Black Kat (3 page)

“Will you at least stay at my place for a few days?  My guest room is always open for you.”

Kat shook her head and dropped her eyes to the ground.  “You know I can’t do that,” she whispered.

She looked so young and vulnerable in that moment that Colin had glimpses of how she used to be before.  Before she got the idea in her head that she had to take care of herself all by
herself.  That she had to be strong and never show weakness.  It had hardened her.  The soft contours of Kat’s heart had been covered by the sharp edges of self preservation.

“Fine.
  But I am following you to work, so I know you get there okay.  And I will be making regular drive bys here,” Colin stated.

Kat said nothing to that, which he took as agreement.  She said goodbye to Blade and followed Colin out, locking the door behind her.  He walked her to her car and held the door open as she got in.  Looking up at him, Kat let her emotions show in her eyes.

“Thank you, Colin.”

He gave her a crooked smile, one that was reserved just for her and made him look younger.  Kat thought as she drove to work that it really was a shame she wasn’t normal.  What would it be like to be with a man for pleasure?  What would it feel like to want a man’s hands on her?  As she pulled into the parking lot of the Garden of Eden, she pushed those thoughts to the back of her mind.  She needed to stay focused.  Thinking about things she couldn’t have would only distract her from her mission.  To find the man who still tormented her.  And to kill him.

Chapter Three

Alexander sat behind his massive desk and drummed his fingers on the file that lay on his desk.  The file that contained every bit of information to be found on Kat Rossi.  Luke had handed it to him only moments earlier with a warning that mirrored what Dane had told him two days prior.

“Not your usual
type, and not someone you want to toy with,” Luke said, reluctantly releasing his grip on the file.

Alexander would normally have trusted
Luke’s judgment, no questions asked, and moved on.  But there was something about this woman that he couldn’t forget.  Perhaps it was her single minded focus when running through self-defense scenarios with Dane.  Or was it the way she looked at him like she was issuing an unspoken challenge.  Not the kind of challenge women usually threw his way, but something else.  Almost like she was warning him to stay away from her.

Luke
was usually able to compile a thorough report in a matter of hours, but this one had taken two days because Alexander had specified to leave nothing out.  Nothing.  He wanted to know this woman better than she knew herself.  That’s how he operated in every area of his life - business and personal.  Control and having the upper hand were of utmost importance to Alexander.  He didn’t get where he was by being unprepared or caught off guard.

Pressing the intercom button on his desk phone, Alexander asked Janice to hold his calls for the next half hour.  It would take at least that long to wade through the thick file that lay on his desk.  No longer able to wait to see why
such a young woman had so much to report, Alexander flipped open the file.  And immediately wished he hadn’t.

Staring back at him was an old newspaper clipping with a picture of a teenage Kat underneath the headline M
ISSING GIRL FOUND.  POLICE HAVE NO LEADS.  Alexander picked up the article and read the brief generic recap of when Kat was reporting missing and where she was found.  He searched his memory and couldn’t recollect hearing about this case at the time.  Even though it was eight years ago, if it was big news, he would have remembered.

Because of her age at the time, sixteen years old, the media did not release any details of her captivity.  Fortunately
, Alexander had sources that went well beyond what the average journalist could dig up.  Setting the article aside, he reached for the next stack of papers - a fifteen page written report by his top investigator, Gil Westin.

Kat’s full name was
Katya - very Russian, though her ancestry was not.  She grew up in the same neighborhood where Dane’s gym is located and where she still lives.  Her mother was a junkie, who never knew who Kat’s father was and died of an overdose several years ago.  She wouldn’t have won any parenting awards, and Alexander’s jaw clenched as he read on.

In July of 2005, Kat
was reported missing by her mother - eight days after she actually went missing.  What kind of a mother doesn’t notice her sixteen year old daughter is gone for over a week?  Given her mother’s history and the neighborhood in which they lived, the police brushed it off as a case of a runaway teenager.  Even though nothing in Kat’s own history suggested she was into any sort of trouble.  She had good grades, never missed school and kept to herself and away from the drugs and violence that ran rampant in the streets around her.

