Page 10 of Black Bay Enforcer (Beasts of Black Bay #3)

When Katherine went to lunch, she was happy to see that the base seemed back to normal – including the group of hard bodies working out on the central green. She craned her neck a bit, secretly hoping to see Kong in the cluster of shirtless men. She was willing to bet his big body was spectacular.

Walking and gawking was not a good idea she discovered as she nearly walked into a lamp post. Glancing around quickly to see if anyone had noticed her near-disaster, she carried on.

She’d see him later, she told herself. Maybe not shirtless and glistening with sweat under the sun but she’d see him nonetheless.

She was almost to the mess hall when out of the corner of her eye, she saw someone jogging her way. A woman Katherine hadn’t met before. She was tall, lean, and dressed in fatigues. The woman slowed as she approached and Katherine held the door open for her.

Her golden-brown hair was short, only falling to the base of her neck and slicked back from a face that was striking.

Her skin color was just a shade lighter than her hair.

She had sharp cheekbones, her nose was slightly hooked, and her eyes were stunning gold under dark brows.

Her looks would never be called cute – her features were too narrow – she wasn’t pretty in the classical sense, but there was something there that grabbed your attention and held it. Majestic, Katherine thought. Regal.

The woman didn’t pass through the open door, stopping instead, her eyes examining Katherine with a shrewd intensity that made her want to squirm. She felt like she was being silently judged and found lacking.

“You are Katherine Knox.”

“Oh, yes, hi.” She thrust out her hand. “I’m Katherine.”

The woman looked at her proffered hand a second or two longer than necessary, making things awkward.

Just as Katherine thought she wouldn’t accept the gesture, the woman volunteered, “Perrin,” and took it.

Her grip was so firm it was just shy of painful.

Her matte black-painted nails were long, curved, and sharp like claws.

Katherine could feel the tips of them just pressing into her skin.

A bit more pressure and she would have drawn blood. Those babies could do some damage.

“It’s nice to meet you, Perrin.”

Introductions over, her hand released, Katherine assumed Perrin would enter the mess hall, but she continued to look Katherine over instead, studying her as if she was some new, fascinating bug.

“Er… Did you want to go inside?”

Those golden eyes raked over her one more time before Perrin said, “Yes. We’ll eat together.”

“Oh, okay.”

Perrin’s stride was long and purposeful, and Katherine had to take two steps for every one of hers to keep up.

Several people called out greetings, but her companion didn’t crack a single smile.

A slight head dip in acknowledgment was the best anyone was getting.

Regal, Katherine thought again. Like a queen.

Meanwhile, the woman’s eyes tracked everything as if she were on high alert, expecting an attack at any moment.

Joining the queue to get their lunch, Katherine heard an odd clicking noise and she followed the sound with her eyes. Perrin’s nails, she realized. The woman was tapping her thumb and middle finger together. Tap, tap, pause. Tap, tap, pause .

“I like your nail polish,” Katherine volunteered, hoping to get the conversation ball rolling and end the uncomfortable silence.

“I’m not wearing polish.”

Oh. Wow. Okay. So Perrin’s nails were naturally black, and now Katherine was feeling all sorts of awkward. Thankfully, the line was moving quickly and she could busy herself with getting her lunch. Grabbing a cobb salad and bottled water, she followed Perrin to a table.

Seated, she began to dig in – if her mouth was full, she couldn’t stick her foot in it again – and tried not to notice that Perrin was studying her once more instead of eating. Maybe Katherine would get lucky and someone else would join them.

A large, well-built man with ebony skin and incredibly pale eyes that made Katherine do a double-take, approached with his lunch tray, but a glare from Perrin had him changing directions at the last minute. Wonderful.

“My girls all went shopping.”

Katherine had no idea where Perrin was going with that statement, but anything was better than her nerve-racking silent regard.

“That sounds fun. Why didn’t you go with them?”

“I had guard duty.”

The woman pointed a finger up and slightly to the right and Katherine wondered if she’d been posted in one of the guard towers that loomed over Black Bay. Nodding, she shoveled a big forkful of salad into her mouth.

“They’re helping Kong prepare for your date.”

Katherine coughed in surprise and everything she’d just stuffed into her mouth went flying back out. Lettuce, a chunk of tomato, bits of egg… Horrified, Katherine’s face flamed with mortification.

“Shit! Sorry!” she gasped, quickly trying to clean up her mess and silently praying no one saw that.

Perrin glared at a piece of lettuce that had landed on her tray and flicked it off with one of her nails. “Obviously you need help as well.”

Ignoring that drolly stated observation, Katherine choked out, “Date?”

Kong hadn’t said it was a date. She’d thought he was just being nice, maybe even taking pity on her for her oven-less state. Had she misread things?

