Chapter Five: Pleasure to Meet You

Clara looked around the posh room, not seeing any electronic devices in sight.

Talia watched her eyes sweep the room, "this room is not for working," she murmured, taking a long sip of the burning alcohol before continuing. "Your living and sleeping area is through there," she said as she nodded towards a closed set of doors between the two rooms.

"You'll be working alongside several others in a couple days. For now, you may rest and find your footing."

A small smile began to play at the corners of Clara's lips, dying as quickly as it was born when Talia's eyes bled with hazel fire as she gestured towards the formidable, masked man.

"My friend will ensure that your safety is never compromised."

Clara's lips pulled into a practiced smile as she brought her eyes to Bane's, finding his gaze already upon her.

Talia spoke to Bane in their shared language, never taking her eyes off Clara.

"Nothing is to happen to her; she is very valuable."

Bane nodded, also never taking his eyes off Clara as Talia continued speaking to the frightening political socialite who was grateful to have Talia to focus on as she spoke.

"My friend holds the strength of the Son of Man. I trust him above all else and he will keep you safe," Talia said in an assuring tone as she topped off her glass from the cut crystal decanter.

"What may I call you?" Clara asked Bane.

He blinked slowly before answering her.

"Bane."

"Bane," she echoed before she raised the glass and took a slow sip. "Nice to meet you," she added as she held out her right hand but remained seated.

Always polite.

Bane stared down at her small, fine-boned hand a beat before reaching out and enveloping her hand withing his, his palm engulfed hers briefly before he released her hand.

Clara rose at that moment and held her hand out towards Talia.

"Clara," she said.

Talia rose to full height as she reached out and returned Clara's handshake. "Talia," she said in a tickled tone, releasing her hand and pointing at the closed doors. "Let me show you where you'll be staying."

Bane followed Talia and Clara to the double doors.

Talia pushed them open to show off the opulent suite where Clara would be calling her quarters amidst the vast estate.

There was a baby grand piano in a white, heavily lacquered wood surface, reflecting the large pieces of art adorning the walls.

The top of the piano was bare except for a framed photo of Fabiana from her days on the Milan catwalk when she first met the nefarious man who operated in the veritable underbelly of human trafficking, arms dealing and never touched the drugs he sold around the entire fucking globe.

The glass frame housed a photo of Fabiana swathed in fabric as sheer as wet velum over her naked body, accentuating her strong curves and supple lean lines.

As Clara explored the opulent room, all done in rich shades of ebony and drops of shimmering opal, Talia continued. "Bane will always be near, you may think of him as your constant companion," Talia murmured as she looked over fondly at Bane.

For the briefest of moments, Clara saw a softening in Bane's expression as he met Talia's eyes before he locked his thoughts down tight, unsinkable.

Clara swept her eyes around the room, suddenly thinking that Bane was going to sleep in the same room.

Talia chuckled as though she could hear Clara's thoughts.

"You won't always see him, but he'll never be far," Talia cryptically whispered before she winked at Clara.

The sight of Talia's beautiful eyelid closing for that split second was disturbing.

Clara raised her perfectly sculpted eyebrows as she gestured to the closet. "Will he be hiding in there or under the bed?"

"I'll always be watching," Bane answered for himself, he'd been a mute statue, carved from marble but with an agitated core of dense muscle and thickened flesh, engorged with a hearty blood flow.

Clara delicately coughed as taught when she was nervous under scrutiny, finding her balance before speaking. "Well I'm used to that," she chuckled as she named several governments that were intimately inside their citizens, people were constantly fucked in every wet hole by their own and other countries, a political gangbang.

"Someone is always watching or listening, whether by land, sea or air, why should things be any different?" she added as she peeked into the spacious bathroom, all aquas and radiant greens.

Clara would've added Barsad to the list of surveillance operatives if she knew he was on the other side of the wall.

Barsad was desperate to get a better angle on Clara as he squinted trying to see more, pressing closer, eye fucking the hole in the wall.

"It's not her," Barsad whispered to himself. He never considered the risk of someone hearing him.

Everyone in the room was just human.

Bane was not entirely human.

He heard Barsad's whisper through the wall. He couldn't discern the actual words, just the sound the words made as they passed through the air when they left Barsad's lips.

Bane whipped his head to the side in the direction of the wall that Barsad was hiding behind, a cask with a beating heart.

Barsad froze, he knew that Bane couldn't see through walls, but somehow still felt exposed, naked as a squalling newborn.

Bane didn't know who was behind the wall, but he smiled behind his mask when he heard the person shuffle away, their tail tucked between their legs, waiting for the beating that they always thought would be their last.

Bane's expression bled back to neutral as he directed his full attention back to Talia as she spoke, he was the object of her sentence.

"After you've acclimated to a routine, Bane will escort you to the nerve center where you'll be working."

"What does my work look like?" Clara asked as she opened a linen closet, running her fingertips down th stack of beige towels.

"Why utilizing your skill set dear, you were difficult to track down, I anticipated you to be older, a man," Talia remarked as she gave Clara a hard look.

After Clara was settled, she'd be escorted by Bane to a small room within the estate, that boasted a candy apple red door.

Behind the red door, Clara would work alongside two former government workers that spied on its own citizens. The room was kept cool for the benefit of the electronic equipment and dim. The two men Clara would come to know, smoked furiously, one on fancy French cigarettes that smelled like burnt hair and the other smoked short cigars with sickeningly sweet smoke that filled the air.

"Explore the room, take a bath," Talia urged, adding in a gentle tone. "In the morning you'll be refreshed, and we will talk further," she said before Bane pushed open the door for her to exit, he fought every fiber of his being to not look back at Clara as she watched them exit the room.

Turning around to find Clara once more until the next time would be like looking back at a burning city of sinning sinners and risk being turned into a pillar of salt.