“Oh, Kennedy Williams. She is our CFO and would have purchased your services on my behalf. I wouldn’t have expected her to know much about me but she is my next-of-kin contact so please forward any reports or documentation her way. It is important she has any information I would receive.” Kathryn looked puzzled. Madoc’s relationship with Kennedy was complicated and he didn’t plan on getting into it with Kathryn. But she wouldn’t let it drop.
“Do you have a significant other – a girlfriend, mother, or sibling that is within driving distance?”
“No, nobody.” She jotted this down in short script.
“Okay Madoc, do you have a work colleague that you feel comfortable with that could help you with some of the tasks and errands? After I leave today, I’m going to be making some referrals to Meals on Wheels, Mindy Maids and to my colleague Ryanne who is an occupational therapist. You need certain things in order to function safely within your home so you can begin focusing on your physical rehab program. If you have somebody you know that could help, this process can be a whole lot less intrusive for you.” Madoc had feared this, having to call in one of his teammates to help – but having strangers was too risky.
“I know a guy, Tuck – he could pick up some groceries for me and help with the tidying? Please don’t call Meals on Wheels or Mindy Maids,” Madoc said. He coughed. “Those are for old people.” Kathryn looked up from her notes. He was starting to feel trapped, as if the power had shifted again.
“Ok Madoc, next visit I expect Tuck to be here with you so that we can arrange things more thoroughly. I won’t call in those two services, but at some point my colleague Ryanne will be coming out to assess the house and make recommendations. I assume you have a home gym?” Kathryn glanced at the security screens which were now showing her car and driveway. Madoc sensed the change in her body language immediately – she was beginning to fidget with her pen. She was ready to leave. “Of course,” Madoc replied.
“Well then, you and I can aim to start assessing your range of motion and strength during the next session.” She began collecting her things. She had turned all business on him in an instant – Madoc could only assume the cameras had freaked her out, or that maybe she could tell he was lying.
“Thank you Kathryn, that sounds reasonable. I’ll walk you out.” She stood and moved away from him. “No Madoc, I’m going see myself out. Please do not go down those stairs without assistance – or if you do have an elevator please use it. Would you like me to arrange the next appointment through Ms. Kennedy or do you have a number I can reach you directly at?” Madoc hesitated – he had never given out his personal cell number to a woman unless it was for business, but Kathryn was technically his employee, just one he was having occasional mental images of fucking. “Ah… sure, you can give me a ring at 519-448-3393, it’s always on.” Kathryn nodded and entered the number into her phone. Closing it, she moved towards the doors and began to slip out of the room. Madoc tried to say farewell but could only manage, “I’ll be doing much better the next time you see me.” Madoc wasn’t only saying this for her benefit – he was determined to never feel or look vulnerable in front of Kathryn again. The power had shifted too many times between them, and whether it had been due to his lack of focus or uncontrollable hard-on or maybe her skill in managing him, he wasn’t going to let it happen again.
Chapter 7
Kathryn left Madoc’s home and immediately called Ryanne with her earpiece. “Hey,” she said.
“Hey yourself,” Ryanne retorted.
“So you won’t believe the visit I just went on, totally fuckin nuts. Are you off now?”
“Yeah, I just finished up, I’m at the corner of Wellington and Brandish. Meet for drinks at four at Jerry’s?”
“Yeah, see you then.” Kathryn hung up and shook her head. That had been the most tension-filled, frustrating and exhilarating visit she had ever been on. She was having a hard time dissecting her feelings – so much had happened, and most of it was strange.
“So what happened? Tell me from the very start,” Ryanne asked as soon as both of them had a glass of Pinot Noir and some super-loaded nachos on the way. Kathryn leaned in and gave a synopsis of the empty referral file, the hostile cold call and her drive to the well-known rich part of the county. She knew her description of the house could not do it justice, but Ryanne would get to see for herself very soon. “If the dog wasn’t enough to intimidate me at the start, the way this guy looks was enough to make any sane person run for the hills,” Kathryn explained.
