Femme Fatale: The King's Deadly Temptress 333 A New Member or a New Leader? 7

"He'll know something is up if I don't answer his call," Chris said.

Katherine breathed in and moved the cell phone close to his mouth. She didn't like what was going to happen but there was no other choice. Hovering her finger over the green button, she warned, "I'll put it on speaker. Don't test me, Chris."

Chris only looked at her without saying anything and watched her answer the call. "Parker," he said.

"Were you busy, Christopher? Took you long enough to answer." Parker's oddly familiar voice came through the speaker and Katherine stiffened, her hand tightening around the device as she tried so hard not to scream at the man or she would expose herself. She remembered his voice so well and she could imagine him talking as if they were in the same room.

Judging by the voice Damien heard, he deduced that Parker must be in his sixties. He sounded like a polished gentleman, one wouldn't think that he was actually a boss of a covert organization.

"My apologies. I was going through security." Chris glanced at Katherine and Damien as he kept his tone natural, sounding like he wasn't tied up on a chair at this very moment and that his head wasn't throbbing from the strike that Damien gave him earlier.

"Where are you?" Parker's voice was lazy. There was muffled traffic noise in the background and the sound of pages of paper being flipped. She guessed that Parker must be inside the car and reading some documents.

"Harbor City, Esmea. I'm at Katherine's new apartment building."

The sound of paper flipping stopped and Parker sounded more interested in the phone call. The name that Chris dropped caught his attention. "What are you doing there?" he asked even though just a couple of days ago, he told Chris to keep an eye on her and Damien Park.

"She's not in the building at the moment. I'm trying to see what's going on with our rogue agent. I just arrived at her apartment." Chris's casual answer caused Damien to raise the gun in his hand and point it to the other's head, warning him of what he may tell Parker over the phone. 

Unlike Katherine earlier, Damien looked more confident in directing the gun towards Chris. He looked calm and evidently firm on his grip. His face was impassive but there was no doubt that he was dominant. Chris believed that if Damien really wanted to, he would pull the trigger.

"Did you find anything?" the voice from the speaker of the phone asked.

"Not yet. The place looked upmarket, very fitting for an heiress. This doesn't look like the Queen we know, Parker. She wouldn't want to be in a pretentious place like this," Chris spoke with so much confidence as though he knew Katherine very well and Damien didn't like that, yet he kept himself cool and listened to the conversation.

"People change, Christopher. I've taught you to look past superficial things. Search thoroughly. Find whatever you can that would prove she's only pretending."

"Yes, Sir."

"What about Damien Park?"

Parker mentioning Damien's name made Katherine's blood boil. She hated the way Parker said Damien's name. She hated that Parker even thought of Damien and she hated that Parker was interested in the man she loved. She was so mad that she started seeing black spots in her vision.

Noticing the change in Katherine's expression, Chris stared at her as he responded, "I haven't gotten the chance to check on him yet. I will do so after I'm done here."

"Good. Keep me updated, Christopher."

"Yes, Sir."

The call ended and Katherine released a breath that she didn't know she was holding until she realized that she needed to breathe. She tossed Chris's phone onto the sofa and ran her fingers through her hair. She was trying so hard to calm herself down. Her body was heating up and it was only a matter of time when she would lose it. She didn't know what to do. She was about to go crazy thinking that she had really put Damien in danger.

Seeing Katherine's state, Damien put the gun away and immediately strolled towards her as she stood by the tall window. He caught her arm and drew her towards him, his arms wrapping around her and squeezing her tight. "Hey… you're okay…"

She hesitated before giving in and clutching onto his shirt. She was so afraid, not realizing that she was shaking and Damien was the only one holding her up. "I can't… I can't let him hurt you. I shouldn't have—"

"He won't," he whispered, his voice was so gentle and soft against her ear. "He can't touch me and he can't touch you. I won't let him. Do you trust me?"

His voice was so low in her ear and it seemed to calm her down. She had forgotten that Chris was there and all that mattered to her now was Damien—no one else. Pressing her cheek against his chest, she could hear the calm beating of his heart and she wondered how he was so calm even after knowing that Parker was targeting them. However, even though she wondered and was extremely worried, her own heart mimicked the calm beating of his heart. In his eyes, she wanted to be strong.

Softly nodding her head, she responded in almost a whisper, "I trust you."

Chris couldn't bear to watch the two so he looked away. After a couple of minutes, he appealed, "You have to let me go, Katherine."

She didn't want to but she pulled away from Damien and stalked back to Chris, "Why would I do that?"

"Because you wouldn't kill me. So what are you keeping me here for?"

"How do you know that I don't want to?"

"Oh, you want to. You just couldn't."

Katherine glared at Chris, wishing that he didn't know her so well. He was right – she very much wanted to but something was stopping her and she didn't quite understand that.

When she didn't answer, Chris added, "You know that Parker would find out if I stay here too long. I need to report back—"

"Who were you meeting at Central Harbor Restaurant?" she questioned, ignoring what he was saying.

A flash of surprise flitted across his face but he contained it right away and it was instantly replaced by a mask of amusement. "Have you been spying on me?"

"Just answer the question."

"That's none of your business, Katherine."

"I will let you go if you answer me." She was playing with fire. She badly wanted to know what Chris was up to because the information could help them all in the process.

"I'm in no liberty to divulge information even if you threaten me with a knife on my throat."

His answer only made Katherine even more curious. And out of nowhere, she drawled, "You're doing this behind Parker's back, aren't you?"

Chris pressed his lips together, not wanting to answer her question and so she continued to press on. "You're really not here for me nor for Damien. I'm guessing before you even came here, you met that person again, didn't you?"

Katherine was getting warmer but Chris could only look at her with an expressionless face.

"You came here to me… as an excuse… So that if Parker calls—which he already did—you have something to back you up." 

The corners of her mouth curled up at the realization. She lowered her head to his level so that she was seeing him eye to eye and when he still kept his mouth shut, she provoked, "You're betraying Parker."

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