REPRESENTED (27 page)

             
“That was an extreme case, an isolated incident.  Why didn’t you call the police?” Cassie asked.

             
Karin looked up at her “are you really that innocent?” She smiled condescendingly “we are talking about people who buy their way to the top.  The hint of scandal isn’t allowed.  I did
my job
; I did exactly what I was
paid
to do.  I got my blood money, a promotion, and I got out of entertainment representation.  My silence over the whole Em Phillips situation buys me life in prison but I’m out on parole.  Do you see now why I never wanted to get back into it?  Bringing the police into it would have ruined Em’s innocent career just when she was rising as a star.  Phil was a byproduct at that point; he had made enough enemies that he wasn’t really missed.  Whoever at the studios that lent me the thugs knew how to get rid of the evidence, I did too but as I didn’t know who they were I was safe, or so I hope.  I like to think I’ve gotten to where I am on my own merits on not because someone somewhere is pulling the puppet strings.  I know Em got some balls somewhere along the line and kept me from being hunted.  I’ve seen her once or twice over the years and she is doing okay,
only
okay, not phenomenal like her potential was.  Her mind isn’t strong enough to handle the fame that would have come with her incredible looks if we had capitalized on it.  She takes small insignificant rolls, she does Broadway, she makes enough to live on, hell she’s comfortable, and she doesn’t want or ask for more.  No one asks the hard questions of whatever happened to Phil Phillips but I know, his body and what it looked like is burned in my psyche forever.”  She looked for D.O.G. and called gently to him.  He came up and she petted him as she quieted down.  She had said enough.

             
“Does Elliott know what happened?” Cassie asked gently after a while.

             
Karin nodded “not all the details of course but enough that he made sure I had what I wanted, I work hard for his firm and I keep my mouth shut.  This would have had far reaching affects had I not handled it for them all.  It would have affected many lives, many jobs.”  She looked ashamed “I should have let them all rot in hell.”  She threw another rock in disgust over the cliff.

             
“I’ll tell him the deal is off then” Cassie said quietly as she watched Karin get her emotions under control.  She could see the toll it had taken on her to tell her tale.

             
“No, you can’t do that now.  You’ve rolled the dice.  We have to play the game now and play it until it is over.  Ever seen the movie Jumanji?” she asked and at Cassie’s nod she said “we play until the contract runs out.”

             
“But if I go to him and tell him I changed my mind?” Cassie began to say.

             
“He will assume that I changed your mind, we are stuck now.”

             
“What are we going to do?” Cassie said frightened.

             
“We are going to do the best we can for your career.  You’re going to do absolutely everything I say, exactly how I say it and you’re going to love every minute of it.  You started this and I will finish it for you.”

             
“I’m sorry, I didn’t know…” she tried to say.

             
Karin took her glasses off as she looked sadly at Cassie “I know you didn’t, I tried to warn you, you didn’t listen and that can never happen again.  If I say jump, don’t stop to ask how high, just
jump
.  I won’t steer you wrong.  I’m too good at what I do and I had to learn the hard way.  Elliott holds this over me but I hold it over him too which he doesn’t always realize.  You’ve signed a pact with the devil and I’ll try to protect you but you have got to learn, unfortunately the hard way.”

             
“You make it sound so evil, so ominous” she remembered the book she had bought that Karin represented.

             
“Isn’t it all?”

             
“No, some of it is good, the fans, and the creativity, you...”

             
Karin looked at her with an ancient look that Cassie had never seen on her face.  “You’re deluding yourself.  It is evil, it is ominous.  You have just made me dance with the devil again and I’m not that good of a dancer.  They are going to be watching and waiting to see if I fail.  If I fail you, if you don’t get whatever your contract reads and the money that was promised or implied or potentially there...”

             
“Are you saying they would kill you if you fail?” Cassie asked incredulously.

             
“Killing me would be the least of my worries.  There is too much money to be made.  They might hurt you, they might hurt D.O.G. here, or they might get my sons.”  She said it practically and Cassie shivered.  “I won’t fail, I have a pretty good idea what I need to do, it will just take time, I have to read your contract too so I know a plan of action.  Once I’ve fulfilled all your terms they haven’t a leg to stand on.  We can get out then.”

             
“Christ Karin, I didn’t know what I was getting into.”

             
“No, you wouldn’t but we’re talking millions of dollars, of course the mob is involved or someone who is like the ‘mob’.  I don’t really want to know who it is behind it all.  I didn’t make the rules, I just play by them.  It isn’t all like this; I avoided it for a long time.  Now I’m being forced back into it.  I don’t have to like it.”

             
“There is no way out?” she was grasping at straws.

             
Karin shook her head.  “The only way out is through your contract and I’ll make damn sure it’s fulfilled to ever dotted I and crossed T.”

             
“I can’t tell you how sorry I am…” Cassie began and Karin held up her hand to silence her.

             
“Can you do what I say without question, without argument?” Karin asked quietly.

             
“Yes, and if I can help...”

             
Again Karin held up her hand “you’re going to end up hating me which was part of what I wanted to prevent.  It’s an ugly business but with clever maneuvering we shall stay pretty and you will get what you wanted out of it.”

             
“I wanted you in it too” Cassie said sadly as she stared at the woman who had told her a most horrific tale and the facts of life.  Cassie had never dreamed this was the reason that Karin hated the entertainment industry.  She had never hinted at it but then nothing
would be
out there about it, she had done her job.

