9 Chapter 9: The Coiling Snake

Katya found herself in an extremely compromising position as he stared right at Touya's chest as he straightened. She could feel her ears burning and her face turning red from embarrassment, everyone in the room had seen the happenings and this would only serve to damage her reputation as a cold-blooded boss of the Prowlers. Not only that but this was also possibly the first she found herself this close to a man without planting a kick on his jaw or his testicles or just about anywhere on his general body. She grew flustered, if she was facing an enemy they would be on the ground by now. Touya cleared his throat from above as Katya suddenly regained her thought process. She took in a deep breath and slid back smoothly, or so she hoped. Looking around she saw several shocked faces, some grinning and others just staring at her curiously.

"Uh Touya, are you alright?" asked Ly from behind and it was at this point she looked at Touya only to see him looking up at the ceiling with a forlorn face as if he had lost something up there, he did not respond to Ly's calls.

"Touya, man are you alright?" asked Quedell from the side but still there was no response.

Quedell looked at her curiously. "What did you do to him?"

"Wha…what do you mean?" she asked flustered. "What could I do?"

Then she closed her eyes as she had realized she had spoken in her normal voice a mistake noticed by Shade and Kriti who both knew her dual identities but now others were looking at her with a questioning gaze.

"Boss…what happened to your voice?" asked Kovit.

"Touya man…snap out of it?" said Quedell walking up as Katya turned to answer her underling.

"Cold…" Touya whispered before he was slapped over the head by Quedell.

"Damn, what happened?" he asked snapping out of his daze.

Katya's eyes landed on Kovit with the coldest glare she could muster, she could not answer his question without rounding herself in so she decided she should just frighten Kovit until he pissed in his pants and then maybe he would forget his doubts.

"Yes, I'm curious about it too, how did your voice just change like that?" asked Touya this time and she cursed inwardly.

Kovit was alright, she could scare him silent, Emilia didn't seem curious at all, perhaps she had already figured it out, there was very little information out of her reach but she was keeping silent, there were no worries there, the rest she could rest, except Touya and his gang…oh and the boy, well the boy was out of it so he probably didn't hear her break character.

"Can you mimic voices or something?" he asked coming up to her again but this time she was wary and slid back cleanly.

"Stay…stay there," she said as her face grew warmer again, this was not good for her heart, there was something about him that just ticked her off.

Touya paused in his tracks as he looked at her. Katya took this opportunity to divert the topic, or at least she tried.

"Let's get back onto the topic of the boy, you said he was Master Wing-."

"Well yes, but that can wait," said Touya. "The real question is can you do other voices…can you change your voice at will?"

Katya clenched her fists, yes, this was definitely not good for her heart. She looked Shade and then Kriti both of whom gave her varying degrees of pitying looks, not something she wanted at present.

Kriti at this point decided to help her out, "You said the boy was Master Wing's, so what happens now?"

Touya shot her cursory glance before turning his eyes back onto Katya making her heart jump a little, internally she complained, 'why are you looking at me again?'

"Yes and as to what happens now, who knows, I mean the ball's in his court," Touya said with perfunctory wave of his hands.

"You mean I have to wait for him to act?" said Katya. "If he does anything at all."

Touya let out a mirthless laugh, "Oh believe me, he will do something, you beat up several of his gang, kidnapped his child from him and left his honour and reputation in tatters, if he doesn't skin you it'll be a miracle."

Katya groaned, great, more trouble, then she quietly glared up at Touya. Everything wrong began when this man got here, he was either her unlucky charm or this day had decided to screw with her in the wildest of ways because before today there was very minimal problems such as some minor gang disputes, minor broken bones, a tussle with some local rich families etc. But this was now possibly going to be a fully fledged gang war.

"You don't need to look at me like that," said Touya. "As a leader of a gang, you need to be prepared for something like this."

"Prepared…prepared," whispered Katya her mental state slowly deteriorating, god, she so badly wanted to punch something, repeatedly, very hard.

Kovit gulped as she turned her deranged gaze on him.

"Kovit," she spoke quietly.

"Yes boss," he said standing upright and still with a trickle of sweat running down his forehead.

"Make sure none of our people mess with any other gangs, especially Forest Snakes," said Katya sighing. "I want to try and make peace with them if possible but if not our own numbers should not be dented, make sure there's no damage to our personnel."

"Yes boss," he said and relaxed as Katya turned away.

All of a sudden her gaze was back on him and he felt himself straighten up again.

"Are you waiting for something Kovit?" asked Katya quietly.

