Love is Merely Madness ~ Book 1 ~ Batman Begins

Chapter 4: Dinner With the Boss

Chapter 4: Dinner with the Boss

Disclaimer: Read the prologue

Jonathan was in his work office, surfing through the web for personal information. The girl was Jonathan Crane's primary subject. He'd spent an hour gathering everything he could about her. He looked through her file in Arkham, her Facebook and Twitter accounts, and pictures. It was past midnight, but Jonathan didn't care. He was born a night owl.

From what he'd learned, not surprisingly, Kathryn had a great life back in Florida. Back in her teen years, she went to a private school - Pensacola Christian Academy. She had joined the National Beta Club, aced her AP classes, graduated two years ahead in college. She was an overachiever when it came to her education. He dug deeper into his research, finding out all he can about her family: two parents, a little sister, and a beagle. Unfortunately, he couldn't find anything that's related to Kathryn's fears at all.

Figuring her out was becoming far more difficult than he predicted. There was nothing he could find that caused Kathryn to scream. She was perfect in his eyes. Her beauty, intelligence, feistiness - everything about her was perfect. Even though she ticked him off, he did like the fire in her. His mind played back the song, they had played. He saw the focus and determination in Kathryn's eyes as she strummed the keys. She wanted to play the song perfectly. Maybe that was her fear after all - fear of failing.

Jonathan laid back against his chair, removing his glasses to pinch the bridge of his nose.

'You seem tense, Johnny.'

Jonathan sighed heavily at the screen that reflected the dark circles around his tired eyes. He wasn't in the mood to talk to his other half right now, 'I'm aware with that, Captain Obvious.'

'Well, somebody put you in a bad mood. Could it be that annoying girl?'

"Go away!" Jonathan demanded out loud. "I don't have time to deal with you right now."

The other half chuckled wickedly. 'Oh, Johnny. Johnny. Johnny. Johnny, you and I both know that's not possible. Now as I was saying... we could just go ahead and take what we want with the girl already.'

'I'm not going to use that toxin on her, yet! I told you-'

'Oh, I wasn't talking about that...'

Jonathan raised his brows, immediately knew what he meant. 'No!'

'Oh, come on now! You can't deny it, Johnny! I most certainly can't - I mean look at her! She's beautiful!'

'Didn't you say you want to make her pay?' Jonathan questioned.

'I did, and what better way to do it than make her scream for us!'

'No! I would never want her that way!'

'Stop lying, Jonathan! It doesn't suit you. Look, I've seen the way you looked at her yesterday. The way she plays that stupid piano. The way she smiles at you. The way she yells at you.'

'I don't want her,' Jonathan repeated more calmly with a hint of annoyance. "I don't even care about her."

His half paused for a moment before he continued the teasing, 'I didn't say anything about you caring for her, but now-"

'She humiliated me in a Chinese restaurant! How in the world could I care for a woman like that?! Stop your fuckin' attempts to confuse me!'