Chapter Text
The two goons watch on the security feed as the white car winds its way towards the designated meeting point. They watch and wait - the man doesn’t immediately get out of the car and that makes them twitchy. They’ve heard the stories. He’s dangerous.
"What’s he doing?" Goon A mutters unhappily.
"I’m watching the same damn feed." Goon B replies.
They fall silent again when the man unfolds himself from the vehicle - slicked back hair, sleek suit - he pauses to button up his jacket and check his watch. Waiting to arrive exactly on time.
The two goons give each other supporting nods and leave the security of the booth to step onto the waiting elevator with the package that the man had come to collect. They would either live to spread the rumors of the meeting, or they would suffer the consequences of his displeasure. If the latter, they probably wouldn’t be getting back onto the elevator - if all the stories they’d heard were true.
The chime of the elevator makes everyone tense. The man in the suit checks his watch again before jutting out his chin and summoning the goons forward from the shelter the elevator provided. He didn’t appear to be armed, but appearances can be deceiving.
Neither goon really wants to look him in the eye but when he speaks a cool command they can’t seem to look anywhere else. Don’t show fear.
"Gentlemen."
The two goons have been careful with the package all through transit, all through delivery. Truth be told neither wanted to really pay that close attention, neither wanted to know more than they needed to. Now, watching his cool critical expression, their curiosity was peaked and they too, discreetly, tried to examine what they had been delivering.
The woman was returning the man’s cool gaze, making goon A both inwardly nod in approval but also want to plead with her to look away, look down, look anything but defiant. He wanted to survive the day, not end up in a body bag in the trunk of this man’s luxury car.
There is no hint of a smile when the man speaks again, furthering the two goons’ apprehension, regardless of the word spoken. “Excellent.”
He was pleased with what he saw, he was pleased and yet nobody has moved a muscle. The man gives the woman a small nod and yet she still stands immobile. Goon B fights back the urge to reach out to nudge her forward. Who knows what reaction even that small a gesture might net.
The woman and man stand there staring at each other a moment longer, making the pair of goons start to sweat. Finally the woman starts towards the car, her heels clicking on the concrete floor and echoing around the parking deck. The man watches her progress, turning slightly as she passes him. He slowly follows her towards the car, predator stalking it’s prey. He doesn’t look back at the goons. They’ve been released. They’re free of his influence.
The woman? She’s not so lucky. She’s all his now.
Goon A jabs at the elevator button again. Goon B snorts at him, “Won’t get here faster.”
"Wanna get off this damned floor. Stairs?" Goon A just wants to put distance between himself and the chilling man now shutting the car door behind the woman - preferably a distance filled with several layers of steel and concrete.
Both goons pause and turn when the rumble of another vehicle’s engine echoes through the parking garage. The man by the car has paused as well - standing tall by the driver’s side door with his back to the pair of them. Then he turns to give them a cold stare.
"Oh - shit." Goon A spins and jabs at the elevator button again.
The man in the suit considers his options - deal with the goons before the other car or just focus on the threat the other car poses. The goons looked just as surprised by the second vehicle as he was and look currently like they’re going to shit themselves. Clearly they had no hand in this double cross.
He checks on the reaction of the car’s other occupant as he slides in behind the wheel. She’s tracking the progress of the other car. Standing opposite him over by the elevator she’d projected a cool defiance, now there was a hint of apprehension. If she was behind this there would be hell to pay later.
A flick of a switch and the car rumbles to life beneath them. The roar pulls her attention away from the other vehicle. Now, in her eyes, he saw fear. Fear of him? Of his reaction?
"Please." She was begging him to be lenient? She was right to be afraid. He can feel his anger coiling for a swift strike. Her next word, the urgency and terror behind it redirects his anger back towards the true threat - the other car. "Go!"
"I take it they’re not friends of yours."
He’d been prepared - preparation is key, after all. A sequence entered into his phone triggers the one-way spikes to rise from the floor of the parking deck. The other car doesn’t have time to stop before they roll over the spikes and flatten their front tires.
It usually pays to consider a double-cross. He allows himself a small smile as he guns the car up and out of the underground parking deck.
Now that the car is in motion she seems more at ease, back to the guarded woman he’d seem emerge from the elevator. He flicks his eyes from the road to the rear view mirror, road to rear view mirror, as he weaves through the late night traffic.