"Well, if it makes you feel any better, I think you look beautiful," Rhone Chade laughed.
"Funny. …I don't believe you aren't going," Griffin straightened his tie for the fifth time. This thing was so – confining.
"Hey, there might be people there that would recognize me. One cannot be too cautious," she said matter-of-factly.
He raised an eyebrow at her, "More like a person."
"That's why you are going, this is recon. Besides," she ignored his comment, "Dresses are for girls." She pulled a piece of tape off the roll and reached under his white dress shirt.
"At least there should be plenty of those there," Griffin said with a lopsided grin.
She sighed, "Just try to keep it in your pants for a few hours, maybe come back with something useful instead of a sexually transmitted disease." She removed her hands from beneath his shirt and placed a bent finger beneath his chin to turn his head from side to side in inspection.
"I think I deserve a little more credit than that. And I'm sure I can find plenty of – interesting people to meet," he said playfully. He began to tuck in his shirt.
She knew what he meant. "Do not," she said with a serious face. She could tell he was about to protest. "That's an order," she straightened his lapels.
Lex looked around the large open room. He was standing in the main hall of the Luthor Wing of the Metropolis Museum. He brought his champaign glass to his lips. He had been here for an hour and was already bored out of his mind. He was more than a little regretful that Clark, Lana, and even the quarter back had already learned that high Metropolis society was not all it was cracked up to be. …Perhaps it was better, the three of them looked quite out of place the other time they came to an opening here.
For a moment, he watched a man a few yards away. Lex didn't recognize him, must be new money.
He allowed his gaze to drift upwards, to the large multi-paned skylight above him. It was dark, but the city lights obscured the stars. However, the bars on the windows probably had something to do with that as well. The bars seemed appropriate, he felt as though he was locked in some aristocratic cage.
For the past two days, he had been looking up more, thinking about the creature – man? – that had saved him. He had been examining buildings just a little bit harder, trying to see through the night just a little better – when he wasn't mentally recapping everything that had happened that night. He had begun to feel a scratching at the back of his mind very shortly after it had disappeared over the edge of the building. The need to investigate what it was – where had it come from… It had saved his life…
"Lex," a female with an English accent said from behind him.
As if the night couldn't get any more trying, he thought bitterly to himself. He turned with his most innocent smile, "Victoria."
"I was wondering when I would see you again," she closed the distance between them.
Her red dress was expensive, but – hadn't he seen her wear it before? For Victoria, that was – unheard of. Perhaps their last game had financially wounded Sir Harry more than he thought. He smiled genuinely now. "Did you need someone to abuse physically?" he reminded her of their last meeting when she had slapped him. He took another sip of his champaign.
"Of course not," she gave him her best sexy smile.
Lex knew that smile, that tone of voice. He had seen and heard it many times from innumerable women – a few tonight as a matter of fact. That was usually shortly before they either tried to kill him, steal his money, or fulfill some fetish. And his track record with this particular woman, well, he knew better than to play with that fire yet again. He had come out on top the last time they played their game and he intended to leave it that way. Not to mention she was – bad-mannered, disrespectful, manipulative, sadistic, and just intolerable… It was ironic that despite all that, she still managed to be boring. So much so that she wasn't even attractive anymore. It was interesting how a bad personality could do that. He shoved his free hand in his pocket – and she sure as hell was no Rhone Chade. Not even close -- but then, who was?
"What do you want?" he didn't want her to think there was a chance that they would set up their pieces to play another game.
"Lex…" she said as though she was going to, well, lie. She started to walk toward him, invading his personal space.
There was a scream and the entire hall turned to face it.
A wealthy woman in her late forties and wearing a sequin gown was being held from behind, a gun pressed against her head.
"No one move," the man that held the woman said calmly, "This is a robbery. Anyone that doesn't do what they are told or tries to do anything heroic – well, they die." From beneath the few tables that were set up in the room and from behind some draperies, more men with poised guns appeared – ten, including the one that had spoken.
Lex didn't move. Tuesday: pushed off a building. Thursday: held hostage at gala art museum opening. I am never leaving the house again, he thought sarcastically.
