rpg_palace | Karl hears about James's lastest tactic (Reply)

Harry leaned back in his chair and picked up the file he'd been working on, scanning it for a few moments before he realized that he wasn't seeing it at all. "God fucking damn it," he muttered, tossing it back onto the desk and sighing. This wasn't working. Resting, waiting for things to be okay, none of it. Harry'd never been good at waiting for other people to fix things for him. Just like Karl. "Christ," Harry muttered, hesitating a moment, then picking up the com. Karl'd understand- hopefully. And they really needed to get back in the habit of telling each other things while they were happening, instead of after the fact. Much less bruises that way. He punched in Karl's number, waiting for him to pick up.

"Fucking client would have to cancel. Now got two hours before Viggo's done of doing fucking nothing." Karl growled as he walked back to his room. He wanted to ignore his com, but force of habit made him answer. "Yeah?"

"Hey, Puppy," Harry grinned, then frowned a little, catching the tone in Karl's voice. "You all right? Sound a little off?"

"Got a cancellation. And the only reason I booked him in the first place was cause Viggo was going to be busy too. Now I got two hours before I see him. Fucker just got himself banned off my book."

"Got two hours? Feel like killing some time with me, instead of wishing maiming onto clients?"

"Can't I do both?" There was genuine surprise in Karl's voice.

"Sure, I guess there's no reason why you can't. Pick a place, I'll meet you there."

"Outside. I hate the walls right now. Too many. The stables."

"I'm with you on that one. I'll meet you down there- say ten minutes. I've just got to change," Harry nodded.

"Alright. See you then."

"See you," Harry grinned, hanging up and changing quickly before he headed to the stables, glad he'd taken to keeping an extra set of riding gear in the office.

Karl was wearing only his jeans as he laid on the back of his horse, ranting to him about the client. His horse snorted, shaking his head, then whinney'd when he saw Harry.

"Hey there," Harry waved, unable to keep from laughing a bit when he saw Karl ranting away at his horse. "Tell me that absurd groom isn't in there today, because I'm completely not in the mood," he said warily, looking towards the stable.

Karl snorted. "He was til he saw me coming."

"Decided to take an unscheduled break, eh?" Harry laughed. "Someone seeing to Sada, or they leave it for me to do?"

Karl pointed to where Harry's horse was waiting for him, saddle already on.

"You move fast today," Harry grinned, impressed. He walked over to his horse, talking softly to her for a minute, double checking that she hadn't blown herself up since the saddle had been put on, then pulling himself up onto her back. "All right- let’s make tracks."

Jumping down, Karl went and opened the gate for them. Closing it, he swung onto his horse and started off. He sighed as he laid back down, staring up at the sky.

"I think we've both been needing this, eh? Well, all four of us, really," Harry altered, leaning down across Sada's neck and cooing in her ear.

"I have. End of the week's Viggo's next riding lesson. He's getting good. Just wish we were able to more often. But he's booked up solid til then."

"Well, him ending up busy wasn't exactly something that hadn't been anticipated. Only known Sensualist and all that. You two are still doing well though?"

"He's just so tired when he gets home. And he even gets ones trying to book after hours." Karl growled. "But he's mine then. They got him all day. Not getting him then."

"Well, he's got you looking after him, so I'm sure he'll be okay," Harry smiled. "He and I talked a bit ago... he looked tired then too. Not bad tired, just tired."

Karl rolled over onto his stomach. "He had one. Wanted to take him away for a month. Said he would pay him enough to take some years off his debt."

"Yeah?" Harry nodded, looking at Karl.

"Yeah. Bitch of it was, he was telling the truth. He took Alistair instead, that's why he's gone."

"How's Viggo doing, with being here? Is he managing it okay now- better? Even without the years taken off, if he's feeling better about it, it can only help."

"He's better. Cept when someone talks about how many years left. Then..." Karl shrugged, sitting back up. "So, how's Orlando?"

"He and I are good- the us part. All that's fine. Apart from that, we're a bit fucking stressed." Harry looked straight forward, his hands tightening on the reins. "I just needed to talk to someone. Needed to talk to you."

Karl frowned, moving his horse a little closer to Harry's. "Why? What's wrong?"

"Remember I told you about James?" Harry spat the name out. "That guy that I left Orlando over, because I thought they were better together than we were? The one who framed me for embezzlement before Sean proved that I didn't do it?"

Karl snarled.

"Yeah. It didn't work- I know you know that. He got nailed for embezzling the money himself, and he's in prison right now. Yesterday, he sent Orlando a letter."

"Saying he was framed? That he loved him?"

"Just that he wanted to see him, to talk to him before his trial. The, ah, cat accidentally opened it. There might have been catnip involved," Harry cleared his throat. "I wasn't about to let him anywhere near Orlando, so I went up to see him myself."

A corner of Karl's mouth twitched. "Bad cat. What did he want?"

"He's... he's blackmailing us. Orlando, specifically."

"HE'S WHAT?!"

Harry's horse shied as Karl hollered, needing a few moments for Harry to calm her down. "We'd better not continue this conversation actually riding, I'll end up on my arse," Harry sighed, pointing to a clearing down the way and leading the way down there, dismounting and tying Sada to the tree. "He's blackmailing Orlando," he repeated, looking at Karl, letting Karl see just how pissed off he was about it, despite the fact he was managing to keep more or less calm.

