Mr. Lawson's Assistant

Chapter 63

After we bought our tickets, we started into the darkened hallways to find our theater room. The movie was something about a guy and a woman, and based on the fact that Kenya chose it, I assumed it was some sort of chick-flick.
As we filed into our row in the theater, I found myself seated between Kenya and Damon. Damon was sitting at the end of our assigned seating, next to another couple. When I glanced past Damon at the couple, they were already practically sharing a seat. Damon noticed the smirk that flitted across my lips and followed my gaze. When his eyes returned to me, his lips were pressed together in a thin line and he shook his head once at my immaturity.
Sucks to be him...
Not ten minutes into the movie, I felt Damon's shoulder brush mine, and, startled, I glanced over at him. Instead of looking at me, his eyes were glued on the screen in front of him, however, his entire body was angled in my direction. When he noticed my confused staring, he readjusted slightly, but still wouldn't sit normally. I peered around him to see the girl from the couple sitting on the guy's lap, making out with him.
Classy.
I thought, raising my eyebrows and sitting back in my seat.
A few minutes later, the couple gave up and left the theater, likely to go suck each other's faces elsewhere. Damon relaxed back into his seat, but he caught my smirk as he did so, and he shook his head.
'What?' I mouthed, defensive and feigning stupidity. He leaned down and whispered to me harshly. "I saw that look."
I widened my eyes and again tried innocence. "What look?" I whispered back. Kenya shushed me, turning back to the screen in intense interest. Damon chuckled and sat back in his seat. For a while, all was well, and I watched the chick-flick with little interest, however, as a certain scene came across the screen, I felt Damon shifting closer to me in his seat. Tensing, I glanced his way, not moving my head. That's when he reached out and put his arm around my shoulder. This time I did turn to him, a very unamused expression on my face. Damon's lips twitched, but he glanced over at me, sobering his expression and replacing it with one of mock innocence.
"What?" He whispered, and I shot him another look. "I just needed to stretch-" His bland excuse was cut off by Kenya's annoyed shushing. I pursed my lips and opened my mouth to argue, but Damon hushed me and leaned back in his chair, pointing to the movie screen.
How cliché can he get?
Frowning, I sat back in my seat, ignoring just how well his arm fit in the crook behind my neck. He was just stretching.
*
Less than an hour later, I felt myself being shaken awake, and opened my eyes to the darkened movie theater. The movie on the screen was still playing, and Kenya and David were snuggled together between their two seats. Upon looking over, I saw Damon leaning back in his chair, almost smiling.
"You were going to miss the best part." He whispered, earning a look from Kenya. I blinked and tried to focus back on the screen, realizing that the couple from the movie was lined up in front of an alter, about to be married. Extremely uninterested, I yawned and stared at the screen, bored- but happy that it would be over soon. Most romance movies ended after the main characters married. As if all the best parts happened before then.
For a few minutes, I tried to involve myself back into the movie, but I couldn't follow along, because I'd ignored so much of the movie.
Finally, I gave up and decided to head to the bathroom to kill time. I stood, ignoring the fact that Damon's hand slid part way down my back before he pulled his hand away. I could feel him looking at me as I passed him and left the theater, but it was too dark to make much eye contact.
Once I'd sucessfully found my way to the lady's room, I used the bathroom, then stood in front of the full-length mirror and fixed my attire- hair included. I just wanted to waste time so that I didn't have to sit through too much more of the movie.
What a waste of ten dollars.
I thought with a scoff, glancing behind me through the mirror when a woman entered the bathroom. I immediately stiffened, and turned around slowly as she entered the room. It was the tall, slender blonde from Cape Trent. She briefly looked as shocked to see me as I was to see her, but she quickly masked it with a sickeningly calm smile.
"Oana, right?"
I narrowed my eyes at her and crossed my arms.
She cocked her head slightly, "What movie are you seeing?"
I didn't miss the way her hand slid into her pocket, grasping for her phone.
She must think I'm an idiot.
I squared my shoulders and took a step forward, not even attempting to mimic her fake smile.
"Move."
The blonde, who I think Damon had called Sara, frowned slightly. "That's not very-"
I cut her off, "If you don't move, I'll move you myself. Get out of the way."
Her icy blue eyes narrowed and her expression hardened. I lifted my chin as she took a slow step forward. Even in the heels that I was wearing, I still fell several inches shorter than her.
"If you touch me, I'll have my father's men kill you." She snarled, her pretty, fake smile gone. It was my turn to smile.
