fiction | Part of the journey is the end

4. Hide and seek - 2

Kate walked out of the elevator to Bishop Security. She dumped her stuff at the receptionist's and went to her mother's office.

Tony got vivid flashbacks of how he used to act at Stark Industries when he was around Kate's age. He was already the CEO of SI by twenty-two and looking back; it horrified him that he was the CEO at such a young age. No wonder Stane manipulated him so easily.

She was surprised to see Jack there and sent him her condolences about Armand's death.

Everyone narrowed their eyes at seeing Jack.

"He murdered his uncle," said Bucky.

"I'm pretty sure Jack and Eleanor worked together," Steve corrected.

"Must've come as quite a shock." "It did."

Everyone scoffed.

"Sure, Jack," Sam said sarcastically. "It came as a 'shock'."

Kate asked about the inheritance.

All of them straightened up.

"Jack said he would inherit the money to buy the sword one day," Rhodey noted. "That's pretty suspicious."

Eleanor asked what Kate was wearing as she was wearing an orange and black suit. Kate said she was borrowing it from a friend.

"Kate's aunt has the weirdest clothes," said Wanda. "They are weirdly fashionable, though."

Eleanor asked about the fire in Kate's apartment.

"What is she going to say?" Steve asked. "Kate can't say that the Tracksuits were after her."

"If I didn't think Eleanor had a hand in Armand's murder, then I would support Kate telling her mother the truth," said Scott.

"I can explain. Can we talk? Without the interloper?"

All of them winced.

"Kate didn't like Jack anyway, and now she has a good reason not to besides him being her mom's fiancé," said Clint.

Jack understood that Kate would be hostile because she was testing their new dynamic.

"Well, that's one way to put it," said Bruce.

Jack smiled. "I bought a book. About being a stepdad."

"I would find that sweet if we didn't know that Jack was bad news," Wanda said.

Eleanor invited Kate to dinner with her and Jack. Kate agreed on one condition – she would come up with the conversation topics.

"Kate's going to try to interrogate him," Sam realized.

"Eleanor's suspicious, but I don't think she'll do anything to harm Kate," Natasha said. "I think she genuinely loves her. Kate should be safe for now."

Clint walked through Central Park to the NYC LARPers. He saw someone wearing the Ronin suit.

All of them sighed in relief.

"Thank God," said Clint. "It should be easy enough to get from him."

Peter hid his smile. He knew the LARPers were pretty intense, but that was for Clint to find out.

Missy the LARPer stopped him and said there were no looky-loos.

"Looky-loos?" Wanda said, amused.

Clint said he wasn't trying to cause any trouble and just wanted to talk to the ninja who stole the suit. Missy said he could take it up with him when the LARP would be over at midnight.