Living with Katrina Ch. 06

"Cleveland is out of my jurisdiction. Why would it be of any use to me?"

"There is a connection to New York as well, which puts it squarely in your backyard. You can claim priority. Now, how would you feel if the SEC were to 'anonymously' receive a parcel with that evidence?"

"It would be nice," drawled David lazily. "But is it worth more than your friend?"

"You are investigating my friend for a few hundred thousand dollars of missing money. I am offering you the chance to take down a four hundred million dollar fund. You do the math."

There was another pause.

"Besides, you don't have to take them down today. We could use their services to invest some money under an alias and sell the shares just before you bring down the hammer on them. Win-win for everybody."

"I see," said David. "Now, what was your friend's name again?"

Balthazar Wolff could not help smiling. Being a fixer was all about using your connections to kill two birds with one stone.

Finally, that day had come for Emma. That day which was the culmination of months of sneaking around. She took a deep breath and surveyed her new surroundings. Cleveland was better than she expected. Even more so because she had a job which paid triple her last one.

She took a deep breath and walked into the spotless lobby. The receptionist seemed pleasant.

"Welcome to Hunt Financial Services. How may I help?"

"I am Emma Byrne," she replied. "I have a job opening starting today."

"Let me check," said the little receptionist. "Yes, you are supposed to meet Mr Hunt in his office now. Top floor. Though, he has some sudden visitors"

Emma ignored her and got on the elevator. She thought about New York, without too much regret. Her job was stagnating, suffocating her. She could not break to the next level in many years of trying.

So when she received this offer, it was really not much of a decision to make. He got the reports he wanted, she got cold, hard cash. The sex was an added bonus. Soon, there was also the promise of a high profile job thrown into the mix, only adding to her desire to bail.

She thought about the people in New York and how they would react. There would be a letter at the department head's desk citing a "family emergency" making her move back to Cleveland on such short notice. Her mind drifted to her co-workers, eventually settling on Jake.

Emma smiled. Jake was going to be blind-sided by this. It was a nice bit of fun they had, but she would be fooling herself if she thought it was anything more than that. He was only too easy to fool around on and manipulate. He was surprisingly good in the sack.

"Poor poor Jake," she tutted as the elevator doors opened. A six figure salary lay around the corner.

Something else lay around the corner as well. A mob of SEC agents flashing their badges at everyone. There was an elderly agent who was taking to Hunt, watching him go deathly pale. The others invaded the computers and the paperwork.

"Emma Byrne."

She was suddenly shocked by the agent beside her. Still unable to make sense of what was unfolding, she nodded.

"Come this way please."

Robotically, she went with him to the elderly agent. His smile grew wider on seeing her.

"Special Agent David Blair," he said, flashing his badge. "You guys are in big trouble."

Now it was Emma's turn to join her new employer in having the colour drained out of her face.

Katrina was unusually tense. For once, it wasn't about her. It was about Jake. By now, he would have heard about the news related to Emma. It was plastered all over the financial news. Jake would have probably received a call or two in connection with the case as well.

For once, he was the one who would need comforting and consoling. He would need a shoulder. It felt strange, but it was true. He was probably on his way back home, realizing he had been discarded like a tissue. His first real relationship was nothing more than a short-lived fling.

"My shoulder is always here, Jake," thought Kat. "Always."

She watched the front door anxiously. Soon, it would open and reveal a broken shell of a man. She resolved to put him back together.

A few minutes of contemplative silence passed and the door creaked open. Jake stood in the doorway, his eyes pointing downwards. He seemed weary of the world.

"I guess you know then," he said emotionlessly. "Emma has been arrested in connection with an insider trading scandal. Turns out she was biding her time here, selling confidential audit reports and financial health statements to someone in Cleveland. They made a killing off it."

Katrina slowly walked up to him and hugged him tightly. There were tears in her eyes as she buried her face in his shoulder.

"I'm so sorry I pushed you into that relationship," she whispered. "I only ended up hurting you. Like always."

