Beautiful Catastrophe

Chapter Three:

"Time to get out Kim." Nathan smiled wickedly at the sight of her.

She had been curled up in a ball in his trunk, her eyes were not yet ready to adjust from the darkness to the daylight again. It was getting cloudy and the sun was already setting. She squinted at him and then rolled over. How long have I been in here? She wondered. Although it had felt like days, it was only a couple of hours.

Nathan parked in a half-deserted restaurant and decided to let her out for a bit of air. He wanted to get back to his boss as soon as possible but that meant driving for almost a week to get there. And with only Kim to keep him company, he knew he might lose his mind before the week was up.

Nathan hadn't even reached the border of Oregon yet and the girl he was keeping in his trunk was playing on his mind from the very beginning when she fell on the ice early that morning. But it was past eight then and he needed to eat and find somewhere to rest.

"No." Kim replied, her tone monotonous.

"We're getting something to eat."

"I'm not going anywhere with you, you physco."

"Get the hell out of the car now Kim." Nathan didn't seem phased by her words in any way.

"I said no." she gritted her teeth.

"I'll untie you?" his said persuasively. There was a long pause until she moved around in the trunk, trying to get herself out.

"I need help."

"Whatever." He scoffed but helped her out of the trunk anyway before pulling a knife out of nowhere and cutting her legs free. Kim stood up straight and looked into his eyes as he unlocked her handcuffs. Nathan's eyes never left hers, not even to look at what he was doing.

Kim grinned at him once she was free, it confused him but he allowed a small smile to creep up onto his lips. Just as he done so, he immediately regretted it. It took a moment for him to register what happened once Kim's hand came into contact with his face. Her slap was harsh and stung his cheek.

"That's for breaking into my apartment." Her voice was filled with rage. Then she used the back of her hand to slap his other cheek.

"That's for tying me up." She reached out to hit him again.

"And this is for-"

Nathan grabbed her wrist and crushed it between his fingers violently but with little force needed on her fragile hands.

"Not so fast Kim."

"Let me go! You're hurting me."

"You slap like a bitch." Nathan seemed so unaffected by her words or her hits, it made her frustration grow even more.

"That's because I am a bitch." She managed to yank her hand away and crossed her arms then. Her brows were furrowed and she was as angry as she could get right then. Nathan rolled his eyes at her statement and grabbed her waist, bringing her body to his side. He slammed the trunk closed and walked with her inside the building.

Although she squirmed and tried to get free of him, it was no use. Nathan bent down and whispered in her ear. His tone was stiff and left no room for argument. It scared and excited her at the same time. This man was going to be a problem. Considering he had kidnapped her and threw her in the trunk of his car- the fact that she had to stop herself from giving in to this pull he had on her was a little scary to her. What the hell was going on with her? She was more affected by him than any other man she had come across- he had to be the worst of them- and she had only met him this morning?

"If you even attempt to pull some sort of stunt in here... I promise you will regret it." His lips brushed roughly against her ear and made her shiver.

Nathan pulled away and waited for a member of staff to give them a table. Kim quietly followed by his side. It surprised him that she had yet to say anything. A perky blonde girl in her late teens greeted them with a wide smile and an keen tone. Kim knew she was smiling more so at the man beside her than the woman he had with him. She rolled her eyes at the young girl's eagerness.

Once seated, Nathan scanned through the menu, blatantly ignoring the waitresses' flirty smiles and laughter. Kim sat there, an irritated expression on her face, and stared at him.

"Aren't you going to get something to eat? My treat?" he taunted her as he looked up from his menu.

"I think I already declined that offer, don't you remember?" Kim wittily replied to which he let out a small condescending laugh.

"I remember you wanting to say yes but saying no..."

"I didn't want to say yes."

"You did, I could tell."

"Didn't."

"Did." The two bickered, Nathan needing to get the last word. Kim let out an aggravated breath and looked at him again.

"Even if I did want to say yes then, it wouldn't make a difference now, considering it was before I discovered you were a complete whacko."

"The names Nathan actually."

"Can I take your order?" the waitress was back again, cute and giggly as ever. It made Kim want to shake her head in disgust but she refrained from doing so.

She was surprised when Nathan ordered for not only himself, but her too.

"I thought I told you already – twice- that I didn't want to have dinner with you."

"Just have dinner with me, it would make me feel better for what I done earlier?" Nathan's sweet voice had come back and he batted his eyelashes at her. He turned into the man Kim saw that morning and it made her red with fury and slight embarrassment. He was mocking her for ever believing such a persona as the one he had become earlier.

"Whatever..." she rolled her eyes and he chuckled wickedly at her.