Fifteen more days passed until the truth
of what really happened to Kat was discovered.  A rookie cop responded to a disturbance call a mere three blocks from where Kat lived with her mother and found Kat being held in the basement of an abandoned house.

Alexander laughed humorlessly as he read on. 
The rookie cop who rescued her was none other than Alexander’s nemesis, Agent Colin Lewis.  Apparently he began his law enforcement career with the LVPD.  Perfect, Alexander thought sarcastically, just perfect.

Accompanying the report were pictures of the crime scene. 
A damp musty basement with a dirty mattress on the floor.  There were thick ropes at each corner connected to steel pipes rising up from the concrete floor.  They were just pictures, but Alexander could feel the chill and dampness in the air and smell the rancidness of the room.

The hospital report was included and detailed every injury Kat had suffered.  Her wrists and ankles were raw from struggling against the ropes, her face and body were severely bruised and she had internal injuries that could only come from being repeatedl
y raped.

Alexander had to take a break from reading.  In his line of work, he had seen more than most people could handle seeing in the movies, let alone in real life.  Never once had he flinched or recoiled from sights of violence. 
Until now.

Quickly skimming through the rest of the file, Alexander picked up
some additional important details of the life of Kat Rossi.  First, the police had never caught the man who did this to her.  Second, Kat’s mother did absolutely nothing to help her heal.  She continued to make Kat live a mere three blocks from the house that held her nightmares, and there was no record of Kat receiving any kind of professional help or therapy.  Third, she had maintained some sort of relationship with Agent Lewis over the years.

Was he looking out for her well being, or were his feelings for her more than pr
otectiveness?  Having seen Kat for himself, Alexander was betting on the latter.

The report showed that Kat had returned to her life as it was before her kidnapping.  She returned to high school and graduated with the same high grades she had before.  From the outside, she appeared to be doing well.  Alexander knew looks c
ould be deceiving.

Then something happened.  It’s not clear what it was that caused the change in Kat, but shortly after she graduated high school and started working at a coffee shop
, she abruptly quit.  Apparently she disappeared from sight, rarely leaving her apartment.  Did her memories catch up with her?  Alexander doubted she just one day woke up and realized she was afraid of everything.  This behavior continued for four more years until, again, Kat swung to the other end of the spectrum.

This was
around the time when she began training with Dane.  There was a gun registered to her during this time as well as a new dog, a highly trained dog.  The Rottweiler Alexander had seen her with at the gym.  She also started working again, this time as a cocktail waitress at The Garden of Eden.  If there was a sleazier casino in this city, Alexander didn’t know about it.

What w
as happening in her life every few years to cause her behavior to so drastically change?  Of course, because of what had happened to her, a case could be made for simple mental instability.  But the woman who had locked eyes with him across the gym seemed incredibly stable.

As Alexander read on, he found the answer to his question.  Maybe not
the
what
that had prompted her to act as she did now, but definitely the
why
.  Gil’s sources had relayed several reports of Kat asking questions around town.  Questions that indicated she was picking up the investigation the police had so easily dropped.

He may not understand the motivations of women
in general, but Alexander did understand the need for revenge.  Kat Rossi was looking for the man who hurt her, and he doubted she planned to turn him over to the police when she found him.

The rest of the file contained data on her financials.  It seemed she made decent money for a cocktail waitress, no doubt because of her looks, but she spent very little of it.  Aside from the basics as well as payments to Dane for training, Kat didn’t spend frivolously.  Peering at the monthly payments to Dane, Alexander frowned.  Either he was getting shafted, or Dane had a soft spot for damaged young women.

The one thing Alexander took away from her financial information was that she could afford to move away from the neighborhood where her pain lived and breathed, but yet she stayed.  Was that part of her plan to find her attacker?

Alexander stowed the file in his bottom desk drawer and leaned back in his leather chair. 
Dane and Luke had been right.  She was likely more trouble than she was worth.  And given her history, she was unlikely to accept the sort of arrangement he had planned on proposing.  There was no record of her dating anyone, even casually, so the probability of her jumping into a casual yet intimate relationship with him was extremely low.

