by Jack Truxton
I took a deep breath, blew it out, and then flashed Nyala a thumbs-up. “Let’s do it.”
She nodded, tucking her tablet under her arm as she tapped the access pad next to the door. It slid open, the hall filled with people, with Candy, the downstairs secretary at the lead. “Thank you for coming so promptly,” Nyala began, gesturing into the room. “Please, make yourselves comfortable.”
With Candy leading the way, they filed in, all five of them that were left. Fortunately for us, Romine ran a small ship. Working for a horrid criminal thug generally didn’t lead to a large, healthy workforce.
There was, of course, Candy, whose pink hair might have had something to do with her name, her business dress obviously inspired by Nyala’s, just as sexy and just as professional. Flanking her on both sides were the two guards who had been stationed with her, members of the Tracksuit Mafia. Maurice was the big black man stuffed into a white tracksuit while Zan was almost as large of a Japanese man filling up a black tracksuit. Hugging the left side of the group was the only woman in a tracksuit, hers a dark, bloody red. Named Tatyana, she was of average height but solidly built, muscular but still pretty. Richard was on the far right of the little line of people, still in his mustard yellow clothes, the only one of the five that didn’t look all too surprised at the sight of me in Romine’s chair.
Candy’s mouth fell open, while Maurice and Zan tensed up as if getting ready for a fight. Tatyana didn’t bother with that, focusing entirely on the business Kat as Nyala strutted past the little group to make her way back to my side. “What the fuck is going on, Ny?”
“There has been a change of management, Tatyana,” she said plainly, her tail held tall as her ears. “Please, I know this may be shocking, but hear Mr. St. Clare out before you come to any snap judgments.”
Richard chuckled, his eyes immediately glancing over at the concealed incinerator. “Guess we all know where the boss is now, huh?”
I could feel that Annie was about to start a very animated outburst, probably a dramatic retelling of everything, so I beat her to the punch, leaning forward in the chair. “It wasn’t what I wanted, whatever you might think. The bastard tried to shoot me in the back.”
That didn’t really seem to shock anyone, but Nyala’s words and my own did seem to get everyone actually listening to me. Candy crossed her arms under her ample chest as she looked at me, the guards relaxing some but staying tense. When no one added anything for a moment, I continued.
“Look, I’m going to be upfront and plain about the situation, people.” I stood up, bringing up all the bits of blackmail and leverage into small windows in my smartglasses. “I only showed up here because I made a bad deal with Romine, and he decided that he’d prefer to take it out of my hide instead of being reasonable. But I don’t think I’m the only one here who made a bad deal with that monster while he was alive, am I?”
That sent a ripple of murmurs through the crowd, and they weren’t the happiest sounds. Well, they had every right to be unhappy. I sure as hell was with what Mario had done to them. It was Candy that spoke up, her long mascara-laden lashes flashing as she looked right at Nyala.
“You didn’t tell him, did you, Ny? Wasn’t the boss your master?” She glanced at Annie. “And what’s up with the bouncy Kat there?”
Nyala met her gaze and let a smile cut through her perfectly cool demeanor. “Mario was my Master, yes, but he was a monster. We all knew it too.” She looked over at me, golden eyes flashing with adoration. “Mr. St. Clare freed me. I have no Master now, and neither does Annie.”
I was about to follow up on that, make the big pitch before the crowd got too riled, but Annie just couldn’t hold it in anymore.
“And Jake is totally going to free every Wonder Kat we can find!” she cried, bouncing in place as her tail quivered with excitement. Her sudden outburst put everyone off balance, Nyala and me included, so she kept going, taking a step forward as she pointed a finger, sweeping it like a laser pointer across the room. “He wants to fix all the bad stuff that mean Mr. Romine did to all of you too! But to do all this, he needs your help!”
She actually took another big step, raising her right leg so that she had it up on the desk like George Washington crossing the Delaware … or maybe Captain Morgan. I’m not sure which was more appropriate. Drawing her frying pan, she thrust it toward the heavens, concluding her big speech with, “You’re all good people, and if we work together, we can save lives, make the neighborhood a better place, and have a whole lot of fun while we’re at it! Who’s with us?!”
