Chapter Fifty Four: Matter of Family Part Five.

Chapter Fifty Four: Matter of Family Part Five.

Harry was about ready to have lunch with Tamara Fox. To be honest, they had a brief meeting in her father's office and worked with each other on work related matters on a fairly regular basis. Other than that, they had not enough time to deal with personal matters, rather business matters. Therefore, he was going to correct that situation.

That being said, he wanted to correct that matter, inviting her to lunch which she eagerly accepted. After his business meeting was done with Pamela and Nora, Harry gave his goodbyes and left both of them talking about a couple of projects that they were working on.

That being said, they had long since left the office, and they were in a restaurant in downtown Gotham.

Tamara whistled as she realized where she was. "I'm surprised we got in here so fast…..I mean this is a restaurant that you normally have to get a reservation days, if not a couple of weeks in advance."

Harry could not help but feel a little bit smug with himself, but he gave her the most accurate assessment of the situation. "Well the fact that I'm Gotham's Golden Boy that opens a lot of doors for me that normally wouldn't be open."

"Fair enough, fair enough," Tamara agreed with a smile, sitting down and the two of them waited for their food as it was ordered. "So…this is the first time that the two of them have had a chance to sit down and have a real conversation, we only know a little bit about each other and our families so….."

"Well there is my mother Lily, and my sisters Amanda and Emily," Harry said and Tamara smiled and nodded. In his mind's eye, he could almost see the twins taking a bow. "Then there is my mother's younger sister, my Aunt Rose, and I have a few cousins that are lingering around, most of them are living in the Smallville area. But you've already met Alexandra, haven't you?"

"Yes, I've already met her, in passing, but she does leave a presence wherever she goes, doesn't she?"

'Guilty as changed,' Faora commented in amusement.

"Yes, she tends to not be forgotten," Harry agrees and he cleared his throat. "Then there's my cousin Martha, Clark, who is her son, and then Nell and her niece Lana…..so I've got a lot of family around."

"Right, well you know my father all too well, and then there's my mother Tanya," Tamara said and that really was something that jived well with her. "My little sister Tiffany…..and my brother Lucas…..who shares a lot of your interests with you come to think about it, so you'd get along well enough."

"Really?" Harry asked.

"His interests in Martial Arts especially," Tamara continued and she curled her lips into a smile. "I'm really surprised that someone like you hasn't been interested in competing. You might be able to do well."

Harry raised his eyebrow, to be honest, this wasn't the first time that something like this had come up, but he gave his honest answer.

"Well, I've thought about it, and decided not to go with it."

Tamara raised her eyebrow and pressed on. "Might I ask why?"

"I've been training for a long time," Harry told her and she nodded in response. "And it does seem like an interesting idea but it seems like I have a bit of an unfair advantage. I know that might seem arrogant to be honest."

"No, not really," she replied, shaking her head. "It just shows that you are confident in your abilities."

She gave a slight blush and shook her head. "That's too bad."

"Dinah did though, Dinah Lance," Harry told her and she nodded, she knew he was talking about. "I helped train her, and I had a pretty good idea what it was like when I helped train her."

Tamara raised her eyebrow and she was rather curious about something. Harry could tell that she almost wanted to ask a question but was mentally wrestling with herself trying not to spit it out. He had given her the opening if she was going to ask but she decided not to ask.

Perhaps there was a second where she paused and their food arrived. Both of them made small talk.

"Oh this is good stuff," Tamara managed and Harry smiled at her.

"Given some of the reputation this city has, it has a lot of great places to eat," Harry told her and Tamara nodded her head up and down, looking rather pleased.

"That's the best thing about Gotham City, if you can get past all of the crime and the insanity," Tamara told him and Harry smiled, taking his drink.

"So, you went to GPA with Pamela Isley?"

Tamara raised her eyebrow and nodded with a smile. "We met each other a couple of times in passing, and she seemed nice enough, but we ran in very different circles. I mean she was into the sciences and I was in business and history. She was fairly withdrawn, keeping to herself you know…..except for a few close friends, but I never had a problem with her."

"Well it's kind of hard to," Harry said, obviously one could see how Pamela was a little withdrawn and she was as such when he met her.

"But I know enough to know that she was one of the top students in her year there, so whatever worked for her," Tamara said, with a smile on her face. "And you must have left an impression with her."

Harry raised an eyebrow, looking at her. "Yes, I literally almost ran into her, it must have been a lifetime ago."

