© Kat Morgan

The sky was still threatening when the taxi pulled up at the major intersection, across the street from David’s house. Kat didn’t notice, or care. The mood outside reflected her mood inside exactly.

She thrust some cash into the taxi driver’s hand and climbed out. His house was only two in from the corner and she ran across the street and walked briskly down the block, quickly skirting the large black car that was idling. David’s car was in the driveway, and, oh what luck, Parker’s was parked in front of his.

"Two for the price of one. This is going to be good," Kat mumbled angrily.

She rang the door bell and wait impatiently.

No answer.

She rang it again. "I know you are in there, you little prick," she muttered. "Now answer the door."

Another long wait.

She was about to ring it again when the door opened slowly, cautiously, and Parker peered out. She blanched when she saw Kat standing there.

"Parker, how sweet. Where is that piece of crap, David?"

"Kat… ummm…he’s…" Parker was stuttering badly, and glancing nervously down the hallway towards the living room.

"In the living room? Why, thanks. That’s where I expected." Kat said briskly, brushing past the other woman.

"Parker? Who is…" David’s voice trailed off when he saw Kat coming down the hall and he fell back into his chair. "Hello Kat."

"Don’t give me that, you asshole." She shook the even more tattered tabloid under his nose. "What the hell is this?"

"Ummm." He glanced nervously behind her.

"What? You can’t remember? Why please let me read it to you…" She opened the tabloid to on e of the middle pages and read aloud.

"’Nick Carter in ocean scandal’ And don’t you just love that subtitle? ‘Watch out Flipper! He bites!’ That is an original title don’t you think? Oh and look… they printed that old picture of him with a dolphin. Nothing like a picture to totally bringing the whole story together."

"Kat…" David tried again.

"Shut up. I haven’t finished reading this. Now where was I?" Kat turned back to the paper. "Oh yes, ‘Heartthrob Nick Carter of the Backstreet Boys was so determined to show that he is more than just some lightweight pop singer that he was willing to commit murder!’

‘Fans have long known that Nick is an avid swimmer, boater and even a licensed scuba diver. But they would be shocked to discover that he considers himself one of the most predatory animals in the sea.’

‘A source close to the singer disclosed that he had discovered his violent tendencies by accident. "One day we were talking about snorkeling and scuba diving, when Nick started telling me about an incident that had happened to him on his last break from touring. He was out diving by himself, carrying a harpoon gun for safety in the dangerous waters off Florida, when he was surprised by a large shape coming quickly towards him. He shot first, thinking to protect himself.’

"That was very poetic David, did you write that yourself or did that slut Parker?" She heard a brief sob to her left and turned to see Parker leaning against the door. "Oh, there you are. Yeah I figured out about you and David a while ago, Parker. Now let me finish."

‘Nick was shocked to discover that instead of protecting himself from a shark attack he had inadvertently’ -- that’s a big word for a tabloid of its ilk. You must have provided that one – ‘shot and killed one of nature’s most beloved creatures: a dolphin.’

‘Nick told me that at first he was very upset over the accident, and climbed out of the water and back into his boat. Then something happened. The blood in the water from the dead dolphin attracted several sharks that had been in the vicinity. They immediately started to tear into the corpse, devouring it.’

‘"Nick was a little apologetic as he told me about this, but one thing was certain: the tale was making him very excited."’

‘He told me that ever since that day he has often gone out on his boat, armed with the harpoon, and shot several other fish and watched as the local sharks eat the meals he has provided them. He feels so much like one of them now that he even got a tattoo of a shark on his shoulder, proving that he is one of the pack.’

‘"So far he hasn’t had an opportunity to kill another dolphin, but he said he would if he had the chance. He feels such a closeness now to the shark community he wants to be able to provide them with a larger meal, and they certainly seemed to enjoy the first dolphin he had fed them."’

Kat looked up at David, then flung the tabloid at him angrily. "You did this."

"I…"

"David, there is only one person that stupid story could have come from, so don’t give me any crap."

David flushed, then got belligerent. "You told it to me!"

"You asshole! I told you the most ridiculous story I could come up with on the spur of the moment. I was getting so damn sick of your constant ‘why did you leave the tour’ whining."

"That’s not why you left?" Parker jumped in.

Kat turned to her scornfully. "No, Parker. That’s why you sicced David on me, wasn’t it? You found out I left and you figured it would make a good story, right? ‘Backstreet Fan doesn’t want to hang with the Boys.’ Too good a career maker for you to pass up."