I couldn’t help it. I was staring at her. Hell, everyone was. It wasn’t just that it was strange. It was compelling. Annie didn’t just wear her heart on her sleeve, she actively pushed it into your face so that you couldn’t ignore it. And right then, all that passion and good spirit were there, shoved in everyone’s face so hard that they would never forget it.
Annie blinked slowly at the utter silence, slowly lowering her pan as she took a careful step back off the desk. “Uh, I’m sorry, Jake, I just …” Her voice trailed off as she lowered her gaze, thinking that she’d totally screwed that up, but I put a hand on her shoulder and smiled.
“Sorry?” I laughed as I squeezed her shoulder, turning towards the collection of crooks. “I don’t think I could have said it better myself. I mean, I would have said it completely differently—”
“Oh, whiskers, yes,” Nyala said with a faint giggle, holding her tablet over her smiling face to hide her amusement. “And yet, I have to agree.”
I nodded to Nyala as Annie began to perk back up, the stunned silence from the crew starting to fade. “Yep. Ladies and gentlemen, and I mean that in every sense of the world, I don’t care what the past was, and I don’t care how things were run before. I think you can all do some real good for the world, and you know all those bad deals you made with Mario?” I threw my hands up in the air as if I were tossing up papers. “Gone. Whatever leverage he had on you, it’s gone. If he promised you something and then screwed you over, we’re going to make it right.”
Richard looked like the cat that ate the canary, a huge grin spreading over his face as he wiped his bald head, but it was cool as ice Tatyana who got something out first. “And what? To get that, we have to join your, what, your little crusade here?”
“No,” Nyala said confidentially, her firm voice carrying over the new round of whispers in the room. “I’ve already discussed this rather thoroughly with Mr. St. Clare. Just as he freed me, freed Annie, he is freeing all of you. No questions asked, no obligations made.” She raised a finger, her tail swishing back and forth. “But … if you do wish to join us, continue working for us, you will not only find truly fulfilling work but a better contract than anything you ever signed with Mr. Romine.”
She lifted her chin, every bit the unstoppable businesswoman. “If you don’t wish to trust Mr. St. Clare, trust in me. You know that I have always tried to do what is best for all of you, and now that I am freed, I can ensure that what Mario did to you … to us … will never happen again.”
All smiles again, Annie just pumped her fist and cried out, “Ditto!”
I looked between the two Kats, smiling softly at them both, heart warmed by their support and confidence buoyed by their strength. I turned my gaze out into the crowd, assessing each of them. Richard was on board, that much was obvious, and Candy too looked swayed. Considering how protective Maurice and Zan seemed to be of her, judging by their actions when they came in, I figured the silent guards would fall in line with her. Tatyana, well, she was the real wild card, but she also seemed to be the one with the most common sense.
“I know this seems crazy to you folks,” I said, letting my words flow freely. “Trust me, I know how you feel. You all probably know who I am, that not three days ago, I was just a working stiff like you guys, with a dead end life and a massive debt owed to the asshole that used to sit behind this desk. But now …” I simply gestured to the wonderful Kats flanking me. “Life tur
ned around for me, and it’s giving me a chance to do some fantastic things. The way I see it, I’m just sharing the wealth, you know?”
I nodded to each of them standing before us. “Freedom, no strings attached, and a chance to stick a big middle finger in the face of the people who push us all down. We can show the corps, the government jerks who let the corps get so big, every jerk in charge, that they can’t keep putting the little guy down. Eventually, the little guy fights back.”
Not bother to move around the desk, I just hopped it, sliding over the desktop until I was right in front of the group of them. Holding out my hand, I grinned. “So, as my esteemed Nurse Annie said, who’s with us?”