“So Mike Tyson scary?” Ryanne asked.
“No, the opposite, like James Bond scary. Too mysterious and too many lies for a simple therapy visit. It’s not like I’m a cop. He was built and tattooed, but still looked like a freakin’ GQ model.” She took another sip and nodded to their waitress again “I couldn’t read him. One minute he’s charming, the next rude and offensive”
“So what’s the problem?” Ryanne asked, finishing of her first glass and receiving her second from the waitress. “You’ve got this super-hot guy, probably a billionaire, with brains and a good job and a dog that kicks ass, so what if he lied initially? He is probably a wild man having tons of sex and didn’t want you in his bathroom to see all the nasty evidence!” Ryanne cackled at that last statement. “You can be a bit of a hard-ass Kathryn, real teacher-like sometimes…did you try to lighten the mood?” Kathryn knew Ryanne was saying this to get under her skin. Almost all of the guys Kathryn had dated recently had said she was “too serious” or “too domineering”.
“Oh, so you would prefer me to be more like yourself?” Kathryn snorted. “You probably would have moved in with Madoc today if he smiled the right way at you. Isn’t that what happened with Dennis? You bought what he was selling pretty quickly. I on the other hand am absolutely suspicious of this guy – something is off, he’s too good to be true and his dog is like a walking weapon. Only drug dealers and celebrities have dogs controlled like that.” Kathryn trailed off to accept her second glass of red. This is where things usually started to get good with her and Ryanne. All their theories and hypotheses would help Kathryn come up with a game plan moving forward. Kathryn waited for Ryanne to speak. She didn’t look at her.
“Spill it, you’re going too easy on this. Give me some more details about the bedroom and bathroom.” Kathryn almost sputtered her wine.
“Oh I almost forgot to tell you about the cameras and the security screens in his room. I don’t know why he would need to see every aspect of the house all of the time – he’s just a geek, why the security?” Ryanne’s eyes grew wide.
“Do you think he likes to film other things?” she said, smiling coyly as she demolished her second glass. “Did Mr. Pearson actually ruffle the feathers of Ms. Davis, physiotherapist to the stars? If so, I can’t wait to meet this guy!” Kathryn rolled her eyes.
“Stop, no. I am not turning into one of those unethical therapists that start breaking all the rules just because the guy is hot. Seriously, I’m talking to you about this because of the weirdness with everything, not because of his Greek god appearance.” Kathryn swallowed finally.
“Holy shit, did you just say Greek god? Yes, you are totally in this knee-deep! I bet you creamed your panties when you left. Ha!” Kathryn choked on a peanut.
“Jesus Ryanne, you’re sick! Seriously, you need mental help.” Kathryn looked away, trying to forget the butterflies she had felt as she left in her car. Ryanne was just complicating matters. Maybe another glass of wine would help her clarify things.
Although they loved working together, Kathryn and Ryanne were very different people. It worked for them and they knew what the other needed almost intuitively. “Ok, seriously, I’m going to have you come out within a week to do your OT thing. We can do it together or separately depending on your schedule. Are you still taking Mondays off to do couple’s therapy with Dennis?” Kathryn took a sip and grinned widely – it was her turn to push Ryanne’s buttons.
“Just so you
know, counselling has been very beneficial for me. You could probably learn something,” Ryanne said through a full mouth of cheese and chips. Kathryn knew this was too good to be true – Ryanne always put a positive spin on things when it came to relationships. “Great, but how is Dennis responding?” Kathryn asked. Ryanne smirked. “Well, Dennis actually hasn’t come the last few weeks.”
“Ah-ha!” Kathryn shouted. “I knew it. Dennis is such a dink. So you are doing couple’s therapy without being in a couple. When did you guys break it off again?” Kathryn had seen many guys come and go in Ryanne’s life, but Dennis took the cake. He was a real bum that drained the life and vitality out of her good friend. Ryanne had the best sense of humour and guys loved her, not just because of her curvy figure and oozing sex appeal but because Ryanne made them feel good about themselves. She sometimes ran into guys and girls who hated to have their limelight stolen or thought she was competing with them, but Ryanne could usually win these people over with time.
