42. May 20th

MAY 20TH

Kai

She was pacingthe length of the conference room. It didn't matter that she knew someone was watching her through the hidden cameras. She couldn't sit. She couldn't stand still. This whole situation was freaking her out, and no one was talking to her. Not that she really wanted them to talk to her. Whatever they had to say wasn't going to be good.

Despite holding her hand as they went back inside her house, Waters had not said anything else to her other than an occasional direction of where to stand or where to go.

Demon had given her face another quick once over, focusing particularly on her eyes. He'd asked a couple of quick, cursory questions, probably checking for a concussion, then he'd moved on to the body in the middle of the floor. When he was done, he'd looked up to see her staring at it, then pulled a quilt from off the edge of the sofa and used it to at least take the face out of her sight. He offered her a small nod, then disappeared to whatever his next task was.

While the men had gone through the entire house, none of them had spoken to her, nor had they appeared to be looking at her. But she knew without a shadow of a doubt they were aware of everything to do with her.

The door of the conference room opened, and she whipped around to see Waters come into the room, followed by the rest of his team. He placed the starfish in the center of the table and engaged the security protocols. The windows shielded, the lighting muted to the red emergency tones, and everyone was seated around the table except for her, clutching the back of the chair in front of her.

"Sit, Kubrick." Waters' voice was soft, but it was clearly a command.

"I…"

"Please," he added.

She nodded and nervously sat in the chair she'd been standing behind.

This is not going to go well.

God's disembodied voice chided, "We don't usually see clients once a job is completed."

Kai sneered at the starfish. "I wasn't aware the job you'd been hired for had been completed. You abandoned me mid-consultation and when I was still in danger, despite our not knowing that it had nothing to do with Ka-Bar. And speaking of my brother, he's still swinging out there, so you're not even close to finished with this ‘job.'" Someone in the room coughed. She hung her head, eyes closed.

All right, shut that shit down right now. You are in a fucking mess, and vocalizing your panic is not going to help your cause.

Inhale. Exhale. Eyes opened. "What do you need from me?" she asked.

"Top to bottom, what happened," Waters encouraged her.

She expelled a deep breath before speaking to the group. "Like I told Waters, I spent the night at the studio. I watched the final cut of the film. I went to breakfast. Then I went to a meeting with Big Bird."

"Was it a scheduled meeting?"

"Yes. 9 a.m."

"His request or yours."

"His. Ish. It was the final audit of the budget. He always requires an exit meeting when everything is complete."

"Was anyone else there?"

She spared a glance at Waters before answering. "No. It was just me." His face didn't change, but she swore she saw a tic in his cheek. "His secretary was out front the entire time, though."

"Was the meeting ugly?" Waters asked.

"What meeting with that shitweasel wasn't?" She rubbed her forehead with a sigh. "This one was worse than all the others, though. He started making accusations. Accusing me of stealing the stuff that had disappeared. About me trying to sabotage the film with the accidents. Said I was looking for personal publicity. That I wanted the film shut down so I could collect the insurance money and my fees."

She began shaking again. Demon appeared silently and kneeled next to her chair, putting his jacket around her shoulders. "She needs rest. Not that anyone's going to listen to me." Demon flashed a cranky glance into Waters' eyes. He snapped his fingers off to his side, and someone put a small bottle of water into his hands. He unscrewed the top and put the bottle and the top on the table in front of her. "Drink," he ordered her. Then he grunted and turned to give an angry look at Waters.

"Thank you, Demon." Placing her hand on top of one of his on the table, she drew his eyes to hers. She tried to reassure him with her gaze, then took a long drink of water. She continued, "By the end of the meeting, my filter had turned off completely. I said some pretty awful things, most of which I don't really remember. It was like this red haze came down over me. Next thing I remember, I was storming out of his office and back to my trailer."

"Would the secretary have heard all that was said?"

"Stapleton and I were both pretty loud from moment one. And I didn't close the door when I went in so that there were potential witnesses. She probably sold tickets to the entire staff like it was the finale before the apocalypse."

Someone snickered quietly.

"Okay, so you went to your trailer. Then what?"

"I called Kowalski. Warned him what Big Bird was planning to do. He said he was hanging up and calling a meeting with the board members. I packed up some things I had there. A few changes of clothes. Some toiletries. Notebooks, that kind of thing. Threw them in my ‘vette and drove home."

"What time?"

"I guess around eleven?"

"So you get home, and he's inside the house," Waters growled.

Suddenly, Kai was transferred back in time to those moments earlier today that changed everything.

Draggingwhat felt like a ten-ton emotional weight, Kai approached her front door. Could things be any worse? Big Bird was molting worse than ever.

Suddenly, she stopped. Something was wrong.

Someone's here.

She wasn't sure how she knew that, but the hair was standing up on her arms. Reaching for the door to get inside quickly, she noticed that the door wasn't completely closed, and the wood around the lock had slivers sticking out like someone had taken a screwdriver to it.

What the hell?

Without thought, Kai pushed the door open and looked around from the doorway. Nothing seemed disturbed. She entered the room and closed the door behind her as silently as possible. The house was as quiet as a tomb. It was unnerving, and she still felt like there were eyes on her.

