Treacherous.

Chapter 1: The Man In The Suit

*One Week Earlier*

The city lights were so bright, almost blinding, as Holland shut her window preventing the smoggy air from invading her room any further. Holland glanced down at the sea of yellow cabs on the street below, all beeping their horns yet achieving nothing. She snickered to herself, Manhattan was so unpredictable yet predictable at the same time. "Holland!!! Dinner's ready!" a deep rusty voice yelled from downstairs. That was Holland's dad, Detective Charles Benson. He is kind of a big deal down at the station; he worked hard to earn his badges and provide for Holland as she was growing up. "Coming!" Holland jumped down from the bay window seat she had made into a reading corner in her room. She quickly buried the yellow case folder in between all of the cushions and glanced at her phone for the time. She still had two hours before the anticipated time of the deal and went downstairs in normal fashion. "Smells good dad!" Holland said as she sat down at her usual placing. "I worked really hard to get this dish perfect, you know, the microwave can be some hard work." "Oh yeah, you mean Wholefoods worked really hard." Holland sarcastically nodded as she tucked into her dinner and they both burst out with laughter. Charles was not much of a cook, Holland's mother held that trophy in their household, and since her absence, both Holland and himself haven't really had the time to buff up their culinary skills. "So honey, did you enjoy working on phase two of the Jensen case today? I tried to lay phase one out for you so that it was easy to understand." he questioned as he took his first mouthful. "Yeah, it was really interesting. There's definitely a lot of suspicious activity with all that cash. Thanks for letting me in on your case dad." Holland had recently joined the forces alongside her dad and had been loving every minute of it. "Remember rule number one, not to jump to conclusions the minute you open a case honey! But anyway, we shouldn't be discussing work at home. What are your plans the rest of the night?" Holland swallowed her mouthful hard, even before chewing. "Oh, it's Friday night, I had plans with Oliver to see a movie in a couple of hours." "Are you sure there's nothing going on between you two?" "Dad! Can a girl and a guy not be best friends without having to have feelings for or date one another?!" Holland rolled her eyes. Oliver was Holland's best friend ever since she could remember, they were practically inseparable as kids and their mothers had been so as well. Holland felt a heatwave rush up her body, catching alight once it reached her face. She hated lying, especially to her dad. But she knew she had to do this, it was for the sake of her career and her duty to help the citizens of New York. Holland knew if she solved the Jensen case this early in her career, she'd be set for life, just like her dad.

"Alright, bye dad!" Holland said as she grabbed her coat from the wooden rack next to the forrest green door leading into their cozy loft. "What time will you be home from your movie honey?" "It will be before midnight dad, I promise." She said as she closed the door behind her. Stepping out onto the streets, a chilly breeze swept through, sending shivers up Holland's spine. She didn't know, however, if this was because of the breeze or because of her nerves that trembled through her body. Holland took a deep breath of the cold air and took the Jensen case folder out of her bag to find the address she was heading to. "Corner of West 135th and Broadway please." She commanded the cab driver who immediately put foot on the accelerator. Holland could never understand how they could possibly drive in this whirlwind of a city. Once arriving, Holland stepped out onto the pavement of a construction site of an old abandoned apartment building. Surprisingly in a city that never sleeps, there was not one person to be seen. Holland walked up to the newly renovated stairs to the first floor of the building. You couldn't really call it a floor, because construction hadn't really got past the staircase, giving Holland a small landing and a view to the entire ground floor. It was dark and eerie, and it appeared as though Holland had stepped on the nest of a clan of cockroaches. 'Ew, ew, ew...' kept repeating over and over in Holland's head. Eventually, almost an hour had past, and Holland began to think she had the wrong lead and she was probably attacked by an army of roaches for nothing. "I SAID! DO YOU HAVE THE MONEY!" a deep male voice yelled angrily from just outside of the building. Holland's eyes widened, and her heart began to thud fast and loud under her coat. She peered out slightly from the broken window to look. Oh it was Jensen alright. Holland had seen many pictures of him and you could not miss that green stripe down the side of his head and the gigantic tattoo that covered his neck. He was with a suave looking gentleman who was very smartly dressed in a perfectly ironed business suit. They both walked into the building and to Holland's relief, stayed on the ground level. "I told you man, I'll get you the money. Please man, just give me what I need. You'll get your money." "You already owe me man! This has been going on for too long! Give me my money, you said you'd have it!" Jensen's tone got angrier. "There was a mixup and everything with the bank, I'll have it for you next time. Please!" The man in the perfect black suit pleaded. Jensen looked around the dark room that was filled with scaffolding and building materials. He nodded upwards towards the back of the floor. In seconds the entire floor was filled with more men that had tattoos exactly like Jensen on his neck. Surrounding the man in the suit, about a dozen guns were pointed in both directions of his head and his heart. Holland could see the man trembling and the sweat dripping from the side of his face as he put his hands in the air. "Please man! I promise, I'll get you the money!" "You've been saying this for way too long - your promises mean NOTHING!" He yelled as his voice burst into a similar sound of the hulk emerging. Before Holland knew it, there were multiple gun shots as the man in the suit fell to the cold hard ground, his body limp and almost immediately he lay in a red pool of his own blood. Suddenly, there was a pair of eyes on Holland as she realised she had let out a small shriek of terror. Chaos quickly unfolded as Jensen's gang member locked eyes on her and set in to go after her like an animal would their prey. Holland had no idea how her legs had sprung into action as quickly as they did as she climbed further up the staircase because there was no going down. In pure panic, she hit 'call' on her dad's name, there was no other way of getting out of this. Holland was trapped by a drug gang. "Hey darling, what's up?" Charles' voice sounded on the other end. No words escaped Holland's mouth other than a mix of panting and crying along with the thuds of footsteps running sounded through the phone. "Holland - where are you? Is everything alright? What's going on?" "Jen...-sen." was the only word that came out, and she knew her dad would know where she was. They had been monitoring Jensen at this abandoned apartment building for a while now, but were waiting for the right time to bust him. Before Holland knew it, she was on the top floor and had nowhere to escape to. The man chasing her was right on her tail, and she was faced with being trapped in a considerably bright corner. As she frantically turned around to face him, she noticed he had a long sharp knife and not a gun like his fellow gang members. "Please...don't hurt me!" she cried out as he came towards her. He got up in her face and ran the knife flatly down her cheek. She looked into his deep brown eyes and swallowed hard. This was it. "I love you dad." she whispered as she closed her teary eyes and realised that she had just given her life up for her career, and it hardly lasted a second. Was trying to be the hero really worth it?