Lex felt a hand wrap around his arm. He looked down to see it was Victoria, hiding behind him – probably incase any shots were fired. …Rhone would never do that. She would walk up there and make fun of that guy's greasy hair and… Wait… That was that asshole that pushed him off the roof! The beard was shaved off and he had shed his cheap suit, but it was him. Lex tensed, he knew that guy was going to be pretty pissed at him – only having walked away from their little exchange with a fraction of the money he wanted and a lot of stacked paper. He looked to the skylight again, now would be a good time for that thing that had saved him to make a follow-up visit. …Who was he kidding? The odds were pretty high he would never see it again – if he had seen it. No, it was real.
"Everyone congregate at the south end of the hall. My associates will relieve you of your jewelry, your electronics, your dignity, and anything else that you think that you own," the man with the greasy hair roughly let go of the woman he was holding. She tripped and her knees hit the marble floor. She quickly got up and joined the others that were standing at the south end of the hall.
Lex attempted to secure a position in the back of the group, as to not be recognized by the man. However, he was only capable of reaching the middle of the group with Sir Harry's spawn on his arm. He tried to pull away nonchalantly, but her tendrils had him like a vice.
"Alright, let's move," the man said as he walked over to one of the cases that held a priceless Greek artifact.
They split up, a few using the fear of their weapons to commandeer the possessions of the wealthy patrons; the rest went to the display cases.
Lex assumed that the cases were made out of the same durable transparent material the skylight was made out of. No museum would trust its security to simple glass. The thieves had pulled bags out from under the tables, presumably to aid in destroying the cases.
He wondered about the police. No, the wealthy patrons had probably paid them to stay away so when they drove away drunk, no one would make the mistake of stopping them. It would be too much of an inconvenience. And since all the metal cages were still above the cases, no alarms had been tripped. …Shit.
He looked at his Napoleon Franc watch. He felt a great sadness -- they were going to take it from him. He wouldn't fight for it, they had guns. His mother would understand, but that didn't make it any better. Maybe he could offer the bitchy British brunette on his arm…
Lex waited for a long time, just watching them working on the display cases and then watching the three that were taking the possessions of the onlookers close in on him.
Everyone jumped when the metal bars dropped suddenly and banged loudly over the cases. Lex noticed that the men collecting items had stopped two feet from him; he put a hand over his watch.
"Who the fuck tripped it?" the greasy haired man yelled as he stood. The other men that had been working on the cases looked at one another as though none of them had. "Keep working," he growled. He cast a glance over to the crowd of people. He made eye contact with Lex and began to walk over to him purposefully.
Oh, shit. Lex wondered if his head acted as the beacon for disaster. He was briefly distracted when he noticed one of the men was checking the breast pocket of his black tuxedo blazer. He pulled out Lex's cell phone and then took the wallet from his pants pocket as well. Then he said, "Watch." He nodded at Lex's wrist.
Lex didn't want to give it up. He stood there for a moment, looking at the man in front of him with an icy glare.
"I was wondering why I didn't read about your untimely demise in The Planet," a voice came from behind the man in front of him. …How had he forgotten about the ringleader?
The man that was searching Lex turned – thankfully forgetting the watch – and moved out of the way. Lex could sense that there was an underlying fear of the man that led them. He was feeling some fear himself, so who was he to judge?
"What did you do, Lex, make a deal with the devil?" the man asked with a wicked grin as he came face to face with Lex.
Lex didn't respond. What could he tell him? Sure as hell not the truth. This whole time, he never allowed his cool exterior to crack – but in about five seconds, he was about to lose some serious urbane points. …Urbane…
"Oh, and about your payment. You seem to come up – a little short," he man was repeatedly smoothing the lapels of Lex's blazer.
Lex was suddenly aware that Victoria had let go of his arm and was attempting to back up and fade into the crowd. So, he was good enough to be a bullet shield, but when it came to him being singled out by the thieves… Deserter. "You were – an unknown risk," Lex tried to explain, "You didn't even give us a name or…"
The man smirked at Lex's pitiful attempt at diplomacy, "You can just call me Gell; everyone else does."
Gell… Gell… Where had he…? …Oh, God. In a few seconds, he tried to recall everything Rhone had said about the man. All he really knew is that she considered him dangerous. Rhone Chade, someone he had never seen show any signs of fear and kicked the shit out of criminals for fun, considered him a threat.
"Do you have a problem with…?" Gell began, but his gaze slowly shifted over Lex's right shoulder.
Lex watched his brow furrow. "Him," Gell pointed behind Lex, "Bring him to me."