by C. L. Quinn
“No, sir, I’m afraid I’m quite cool. Frigid, I’d say.”
Now, he made no attempt to smile. “I’ve heard,” he responded, and flipped open his napkin to place it on his lap. “I’ve ordered for you. We have a lot to discuss tonight.”
I’ll fucking bet we do! Margot thought.
“Let’s begin, then, shall we?”
“We’ll wait until the escargots arrive. No reason to waste good food and great company.”
Ugh! Times two hundred! Snails. Really?
“Excellent,” she murmured instead.
Moments later, the plates arrived, elegant garnishes gracing the edges that looked more appetizing than the entrée they surrounded. Michael had the waitress pour two glasses of wine.
“My favorite food and lovely company, what more can a man ask,” Michael commented with a wide smile.
So now he was changing tactics and trying charm. God, if he would pay attention, he’d know that everyone could see right through his macho machinations, particularly women. He was obvious and anything but charming!
“Yes, hmm, thank you.” It wouldn’t be wise to push against him too hard. Mostly, Margot knew that she just needed to stay under his radar. Those who stayed in his sights often got shot down. Risking everything she’d worked for wasn’t on her radar.
After removing it from its shell with the tongs, and slicing a tiny bit of the snail on her plate, controlling a gag, Margot looked up at Michael. He was staring at her, paused, his knife and fork suspended above his plate. As usual, his tongue moved slowly around his lips before he spoke.
“You’re really a beautiful woman. I’m sure that you’re told that all the time, but I imagine it means more coming from me.”
Gag, gag, gag! “Thank you again. Certainly it does.”
He frowned. Crap, Margot thought, he was looking for gushing. Well, fuck that, I don’t gush! Disarm the situation.
“I mean, you’re an important man, Michael. Of course, that’s a fine compliment.”
The frown lessened, and he cut into his dinner, took several bites, swallowed half his glass of wine, and looked back up at her.
“This is an impromptu performance evaluation. Now that my father is semi-retired, I’ve decided that I need to reassess my talent.”
Margot took a lingering sip of her own wine. “Is that so?”
“Yes. You see, with my father gone most of the time now, I’m considering making one of the associates partner. You’re in the running, Margot.”
Partner. This soon. A dream come true. But did she really think she could work with this man forever? Honestly, she usually didn’t see him, he rarely came to her office. Yeah, this was good. This could work. Margot felt a flutter in her belly. Partner at 31.
“I’m honored, Michael.”
Things changed immediately. He smiled, and she could almost see the devil horns poke through his hair. Yeah, she should have known better.
“Now, only the most worthy person will earn this promotion.”
“You know that my record is exemplary.”
“Yes, that’s true, but it’s going to take more than amazing skills, high billable hours, impressive contacts and almost 100 percent success rates to win me over.”
The flutter in her belly turned to bile. Now, this was exactly what she had expected. The motherfucker…
Margot set her wine glass away from her, afraid she would pick it up and grind it into his pinched face. When she spoke, it was through gritted teeth.
“Funny. That’s precisely what your father said it would take when he hired me.”
“He’s not in charge anymore, though, is he?”
“It would appear not. And so, what do you think it will take?” Like she fucking didn’t know.
Her eyes laser-focused on him, she sat perfectly still as he slid a hand across the table and ran his index finger around her wrist. “A different kind of skill. You are a gorgeous woman, Margot. You’re an animal in court. My guess is you are an animal in bed, too.”
Michael’s fingers moved up her arm, sliding beneath the sleeve of her jacket. His tongue moved back out again in that sickening slide across his lips that he thought was sexually stimulating.
Margot reacted without thinking. She pulled her arm back as if it had been burned, covering the skin where he’d touched with her other hand to rub away his touch.
“You’re out of line, Lipnicki.”
His jaw tightened, anger shot into his gaze. “It would appear that your performance review is finished. You can go now.”
