.

Just when she thought she could get away with it, karma struck her down faster than lightning.

Of course it would, Naomi thought bitterly.

She was a martyr, after all.

Leon's anomaly.

Something he needed to be rid of.

Naomi was mistaken to think that he loved her. Maybe he could've, if she wasn't so scared of losing him that she hid the truth from him. Of all the times, she chose the wrong moment to finally grow a backbone and reach for what she wanted.

And it blew up in her face. Just as she feared it would.

"Are you ever going to tell me what happened back there, birdy?" Spivey's voice pierced through her subconscious, and her throat seized in response.

"Nothing surprising," she mumbled, leaning her forehead against the car window. She listened to Baby's steady rumbling, hoping to find some measure of solace there.

She felt Spivey's eyes on her for a fleeting moment, quietly urging her for an explanation. Because she was too tired of keeping secrets, and too deflated to put up a fight, Naomi relented.

"Koko told me where Gabriele and Francine are. And I kept it from Leon."

"...I see."

"I'm sorry, Spivey," her nose stung as she spoke, "because of me, I don't think you'll ever get the money he promised."

He hummed softly at that. "The money would've been a bonus, not gonna lie. But that's not why I tagged along."

Guilt swirled in her stomach, so violently she thought she might hurl. "Why did you then?"

"What else would a retired bounty hunter do with his free time?" he simply uttered. "Call this my one last hurrah before I resign myself to a peaceful existence."

"You were a bounty hunter?" Naomi balked.

Spivey's gray eyes sparkled at a distant memory. "Not legally in Australia. But I was a pretty good one too, mind you. That is, until..."

"Until?"

"Until, like most men, I met a sheila that put an end to my illustrious career," he said with a widened smirk. Spivey slipped into his own thoughts after that, and she knew better than to pry further.

"Did Leon break your heart?" he suddenly asked after a brief silence, with a gentleness that sprung fresh tears in her eyes.

"I broke his first," she responded quietly.

"Doesn't sound like you."

A strange laugh slipped out of her, all dry and strangled. "It doesn't. But I did. After years of trying to do the opposite, I finally hurt someone, Spivey." She tore her gaze from the burnished afternoon sky and offered him a wry grin.

The corners of his mouth lifted in a show of solidarity. "It was going to happen sooner or later. No one's a saint, birdy."

"But why did it have to be someone I love?"

"Live long enough and you'll find they're the only ones you're capable of hurting," he replied sagely.

Naomi shrank in her seat. "Then why bother falling in love at all?"

"Because the pros outweigh the cons."

"How would you know?" She winced at how harsh she sounded. "...sorry."