19
In the world we lived in, where things could go to crap a moment’s notice and the big corps pushed everyone down, it always made me smile to see that people could still get fired up about earning their freedom. Even the questioning Tatyana was on board after our trio of impassioned speeches, though I think it was the trust that everyone had in Nyala that won the day for us. The next few hours were filled with pretty boring business stuff, Nyala rightly insisting that we take care of the entire crew’s contracts in private, one by one.
Considering part of those contracts was taking care of the holds that Romine had on them, it was the only right away to do it. Hell, I wouldn’t have even sat in on the talks at all if I wasn’t the new ‘boss’ now. I’d have to get used to people calling me that.
By the time everything was in order, it was late afternoon, and I was drooping, no matter how many cups of coffee I had downed. I was rubbing my eyes, sitting back in Mario’s chair, truly mine now, while Annie was quite literally curled up on the plush carpet beside me, her tail curled around her like only a Wonder Kat could. She was thoroughly tuckered out, having spent the time during our meetings turning the attached bedroom into something that we could all stand.
It’s not like we could go to Romine’s actual house. As I pointed out, we’d have to lay relatively low for at least another day or so. We couldn’t afford to let a single hint out that things here weren’t business as usual, not until we had our meeting with Mr. Johnson.
Nyala was quite a bit more bright-eyed and bushy-tailed than the rest of us, perched on the corner of the desk on my other side as she tapped away at her tablet. “Well, here is a bit more good news, Jake,” she said, glancing up from her tablet to regard me with those golden eyes. “I have a new meeting with our Mr. Johnson rescheduled for tomorrow afternoon.”
“Awesome.” I nodded, getting my thinking cap back on. “With all the craziness and contracts and the like, I don’t think I ever had a chance to look at what information we have on him. Might be best to review it now, before I completely fall out.”
Nyala smirked a bit, her ears swiveling forward as she tapped once on her tablet then swiped to one side, a rather sparse looking file shooting into focus on my smartglasses. “The good news then is that this review will be definitely be done before then. The bad news, well, you can see it for yourself.”
I could. Sparse was actually an understatement. There was very little concrete data in the file. No first name, no employment information other than Johnson’s Katsukami connection, all payments made through a rotation of front companies, not even a clear picture. Every bit from the security cameras here was distorted, at least when it came to Johnson’s face. Every picture also showed a bulky silver collar, similar in shape to, oddly enough, a neck pillow, with the distortion starting right at the top of it.
“Is that an optical distortion field?” I looked past the file to Nyala. “I mean, I know Katsukami has access to military-grade tech, but that’s real black ops stuff.”
“It is, unfortunately,” she answered, her tail tip twitching as she spoke. “I’ve never seen his face, and we have no pictures of it. On top of that, I’d bet my last catnip lollipop that the Johnson name is fake as well. He’s a ghost, as far as we’re concerned.”
I flashed her a tired grin as I closed the file. “And that’s a plus for us. He has to actually have some pull if Katsukami has gone through all this trouble to keep him safe and secure. He’ll have some real information when we put the screws to him.” Glancing around the room, I mentally took stock of a lot of the expensive, gaudy crap that should be liquidated. We didn’t need it, and it was worth real money. “Putting Johnson on the back burner for the moment, how is the business planning going?”
“Whiskers, it’s even more complicated than I thought it would be. I’ve thought a lot about this moment, but it’s always been a dream at best.” She paused for a moment, glancing at me sidelong. “The dream version was always a lot easier, I have to say. I’ve been typing away, analyzing every bit of cash flow, every asset that Romine owned, and even with my business acumen, it’s going to be a difficult balancing act to clean it all up and still making everything work out.”
“I know you can work it out,” I said with a tired smile, rubbing my neck. All the activity and the weird sleep schedule was weighing on me, and the aches in my neck and shoulders were a testament to that. “I’m no financial expert, far from it, but I did learn a lot about stretching a dollar to its breaking point from my intern days. Maybe I can help some.”
