The Remote Seduction (11 page)

Richard watches the store for an extra
long moment and then drives down the block.

*****

It’s now four o’clock in the
morning.
 
In the Gothic manor…

Felix sits in a leather chair by the
fire, sipping a cordial and reading Wuthering Heights.
 
Katrina enters the room.
 
A sexy, hopeful grin creeps into
Felix's expression as he senses Katrina's presence.

He keeps his eyes on the fire, almost as
if he were nervous, first date, first time nervous.
 
“Bravo.
 
You
retrieved the remote and caught a traitor.”

“You caught the traitor,” she points out
as she moves closer to Felix.
 
“That wasn't the only remote, was it?
 
You have one here, right in that basket.”

Felix puts the book and cordial down and
stands up.
 
He faces Katrina.
 
There’s vulnerability and worry in his
expression.
 
“Is that the only
reason why you came back here?”

The heat, the longing, the desire, the
love radiating from Felix touches her inner most being and flames every part of
her.
 
Her cheeks turn rose red as
her breathing shallows.
 
She can
barely manage a whisper. “When did you discover we were Paolo and Francesca?”

Felix moves towards Katrina.
 
Their eyes locked.
 
“When I came to see you in your
store.
 
Between our first encounter
when I held you in my arms and then saw the painting.
 
I knew.
 
That
encounter was as I always dreamt it would be if we were ever to meet.”

“I dreamt that, too,” she shares.
 
They move closer to each other, their
eyes locked in an intense gaze.

“Have you changed your mind about your
favorite George Sand quote?” Felix asks.

“You never told me yours,” Katrina points
out.

“The one that comes to mind at this
moment,” he starts as he moves closer to her so they are now close enough to
slow dance. With his lips just inches from hers, they are moments away from
making unforgettable, passionate, explosive love.

His gaze intensifies as he shares the
quote with her.
 
"Once my
heart was captured, reason was shown the door, deliberately and with a sort of
frantic joy. I accepted everything, I believed everything, without struggle,
without suffering, without regret, without false shame. How can one blush for
what one adores?"

Felix leans in and kisses Katrina.
 
The kiss is tender, romantic,
lingering.
 
They’re savoring the
moment.
 
He pulls away only long
enough to whisper in her ear “I want you in my embrace forever,
Francesca.”
 
He sweeps her in his
arms, his lips finding hers again in a hungry kiss. Passion, longing and desire
enter the mix and their kiss becomes hot and primal as he pulls her as close as
he can, their bodies molding together.

“Isn't this cozy,” Richard smirks.

Katrina and Felix pull apart; they turn
to see Richard standing in the doorway, pointing a gun at them.
 

“Yeah, I'm brighter than I look,” Richard
quips off of their surprised looks.

Richard enters the room, gun still
pointed at them. “You must have known something would go down, that's why you
boobie trapped the remote.”

“I just didn't know which one of you was
the bigger traitor.”

“I'm sure the remote you blew up wasn't
the prototype,” Richard looks around the room. “It's somewhere in here, right?”

Richard spies the basket of remotes on
the table.
 
“It's in that basket, isn't
it?”

Felix doesn’t answer, his silence is
answer enough.

“Bring it to me!” Richard hollers at
Katrina.

She does as she's told.
 
Richard looks through the basket, finds
the remote he's looking for and takes it.
 
“Remember my final words to you, Felix? ‘I swear to God if it's the last
thing I do I will get the remote back and I will kill you.’
 
Well, I've got the remote, now it's
time to kill you.”

Richard cocks the gun ready to shoot
Felix.

Tears well up in Katrina’s eyes. “Please
don't kill him!” Katrina begs, the depth of love in her voice evident to Felix.

“You're next, sweetheart,” Richard grins.

Just as Richard is about to pull the
trigger, Sully enters the room, his gun cocked.

“Richard!” Sully calls.

Richard turns, shoots Sully just as Sully
shoots Richard.
 
They both go down.

“No!!!” Katrina gasps as she watches
Sully get shot.
 
Katrina rushes to
Sully who is seriously wounded.
 
She cradles him.
 
Seeing him
shot and now barely holding on, there’s a part of her that realizes she does
care for him, pretty deeply.
 
“Hold
on, Sully. It's going to be okay,” she reassures him as she lovingly strokes
his head.

Felix checks on Richard, he's dead.
 
He calls to Sigmund to call 911 and
then joins Katrina who is cradling the wounded and now unconscious Sully.

“Everything here is in Sigmund’s name, he
knows what needs to be done.
 
I am
a ghost with a name on the covert world’s most wanted list.
 
Walter and Richard made sure to put a
target on me,” Felix tells Katrina.
 

Katrina nods.
 
“I understand, do what you need to do,” she reassures Felix
even though her eyes reveal to him that she will be devastated if he
disappears.
 
He tenderly touches
her, their eyes lock for one last intense connection.
 
Felix breaks the connection, looking away so she doesn’t see
his tears and how much this is devastating him.
 
And then he leaves as the sounds of the approaching sirens
can be heard.
 

*****

Katrina waits in the emergency room of
the hospital.
 
She is super
worried. She had been so ready to walk away from Sully, but his heartfelt
conviction of his feelings for her, him taking a bullet for her, and the way
she felt when she was with him on that magical date, the way he touched her,
flood her thoughts.

The doctor approaches.
 
