NOVEL NEXT Chapter 1: Deadly Thoughts
"Let's all welcome the star for tonight's performance, the very alluring and extremely seductive performer, Tiffany Stone!"
The curtains were pulled up and a woman with sexy, silky white legs wearing a long-slit gown appeared in the middle of the stage. She had her back facing the crowd and as soon as her name was called, the audience clapped their hands and whistled, excited to see how good of a performer she was.
Katherine snapped her fingers a few times in sync with the rhythm of the background music and swayed her hips from side to side until she turned around to face the people, seemingly entrancing the audience with her moves. Walking forward, she danced her way down until she laid on the floor. Raising her legs up high, she moved them slowly… Her dance moves made her movements look very sleazy and slutty, which only served to get the audience even more riled up.
Inside The Gentlemen's Club where it was elite members only, Katherine danced like she was a whole different person. That night, she was Tiffany Stone, the seductress of a dancer who could steal people's souls away.
For the past month, she had gone undercover for a mission. Their target was a man among the audience, Mr. Koh. This man was suspected as an accessory for money laundering and Katherine posed as his temporary assistant-slash-mistress to get the necessary proofs before they move on to the next, bigger mission, which was to catch their boss.
Being an assistant was only an excuse so that Mr. Koh could bring her anywhere like a trophy girl, but her cover as an entertainer in the night club was how they got him to like her. Knowing that Mr. Koh had a specific taste in women and always frequented the club, Katherine had him wrapped around her finger.
Unfortunately, because Mr. Koh was so hooked on her, she was having a hard time getting out of his sight.
"Queen, we've already received the intel just now. Time to wrap up this mission." Styles, the head IT guy of where Katherine worked, informed her through the secret earpiece that she was wearing. It was so small and colored darkly that, under the dark lightings of the nightclub, it was impossible for anyone to even notice.
"Mhmm."
Not caring about any thoughts but her own, she danced in a very slinky manner, yet her thoughts were nowhere as sexy as at that moment. She tried so hard to think about how she was going to end her connection with her target, to the point even murder was on her mind.
"Can I just kill him?" she whispered just loud enough for Styles to hear.
"Well… he's no longer needed. Although it's not really against the rules as long as you can justify your act, what would your reason be?"
"I don't like him. Isn't that enough?"
Styles scoffed when he heard her response. "You don't like a lot of people, Queen."
"Should I poison him? Hmmm… that would be no fun. It might even cause me to be heavily suspected."
"You have a knife on your thigh…" He humored her.
"Ehh… Wouldn't that be too bloody? Plus, there are too many people here…"
"What about a gun?" He snickered.
"Nah… that's too loud… Oh, I know! Guns with silencers!" She became excited. 'Bang!' She imagined the scene in her head as she looked at the target from the audience with a smile on her face. 'Pfff.. that's too boring. I want more from his death.'
Styles only shook his head as he waited for Katherine's performance to end. "You're one crazy lady. Enough of your fantasies, you're not killing anybody tonight. Let's get back on track."
With all these thoughts in mind, her dance number came to an end. After smiling seductively and waving her hand to the crowd which earned her a standing ovation, she bowed before walking down the stage.
"That was hot!" Styles complimented.
"Of course, Styles."
"Have you ever thought of doing this as a livelihood if you ever get out of this job?" He asked. She could hear him munching over his snacks from behind the computer. The sounds of crackers being munched on was pretty loud in her ears, but she didn't mind it at all.
"Who said I was going to get out of this job? I love what I do. And it's not like I have another choice."
"You can dream, honey."
"Someone might hear you over there, Styles. Be careful of what you say. You're supposed to keep me in, not kick me out. Right?"
"Yeah yeah."
Katherine aka Queen was an agent under a secret organization called Shadow.
Shadow was a black-ops branch of the government. It was hidden from the public and the people who knew about it were the agents, the higher officials and the people running it underground.
After six years, she had secured one of the top positions of the best agents in the organization. Katherine was rescued by her handler, Chris from a massacre where she lost her parents and she had been a part of Shadow since she was fifteen years old. Since then, Shadow was the only family that she had known and cared for. If one day, Shadow was on the verge of death… Then she would fight back to defend it with her life.
Katherine was still twenty-one years old but at 5 foot 10, she could pass as someone who was in her late twenties.
Seeing that Katherine had already gotten off the stage, Styles started, "There's a drug in the charm of your bracelet. Let him drink it and the team will take care of him once he gets to the hospital. This is your last task for this mission."
Taking a glass of vodka from the waiter, she cat walked her way through the sea of people until she reached a man in his early forties.
As soon as she arrived, her target snaked an arm on her waist and said, "You looked amazing up there tonight."
The man was very touchy and that was the one thing that she disliked about him the most. Even though she had acted as his mistress for a while just to get close to him to gain some intel, she had never gone beyond hugs. She wouldn't even allow him to kiss her.
Smiling, Katherine held the charm on her bracelet, her finger hovering over the tiny button on it. "You are too kind, Mr. Koh. Here… Let me pour you a drink to celebrate my early success." She pressed the button to release the drug and poured it on the vodka before giving it to him.
Just after Mr. Koh downed the drink, a woman's high-pitched voice sounded from behind them. "You skank!"
When she turned her head towards the direction of the voice, Mr. Koh's wife had her hand raised striding towards her. A few moments later, she was already in front of Katherine and gave her a loud and resounding slap.
Katherine did not evade the slap and just let it happen instead because just before the woman's palm landed on her face, a thought flashed before her quickly. 'I guess this one works too.' She planned to use this chance as her escape from the leech of a target who wouldn't get off her back — in this case, her waist. Maybe this drama was going to let her get out from his grasp.
"Ah!" Katherine immediately pressed her cheek with her hand and covered her face as the wife continued her scandalous outrage. No matter how hard Mrs. Koh tried to hit her, she was barely hurt yet she screamed like she was in so much pain.
The wife simultaneously berated her for being a mistress and for shamelessly seducing her husband. After so much effort from Mr. Koh to stop his wife, she finally stepped away from Katherine.
And like the drama queen that Katherine was, she looked at Mr. Koh in the eye and with a tear-stained face and trembling lips, she raised her hand and slapped the man so hard on the face that her hand immediately burned from the strike. "You told me you were divorced! Liar! Don't you ever contact me again!"
Turning around and heading towards the exit, she wailed her way out until she exited the backdoor.
Mrs. Koh's eyes widened upon hearing her words. "You said you were divorced? How dare you?!" She slapped her husband with her bag plenty of times.
"Honey! I don't even know who she is! Ouch! Stop hitting me!"
Soon after, Mr. Koh clutched his chest and he dropped to the floor.
...
When she was in a safe distance, her crying stopped right away, and her expression went from pitiful to heartless as she wiped her tears with her hand. She removed the planted mole next to her lip and the blue contact lenses from her eyes, revealing her brown ones. She then took off her wig, making her look entirely different from before.
"You are such a drama queen," Styles commented through her comms, making Katherine smile as she walked towards a black motorbike from the sidewalk. "Great job tonight, Queen… Mission accomplished. Report to Castle for the briefing of your mission next week."
Swinging her leg to ride her Ducati, she wore her helmet over her head and kicked the stand back to its place. The Ducati roared to life. Curling her lips into a sly smile she answered, "Copy that."