They had been left in a room for almost half an hour, surrounded by strange men in familiar black combat attire. So familiar in fact that she could hardly pick their own men out from Jim's clients. Sebastian was stationed on the roof of a neighbouring building, with a clear view into the room through the eye of his rifle. The men he closely trusted, the ones around them, stood in each corner of the room with guns disarmed but at the ready. Their clients men however seemed more like they had been told they were the enemy. Eyes were fixed on Jim and each of his moments, on occasion they would study her but with much less intensity. They didn't trust her husband, but then again who could blame them.
Katherine's hair was voluminously blow dried, her makeup impeccable. She wore a Couture Collection Vivienne Westwood suit which consisted of high waster cropped black patterned trousers, a droppers fitted blazer of the same material and a formal black cropped shirt with was stiff and hugged her skin. It was couture at its finest, stylish and professional with just the right level of sex appeal to allow Jim to show her off. If she raised her arm in just the right way, the soft flesh of her toned stomach would just be visible.
She made him look better in that very moment, she increased not only his impeccable fashion taste but his business, the way she sauntered around the room not paying any attention to the guns trained on her or the armoured men eating her figure up. Moriarty wore his own Westwood suit, not at all as his fashion but just as fabulous. Black with a crisp black shirt and a black Alexander McQueen tie, grey skulls subtly decorating it. They matched, the perfect pair...
But he had caught eyes wandering, eyes he didn't much care to see focused on Katherine. His Katherine.
Jim slowly crossed the room and wrapped his arm around Katherine's small waist, pulling her into his side. He already new every pair of eyes on the room were on them due to the new behaviour. For the past thirty minutes they had each stayed apart, aimlessly wandering around the empty office and moving between seats. Yet now, they were together and Moriarty was the one making a could be anything so they all watched on as his hand came to rest on the small of her back and Jim's lips grazed her jaw, kissing a line up to her ear.
"Aren't ordinary boys adooorable darling?" He suddenly broke the silence which had polluted the air for the past twenty minutes. He pulled Katherine in front of him a rested his chin on her shoulder, pouting at one particular hadn't been able to watch Jim for long. His eyes had always drifted back to Katherine on her hips, her revealed skin, the curve of her neck. "Look how nervous you make them? That one is almost blushing...". Jim nodded towards a young boy, no more than 25 years old, stood dead in front of them. He was looking down now, avoiding Jim's stare. But he wouldn't drop it that easily. Glancing to the side, Jim noticed Katherine smirk and grinned easily. She was smirking right at the young lad, making his sweat and falter, if this was what the clients best men were like Jim would have no problem sorting this deal.
Separating himself from Katherine, he took three long strides until he was almost nose to nose with the guard. "You like my girl?" Jim took a glance behind him to get the view of Katherine this boy had been experiencing since their arrival. With a snarl and a casual shrug, he then turned back and squared his shoulders. "She's got a nasty bite to her but with a bit of heavy petting..." Jim walked around him until they were both watching Katherine and Jim's ears hovered by the mans ears. "She's a flexible little pussy cat."
All she could do was smirk and walk away from the pair, trying not to grin to wide due to how red the soldier was turning and how weak he looked, all because he saw her and a couple of carefully chosen words were spoken in his ear.
"Take it from me my friend...who wouldn't be able to handle her." He walked the rest of the circle and stood, staring into the manes eyes with an unfathomable fury. "So take your eyes off her, or I'll make sure you never see anything pretty again."
"Darling." Katherine interrupted him, calling to him from across the room. Upon turning, Jim looked at her with a heavy brow and scowled. "Play nice." It was teasing, said through a grin as she took a break from chewing on her lip. As a result, Jim rolled his eyes ever so dramatically and slumped away with slouched shoulders to join her at the window.
"He's testing my patience." He whispered close to her eyes, his hot breath skimming her exposed neck. However, Katherine only pursed her lips and turned her head just enough so their eyes met. They were close, too close for those watching them to be comfortable with. They'd heard the stories, whether there was truth in them it didn't matter. When Mrs Moriarty was around Jim Moriarty was all the more dangerous and her sudden unannounced arrival with him had unsettled them all.
"You said he was a big client, he'll be hear soon." Her voice was soft, casual, watching her stance as she stood with her hands in her pocked and with an elegant slouch. Her appeared had even surprised him when she'd emerged from her room, a quick turn around from her ugly government office wear.
But Jim growled again and flashed a look at the still petrified guard. "I meant the boy."
It caused Katherine to turn with a light chuckle, placing a hand on his jaw to pull his attention back to her. "You wanted me to be a distraction, so don't complain when I happens." They looked too human in that moment, too easy to tame.
Katherine's hand dropped from Jim's chin just as the door to the office opened with a sharp click. He shot her a look before turning away and put a small distance between them.
The man who entered first was a guard, but who followed was definitely their man. Tall, in his thirties, undoubtedly cultured in his fine suit and Italian leather shoes. Hair impeccably styled, even giving Moriarty's slicked back do a run for its money.
