Tainted Pictures (14 page)

           “Well, Kate, you can’t be by yourself until we catch this guy.  I mean you just can’t, this is not something to play around with, he is dangerous and still threatening you.  I’m going to walk you to and from work and you are going to move in here with me.”  Derrick said leaning against the kitchen counter and staring at her, his arms folded in defiance across his chest.  

           “Move in with you?”  Kate asked standing up, smiling, and walking towards him.

           “Yes, tonight.  We can get your stuff tomorrow, but you’re moving in.”  Derrick said confidently, commanding her. She walked up to him and leaned against him, her hands on his chest.

           “Oh yeah, you bossing me around now, Mr. Kane?” She grinned at him and kissed him softly on his lips then pulled away.  His firm stance softened a bit as he grabbed her hips with both hands and pulled her tighter up against him.  

           “Don’t act like you don’t want to, after all, you said yes to being the future Mrs. Kane.”  He smiled back and kissed her again as the two enjoyed their secret.  Kate had agreed with enthusiasm to marry Derrick when he had asked her in the car and she couldn’t wait to tell Annie this weekend.  She wanted Annie to be the first to know and to be able to tell her in person, so they were keeping it a secret for a few more days.  

           “Mrs. Kane?  I think I could get used to that.”  Kate grinned at him, mischievously and then pressed herself firmly against him, then just as quickly,  turned and walked out of the kitchen.

           “Oh no, you don’t get to just leave me like that.”  He chuckled, his voice getting deeper and huskier as he pushed off the kitchen counter and quickly followed after her.  She turned her head to see him quickly advancing on her and she grinned and squeaked with excitement as she burst into a run towards the bedroom.  He caught her just as she was about to reach the bed and lifted her straight off the ground and into his arms.  He was grinning and she was giggling as he climbed onto the bed on his knees, still holding her in his arms and laid her down on it.  

           He wasted no time climbing on top of her and kissing her, her lips parting to deepen their kiss.  Things suddenly went from playful excitement to serious passion as her arms wrapped around his neck and pulled his face closer to hers, getting lost in the sensuous movements of each other’s lips.  

           His weight was supported on his elbow while his other hand traveled south to her belly and slipped underneath her shirt, slowly pulling it up with him.  Their lips released from one another for only a moment as she allowed him to pull her blouse over her head.  He tossed it across the room and then grinned at her, plunging down to devour her lips again.  

           She pressed her hips upwards, wanting to feel him against her.  Needing that heat and craving fulfillment.  He reached down with one hand and grabbed her bum, cupping her cheek and pulling her tighter against his pelvis.  She couldn’t wait any longer and so she grabbed at the top of her jeans and quickly unbuttoned them, shimmying them down her thighs.  He grabbed them and pulled them the rest of the way off, then sat up and undid his own pants.  He kicked off his pants and fell back on top of her, staring into her eyes.  All he could think about was how much he loved this woman and how he couldn’t believe he was the lucky man she had chosen to marry.  

           She was just as infatuated with his eyes and how they smoldered with desire as he looked at her.  She bit her lip as her breathing became more ragged and her knees found their way to the outside of his thighs, giving him permission to do as he pleased.  He leaned down and kissed her again as his hips pressed harder against her and then slid forwards, filling her slowly with everything that he had.  

           He closed his eyes for a moment, enjoying the sensation as she gasped and clung to him tighter.  They quickly found a rhythm and moved with one another with a familiarity that only two people deeply in love can achieve.  He kissed her lips, her cheek, her jaw, her neck, and everywhere else as he wanted to know every inch of her, consume everything that she had to give him.  She was more than willing to oblige.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

           Kate yawned as she stared at her computer screen at work the next day, attempting to focus on the sales spreadsheet that she was currently working on.   She had stayed at Derrick’s house last night and not gotten a lot of sleep.  Actually it was her house now too, since they had decided to move in together.  He was moving some of her things over right now and then she would go back later tonight to pack more boxes with him.

           “Hey, Katey, how are you doing today?”  An older voice announced behind her.  Kate swirled around in her chair to see Uncle Lenny leaning against her cubicle wall, smiling at her.  She beamed back, always glad to see him.

