~Saviour~

Shira walked out of the house in pain. She just couldn't face that at the moment.

The cold air whipped harshly around her face as she made her way towards the club for an evening shift.

A tear dropped on her cheek and she wiped it off swiftly.

'Oh Shira, you have to be strong, you can't serve customers with leaky eyes.' She berated herself.

She got to Da Smith Club with 5 minutes to spare. She paused a bit at the entrance and breathe in and out. 

'It'll be over before you know it' She thought to herself as she walked through the double doors.

The club was dimly lit and rock music played in the background. One of the reasons she loved working there was the noise and chaos of it all.

It was a good distraction from her thoughts. From seeing her brother suffer, from seeing her mother weep...

"Hey Shira! You're right on time today!" Shira's friend Damien greeted her from the bar counter. He was drying some glasses with a napkin.

 "Good day, I guess." She shouted back with a smile and a small wave. 

She needed it to be a good day. she was already stressed as it was.

She went round to the back to take of her coat and change into her apron then began serving drinks to customers.

After about two hours on the job, Shira was tired and needed a break.

"Get these drinks to that table and then you can take a short break, you look out of it Shira" Martha said. She was Shira's direct boss.

Shira smiled gratefully at the girthy black woman and took the tray. The club had gotten rowdier and majority of the people weren't sober anymore.

She made her way around the dancing, sweaty people untill someone bumped into her making her spill the drinks on a seated customer.

"Oh my! I'm so sorry, lemme get you a..."

"What the hell is wrong with you, stupid. Can't you watch where you're going?! Do you know how much this costs, you filthy thing?!" 

The man ranted on and on chipping in insults in Russian.

"I said it was an accident, I didn't mean to, someone bumped into me!" Shira said to the huge-looking man feeling disgusted.

"You insult me?!"

"What? No! I just..."

 The man had stood up threatening her with his height.

"You little..."  Shira flinched.

"Get away from her!" Shira turned towards the commanding voice. The man approached them giving the huge man a killer glare.

Shira forgot about the bald Russian for a while and stared at the oncoming beauty. Who was this hottie?

***

Cole sipped his wine slowly, watching the dancing and grooving from his nest. The club was particularly rowdy tonight; noisier than a typical Friday night.

He observed the people below. The lights were dim but he could tell who was a first timer to the club or who was a regular. He also knew most of the workers by sight. The waiters, bartenders, dancers and even the strippers.

Cole was a workaholic to the core but Fridays were the days he just sat back and watched people let off steam from the week's hard work. It was his own way of letting off steam from the long hectic week.  

He gave a signal to the waiter standing at the back of the room and he came over to refill his glass. He took a sip and spit it back out

“What is this?!” He thundered.

“Y…your wine s…sir.” The waiter said with a stutter.

“Are you nuts?! Don't you see that it's already room temperature?! Get me a chilled glass!”

“Y…yes sir,” The waiter said and left. He came back a while later with another bottle and made to pour a glass.

“What's that? Cole asked, shooting the waiter a murderous glare.

“Sir?”

“Does my cousin employ blind people now too? Can't you recognise a good red wine when you see one?!”

“I'm really sorry sir,” He said and went off again to get the right bottle. Cole shook his head as he fidgeted with the glass.

He took a sip relaxing further into the leather seat when suddenly, he noticed a disturbance below. He looked closely and it was one of the waitresses, the clumsy one being harassed by a bulky looking dude.

He dropped his drink and raced down the stairs not bothering with the elevators.

The dude was about to hit her when he got down

"Get away from her!" He shouted above the music. The big bald man turned to stare at him, his hand frozen in the air. The waitress who had been yelling at her attacker also had her mouth in the agape. 

"I said, get away from her!" The sound of his voice surprised even him.

The bald man sized him up. He was a few inches taller. 

"And if I don't what you gonna do about it." He said with a thick Russian accent raising his shoulders and puffing out his chest to intimidate but Cole was not intimidated. He had undergone years of self-defence training and went to the gym regularly. If anything, he could surely take the guy down

They both had a stare down then Cole mentally face-palmed. 

'What the hell is wrong with me?' He thought. 'Why am I getting myself involved in this?' 

Just then they were surrounded by Security men who hurled the bulky Russian out of the club

"Are you okay, sir?" One of the security men asked him. He was about to reply when he heard a voice behind him.  

"Well hello, Brother" 

Cole closed his eyes in exasperation. It was his annoying cousin, Smith. The owner of the club.

"Well this is a surprise. I don't expect you to be in the middle of fights with drunk guys." He said. He was a head shorter than Cole and had a lighted cigar between his fingers.

"He was being an asshole" Luke grunted.

"And that is your business how?" Smith asked with a raised eyelid.

Smith stared at him at loss for words. He also couldn't understand his actions.

"Well, Cousin, I believe I can handle the running of my club well, I don't need you meddling in my business." Smith said, walking away with his cigar in his mouth. He returns as an afterthought. 

"why don't you stick to your company while I stick to mine, would you?" He said puffing out smoke then walked away.

Cole shot him a deadly stare until he was out of sight. 

He cursed under his breath then turned to the lady he had just defended and she was gone. So much for a thanks.