'Sure seems like that sometime,' Pamela chimed in, briefly flittering into the bond link.

Tamara and Harry continued to have their lunch together.

"I have to say that RAO really is going to drive Gotham City's business for a long time…." Tamara said but she paused and blinked. "Actually more than Gotham City, perhaps the entire world."

"In time, that's the plan, but you're either going to go big or not go anywhere at all," Harry told her and Tamara nodded.

"You got to really be ambitious out there," Tamara commented lightly and Harry gave her a shadow of a smirk.

"You seem to be an ambitious sort….."

"Well I wanted to earn the spot that I did, and I think that given all of the work that you've given me, I've proven myself."

"Many times over," Harry said casually and she gave a smirk to him, dabbling her fish stick into the sauce and giving it another bite. The two continued their conversation while enjoying a nice leisurely lunch.

After their lunch had concluded, Harry drove Tamara back up to the Wayne Enterprises Tower. Given that she had been dividing her time between the two places and this was on his way to something that he wanted to do for a while, it was just as well that he found his way there.

Harry wanted to take a tour of the Archives in the bottom level of the building or what used to be Applied Sciences before Applied Sciences became an active division of the company. It was something that him, Bruce, and Lucius worked together and it was something that was well worth the work that they done.

Applied Sciences was exactly what it said on the tin and the former Applied Sciences were the Archives, although it would have had its own uses. That being said, Harry was making his way downwards and ready to take the tour.

Harry made his way down and he saw Lucius Fox was busy at work with an interesting little project, actually there was a few interesting projects. Harry personally thought that he could really get whip things up for a second.

"Yes, as you could have guessed, there is fair amount that would be useful around here," Lucius said looking up from his work with a smile on his face. "And I'm sure that there are many things that you have already thought of that could be extremely useful….."

"Those grenades look to be something that could be useful," Harry said and Lucius inclined his head to a nod.

"Pick up one of them, and hurl it at that target," Lucius commented lightly and Harry picked up the grenade and did so.

Upon impact, the glue burst out, creating a sticky net that very little would be able to burst out of.

"And I'm assuming that the discharge could be controlled remotely," Harry remarked lightly and Lucius's eyebrow rose up after a second.

"You know, that's an intriguing thought, I wouldn't know, but it would be something that would be well worth our time to check into," Lucius said and Harry could really say no more other than that.

Harry looked over the grapnel, to be honest, he snagged the blueprints for those a while back.

"So, the attachment that adds three different hooks?" Harry asked.

"Are you lost to see how practical something like that would be?" Lucius asked with a chuckle and Harry smiled in response, he kind of was to be honest.

'Well, there's overkill and there's this,' Faora commented.

'I suppose one could use it in certain circumstances,' Diana suggested and there was an agreement from all.

"Yes, I'm pretty much struggling where that might come in handy but everyone has their own tastes, I'm pretty sure that was an idea that came from Bruce himself."

"You would be correct," Lucius added, and there were a number of items that were littered around the area of Archives, including a fair few of them that caught Harry's interests.

To be honest, his mind went in a few different areas, and he had some ideas, but it was always good to get some inspiration, wherever he could find it."

"Ah this may be something that you might find interesting," Lucius said with an eyebrow raised towards Harry and his gaze averted a little bit to him.

'That…..is that what I think it is?' Diana asked and there was a second where Harry came back through from the bond link, much the amusement of several parties.

"Ye…..is that what I think it is?"

"It's a prototype engine, something that is extremely powerful," Lucius said, amused by the fact that Harry was trying his best to keep his eyes from bugging out of the front of his head due to the excitement. To the young man's credit, he managed to maintain his composure for the most part.

"Fascinating."

"It's powerful for several reasons," Lucius continued, still fairly amused by the reaction that he was getting from the young man. "It's so powerful that we couldn't really design a vehicle that could hold it without breaking apart. It would go so fast that it would lift off the ground in some places or the tires would disintegrate. With the rest of the vehicle quickly following. It's made off of a jet engine, so I suppose that you would not be able to find a land based vehicle."

Lucius Fox had to say, that seeing Harry Potter in a state where his mouth was wide open, and he was rendered speechless was rather amusing. Not to mention a little bit unsettling but he actually found it to be a personal achievement that he was able to find something that would render him speechless.

"So, I take it that you're interested?"

Harry's lips curled into a smile and he managed to keep himself from drooling to keep the air of professional.

Diana on the other hand, did not have any such restrictions.

'So, I guess you're not above it after all,' Donna teased her sister which caused Diana to snap back into reality.

