Riddle me this...

Chapter sixteen

Warehouse 16 echoed with the loud taps of Mooney’s heels. The explosion that had ripped this place apart signified her failure and had her skin itching with rage. She paced back and forth, her mind racing with opportunities lost, not to mention her men, she’d never find anyone as competent as them in a hurry. Most of all she blamed penguin. She knew he had to have been the mind behind this sabotage, no one else would have attacked her, no, this had been personal.

            She urged one of her men to step forward with a curl of her finger.

“Now. I want you to watch the lounge. I don’t want to be surprised again by the Penguin.” 

He nodded and took off, not waiting for anything else. She gestured for her other men to follow suit and leave.

Taking soft slow steps towards the corner of the warehouse she sped up, her feet striking the ground more forcefully as her anger welled and exploded. She hurled one of the broken crates away from her, screaming as she did so. She felt a twinge, reminding her that she wasn’t as young as she used to be and she noticed a trickle of blood as it wept from her arm, the box had nipped her wrist. Taking her other hand she wrapped her wrist and held it tight. 

Sighing she left the building and climbed into the car that was waiting for her.

Penguin wasn’t going to get away with destroying her last chance at being a Gotham Kingpin. 

*

Selina and Nina were laughing once more, Nina couldn’t remember the last time she had enjoyed herself quite this much and nothing was going to kill her buzz. They’d already faced the gang that had been after Selina and even the prospect of sleeping rough hadn’t phased her, well, that much, she wouldn’t care if she was drunk.

Selina had been impressed by Nina’s new skills and had repeatedly requested a demonstration. She had mentioned several times, in her drunken stupor that this had been the opportunity that had freed Nina from her captor, the Penguin, and Nina had returned with a shake of her head and a short laugh in agreement.

“So what about you Selina, you hooked up with Bruce yet?”

Nina was one of the few people who knew that Batman was Bruce Wane, purely due to Selina’s similar approach to each of them. Selina had never revealed the information but she had never denied when Nina had asked.

“Don’t be silly.” Selina pushed Nina’s shoulder, knocking her off balance slightly and tipping the chair, luckily it stayed standing and Nina remained seated.

“Bruce is just an idiotic rich boy, I just like to steal from him every now and then and it’s easier to get past Alfred if I’m Bruce’s ‘friend’. Anyway what about you and the Riddler? I hear things got a bit steamy.”

Nina turned a light shade of pink as she blushed and looked down at her drink.

“Hey, I haven’t heard from him in a while, not after he left flowers for me.”

“Flowers? The Riddler left you flowers?”

“What’s wrong with flowers?” Nina laughed.

“Oh nothing.”

“No, go on, say what you were thinking.”

“He must think a lot of you if you’re getting flowers.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. In all my time knowing him I’ve never heard him do anything romantic.”

“But you don’t really associate with him, so he might be giving any old woman some flowers.”

Selina shrugged.