I need a weapon.

So, instead of turning and walking out the door, then calling the police, she made a move toward the fireplace and the ornamental tools. Before she got more than two steps, someone grabbed her from behind. Immediately, her hands went up to try and pry the arm from around her neck. Whoever had her in their grip was crushing her windpipe. Their arm was covered by a long-sleeved dress shirt, so her teeth and nails were ineffectual in biting or scratching the skin to try and cause pain. And now, the inability to get any air was ramping up her panic, and the edges of her vision were closing to pinpoints surrounded by blackness and stars.

Her brain suddenly flew back to Roatán and her fight training with Waters and the cast.

Go for the testicles, the instep, the eyes, and the nose to inflict the most immediate damage to try and escape.

With the last of the energy she possessed, Kai raised her booted foot and stamped down, grinding her heel viciously into her assailant's instep. The intruder let out a pained yelp, his hold weakening on Kai, then threw her down on the floor. Her head hit the exposed wood arm of the antique couch as she spun out of his reach, bringing a wave of stars and nausea. Still gasping for air from her bruised neck, she tried to scramble away from the man, but she didn't make it more than a foot before he was back on her by grabbing her hair at the scalp and pulling her head back hard.

The pain was excruciating as he used his hold to swing her head back toward the arm of the couch. A second hit, this one directly to her temple, caused Kai to black out.

What was probably only seconds later, she reopened her eyes, trying to shake the edges of unconsciousness free. Everything was blurry, including her first look at who had attacked her. Blurry or not, it was very clear who it was.

Stapleton!

"Craig?" she asked incredulously. Her fear ratcheted up exponentially as she watched him pull a gun from his pocket and aim it in her direction.

"Why couldn't you just be like any other female director, Serrano? Any other woman I could have charmed into paying no attention to anything other than my dick. But not you. You were immune to everything I threw your way, making me resort to having to be clever."

Pissed off now, her filter turned off completely. "If all of your actions were clever, you need to look up the word in the dictionary. I don't think you understand what it means." Her stomach began to roll.

"Shut the fuck up!" he snarled at her, recentering the gun's aim at her face. "I figured, fine, I couldn't get to you. Plan B is always the assistant. They always want to curry favors so that they can make their way up the ladder. Ambition is a heartless bitch. But even there, you screwed everything up. Not only were you immune, but you refused to hire a personal assistant. Nothing like a director with a God complex."

"I don't have a God complex," Kai rasped. She could feel stomach bile trying to creep up her throat.

This is not good. What an understatement.

"Oh, yes, you do. You need to retain all control over all aspects of your project. It was annoying as hell, especially since you were meticulous with your files and records, making my life much harder when it came to hiding what I was doing. You made everything so fucking difficult. Why couldn't you be just as clueless as any other director? Too overwhelmed to pay attention to what was happening around you that wasn't actual filming." He sneered at her. "Then you went and brought in Captain America, and everything became ten times harder because he was just like you. Always watching. Always noticing things."

"I knew it. You were stealing from the production. You bastard. For what? To make it look like I did it? What the hell is it about me that you hate so much you'd rather have a production fail than make you a shit-ton of money?" The ache in her head grew worse, and the room began to swim.

He sneered at her. "It has nothing to do with you, bitch. Although it was about money. A lot of money. Down in those third-world nations, a crate of weapons, even fake ones, goes for more cash than you could possibly imagine. The average person wouldn't know a fake gun from a real one. Imagine how easy it is to intimidate people with weapons in hand. It was perfect. Everything had been going so well until the board insisted on hiring you. I knew I wouldn't be able to control you. Your reputation of being locked down and focused is almost legendary. So I was forced to resort to grander tricks to try and distract you so I could finish out my retrieval of supplies for my buyers."

"You arranged the break-ins to try and scare me. The food poisoning and the injured stuntman to derail filming." Her ears were still ringing, and she felt like she was going to vomit everywhere, but Kai fought to stay conscious, always looking for an opportunity to exploit so that she could try and flee.

"I needed to find a way to scare you. When that didn't work, I had to cast doubt on you. I couldn't run the risk of you completing the final audit on the film with the board. So much for that. But, if an accident were to happen and shut down filming temporarily, the distraction would give me time to doctor the books. Those idiots don't even know how to read their own spreadsheets. But no, you figure out a way to keep filming.

"So, how to get rid of you? I figure home invasions are so tragic, don't you think? Nice and dramatic for our beloved director. And it will be so moving when I give the official statement about the terrible loss to the Hollywood community, especially since you've directed what will surely be the biggest box office smash of the summer. Even if the film were awful, your death would cause people to flock to the theaters to see your last work. Luckily, the filming is brilliant, so it's going to make way more money than even I imagined."

"I thought you said it was worthless," she snapped.

"I would never have admitted to you, even if only Felicity overheard, that what you put together was any good. But now? You won't be there to counter any story I put forth. Don't worry, though. I'll make sure there's an opening dedication in your memory. I sure as hell won't lose any sleep over saying all kinds of wonderful things, remembering you fondly, even hinting at how attracted I was to you, and the loss I now feel that I never had a chance to tell you how I felt about you. Because inside, it will give me indescribable joy that I'm going to be the one to put you down."

