A Stainless Steel Cat (7 page)

Darnell smiled as he started thinking up a plan to deal with both of them at once.

"Here's why I want him mad, sweetheart." Royce said as they sat down on his couch and Tam cuddled up to him. "Darnell can't control his temper. We saw that upstairs the other day. That's the thing. If your enemy is angry and can't control it, he gets stupid. If he comes at me stupid, I have the advantage."

"Or you could end up dead, Royce." Tam said quietly and squeezed him around the chest tightly as she cuddled up to his side with his arm around her shoulders and back.

"That's always a possibility, but I've faced him down before." He shrugged and squeezed her tight. "Don't worry, Tam. I can handle myself."

"I know you can, baby. Shit, if the cops hadn't shown up, you might have beaten him eventually. It was lucky he wasn't strapped, though. He usually carries a 9mm Glock." Tam held him tighter, shivering at the thought of what might have happened if Darnell had brought his gun.

"You have a point, baby girl." Royce tilted her chin up and kissed her full luscious lips lovingly. "I promise that I won't mess with him anymore." It hurt to swallow his pride like that, but he didn't want to risk hurting Tam.

"I know I do, baby. Now, I need to go out for a bit. Can I get you something while I'm out?" She asked.

"Ok, and don't worry about it. I have to go see a potential client anyway." Royce was thankful for her appointment. "I also need to get my driver's license so I can buy that motorcycle I was looking at last week." He smirked.

"Ooooh, what kind of bike are you looking to get?" She asked with a grin.

"Well, I'm going to save up for a Ducati, and the job I'm looking to get might just pay enough for me to afford it." He smiled and kissed her lovingly.

"Mmmmm, big spender!" She giggled as she broke the kiss. She gathered up her backpack with her laptop and kissed him again before heading out the door.

"God, I'm in love with her." Royce muttered to himself wonderingly after she'd left. He put his suit jacket back on and grabbed a tie for this one. He absolutely hated ties, but found that a tie could make the difference between suspicion and acceptance of his presence someplace where he might not be otherwise welcome.

He grabbed the newspaper clipping on the State Senator he was investigating. Daylight recon was called for at the Senator's L.A. office. Once he slicked his hair back and applied some gel, and looked at his steel gray eyes in the mirror to gauge the reaction of any females around him. He looked GQ enough, he thought. He grabbed his briefcase that contained several tools of his trade, and locked his door as he left. He left a note for Tam, in case she got back first, to get the spare key from the Manager, since she'd been made aware of the situation already, and Tam's place would have the locks changed by Wednesday.

Tam sat in a Starbucks and stared at her screen. She had just Googled Shiloh Royce, and his story checked out. He really was just an orphan with no special training... officially, anyway. She hacked into Homeland with her backdoor access code, and found nothing on him. His DNA had been put into the system when he was still at the orphanage, but there were no familial matches on file. On the surface, he really was a ghost. Nobody seemed to know who his parents were, at least in the government.

'Who are you, Shiloh Royce?' She thought to herself as she did a more comprehensive search. She felt a little guilty about prying like this, but she had to know what he was doing. He had a credit union account up in Sacramento under S. Royce, and she found out that he had just over $20,000 in his account. Her eyes went wide at that, and she whistled softly. "Mr. Moneybags." She chuckled softly. "I guess freelance security consultants make some pretty big bucks."

Tam thought for a bit. Something had been nagging her, and she played a hunch. She Googled any pics of 'The Steel Cat' from security cameras, and found the one the police had released as part of his description. She watched the way he moved, and her jaw nearly hit the tabletop as the full realization hit her.

Royce walked into the State Senator's office building and made a beeline for the elevator. He spared a smile for the girl behind the reception counter and got a shy smile in return. The Senator was in Sacramento this week, from what the article had said. He would be facing an inquiry about his recent business dealings and a possible Conflict of Interest charge. On the surface, he seemed innocent, but that was why Royce was here.

