Ruthless People
Prologue
She was feeling claustrophobic as she pushed her way through the crowds that were surrounding the area in front of the arrivals gate. She’d forgotten just how busy LAX Airport could be. Her palms were sweating and she could feel her heart rate rising as she got closer to her destination; under other circumstances she would be calm and ready to face whatever came her way, it was required in her line of work, but this was different.
This was personal.
Less than two steps behind her, a small boy followed, carrying a small toy plane, similar to the ones he could see outside the window. One day, he wanted to fly a real plane, just like his dad did. If he had things his way, he’d go with his dad every day, instead of day care. He looked away from the window to find his mother had stopped and was anxiously tapping her foot. He ran up to her and tugged on her hand, wanting to be up high to see his dad coming through the door.
She looked down when she felt him grasp her hand, and bent down to lift him up. She’d give anything not to have to do this in front of him, but her husband had to know what was going on. There was no way around it, she couldn’t contain it anymore.
Once the passengers had departed, and the crowd had gone, she stood there waiting. She didn’t care if she waited the rest of the damn day, she had to see him now. If it had been ten years earlier, she would’ve worked her way through an entire pack of cigarettes by now, but she’d quit so had to rely on the build up of adrenalin instead just to keep her standing there and be willing to do this publicly.
She’d almost given in and walked away. She closed her eyes and took a breath to calm herself, about to turn away, but the excited squealing of the boy in her arms and the way he fought to get down from her arms indicated her wait was over.
As she opened her eyes again, she could see him, but he obviously hadn’t seen her, so she held back. She watched her little boy run, dropping his toy on the way, and be scooped up into the arms of the man he regarded his hero; it broke her heart a little more than it was already.
Once her son was back on the ground and going to pick up his forgotten plane, she moved forward, finally ready to confront the sadness she felt instead of bottling it up. Her husband may have sensed her approaching, because he looked directly at her the second she started walking toward him, and smiled. She smiled back, warily, before the smile became a frown. She glanced at her son, to make sure he was nearby and suitably distracted before looking back at the man in front of her.
“Katie -”
He had barely said her name before her palm made contact with his face. He stumbled back with the force of her assault on him and held his hand to his face, cradling his cheek. Her own hand was stinging, but it was sure as hell nothing compared to what he would be feeling.
“You bastard!”
He looked up at her in shock, dropping his hand and revealing a blossoming red mark on his face. He acted as if he hadn’t no idea why she was suddenly attacking him in public, but his eyes displayed fear and realization. He watched her as she stood in front of him, shaking with anger and adrenaline and the piece all clicked into place; she knew.
“Kate…”
“Don’t, Dave. Just don’t.”
From the corner of her eye, she noticed her son was now watching them fighting, having lost all interest in the planes. Before he had the chance to cry or to even ask what was going on, she’d walked over and picked him up and then tried her damnedest not to run from the airport.
Her pace increased as the man behind her started calling out to her, telling her he was sorry, that it didn’t mean anything. She ignored him completely, focusing only on the child cradled against her body; her broken-hearted son whose tears had finally fallen.
Story Notes:
For all character info, check out http://sasha-perrette.webs.com/ruthlesspeopleinfo.htm
Author's Chapter Notes:
Teenage jealousies have deadly costs
Chapter End Notes:
For all character info, check out http://sasha-perrette.webs.com/ruthlesspeopleinfo.htm