Parker paled.

"How did…"

"Jesus, David. How stupid do you think I am? I never fully trusted you, you knew that."

"But we… you…"

"Yeah, I know what we did. And what was it you said on the phone to Parker the next day? ‘I was so bad you had to think of someone else in order to get off’? Better make a note to yourself for future reference: if you are going to use someone don’t use their phone to brag about it to your girlfriend."

David had enough decency to look away, ashamed.

Kat turned to Parker. "And you… Dear god, I would have thought you had a little more basic intelligence. I know you can’t stand the Boys but I thought you’d have enough sense to realize that the ludicrous tale I told David was just that. A tall tale. A fish tale. Don’t you ever do any research, Parker? Couldn’t you tell that was the biggest pile of bullshit?"

"Hey! I told him it was asinine. I told you had to be faking."

"Yeah, well that explains why it showed up in the tabloids all right," Kat sneered.

"Listen Kat, I told him that there was something not right about it. I told him to find out more from you. But you’d disappeared and he figured it was because it was true. I told him…. He was the one who went behind my back and sold the story!"

"Gee, Parker. Guess there really is no honor among thieves."

David broke in, trying to assert his authority. "I told them exactly what you told me! It had to be true!"

Parker and Kat both shouted "idiot" at him at the same time.

Being on the same wavelength as her did not please Kat and she turned back to David. "How could you think that? It was the most inane thing I could think of to get you off my back."

"But you were so… How could you…"

"I came up with it on the spur of the moment. The most unbelievable story I could think up at the time."

David looked at her blankly.

Kat swore. "I was eating seafood for dinner, for god’s sake!"

He still looked at her blankly.

"Hello? Remember? Horrendously expensive meal that kept landing on your clothes?"

Finally he clued in. "You mean…. You planned…" he sputtered.

"For wine on your suit, crème brulee on your jacket and coffee down your pants? Yeah, I did. But this… this is not…"

"It’s your fault. You told me the story about the Boys and I believed you," he shrieked

"You’d been asking questions about them since our first date! I did kind of clue into the fact that you weren’t just doing it innocently!"

"So you lied?" David accused, glancing over Kat’s shoulder.

"Gee, let me think. I’d just slept with the guy I was seeing, for the first time, only to discover that he was sent to seduce me by a former co-worker who is the laziest, most loathsome, bitch had ever met…"

"Hey!" Parker squawked, but Kat ignored her.

"And that after fucking me over, and going on at length about how crappy I was in bed… what was it you said I was again? "Straight vanilla?" I discover that he still only wanted to find out what I knew? Yeah, David, I planned to have lots of nasty accidents happen to you that night. Nothing like being embarrassed the hell out of at the city’s most expensive restaurant. I figured that would fix you good. Oh, by the way… lose any big clients recently?"

David red face answered her.

"Looks like you did. Oh, how sad," she replied, sarcasm dripping.

David surged forward. "Listen, you bitch, you got me in a lot of trouble. And it’s all your fault."

"My fault? I told you a pathetic, obviously made up story, and you decided to sell it to the highest bidder! Any one with an ounce of brains would have realized that Nick Carter would never do anything like that. That he is too nice a man to go around hurting dolphins, or anything else for that matter. But, oh no, you just saw dollar signs dancing in front of your eyes and sold it anyway."

She turned to Parker. "And you thought you were controlling him. Well, he slipped his leash on this one, and no matter how much you can say it was his fault, we both know that none of this would have happened if you hadn’t figured that you could have gotten an easy score. I’ll tell you this much, Parker. You can try that kind of sneaky crap on me and maybe I’ll even let you get away with it because I know what kind of bitch you are. But you can’t do that to Nick."

David finally found his voice again. "So what…?"

"You get them to print a retraction. Do it now! This bullshit has been circulating for weeks now and I want it stopped."

"But they’ll…"

"What? Demand all their money back? Who fucking cares? Do it, David. You got yourself into this mess and you are damn well going to fix it."

"We can’t," Parker mumbled.

"Can’t? Oh yes, you can. And you better damn well do something about fixing this before Nick finds out about it."

"Too late," someone said dryly.

The voice came from behind her and Kat spun around quickly.

"Nick!"

Chapter 22

(c) Kat Morgan