Chapter 2

"Hi, Marty. I'll be with you in a minute, we're still wrapping this up." Kayleigh gave him a distracted kiss and turned back to her bandmates. "You call that an F chord?"

"Oh, was that supposed to be an F chord?" Mike grinned at her sheepishly. "Sorry, boss."

Kayleigh snorted. "Lets go, boys. The show is coming up real soon."

"Yes Mistress sir!" Sean snapped her a smart salute.

Kayleigh made a face at him. "Well, smartass, your keys are sounding great."

"For the show, do you want me on keyboards or you? You're better than I am." Sean pointed out.

"Switch off?" Derek called from behind his drums.

Kayleigh pursed her lips. "No, that won't really work, unless we want to switch off on who does rhythm guitar and lead vocals, too."

"No effin' way." Sean laughed. "You know what my voice sounds like!"

"Yah." Kayleigh shrugged. "I'll do rhythm guitar and lead vocals, you do keys."

"Cool. We can trade off when we cut the new demo." Sean remarked. "Get out of here, your man's waiting."

"He's not-" Kayleigh began, laughing.

"Just go." Sean waved her off.

"Okay." Kayleigh started backing away. "Later, guys."

Marty was still standing to the side, taking all of it in with a look of amusement on his face. "All set?"

"Yeah. Lets blow this joint." Kayleigh put on her coat and grinned as Marty held the door for her. His chivalrous streak was getting to be an in-joke between them.

"So where are we going?" Kayleigh asked as they strolled towards the nearest subway.

"Uh, well, um. . ." Marty grinned sheepishly. "I didn't get that far."

Kayleigh laughed merrily. "I see a pattern forming in our dates." The pair stopped at the corner of 23rd and 7th avenue. "We could head down to the Village for food and stuff, we could go to a movie . . . what do you like?" Kayleigh glanced over at him.

Marty thought that just about anyplace with her would be great. "Well, we could find another indian place. . . "

"Great. My turn to choose. Okay." Kayleigh mentally ran down the options. "Lets go to curry row. I know a couple of good restaurants there." They resumed walking on 23rd.

"Curry row?" Marty was mystified.

Kayleigh grinned, and assumed an extremely silly indian accent to explain. "Oh, very good, sir, you are about to encounter one of the best kept secrets in New York. Curry Row is what everyone calls 6th street between 1st and 2nd avenues. There are many indian restaurants there and many are good. They are all in competition, you see, so the prices are very low. Some are having live indian music as well, and most are having very fine service." She lowered her voice, darting her eyes around as though to check for eavesdroppers. "It is said that all the restaurants have one large kitchen and a conveyor belt that moves the food from one to another." She raised her eyebrows at him.

Marty burst out laughing. "I really hope you're not going to that in the restaurant." He said when he could talk again. "We might get lynched."

"I know." Kayleigh made a mournful face at him. "I'm so un-PC."

"Politically correct language challenged?" Marty suggested and they both started giggling again.

The subway ride to the village was mercifully brief. They reached curry row and walked slowly down the block, pondering the choices. "Rose of Tandoor" Kayleigh mused. "That's a good one. Bengali Bay, that's good, too. Haveli is amazing, they're around the corner on first, but they're a little pricier."

Marty shrugged. "You're the expert."

"Okay." Kayleigh led the way to Bengali Rose. As promised, the food was excellent. The live music started about halfway through their meal and provided them with an interesting backdrop to the conversation.

"Kayleigh - please don't take this the wrong way, but why are you so secretive about your family?"

Kayleigh gave him a decidedly feline smile. "I'm secretive about everything, Marty."

"You're avoiding the question."

"Yup."

Marty's eyebrows shot up. "C'mon, gimme a break."

"No free breaks, kid, sorry." Kayleigh saw his expression and relented a little. "Look - my mother and I don't get along too well, my dad is tired of all the publicity and I'm tired of being pumped for info about him. Since we get occasional media interest, it's kind of ingrained in all of us to just keep our mouth shut."

"That's it?" Marty asked.

"Uh, huh." Kayleigh shrugged and drank her Kingfisher. "You get used to it." Her eyes danced with mischief. "You were expecting, perhaps, some tale of high drama?"

Marty shrugged right back at her and went back to eating his Vindaloo. Kayleigh eyed him. "You're a braver man than I."

"Mmmph?" Marty's mouth was full.

"I order it medium. The Vindaloo here is killer." Kayleigh continued to consume her Kurma.

