Authors: Kirsten DeMuzio
The same air that had felt warm to Alexander upon his return from the East Coast sent a chill through Kat as she walked home from her training session with Dane. Her dog, Blade, walked dutifully by her side down the cracked sidewalks of the neighborhood she had lived in all her life. There were more abandoned houses than inhabited ones, and weeds grew rampant in the deserted parking lots of long empty storefronts and warehouses.
As she walked, Kat’s eyes scanned every doorway and alley she passed. Her ears were always open and on alert for sounds from behind her. Dane’s training had honed her mental awareness as well as her physical skills. It was worth every penny she paid him. And those pennies had added up over the last three years, even though Kat knew he cut her a generous break. A place where Alexander
Petrovsky trained would normally be way out of her price range.
Kat’s thoughts
momentarily drifted to the man she had instantly recognized when he walked in. She had never met him or seen him in person, but you had to be living under a rock not to know who Alexander Petrovsky was in this city. His casino, The Onyx, was booked out months in advance and catered to celebrities, and there were rumors of his involvement in criminal activities. Hence the FBI's constant interest in his comings and goings.
That reminded Kat she hadn’t yet responded to Colin’s latest
request to meet for dinner. She had been able to avoid their monthly get together last month, but it was doubtful she could put it off again. Of course, Kat appreciated all he had done for her. But seeing him always brought back memories she would gladly give almost anything to get rid of once and for all.
A screen door slamming shut two houses ahead had the fur standing up on the back of Blade’s neck. A low rumbling growl escaped his throat, and his mouth curled up to bare his teeth. Kat had adopted Blade as a puppy about three years ago, right around the time she began training with Dane. She had spent as many hours training Blade as Dane had spent training her.
Both of them had come a long way in those three years.
Kat looked up to see what Blade saw and nearly curled up her own lip. Hector Cruz stumbled out onto his front porch and sank down
unsteadily to sit on the top step. A cigarette hung off his bottom lip, and his eyes were unnaturally glassy and unfocused.
Having grown up in this neighborhood, Kat had known Hector for a long time. He had been looking at her in the same inappropriate leering way since well before she hit puberty. One thing she never had to train Blade on was how to sense danger, and he always sensed it around Hector. Kat snapped her fingers and guided Blade across the street. Putting distance between herself and Hector was
never a wasted effort.
“Hey,
Kitty Kat,” Hector slurred. “One of these days…one of these days I’ll catch you without your guard dog. Then we’ll have some real fun.”
Kat grimaced at his
nickname for her and kept walking. He would never catch her without Blade. And if he did, she had her own skills to fall back on, not to mention the 9mm tucked inside her bag.
Three
more blocks and Kat reached her apartment and climbed the stairs on the outside of the building. When she and Blade reached the landing outside her door, the fur on his neck once again stood up. Kat’s head swiveled around expecting to see Hector following her or some other visible danger. But there was nothing.
“What is it, boy?” Kat whispered.
Blade sniffed the ground where the door met the floor and growled. Immediately Kat was on edge, even more so than usual. Her shoulders were tense as she reached out with a steady hand and tested the doorknob. Locked.
Kat relaxed slightly. It was unlikely someone would break into her apartment and lock the door on their way back out. She inserted her key into the lock and turned the knob. The door swung open to reveal an empty apartment, just the way she left it…except for one thing.
The plain white envelope lying on the floor with KAT printed in big black block letters on the front. That was what had Blade on alert. Someone must have slid it under the door. Someone who knew that Kat would be gone.
The sight of the familiar envelope had Kat’s stomach rolling over and her hands gripping the door frame so tightly her knuckles turned white. Over the last three years, Kat had worked hard to conquer her fears. It’s why she allowed Dane to simulate attack scenarios in their training sessions. It’s why she lived in the same neighborhood where she always had. It’s why she walked by Hector and men like him nearly every day.
But one small white envelope had the power to take her back to a time when she was weak and afraid. When she was powerless against those who wanted nothing more than to strip away her dignity and innocence.
Blade rubbed his big body along Kat’s leg and nudged his head against her thigh. They both looked at the envelope for several long seconds. Kat had enough sense left to step inside and lock the door behind her. She berated herself for forgetting her training for a few precious seconds. What if he had been watching and waiting for her? She could have been overpowered when she wasn’t paying attention.
Taking a wide step around the envelope, Kat walked quickly through her apartment with Blade on her heels. Once she was certain every closet and the space under her bed was free from intruders, she sat rigidly on the edge of the couch and resumed staring at the envelope.
Blade sat beside her on the floor and rested his chin on her knee. He let out a quiet whine,
correctly sensing his owner was in distress. Kat absentmindedly rubbed his head and ears while she tried to figure out what to do.
This wasn’t the first
note she had received, but the last one had come more than three years ago. It was what had prompted her to stop hiding in her apartment and learn how to protect herself.
Why now?
Just when she was beginning to think it might all be behind her. Granted she was far from normal, but she had been making progress learning how to confront her fears head on. That progress was obviously tenuous, as was just proven by her moment of panic. If someone was still out to harm her, a second of hesitation on her part could be devastating.
Kat glanced at the clock and pursed her lips. She had to be at work in just over an hour
and briefly thought about calling off.
“No,” she said aloud as she pushed herself off the couch. “This note was put here to scare me, and it’s not going to work. Not this time.
