Empire /h.s/

fifteen

Harry

I pace back and forth across my foyer, awaiting the inevitable arrival of Katherine. My fingers nervously pick at my lips, causing a sting in my bottom lip from picking the skin away.

She wasn't supposed to be there, why she was even there that early is beyond me.

I was aware of the fools who were breaking into the basement to get back one of their guys I had down there. I got intel from Jack about the possible break in, and sent him down there to take care of it. I had Jenny and Mikey head over there as well to be back up just in case, Bennie being out of town or I would have sent him.

Not that they aren't capable of being back up, Jack and Bennie are a team, as Jenny and Mikey are with each other, so it would just make sense to send Bennie with Jack.

It wasn't until I was watching the security cameras in my home office, expecting to see two men walking into the building, but instead I saw her petite frame waltz right in.

I've never phoned Mikey faster in my life, telling him to get over there, and to have Jenny call Katherine to somehow get her out of there.

I could hear Jenny calling Katherine through the car's bluetooth audio, so I at least know they tried to warn her. But that doesn't make me any less pissed at Katherine for being there, when she wasn't meant to be there until eight forty-five as she usually does. She's always early, but never this early.

Knowing her, it probably had something to do with me after our little argument this weekend. She would have been disappointed to not find me in the office. I decided to work from home today with the break in going down, not wanting to get in the crossfire and deal with it myself; selfish I know.

I stop my pacing, pulling out my phone to call Jenny.

After two rings she picks up, "Yeah?"

"Are you close?" I skip the niceties, wanting to know where they are.

Jenny lets out a sigh, "Yeah, we're pulling up to the gate now," my back stiffens at the idea of Katherine being just outside of my house, feeling my jaw tick.

"Is she awake?" I grit out.

"Yes, she is...," she pauses, lowering her voice, "please go easy on her, she didn't know what was going on. She was just in the wrong place at the wrong time."

I weigh out my options with Katherine in my head. I can either yell at her, and make her feel small, or I can be forgiving and explain what just happened.

"Hurry up," I hung up the phone, walking up the stairs to my office.

I unlock the mahogany door, slamming it behind me after entering through it. I need to calm down, I shouldn't to scare her anymore than she already is. I wrack my brain as to what I am going to say to her.

I slump down in my desk chair, holding my head in my hands. I can feel the anger creeping up my back, after having taken Jenny's advice to not get Katherine tangled up in this mess, but now I am left with no choice.

It all seemed so simple in the beginning, like I could have Katherine right where I wanted her. But after the constant nagging from Jenny, telling me it's not a good idea, and how Katherine is too pure for the world we live in; I let it go.

My plan was to have her continue working for me, under the suspicion that RAV is just an ordinary marketing business, that is if she wanted to continue to work for me. I wanted to ensure that she never found out about anything that I was hiding, from the violence, to the unfortunate given circumstances that come with running the business. I was going to keep her in the dark about everything, not wanting to show her the true colours.