Chapter 219 - Hunting

Young Mansion – September 30

"Father, are you sure Katherine is okay? We haven't seen her for a month now." Deborah Young glanced at her father before sipping her favorite tea, unwilling to look him in the eye. She had been anxious for weeks, unsure of what to do after learning about Katherine's identity.

Chairman Young was calmly reading the Sunday newspaper, his eyes skimming through the articles but not really reading them. "I'm sure she's okay. She had been on her own for a long time. She just needs time to accept who she really is."

"Father, did she contact you? What did she say?" Deborah leaned forward eagerly.

"She called me last week. She said she's having a good time at the beach."

"The beach? What beach?"

"I didn't ask… Debbie, I know you're worried about her. I am too. But she asked me to give her some space and I am going to give her that. So for now, let us just wait for when she's ready to come back home. After all, knowing something this huge is quite shocking." Chairman Young said, his voice calm and gentle.

Deborah Young breathed in deeply and took a sip of her tea as she tried to brush her thoughts aside and distracted herself with company matters instead.

Truthfully, Chairman Young was worried about Katherine a lot. And seeing her reaction that day when he told her who she was, he regretted it a little.

He was quite in a rush to tell her things about the life that she didn't know. He was sure that it must have been mind-boggling. So when she asked him to let her be for a while, he could only agree. He owed her that.

'You can take your sweet time, my little pumpkin. Grandpa won't go anywhere. I'll be right here waiting for when you are ready,' he said in his thoughts as he looked at the garden view in front of him.

…

Katherine zipped up her black duffel bag and tied her hair up into a messy bun before putting on a black Ray-ban Aviators. Grabbing the black leather jacket from the back of the sofa, she swiftly wore it on her.

She scanned her living room as though she was making sure that she didn't forget anything. When she was satisfied, she picked up the duffel bag and headed to her door, turning the alarm on and locking it before going to the basement garage.

She was supposed to meet someone in Sun Avenue in twenty minutes. Reaching the garage, she securely fastened her bag on her motorcycle before wearing a helmet and revving up the engine. Soon, she was riding outside the streets and making a beeline towards the meetup location.

When Katherine was still with Shadow years ago, she had mapped out a contingency plan for cases where she had to be on a run, or in hiding without anyone else's knowledge. She had put aside a large sum of money and kept it somewhere only she knows along with the money were several fake IDs and passports, keys to volts or storages where she could hide her essentials, aka weapons and transportation.

It took her awhile to be able to stash those things in several places because she had to make sure that they wouldn't be in just one spot to avoid the possibility of losing everything all at once. She also had to make sure that nothing would be traced back to her.

Gaining back her memories didn't happen all at the same time. But she remembered most of her life in Shadow and her childhood, especially that one tragic night. Retracing her steps to find her belongings that were kept away took a while and when she finally got everything that she stashed away, she realized that she needed more money or she'll starve. 

Katherine couldn't go back yet. She was still too weak to do that. She wasn't ready to face herself being Katherine Young which was why she had to find ways to survive at least until she had the guts to face everything... and everyone.

She had actually anticipated that she would need to earn money but she wasn't afraid of that. There were a lot of things that she could do with her skillset and there was one thing that she could do so well that would enable her to earn a lot of money and fast — Bounty Hunting.

What better way to exercise her expertise than chasing criminals with a high amount of money floating on their heads?

She had to do this or she would go crazy wallowing in her own guilt and grief. This was the only way she thought she could somehow live with herself.

The black Ducati stopped by the curb and Katherine swiftly got off her bike. Taking off the helmet, her brown locks fell on her back like a waterfall and she cursed under her breath as she had to redo her hair again.

Sun Avenue wasn't an actual avenue, rather it was a restaurant. She stood next to her bike parked across the street from the restaurant, waiting for her contact's arrival.

A man in his fifties wearing a grey suit with a briefcase in his hand tapped her by the shoulder and without saying anything, he handed her several papers and a USB containing a list of criminals with their corresponding bounties.

"Thanks," she muttered as she glanced at him. He tipped his fedora hat before walking away casually.

Katherine circled a certain person's name on the paper with a black marker and then shoved the papers in her jacket pocket. 

"All right. First stop – Mexico," she said to no one in particular before speeding off.

…

In the evening at Katherine's apartment…

The sound of footsteps echoed through the hallway, stopping just in front of the door to Katherine's empty apartment.

"Okay, I know that the first one was a bust. But this one, I'm 95% sure." Styles had a palm-sized device on his hand and his quick fingers tapped on it as he spoke.

"Yeah. You said that the last time," Falcon replied in an exasperated tone. They had arrived in Harbor City earlier in the afternoon and the travel had been quite tiring.

Styles ignored Falcon and knocked on the door. The two of them stood quietly and a little awkwardly when they tried to listen if there was a sound on the other side of the door. Styles's brows furrowed and his lips pursed when it was eerily quiet.

He tapped on the door a few more times until Falcon stopped him and started picking on the lock.

"Hey! I was going to—wait!" Styles stopped Falcon and quickly did his magic on his tablet, turning off the alarm before giving the go signal to try picking the lock again.

The door swung open smoothly and the two of them were greeted by the darkness and emptiness of the whole place.

"Let me guess," Falcon started. "This is isn't the place."

Styles walked in the living room and scanned the whole room, looking for signs of Katherine. He bit his lip and turned on the lights to get a clearer view and almost instantly, he felt disappointed. The place looked sad. The living room literally had a sofa and a coffee table… and a punching bag? His eyes lit up and he almost danced in glee.

Turning around, he quickly went back to the door and saw a shirt on the floor. The corners of his mouth curled up so fast when he realized that he was right. "This is it! This is the place."

"Right," Falcon snorted. Who could live in a place like this? As if to humor Styles, Falcon asked, "Okay, if this is the place. Then where is she?"

The smile on Styles's face slipped. He pushed his glasses in place and tilted his head as he studied the living room. "Hmmm. Good question."