'I was caught off guard,' Diana said, trying to keep the frustration out of her voice and Harry had to turn his attention back, although he was looking over the engine to make his temporary distraction and amusement at Diana who was trying keep herself calm.

"Yes, I'm very interested."

Lucius decided to go right in for the appropriate follow up question. "So, I'm guessing that you can do something with it, if you're interested?"

Harry was really looking it over, it seemed so far and ahead from a lot but it presented an interesting challenge.

"I'd enjoy the challenge of trying," Harry replied, making sure that Lucius nodded in response.

"I'm certain that you would," Lucius answered, and the tour continued, although that was the main event. Still it would be rude to leave someone hanging after seeing something like that but that sure was something.

After the tour concluded, Harry mentally assessed his options. His plan to get his revenge on Cobblepot was put on hold for a little bit. At least until he was lured into a false sense of security and then Harry would take him out.

'You know, after last night, you must have him sweating like…..well like an oversized bird…'

'Like a Penguin in an overcoat?' Amanda chimed in helpfully and Harry smiled.

'I don't want to strike just yet, I want him to…..stew a little bit more, and then make him think that was my revenge,' Harry said and Jaime chimed in.

'So you're making him play the waiting game,' she said and Harry once again smiled at her.

'Exactly,' Harry told her, making his way towards his destination. 'That being said, there's something else that the Penguin diverted my attention from and I want to make sure that I give it the proper amount of attention.'

'The Halloween attacks?' Jaime asked, that had happened around the time of the botched kidnapping attempt so it was first and foremost on their mind.

'Yes,' Harry said shortly and he made his way towards the area of Wayne Manor. He thought about going through the front door and asking for Bruce in that way, but that really didn't have enough style in his opinion.

He did have a chance to look over the information that Oracle sent him over about the murders on Halloween night, what she was able to track down through the GCPD. There were no real leads, which meant that the person who was behind this was not a known player in the game. Or at least he or she was playing a very dangerous game.

Being that it was Halloween, it was obvious that he or she was wearing a costume of some sort. Therefore it went without saying that finding a strange and mysterious figure would be trying to locate a needle in a haystack. It would be borderline impossible to do so, and Harry was going to potentially cut out the borderline part about it, it was going to be impossible, very impossible in fact.

That being said, Harry was on his way to see Bruce and see if he was able to dig up any further through some untraditional methods. He hoped that he held that one last piece.

'And I'm going in through an untraditional way, funny enough.'

He could see Bruce sitting in cave that was located underneath Wayne Manor, the aptly named "Batcave." The cave was a work in progress, and he was parked in an extravagant looking office chair in front of the computer.

He was wearing the clothes that he wore underneath his costume, so not the full costume entirely.

Harry cleared his throat to get the man's attention and Bruce slowly turned around to face Harry. There was a stiff and solemn tone to his voice when he spoke.

"May I help you?"

Bruce's cave was his comfort zone so the fact that he was visited in the cave, even by someone that he trusted, that was rather unsettling to say the least. The only visible cue that he showed based off of his annoyance, was the not so subtle eye twitch that flashed over him.

"So, I take it that you have a new guest staying up in the Manor House?" Harry asked and Bruce slowly turned away from the screen, so he could fully face him.

"I should have figured that nothing would escape your notes, but her name is Yamashiro Tatsu, she was hired by Alfred as my bodyguard," Bruce said and Harry smiled.

"It's for the best, given you know that Kane would saddle you with someone else and you wouldn't like who he would stick you with."

"Yes, I would concur," Bruce agreed and perhaps Harry was just hearing things, perhaps not but the hint that he got in the tone in Bruce's voice, one could see that he thought the last bodyguard was, to put things bluntly, a royal pain in the ass.

That being said, the name was something that Harry really heard before but Penny was quick to chime in with the assistance.

'She's Alfred's goddaughter, I remember meeting her before I went to Hogwarts, the two of us were pretty close,' Penny added.

"She's Alfred's goddaughter."

Bruce gave him that Batman look but Harry didn't really become bothered by that. He was used to getting such looks and he might be one of the only people in the world who could be immune by the glare of doom and death directed by Bruce Wayne. All he responded with was a slightly arched eyebrow.

"So, anyway, I didn't come to the cave for idle chatter," Harry said and Bruce nodded.

"I figured as much, mind telling me why you're here," Bruce said and he gave Harry the necessary opening for him to chime in.

"I wanted to know what you found out, if anything, about the murders that took place on Halloween night."