             
“I’ll be there” Karin said “I’ll be there whether I want to be or not” she said bitterly.

             
“No, I want you with me as my girlfriend, not just as my handler, my manager, my promoter!” Cassie said vehemently.  She got off her rock then and knelt before Karin.  “None of this is going to mean anything to me unless you’re with me on it.  I don’t want you to work this hard, to deal with this evil, just for my career; I want it for
us
so we can come out on the other side of it stronger and together.  Please, I know you said we were over.  I don’t
want that
.  I can’t be strong and let you do all this knowing what I know now.  I can’t be alone and know the risks you’re taking for both of us.”

             
“This is a bad scene in a Hollywood B movie” Karin said in disgust as she went to rise.

             
“I know, we learn how to act that way sometimes but I mean it Karin.  Throw us both off this cliff face if the only alternative to this, is
this hell
you’ve described.”

             
Karin looked at her sadly, she loved this woman.  She was right.  It wouldn’t be worth all the trouble, the hard work of it if they didn’t triumph together.  She pushed Cassie’s hair back behind her ear as she tangled her fingers in the long locks.  She leaned in and softly kissed her.  “I’ll try baby, I’ll try” she promised.

              The drive home was just as quiet as they fought traffic going into the city.  The drive wasn’t as bad as most people were leaving the city for the day but it was still congested.  Karin was relieved to pull into her garage.  She spoke for the first time as she parked.  “Where were you planning on staying?” she asked.

             
Cassie looked at her startled, had she misunderstood?  “Can I stay with you?” she asked tentatively.

             
Karin chuckled “I meant, where were you planning on staying if today hadn’t gone according to plan?”

             
“I didn’t plan this like this” Cassie said stiffly resenting the implication.

             
“Ok, let me rephrase.  Where were you going to stay if I wasn’t in town, where is your luggage?” she looked at Cassie exasperated.  She was tired, she had flown in from Maine today after all and after the emotional upheaval of this afternoon she was exhausted.

             
“Oh, sorry, of course.  I actually left my bag with your doorman; you
have
a doorman don’t you?”

             
Karin laughed at her naiveté.  “How did you manage to ever get out of Kansas?”

             
“What’s that supposed to mean?”

             
“You left your luggage with my doorman?  What if I said I didn’t have a doorman?”  She watched Cassie’s face as she began to realize what she had done.

             
“You don’t have...” she began slowly as she realized what Karin was saying.

             
“I do have a doorman but jeez Cassie, you can’t be trusting.  No one is that trustworthy.”

             
“You are” she said quietly as the relief poured through her.

             
Karin smiled and squeezed her hand.  She sighed, glad to be home.

             
Karin let D.O.G. hop out of her SUV and she handed him his leash which he hadn’t needed in the least on their trip.  It was good to have though; there were leash laws after all in the state of New York.  She pushed the button to lock and alarm the SUV after Cassie got out and closed her door.  Holding out her hand she took Cassie’s in hers as she walked towards the elevators.  She nodded to Gary who was manning the parking booth as she pushed the button for the elevator.  It took only a moment for it to open and Stan to say “good evening Ms. Myers” and then he leaned down to say “hello D.O.G.” who wagged his tail good naturedly as he carried his own leash.

             
“Lobby please Stan” Karin said.

             
Stan pushed the button and then studied the two attractive women in the reflection of the elevator’s stainless steel.  ‘Wasn’t that always the way?’ he thought to himself as he noted them holding hands.  Two attractive women and into each other.  He mentally sighed knowing he would never have a chance to be with women such as these. 

             
Karin retrieved Cassie’s luggage from Carl and they went up to her apartment on the twenty-fifth floor.  Cassie was very curious to see this apartment of Karin’s.  She had heard how Karin had found it and bought it sight unseen and then worked for months on it and the other apartments, first to clean them up, secondly to furbish them, and third to sell or sub-lease them.  She was very impressed and wondered what kind of an apartment it would be.  The elevator left them off and they entered a wide hall that Karin walked across to the doors immediately opposite the elevator.  The doors to the elevator closed before she had her own door open.  D.O.G. went in first and dropped his leash with a clatter on a wooden floor as Karin indicated Cassie should go in before her.

             
Cassie’s first impression was how cold the apartment was.  It was very clean, but it didn’t show any warmth.  They might as well be in a hotel room for all it gave off.  It was an interesting study in lines and light but nothing that said “Karin Myers lives here” and Cassie was disappointed.  She had thought perhaps that seeing where Karin lived would give her some insight to this amazing woman, but then maybe she did know the woman as the cold woman she professed to be.  The apartment she was seeing showed that.  It’s cool and crisp lines were boring and there wasn’t any hominess to it.  Karin showed her the living room, the kitchen, the balcony and didn’t say much about it as she watched Cassie’s reactions carefully, secretly amused at her impressions.  She took her down the hall to the closed bedroom doors and showed her the two empty guest rooms.  Cassie’s impressions weren’t improving with those.  They were so empty, so nothing.  Then Karin took her to the master bedroom and flicked on the lights within, she waited as Cassie looked around.  First she saw the king sized bed and then she saw all the plants lining the bank of windows at the end of the room.  This at least showed warmth, some warmth.  The variety and the amount alone surprised Cassie.  They took over the entire window.

             
“There is so many, why don’t you put some in your living room?” she asked as she tried to look out at the view beyond the windows.