307 You can't kill me unless I let you

Katherine reached her destination a little over an hour later in her motorbike. After getting it from her old apartment building's garage, she sped off towards where Amelia's tracker lost its signal. She was already outside of Harbor City, it was a little town with a population of only about 2,500 people. 

Katherine hadn't heard anything from Amelia since she left and she was now in an abandoned building, searching for what she could find about Amelia's whereabouts. The device that Styles gave her earlier had an auto-save feature, so there was a blinking dot of where the tracker should be and she followed it.

The abandoned building was an old city hall and it was locked from the outside so she had to find an entrance to get in. Finally finding a crack in the backdoor, Katherine entered the old building and found that it was full of stacked boxes, papers, dusty tables, and chairs. She turned on her flashlight and started searching the area. "Falcon?" she called.

It was eerily quiet and she wished that she wasn't alone. Old abandoned buildings like this one gave her the creeps. It was like watching a zombie movie, only she was in it. She shivered.

"Hello?" she called again but there was no other sound except the sound of her footsteps.

Reaching the second floor, she found a room that had a bed and a shelf full of canned goods. Her brows knitted, wondering who had been squatting in the place. 

"Anyone here?" she asked, moving her flashlight from left to right in front of her. She checked the device again and saw that she was exactly where the tracker should be but there was no Amelia.

Katherine searched the floor and it took her a minute to find the small tracking device, a black flat plastic housing that had a chip inside. It must have fallen off her while she was here.

After searching the whole building but coming up with nothing, Katherine left the place and headed to the motel in the town where Amelia was staying. She had to bribe the motel attendant with cash to let her wait inside Amelia's room. There was nothing in the room except for Amelia's bag with some clothes inside. Left with no choice, she waited for a few hours until it was already dark outside.

Katherine fell asleep on the couch and woke up to her cell phone ringing. "Nggnh…" She rubbed her temple when she felt her head ache. "Hello?" she answered the call in a hoarse voice.

"Katherine? Are you okay? Where are you?" Damien asked in a panicked voice when he heard her.

"I'm still out here. I'm fine… Just a headache." She got up from the couch and turned the lights on, realizing that she was still alone inside the room.

"Aren't you coming home? It's nine in the evening. Do you want me to come and get you?"

"I didn't realize it was that late. I haven't found her yet… But her bag is still here."

"No, it's okay. I drove here… I'll call Styles and ask if he has heard of her or something. I'll text you then." Katherine ended the call before Damien could respond and checked her phone.

Sure enough, there was a text from Styles several minutes ago that said:

[Styles: Falcon called from a payphone. She's okay but she lost her phone. She said she'll call us tomorrow. You can come back now.]

Knowing that Amelia was still alive and safe, Katherine exhaled a sigh of relief. At least she could go back to her penthouse now. She didn't like the motel's vibe. Everything in the town just creeped her out.

She typed a text and sent it to Damien before she set out and left in her motorcycle.

[Katherine: I'm okay. Going home soon. Driving.]

…

It was already half past ten in the evening when Katherine arrived back in Harbor City. She had to leave her motorcycle first in her old apartment building and take a cab back to Golden Phoenix Residences after circling around the busy neighborhood to make sure that no one was following her.

It was such an eventful day for her and Damien. The thought of Shadow going after him really bothered her a lot. But what was Parker's motive? Why did he send out a Steward Mission on Damien? Was Parker after Damien or was he after her? This one bothered her a lot.

She planned on going to Amelia tomorrow wherever she was so that she could put an end to this charade once and for all. If it was only up to her, she probably would have started telling Damien earlier already. But Amelia had kept this a secret from Damien for thirty years. It wasn't only Katherine's secret to tell… It was also Amelia's.

On top of that, Amelia was still keeping some things from them — which was understandable, but if they had to work together, they had to know about those things too.

…

Golden Phoenix Residences

Katherine rode the elevator going up to her penthouse. She was already tired and wanted to get some sleep. Getting wet in the pool that day was giving her a headache and she started sniffling.

When she stepped out of the elevator, the lights at the entrance of her penthouse were off. It was already eleven in the evening and she figured that Styles must have already slept. The living room was pretty quiet.

She took off her black baseball cap and threw it on the floor. Her jacket went on top of it and her shirt also fell on top of the pile, leaving her with only her bra on.

She was just about to unbutton her pants when she turned her head to the side and noticed a figure by the floor-to-ceiling window several meters away. With the lights turned off, she could only form a silhouette but by the looks of it, the figure was of a man and it wasn't Styles!

In her haste, she drew out the dagger in her right leg and threw it to the man's direction. However, to her surprise, the figure only slightly leaned to the side and caught her dagger by its handle with his bare hand.

"Impressive," Damien commented in his cold voice.

Katherine immediately turned on the lights when she heard him, her face tainted with shock. "What—Damien! I could have killed you! What were you doing?!"

He scoffed and played the dagger in his hand skillfully like it was something natural to do before he walked towards her and handed the knife back to her. "No, you couldn't have. Not unless I let you."

The two of them were face to face with only inches apart. She stood shirtless in front of him as she hesitantly received her knife back from him. It was the first time that she had seen Damien move so reflexively with a weapon apart from that tragic night many years ago and if she was being honest, it was actually kind of hot.

Damien stared into her eyes, very curious as to where she came from and why the hell she was shirtless—but also relieved that she was safe. She just flung a dagger at him in the dark but instead of getting mad, he found it amusing and attractive. 

Their minds were so in sync that they had the same thoughts:

'What else can you do, Damien?'

'What else can you do, Katherine?'