Is Karma a Catch-22?

[JJCarsonian]

I understand that unconditional love should be pure, without motive.

If someone is providing a lot of catalyst to us, and we love them because we do not want to repeat this in another life,
does karma know about that? Like you can't trick karma.

If you are loving because you don't want to repeat it, then you will have to repeat it anyway.
Is that how karma works?

Its more about how your mind is configured. You can't will yourself to love. If you are doing things for deceptive reasons, then you probably never had the degree of love necessary to end the cycle. If you started on the path because you wanted to end the cycle and managed to get yourself to the degree of love necessary to end the cycle, then you probably don't feel the way you use to and your intentions are purer.

Karma is a separate topic. Karma is about the energy currently in motion. This energy can be dissipated through love and forgiveness.