A date… Butterflies exploded in her belly and a giddy anticipation raced through her. She may not have been thinking that way before, but now that the suggestion was out there, she couldn’t help but be excited by the idea.

“What will you be wearing?”

Pulled from her thoughts by Perrin’s question, Katherine frowned and looked down at her clothes. She was wearing her usual work attire of a sweater set, this one heather grey, paired with a charcoal gray, calf-length skirt. “I was going to wear this.”

Kong was supposed to pick her up after work and she hadn’t brought anything to change into. Not that it would matter much. The majority of her wardrobe was more of the same.

“You should wear more color. Since you arrived at Black Bay, I’ve yet to see you in anything other than gray or tan.”

Feeling a bit defensive, Katherine was half-tempted to point out that everyone around here pretty much wore fatigues twenty-four/seven, but Perrin was watching her with that intimidating gaze again.

“I’ve offended you. That was not my intention.”

“What was your intention?”

“I want to help.”

It was Katherine’s turn to study the other woman. She couldn’t pull off intimidation like Perrin could, but she thought she might have come close. “Why?”

Perrin leaned back in her chair, her lunch still untouched. “Kong is special to us.”

She was clicking her nails again in that rhythmic pattern and Katherine wondered if it might be a nervous habit. If so, the gesture suddenly made Perrin a bit more approachable. She was still scary as hell, but maybe a tiny bit less scary than before.

“What do you know of our history?”

“Very little,” Katherine admitted. “I know you were genetically engineered with animal DNA, and that you were raised in a lab until the military shut it down.”

“We were experiments. Treated like lab rats. Our childhood was…” Perrin hesitated, her golden eyes looking haunted for a moment before she shook her head as if to clear away the memory. “Our childhood was not happy. There was abuse and many times Kong interceded on our behalf.”

He was their hero.

“We want Kong to be happy.”

Katherine nodded absently as her thoughts churned in her head. She couldn’t imagine what they must have suffered at the hands of people who saw them as nothing more than objects to be tested and studied.

“You might make him happy.”

So Perrin thought she might help Kong by helping Katherine.

She could kind of see the logic, she supposed, even if it was a bit of a stretch.

They were just making brownies. Even if Perrin was correct and it was a date, it was only a first date.

It felt like Perrin was putting far too much stock in tonight.

But if it gave the woman a sense of satisfaction, and made her feel like she was giving back, what could it hurt to let Perrin help her get ready?

“What color do you think would look good on me?”

Katherine had told ORION that she would be finishing up early – not that the AI cared – but, since Kong was picking her up here, she didn’t leave.

Instead, she went to the women’s locker room to prepare for her date.

Normally, the space was reserved for the female Resurrection soldiers, but all of them were currently in a group therapy session.

After lunch, Perrin had dropped off a bag of clothes.

Katherine had explained to Perrin about her wardrobe and how she didn’t have time to shop for something new.

Her lunch break was an hour and the majority of that time had already passed.

So Perrin suggested the next best thing: she’d get a couple of items together and Katherine could pick her favorite.

She’d been a bit skeptical, but it turned out that Perrin had a decent eye for sizes.

The jeans Katherine had pulled out of the bag fit, though they were a bit more form-fitting than she usually preferred.

There were two tops to choose from. Both were sleeveless.

One was a button-down in a dusty lavender shade.

The other was cranberry colored with a V-neck and a note attached to it from Perrin that said, ‘ This is my pick .’

With a mental shrug, Katherine removed the note and pulled the shirt on. Like the jeans, the top hugged her form a little more than she’d normally be comfortable with, but Katherine was feeling daring tonight.

Perrin’s last bit of advice, before they’d parted, had been for Katherine to wear her hair down.

She’d be baking, so she’d have to put it back up eventually, but something told her Perrin would be watching to see if Katherine had followed her advice.

She’d make a show of leaving the hub with it down.

No biggie. Pulling out the pins, she let the tight bun unravel and combed her fingers through the thick, wavy mass.

Her scalp practically sighed with relief.

Thus far, she’d been avoiding the full-length mirror, afraid she’d see herself and chicken out, but she finally turned to have a look.

Huh. Not bad. And Perrin had been right, the cranberry color looked great with her complexion.

She made a mental note to buy more clothes in that shade the next time she went shopping.

The clock on the wall said she had two minutes until Kong arrived – assuming he was on time – so she stuffed her work clothes in the bag and headed out of the locker room. She’d leave the clothes under her desk for tonight and bring them home with her tomorrow.

“I’m leaving, ORION,” she called out.

Not expecting an answer, she nearly tripped over her own feet when she heard ORION reply, “Good night, Miss Knox.”

Wow. Things really were changing for the better around here.