Beauty & The Beast (Book 1)

4. You're him

Later that night, Catherine finds herself in the subway station. Trains pass, people get on and off, the intercom system giving information.
She makes her way down to the back where the agent said he would be waiting. She wasn't sure why he wanted to meet her here, but she relaxed some when she heard a man call her name. He was holding a briefcase and looked normal.

"Agent McCleary," she holds out her hand when she reaches him. "I appreciate you doing this."

"I hope it wasn't too out of your way," he jokes, shaking her hand.

"No, I didn't want to be the reason for you being late for your son's birthday."

He hums. "Did you bring it with you?"

She takes the evidence bag out of her pocket. "I did. The analysis looks corrupted, but the numbers are identical," she hands it to him.

As she does, a homeless man gets up from behind her, and she senses someone behind her as Agent McClearly is inspecting the bag, holding it up against the light. Catherine slowly starts to turn, her guard immediately up when she spots the homeless man walking closer, not looking at her, but dawdling.

She turns back just in time to stop McCleary from stabbing her with a pocket knife, her hand to hand combat training skills in karate and jujitsu kicking in. She lands a few good punches to his face and two kicks, causing him to topple over. The homeless man grabs her from behind, and holds her in place, while McCleary gets back up, wipes his nose and comes at Catherine again, who is kicking and trying to fight back.
She manages to free herself by swinging her head back into the man's nose and then she turns on him and uses him as a shield, McCleary stabbing his partner in the stomach instead of Catherine. He pushes the injured man out of his way, and kicks Catherine's drawn gun out of her hand. She fights him again, getting the upper hand once more, breaking his nose and jaw.
She takes a breath as he falls over, and notices that a woman had come over, and was now taking out the headphones that had been in her ears.
Gasping and breathing heavily, Catherine and the woman both look at her discarded firearm, before diving for it. The woman manages to pull her back and both fall backwards onto the ground. Catherine gets up and crawls over quickly to get to her gun, but the woman is faster and grabs her in a chokehold, wrestling her down. As the two women fight, McCleary comes to and sees Catherine slam the woman back against the pillar roughly, elbowing her in the gut. She lets go and Catherine goes for another punch, but is thrown off the side onto the tracks.

Her gaze is fuzzy from hitting her head on the iron tracks, and she barely sees the woman and agent McCleary looming above her.
Then, as she watches, something hits both of them at the same time out of her view and she tries to sit up. She focuses more and sees a man fighting them, slashing at them and growling in the shadows reflected on the ceiling. She manages to sit up a little and then bodies drop down next to her and she stares at them.
She looks back up and there he was, a man, light shining from behind him and hiding his features in the darkness. He was looking at her and she couldn't breathe properly. He kicked her gun to her and then he ran.

She got new life when he started to run and jumped up, grabbing her gun and flashlight and chasing after him down the train tracks. She called after him, panicking when she couldn't see him anymore. She kept calling after him, yelling, her mind back on the night her mother died and someone saved her the same way. She was pretty sure it was this same man. She needed answers and he was a coward.

She was pushed out of the way of an oncoming train, which she missed in her daze, and pushed up against the wall, caged by a strong pair of arms from behind, like a shield.
The wind from the train passing whipped her hair around her face and made her close her eyes. It was noisy and once the train passed, the pressure around her lightened and she opened her eyes. She turned around and stared at the man who saved her.