"And I guess your phone was broken?"

Harry once again shook his head, pretty much avoiding that crisp statement. That was just the way that Bruce was and he would have to accept that.

Bruce managed to turn his attention and therefore divert Harry's attention to a tack board, where there were various articles and pictures posted. It was detective work, the old fashioned way. Harry was not completely lacking in knowledge there, but at the same time, it might be one of his weaker areas so it went without saying that there is room for improvement.

"It was the same individual that caused the death of the nine mothers on Labor Day, and it's uncertain whether it's a man or a woman, but I'm leaning towards a man," Bruce said, looking towards him. "But given that whoever it was, they were able to blend in with a costume on Halloween, it would be hard to tell. If there were any eyewitness accounts of something strange happening, they were not coming forward. And there are a lot of predators that roam on Halloween night as well."

'A cheery thought,' Kara chimed in.

'But unfortunately true,' Rose thought grimly.

"Once might be an isolated incident, but twice like this, it's becoming to be set up like a pattern of some sort," Harry explained and once again Bruce nodded.

"He may be picking a single holiday a month, because in September, he struck only on Labor Day, but not on Arbor Day," Bruce explained in his usual swift manner. "Nine mothers on Labor Day, and he skipped past Columbus Day and went straight to Halloween."

"With the ten different severed heads," Harry replied grimly, that was a statement that was sure. "So this month, it mean's Veteran's Day or Thanksgiving."

"It means one or another, but until we have a viable suspect, all we can do is prepare for a crime that may or may not happen on a certain day."

Harry thought that Bruce was pretty much on the same wavelength as he was. This Calendar Killer was going to strike again until they brought him or maybe her to justice. The problem was finding whoever was behind this because there were no suspects.

Arnold Flass clutched his hands together and he was sitting underneath the watchful gaze Rachel Dawes and Harvey Dent. He wasn't intimidated; no he was scared to fucking death. But he had really good reason to be.

The fact of the matter was that Frank Pratt's murder caused a lot of the more corrupt members of the force to lose their shit, in a figurative sense, and perhaps in a more literal sense. But Flass wasn't privy to such personal details, nor did he want to. Batman spooking him didn't help but the fact that some corrupt cops.

"So you came out of whatever hole you were hiding in, didn't you?" Harvey asked, his voice calm and crisp. But it was just as well, even a rat like Flass would have to come out to life sooner or rather than later.

"Dent, I'll handle this," Rachel said, peering at Flass. "You want to be in protective custody….."

"Hey, if someone was popping cops, they're come after me," Flass said and his hands were shaking once again. "I mean, you know Loeb and Branden want to throw me under the bus already, I'm sure you've figured that out."

"Maybe we have, maybe we haven't,' Rachel commented acidly, she was holding a folder in her hand, with a pen balanced on the top of it. Flass leaned forward but she stepped back. "Nothing that you need to concern yourself with."

The office was darkened, with the exception of the light that was focused on him. Flass felt like he was in one of those hard boiled gangster movies, and he was perched in the hot seat.

"You seem to be in an interesting position right now," Rachel said and she smiled. She had the man cornered and the more he sweated, the more pleased that he would be "You need protective custody and we need information."

Flass sweated even more, and neither of them was sure that was possible.

"So, either we cut a deal now, or you get thrown away, and we get them eventually….but either way, I'm getting information," Rachel said and there was a predatory smile on her face, that faded into a more business like tone before Harvey noticed.

Harvey had some strong moral objections to this entire mess but he was going to concede one thing. If you needed to catch the big fish, you needed to user some of the smaller fish to bait the trap. And given that some of those larger fish had a pretty nasty bite, the sooner that they were able to put them in the net, the better off they would all be.

"I want full protection against everything, I don't want some nutcase in a costume coming after me again, and I don't want some cop killer coming after me, and I'll tell you anything that you want to know, anything I know, anything about where some of the skeletons are buried."

"Rachel, can I have a word with you for a second?" Harvey asked her and Rachel raised her eyebrow, and then woman nodded after a second.

The two of them are out of earshot of Flass and it was here where Harvey decided to voice this objection that he had.

"You aren't going to let Flass walk free, aren't you?" Harvey asked her and there was a second where the questioning glint flashed through his eyes and directed completely at her.

"What would you have me do, Harvey?" Rachel asked him and Harvey could really see that the ball was out of his court. "We might have Maroni in time out for a little bit, but he's going to get out eventually. And we can use whatever Flass gives us to nail him to the wall, along with Loeb and anyone else."

