Katherine fanned herself with her hand, feeling hot and bothered because of that man's bold move. He was definitely a looker—a charismatic gentleman who appeared to be very confident about himself. Then she realized that she didn't even know his name.
'Wait… why would I want to know what his name is?' She rolled her eyes. That wasn't what she went there for. There were more important matters that she needed to do!
Clearing her throat, she composed herself and continued to scan the room. Not long after, she found the person that she was looking for at the other side of the hall. She leisurely walked towards the man and observed his every move.
Katherine had been very careful ever since she had been tracing leads and that night was no different. Covertly, she did what she needed to do to get some information without being detected. Listening… observing… and then when the man went out of the hall, she followed.
Meanwhile, Damien had just finished talking to one of his investors when he turned to look at the side of the room where he met Katherine. His brows knitted instantly when she was nowhere to be found. He was currently at the top of the stairs and was overlooking at the crowd below. His eyes scanned the event hall but there were just too many people.
He lost her again.
He lost her and he had not even gotten her name yet.
"Boss… I tried, but she was quick. This woman seems capable of getting in and out without being noticed. One minute she was just there and now… she's gone."
"Check the footage. See if you can find any clues." Damien casually drank the remnants of his champagne, a slight smile threatened to form on his lips and Markus saw it.
"If I may ask… why are you so interested in her?" Markus couldn't help but wonder. This woman was probably someone shady so why would his boss try to uncover something hidden?
Glancing at the empty glass in his hand, he placed the flute down and was deep in thoughts.
Exactly! Why was he so interested in her? It seemed like Damien thought that it had become a fun chase. The more that he came up with nothing, the more that he was eager to know who she was. This game that he created for himself gave him such a thrill and he wasn't even going to win anything… probably only knowing who she was.
"French fingertips, red lips… She–is–dangerous." A devilish smirk appeared on his handsome face as he turned to leave. "I like it."
"Boss?"
Markus who was following behind Damien tilted his head to the side when he heard what he said. Why did his words sound so familiar?
And did he just say 'She is dangerous and he likes it?' Does his boss have a kink that he didn't know about?
And with that, Damien Park was drawn to the woman whose identity was unknown.
Will he ever see her again?
××××××××××××××××××××××
One year later.
A throbbing headache.
Katherine's head was pounding and curses lingered in her mouth. She instantly swore never to drink again. She slowly fluttered her eyes open and saw that she was not in her bedroom.
Where was she?
She closed her eyes once more and her face grimaced. She rubbed her forehead as she tried to see where she was one more time.
When she had fully opened her eyes, that's when she noticed that there was a man lying next to her.
Katherine brought her hands up to her mouth to stifle a gasp when she just remembered what had happened to her, seeing that she was naked under the sheets.
Careful not to wake the man up, she collected her clothes that were on the floor and slowly wore them as she found her way into the bathroom that was located across the bedroom.
The moment that she closed the door, her heart thrummed in her chest loudly; it was heavy. She did not know why she was feeling that way. Wasn't she supposed to be happy? After all… she had just spent the night with Chris.
Banging sounds were heard from the main door, bringing Katherine back to the present. She wasn't sure if she was supposed to go out but soon after, she froze when the main door opened and she heard Parker's voice from where she hid, scaring her a lot.
"Can you explain this to me?" Parker threw a load of pictures on the table.
Chris scanned the images and saw that they were all Katherine's while she was investigating the death of her parents. This was what he had feared – for Parker to know about her activities.
"Queen has been going around privately investigating! Alone! I thought you already took care of that last year! You gave me your word, Christopher!!!" Parker was extremely furious. His eyes were fierce and evil. He was infuriated about what he had just discovered.
"And I did! I gave her a dud. I made it so that she won't be able to go anywhere near Operation Scorpion. She told me she was going to stop since she found nothing and agreed on that but she went behind my back." Chris was also feeling unpleasant. He ran a hand on his face and sighed. "I will fix this."
"She is your f*cking responsibility! I shouldn't have agreed on your request that day years ago. You better fix this, Christopher or I will have to order her cancellation." Parker left the room angrily, banging the door on his way out.
"Shit." Chris was truly in a dilemma. How was he supposed to protect Katherine now?
Just as he was in deep thought, he heard the sound of the door opening from behind him. His eyes went wide when he saw Katherine standing there with tears in her eyes. But her expression didn't tell him that she was sad. Katherine looked like she was enraged. Like she was ready to kill.
"Kath… I didn't know you were still here." Chris was shocked. He knew that she had heard everything. "Let me explain." His eyes were full of concern at the same time that he was feeling guilty.
Katherine strode towards him. Raising her hands, she gave him a hard, resounding slap that threw his head to the side. "You lied to me!"
Her slap was painful but the pain was nowhere near what Katherine was feeling at that moment.
Betrayal.
"All this time you made me believe that you were helping me? You gave me a false lead just so that I will stop searching? I can't believe you deliberately—" She sighed and brushed her fingers through her hair in frustration. She couldn't believe that she was played. "You told me that you didn't know anything else! So what's Operation Scorpion? And what did Parker mean? What did you mean?" she yelled. There were so many questions in her head.
Chris couldn't look at her in the eyes and could only clench his teeth. How could he tell her something that she shouldn't know? No matter what it was, she was not going to like it.
Seeing that he wasn't answering, she became even pissed. She wanted to hurt him.
Katherine punched his arm and Chris allowed her to vent her frustration on him as she repeatedly hit him. "Say something! How dare you lie to me?!" She was crying and yelling and hitting him at the same time. "Tell me the truth!!!"
Chris managed to grab her wrists to stop her. He then pulled her into his embrace and tried to calm her down, stroking her head. "I'm sorry… I did everything to protect you."
"Protect me? You expect me to believe you now?" Katherine scoffed and pushed him away forcefully. She looked at him and felt even more pain in her heart and with trembling lips, she told him, "What happened last night was a mistake. I think everything is a mistake. Meeting you, joining Shadow…" She didn't know what else to say. She was done.
Katherine walked past him and left his apartment.
"Katherine, wait!" Chris called and tried to go after her but she was already gone.
Several minutes later, she arrived at her apartment and the first thing she did was strip.
She headed towards the bathroom and took a hot shower to calm herself down. Her head was a mess and she needed to do something or she would go insane. She was afraid that there was so much more than what she thought there would be.
Drying herself with a thick towel, she went to her huge closet and put on some clothes. Whatever the truth was, she needed to find out and she needed to find out stat!
She needed to know what Operation Scorpion was and the only way to do that was to go to Castle.
After changing into dark casual clothes, Katherine stared at herself in the mirror. Whatever she was going to find out that day, she was sure that it was going to change her life.