Black Kat (11 page)

But Kat didn’t care about his money, and she not only accepted his dark
er side but seemed to enjoy it.  Standing with the glass of vodka that she had brought him in his hand, looking at the incandescent woman before him, Alexander vowed to break down the walls surrounding Katya Rossi and have her for himself.  No matter what he had to do or how long it took.

Chapter Fourteen

“Showtime, girls,” Ron called, sticking his balding head inside the door of the employee break room.  Frowning, he looked around at the three women putting the finishing touches on themselves.

“Where
the fuck is Larissa?” he barked in Kat’s direction.

Kat met his eyes in the mirror and shrugged.  The two other cocktail waitresses
on shift filed out, scooting by Ron.

“She’d better get her ass here in the next five minutes or she’s fired,” he grumbled.  Looking back to Kat, he tacked on, “the Feds are out here for you, Kat.  You’ve got ten minutes to
get rid of them.  It’s bad for business…”  His voice trailed off as he walked away and the door shut behind him.

Kat wasn’t totally surprised Colin had come to see her at work, considering she had been ignoring his calls and texts for the last week since seeing him before the charity gala. 
With Alexander.  But right now, her bigger worry was Larissa and where the hell she was.

Picking up her phone, Kat sent a third text to Larissa.

Kat:  Ron is pissed.  Are you okay?

Setting her phone to vibrate and tucking it inside her green suede bra top, Kat went to deal with Colin.  He was standing off to the side near the front entrance with his new partner, who Kat had not officially met.  In his dark suit and tie, standing at alert like he was about to take a bullet for the President, Colin screamed Fed - and looked completely out of place in The Garden of Eden.  Even more than Alexander had when he had been here.

Colin’s blue eyes tracked her movements until she stood before him and crossed her arms defensively over her barely covered chest.

“Hi, Colin.”

He sighed heavily.  “Hi, Kat.”

She stood motionless, waiting for him to get to the reason for his visit, while his partner watched with unabashed interest.  Colin shot him an irritated glance and
reached out to guide Kat toward the door.

“Can we go outside and talk privately?” he asked.

Kat hesitated, looking to see if Ron was watching.  He would be glad that Colin was no longer inside, but he wouldn’t be too happy about Kat leaving as well.

“Don’t worry about your asshole of a boss
.  I’ll have agents tearing this place apart if he gives you any trouble,” Colin said.

“Okay, but I only have a few minutes.”

Kat walked through the door he held open.  There was still a chill in the air, especially at night, and Kat wrapped her arms around herself more tightly to keep from shivering.  Colin immediately shrugged out of his jacket and held it out for her.  After a moment Kat turned around and allowed him to drape it over her shoulders.  She was grateful for the warmth and the coverage.  It was one thing to have the customers leering at her, but it was a whole other level of awkwardness to be that exposed with Colin.

Colin planted his hands on his hips and shook his head at the ground as if he were searching for words.  He was nearly as tall as Alexander, and they had similar builds - lean and muscular. 
But that’s where the similarities ended.  Colin’s brown hair was short, and his eyes were light blue.  First as a cop and now as an FBI agent, his whole life was played by the book.

Alexander’s black hair was wavy and just a little bit unruly.  His eyes were just as dark and gave away nothing.  If you saw something in his eyes, it was only because he wanted you to
see it.  And his moral and ethical compass was certainly not pointing in the same direction as Colin’s.

Colin looked up at her
, and his blue eyes were burning with intensity.  He rubbed one hand over his hair as he spoke.

“Kat…I don’t know what you think you’re doing with
Petrovsky, but he is trouble.  I’ve been investigating him for over two years now, and it kills me to see you with him…with his hands on you…” Colin’s voice ended on a strangled growl, and Kat could feel how much turmoil this was causing him.

She knew what department he worked for in the bureau, and though he had never talked about his cases specifically, it didn’t surprise her that Alexander was being investigated.  Colin was good at his job, and the fact that he
had nothing on Alexander after two years told her just how capable and skilled Alexander was at his own job.