He should shred the file and forget he had ever heard the name Kat Rossi. 
But there was something about her that he couldn’t let go.  The way her bright alert eyes had held his gaze, unwavering and not intimidated in the least.  Now that he knew what she had gone through and that she was seeking her own justice, she was even more appealing.  Glancing down at the drawer that held the sordid details of her short life, Alexander knew he had to know more.  To know her.

Exactly thirty minutes after he had his calls held, his intercom buzzed.  Janice was nothing if not punctual.

“Mr. Petrovsky?” Janice’s clipped efficient tone echoed through his empty office.

“Yes, Janice.”

“I need to confirm your attendance at the Mayor’s charity gala on Saturday.  Will you be attending?  And will you be taking a date?”

Alexander paused before replying, a plan already formulating in his head.   “Yes, I will be attending.  And, yes, I will be taking a date
.”

“Yes, sir.
  Who would you like for me to arrange to accompany you?”

Events such as these required Alexander to have a companion who clearly understood it was a business arrangement and not a romantic evening out.  There were a few women who would gladly take what he could offer without becoming too attached.

“I’ll take care of this one on my own, Janice.  Thank you,” Alexander replied smoothly.

“Yes, sir,” Janice replied, ever the consummate professional.

“Oh, Janice?”

“Yes, Mr.
Petrovsky?”

“I would like to play poker this evening.”

“Of course, sir.  I can let our poker room know, or I can make reservations at the Bellagio if you prefer.”

“Actually, Janice, I
would like to play at The Garden of Eden.”

There was a pause, and Alexander could imagine
her raising her perfectly groomed eyebrows at the phone.

“Sir?
  The Garden of Eden?”

“Yes, Janice.  Around ten o’clock will be fine.”

She cleared her throat before responding.  “Yes, sir.  I will make the arrangements.”

Noting the time, Alexander was glad he had several hours to
fine tune his proposal for Kat.  He had to give her something she wanted above all else, or she would walk away.  Then, of course, there was also the issue of Agent Lewis.  He was like a dog with a bone when it came to his work, and Alexander had been his work for two years now.  Not that Alexander was worried.  He had people in all levels of government on his payroll.

But now Agent Lewis posed another, more personal, problem.  What exactly was his relationship with Kat?  And to what lengths would he go to keep her from him?  These were the questions on Alexander’s mind as he looked out his office window on the twelfth floor of his casino.

A quick knock on his office door signaled that Luke had returned.  No one else but Luke and Alexander’s sister, Natasha, was allowed in without prior approval through Janice.  Not even his cousin, Dimitri, which was still a sore point with Dimitri.  He was always accusing Alexander of not trusting him, which was actually true.  He was too much of a hothead to be privy to the inner workings of the business.

“Come in,” Alexander called.

Luke
took one look at his friend's serious expression and sighed.  “You’re not going to leave her alone, are you?”

“No.”

Even when he disagreed, Luke knew better than to push his opinion on Alexander.  He was always able to voice his opinions freely, but once Alexander had made up his mind, it was useless to try to change it.  It had been that way as long as Luke had known him, which was a long time.

Luke
had grown up in foster homes, never really belonging anywhere.  He met Alexander when he was fifteen.  Although Alexander was only four years older than him, he was far ahead of Luke in life experiences.  Having immigrated from Russia with his younger sister when his parents were killed, Alexander had done whatever he had to do to take care of himself and Natasha.

Alexander had given
Luke a job, albeit not one he could claim on his taxes, and a purpose.  He gave him protection and a sense of family.  They had been working together ever since.  Alexander had brought Dimitri to America a few years earlier, and he and Luke constantly clashed.  Dimitri had the idea that he should be Alexander’s right hand man because they were family.  But Alexander knew that family wasn’t determined by blood alone.  Luke and Alexander were as close to brothers as if the same blood ran through their veins.

“We will be visiting The Garden of Eden this evening,” Alexander said.

“What time are we going?  Maybe we can borrow some clothes from Dimitri, so we don’t look out of place,” Luke joked.  Dimitri’s sleazy gold chain style fit in much better at the Garden of Eden than at The Onyx, which like its owner was sleek and modern.  Sharp edges and dark surfaces, much like Alexander himself.