644: On Offense

On Offense

Wednesday — February 201

It was a long day at work where Katherine had back-to-back meetings from morning until three o'clock in the afternoon. And around six o'clock, she faced a demanding but long-time client. She had to remind herself that she needed to retain their business and lengthen her patience instead of punching Mr. Araya in the throat—he was older than Grandpa Theo.

The older man went straight up to her office just before she was getting off work. He thought he could trick Katherine into taking responsibility for the damage in his school building after a drunk student drove into the canteen's glass doors in the morning, saying the glass broke easily. How ridiculous was that? Katherine swore she thought he set her up in a gag show, only to discover he was deadly serious—enraged that Young Corporation's promise of using high-quality materials was a "lie". 

Mr. Araya, with all his fortune, was a crook and a miser. After she calmly told him his insurance should cover the damages, he flushed and went quiet, probably having realized it. She sent him off to his car where he didn't apologize or show even an ounce of shame. Katherine could only shake her head.

Since Damien still had a meeting until seven in the evening, Katherine went straight to Maverick Security's base in the underground level of CRG's building. There, she met with Amelia for a sparring session.

Sometimes she forgot that Amelia was Damien's mother, especially at times when Amelia proved to be a lethal woman. Katherine's knife skills were already excellent, so that night, Amelia challenged her to hand-to-hand combat. Katherine changed into a pair of black sports bra and pants. She did some stretching while Amelia was at the punching bag.

"How are your hands?" Amelia asked as she approached Katherine, the latter almost done with her warm-up.

Katherine looked at her hands, rotated her wrists, and then shook them as if she was trying to assess their condition. "Better—as long as I keep them busy. These days, I go for a whole day without having them."

"I think you miss going on missions," Amelia remarked.

"Like an adrenaline junkie?"

"Something like that."

"You think so?"

Amelia nodded and started stretching her limbs. "A few months after I killed Bianchi and went into hiding, I began having some manic episodes. It was like having withdrawals from a drug addiction even though I wasn't taking drugs. I couldn't stop moving. I always had to do something or I won't calm down or be able to sleep—'twas probably also because I was on the run and always had to watch my back."

"What did you do?"

"I joined an underground fight club."

Katherine let out a laugh. "Seriously?"

A smile flashed on Amelia's face. "Yeah. I wanted to beat someone up. Great excuse. Good money."

"Maybe mine's similar then. I don't get them if I work out or spar with Damien in the morning."

"So it's like expelling your energy. How about the night terrors?"

The smile slipped off Katherine's face, but she shook her head. "Haven't had one in a few days."

"It's Parker's ghost."

"It's a friggin' poltergeist that I want to hunt down and send to hell."

Amelia nodded to her as she raised her fists. "For now, pretend I'm him. Give me your best shot, Queen."

As soon as the name left Amelia's lips, Katherine charged forward throwing a combination of punches that Amelia easily dodged and counter-attacked. It wasn't easy to catch Amelia off guard, given that she had a lot more experience than Katherine, but that didn't deter the latter. She used every move she got and added some new ones that she learned from Damien as she acted on offense.

When Amelia saw a window, she swung a kick toward Katherine's head. Katherine dropped only to meet another kick that she nearly failed to avoid, but Katherine managed to grab Amelia's leg and throw her off-balance. Amelia fell to the mat and Katherine immediately took advantage by lunging at her. Amelia was quick, rolling away and staying on defense.

The two exchanged blows as if they were in a real fight, though it was harder to control their strength to avoid causing deadly damage if they successfully hit the other. Katherine loved sparring with Amelia and considered her as the best combat teacher she ever had. 

"Ladies… Should I start implementing a no cat-fight rule in my gym?"

They turned their attention to the door and saw Damien standing there with his hands in his pockets and a smirk on his face. Except for the loose tie around his neck, he looked dashing as always in his well-fitted suit and coiffed hair.

"What time is it?" Katherine panted as she accepted Amelia's outreached hand to help her stand.

"7:15."

"How long have you been watching?" 

"Fifteen minutes," he said, and the two women drew their brows together as concern filled their faces. He realized they were worried they didn't notice his presence for that long, so he pointed at the cameras on the corners of the walls as he clarified, "I was at the Tech room. Only came in here just now."

Katherine and Amelia released a sigh of relief, catching the face towels that he tossed to them. When Damien reached Katherine, he leaned in and kissed her on the lips. "I got us a table for dinner."

"Okay. I'll take a shower and then we'll go."

He then turned to Amelia. "Would you like to join us?"

Amelia smiled and shook her head. "Thanks, but Styles is waiting for me in the Tech room. You two have fun."

That perked up Katherine's ears. "Did you find anything?" she asked, knowing they had been turning tables in search of Deborah.

"Nothing major yet, though we did come across some interesting stuff."

"Like what?"

"Yesterday you told us to check the employees in the estate to see if we missed something. Two are new and hired by Deborah—one of them was the driver who disappeared with her that day, while the other was a young housekeeper who resigned the next day. Three have been employed for a long time: the head gardener, the butler, and a housekeeper—all of them have been in the estate for about fifty years."

"And?" Katherine's brows drew together, wondering what Amelia was thinking.

"I don't know. The old staff are…well, old. Why are they still working? Don't they want to retire? Also… they've been on your family's estate most of their lives and yet they didn't "notice" anything strange? Like someone trying to kill their boss? The mansion is huge, but Deborah had been doing this way too long for someone else not to notice something."

Damien squeezed Katherine's shoulder. "At Nana's, there are workers who choose to stay and serve our family until they're physically unable to—or until they die. They're loyal. But I agree. One of them must know something."

"All of them swore up and down that they didn't see anything. And unfortunately, we can't torture them to extract information," Amelia added.

Katherine let out a sigh, then she nodded. "At least one of them must be lying… Have Styles and Felix track down that new housekeeper who resigned. I want to talk to her." At first, they thought that the housekeeper resigned because the commotion freaked her out—that was her reason in the letter. Mr. Higgins handled the staff members and relayed the report to Grandpa Theo's assistant and Katherine a few days later, along with the resignation letter. Maybe they should look further into that.

"Got it. We'll do more extensive research and let you know what we'll find."

"I'll check in with my men while I'm here and wait for you out front," said Damien to Katherine, and then he gave Amelia a brief hug before leaving the room. "Bye."

He didn't usually hug Amelia—that was a rare occasion. So that left Amelia blushing like a tomato because of the sudden and unexpected show of affection from her son.

Katherine giggled as she walked past the other. "You look so cute, Falcon. I'll tell him to do that more often."

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