"You actually fell for it? God you're so stupid." She narrowed her eyes at his comment.

Her hand itched to picked up the glass of water next to her cutlery and throw it over his face. Nathan saw how her expression changed to one that held calculation and sorrow then. What was she thinking about? He wondered.

There was a tense silence at the table for a couple of minutes until their food arrived, food that Kim refused to eat.

"Dig in." he said monotonously, continuing to make a joke about all of this.

"You really are crazy aren't you? You're acting like this is normal, like you break into people's apartments and kidnap them on a daily basis. Do you? What the hell do you want from me anyway? Why are we here in this shitty restaurant and where are we going after this? You know, my friends will be looking for me pretty soon and they'll call the cops. Whatever you're up to, you're going to get caught."

"Funny how you said friends and not family." Nathan laughed bitterly at her. The fact that he had ignored every question she had asked made her even agrier.

"What has that got to do with anything?" Kim questioned, did he know? Did he know that she had no family left? And if so, why was he trying to make fun of her because of it?

"It's got everything to do with it little Kimmy."

"Don't call me that." she replied quickly. There was another silence as he began to eat his food but Kim couldn't take it anymore, she was about to explode with rage. "Well? Aren't you going to answer any of my damn questions? Do you want me to scream? Let everyone in this god damn restaurant know what you done to me today. I bet they'd call the cops and you'd have to answer to them instead of me-"

"You think the cops will get you out of this situation Kim?" his tone was disdainful and full of superiority. "I don't answer to anyone. You think the cops are going to help you? I'm above the cops; they can't do anything for you." His bitter laugh filled her ears and his words wrapped themselves around her lungs, leaving her breathless. Who would help her? What the hell was she going to do?

"What do you want from me?" Kim seemed to be asking all of the same questions. She was beyond confused as to what was happening around her.

"I told you already, I don't want something from you. It's someone else."

"Well what do they want from me?" she asked through gritted teeth.

"The files Kim. The information you stole from your father's company." He said with a straight face. The mention of her father left a bitter taste in her mouth. It was funny how just seconds ago she had wanted to talk until there was no air left in her lungs and now she had nothing else to say.

"You think I'd give them to you?" she was the one laughing bitterly at him then.

"You stole them, and we need them back."

"We? You work for my father?"

"No. The CIA."

"Well I'm afraid you're mistaken. I didn't steal anything from my father or his company."

"We have proof."

"You can't steal something that was already yours Nathan." She used his first name this time, trying to explain to him his mistake.

"What do you mean?"

"It doesn't matter." She shook her head, she wasn't ready to have this conversation with anyone. It was difficult for even herself to comprehend how it was that her father could steal her ideas and work from right under her nose. But come to think of it, it was her father after all. She could expect no less. "I destroyed them five years ago when I took them back. So if that's what you were looking for in my apartment, you won't ever find them. Why are they so important to you anyway? They were just business deals not yet made on a product I hadn't quite thought through yet. Nothing was set in stone, no deals were officially made, they should mean nothing at all to you."

"You expect me to believe you got rid of important and confidential files that you spent so much time and effort trying to steal?" he scoffed.

"I told you already they were mine to begin with!" she thumped her hand loudly on the table, causing the cutlery to clink and heads to turn.

Her nostrils flared and her cheeks burned with complete fury. She stood up quickly and made her way out of the restaurant quickly. Nathan was hot on her tail after placing a number of bills down on the table and grabbing his coat. She wasn't the only one furious then.

Kim had begun making her way out of the car park, close to passing his car that he had brought her here in. Nathan stormed towards her protruding back and caught her shoulder before she could make it any farther away. His scorching gaze burned her eyes and anywhere else his eyes caught sight of.

"I thought I told you not to cause a scene." His voice was low, it was filled with anger and resentment. It shook her up a little, that and the sight of him in all his rage.

Nathan pushed her against the side of his car before roughly grabbing her waist so she couldn't move anywhere. That was something that was not necessary. Kim was frightened to within an inch of her life, more so than when she found him rummaging around her apartment. She was afraid he would kill her right there and then. Her eyes were wide with shock, her legs like jelly as he held her close to him.

Nathan placed his fingers delicately under her chin and tilted it up so her gaze met his. She gulped and he laughed wickedly at the sight of her. Her breath hitched in her throat, she was unable to say a word. His chest was flush against hers and he reached out then to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear.

"Are you scared Kim?" he asked, somehow liking the terrified look in her eyes. He was a monster, a heartless one too. He knew that for sure. But that was why he was so good at his job. He worked alone and only alone. Those were his rules.

"Because you should be."