Upon seeing Jim the man smiled in greeting. But when he laid eye on her the smile dropped, replaced ever so briefly with surprise, but then the smile came back and he greeted them.
"Mr Moriarty...and Mrs Moriarty, what a nice surprise." He walked with confidence, shaking hands with Jim as they traded sides of the desk, Katherine walking as she walked around the opposite end. "If you both please, take a seat." Her husband never once smiled, not even as she took her seat next to him. He wasn't like the Italian, he kept emotions minimal and socialising was out of the question.
"Nice of you to join us, Mr Caponi." Sarcasm was never the best way to begin a business meeting with the type of men Moriarty chose to play with, but it was his preferred method, to show confidence.
"My apologies, a previous meeting over ran." For being Italian, the man had obviously learnt from an American tutor and had spoke English for a long time. He was most fluent than most of the youths in England. "I must first thank you for agreeing to meet with me, but I do wish you'd have told me you'd be bringing along your wife, I would have laid out much more suitable refreshments." Mr Caponi smiled at Katherine and gestured to the bottle of scotch and ice bucket laid out on the small table to their left.
"No worries, I can enjoy a scotch as much as the men." She didn't want to focus on how the man recognised her. As much as it empowered her, it also made her ever so slightly nervous. Proof little bits of Lucy still ran through her blood. Knowing these types of people knew her name, her face, her identity and status when she had never even heard of their name...it just made her wonder were it stopped. Who else recognised her, who else knew her. Where was the line drawn?
"You're proposal, Mr Caponi?" Jim brought the mans head back to earth and away from his wife.
"Ah yes." He seemed to look at imaginary papers in front of him on the table, before he finally looked at Jim and smiled. He had that smile all of Jim's clients had, that slimy 'I know more than you' smug grin. It never failed to repulse her. "I would like your undivided attention over the next month or so-"
"Undivided?" Jim interrupted, before his voice went up an octave. "I don't believe I ever suggested such a service. I have other clients."
"I can pay you all they can, doubled." But Jim just rolled his eyes, unamused and unaffected by the promise of money. "If you'll just listen..." He stopped goofing around as Katherine quirked her brow. But it made the Italian stutter. Both pairs of eyes trained on him like the alphas of a pack of wolves, waiting for his to trip. They barely blinked, both sat with their hands on their knees, ears turned to him. It was a surprisingly sickening sight, so simple. They weren't even doing much but layered the air with thick tension. "Your name is a one which is hard to escape these days, Moriarty. I seem to be hearing either your name or about your actions." When his eyes turned to Katherine, neither faltered. They just kept watching him. "I must say, Mrs Moriarty, you look very well considering the stories."
"All of which I presume have been greatly exaggerated." Her eyes had darkened, her cheeks hollowing as she clenched her teeth and swallowed hard.
But Jim carried on for her, clearing his throat and shrugging. "Yes, if was it was only her hip and knee which needed replacing. Doctors say she's strong enough to live with only one lung." Finally, Katherine let slip a smirk and rolled her eyes as her husband expressed all his humour through sunken in eyes.
They were like hyenas. Making each other chortle and giggle fiendishly as their targeted prey sat totally unaware than they could very well be taking their last breaths. At least that was, if it didn't do something to amuse them and soon.
"It would be a honour to have to as a partner Moriarty, not as a consultant." Even though he was finally getting to the point, Katherine wished he hadn't said the words quite so bluntly, for his own sake. He surely couldn't have just suggested being a partner...surely.
Jim answer was just as she had expected. "I don't take on partners. Far too much commitment. People become too attached...it only leads to heartbreak."
Mr Caponi gave a small chuckle, but it was forced, awkward. "Come on Jim, I could offer you more than enough to see you through the next five years, comfortably. Give your girl here a couple of nice shopping trips, not to mention a second honeymoon." Katherine's smile dropped as she fidgeted in her seat. Mr Caponi wasn't paying enough attention to Jim, had he of, he would have noticed the tensing of his jaw. Katherine seen it and she hadn't even been looking at him. But this man this 'rich' and 'successful' Italian had failed to, and he had been staring at him the whole time.
Jim was growing angry. He didn't deal with intimidation well, he definitely didn't deal well with people who acted more important than they were. He had explained this man to her and she could already see the cracks which Moriarty had described. First off, his men had been weak, secondly he had been too blunt with Jim and lastly, he had failed to actually state what he wanted Jim to be a partner on.
"Bring me in on this operation you have, show me the ropes." He just wanted seeing it was he?
"You mean like be a mentor?" Jim was overly amused when Katherine took the reins and began picking at the boss. She was obviously just as irritated at the downright absurd suggestion he was presenting them with. "You can't just learn the tricks of this trade Mr Caponi." She chuckled ok her head, picking her drink up from the small table between herself and Jim and sipping it.