“He's out of the woods,” the doctor
tells Katrina.
 
Katrina sighs
relief.
 
She heads into Sully's
room.

Sully appears to be sleeping.
 
Katrina approaches the side of his
bed.
 
She tenderly touches his
face.
 
His eyes open.
 
He looks relieved to see her.
 
She gives him a reassuring smile.

“Thank you. You saved our lives,” she
tenderly says, her eyes misting.

“I’m so, so sorry,” he tells her.

She smiles warmly at him. “I know.”

“It was real, I do love you, and I did
see the painting in the museum so I know who Felix is,” Sully reveals with
heartbreak in his eyes.
 
“Our intel
told us Paolo was a college kid. Felix sure knows how to cover his tracks,”
Sully says with a small ironic grin.

Katrina touches his face again, giving
him an affectionate smile that he happily receives; her feelings for him messy,
complicated and conflicted, something else he sees in her eyes.

*****

Days later, Katrina is at work at the
cashier counter in the Chick Lit Bookstore.

A sharply dressed, worldly, middle-aged
woman peruses the shelves.
 
This
woman looks like she’d be a tiger in the boardroom and the life of the party in
a pub.

Sully enters holding the stuffed
gorilla.
 
Katrina smiles at both
Sully and the gorilla.

“I was hoping you might want him back,”
Sully says. “Or at the very least share joint custody,” Sully quips mustering a
bit of twinkle even though he’s nervous as hell.

“I would love to have him hang out here
at the bookstore,” Katrina replies, playing off of Sully’s twinkle.
 
Sully hands the gorilla to Katrina.

“Good, because he was getting used to me
reading to him,” Sully continues with the teasing, enjoying the renewed
connection between them even if it is just plutonic.

“How are you feeling?” Katrina asks,
sincerely interested which Sully notes and deeply appreciates.

“Better,” he replies.
 
He gulps before asking, “any word from
Felix?”

Katrina shakes her head no, trying to
cover that she's worried and heartbroken about it.

“Any chance you'd be willing to let me
buy you a hotdog sometime soon, ya know, just lunch?” Sully asks, hopeful and
vulnerable.

Katrina nods. “Yeah, soon.”

“Good,” Sully gives Katrina an optimistic
smile before leaving the store.

The sharply dressed woman approaches the
counter with a stack of books.
 
Katrina rings up the sale.

“Nice selection.
 
I see you're a fan of intrigue,”
Katrina comments.

“At work and at play,” the woman replies
sporting a thick English accent.
 
“I'm Edith Crowley, the new director of the FSSU.
 
Well, it's no longer the FSSU, it's now
the ISSU, Federal has been replaced with International.
 
It will no longer be business as
usual.
 
We will get things done,
but in a way that will allow us to sleep at night. I will run a unit that holds
truth and honesty to be of utmost importance. I would like you on my team.”

Katrina’s eyes widen at this
information.
 
“Is Sully on your
team?”

“I am hoping so.
 
I didn't feel it appropriate to
approach him while he was holding a stuffed gorilla.”

“What about Felix?”

“I met with Felix in London the other
day.”

“He’s in London?”
 
Katrina is surprised to hear.

“He was in London. He sought me out which
led to me taking hold of the reigns and creating a new organization. I believe
he arrived home late last night.
 
Although I can’t condone the entirety of his behavior, his initial
actions were motivated by his conscious and did lead to the removal of a couple
of scallywags.”

Katrina smiles at Edith’s colorful choice
of words.

Edith continues. “One’s gut and one’s
conscious coupled with intelligence and accurate information usually leads one
down the right path. I want clean slates for all those who will be valuable
team players, so as far as I am concerned, Felix’s slate is cleaned.
 
My guess is he came to London seeking
me out, knowing that I could help him return to a life as a known person.
 
As a ghost he started something that
he’d like to make real and to do that he needed a clean slate.”

Katrina blushes, the meaning of Edith’s
evaluation of Felix not lost on her.

Edith looks at the gorilla and then at
Katrina. “I do realize that there are personal feelings involved but I believe
we are all adults and would behave accordingly and rise to the given situation.
You, my dear, were placed in an extraordinarily difficult situation, which you
handled with aplomb,” Edith proclaims.

“I wouldn't want to do it full time,”
Katrina responds.

“I wouldn't expect it.
 
This store needs to remain open,” Edith
counters and encourages.

Katrina finishes up the book sale and
hands Edith the book bag.

“I’ll be in touch as our new unit comes
into being. Thank you, Katrina, it’s been a pleasure meeting you,” Edith smiles
and leaves the store.
 

Katrina takes a seat in front of her
laptop.
 
She nervously looks at it,
scared to touch the keyboard.
 
She’s been hoping, longing for a Paolo message or a Felix call for days.
But there hasn’t been any correspondence, he simply vanished.
 
She understood why, but that didn’t
make it any less painful.
 
Now with
this new information that Edith shared, he’s back and presumably available.
Katrina’s heart pounds at the thought.

She takes a deep breath and logs in.
 
She sees that there's an email from
"Paolo." Pure joy overcomes her and one hell of a smile brightens her
expression.

Beaming, she opens the email.
  
There’s no message, only an
attachment.
 
She clicks on the
attachment; it's an image of a painting of a man and woman cuddled together
reading the same book.
 
It's
tender, loving and romantic.