"How? For What? For being with him?" Karl slid down to the ground, stepping closer to Harry.

He shook his head. "I can't remember ... I think I told you that Orlando has Talent- he's a telepath. Not many people know about that, but he is. He especially receives emotions- strong ones, and anyone that he has a real connection with affects him more- if I'm close to him, and I'm angry or sick, or upset, it affects him. He feels it. James was his best friend, and James knows."

"You never told me that. When did you tell me that? Emotions affect him? Like with me?" Karl frowned. "You never told me."

"The emotion thing, truth be told, half the time I forget about it," Harry admits. "It doesn't come into play that often, but if I'm not actively focusing on keeping him out, he can get through my shields too. Feel what I'm feeling. It comes through differently than it does for you, I think. Mostly, it's the telepathy. It's an empathic telepathy, but he and I can talk to each other."

"You can? Wow. And he was doing it with the bastard too?"

"No, he can't do it with that many people. It has something to do with my shields- I've not been able to figure out exactly what. It's like that with me and a few other telepath's too- there's almost a constant access there that just lies dormant. All I have to do is access it. But James knew about it."

"And what did he expect to do with knowing that? Just embarrass Orlando? I mean, he couldn't have expected to get him back that way."

"He knows he'll never get him back. But even these days, the idea of a Prince who's got that kind of ability- it freaks people out. It'll be embarrassing, possibly damaging to the Royal Family. But there's more," Harry's fists clenched tighter. "When Orlando told James it was over, when he tried to leave, James grabbed him by the arm- wouldn’t' let him go. Left a great fucking bruise across his arm."

Karl growled. "He did?" An evil smile crossed his face. "I would have been happy to pay him back for that."

"You're not the only one," Harry felt his nails digging in against his palm and didn't care a bit. "But Orlando paid him back, as it turned out."

"How? Did it hurt?"

"Hurt him good enough. And we don't actually really know how. That's the part that he's got on us. On him."

"Harry, you just lost me. The bastard was holding on to Orlando, didn't let him go and Orlando let him have it. What's the getting part?"

"Something with his Talent. Orlando panicked- swore at him, and James just overloaded and crumpled. He'd never had anything like that happen before. James hit his head on something, cut his face open. Fucker left the scar- on purpose. He wants something to point to- to be able to say that Orlando's dangerous, that he's out of control- that he hurt him, just using his mind," Harry started pacing.

"So what do we do about it?" The smile was back. "He's not traveling a lonely road in the near future, is he?"

"See- that I could handle. A lonely road, you, me, him, a lot of pain. Be so fucking worth it- whatever happened out of it," Harry muttered, then looked up at Karl, frustration painted across his face. "I can't do a goddamned thing. He's in jail. All safe and secure and completely out of my reach. And even if I could, it'd only make him more determined to hurt Orlando. Haven't felt this fucking powerless since godfucking knows when," he growled, pacing more.

"Who says he'd be able to hurt Orlando afterward? Who says he'd be able to do much of anything afterward?"

"It's moot anyway," Harry sat down on the ground, if only to keep himself from punching the nearest tree, trailing his fingers through his hair and tugging hard. "I can't get to him. I can't do a goddamned thing. This isn't going to happen my way- it's going to have to be taken care of with laws and rules and whatever else Marton can come up with."

Karl stared down at Harry, then reached for his hand and tugged on it. "Come on. Get on your horse."

Harry frowned, then followed Karl, hanging onto his hand until they got the horses, then mounting up, waiting to see what Karl would do.

"You know where." Karl whispered to his horse, then let him have his head. They rode hard deeper into the woods. Finally they came to a clearing by a small lake.

Smiling a little as they ride into the clearing, Harry looked over at Karl. "Much better," he nodded.

"You can scream as loud as you want, nothing can hear you. The lake's deeper then it looks, can hit at the water if you don't want to bang up the trees."

Harry looked at Karl, almost surprised at the idea, then slid off his horse, walking further into the clearing, still looking almost calm as he leaned down, picking up a handful of medium sized rocks and testing the weight. He shifted all but one into his left hand, playing with the one in his right a few moments before he tightened his grip on it, moments before throwing it at the nearest tree as hard as he could. "You fucking BASTARD!" he snarled, throwing another rock, then another, his aim on target despite his fury. "How dare you - how fucking DARE you come near him again after what you did- I left him because I thought you'd take care of him and you hurt him and now THIS? FUCK YOU!" he screamed, his last rock going wild before he dropped down onto his knees, arms held tight at his sides before he leaned his head back and just screamed, incoherently.

Karl kept his gaze down, playing with his horse's mane and quieting Harry's horse. Hate and anger welled up inside him at the bastard who he couldn't get to, but he pushed it down. He waited til Harry had fallen silent before going over to him and putting his hand on his shoulder.

Letting his head fall forward as he swallowed hard, Harry lifted his hand onto Karl's, squeezing it tightly. "Thank you," he whispered, his voice sore. "Thanks, Puppy."

"Anytime, Harry. Anytime you need. I'll show you how to get here for if you need to again."

Harry nodded, leaning back against Karl. "Can we stay a bit longer before we go back? Do we have time?"

"Of course we do." Karl kneeled down and wrapped his arms around Harry. "All the time we need."

"Thank you," Harry said again, leaning back and kissing his cheek. "Just thank you."