“You cannot treat women in this firm like this, and you know it. What the hell is wrong with you? I’m going to contact your father.”
“You won’t reach him. It won’t matter anyway, your employment with Lipnicki Law will terminate shortly. You can’t threaten me, I own you.”
“What? You are fucking deluded if you think you have this kind of immunity. You’re right, we’re done here.”
Shoving back her chair, Margot threw her napkin hard enough to smack him on the cheek.
“No, you’re done here. Get out of my sight.”
“Now that’s the only suggestion you’ve made tonight that I am happy to comply with.”
After lifting her satchel onto her shoulder, Margot stormed out of the restaurant, seething, her cheeks flaming, her heart pounding. Once she cleared the doorway, she turned into the recessed vestibule of the business next to it and dropped against a brick wall.
“That dick!”
Placing a hand on her chest, Margot tried to calm her racing respiration. “That dick!” she repeated, a little quieter now. She dug a flask out of her bag and took a long sip of bourbon she kept for moments like this. As a teenage girl, she’d gotten into the habit of using the alcohol, part of her mother’s stash, to calm down when she was upset or frightened, and always kept it with her no matter where she went.
Shaking her head, the anger making her head pulse, she took another swig from the flask. Well, that was it. Tomorrow, she’d be looking for another job.
It wasn’t as if she would have any trouble. Most people in this community of attorneys knew her work and admired her. Honestly, she thought she’d likely have several job offers by the weekend. Still, the way this went down was so insane and asinine.
“What a load of steaming horse shit.” Margot dropped her head and whispered to the cracked sidewalk as she gained complete control back and started to push away from the wall to have the valet bring around her car.
When she moved to intercept the doorman with her ticket, the first thing she saw was Michael Lipnicki exiting the restaurant, his cell phone to his ear, yelling at someone on the other end.
What happened next glued Margot to the wall, just her face visible as she watched the strange event unfold.
An emaciated woman dressed in sequins and black thigh-high boots raced from the other side of the street, grabbed Michael’s cell phone and flung it into the center of the street into traffic, the crunch sickening when a silver Porsche rolled over it.
Michael’s eyes shot to the woman as he grabbed her by the throat. “I’ll make you sorry for that, you cunt.”
The woman, panicked now, kicked him in the shin with the sharp stiletto heels of her boots and fell backward as he released her to grab his leg.
“God damn, it, bitch! What’s your fucking damage?” he screamed, fury and pain apparent in his voice.
“You, you fucking rapist! You raped me two nights ago!”
“What? I wouldn’t touch a whore like you!”
“You threw two hundred dollar bills at me, then brutally raped me. I might be a whore, but you still raped me, you creep!”
Margot watched Michael’s face as he stared at the woman who now pushed back onto her feet. He knew her, she was sure of it. The asshole really was a rapist. He really had sexually assaulted this woman.
“Holy shit…” she whispered from her hiding place.
“I know no one’s gonna believe me, but I wan
ted to let you know I know what you are. I told myself if I ever saw you again, I was gonna hurt you!”
Michael’s eyes shifted to the curb as the valet pulled up in his car. Unaware of the situation between his client and the overly made up woman facing him, the valet smiled to Michael.
“There you go, Mr. Lipnicki. Have a nice evening.”
Once the valet walked away, Michael cursed and started to get into his car when the woman charged him again.
Margot gasped as she saw him smash his fist into the woman’s face, sending her crashing to the concrete beside the car. He spat on her as he got into the car and peeled away from the curb.
Racing to the woman on the ground, Margot carefully helped her to stand. “Do you need a doctor?”
The woman yanked herself away from Margot. “No. Leave me alone. I deserved that. I knew better than to confront that asshole, figured he’d hurt me, but I didn’t give a shit. He’s the devil.”
“I can’t disagree. What did he do to you?”
