REPRESENTED (29 page)

              C.A.T. came into the bedroom when they slept and smelled the newcomer thoroughly.  Since the smell of Karin was on the newcomer and it was obvious she was welcome he decided that she was okay.  He lay down at the end of the bed and as it was a king sized bed they never realized he was even there as they curled up together in the center.  Karin woke up in the morning feeling refreshed for the first time in she didn’t know how long.  Cassie lay with her head on Karin’s shoulder.  Karin eased her off of it as her left arm had fallen asleep under her.  Cassie never woke and Karin looked over at the clock to see how early it was.  It was only 6a.m.  She watched Cassie sleep for a while and marveled at this beautiful woman loving her.  She loved her so much and wondered at the agreement they had made.  She hated the thought of getting involved in that crap again but for Cassie she would do it.  She hoped she could keep her safe and far from the bullshit that could and would go along with it.  It wasn’t Hollywood, maybe Nashville and record making would be different but then she thought, who was she fooling?

             
Cassie had asked her the previous night why she didn’t expose them, get the truth out.  She explained that was the beauty of a good blackmailer.  They held the threat of her family and loves; she held the power to tell.  Neither really wanted to execute or push what the other could do so both were kept quiet by their shared secret.  She wondered sometimes, who was more guilty, those who had perpetuated the crime or those who had covered it up.  Karin felt she was punished enough by the horror of the memories she had and she hoped God would punish those who had done the things they had.  She had to grasp on that thought as to think otherwise would mean they gotten away with such a horrible murder.

             
Karin tried to get away from her thoughts suppressing the worst of them.  She eased out of the bed and went into her bathroom and washed up.  Slipping into spandex she went first to her study and checked emails and then worked a while she then headed into the living room to work out.  She felt a little stiff having not worked out in a couple of days but she soon was rowing away.  D.O.G. watched as she worked up a sweat hoping she would decide to go for a jog.

             
Cassie woke up and stretched noting immediately that Karin wasn’t in the bed with her.  She looked at the digital clock on the bedside table and saw it was after seven.  She sat up to get up and froze.  Lying on the end of the bed was the largest cat she had ever seen in her life outside of a zoo.  It was watching her too now that she had moved.  It looked like a cheetah and she had never felt more terrified in her life.  It yawned and showed its impressive array of teeth.  Cassie didn’t know what to do.  This had to be C.A.T. but Karin had never warned her it was a cheetah!

             
“Karin!” she called carefully down the hall still watching the cat carefully.

             
“Yeah?” she heard back the call.

             
“Could you come in here please, and hurry?” she tried to get the warble out of her voice.

             
“Coming” Karin called as she got off the bike she was now on and hurried down the hall.  She came into the bedroom and saw an amusing sight.  Cassie was curled up as high up on the bed as she could manage with the sheet pulled up to her neck as though that would ward off the large cat who was now sitting on the end of the bed watching her intently.

             
“Will she attack?” Cassie squeaked out.

             
Karin laughed as she headed to the end of the bed and shoved the cat who looked at her like she was crazy.  Karin leaned on the cat, making him lay down, and started petting him and then flipped him on his back so he looked silly.  “He’s more afraid of you than you are of him” she said as she wrestled with her cat.

             
Cassie was amazed to hear him purr as Karin nuzzled him along his neck “I don’t think he is, I think I wet your bed” she told her lover as she watched in amazement.

             
Karin laughed as she tickled and teased the huge cat.

             
“You didn’t tell me she was a cheetah.”

             
“
He
is not a cheetah,
he
is a Savannah and that’s what makes the difference.  He’s legal and he’s
mine
” she stretched out next to the cat and Cassie was amazed to see him throw his paw over in the closest thing she could imagine a cat hug could be.  Karin made huge sweeping motions as she petted the cat down the length of his big body.  “Or maybe, I’m
his
” she amended.

             
“Will he let me pet him?” Cassie felt brave enough to ask as she admired the huge cat which seemed to adore the same woman as she did.

             
“Sure, give me your hand” Karin reached out to Cassie.

             
“Why, are you going to feed him it?”

             
Karin laughed and answered “only if you tick me off, come here” she ordered.

             
Cassie soon found herself petting the beautiful cat.  He exuded power though with his muscular body and she was amazed at how mellow he was.  He had smelled her hand thoroughly before she began petting his head and then his muscular body.  He was really incredible and Cassie admired him.  He heard something in the living room though and bounded off the bed as though they weren’t there.  Karin lay there and watched Cassie with a grin on her face.

             
“Any other wild animals you have hidden here?” Cassie asked dryly as she lay there shaking her head at her friend and lover.

             
“Nope, that’s enough” she grinned wider.

             
Cassie noticed the spandex and asked “are you going out jogging?”

             
Karin shook her head “nope, I thought I’d spend the day in bed with you” and started moving up the bed as though a predatory cat.  Cassie grinned in response, what a delightful way to wake up.

             
They didn’t spend the
whole
day in bed, Karin showed her the apartment in the daylight and while still cold its clean surfaces made more sense to Cassie now that she had seen all of it.  Karin wasn’t here often enough to warrant having knick knacks or bric a braq that needed dusting and care.  When she witnessed the cat and dog playing in the living room she understood better the need to keep the room bare.  She thought it was clever the doggie door panel so the two animals could go outside and do their duty any time they felt the urge.  They were both potty trained and she was impressed.  She was amazed that Karin hadn’t told her all this but then she realized Karin kept a lot of secrets but they really weren’t all secrets, she was open and honest, you just had to ask the right questions.

