"Lookin' sharp, boss."
Slowly he descended the marble stairs. His strong, callused hands ghosted down the cold banister as step after step, he allowed himself to be studied. He dark suit fit is form well, a purple tie – the most essential colour of his outfit – just tucked under the front of his jacket. His rusty-coloured hair, usually hidden under a gray driver's cap, was combed and styled to accentuate a strong jaw and sharp blue eyes. Beneath the frame cast by his broad shoulders rippled muscles, toned from the many physically laborious tasks he was often forced to preform in his line of work.
A girl who'd been seated on the couch rose to turn and look at her superior. Ruby lips curled up into an admiring grin, parting to give a wolf whistle. Upon reaching the last steps, the boss held out his arms, opening himself to further study.
"What're you on about? I always look this sharp!" That heavy cockney accent coming from such an intimidating individual never failed to make the female lieutenant smile. In the case where she already was, she couldn't help a laugh.
"That's what you think." She approached him, consciously swaying her hips in such a way as to draw her boss's attention to them. He did indeed notice, but he didn't buy into the petty act of seduction, his eyes dipped to the curves of her waist, then promptly flicked back up to her face – a look of warning flashing in those ocean eyes. "What I mean to say," said the woman, quickly looking to distract her company from her error, "is you clean up nicely, Clarke."
"Thank you, Shaundi."
"Damn, dude, you out with the lady friend today?" Between the two, a dark-skinned man struggled to be noticed. He'd seen the look his friend had given their leader, and he'd seen the quick warning she'd received in return. But throughout the entire exchange, he felt entirely shunned. His initial comment about the leader's 'sharpness' was used by the female lieutenant to steal his focus.
"That's the idea, mate. We're lookin' into those places in Chinatown you were mentionin', Pierce."
"Awesome! 'Bout time!"
"Is it just the two of you?"
"Yeah."
"So...Like a date?" Shaundi was not the one to ask, but she was the one to throw a nasty glare at Pierce, the curious one.
"Yeah, mate. Like a date."
"So you'll be taking the Jaguar, right?" She said instead of voicing her protest to the whole ordeal. It was none of her business who her boss chose to flirt with. Even if his current target started out as an enemy, and their friendship had benefited many people, she couldn't help the feeling of envy that brewed in her stomach whenever he saw him so put together – for someone other than her.
But he was never hers in the first place, she knew she had no right to feel that way.
"Naw, the Vortex. It's her favourite."
Shaundi's lips pressed into a thin line. The Vortex was a fast little car that handled like a dream. Painted in Saint's purple and marked with white racing stripes, it was coincidentally Shaundi's favourite car as well, but that had never stopped him from taking his favourite – the jaguar – whenever they went out together.
However, she was quick to restore her expression to normal, conscious her reaction was being studied and not wanting to tip her boss off to her feelings any more than she already was.
"Well, call us if it gets bad, okay?" she said, propping a fist on a hip and offering the cockney Brit a supportive smile.
"You know I will."
The pair walked with their friend out to the expanse of a garage they owned. They passed car after car, each marked with purple in some way, until finally they came upon the two-person sports car meant to be driven. The suited man vaulted over the door and landed in the seat, not bothering to put on his seat belt has he brought the engine to life with the twist of a key. He pressed the gas a couple times, partially to warm up the little car and partially to warn his lieutenants to get out of the way.
"Call us when you guys are done," said Pierce, tugging Shaundi out from in front of the car by her wrist. The Brit put his sunglasses on, hiding his brilliant blue stare, nodded and then pulled out of the parking space, speeding for the exit ramps.
She was waiting about a half-dozen blocks away, out in front of the hotel she'd stayed overnight in just to be closer. She too had made an effort to look especially presentable. Her blonde hair was curled and pumped with volume, framing a naturally pale face highlighted by eyeshadow and a blush on her lips. Almond-shaped eyes of speckled green darted up and down the street, waiting for the telltale flash of purple to come speeding around a corner.
Even since she stepped out into the street, she'd been getting a handful of stares – specifically from the males - from strangers on the street. She would tug her little navy-coloured dress down a little further and fold her arms in front of her chest, clicking the toe of her high heels against the cement below.
Finally, a screeching of tires announced his arrival. He skidded to a graceful halt right in front of the girl, already smiling as his eyes set up and down her figure behind his glasses.
"You like nice, Benjamin."
"You too, Eva."
Upon hearing his voice, she beamed. She positively loved that accent – she had yet to hear another person in the city speak with it naturally. The woman scooted forward, also choosing to forgo the presence of the door in favour of hopping over the side and into her seat. She reached into her purse and pulled out a pair of aviators.
"Ready to go?"
"I was born ready."
With that, his foot hit the gas and he went speeding off, having the route to their destination already memorized.
No more than half an hour later, the little Vortex pulled in front of a fancy-looking restaurant in the city's vast Chinatown. The sun beat down on red umbrellas, which sheltered solid tables that boasted golden designs on their surface. A few people sat outside, thanks to the beautiful weather, and ate their meals over a conversation. Surprisingly enough, the street wasn't that busy at all.
"First stop," he promised with a dashing smile, pulling his glasses off his face and tucking them into the sun guard. She did the same, but stashed her aviators away into her purse.