"Uh…boss?" he asked, not quite understanding.

"I told you to go out there and explain to them not to pick fights with every other person that so much as looks at them wrong," she said and at this she was presented with Kovit's puzzled look.

"You want me to go out there and warn them all?" he asked.

"Warn them?" said Katya laughing a laugh that unnerved half of the people in the room as the felt the temperature plummet. "TELL THEM YOU STUPID IDIOT NOT TO PICK GOD DAMN FIGHTS!!!"

Kovit jumped nearly foot as Katya's voice rose sharply as she shouted out last sentence. With a squeak which amounted Kovit's reply he rushed out the door. She turned and her eyes crossed over with Touya's who was at this point grinning.

"Real authoritative," he said nodding.

She sighed and looked down at her feet.

"What do we do about the boy," she asked to no one in particular but turned to look at Kriti.

"Ah…" Kriti started fidgeting. "Well I was uh…hoping that you could probably keep him here."

She rounded on her friend in the most ferocious manner possible.

"You took him away from them," said Katya.

"Yes," Kriti agreed.

"Why…why would you do that if you couldn't even take care of him," Katya asked pressing at her forehead with her index and thumb as she felt a headache building.

"Well, I didn't think that far ahead," said Kriti with a nervous laugh.

Katya joined in on the laugh with a sarcastic one of her own.

"So nice," said Katya. "That you didn't think that far but pray tell what I can do with the boy staying here."

"It'll be just for a few days," said Kriti nodding firmly. "I'll contact the child protective services but they would need evidence if they are to take him and not sent him back to his father."

"Right…" nodded Katya warily, after knowing about the boy sending him back to his father was not an option she was considering.

She was now considering whether she should keep the boy here at the house, she looked Shade who didn't meet her eyes as he looked away. She then turned to Emilia who let out two forced coughs before taking a step back.

"I would love to but I have to work," said Emilia with a light smile. "With the Forest Snakes on our rear I need to mobilize my network."

Katya sighed again, was it really going to be up to her take care of the boy.

"I could help you know," said Touya's voice from behind her.

She whipped around half tensed to jump back but this time it was good to see he hadn't invaded her personal space.

"What?" she asked.

"Well I could help with the boy," said Touya. "If you consider what I said earlier."

"About what?" she asked not quite understanding.

"The damages to my hotel," he said reminding her.

"Oh…ah yes," she said nodding. "What did you need."

"Your uh…gang members," he said. "I'm going to need them to pull some overtime work, work nights, stuff like that, if all goes well I'll have the hotel up and running in a week."

"You want my people to renovate your hotel," she said with a raised eyebrow, she could feel another headache coming.

Touya nodded, "Precisely, there's a plan in place but people are the problem, I could hire them out but then how would I have you pay me back, I've even docked money for the large damages to my building but you should at least do this much."

When he spoke words like that, she really couldn't refuse. It was true that her people had damaged his property but could she really let her people out to work for this man.

"Are they going to get paid?" she queried.

"Do you want them to?" asked Touya in retort with a raised eyebrow.

"No," she said looking down, agreeing with his subtext in the question.

"Well, send them to me tomorrow," he said with a light smile and he glanced at Quedell who picked the boy up like he weighed nothing at all. "We'll take the boy."

"Wait," said Katya suddenly. "That's it."

"Uh yeah," said Touya nodding confused. "Do you want me to say anything more?"

"Oh…uh no," she said shaking her head, she was satisfied, she was most afraid she would have to pay extra money over the top of this but if it was only sending her people out for some work then she was completely fine, maybe this way they would also stay out of trouble.

Touya turned to walk out closely followed by his friend Ly, Kyler and Quedell who now carried Jin. Before the exited Touya turned to Katya.

"Are you doing anything tomorrow?" he asked and Katya shook her head.

"I'll be here," she said with a raised eyebrow. "Preparing for the Forest Snakes."

"Oh…well then," he said with smile. "I'll be expecting you alongside them then…for work tomorrow."

Katya nodded but then froze as she digested the sentence.

"Wait what?" she asked in slight panic.

"You're the boss aren't you?" he asked. "Where the boss goes the gang follows, so you turn up along with them."

"No…" Katya tried to argue but was cut off.

"Don't not turn up," said Touya with a light grin now. "You'll make me said, plus I'll be able to find you as well."

"Oh…" was all Katya could say as they left.

"Charming guy," said Kriti coming up to her as she watched them walk away.

"Yeah," said Katya unconsciously and then she groaned.

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