Marty gave her a bemused look. She had definitely changed the subject, there. Which implied that there was more to the whole business than she was letting on. But she was right, it really wasn't anyone's concern but hers. Marty stared unabashedly at her, lost in her beauty again. Kayleigh looked up, and something flowed between them, quick and exciting. He took her hand across the table and smiled, putting all the warmth he could into it.

Kayleigh met his green eyes and felt a little inner tug of her own. It startled her. She meant what she'd told Sarah, but there was something about this man. Kayleigh shook it off and glanced away, breaking the contact. They finished up their meal with very little further conversation. Kayleigh beat him to the check, laughing as she plunked down a twenty. "Wench!" Marty scowled at her in mock annoyance. Kayleigh smiled, suddenly all innocence.

Back on the street, Marty cocked an eyebrow at her. "Well? Where to, fearless leader?"

Kayleigh smiled enigmatically and kissed him. Marty was sufficiently distracted by this that he could only think of one location, and it just wouldn't be gentlemanly to suggest on their second date. When the kiss finally broke, Marty stared at her, eyes glazed. "Wh-what was that for?"

"Just 'cuz." Kayleigh grinned. "Wanna go to a club?"

"Sure." Marty shook his head to clear it and was aware that his jeans felt awfully tight on him just then. He resisted the urge to glance down to see if he was, ah, showing. Hopefully she wouldn't notice anything. He reached for her hand and found that she was reaching for his. Cool.

Kayleigh led him to the Pyramid on Avenue A. Marty paid at the door, causing Kayleigh to roll her eyes at him teasingly, and they made their way inside. It was small, hot, crowded and dimly lit, with a haze of smoke hanging in the air. Marty sniffed, noticing that not all the smoke was from tobacco. He snickered to himself, earning him a quizzical look from Kayleigh. He shook his head, remembering a somewhat pretentious friend of his, Dale, who had claimed he could tell what variety of pot was being smoked based solely on the smell. "Ah, yes," He'd say, taking a deep breath, "Indica blue, hydroponically grown." Indica blue, of course, was not a type of pot anyone but Dale seemed to have heard of, but these things just didn't seem to faze him.

Kayleigh asked him something, but he couldn't make out the words over the music. "What?" He shouted.

"Do you want a beer or something?" Kayleigh yelled right back at him.

"Yeah, Corona. I'll get it." Marty cut through the crowd at the bar and managed to snag two corona's from the harried looking bartender. "How long is the band going to be on?"

"'Nother ten minutes." The man told him and practically ran to his next customer.

Kayleigh accepted the beer with a nod of thanks and they stood around waiting for the band to finish up. Conversation would have been tricky if not impossible, so Marty amused himself by people watching. There certainly were a lot of interesting people to watch. There was a girl with purple hair, all done up in braids with little bells and other things tied at the ends. She didn't look like anyone he'd want to mess with. She had a ring in her nose and about five piercings in each ear. Her outfit, though, rather than being punk was pretty much gothic, black lace and stuff. Marty kept crowd browsing, noticing the interesting hair styles, clothes piercings and tattoos of the people around them. Odd mix, there were even yuppie types, slumming on a Friday night.

Marty felt Kayleigh stiffen beside him and glanced at her in startlement. She looked like an angry cat, ready to scratch someone. Marty followed her gaze to the goth boy standing across from them. The young man had long black hair and was done up in his undead best, victorian shirt, whiteface, lipstick and all. He was watching Kayleigh with a sardonic little smile on his face. He made an ironic bow in her direction and began crossing the room. "Kay?" Marty stared at her as the guy made his way towards them. She shook her head; tall dark and gothic was almost upon them.

"Kayleigh, my dearest, always a pleasure." Lacy gothboy took her hand and kissed it.

Kayleigh snatched it back as though it had been burned and glared at the offender. "Cram it. What the fuck do you want, Lude?"

"Nothing but your lovely presence."

Kayleigh seriously looked like she was going to haul off and pop him one. Someone else materialized at her elbow and took her arm. "Don't do it, Kayleigh. This trash ain't worth it." The newcomer was a short, thin boy with spiked black hair and punk attire. He fixed lacy gothboy with an icy stare and snarled. "Hey, don't you have to get back to your coffin or something?" With another one of those overdone bows, gothman made his majestic exit. Not too majestic, though, judging by the speed of his departure, Marty concluded that gothboy was definitely scared of the punk.

"Who?" Marty queried.

"Just some asshole I used to know."

"Lude?"

