Harmless
Angela leaned up against the railing. Shrouded in darkness save for the occasional sweeping spotlight, her eyes scanned the crowd below.
But tonight she wasn't hunting for criminals.
Angela was just trying to find her date.
The rumble of dance-beat bass reverberated through every cell in her body. Even up here, out of the loudspeakers' line of fire, there was no escaping it. It wasn't Angela's first time in a dance club -- she'd been to The Edge twice -- but that cusp-of-the-suburbs 18-and-up converted warehouse was little more than a high school gymnasium dance with a few extra twentysomething drunk lechers thrown into the mix.
This was a whole other world.
And Dino Sinclair ran it.
Angela might have thought it something like a more concentrated version of the epic Alluring Enduring Party, if she had any memories of it that didn't have to do with her kicking ass or getting her ass kicked.
Dino's club had four rooms.
The main floor below, a kind of Alien Species organic spaceship motif.
The metalshop-gone-amok room.
The ensconced-in-velvet dining room, a low-ceilinged collection of cubbyhole booths that Angela suspected provided privacy for much more than dinner.
And the Roman palace, a room that was at once exactly like and the complete opposite of the only other place where she'd felt so immediately uncomfortable -- Hotties.
Opposite in its expensive newness, muted colors, and soft even lighting -- the walls had windows that appeared to open to a beautiful green hilly meadow, matched by a ring of skylights that opened to a convincing cloudless blue sky.
Exactly like in the elevated runway-like stages punctuated by poles that ran to the ceiling.
And the naked young woman putting one of them to shockingly suggestive use.
Just what kind of club did Dino Sinclair operate?
A very successful one, judging from the swarm of expensively-dressed, mostly-young, entirely-beautiful people laughing and cavorting and flirting throughout the multidimensional hot spot.
And though the scope of the place, the pedigree of the clientele, and the pervasive party atmosphere overwhelmed and intimidated the innocent teen, she was beginning to see it as somewhere she could enjoy being. The only problem anyone here seemed to have was how to get hooked up with a particularly hot member of the opposite (or same) sex. That was one problem Angela had already solved -- if only she could find where Dino had snuck off to.
"I need to take care of some business; I'll catch up with you in a minute" was all he'd said, and in an instant the crowd had swallowed him whole. That was at least a half-hour ago.
And while Angela knew he was important and had things to do -- heck, it was *his* club -- she was tired of getting hit on. The men (and women) were polite, mostly, but inebriation made their propositions a little more explicit and a little more physically forward than she'd liked.
So she'd come up here, a balcony overlooking the main room, both in hopes of spotting Dino from above and escaping an endless string of forced smiles and bad pickup lines.
"Hey, gorgeous. You look lost."
Even through the din of dance music, she could tell it was Dino.
"Not anymore," Angela said seductively as she turned to...
Not Dino.
Angela was taken aback. "Oh! I'm sorry, I thought you were someone else."
The man's face flashed disappointment, but he quickly recovered. "For you I can be anybody." A narrow mouth of crooked but luminescent teeth.
Angela straightened up from the railing, stepping away from the stranger as she did so. "I already have a date."
He straightened up off the railing himself, limbs and torso seeming to get bigger as he did, until a hulking giant stood fully assembled before the suddenly-frightened girl. "I'll just keep you company until he gets back." Despite the polite tone, it wasn't an offer.
"Thanks, but I kinda wanna be alone right now."
"Don't be silly. A girl as fine as you in a place like this shouldn't be alone." He shifted his weight as cover for taking a half-step toward her and in the path of her escape. Angela felt fear rising within her.
If she'd been wearing her sapphires, she wouldn't have been so intimidated by the brute's meanacing presence. Times like this Angela wished she could just wear the sapphires all the time.
But despite being unarmed, she'd seen a few bold and brusque rejections play out in her search of the club. A woman didn't need physical superiority in a situation like this -- social mores held more sway than muscles, Angela realized. So she shut him down as she'd seen others do.
"Go away." Said with finality.
But those other young women had been at a crowded bar, backed up by girlfriends and surrounded by other prospects eager to jump in and defend honor in exchange for their own shot at the prize.
Angela was alone on a balcony. And her suitor was meaner and more determined.
"But I like it up here. Nice view." The teeth grew behind a wicked snarl.
Angela suddenly realized just how vulnerable she was. Her eyes found no one else on the balcony -- and her mind frantically rewound through several minutes of standing here without encountering a soul. She remembered the bouncer at the bottom of the stairs, who'd only let her up here because she'd dropped Dino's name. How did this man get up here? Did he know Dino? Was he Russian Mob?
Suppositions of moral restraint and basic human decency evaporated; her fear ratcheted up another notch, one short of outright panic.
Angela took a step to one side; Hulk matched, coming closer in the process. She feinted the other way; he stepped still closer, now looming directly over her. Angela felt her balance grow precarious as she leaned back and looked up, staggering back a half-step.
The driving bass, hyperactive drums, and wailing synthesizers hammered at the frightened teen, conspiring with this hulk's body language to press her into a corner of helpless submission.
Her voice shook. "I'm warning you."
"Woah now, honey, no need to get hostile. I'm just trying to keep you company until your boyfriend gets back. All kinds of bad dudes hang out here, I'd hate for anything to happen to you." Angela thought of every mafia intimidation cliche she'd ever seen on TV. The false civility and concern seemed almost comical onscreen; in reality it set her to uncontrollable shaking.
"What's the matter, sweetie? You cold? Here, let me warm you up." Suddenly he was beside her, hoisting the fear-frozen teen with a meaty paw about her waist, pulling her back to sit on a couch. Off her feet, she'd now completely lost all mobility and any chance of defending herself against such a meanacing mountain of a man. Angela's eyes darted to the railing, so far away now, and to the entrance to the balcony area, now around a corner and out of sight. No one would be coming to save her, either.