He stepped off the elevator onto the 15th floor and made a right towards the Senator's office. He pulled on his leather gloves, and quickly checked for security cameras. He was a little surprised that only one camera covered the Senator's door. Royce made sure that he stayed out of the camera's field of vision and reached up with his blued steel dagger. He worked a wire loose with it until the red light on the camera itself went out. Cheap soldering in a cheap camera. He pushed the pulled part of the wire back into the ceiling where it wouldn't show, and turned his attention to the door.

He grinned wryly at that, and proceeded to pick the lock on the Senator's office door. He was now on a timer, since the security goons would soon realize that the camera had gone out. He figured he had about five to eight minutes before a security patrol showed up.

Once inside, he locked the deadbolt again and searched the place quickly and methodically. He found the safe behind Senator Keen's desk, and it was a standard combination lock. He used the stethoscope and cracked it in less than a minute.

Inside were documents, and Royce took them along with the cash in there. All of it went into his briefcase, and he chuckled to himself that he wouldn't even have to come back that night. The ease of cracking the cheap safe had given him the idea to do more than just recon that day.

Once everything was secured, he started back for the door, and heard voices outside coming his way. He ducked down under the Senator's receptionist's desk as he listened to the conversation out in the hallway.

"Yeah, here it is. Damn cameras! I told them we should have gone with better shit! These are always breaking down!" Security Goon 1 said.

"Budget cutbacks, man. You know how it goes." Security Goon 2 replied with an audible shrug, pacifying his buddy as much as possible.

"Should we check the offices anyway?" Goon 1 suggested.

"Nah, no point. No sign of tampering, and the office is locked still." Goon 2 reported after trying the handle on the Senator's door.

Royce smirked as the guards' footsteps retreated down the hall to the elevators, and he gave it five minutes before letting himself out and headed out himself.

He looked like a professional in his Armani knockoff suit and briefcase. He wasn't even given a second glance except for a few women and the receptionist of course. She gave him a beautiful smile as he walked out, and he inclined his head politely to her in acknowledgment.

It had been so easy! He stopped by a Staples and had some business cards made with his "S. Royce, Freelance Security Consultant" on them. He then went to the closest DMV to take his drivers' exam, and motorcycle operator too. He passed all the tests, and paid the small rental fees for the DMV car and motorcycle he'd used to take the driving portion of the tests.

When he got back to his apartment, he went inside and discovered that Tam hadn't returned yet. He had a moment, so he went to the bedroom and put the briefcase back behind the loose piece of wall. He would count his take the next time Tam went out.

He was sitting in the living room watching the News when Tam came in with a smile on her lovely face. He looked at her and smiled back. "Hey, Beautiful." He said as he admired her.

"Hi, baby." She replied and leaned down to kiss him. "How did the job interview go?" She asked.

"They said they'd get back to me." He shrugged. "I think I impressed them, though." He handed her one of his new cards.

"Pretty nice, baby!" She grinned as she plopped down beside him. "So, Cat. Are you going to hit someone else tonight?"

Royce's blood ran cold as she said those words.

"How did you know?" Royce asked softly, refusing to meet her gaze.

"I figured it out. Were you ever going to tell me?" Tam replied and put her hand on his cheek.

"Yes, when I trusted you more." He gulped as his worst fear had been realized. He'd been so careful. Nobody even suspected him, but here was the woman he was falling for, and she had figured it out within a few days of close contact with him.

"When would that be?" She asked archly.

"Tam, we've really known each other for only a few days." He said, then took a deep breath and continued. "I wanted to tell you, but I was afraid. Ok?"

"Afraid of what?" She asked, a concerned tone in her voice.

"That you would turn me in to the cops." He said, looking away from her.

"Why do you think I would do that?"

"Because unlike me, you're an upstanding citizen who doesn't justify stealing by acting as a vigilante." He snapped, looking at her with a fire in his steel gray eyes.

Tam, to his surprise, laughed musically at that. "Oh, honey. If you only knew."

Royce blinked a few times. "What do you mean by that?" He asked in an accusing tone.

"Have you heard of black_fire?" She asked with a smirk.

"No, should I have?" He replied with a puzzled look on his face.

"That's exactly how it should be. Nobody knows who black_fire is." She pronounced it 'black underscore fire'.

"Let me guess. A hacker?" He smirked.

"You're lookin' at her." She smirked right back.