She she did so, Benjamin followed his gentlemanly instincts. He'd removed himself from his seat, walked around the front of the car and opened her door for her, offering his hand to help her out of her seat. Graciously she thanked him, stood up and habitually brushed off the hem of her dress. Together they moved back to the trunk of the vehicle, and while he rummaged through the contents, Eva took the time to study their surroundings. There were two other couples outside, as well as a group of three teens talking loudly on the other side of the courtyard. Inside, waiters hustled back and fourth – visible through the large glass windows of the store front.
"Seems like a nice place," she said as the man stood straight, having fetched what he needed from his trunk, and slammed it shut.
"I've seen nicer," said he, offering his arm out to her.
"I don't doubt it." She hooked her arm through his and together they advanced, drawing the attention of the other guests as the impressive-looking pair approached. An employee from inside rushed out to meet them, holding out his hands and shouting in Chinese as he approached.
The couple exchanged a look, smiling to one another as they passed a fancy-looking table. They detached from one each other as she reached into her purse, pulling out a silver magnum and thrusting it hard into the waiter's gut mid-step, pulling the trigger once, moving the muzzle a little further up the kid's body and firing again, while her date smashed one of the pretty tables with his crowbar from beneath, launching it into the next pair of tables.
The woman laughed as she raised her magnum, firing bullets into each window to see it shatter into pieces. When all of them had been destroyed, she produced a grenade from within her purse, pulled the pin with her teeth and launched it into the establishment through the window frames. People screamed and ran, ducking their heads under their arms in attempts to shelter themselves as an explosion shook the street.
She fired a few shots in the direction of the fleeing teenagers, not aiming to hit any of them and delighting in their panicked reaction. One tripped.
Meanwhile, Ben had smashed another table clear in half with his crowbar, then launched a half across the courtyard into countless others. The next table he approached he did not smash. Instead he pulled down the lip of the umbrella and brought a lighter up to it, setting the cloth on fire and letting it burn slowly.
The owner, a frazzled looking business woman of Chinese origin, came barreling out of the restaurant doors, eyes wide with alarm. She hit her knees in front of Eva, grabbing the hem of her dress and immediately beginning to beg for her life's work to be spared. Ben took the opportunity to smash another table, then overturn a couple chairs with a single kick as Eva herself kicked the woman off of her.
Ben paused to go join the pair of females, standing over the owner just as Eva delivered another harsh kick to the girl's gut.
"This place was supposed to be under the protection of the Brotherhood, right?" Benjamin asked, voice heavy with the accent that made Eva smile brightly.
"It was!" screamed the woman, "It was! It was! It was!"
Ben cast his gaze about the chaos and wreckage. Someone had been shot by a stray bullet and writhed on the floor a few metres away. He chuckled, though it was not a happy sound.
"They're not really doin' a very good job, are they now?"
"No, no!"
"You know 'o we are, right?"
The woman looked up, skin irritated red from salty tears. Her eyes fell on the woman first, then the man who spoke to her. She gave a little nod.
"You're the leader of the 3rd Street Saints."
She was so specific, because despite recognizing the male, his date remained a stranger to her.
"That's right, an' if you don't want this sort o' nonsense to keep 'appenin' to this nice little place you got here, 'o are you gonna start payin' protection money to?"
"The Saints, of course, the saints!" The woman now pulled at the man's pant leg, desperately pleading with her sobs for the pair to leave, to not threaten her home and work with their presence any longer.
"An' you're gonna spread the word that this isn't Brotherhood turf anymore, right?"
"Of course, of course!"
"Good fer you."
Ben shook the little woman off his leg as Eva moved over to a nearby table. This table was still covered in food from where its previous occupants had left in a rush. She took a fortune cookie from the middle, opened the packaging with delicate nails, then wandered back to her date. Ben threw the crowbar over his shoulder like a construction worker and offered his free arm to her again.
"What've you got there?"
"Fortune cookie, want some?" She held out half to him. He stared at it for a moment, then opened his mouth – one hand was too busy holding onto his crowbar and the other keeping her arm linked with his. She popped the little cookie in his mouth as they both left the scene of destruction in their wake. She giggled habitually, pulling a little white strip from her half and eating her portion of the cookie.
They ignored the woman's sobs behind them, Benjamin instead leaned over to try and read Eva's fortune.
"A new partnership will reap positive rewards," he read, "Well, that's quite the coincidence."
Eva nodded.
The pair stopped at the edge of the path, just in front of Ben Clarke's car, both unconsciously hesitating as they stared at one another for a few short seconds. Almost in perfect synchronization, they both looked back to the restaurant. Tables were strewn about, a handful of them split in half. A few bystanders tended to a wounded man who rolled about in agony over shards of broken glass. Lights inside the building hung loosely by thin wires, smoke billowing out from where things had started to burn. Chairs were everywhere, overturned, scorched and the fire on the umbrella had spread to one of the restaurant's flags.
And in the center of it all, the weeping owner, rocking herself in the center of the walkway and shaking her head. Both Eva and Ben turned their backs to the vision again, instead focusing once more on each other. After a few seconds of a thoughtful silence, he unlinked his arm and instead took her hand in his.
"This was fun. Short, but fun."
"Yeah, it really was."
His smile turned into a sly grin.
"I got another place I need to hit up the next block over. Care to join me?"
"It's a date~"
Reviews/comments are absolutely splended.
Just some fodder to get the brain going. Short one-shot.
Thanks for reading this far, though!
Toodles,
Shmee