"I don't like this," Harvey said and Rachel back at him, her jaw set and her expression looking fairly focused.

"We're playing a very dangerous game, we're going to have to do things that we don't like and Flass is a small time player who is expendable and if he knows something, anything, we should pounce on it," Rachel said and determination flashed through her eyes. It was almost terrifying how determined that she was. "Trust me on this."

"I trust you, I just don't trust him…"

"I'm giving him a pass right now, but it's not infinite and you know someone like him will try his luck again eventually," Rachel said and Harvey nodded.

"Fair enough, I'll back you on this one."

"That's all I'm asking you for, not asking you to like it, but I'm asking for you to help me get through this one," Rachel said and Harvey gave one of those non-committal grunts. Once again, he didn't like it, but he was going for it.

They walked far down the hallway where Flass couldn't hear them if he had his ear pressed to the door but that being said, the corrupt was not about to try his luck. He was perched on the chair, like a good little boy, who was waiting for Mommy and Daddy to come back and discuss what they were going to do with him.

"So, Flass, we've talked, and we're willing to give the immunity that you want, along with the protection," Rachel said and she paused, showing that there was a catch and this deal wasn't made for cheap. "Providing you tell us what we want to know."

Flass figured that something like this would not come cheap but given that he was in deep far enough, he was out of options.

"So, you better start spilling and hope that this is worth our time," Harvey told him and his gaze told Flass that he would sooner let him rot. And would if he didn't give him the information that he wanted. "Or, you're going out there, back with the sharks."

"Oh, it's worth your time, I swear to God."

"He might not be able to protect you for long," Rachel said and she cleared her throat. Her arms folded across her chest impatiently when she looked at him. "I'm waiting."

'How could someone be that smart but yet be so blaringly stupid, Barbara thought, as she had a computer out in front of her. This took the award for something, although she was really not sure what exactly what kind of award it took. It caused her to put in a few more hours of work than she would have liked to, that much was for sure.

Abject stupidity maybe, actually it was fairly likely. The detective in question managed to bypass the firewalls on his computer and disable the security settings. Then he was jacked up with what seems to be thousands of computer viruses. Spyware was out the ass and Barbara could not help but shake her head in agitation.

'So, you can bypass the security settings, good for you, although how you bypass them and why you bypass them, that's really not something that I'm not sure that I'm going to approve of,' Barbara thought to herself, her lips pursed together in complete agitation. But you don't seem to think that you might need a good anti-virus protection….yeah, he was looking at porn. Nothing is this infected without hopping on porn sites.'

That being said, Barbara thought that this man was a candidate for a Darwin Award and not a moment too soon. She was performing the absolutely laborious and most importantly frustrating process of installing the software on the computer.

She was so far into her work and so far in trying to wrap her head around that fact. She looked up and saw Chief O'Hara bring in a young man who looked like your average technical support employee. His hair was tied back and he was wearing a pair of glasses, along with a nice pressed shirt and pants. His gaze was on Barbara.

"Well, hello, fancy meeting you here," he commented and he saw Barbara get up to face him. Chief O'Hara slipped down the hallway.

"Yeah, you are…."

"The head of the Cyber Crimes Division," the young man commented and Chief O'Hara returned to the office.

"Barbara….it's good to see you again," Chief O'Hara said looking at her with a grin, surveying her like a favorite uncle.

"It's good to see you as well," she said, greeting Chief O'Hara with a warm hug, he was almost like an honorary uncle to her.

"So what's this all about?"

"Well, this is Edward Nashton, he's the head of newly created Cyber Crimes Division," O'Hara replied and he sighed, when he hit upon the sudden realization of the fate of the tech employee that went missing. "I don't think that the last guy is going to come back."

In fact, there was a betting pool for the former IT support guy and when he was going to turn up. Half of the force suspected to be fishing his body out of the water any day now. The other half…..well they bet that he would never turn up or that he already turned up as a John Doe in another city.

"There is a high level of cyber crime throughout Gotham City and Mr. Nashton comes to us highly recommended."

Barbara looked at him and he smiled.

"That's right, it's time to ensure that Gotham City is a more secure place, and there isn't a person on Earth who could hack through what I have created," Nashton said, sounding rather pompous and self assured.

"Well you seem to be pretty confident about yourself," Barbara said, there was something about the smug nature of his voice that rubbed her the absolutely wrong way. And it was in a really bad way.

