Chapter 5

Monday? What a drag! Yeah, he was the boss, but after a weekend of fun and games, who the heck wanted to go out on Monday? He looked at the days after that and silently cursed the weekend for being so remarkably shorter than the weekdays. His brain did a little rewind to the day before Monday. Kitty had stormed into his apartment to rain a lot of insults on him. Being called a tyrant was the least of it. She had called him a sociopath, psychopath, and devil incarnate. Yikes!

And to think it was all for what? A bit of a game just to show who's boss and who's not. He was resolved not to ruin her - no, never that - but he would do all he could just to have her beg him to be her hero. "I can be your hero, baby," he muttered and then added, "if you'll just say three words." Oh, never mind that stupid muttering because the three words were not "I love you," if you're thinking about it. "Jason, be mine." Yeah, the day she comes begging or wanting him to be hers will be the day he stops.

At the office, he was expecting to see Kitty soon, and he became jumpy when he heard a knock. Disappointing - it was all a waste of his jumpiness. Woo Bin entered the office and sat down on the chair. For an extensive two minutes - which was extensive because it seemed like a long period to Jason - Woo Bin said nothing.

"Woo Bin," Jason said, heaving a sigh of impatience.

"Yeah, yeah, calm down," Woo Bin said at last. "What I'm about to tell you will break your heart even more than you broke mine."

Jason, the Casanova. He would be happy to walk away from the lifestyle, but... okay, back to the story. The bad news, of course.

"Spill the news," Jason said, mentally prepared to receive it. He imagined it was a little firm getting more competitive or some nosy investigation edging closer to uncovering one of their unorthodox methods of winning at the court.

"Your enemy in Manhattan has been elected Mayor, in case you missed the morning news," Woo Bin said with a dissatisfied smile. Jason wasn't fretting when she told him she had bad news. "Oh, did I say 'in case'? I know you missed the morning news."

Okay, let's admit it - Woo Bin won this round, Jason said. It took a lot of restraint and self-control not to scatter everything on his desk. He breathed in and out slowly, feeling the urge to exhale from his mouth, too. Yeah, he could tell Woo Bin was done with the news.

"That's not heartbreaking," Jason said to Woo Bin as she was about to exit his office.

Woo Bin touched the handle of the door, paused, and turned to him to say, "Oh? Your worst enemy has just been elevated, promoted, lifted, and risen to the pinnacle of the success ladder, and you aren't heartbroken. I've got to hand it to you, man, for being so remarkably strong. Some people would have been reeling from the news."

Woo Bin opened the door, and as she exited his office, she slammed the door shut. Jason resisted the urge to call her back and fire the bitch. He was furious about his enemy being successful. He knew the man wasn't worth an iota of success. However, the man had been irrefutably victorious. He recalled bitter memories.

The current mayor was responsible for the folding up of Jason's law firm in Manhattan years ago.

Jason yanked up the receiver of his office phone, wondering who could be calling. The person on the other end had to be an angel, sent to alleviate his bad feelings.

"Mr. Dante," said the Governor's aide. "I would have reached out to you on your line, but I don't think that would be appropriate on a Monday. Now, where are we with the issue of legalizing Chemical B?"

Chemical B was already widely used around the world to accelerate the growth of certain crops up to five times faster than their usual rate. Jason explained the delay in legalizing it and assured the aide that they would resolve the matter within the week, allowing Chemical B to be used in Hong Kong.

"I'm rooting for you," said the aide. "If you succeed in getting Chemical B rolling out by next week, we'll pour in more money than ever before. Have fun."

Jason wondered how he had sunk so low. He should have been among those fighting against the legalization of that chemical. However, he learned a bitter truth the day he lost his law firm in Manhattan. It had been a case of victory over esteem for him ever since that incident.

He tried calling the private investigator, James Hardly. He had hired the man to keep tabs on his enemy and build a case so strong that when dragged to court, he could have the man behind bars forever. James hardly missed his calls, but today, his line was ringing for the fifth time with no response. Not the evil thought coming to Jason's head, could James Hardely have been discovered and killed?

"Where the fuck is Kitty?" He got out of his chair and headed down to her office. He saw Woo Bin and Seo Yeon coming from the direction of Kitty's office, and he stopped them.

"Have either of you seen Kitty?" Jason asked, folding his arms across his chest and staring at them with intensity in his eyes.

"Who's Kitty?" Seo Yeon said to Woo-bin.

"I've never heard that name in my life," Woo bin said, making a mockery of the question. "The only Kitty I know is a pussycat my grandma used to have, and both my grandma and the cat are dead."

Jason shook his head, unfolded his hands, and let them slump back to their normal position. He decided to go check out the office, but it was locked. That was odd. Was it? He asked himself. After the stunt he pulled, did he expect Kitty to just resume work? He sniffed and wiped his nose with the back of his palm before setting out to return to his office.