“A couple of weeks ago, but therapy has helped me realize I am finally done with Dennis and am ready to move on. To bigger and better things!” Ryanne raised her glass and they both cheered. Tomorrow they would have slight wine-headaches, but it was well worth it. They needed this time to debrief and catch up. They had both agreed that it was probably best to bring in a second therapist to assess the situation and alleviate some of the tension Kathryn was feeling towards Madoc. Kathryn planned to call Madoc tomorrow morning to set up their next meeting and hoped he would be open to another visit. Something told her not to get her hopes up, but she had faith in herself that she could finish this contract successfully and potentially add another elite client group to her caseload.
Chapter 8
Madoc heard the ringing in his dream for what seemed like forever. He had been dreaming about being on a plane with the president, who was trying to call him from the cockpit to tell him he needed his help to fly the plane. In his dream, Madoc had been frantically trying to reach the old turn-style phone on the wall but was held back by his cast and broken leg. He woke to his cell phone ringing on his nightstand. “Hello? Who is this?” he said. Madoc wasn’t well known for his cell-phone etiquette; regardless of whether you were a pizza guy or the prime minister, everybody got the same treatment.
“Good morning Madoc, its Kathryn Davis calling. We met yesterday at your home. Is it an ok time to talk?”
“Oh Kathryn, yes its fine. I was just tidying up some… Jesus… actually I was sleeping. What time is it?” Madoc rubbed his eyes, peering around his still-dark room.
“Oh it’s ten am. You must be pretty exhausted still, which is very normal. I was hoping to schedule my second visit. Would it be possible for you to have one of your colleagues there at the same time? This will help me develop a more comprehensive plan with them,” Kathryn said. “Yeah that sounds fine, how about tomorrow at two?” Madoc said. The pain was starting to awaken again and he just wanted to close his eyes and fall back asleep before it became impossible.
“Ok Madoc, sounds good. Take care of yourself until then.” And Kathryn hung up.
Madoc rubbed his head and eyes with one hand as he clutched his phone and laid his head back down on the pillow. He had almost forgotten she would be returning and felt a strange feeling of anticipation.
Madoc’s team were the best in the world. They had been hired by almost every prominent government for jobs protecting people, assets and/or delivering secrets. For the past four months they had been hired by the Prime Minister of Canada to act as his unknown security team during all international visits. The Prime Minister’s regular and visible security team would also be on site during these visits, but they took all orders from Madoc and his team. Secret visits to countries by the Prime Minister’s cabinet or any of his ‘consultants’ were directly handled and managed by him. The team known as “KWAT” consisted of four other agents trained in assassination, espionage, language decoding, bomb making, nuclear weapon management, hand-to-hand combat and computer programming. Each member had his/her own specific talents, but as a whole his team could kick some serious ass. Anybody could hire Madoc’s team, but not just anybody could afford them. Their price tag was high and Madoc expected the people who hired him to listen to his instructions above and beyond any of their personal advisors. This often led to a number of toes being stepped on, but this was how Madoc worked. He was the leader of the team in every way other than the financial management piece. That is where Kennedy Williams came into play. Ms. William’s job was to ensure the business aspects met the legal and financial requirements in order to keep the CRA and IRS off their backs. Madoc had hired Williams to do the jobs he couldn’t, and he listened to her in the same way he expected his clients to listen to him. So when she told him his broken leg and crutches were hurting the business, he listened and backed off. His team had wanted him to take some time off to heal, but also felt he needed to lay low since he had been exposed in Tunisia. The people who tried to blow him up there could still be trying to finish the job in Canada.
