The Color of Blood is Red

Chapter 6

Cardlin's POV
“Hey baby~,” I coo as my girlfriend wraps around my waist.
“Hi Cardlin~.”
She looks up to me with her blond hair in a messy bun and my red flannel falling just mid thigh.
“Damn,” I sighed as she draped her hands around my neck and my hands found their way around her small waist. She tiptoed and kissed my lips. I slowly melted into the kiss and into her warm embrace.
“Fuck baby,” I nuzzled my face into her neck, that familiar scent of home enveloped me. “I missed you.” My lips traced over her pale, soft skin.
“I know sweetheart,” she whispers as her hand plays with my hair. “Come on, let’s go to bed. Are you hungry?”
“Hm? No. Bed, that sounds really good right now.”

As we enter the bedroom, something feels…wrong. The sheets are messed up, clothes are scattered on the floor and it smells…sweaty. Brittany climbs into her side of the bed and I can’t help but ask, “Babe, did your friends come over?”
“No, why?”
“Just asking,”
“Come on babe, let’s sleep, you had a long day.” I nod in response and head off to the bathroom to change.
I feel queasy and a bit uneasy. Taking off my shirt, I looked into the mirror and I suddenly I caught myself thinking about Kate.
Katalina Joseph. Not going to lie, when I first heard the name, my knees went weak. And then I saw her in the office, with her slick hair draped down her back. Then she looked at me with those hazel, intuitive eyes and I felt like a 10 year old boy again with a crush on the neighbor’s daughter. I still remember how she got up and slowly made her way over to me and the honey like voice as she strutted her way over to me. Even the way she walked was fucking enticing-
Whoa.
What the hell was I thinking? I have a girl! That I adore, that I want to marry for god's sake. Kate is nothing compared to her, my queen and my everything.
Finally getting my head out of that odd thought process, I stepped into the shower and took a long hot shower.
“Brit, I was wondering if you wanted to go out tomorrow night. Like a date, wherever you want to go. It’s been a while, what do you say?”
No response. I stopped drying my hair and looked at her, she has this while smile on her face as her thumbs move swiftly across her screen.
“Babe?” she hasn’t even looked at me.
“Brit!” I say a little louder,
“Hm? Yes baby?”
“Who are you texting?”
She giggles before responding, “Just a friend,”
“Did you hear anything I just said?”
“Huh? No.”
I don’t feel like repeating myself so I just sigh and say, “Never mind.”
“No, no tell me!”
“Never mind Brit.”
“Cardlin, go ahead tell me! Why are you being like this?”
“Like what? I just don’t feel like repeating myself. It wasn’t important anyway,”
“God, you’re so moody.” She rolls her eyes and faces away from my side of the bed. I didn’t really feel like arguing, not again, not tonight.
Do I really still love this woman?
Of course I do!
Yes. I do.
Opening my drawer, I moved my clothes aside and saw the red velvet box at the bottom of the drawer.
Tomorrow. Tomorrow is when I make that move.