Make him mad. Maybe he'll make a mistake. You're going to have to move fast if he gives you an opening.

"There's only one problem, Craig. Kowalski. He knows what you said to me today. I called him as soon as I got to my trailer. He's probably already rounded up the board members by now. Even if you manage to pull off your little home invasion scenario, they'll look at you first, considering the meeting we had earlier."

And then the opening came, as she had hoped. Her confession that she'd actually told someone what had happened forced his hand. He took a step closer to her, straddling her calves and bringing the gun within point-blank range of her head.

"Say goodbye, bitch."

Before he had the wherewithal to pull the trigger, Kai raised her leg up with lightning speed, hitting him full force in his balls, then swiped his feet out from underneath him with the same leg. He went down like a stone, the gun flying out of his hands and coming to rest under the couch.

Kai scrambled to the side, trying to avoid his falling figure and reach the gun, but she wasn't quite fast enough. Despite the incredible pain he must have been in, he reached for her, managing to wrap both hands around her throat, choking her. She had a split-second choice. Try to get his hands from around her neck or try to reach the gun. Knowing that he might actually strangle her in his rage, Kai chose to go for the gun. Blindly reaching with her fingertips, she struggled to keep conscious. If she gave up for even a second, it would all be over.

All of a sudden, Kai felt something cold and hard under her fingertips. Unfortunately, Stapleton realized she had managed to get herself within range of picking up the weapon. Without letting go of her throat with one hand, his other reached out and wrapped around the wrist of the hand, grasping at the weapon. He slammed her wrist down on the floor hard to try and get her to drop the gun. Between the pain in her head, in her hand, the nausea, and the oxygen deprivation sweeping over her, there was a bang as everything started to go black. Over her, Stapleton stilled in surprise, then fell on top of her. His unmoving weight was crushing her, but his fingers had relaxed from around her throat and wrist, and her fear of being asphyxiated by his body made her push with every ounce of strength she could muster until she rolled him over and off of her.

Like a crab, Kai scrambled sideways to clear Stapleton's body. It was clear he was dead. If the pool of blood forming quickly underneath him wasn't enough proof, the wide-eyed, lifeless stare in his eyes was. She whimpered, clutching the weapon tightly in both hands.

Oh my fucking God, what have I done?

Had she been thinking clearly, she would have rationalized that it was him or her. That he had tried to stage a home invasion to cover his tracks. That he had meant to kill her. But at the moment, she was far from rational. What the hell was she going to do now?

She gulpeddown the last of her water, squeezing the bottle so tight it collapsed.

Waters pried the bottle from her hands. "Why did you end up in an Uber, Kubrick?"

"Honestly, I've no idea. Probably because of the gun. I knew I needed to get rid of it, so I fled out the back door and straight to the pond. I threw it in, and the next thing I knew, I was out on the back road. I called Demon on the number he gave me, and then I caught an Uber when I got down to the main drag. Then you took me back to the house, the rest of you showed up, and that's it."

There was silence.

"Ka-Bar is temporarily on the back burner. We have a fuck of a disaster to clean up, gentlemen. Let's get to it.

"Midas, double-check all communications between Kubrick and Tribe to make sure they have been destroyed. Next, find that Uber driver and erase all traces of her digitally. We can't do anything about her being there physically, but it"s hard to go beyond he-said-she-said when there's no record of a fare. Then get scrubbing cameras everywhere from the bar, to the studio, to her house, especially any security cameras in the neighborhood that show footage relating to us. Do the same for Stapleton to her home. Erase that shit so it looks like nothing has happened other than Kubrick's normal traffic. Make sure to pull all cameras from her home.

"TB, make that shitfuck disappear."

"Demon. Get to the pond. Find that gun and destroy it.

"Nemo and Steel, start on housecleaning.

"Waters… get her locked down.

"Steel and Demon will have the first shift of babysitting the happy couple at whatever bolt-hole he chooses, then TB and Nemo will take over. I want a twelve-hour rotation until we clean up this goddamn mess.

Then God clicked off the line.

The men got up and scattered their different ways, which left Kai in the conference room with Waters. He got up, pulled a couple of water bottles out of the refrigerator under the side table, and returned to his seat next to her. He twisted off the cap and set it in front of her next to the empty one from Demon. "Drink."

On autopilot, she did as she was told. She felt so numb. Almost like she was watching events unfold instead of taking part in them. "I don't understand why you're helping me."

"You're in some serious shit. You think we're gonna let you swing when Big Bird tried to kill you?"

"You left me." She hated how whiny that sounded. Like a spineless teenager.

"Yes. I did. I didn't have a choice."

"Maybe. But you didn't have to leave the way you did."

"Possibly. But I can't change it now."

She sighed. "No, you can't. I'm sorry things went as they did. I wish…" She shook her head. "It doesn't matter what I wish." She paused. "He hates me."

And there's the whiplash.

"Who does?"

"God. I've made a mess, and now he feels like he has to get me out of it because I'm Ka-Bar's sister."