           “Finally got out of your office, huh?”  Lenny had been working on a major bid for the past few days and even when she had been in the office, she hadn’t caught a glimpse of him.  The few times she tried his stodgy assistant, Frank, turned her away, never forgetting to accompany the rejection with an insult or snide remark of some kind.  Especially in the last few days, Kate had been trying to be more positive and choose to be happy, to do her best attempt to heal from her attack and move on.

           People like Frank frustrated her because they were just so tightly wound around their intent to be angry and cynical that the bitterness overflowed out on to everybody that came in contact with them.  She saw people like that and knew that that wasn’t what she wanted for her future, she wasn’t going to let the anger she initially felt towards the Photographer become who she was.  She was going to carve out a new Kate, freshly washed and molded and destined for more than the flat Kate who had trudged through each day never planning for tomorrow, not due to laziness or lack of ambition but due to a lack of hope and goals- a lack of purpose.

           “Yeah, the bid is done.  We got it, it’s going to be great for the company.  Seriously add to our positive cash flow.  We are going places, Kate!” Lenny spoke excitedly.  He loved the company he had built, even if it was the simple business of selling office furniture.    

           “Lenny, I have to quit.”  Kate blurted out, still sitting in her cubicle chair looking up at the president of the company.  She hadn’t planned to say that.  In fact, the thought hadn’t occurred to her until just that moment when she was thinking of bitter, angry Frank in his boring sales job and how she wanted to be a new Kate with purpose and dreams.  She couldn’t do that playing it safe on her uncle’s dime.  

           “What?”  Lenny was startled, clearly not expecting this from her.  

           “Is something wrong?  I thought that you liked it here, and you do well.  Your sales are decent.  Did something happen?”  Lenny asked her, taking a few steps forward and slipping his hands into his pockets.  

           “It’s not my dream, Uncle Lenny.  Look how excited you are about winning that bid!  And you should be! It’s wonderful for you and you are so happy.  I want to feel that same way, I want to feel something that gives me that same high.  I don’t know what that is but I know that sticking around here will only keep me from pursuing that goal.”  Kate ranted and the words poured out of her like water from a hose suddenly let go and shooting in every direction.  She stood up and grabbed her coat and purse.

           “I have to go, Uncle Lenny.  I need to find out what I want to do. The last few weeks, it’s just become really clear to me that I’m lost.  I think I want to go back to school.  Maybe I will get the social work degree that I once dreamed of.  I think I just have to try, I have to get out there and be scared and not have a safety net.  I need to try, Uncle Lenny.”  Kate stifled a slight sob and realized that she needed to calm down, she was starting to lose control of her emotions and this was not the time or the place.    

           “Hey, hey, Katey.  Katey, it’s okay.  Listen, I understand.  I was your age once too.  Starting a business was always my dream .  Now I am living that dream.  It’s not yours though and you need to go after yours just like I went after mine.  There is nothing wrong with that.  I’m not upset, it’s okay.”  He tried to diffuse the situation with his comforting words and a soft pat on her shoulder.  

           “You are not upset?  But you have done so much for me, given me this job and paid for school.  I don’t want to be that jerk who just takes and doesn’t give but I also don’t want to waste one more minute of my life not pursuing a dream.”  Kate whimpered slightly, trying not to turn to tears.    

           “Kate, listen, let’s go have lunch and then you can go home for the rest of the day. Okay?  If you still want to quit in the morning, then email me a letter of resignation and that’s that.  No harm, no foul.  But let’s not think about that right now because it’s getting you all worked up.  Let’s go have lunch and let’s talk about whatever it is that is really going on.  Does that sound good to you?”  Lenny asked her.  She nodded gently.  