Not anymore.”
Blade cocked his head as if he understood what she was saying. Kat pulled her phone from her bag and sent a text to Colin.
Kat: Can you stop by? It’s important.
His response was immediate.
Colin:
Yes. Are you okay?
Kat: I got another note.
Colin didn’t respond right away this time, and Kat could picture him swearing and dragging his hand through his thick brown hair. Though she often wished she could cut him and anything that reminded her of darker times from her life, Kat was grateful that he would always be there when she asked. No questions asked. In her whole life, he had been the only person she could depend on for unconditional support.
Colin: I’m on my way.
While she waited for Colin to arrive, Kat jumped in the shower and dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt before drying her long thick hair. She could curl it and do her makeup when she got to work. Blade laid on the bed, watching her every movement.
Kat crossed the small space to her closet
and pushed aside the clothes hanging there. Against the back wall of the closet was an array of newspaper clippings, post-it notes and photographs. Kat didn’t have time now to study what she had posted there, to look for new connections that had eluded her. But her eyes skimmed quickly over the headlines, most of which were about teenage girls that had gone missing…and never found. In the center was a small grainy picture of Kat at the age of sixteen. Like the other girls, there wasn’t much media attention given to her story. Girls from this neighborhood were disposable and easily forgotten.
A knock on the front door had Blade off the bed in a
flash and barking loudly. Kat took one last look at the collage, her eyes stopping on the photo of Alexander Petrovsky. He was one of many Las Vegas power players that Kat had on her wall. Arguably the most powerful, but was he also the most dangerous?
Colin knocked again as Kat reached the front door and peered through the peephole. Careful not to step on the envelope that still lay on the floor, she swun
g the door open to let him in.
“
Kat. Are you okay?”
Blade was always
wary around men, and Colin was no exception. Blade stood in front of Kat and gave a warning bark at Colin. Kat held up her hand to stop him from entering and then pointed down at the envelope. Colin dropped his gaze and froze where he stood.
“Blade.
Go to your bed,” Kat commanded. Blade trotted over to the plaid dog bed next to the couch.
Colin looked back up at Kat. “Have you opened it?”
She shook her head and took a few steps backward so Colin could come in and close the door. Instead of focusing on the envelope, he turned his attention to Kat. Colin approached her cautiously as he had learned to do many years ago.
“Are you okay, Kat?” h
e asked again.
Instinctively, Kat backed away and hug
ged her arms around her waist.
“Will you open it for me?”
Colin frowned, his eyebrows drawing together to make him look older than his thirty one years. He nodded once and reached into his inside jacket pocket and pulled out a pair of gloves. Kat caught a glimpse of his gun in its holster and his FBI badge clipped onto his belt. Colin was certainly attractive with brown hair and blue eyes. His presence made her feel both safe and threatened at the same time.
Kat regretted that she wasn’t able to fully separate Colin from her horrific
memories of her past. He had never mentioned it, but she got the sense he would gladly take their relationship beyond friendship when she was ready. Watching Colin remove a piece of plain white paper from the envelope, she wondered if she would ever be ready.
In the same black block letters that spelled Kat’s name
on the envelope, the note read THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY.
Kat inhaled a deep shaky breath. It was the same message that had been written on the two previous notes she had received. The first was seven years ago, not long after she
had been rescued from hell. The second was three years ago.
“I have to bag this, Kat. I assume it’s clean, like the other two, but we have to make sure.”
“Okay,” Kat replied. It’s not like she wanted to keep it. She watched from across the room as Colin slipped the note in a plastic bag and sealed it tight.
“Are you working tonight?” h
e asked as he slipped the note into his pocket. Kat’s eyes followed the plastic bag until it was out of sight.
“Yeah, I need to
go soon if I’m going to make my shift on time,” Kat said with her arms still wrapped around her waist, though she made no move to go anywhere.
Colin rubbed his hand over his short hair and let out a sigh of frustration. “You should call off work tonight. There’s no reason for you to go to work after…this.”
Kat brushed past him and picked her purse up off the counter, slinging it over her shoulder as she grabbed her keys as well.
“I can’t just stop living my life because some fucked up pervert is trying to mess with my head.”
Colin flinched as he always did when Kat spoke like that. “I know that, but you can give yourself some time to deal with it. That shithole you work in isn’t the best place for calming your nerves.”
Kat threw up her hands in exasperation. This was a conversation that had happened more than once before. Colin tried to step in and fix everything, fix her. But Kat knew in her heart that she was beyond fixing.
“Where am I supposed to work, Colin? I have
a high school diploma. That’s it. No college education. Where else am I going to make the kind of money I do cocktailing? Huh?”
Now Colin’s hand rubbed over his face. It seemed like all he ever did was make her mad, when what he really wanted more than anything was to make her feel better.
“You know I can help you get a better job. I can help you go back to school…”
“No. Stop it, Colin. I’ve told you before I need to live my life on my own. That’s how it’s always been and that’s how it has to be.”
With a sig
h of resignation, Colin stopped himself from saying anymore. One thing he had learned over the years he had known Kat was that she could not be pushed into anything. It had to be her idea. Her choice. And he understood where that need came from for her. Having everything taken from her against her will at a young age had changed her. He just wished he knew how to change her back.