She smiled at me, her fangs flashing white against her tanned skin. “I’m sure you can, Jake. One of the first rules of business is keeping your mind open to outside ideas and perspectives, just like yours.” With that, she set the tablet down on the desk and shimmied off of the desk, uncrossing those perfect legs as she did, that business mini-skirt riding up just enough to leave little to my imagination. “But you’re not going to be giving any particularly good ideas with how tense and tired you are.”
Before I could say Jiminy Cricket, Nyala was behind me, leaning over the top of the office chair. Even through the trim jacket and blouse, I could feel her pert breasts against my head as her surprisingly strong fingers clamped down on the thick muscles to both sides of my neck, probing down into my aching flesh. A satisfied sigh escaped my lips as those fingers began working and kneading the tension out, every movement that of an expert masseuse, or what I imagined one was like.
“A Business Kat knows when to work and when to relax,” Nyala purred, a soothing rumble I could hear in her chest as it remained pressed up against me. “I know eighty-seven massage techniques from six different countries, and the best ways to combine them to maximize their effectiveness.” As I melted beneath those skilled fingers, her breath came hot on my ear as she whispered, “But you’ll have to tell me for yourself how effective they are.”
After another low moan of ecstasy, I managed to get out semi-coherently, “They’re really, really good, like super effective, Nyala, and if you stop anytime in the next ten minutes, I would threaten to fire you.” Her hands worked down into the knots in my shoulders, and I shivered with delight. “Of course, I’d be powerless to go through with it, totally under the spell of your magic fingers, and then you’d walk all over me. It’d be tragic.”
That’s when I felt her teeth in my earlobe, the sharp sting of those cute fangs, but just enough to know that they were there as she dragged them slowly, sensually across the skin. “Unless you want me to walk on you.” Her whispered words were an invitation to that and so much more, which she punctuated with the refrain of what she said before. “I will do anything you desire.”
“There are a lot of desires running through my head right now, I’m not going to lie.” I tried to crane my head back to get a good look at the business Kat, but another firm kneading of my neck as her teeth receded made me just want to enjoy every moment under her tender ministrations. “But with everything you’ve been through, with what Mario did to you, I’m afraid to ask for, like, a good dozen of them. It’s not like you need to have sex with me to make me respect you, or for me to care …” My voice trailed off into one of those weird grunts of pain and relief as Nyala really worked deep into a particularly aggrieved muscle, the last bits of tension in me melting away.
“No,” she said softly, words thoughtful and measured even as that seductive purr rolled in the back of her throat. “I know you won’t ever force me to do anything I don’t want to do … and I’m confident now that, because of you, no one ever will, ever again. I’m in control of my destiny now.” With a swift shift of her grip and flick of a wrist, Nyala spun the chair around so that I was facing her. “Which means that when I say that I want your love, and I want to fulfill your desires, it’s not from any place of fear or obligation.” Those golden eyes bored into me as her tongue ran over her lips and her fangs, tail now straight up and quivering. “It’s because I want to do, I want to share myself with you.”
She arched a delicate eyebrow. “I trust that’s enough to assuage your worries, Jake.”
I pushed up out of the chair, coming practically nose-to-nose with Nyala in one swift motion, my hands cradling her hips. “Yeah, I’d say so.” I took the initiative, kissing her softly. While Annie tasted like chocolate cookies, Nyala’s lips were sweet cinnamon, tingling me enticingly with their spice. As I pulled back, I stared into those almond-shaped eyes. “I’m only sorry if it looked like I was pushing you away at all.” I cast a dark look at the incinerator door. “I just … I never wanted to even seem like that bastard at all.”
“Jake,” she whispered softly, hooking her hands around my neck as she smiled up at me, “you’re the furthest thing from that monster and all those like him. Never let anyone make you feel otherwise.”
“Thanks, Nyala.” I shifted my eyes back to her and drank in her delicate features, her perfectly tanned skin and red-and-black-ticked hair. “That means a lot coming from you.” I grinned a little, stifling a yawn. “Sorry, Annie and I have been burning the candle on both ends. Being on the run from a major international corporation and a loan shark will do that, you know?”