"I believe you did though, Mrs Moriarty-"
"Katherine, please." She intruded his belittling comment with a stern glare. "And I'll think you'll find that contrary to what you've heard, I live in this business, I didn't just merely learn it." He gave another nervous scoff and looked down to escape her protruding stare. It made Jim swell with glee, seeing how she just did things like that so easily. It required minimum effort from her these days and god did it make him want her.
My Caponi glanced at Moriarty as reassurance of his mood given the sudden change in his wife's demeanour. But he was even more difficult to read. "My apologies if I came across incorrectly..." He bowed his head at Katherine but then smirked at Jim. "I can see why you married her."
"It's ever so surprising how many men think that I will accept that as a compliment." The mans smile dropped instantly, the first clever thing he had done since gracing their presence.
Katherine standing beside him caught his eyes, but not to the level it caught Mr Caponi's. she walked around her chair and over to the bookcases at the far left of the pouch office, decorated mostly in deep reds and subtle patterns. She was bored, or at least she was acting it, just like Jim had wanted.
"Do get on with it please, my wife doesn't have a very good patience."
Mr Caponi smiled and then nodded before continuing with his proposal. "I want to know your network, I want to know how you know the Floment group in Asia and how you helped on their operations."
"That's just being nosey." When he'd receive contact from Mr Caponi he had spoke of a deal regarding the organisation of an important operation regarding another one of Italy's leading gangs. He had refused to speak with anyone other than him, in person, about the details as they were so 'vulnerable'. And it had all been a rouse. He'd been lied to and he didn't like that one bit. Not when it had led to Katherine and himself both being identifiable and in the same place with little back up compared to what he wanted. But he couldn't let on to Katherine that it wasn't part of the plan...
Not that he didn't have a plan, of course he always planned for these little mishaps. It just meant it was going to be a lot messier than either party had planned.
"I won't take no for an answer Jim, I want it on this." The mans hostility started to set in, eyes narrowing and fingers beginning to tap a slow rhythm on the dark wood of the desk.
"Why?"
"I see great profit in it. You didn't think you would be the only Criminal Consultant forever did you?" Opposite the Italian, Jim pouted and shrugged as if he was considering the question. Mocking the man in front of him, it helped settle his anger just a little bit.
"Then do it yourself, I did." Jim stood from his seat, ignoring the glared from his admirer and crossed the room to Katherine. He pulled her into his chest and nipped her right hip so she felt it indefinitely. "I built all of this myself, I even built this fine thing..."
"Why do that when I can get a head start using you?" Standing from behind the desk, he made the look towards his men far too obvious. Did he not know who they were, what he was dealing with? They were an incomprehensible force, a one you couldn't simply barter with.
It didn't matter who you were, how much money you offered and therefor how much money if mean Jim was throwing away. You couldn't be allowed to continue, not once you saw his face and all for some stupid self righteous idea. Jim could live with the big boys knowing his face, under the right circumstances. But the fishes who lied and cheated their way to him...too Katherine...they were flirting with death.
"How did you think this would turn out, honestly? Did you think you would win? I'm so sweet when people don't consider the consequences." His hands constantly moved over Katherine's skin, a delicately designed code which was uncrackable to the smartest of beings. No one knew her body like him and he used it to his advantage. "You want me to pass over all my contacts then...kill me? Please, that soooo predictable." He turned them so Jim's side faced Mr Caponi, Katherine looking up to him like a loyal lap dog while inside, her brain tracked and traced his movements. "So boring."
In a flash, they both moved and Katherine was pushed behind his back placing her between Moriarty and the bookcase. Whereas he stood confidently as bullets wrecked the room. They were all so synchronised however than it only lasted a few seconds. The first had been a perfectly aimed shot to the Italians head, killing his instantly. The second, administered from one of Jim's men to the guard closest to Moriarty. And the rest to each of the other guards. None of Moriarty's men even suffered a minor injury.
Slowly, Jim turned and smiled at Katherine who was casually leaning back against the book shelf. "My apologies darling, I genuinely thought this would be a pleasant outing." Her brow simply quirked with doubt as he moved his wrist to his mouth to speak into the telecom device. "Sebastian, nice shot. Get this place cleaned up."
Jim took a couple of steps into the middle of the room to oversea the damage, while Katherine counted the bodies and tried to calculate how long Sebastian would be occupied for. It was a few hours work easy ,the poor guy, the blood she'd wasn't minimal.
"It's only 9 o'clock." Katherine said quietly and pouted, stuffing her hands back in her pockets. But her husband seemed to get the hint as he grinned and sauntered over to her, pulling her into him but this time she could relax into it, seeing as to how she wasn't needing to pay attention to each finger tap on her body.
"Seems such a waste when you're looking so delicious." The scene made even his own men's stomachs turn. In a room slowly filling with the scent of death and stained by blood, pooling around their feet. They were showing more affection than they did on any normal occasion. "How about dinner?"
"Sounds wonderful."