Harry was confident but at least he didn't come off as a douchebag about it. And this guy just reeked of douchebag.

"It's time for the GCPD to have someone who could handle the responsibility and who couldn't crack underneath he pressure," he said and Barbara frowned.

She wasn't sure if he was actively trying to undermine what she did but the thinly veiled thought that the person who was doing the job was not worthy was not missed by her. Especially given that she was the person in question who was doing the job. Her fist clenched for a moment.

"You do have your work cut out for you," Barbara said, almost sympathetic for the guy. "Are you sure you're up for it?"

"Please, it's time for someone competent to show you how it's down," Edward said and he smiled. "A lot of the technology….well it isn't bad for a noob but a master hacker would be able to poke through all of the holes, and I will ensure that people in this city will think twice when competing Cyber Crimes. Some of these people, they must have fished their hardware out of a dumpster."

Edward smiled, he had her in his line of sight and he decided to move in for the kill.

"But this isn't the place to discuss something like this," he said with what he thought was a charming smile but it came across as more of a creepy leer than anything else. Barbara's gaze locked onto him and she frowned at him. "Perhaps we can discuss things over coffee, it would just be the two of us."

"I don't think so, I've got work to do," Barbara said, turning around and giving him the not so subtle brush off.

"A pity, " Edward said, annoyed at the rejection. People had been rejecting him all of his life and he had been sick of it.

They would be respecting him all too soon; his genius could not and would not be denied. It was time to take charge of this problem and demonstrate how useful he could be.

'You still have an attitude, where you don't respect your superiors, do you, Barbara,' Nashton said, he remembered how she spurned him years back when they were classmates together. He was going to show her that he's not a misfit.

Barbara made her excuses to get as far away from him as possible. He really had this presence about him that made her feel extremely uneasy.

Her lips curled into a frown, perhaps she was imagining things, but something about him seemed rather familiar and that wasn't a good thing that was a bad thing. Although she frantically racked her brain to figure out what that might have been but she was feeling nothing.

Holly made her way from the Club, walking forward from it. The last few weeks had been a turbulent one. She was staying for a couple of friends, other dancers at the club, while Selina was staying with Harry's until her apartment was finished.

Normally she would have gone home with her friends but she didn't feel much like waiting around for them. She didn't really want the hassle of dealing with paying for the cab, especially when you consider some of the douchebag cabbies in Gotham City.

Taking the train, which was something that she normally didn't feel all that confident about doing, but then again, desperate times called for desperate measure.

Holly took the short train ride home, not making eye contact with anyone. Her hands were folded in her lap, and she was grateful that her apartment was a short walk from the train station.

The woman made her way from the train station and walked forward into the dark and depressing night. There was hardly anyone around, the silence was eerie and Holly could feel a breeze.

Then suddenly, a hand was clapped over her mouth and she struggled against the grip of the female who grabbed her. She tried to keep her hand on her mouth to silence her, but not to smother her.

She elbowed the woman in the face, and tried to pull herself away, but she ran into two other women. They were well built and dangerous looking, the type of females that would be able to curb stomp a would be bad ass male.

One of the girl's grabbed her arms and pinned them violently behind her back. She tried to kick away but another girl grabbed her feet, and forced the down. On the backlash, she caught them with a dangerous punch to the solarplexes, doubling her over. She was gasping for air and completely winded.

"Just stay and be a good girl and there's no reason for you to get hurt, much," one of the girls whispered, pressing a knife against her windpipe.

Holly closed her eyes, feeling the twisted hard steel pressed against her throat. She managed to relax, well as much as someone could in a situation like this.

Jim Jansen walked into the scene, peering at her. He stood at the edge of the alleyway, with a car waiting for him.

"Nothing personal, really nothing too personal at all, it's just merely in the name of business," Jansen said and one of his female companion's forced Holly's face up to look him right in the eyes. "And you're the one who is going to help me send the message, girl…..really a shame really."

Jansen shook his head.

"We could have become close personal friends if the situation had just been a bit differently, you see," Jansen replied, wringing his hands out. "But, you don't play ball well…..accidents happen….and we'll try not to mangle your pretty little face too badly but…"

He snapped his fingers and then turned away, walking out of the alleyway.

The brutal sound of a body getting hit and stomped on could be heard.

Even Jansen winced a tiny bit as he heard the sound of leather smacking against flesh again and again and again. He walked past, getting into the car. The ladies could take care of themselves.

Hell if he was a mugger, he would be scared of getting fucked up by them, real proper like.