He tightened his arm around her, pulling her into his mass, his giant hand planted against her ribcage, thumb resting not-incidentally underneath her breast.
"Come on, baby, you gotta relax."
His thumb flicked idly up -- she jumped -- and came to press directly against her nipple.
"Why so jumpy?" He voice nearly broke with denigrating laughter.
"Please..." She squirmed feebly in his grip.
"Shh. You're safe here." She was anything but.
A series of desperate moves were auditioned in her mind's eye. But he'd deftly pinned her left arm between them, and her right arm behind his. Angela noted with horror the way his trap forced her to thrust her shoulders back and her chest out.
He pinched her nipple.
She had to get away from this brute.
Angela shifted her left foot, searching for his. A sharp heel to the toes would subdue him for a moment...
But his calf suddenly wrapped her shin, pinning her leg to the base of the couch. "No spiking, sweetie."
Angela just closed her eyes. This wasn't happening...
"Take your hand off the lady, Jacob."
Dino.
Angela looked up. He stood in front of them, his stance both relaxed and poised for action.
His eyes flashed with an animal gallantry that at once reassured and frightened her.
The man holding Angela barely flinched. "Fuck you, Dino. I don't gotta listen to you." He looked up at Dino with blatant unrepentence, but his fingers had stopped pinching his captive's breast.
"Watch your mouth. You forget who runs this place."
"You forget whose uncle gave it to you."
"You forget who saved his life. And who ran for cover."
Jacob leaped to his feet, crushing Angela against the back of the couch in the process. In a heartbeat, he stood over Dino, arms flexed, shoulders rising and falling with angry breaths.
Dino was not a small man, but Jacob's bulk completely eclipsed him from Angela's view. Dino stepped calmly to one side, Jacob wheeling around him. The two locked eyes, Jacob's lit with barely-contained rage, Dino's with steely dismissal. Without breaking the combatant stare, Dino spoke to Angela, his voice soothing concern. "Angela, are you all right?"
Angela's left shoulder burned from being wrenched back into the couch, but she wasn't going to say anything -- not the way these two were squared off, each waiting for the slightest provocation to engage an ugly and maybe even deadly confrontation. "I'm fine. We were just... sitting." But there was no hiding the fear in her voice. Dino's eyes narrowed slightly.
Angela sensed a silent exchange between the two men. There was clearly much more between them than this incident.
Finally, Dino spoke. "Go home, Jacob."
Jacob seemed to think a moment, weighing the challenge, but then stepped back. "Bah! She's too scrawny for me anyway." He lumbered off down the stairs.
Both Angela and Dino remained unmoving until the meanace had disappeared from view. Then Dino offered Angela his hand. "Come on, let's go get a drink."
But Angela didn't take it. "I think I want to go home."
"Angela, please. You'll feel better after a drink."
"I almost got raped, and you want me to just wash it down with a soda."
At first Dino seemed to think she was overreacting, but he realized the seriousness of the matter, and spoke to it.
"I would never let anything like that happen in my club." Angela was put off; he almost seemed more concerned with where it had happened than to whom. "Or anywhere else," he amended, but the mistake had been made. "If you'd called out, Bruno would have been up the stairs in two seconds."
Angela doubted that Bruno, or anyone besides Dino for that matter, would be anxious to take on a man of Jacob's size, or position. But that wasn't the real issue now.
"Nothing could have happened if you hadn't brought me here and ditched me. I've been alone for almost an hour."
"I thought you'd have a good time here."
"I didn't come here to have a good time. I came here to be with you."
Dino seemed irritated, as if she was being selfish. "Well, I'm sorry, but I had work to take care of."
"Then maybe you shouldn't have called me."
"Angela--"
The bouncer poked his head around the corner. "Boss?"
Dino snapped around. "I'm busy!" He turned back to Angela... searching for words...
"It's Kostya. He's on the phone. In your office."
Dino's face was the definition of exasperation. "I'll be there in a second."
The bouncer retreated. "Don't be long, he sounds pissed."
Dino gave Angela a rueful, pleading look. "I have to take this. It's probably about Jacob. The little shit runs to his uncle over every little thing."
The incongruity of the huge man who'd just molested her and Dino's description of him as a "little shit" unnerved her.
Dino turned to go. "Wait here for me."
"I won't." Her words didn't stop him.
"I'll tell Bruno to look after you." The bouncer. What, was he going to keep her here?
"Don't bother." This stopped Dino at the top of the stairs. He seemed surprised that she was so mad.
Angela stood and stalked right past Dino; he caught her arm, gently, but still willful.
"Let go of me."
"Angela, you're making too much of this. Jacob gets a little rowdy sometimes, but he's harmless."
"Rowdy?" Angela was suddenly hot. "Is that what you people call it?" He seemed unsure of exactly what she meant by 'you people.' She didn't really know herself. "He had me pinned to the couch, Dino! He was feeling me up like I was his *whore*! In another minute or two..."
"Angela, I'm sorry. I'll make sure nothing like that ever happens again. You can feel safe here." You can feel safe with me, he seemed to say. With him wasn't the problem. It was Without him.
"You shouldn't have left me alone." Her tone implied that he wouldn't get another chance. She yanked her arm free.
"I'm sorry." It seemed that was all he could say. It wasn't good enough.
Angela took a few steps down the stairs, then stopped. There was something else.
"I saw the way he looked at you. He's not harmless." Angela looked at Dino with sudden mistrust. "And neither are you."
Angela hurried for the exit, desperate to reach it before tears of anger and hurt could blind her.