Royce laughed. "Oh, you had me going there for a minute!"

"How else could I do this?" She opened her laptop and brought up his account information at Golden State Credit Union. She turned the screen to show him.

Royce stared in disbelief at that. "Ok, what are you going to do with that?" He asked stiffly. "If you are going to blackmail me, I'll just turn myself in and take my chances with the cops."

"Jesus, Royce! Calm down!" She sighed in exasperation. "I'm not like the people you can't trust, ok? Just trust me!"

Royce took several deep breaths. "Ok, I'm listening. What is the point to all this?"

"The point, Sherlock, is that we now know each other's deepest darkest secrets. Every relationship should be built on trust, and now I'm showing you that you can trust me, and I'm showing you that I trust you too." She explained it to the dawning comprehension in his eyes. He closed his eyes and gave her a laughing sigh of relief.

He looked up at her, smiling, and pulled her face to his for a long lingering kiss. Her tongue met his, tasting, touching, caressing, dancing together. Her full dark lips met his in a true lovers' kiss that spoke to their souls.

Darnell plowed into the white cunt beneath him, pounding her harder and harder as Celestia screamed his name over and over.

"Fuck yeah, bitch! Whose pussy is this?" He demanded as he fucked her harder and harder, working out his anger from that morning.

"Yours, baby! Fuck this pussy! It's your pussy, baby!" Celestia shouted as the big black dick plundered her pulsating pussy.

That did it for him, and Darnell shot his wad into her, then pulled out just as she was on the cusp of coming herself. "Ahhh, thanks, bitch." He said without ceremony and started dressing again after wiping his cock on her thigh.

"What the hell, D? I was this close!" She put her thumb and forefinger about a half inch apart to show him how close she'd been to coming.

"Not my problem, bitch. That's my pussy now, and don't you fuckin' forget it." He sneered at the white ho on the table. He finished dressing and walked out of her dressing room, leaving her high and dry with a pussy full of his cum.

"Fucking asshole!" She muttered under her breath as she went and grabbed a washcloth and held it under the running water in her sink. She wiped herself clean, then grabbed a douche and headed into the bathroom to wash him out of her. "That fucking son of a bitch." She snarled. "I'm going to teach him a fucking lesson!"

Darnell, having gotten his rocks off, made the rounds at the club, greeting his team of Enforcers. He knew they were loyal to Mr. Wolfe, but he had to see if any of them were loyal to him more than the Boss. He had taken a cue from his Boss and paid them from his own paycheck, and gave them the run of any girls he hadn't claimed for himself already. He had twenty men under his command, and slowly sowed the seeds of discord about how their Boss didn't treat them as well as he did. He reminded them that almost a quarter of their paychecks came out of his own pockets.

Mr. Wolfe had always paid his Enforcers well, and always gave the Chief Enforcer a hefty raise. He could well afford to pay his boys and still have some left over to live the life he wanted. This was about more than money, though. More than respect, even. This was about power to Darnell. If he could get rid of the Boss and his enemies at the same time, all the better. His plan was coming along nicely, and he smiled as he thought about giving the orders instead of taking them.

As Tam and Royce lay in bed together, breathing heavily after another round of torrid lovemaking, Royce finally broke the silence. "So, you're a cyber vigilante?" He asked with a smile.

"Something like that." She giggled, remembering their conversation on the couch. "I started off just in it for myself, but I felt like shit ripping off people who didn't deserve it. So I shifted my focus." She shrugged and held him close. "Now I go after corrupt companies and criminal organizations."

"Oh, like Mr. Wolfe?" Royce raised an eyebrow at her.

"Hell no! Not that I wouldn't like to, but his IT guy, Ray Hammond, is one of the best around. He's pretty much my equal when it comes to computers." Tam admitted begrudgingly.

"Honestly, as far as crime bosses go, Wolfe isn't all that bad, from what I've heard." Royce said with a shrug as he nuzzled her neck.

"Mmmm, that feels good, baby." Tam replied in a sultry tone. "If you aren't careful, I may just get worked up again."

"That's what I'm counting on, baby girl." He replied in a whisper, kissing her neck and sucking lightly below her ear.