Tuesday 10:00AM
Standing in front the mirror, I fixed my tie and peered behind me. Brit was on her phone the whole morning, she didn’t kiss me, hug me or plain look at me. She just got up as soon as her phone dinged and then her thumbs moved a mile a minute across her screen. Not to mention the obsessive giggling. I had butterflies in my stomach as I discreetly snuck the box into my coat.
“Babe, after work I’ll be coming to pick you up at 7. Be ready and look fancy, ” I cheered as I bent over to give her a kiss. She still hasn’t looked at me, but I fear if I tell her anything she will start arguing with me. She hums as a response and turns to her side, going back to texting. I happened to catch a glance at who she texting.
Jacob🤐😘
Who the fuck?
I don’t want to think more about it so I make my way to my car, grabbing my badge and gun on the way. As I sat in the car I examined my gun, clearing off some dried blood from the barrel, wonder where that’s from.
11:30AM
“Good morning Kathy~” I beam,
“Don’t call me that, ” She deadpans.
“Oh, sorry Kate,”
“Katalina, Cardlin. I don’t like the nicknames, no hard feelings, ” she still hasn’t looked at me and I won’t lie, it hurt a bit.
Why did that hurt?
“Hey, I need some help with something,”
She sighs and finally looks at me. Her eyes are bloodshot, it’s black underneath and her cheeks, as well as the tip of her nose, is red. She’s been crying.
“Still sick huh?”
“Yeah,” she breathes out, “what do you want?”
“Well, I plan on proposing to my girlfriend this evening and I was wondering if you had any insight? You know, since you’re a girl and stuff,” I pull a weary smile.
She tenses as I sit near her and I see she takes a hard gulp.
She’s not okay.
Not only does she look tired, but she also looks…bruised. Some of her arm peeks out from her black turtle neck and I faintly see a white bandage, her hair is up and I see stitches that run down from the back of her neck to further down her spine. Little scratches on her cheeks and knuckles bruised and red.
What the fuck were you doing Kate?
“Kate- Katalina, are you-,”
“Cardlin. Ask me if I’m okay one more damn time if I’m okay and I will walk out of this office leaving you with a broken nose.”
“Whoa, down buddy,”
“Im sorry, rough night,”
“I can see that.” As she turns to look at me, I see a faint burn mark on her neck. It’s kill written in Chinese characters, engraved into her neck that’s just peeking out of the top of her sweater.
She’s the girl.
No, she can’t be. Please don’t make me do this.
“Katalina. Can we…step outside a minute?” she pinches the bridge of her nose and sits up from her chair, slinging the white trench coat on.
12:05AM
“Who are you?” My face has turned stern and my gun is pressed against my waist.
“Katalina Joseph, 23 years old. I work as a graphic designer at Dian Inter. Corp.” she smirks, “And that’s all you need to know….Parker.”
“How do you know who I am?” the curiosity and anger builds in me as I step closer to her. We stop walking and I’m pressed up onto her.
“Cardlin Parker. Head agent for the CIA. I expect that you’ve figured me out huh?”
I go for my gun but she slips her hand into my blazer and holds the handle before I could. She is fully pressed onto me, “Now Cardlin, be smarter than that sir. You don’t know me, I know you. So let’s make this reasonable. When you know who I am and every, ”
She presses her lips near my ear,
“fucking,”
Her hands trial around my waist and pulls myself onto her closer,
“detail.”
“Kill me.” She whispers through teeth. She let’s go of me and makes her way back to the office.
“Oh and, don’t stress it. The proposal, that is.  Speak your heart.” She winks and makes her way back to the office.
I done fucked up, didn’t I?
I stood there, frozen. My eyes felt like they were going to pop out of its sockets. My heart was pounding against my chest and my stomach was doing somersaults. I felt the heat radiating from my face and I tried everything to keep myself from getting…aroused.
What did she do to me?
Her touch burned itself through my waist and my ears felt numb. Her scent made me weak to my knees. I scrambled for the velvet box in my pocket, glancing over the gems of the ring, my breath slowed as I slammed onto the wall behind me.
I need to kill her. Not fall for her. She’s a criminal, she’s murdered over hundreds of people. Stole 6 pounds of diamonds. And overall is the stealthiest, most devious and dangerous criminal unknown. Her boss is the one I’m after, I just need her to cooperate. That’s all.
I’ll slit her throat after.
5:29PM
“Working overnight?” I glance over to her desk, where she still is hunched over her drawings and typing away at her computer. “Yeah.”
“Want me to join you?” she places her pencil down and turns to me.
“Don’t you need to be somewhere by 7?” she’s full on smiling now, “Don’t want to leave lovely, cheater Brittany, now. Do we?”
Anger courses through me veins.
“Don’t you fucking dare,”
“I do what I want Cardy, ”
“How do you even-,”
“Use your brain dumbass, obviously I’m not going to answer that.” She turns back to her work and I grip onto my gun, knuckles going white. “Don’t even think about it.” A growl escapes from my throat as I storm out of the office.
I will kill you Katalina.