I crossed my arms. "Why don't you do it yourself? Don't want to ruin your manicure?" I knew my words were stupid before I even said them, but I was pissed. Who did this woman think she was talking to? A scared four-year old?
Her father is a mob boss!
I ignored that thought and allowed the woman to take another threatening step closer. She was close enough now that I could feel the remnats of her breath fanning across my face. She opened her mouth to retort to my smart remark, but the bathroom door opened, and an elderly woman shuffled into the bathroom. I felt the heat of the blonde's gaze when I stepped around her to hold the door open for the woman, but I wasn't intimidated. Her father or her father's men could hurt me, but she couldn't. David had taught me enough to take down a skinny blonde in heels. Physically, she wasn't a threat.
"See you soon." I muttered, passing the elderly woman and the blonde and heading out of the bathroom. I needed to find Damon quickly- but nothing happened quickly for me in stilettos.
I moved down the hall towards the theater where Kenya, David, and Damon were, stopping part way there to reach down and take off my heels. Before my hand even touched my shoe, I heard a low rumble of rapid Spanish and lifted my head to see two Latino men veering in my direction.
With Pedro arrested, there was no telling how angry these men were, or how they planned to take out that anger. I assumed Sara wanted them to take it out on me.
Straightening, I turned and started walking towards my theater, hearing the men pick up their pace behind me.
Why is everyone in this theater suddenly gone?
I thought in frustration, glancing over my shoulder to see if there were any witnesses. I lengthened my strides and turned back to read the theater room numbers, feeling my heartbeat picking up. It wasn't easy to move this fast in heels, but I knew it wasn't the strain of balancing in my heels that was making my hands sweaty.
Images of bruises and dimly lit warehouses were flashing through my mind as I threw open the correct theater door and rushed inside. The men were close behind me, because the door did not even have time to fully shut. I rounded the corner in the theater and spotted David, Kenya and Damon, all involved in the movie. As I started up the stairs, it was David who's head turned slightly in my direction. I waved at him quickly, trying to get his attention as I hauled myself up towards the row that they were sitting in. The handrail was my guiding force in the dark. Pausing briefly to check my shoulder, I didn't miss the two large shadows following me up the steps, so I turned and tried to clear the next set of stairs as fast as possible. David had noticed that something was wrong, because he stood from his seat slowly, leaning down to whisper to Kenya. As he started down the asile towards the stairs and towards me, Damon stood as well. A few people in the theater protested, but the movie was too loud to understand their complaints. I reached the next stair landing, and David met me there.
"Those men-" I started but I didn't have time to finish my sentence. David let go of my shoulders and rushed down the stairs towards the mens' retreating figures. I whisper-yelled after him, but he paid no attention to me. I glanced back to where Damon and Kenya were climbing over people to make their way to me, but I couldn't wait for them. Inwardly groaning, I started back down the steps, careful to hold myself up using the handrail. It wasn't terribly difficult to walk briskly in these heels in the daylight, but in the dark, it was an entirely different story.
David, you idiot!
I scowled, tripping as I finished the last step. Straightening, I took off at a light jog, planting each step carefully, and nearly running into the theater door in the process. Shoving the door open, I turned to see David catching up with the two men, calling them out before they exited the theater through the back doors. They turned on him far from amused.
"David!" I yelled, stumbling on my heels, before cursing them under my breath and kicking them off behind me. I started running just as one of the men shoved David backwards, then I watched the entire scene unfold. David squared his shoulders and said something calmly to the bigger of the two men, before the big one swung at him. My heart dropped into my stomach.
David ducked easily past the first blow, dodging the second man's left hook as well. But he didn't see the big man's following blow. The jaw punch left David stumbling backwards with blood dripping down his chin. I heard his laugh, before I saw his expression change. I arrived at the end of the hallway and David spun around, kicking the bigger man in his gut, before twisting to land a hard right cross to the second man's nose. Neither of the two men were ready, but David's hits didn't slow them for long. They came back swinging, but David was already in fight mode. I stopped abruptly, a few feet away from the brawl, watching with wide eyes as my brother took on the two men who were twice his size. I yelled at him in vain, knowing it was far too late to avoid the fight. Desperate, I turned around in a circle, looking for someone else to help me. Other than a few bathroom scragglers, there were no other people in this hallway. All the movies were in session. However, I did see a fire alarm. Crossing the hall in four large steps, I lifted the protective plastic and jerked down the small, white handle. The screeching alarm sent my hands to cover my ears, then the entire theater errupted into chaos.