He looked so distraught that Kat instinctively reached out and touched his arm.  Colin jerked his head up in surprise and then stared at her hand on his arm.  She knew that besides that hug outside
The Violet Vixen almost two weeks ago, this was only the second time she had ever initiated physical contact with him.

“Colin, I don’t want you to worry about me.  I truly appreciate everything you’ve done for me.  But I need justice.  I need it, Colin, to be able to move on. 
If I can.”

“He’s not the answer, Kat.”

“You can’t help me anymore, Colin.  Your hands are tied by your job, by the law.  Alexander has…resources…that you and I don’t.  And you know I can take care of myself.”

Colin shoved both hands
on top of his head and paced a few steps away and back.  His shoulders were tense, straining against his light blue shirt, his holster rippling with his muscles as he stalked back and forth.

“
Godammit, Kat!” he said harshly.  “This isn’t just about you taking care of yourself.  The thought of you with him makes me sick.  Literally sick to my stomach.”

“I’m not
with
him, Colin.  We have a business relationship.”

Colin scoffed.  “Do you honestly think he doesn’t have ulterior motives?  He’s a man, Kat.  A man who’s used to getting what he wants.  And you’re…you’re beautiful and irresistible.”

Kat fidgeted with the lapels of Colin’s jacket, drawing them closer around her.  She could feel the conversation going into territory they had never covered before, though she had always known on some level that his feelings for her went beyond friendship.  She looked down at the ground as she kicked some loose stones with the toe of her green suede boot.

“Kat,” Colin
whispered, his voice closer as he now stood directly in front of her.

Kat reluctantly raised her face and was struck by the emotions churning in his eyes.

“I’ve never wanted to push you, but…I’ve always…  Shit.  If you’re ready to open yourself up to a man, I want it to be me.”

Kat bit her lip, the urge to bolt inside nearly overwhelming.  “I’m not…that’s not what I’m doing with Alexander.”

Colin winced when she spoke his name.

“I’m not ready for…that.  I don’t know if I ever will be,” Kat said honestly, though the thought of being with a man wasn’t as foreign as it had been even two weeks ago.  Kat didn’t mention that, or that it wasn’t the man in front of her that was triggering
new feelings.

Colin ran his hand lightly down her arm and captured her hand in his.  Giving it a gentle squeeze, he said, “Just
know that the way I feel about you will never change, Kat.  But I will never ask for more than you can give me.”

If Kat were prone to tears, she would have welled up at the most sincere and heartfelt words ever spoken to her.  Instead she squeezed his hand back and didn’t let go.

“Thank you, Colin.”

“Will you at least keep me in the loop about what kind of information you’re getting from
Petrovsky?”  Alexander’s name came out as more of a swear word than a name.

Kat raised her eyebrows.

“Off the record.  For my piece of mind,” Colin added.

Kat nodded.  “Okay.”  This wasn’t the first or the last lie she would tell Colin.  But keeping Colin and Alexander as far apart as possible seemed like the smartest course of action.  After she had what she wanted they could go back to being mortal enemies and she wouldn’t be stuck in the
middle.

It had to have been more than ten minutes since they had come outside, and Ron was probably furious.  Kat let the jacket fall from her shoulders and held it out to Colin.  She waited while he shrugged it on.  She couldn’t give him what he wanted - not her heart or anything on Alexander.  But she could give him something that he would know was hard for her.  Stepping into him, Kat wrapped her arms around his waist and
lay her head against his chest.

Colin hesitated only for a split second and then hugged her tightly.  He rested his cheek on top of her head, and she could have sworn she felt him kiss her hair.  It felt like she was saying goodbye, and she supposed she was.  It was made that much sadder by the fact that Colin had no idea.

As Kat stood in Colin’s embrace, she realized she didn’t feel skittish or afraid.  She felt warm and safe.  Slowly pulling back, Kat raised up on tiptoe and kissed Colin’s cheek.