The punk kid snorted. "Short for quaalude. His real name, he claims, is Ludwig and when he's dancing he definitely looks like he's on something. He and Kayleigh used to be an item-"

"Hardly."

"Or something." The kid continued smoothly. "But dipshit goes in for mind games, so Kayleigh dumped him."

"Which is when he started going around telling anyone who would listen about how cruel I was, how I broke his heart and a bunch of other bullshit." Kayleigh glowered. "How come you wouldn't let me pound him, Lance?"

"You want to get blacklisted from the Pyramid?" Lance countered calmly. "He'd love that. Get to tell everybody about what a psycho you are, how you physically assaulted him, the bouncer would have no choice but to kick you out."

Kayleigh stomped off towards the bar and got a scotch. By the time she came back, the band was finished and the two guys were yaking away together.

". . . so then Mike comes back and says 'What's the big deal? He isn't in a coma yet!' " They both cracked up. Kayleigh, having missed the rest of the story, simply stared at both of them. She was impressed by Marty's ability to hold his own in present company. He might look straight laced, but there was evidently more to him than met the eye.

"So - are we hitting the dance floor?" Kayleigh asked. Marty leaned over and punched the floor. "Oh very funny, smart ass!" Marty grinned, and with a wink at Lance, followed her meekly onto the dance floor. Kayleigh, having caught this, shook her head in mock disgust. "Jesus H. it's the fucking boys club."

Marty grinned, getting into the music. Kayleigh was pleased to find that he was a good dancer. They had fun, dancing, drinking and talking to Lance and the rest of the people that Kayleigh knew. When the club closed at 4:00 AM, Lance waved the two of them over. "You guys going to the Cooper?"

"No, I'm going home to bed." Kayleigh replied and gave him the finger as a knowing grin spread across his face. "Lets go, Marty, I've had enough of this riff raff."

"Yes, ma'am!" Marty clicked his heels together smartly.

"Who are you calling riff raff, Miss High Society?" Lance called after them cheerfully.

Kayleigh made a face at him and kept walking. Marty took her arm as they headed down Avenue A. Neither seemed inclined towards conversation, but it was a comfortable, tired silence. As they turned onto 1st Avenue, Kayleigh stiffened, once again reminding him of a cat with it's fur raised. She pushed him into a door frame and motioned him to silence. Marty shut his mouth and then went cold as he caught the sound of footsteps echoing up the Avenue. Kayleigh moved in closer to him, and for once there was nothing erotic about it. Her eyes were tightly closed and her lips were moving silently. Marty was baffled. He blinked again, because now he was sure he was hallucinating. There was an odd, faint violet light, shimmering faintly around Kayleigh like an aura. Marty had the sense of something stretching between them and some nameless threat. The footsteps passed by, but Kayleigh continued to hold them both still and silent.

Kayleigh finally opened her eyes and gave him a tight smile. "We're taking a cab."

"Are you going to tell me what the hell that was all about?"

"In the cab." Kayleigh looked around and managed to flag one down on the avenue.

After they were seated and speeding uptown, Marty eyed Kayleigh warily. She caught the glance and gave him a wry smile. "Okay. Well, the Reader's Digest condensed version is that my mother has a lot of enemies and some of them are vicious enough to use her daughter against her."

"You're kidding."

"No."

Marty fixed her with his best stare. "Just what exactly does your mother do?"

Kayleigh smirked. "She's an executive in a multi-national conglomerate."

"Translation?"

"Just that. She's an exec for a big corporation. It's a company that's involved in some really interesting areas."

"I bet." Marty snorted. "Forgive me, but this is a bit far-fetched. Even in the admittedly cutthroat corporate world, they don't generally resort to kidnapping, murder or whatever your mother's enemy was after."

Kayleigh shrugged. "They deal with some very sensitive operations, government contracts and such."

"Espionage?"

"Not precisely." Kayleigh obviously wasn't going to tell him much else.

"There's a hell of a lot you're not telling me, isn't there?" Marty gave her a look.

Kayleigh shrugged again. "There's a hell of a lot I can't tell you. For your safety, my safety and the good of the company."

"Trade secrets?"

"Let it go, Marty." Kayleigh's tone held a note of finality.

"Okay." For now, he added silently. The humor in the situation suddenly struck him and he started laughing. "This sure is one hell of a second date!"

Kayleigh relaxed and laughed along with him. "I only told you I'd go out with you, I didn't promise you it would be normal!" Kayleigh reminded him.

"That's good. Normal would be boring." Marty kissed her hand.

Kayleigh smiled, but there was a hint of seriousness behind it. "Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it."

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