           “Alright, come on.  Let’s go to that burger place you love over on Connecticut Avenue, okay?  You are always raving about that place.  Oh and you know how I love a good chocolate milk shake.”  He grinned and patted his large, Santa Claus-like belly.  Kate chuckled and followed him out of the cubicle and out of the office.  

~~~~

           “I’m going to have the Fry Down Burger, sir, with the onion rings and this ale here.”  Lenny pointed to the items on the menu that he loved to get at this fancy burger restaurant that gave their burgers unique names.

           “And I will have the Reef & Beef Burger with sweet potato fries and ice water, no lemon please.”  Kate folded up her menu and handed it to the waiter.  He scribbled down everything they said and then nodded and left.  Lenny folded his arms onto the table and looked at Kate.

           “Alright, little Katey, I’ve known you since you were just a picture on a screen in your momma’s belly.  I practically raised you and Annie the last half of your life after your Daddy passed.  I know you and I know there is something going on. I haven’t pushed because I figured you would come and tell me about it on your own eventually.  But, damn it, now it’s affecting a lot more than just your mood.  Tell me what’s going on.  I can handle it, Katey.”  Lenny said to her firmly but with a kindness in his voice.

           She looked up at him and sighed, she knew that he was right and that she owed him the truth about everything.  He had always been there for her, was like a father to him, and she felt comforted every time he called her his little Katey.  She leaned against the table and folded her arms onto it as well.  

           “I lied to you, Uncle Lenny.  I wasn’t in a car crash last month.  You know when I missed work for two weeks?  Annie told you I had a car accident but that’s not true.”  She looked up at him, biting the inside of her cheek nervously and wondering how he was going to react.  He didn’t say anything and just waited for her to continue the story.  

           “The truth is someone attacked me.  Remember when I went away for the weekend with Derrick?  Well later on when I was home after Derrick had already left, a stranger with a ski mask barged into my apartment and attacked me.”  She paused and looked up at him.

           “Son of a bitch.  Do they know who this asshole is?”  Lenny cussed angrily, immediately upset upon hearing the news.  She had never heard Lenny curse before and was a bit surprised but then also comforted to see him angry.  She wished Derrick had reacted that way.  Lenny’s first instinct was defending her and it just added to the many reasons why she adored him.  

           “No, but they think that they are close.  I’ve been working with the detectives on my case.  I’ve actually become really good friends with this one woman named Liz, she has been so nice to me and I don’t have a lot of friends so it’s been really nice, Uncle Lenny.”  Kate plastered a smile on her face to try to appear less upset but nothing about telling this story made her happy.  

           “Kate, did he...uhm, you know, did he hurt you, uhm... privately?”  Lenny asked uncomfortably trying to side step the actual words.  Thankfully, the waiter picked that moment to interrupt them as he brought their drinks and burgers, filling the table with the smell of perfectly cooked meat on a savory burger.  They both silently agreed to take a pause from their conversation to salt their food and take the first bite, eager to have something in their starving bellies.  

           “Yes.”  Kate said in between bites, quickly and in a low volume almost hoping that her uncle wouldn’t hear her response.  He paused mid-bite, startled, but didn’t look up at her, then went back to eating as if in order to absorb the information he had to swallow it down with his food and allow it to swirl in his stomach.  Sit with the full sensation of information that’s too hard to think about and picture, so you just feel it.  You feel that swelling in your heart and the queasiness in your stomach and that’s all the information you need.  The sickening thoughts and graphic images can be erased as each bite of food is slowly digested until it disappears.  

           “I don’t know what to say, Katey.  I feel helpless.  I want to be able to stop it from ever happening or find the guy and murder him, but I can’t.  You never should have gone through that, Katey.  You didn’t deserve it, no one deserves that.”  Lenny said softly as he sipped his ale.  His entire face was contorted with pain for her.  He had raised her as his own and had been trusted with her care.  He felt like a failure that she had experienced this and he had not been able to protect her.  

           “I know, Uncle Lenny.  It’s not your fault, don’t burden yourself with this.  Life just isn’t fair sometimes.  I was telling the detective the other day that maybe some good will come out of this.  Maybe in order to find my future, I needed something to jolt me out of the past.  I’ve been stuck in a rut, stuck in a life I didn’t want and still dwelling on pains from my childhood, from dad’s death, from all these things that I need to let go of.  Maybe this whole ordeal can become a catalyst for a new life, a better life, a better me.”  Kate explained to him but also to herself.  She believed what she was saying but the tiny shred of doubt needed reassurance.