"It's not your fault," he said, softly stroking her hair. "She had already made her plans to leave town when I started seeing her. I was just for making memories in New York."

"Still. I'm so sorry."

Jake sat on the couch, not feeling like dinner. She came over and curled her arm around his head. The palm caressed his cheek. He smiled at the lazy circles it drew.

"Do you need to cry?" she inquired softly.

"I don't cry. You know that," was the heavy reply. "Smiling is easier."

He forced a terrible smile.

"Well in that case, let me just pretend you're crying so I can comfort you. It's nice to give some of it back after taking it all this time."

Fingers of both her hands ran through his hair, stroking his scalp. Jake snuggled into her warm embrace.

"What happens now?"

Katrina blinked. "What do you mean?"

"You moving out. Emma not moving in. I don't know how I can handle so much."

"I'm not going anywhere. You need me to lean on for a while and I am not going to be denied that," she said firmly.

"Kat. How can things ever be normal between us given what you told me a few days back? How can we go back to being just roommate's given how you..." he paused. "... feel about me?"

"We can and we will," retorted Kat, holding him tighter. "I can learn to bury my feelings. I have to."

"Can you?"

"I can," said Katrina looking down at his hopeful eyes. "I love you too much to leave you all alone here. That love is so much more profound than the kind I felt for you before."

"Thanks," said Jake, closing his eyes against her chest.

She continued running her fingers through his hair, having grown wiser about love in the past few minutes.

Love can sometimes mean not loving someone as well.

In a lavish mansion, tucked into a little hilly alcove in the Hamptons, a man climbed up the stairs from his basement. His immaculate white shirt was covered with some blood stains and there was more blood on his hands.

He stopped in front of a marble basin to wash it off. The marble turned a deep shade of red when the water swirled on it. He looked up at the mirror and smiled.

She had been a feisty one. His latest conquest. She came with the intention of showing him what she could really do. Her condescending sneer, her shrill laugh, they betrayed an unbreakable will and powerful confidence.

It took about half an hour of being chained down to break that will. The blood on his steel was not dry yet. He never killed a victim, that would burden him with the unnecessary hassle of a body to dispose of. It was always so much more fun to see them live with the horror of what he put them through. Like the girl in his basement right now – a whimpering, snivelling mass of human flesh, afraid of her own shadow

His hands sufficiently washed, he retired to his study. The sheer volume and scale of the books around him was fascinating. He sank into his plush armchair, letting the tiredness dissolve from his limbs.

He chose his victims carefully. They were all girls who had no one in their lives to really care about them. No one who would bother to notice something was different in the way they came back from his mansion. There was always the odd possibility of one of them mustering up the courage to go the authorities, but he had a network of strategically placed people in law enforcement, media and justice departments to ensure it was snuffed out.

That again was if some girl could work their way past the damage he inflicted on them to consider reporting. Most were just relieved to be away from him and lived in fear of him. Fear which meant they would rather not risk meeting him again.

He poured himself some vintage Bordeaux champagne. Something niggled at the back of his mind. He was supposed to get a portrait from one of his earliest victims, Katrina. She had fallen on such hard times, that she had agreed to paint his bloody fantasy, in turn reliving her experience. That phone call came two months ago and yet there was no sign of that portrait.

Could she have suddenly received money from somewhere? Possible.

Could she have beaten him at his game? Ehh.

He refused to even entertain the thought that someone could have evaded his dark mind games. It simply did not sit well with his ego. It seemed ludicrous, impossible.

"I'll investigate it further," he thought, making a mental note for later. "Looks like we might meet again, Katrina."

His thoughts were interrupted by his butler calling for him.

"Sir. Your investment experts have arrived."

"Get them seated downstairs. I'm coming," he said curtly, adding. "... and do clean up that awful mess downstairs. Tell Henry to drop the girl off near Easthampton. She can find her way back from there."

He drained his glass in one gulp and left to get dressed. The butler inwardly flinched at the thought of what he would see in the private chamber downstairs.

All in a day's work for the butler of a millionaire psychopath.