Margot watched wordlessly as the woman scanned her with suspicious tear-filled eyes. Close to her now, Margot noticed that the sequined dress had seen better days years ago, the sequins missing in a lot of places, the fabric crumpled, the woman’s garish make-up streaked, the boots scuffed to the point that no second-hand store would accept them. Her eye was swollen and cheeks badly scraped. And yet she held herself with a regality her appearance defied. She felt a kinship with this woman who had been abused by the same entitled animal even though she knew it wasn’t on the same level.
While she’d sized up the bleeding woman, Margot realized that the woman had been doing the same to her rescuer. And Margot knew that she had felt no kinship at all to the expensively dressed woman who’d picked her up off the dirty street.
“Forget it,” the woman barked and turned to walk away.
“No, wait. You need help. Please, let me help you.”
“Honey, in case you hadn’t noticed, I’m way past help.”
She dug a cigarette and lighter out of a small handbag suspended from her shoulder, paused to light it, then headed down the street again.
I can’t let her get away, Margot thought. He’s raped this woman, he needs to be held accountable. He can’t get away with this!
She’d gone into law because it was a place she knew she would not only excel but largely because she could make a substantially better living than anything else she could do. Now, the importance of seeking justice overwhelmed her. A man who thought he could do anything with impunity had to be stopped!
As she started after the woman, a bus pulled to a bus stop, and the woman disappeared into it.
“Shit!” Margot slipped her ticket out and called for a valet. “Get my car, quickly!”
Margot followed the bus through several long streets, and when it ended up dropping the sequined woman on a street filled with dark buildings, trash and a row of bars in the Smoke District on the seedier side of town, she glanced around her at her Lexus, her beautiful luxury car, the first gift she’d given herself, and knew she was way out of her element. A woman in a car like this, dressed like she was, was asking to be picked off in this kind of neighborhood. She nearly turned and made her way back to safer ground when she saw her target disappear inside of a bar not fifty feet from her.
“Oh, you stupid bitch,” she whispered as she guided her car to an alley beside of the bar and got out. She hadn’t meant the woman she’d followed. “This is all manner of stupid, Margot.”
But she did it anyway. She locked her car and carefully made her way through detritus strewn all around the street in high heels meant to navigate smooth tile and carpets.
One last glance back at her car made her groan. Oh, it was going to get fucking looted or stolen, she knew that. Whoever told her that she was brilliant should see the choice she was making now. Freddie thought that she was one of the smartest women she’d ever met.
Freddie! Shit!
Quickly pulling her cell phone from her pocket, Margot hit the number 1 and listened.
“Where are you?” came a harsh voice through the box.
“I’m sorry, Freddie, I should have called you right away. The dinner tanked, he made obscene threats, I left, and now I’m chasing a woman I think he raped through the Smoke, waiting to be assaulted myself or have my car trashed.”
“What?”
“I know, I sound like a lunatic, and right now, I look like one, too. I’m getting ready to enter a hole-in-the-wall bar called…” Margot looked up above the door she was getting ready to pull open. “The Blind Spot. Damn, that’s appropriate. Anyway, I’m chasing down a lead to stop Lipnicki from terrorizing any more women. I may need to call you to pick me up, visit me in the hospital, or get me out of jail.”
“Margot, get your ass out of there. This isn’t something that you do alone.”
“You’re telling me! Still, I’m here and I can’t lose this victim. Just…stay close to your phone Freddie. And wish me luck.”
Before Freddie could say something that would convince Margot of what she already knew, she ended the call and pulled open the door to a place that Attorney Margot Napier would never be caught dead in.
Until tonight.
Lighting was low, and Margot’s first instinct was that it was a good idea. The place was packed, and although smoking in bars wasn’t legal anymore, a hazy whiteness and thick odors told her that no one here was concerned for current law on that point.
Through the smoky din, her eyes moved quickly from form to form, and found the woman easily. Even in the limited light, the sequins sparkled and caught her attention. The glittering woman leaned over the bar, a hand on an older man who was trying to pull away. Although she couldn’t hear her through the multiple voices bouncing through the room, Margot could see her mouth moving. Was she yelling at the man?