             
They went to the dog park in the late afternoon and D.O.G. had a good work out.  Karin explained she couldn’t bring C.A.T. down here as it would drive the other dogs insane.  They walked him later and Cassie was amused at all the stares and comments they got on the streets.  Cassie was recognized too and signed a few autographs.  “Relish that, soon you won’t be able to walk down a street almost anywhere without paparazzi hounding you much less your fans” Karin told her.

             
Cassie laughed sure that Karin was teasing her but looking at Karin’s face she thought
maybe not
.

             
Cassie went with Karin the next day as she agreed to Elliott’s terms.  She saw the cold side of Karin as they closeted themselves with two of her assistants in her cold and pristine office.  It was worse than parts of her apartment Cassie thought.  Karin proved she had been thinking a lot about a course of action and Cassie was exhausted as she outlined what she planned to do and assigned homework for Cassie as well as her assistants.  Homework!  Cassie realized then she was in for a lot of work as she saw with amazement the machine that was Karin Myers begin to work.  The assistants took notes furiously and kept up amazingly well as Karin outlined their ‘course of attack’ and assigned duties to team members.  It was exhausting to watch her work but her lightening swift mind and glittering eyes were attractive as hell to Cassie.

As their meeting for Cassie’s career and work concluded, the assistants making final suggestions and asking questions that Karin answered and addressed rapidly, Cassie decided to hang around as she retired to a leather couch in the corner of Karin’s office to watch her work her magic otherwise.  An assistant came in with a set of sandwiches and some juice for Karin and Cassie.

              Cassie was amazed that Karin not only was concentrating on her own career but managed to juggle many other different clients.  She didn’t give them all the personal care that she was giving Cassie but she kept on top of things through her assistants and teams.  The stack of papers that Karin had created by the end of the second day boggled Cassie’s mind. 

Karin gave her a laptop and a set of DVD’s she wanted her to review as Karin worked, she put on a set of headphones. 
She watched hours of interviews and videos to get a feel for some of the concepts Karin wanted implemented.  She wasn’t going to waste any time.  One of the amazing side effects was that Cassie’s own natural creativity began to rise up; she took notes of course but also began to sketch out songs she wanted to see where they would go when she had more time to flesh them out.

              One of the first things Karin set up a press release that their legal department went over with a fine tooth comb before she gave it to her various contacts in both New York as well as Los Angeles.  She explained she wanted the Nashville contacts to by vying for her attention.  It carefully worded the release of Travis Collins as her manager and Karin had even taken the high road in not letting on that it was for embezzlement.  She used other contacts to let that ‘leak’ out explaining this was an information game and they would be playing both sides of the street here.  Then she got them both into Nashville and they did housecleaning getting into Cassie’s office and firing everyone who had been involved in Travis’ schemes.  They weren’t told it was for that reason but after the accountants investigation they had a pretty good idea of who did what.  The new people were thoroughly vetted by people that Karin trusted and Cassie found amazing the amount of work these people did but seeing Karin on a roll was inspiring and awesome.

             
Karin brought in several people she knew and could trust and they all got to work setting up new procedures so Cassie would never again be taken advantage of in such a way.  They got Cassie to start giving ‘free’ concerts around the country at LGBT events and appear in every parade that asked her giving her exposure and publicity to the hilt.  Chet, Alex and the rest of the band she brought on board to help find new talent, new writers, and to scout out their ideas.  The boardroom table was used endlessly by the group and everyone approved Karin’s plans.  The guys in the band were thrilled at the leaps forward that would have been over-whelming had they not been so much fun.  The creativity with everyone in a positive mood was taken to new heights, their own stable of songs was increasing as everyone chimed in with their own ideas and Cassie fleshed out her own songs which the band loved.

             
They were going to make Cassie sexier if that were possible and get her name out there on several levels, Country, Southern Rock, crossover to Pop.  Free publicity from the appearances she was making would plant seeds that would sprout them a crop they could harvest later.  Cassie had never been busier and she was loving it.  Karin introduced her to people who had worked with Melissa Manchester, K.D. Lang, Faith Hill, Celine Dion, Shania Twain and other high profile and talented women in the industry who had made a mark.  It was a hard sell to some of the ‘good ole boy’ networks but with what Karin had in mind for videos and using the new songs that they were creating it just might work to win those good ole boys over.

             
“You want me to copy them?” she indicated the video of the female artist she watching on the flat screen Karin had brought into her living room.

             
“No, I want you to observe them, to imitate what you like about each of them but I want you to be you, Cassie Summers is awesome, now we are going to show them how awesome!” she looked up from the stack of paperwork that had been Fedexed to her since she was staying at Cassie’s house.

             
Cassie hadn’t realized how much someone like Karin worked, how hard, how much she did for someone like Cassie.  The 20% her firm was getting was well earned.  Cassie had already endorsed several companies through Curve Magazine as well as The Advocate and in the coming months her picture would be splashed all over.

             
“You’re gay, you can’t come out twice but maybe we can capitalize on it now” Karin told her.

             
She arranged for a re-release of her book and Cassie did promos that Travis had never pursued.

             
Karin even re-vamped her website and set up accounts via Twitter and Facebook for her.  She kept up on that herself originally and then assigned them to an assistant as they became too large.  She just simply didn’t have the time to do it all herself but what she set in motion she wanted to keep in motion.  Their website, Twitter, and Facebook pages grew by leaps and bounds, the following and support made Cassie very happy to read and follow.  She assigned assistants to handling the social media sites and to keep the fan clubs in the loop because that was free P.R.  The fans loved keeping up on all the news surrounding Cassie Summers.  It was becoming a whirlwind and Karin kept the momentum going.