Moriarty's Musician

Spider's Play, Part 2

*Darker themes. Mentions of assault.*

The blank look was gone from Moriarty's eyes. Instead, it was replaced with a fire Soo-Ling had never seen before. She knew he wouldn't kill her quickly as he often did after psychologically playing with his prey. No, he was going to torture her. Not only had she betrayed him, but she had stolen something he valued more than anything.

Soo-Ling pushed off the edge of the bed and landed with a hard, aching thump to her knees. Bowing her head, she squeezed her eyes shut.

"Please kill me quickly. I beg you."

Moriarty's chest started rising and falling as a hot fury threatened to take hold of his mind. She was supposed to be one of his assassins and here she was groveling at his feet!

Standing in front of Soo-Ling, he tried to harness his rage. The snake's tears meant nothing to him. What mattered was finding Annabelle and finding her soon. There was no doubt, Annabelle would have shown her stubborn streak to Byron by now. And from what he had learned about the psychotic, spoiled brat, there were plenty of women Byron had harmed.

Moriarty had personally interviewed a maid who worked for Byron's parents. Byron had seduced the hapless maid, getting her alone at a secluded motel, and assaulting her over and over again. When her cries of agony reached a passerby who called the police, Byron had already left long before they arrived. But the maid had let Moriarty know the Byron elders had paid her off to keep her mouth shut about their son's brutality. The edge of his mouth quirked as he remembered how quickly the maid talked once he doubled the Byrons' bribe and promised her sanctuary.

And there was more. At least three women, their corpses yet to be found by police, had been hidden in secluded spots around London when Byron's beatings had left them for dead. Moriarty had been tracking the murdering brat for the better part of a year, building his arsenal to take down one of the wealthiest families in Britain. It was just a matter of time before the dead women's whereabouts were identified and Scotland Yard put Sherlock Holmes on the case.

It would have been fun to watch his favorite past-time fuss after the clues. Moriarty had already, of course, prepared them for the Consulting Detective. A new game would have been afoot, and he was looking forward to leading Sherlock around his sticky web. That was, until Charles Magnussen appeared one day and gave him a job offer he couldn't refuse.

Soo-Ling's muffled sob escaped her throat and yanked Moriarty from his thoughts. His mouth pulled to one side in a scowl as he looked down at her. Without another thought, he put his sling over his head and pulled his arm out of the confines of the cloth keeping his arm immobile. A shooting pain traveled up his arm and grimacing, he cast a glance at Sebastian whose concerned eyes were now riveted on him.

Moriarty straightened his back and in two long strides was at Sebastian's side. In a quick movement of his hand, Moriarty grasped the knife strapped to the hitman's thigh and yanked it from the leather holster. Wielding it in his hand, he approached Soo-Ling as she dared to glance up at him again.

Her eyes rounded in terror at the maniacal smile taking over his face. Tears continued to roll down her cheeks as she squeezed her eyes shut in a vain attempt to block out the torture she knew was on its way. Moriarty never stopped once he set out to kill. The only time she had ever known him to alter his plans was with Sherlock Holmes.

He turned his head back and forth to crack his neck as he loomed over her with the knife. Moriarty was an expert in all forms of deadly weaponry and in many cases, taught his own hitman how to handle specific types of combat. And when it came to extracting information, he wrote the book on the best methods of implementing the most painful results. Soo-Ling knew how deadly his proven techniques were, he was counting on it.