She moved toward the bar, worried about losing sight of her victim. As she approached, the woman slammed a hand down on the wood counter and glanced up to see Margot.
“Oh, what the fuck!”
Margot came up near enough to hear the woman’s explosive comment. “I followed you.”
“Yeah, you did! Why?”
“I want to help you. And in doing so, you’ll help me put that asshole away. Are you interested in seeing him get what he deserves for hurting you?”
This near to her, with the strange lighting, Margot could see that the woman was in her mid-thirties. Her pale eyes were shiny, probably because she was still in a lot of pain. She shook her head and reached for a glass the bartender set in front of her, those pastel iris’s trained on Margot as she drained the glass in one long sip. Using the back of her hand to wipe away an escaped drop on her lower lip, she finally answered Margot’s question.
“I’m interested in getting high and forgetting about him. Good luck with your mission to burn the unburnable. He’s beyond my reach, lady.”
Margot leaned closer, and stilled the woman’s hand as she signaled for the barkeeper. “But he’s not beyond mine.”
“Who are you?”
“I’m an attorney and I work with that creep. That’s how I know that I can stop him. But I’m going to need your testimony to do it.”
After another pause, the woman tore her hand free from Margot’s and snapped her fingers in the air. “No. You’re barking up the wrong tree lady. I don’t have a dog in this fight.”
“He…” Margot looked around and lowered her voice to just above a whisper. “Did he rape you?”
“Yeah. But I’m a street hooker, lady, and no jury or judge is gonna believe me.”
“I don’t care what you do, rape is rape and it’s wrong.”
“Yeah, sure, but you ain’t gonna make the call. Hell, they’re gonna think I deserve anything I get for what I do.”
“No, they won’t.”
The bartender brought over another drink, stopped to look Margot over, top down, and smiled. “What can I get you?”
“Uh, a pinot noir?�
�
He grinned now. “Try again.”
“What do you have?”
“How about a nice mixed drink? Whisky sour?”
“Sure, anything.” Margot turned back to the woman, who was shaking her head, tears sliding silently down her cheeks. The woman’s lips quivered as she spoke.
“Yeah. They’ll say I don’t have the right to say no. I fuck guys for money, so they might even be right. Look, I do whatever a guy wants for the right price. It’s no dream job, but it gets me by and most of the time, my tricks aren’t too bad. But this asshole, he says he wants a really good blowjob and then he wants to bury it in me. Sure. It’s what I do. I give him the cost, he agrees and then he smacks me so hard, I go down and stay down. Then he rips off my thong and goes down on me. But he bites me. Hard enough for blood. I smacked him for it, and when I tried to get up, he grabs my hair and bonks my head into the wall. While I’m trying to get over the pain and spinning world, he shoves me on the bed and drives into my ass. He tore me up, lady lawyer, real good. When he’s done, he turns me over and fucks me up my cunt. You think that’s rape?”
The entire time she was telling her story, Margot felt sick, her throat tight. How could anyone question that?
“Sweetheart, that’s rape. You have to let me get justice for you and we have to lock this bastard up. Please, let me do this for you.”
Now, the woman looked around the room, and Margot’s eyes followed hers.
Almost every patron in the room was male. Other than this woman and herself, Margot didn’t see another woman anywhere. The bartender seemed like a decent man, older, graying hair, thinning beard, likely quite ruggedly handsome twenty years ago. The other men varied greatly in appearance, and most of them seemed drunk and fairly jovial. Behind the bar, in a doorway leading to what looked like the kitchen, a massive man stood watching the entire front room. She couldn’t see him clearly, but the way the light caught his arms, she could see well defined muscles. This man didn’t seem drunk but he was extraordinarily fit. Other than his shadowed face, a strong jawline, and long hair tied back, she couldn’t make out anything else.
Margot looked back at the woman.
“These are your clients.”