Zan POV

Was crazy I even saw her.

The club was wild that night. They were packin' the floor, an' ma staff were runnin' ragged behind the bars. I even pulled a shift at one myself. I aint done that in a long while. With that many people 'round the place it was a strange thing that my eyes spent most of the night followin' this one girl.

She came in 'bout ten o'clock, or near as. From the moment she walked through the damn door I was drawn to her like somethin' awful.

She had this long dark hair my fingers just ached to run through, and a body like you wouldn't believe. S'no doubt she was one of the most attractive women in the place, but I'm not usually that taken with a girl just from seeing her across a room. I had to restrain myself from just going over there and jumpin' her, but she didn't look the type that would take to that real well. She looked too nice for somethin' like that.

But what really stopped me was the painful look in those beautiful dark eyes of hers. It was like somethin' was hauntin' her, an' she wasn't real sure what she was doin' here. She sat for ages down at the bar. Pourin' her little heart out to the bar staff most likely.

She looked so alone, even surrounded by people, an' maybe I can relate to that. What with Ava findin' herself a guy, an' ma sis settlin' down with 'er kid.

For years it was jus' the three of us. Me, Lonnie an' Ava. We was a team. None of our folks paid us much attention, so we was free. We jus' roamed wherever we felt.

Then, when me and Lon was 'bout ten, we 'came even freer. We came home on night to a empty place. That wasn't rare, but that time they never showed up. The jus' up and left us. That's when we got lucky, I guess. Me an' Lon coulda ended up anywheres, out completely on our own, or the state coulda picked us up and dumped us in some home. At least with Ava's folks we knew where we were. Maybe they didn't always spend a lot of time with us all, but they made sure we was ok.

It was the three of us against the rest of the world. But now Lon an' Ava got their own lives, and then there's me.

So, yeah, I could relate to that lonely look I saw in her eyes.

After a few hours, somethin' suddenly changed. I admit it, I was still watching her. I jus' couldn't stop. But she jus' downed 'er drink, and got up to join the mob out on the floor. Even after a bunch o' drinks, she still had some damn hot moves. An' she's a beautiful girl, I could see I wasn't the only guy havin' a hard time not t' watch 'er. Was makin' it awful difficult to keep ma mind on the job.

Eventually I jus' had t' get away a bit. Went an' hid in ma office. Not that it helped a whole lot. Tried t' sit an' get some of the pile o' paper on ma desk done. The words on the pages in front of me didn't make a load o' sense, cos ma vision kept fillin' wi' long brown hair an' lonely soulful eyes.

I had to give up. Decided I'd try cool off a bit outside. Ducked out the back door into the cool night air. Jus' as I was draggin' a cooling breath into ma overheated body, the door behind me opened, an' a young couple stumbled out. At first I didn't take no notice of them. There's always people comin' out here to make out away from the crush of the dance floor. They hadn't seen me lurkin' in the dark, so I jus' kept quiet an' tried t'ignore 'em.

As I was turnin' to go back inside, I noticed somethin'. It was her.

All my attempts to cool off and stop thinkin' 'bout her were all of a sudden senseless. The object of my unexpected obsession was standin' barely a few feet away, but she was with someone else.

I was jus' about to escape back into the heat of the club when I had a horrible realisation. The moans an' noises she was makin' weren't in pleasure, they was in protest. She was strugglin' to get away an' this creep wasn't lettin' her.

I saw red. No guy has the right to force himself on a girl, 'specially if she's a bit drunk and most likely hurtin'.

Not really carin' 'bout what could happen afterwards, I sized the guy up and strode over. He was bigger than me, but I practically grew up on the streets. I can handle myself in a punch up. I grabbed 'is shoulder an' swung 'im round so I could land a punch across his sleazy jaw. He stumbled back a bit, 'an I could see him lookin' at me a little drunkenly. He musta decided he could take me, cos next thing I know he's launched 'imself at me. He took a swing, but I guess the alcohol in his blood screwed with his aim, cos he missed. My answering hook didn't though, an' from the corner of my eye I could see the girl backin' away anxiously as he staggered back an' wiped the blood off 'is mouth. He looked back an' forth between us a couple o' times, and seems he decided it wasn't worth the beatin', cos he turned an' ran off.

Pushin' down the hormones rampagin' through ma body at bein' out here alone with this gorgeous girl, I went over to check how she was doin'.

"Ya ok Angel?"

Close up I could see she was shakin'. She took in a deep breath, starin' at 'er feet.

"Yeah, I think so. Or I will be. Thanks to you." I could tell from the way she talked she's not from 'round here. She finally looked up at me, an' I could see true gratitude in her eyes before it was replaced by somethin' else. I couldn't tell what it was, but it looked kinda like shock.

"Somethin' wrong babe?"

"What?"

"Ya's lookin' at me kinda funny. Ya sure ya's ok?"

She shook her head as if to clear a thought, an' I struggled not t' get distracted by the movement of that lovely dark hair. She took another long breath, an' I could see the resolve appearin' in her eyes.

"Yeah, I'm sure. It's nothing. Thank you again for…you know. I don't know what I'd have done if you hadn't shown up." I shifted a bit uncomfortably at her ardent thanks.

"No need t' thank me. I'm just glad I got the bastard in time." My fists clenched again jus' thinkin' 'bout the creep. I sucked in a lungful of cool air to calm down, an' stuck out my hand. "Zan, by the way."

I wasn't prepared for the jolt of awareness that shot through me when she hesitantly took it, an' answered,

"Liz."

Tryin' like hell t' keep ma mind from wanderin', I pulled ma hand back an' stuck it in ma pocket.

"Um, ya gonna be 'k getting' home, or…?" She looked out at the street worriedly.

"I don't exactly have a home to go to right now." She bit her lip. "I'm kinda staying at a motel."

I could tell she wasn't lookin' forward to the idea of walkin' back there alone.

"I'll walk with ya, if ya want. Ya's been shaken' up good tonight, y'ain't in no fit state t' be walkin' back on yer own."

She looked conflicted for a minute, lookin' at me as if she was tryin' to work out if she could trust me. When she finally answered, it was barely a whisper.

TBC...