Tuck, his closest ally on the team, had been the one to deliver the team’s message a couple of weeks ago. “Madoc, you have a god-damn shattered leg and your skin pretty much got roasted like a Thanksgiving turkey.” Tuck always had something smartass to say. “You gotta take some time to heal and give yourself a restart. Even Adams thinks you need to back off and that psychopath certainly doesn’t give a fuck about your wellbeing or ‘emotional state’. He knows what we all know. This dirty bomb on your balcony could have been a lot worse and we missed something. Not only do you need time to recover, but we’ve got to figure out what happened and who did it. We haven’t had an assassination attempt on a team member in six years – nobody is even supposed to know we are there. Charlie has some ideas about international passport tracking systems and the Iranians, but she needs more time to hack the Chinese and US systems before we even go down that route. So can we just back up a bit and can you actually act like the injured patient you are?”
The only person Tuck hadn’t mentioned was Marshall. Likely Marshall hadn’t said anything about Madoc taking some time, but who knows. Marshall was the oldest guy on the team and an expert in languages and cultures; he could fit into any city or town in the world and people would be referring to him as a local within two weeks. Recently his fiancé died and now he rarely spoke. He hadn’t been the same.
Regardless of their history, nobody on his team had ever dared tell him what to do, so he had taken the hint and laid low since his return from Tunisia. But now he needed Tuck to help him with Kathryn, which meant inviting him to the house and having to listen to his smart mouth and cocky attitude.
Tuck answered on the first ring. “Hey, what do you need?” he asked, no formalities required. Madoc spoke softly into the phone “What are you doing tomorrow at two? The therapy company Kennedy hired has sent over this pit bull of a physiotherapist who is demanding somebody attend my next session to show I’m not some hermit about to die of starvation. Can you come?” He did not want to hear Tuck’s jokes right now, but it was unavoidable.
“Ha, so you met your match eh? I hope she is some snaggle-toothed hunchback that beats you into submission. Of course I can be there. Do you want me to bring muffins or lattes? Or both? This is going to be so fun…” Tuck’s voice was overly enthusiastic.
“Just be here and shut your god-damn mouth.” Madoc could still hear Tuck cackling in the phone. “Jesus, I can’t catch a break,” Madoc said as he closed his phone and his eyes, trying to silence the throbbing in his head. Besides being a gigantic asshole and class clown, Tuck was a physicist by education, with special skills in nuclear weaponry, explosives and a chemical warfare specialist. He was brilliant, a real genius identified right out of elementary school, and he’d fast-tracked through high school and university. Ladies also found him very attractive and charming, meaning his ego and head were about the size of the Goodyear blimp. Madoc could only take him in small doses, so he wondered how
Kathryn would manage him. He smiled with his eyes still closed – this may be more fun that he’d originally thought.
Chapter 9
Kathryn awoke to the buzzing of her phone beside her bed. “For god’s sake Ryanne, I still had another hour of sleep, why are you calling me?” Kathryn rolled onto her right side and tried to bury her head into the pillow. Her room was light – she must have slept in. Yesterday had been jam-packed with clients and her wine headache had lasted until she’d had another glass of Chardonnay that evening.
“Oh buck up you big baby, you have a busy day ahead. Aren’t you going to see that Greek god of yours?” Ryanne asked, knowing the answer already.
“Yes Ryanne, and yes I will call you as soon as I’m finished, but no drinks tonight, I have a ton of paperwork to catch up on. I’ll call you, I promise.” With that Kathryn hung up and sighed. The only thing that made today easier was that she already had her clothing picked out. Her black Lulus, her racer-back teal top and the black hoodie hung over her make-up chair. She had matching black and teal Stella McCartney limited edition running shoes that finished off the whole look. The thought of seeing Madoc again revved her up, but she knew she needed to curtail her feelings if she was going to manage him properly today. If he could be managed…
Kathryn pulled onto the highway. She didn’t mind the drive today. It was gorgeous out and she felt good about getting into the gym with Madoc to see what he could and couldn’t do. That was where she excelled and where her clients starting trusting her. She hoped like hell he had someone there, not only because she didn’t want to have to fight with him again, but also because it might alleviate some of the weird tension. She cranked up her favourite radio station and started singing along, refusing to think about the visit any longer. She would deal with whatever came today, just like she always had.
Dangerous Care (Dangerous Care Saga Book 1) Page 3