“I’ll talk to you soon,” she said over her shoulder as she went back inside.

Colin’s partner was leaning against the wall just where they had left.  Kat ignored him as she walked by and went straight to the bar.  While she got an earful from Ron, she loaded a tray with bottles of beer for the table in the corner.  It was a half hour into the shift and Larissa still hadn’t shown up.

Two hours later when Kat was finally able to slip away from the floor
for a quick break, she checked her phone.  Nothing.  She typed in another text to Larissa.

Kat:  Where are you?  I’m about to call the police.

Kat paced the length of the break room restlessly until her phone vibrated on the vanity counter.  Lunging for it, Kat read the text.

Larissa:  No police.  I need your help.

Shit.

Kat:  What happened?

Larissa:  Zeus

Kat thought back to the times when Larissa had shrugged off a bruise on her arm or explained away a sore wrist.  That mother fucker had hit her again.  Anger was a familiar emotion for Kat, and it easily bubbled to the surface.  Not bothering to change out of her costume, Kat threw on her leather jacket and grabbed her bag.

She tore out of the break room and ran straight into Ron.

“Where the fuck do you think you’re going?”

“Larissa’s sick.  That’s why she didn’t come in.  She needs help,” Kat said, trying to sidestep around Ron.  He was surprisingly nimble for someone so
large and round.

“No fucking way.  She’s already done.  If you leave, you can kiss your job goodbye too.”

Kat considered this for only two seconds.  She did need a job, but with three years of cocktailing experience she was sure she could easily get hired on somewhere else.  And what if Zeus came back?  Larissa was the closest thing she had to a friend, outside of Colin, and she needed Kat’s help.

Without a word, Kat faked out Ron and strode down the hall, slamming the back door open so hard it hit the brick wall on the outside.

“I’m serious, Kat.  Don’t think you can come back here!” Ron shouted behind her.

Kat flipped him off over her shoulder.

Twenty minutes later, Kat pulled into the parking lot of the shoddy apartment complex Larissa lived in.  It was on the opposite side of the city from where Kat lived, but it wasn’t any nicer.  She had never been here before, so she had to promise Larissa she would come alone before she sent back her address.

Kat took the steps two at a time to the third floor and rapped loudly on Larissa’s door.  Her bag hung off her shoulder, so her gun was easy access.  She wished she could have stopped at home and picked up Blade, but she was too worried about Larissa.

When there was no answer, Kat tried the knob prepared to kick the door in if she had to.  But the knob turned and the door swung open.  Kat sucked in a breath at the sight of the small living room.  The couch pillows were overturned, the lamp was broken, and the glass coffee table was shattered in shards on the floor.  But what had Kat really seeing red was Larissa, curled into a ball in the corner.  Her hair was a tangled mess, but Kat could see her left eye was swollen shut and her lip was busted.  There was blood all over her white shirt and dark purple bruises lined her upper arms.

Larissa was clutching her arms tightly around her stomach and tears were running silently down her cheeks.  She didn’t even notice Kat.

Kat shut and locked the door, and walked over to Larissa, her boots crunching over the broken glass. Crouching down, she touched Larissa’s shoulder.  Larissa jerked and dropped the phone she was clutching in her hand.

“Kat,” she moaned.

“Oh my God, Larissa,” Kat breathed, smoothing some of the matted hair back from Larissa’s face.  “We have to get you out of here.  And we have to call the police.”

“No!” Larissa cried, reaching out to grip Kat’s arms.  “No.  It will be worse if I call the police.”

Kat sighed in frustration.  “Okay, well we have to get you out of here.  And you need to go to the hospital.”

Larissa was crying fresh tears and shaking her head.  “I can’t…they’ll call the police.”

Kat wanted to shake some sense into her, but the way she was holding her upper body made Kat think of broken ribs…or worse.  “The police can protect you, Larissa.”