Riddle me this...

Chapter three

Nina stood out the back taking her usual breath of fresh air when she felt a figure approach next to her. Her reflexes were still fast enough and she soon had the man pinned against the wall, her wrist across his throat. It was the Riddler.

“Woah! Woah there, I came outside for some fresh air and I get pinned against a wall, I mean, I know I'm attractive but-”

“Oh. Sorry.” Nina let him go and took a step back blushing, “I thought you might have been someone else.”

“Someone you'd need to pin against the wall?” He looked down at her 5'6” frame with curiosity.

Nina looked up at the stars that she can see through the gap in the buildings. She sighed, paused and looked back at the Riddler.

“Look Riddler, I'm sorry I pinned you against the wall.”

“No problem. We all have to be a bit vicious since we live here in Gotham.”

She weakly smiled at him.

“I should probably get back inside.”

“Wait,” he touched her arm lightly, in a completely different way the Penguin had. He was softer, almost as if he knew how to treat a woman. Well, she thought, he did have two henchwomen and he's probably involved with one of them, if not both of them. Nina looked at him, raising her other arm and her eyebrows.

“What?”

“Can I at least get your name?”

“Nina. Nina Everwood. Now can I have my arm back please?”

He removed his fingers from her biceps and smiled weakly at her before broadening his smile, almost as if realising something.

“It was lovely to meet you Nina, even if you did just abuse me.” He winked at her before she strode back into the club to get her complimentary drink for the evening, and it was going to be a strong one.

“Nina. I didn't know you could sing so well.” Said Oswald as he stood beside Nina at the bar.

She bit her tongue. She was going to say that if he'd have listened to her for the last two years then he would have heard how good she was but she didn't. Instead she stayed silent.

“Maybe you would like to join me at the table?”

“I thought Porcelain kept you company nowadays.” She couldn't help herself that time. She quickly picked up her drink and took a big gulp, it might soften the blow when he hit her. The fist didn't come.

“I deserve that. Well Porcelain has had her fifteen minutes of fame. I have let her go.”

As much as she disliked Porcelain she didn't want to know that Penguin had killed her.

“By get rid of her you mean...”

“She's no longer working for me, I've handed her over to Harvey, he needs a hussy.”

She took a deep breath.

“Is that what I am Oswald, a hussy?”

“Of course not Nina, you know how I feel about you.”

She took another swig before finishing her drink and ordering another.

“I'll come and join you Oswald, although I may be a bit rusty, I'm not used to the company you keep anymore.”

He nodded and took her hand.

This evening was going to be long.

Nina noticed the Riddler watching her from the bar and they met each others gaze before he raised his glass at her. She subtly nodded in return and couldn't help herself but smile. Maybe Oswald would let her go after the men left, maybe she could speak to the man at the bar who had piqued her interest, the man who didn't look like a lot but Nina had felt muscle as she had pinned him against the cold concrete wall.

Her mind wandered as the conversation about politics continued at the table. She didn't need to listen, she was there as an accessory, something to make everyone aware that Oswald slept with beautiful women at night. If anything it showed them that he had power. As she thought about Riddler she realised her face had fallen from her smile to a thin line. She snapped back to reality before anyone could notice that she had been thinking about the man in green in nothing at all.

Unfortunately, the riddler had seen her daydreaming and it piqued his interest even more.

“Who are you?” He mumbled to himself as his glass hit his lips.