Chapter Two: Gated, Ultra-Exclusive, and Incredibly Expensive

As Lilliana was marched forward to the unknown, she had to pass Robert's still warm corpse belching arterial blood and thicker bits of tissue. She choked back a mouthful of acidic bile as she was roughly nudged forward by the anonymous man with a neutral expression and big gun.

Talia marched stiffly down the steps to where a well-paid mercenary held open the passenger door of the bulky vehicle. She struggled to stay in character just a little while longer as she closed her hands into fists so hard that her artificial nails cut half-moons into her palms that soon ran red with blood at her compressed fury.

Bane's lips pulled into a smile of amusement as he watched Talia struggle to stay in her Miranda Tate mask as she narrowed her eyes at him as he reached the bottom of the concrete stairs after her.

His nervous system practically danced with glee at Talia barely being able to suppress her simmering rage which was rapidly approaching pyroclastic.

Bane's Venom enhanced scent caught Lilliana's designer perfume on the downwind that she dabbed on her wrists and behind her ears as he turned to watch her being led down the sprawling stone stairs.

Bane's eyes dilated and he was certain his hazelnut orbs vibrated as his gaze traveled the tip of Lilliana's heels, smooth bare legs, over the curvature of her knee to the bottom of her sheath dress's hemline that stopped in the middle of her salon UV tanned thighs.

Behind his mask he felt his salivary glands leak metallically into his mouth as his eyes continued to travel up the flat plane of her belly and traced the curve of her full breasts through her couture dress. He paused his gaze on the soft valley of skin across her collarbones and the base of her throat before climbing up her neck and memorizing the shape of her full lips, high cheek bones and cerulean blue eyes.

Bane knew nothing about the woman walking towards him except that her obscenely rich, white-collar criminal husband was freshly dead in a pool of his own coagulated, cooling blood and gelatinous bits of obliterated brain tissue.

Bane had no idea that before Lilliana met the rich prick Robert Carrington, she was Lilliana Kozlov, heiress to the European vodka company of the same name who spent her days with other high-society ladies, each with spikier spiked heels and a bigger staff than the others to run their errands and ensure they never had to open their own doors.

Lilliana and her gal pals started most days with yoga at a posh studio with instructors who worked with celebrities and then a champagne brunch that half of them, Lilliana included, would excuse themselves to discreetly shove two fingers down their throat and vomit the champagne as it was still fizzy.

Most of the other hedge fund manager's wives picked up that nifty weight-loss trick in college, Lilliana learned after she had come in second place at a beauty pageant right before she turned nineteen and six months before she met Robert Carrington, the mid-40's, impeccably-dressed financier, looking for the next Mrs. Carrington among the legally-aged girls.

Lilliana glanced down at the last few steps before being pulled towards the waiting utility vehicle.

Bane inhaled as Lilliana was pushed past him and shoved into the rear passenger seat, he pulled the delicate bouquet of Lilliana's warm skin deep into his lungs. He nearly closed his eyes as even through the titanium coils and mesh front of his mask, she smelled different, evoked something inside him from an earlier time before words were used to communicate.

"Stop," Bane barked at the soldier that was opening the passenger door to push Talia inside.

The heavily armed man turned towards Bane awaiting further instructions.

Bane met Talia's eyes as he spoke. "Put her in the other one," he ordered and pointed to the darker of the two parked and idling vehicles.

The militant proceeded without question and dragged Talia to the other waiting utility vehicle and shoved her in the second-row seat.

Bane watched them pull away from the curb before settling in the rear seat next to Lilliana and slamming the heavy door shut.

In the departing vehicle, Talia turned and looked out the back window before snarling at Barsad as he navigated them away from the courthouse. "What the fuck was that about?"

Barsad looked up and met her furious gaze in the rearview mirror. "I don't know, everything was proceeding as planned."

"I know it was proceeding, I was there. Who is that woman?"

Barsad shook his head, "I've never seen her before."

"Find out everything about her."

As Talia continued to seethe and pepper Barsad with questions he couldn't answer, in the still idling SUV, Bane nodded to the man who slipped behind the wheel and soon they were moving away from the curb and down the main boulevard.

Lilliana sat up straighter in the seat and kept as much space on the bench seat between her and the masked man as possible. She looked around the inside of the vehicle, her eyes trying to see everywhere at once.

Bane let her absorb her surroundings as his eyes narrowed and homed in on the light blue line of her femoral artery just under the skin of her inner thigh as her dress shifted with her frantic movements.

"What now?" he asked himself, never before making a decision of such unplanned magnitude. His blatant deviation from Talia's plan was like cursing the goddess. Shouting a fist at the one who gave you life.

"Follow them," Bane said to the back of the shaved head of the driver who nodded and followed without question.

Lilliana heard the door's automatic locks click into place and wiped her nose on the back of her hand, looking down at her just applied manicure and managed a scowl at the chip in the French tip of her right index fingernail.

She smoothed her hands down her dress, pulling it as much as she could over her thighs as she raised her eyes towards the masked man that had directed his attention towards her through the swirling mass of people.

Lilliana cleared her throat when she found his eyes already on her.

"The man back there, he was your husband?" Bane asked.

Lilliana tilted her head slightly at the beautifully musical timbre of his voice before she nodded.

"Where is your residence in the city?"

"The Gotham Center Towers," she murmured as she went back to frowning down at her chipped nail.

Bane nodded, seeing the luxury buildings in the front of his mind.

Gated, ultra-exclusive and incredibly expensive.

As Lilliana waited for the next question from the formidable man and Talia continued to simmer in the other packed vehicle, Selina stomped out of the courthouse turned slaughterhouse and slid her lithe body onto the Applied Sciences borrowed Bat Pod. Her leans thigh spread wide over the Kevlar reinforced seat, her bodysuit so tight that the small bumps in her nipple's areola were practically visible through the shiny fabric and if one looked lower would be given the visible treat of her pussy lips compressed tight into her suit.

Selina revved the powerful twin turbo engine and headed in the direction the frightened and surviving witnesses pointed as Bane had torn off with at least two female hostages. One of the abducted women was the generous friend to Gotham City, Miranda Tate, the other the Kozlov Liquor heiress.