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Jason fucking hated this shit.
He’d dreaded this mission from the start, as necessary as it was. In the past eight weeks, over a dozen dancers had gone missing from one of the strip clubs in Park Row – AKA the Red Hood’s territory. Jason took pride in protecting every innocent person growing up in Crime Alley, but he had a soft spot for two groups: children and sex workers.
It was probably because he’d once been both, but that was for himself and his therapist to decide.
In any case, he simply couldn’t stand by and let any more women be taken. But he was at an impasse: if he went poking around as Red Hood, then chances were everyone would be on their best behavior. And if he went as himself, then there was no guarantee that he’d be chosen to enter the inner circle. He needed someone on the inside…
Which was where Stephanie came in.
When Jason had brought up his predicament during the Bats’ weekly briefing, Spoiler had immediately come forward and offered to help. Admittedly, he’d been very reluctant. Stephanie had grown to be one of his closest friends – she was like a sister to him at this point. The thought of having to watch her pretend to be a stripper made him very uncomfortable. But in the end, he’d accepted her help.
With plenty of safeguards in place, of course.
“Alright, let’s go over the plan one more time,” he said. It was Steph’s first night at “work,” and he’d insisted on driving her. Right now, she was wearing a pair of obnoxiously pink Juicy Couture sweats with a full face of makeup and her long, wavy hair in a half updo tied back with a bow. It made Jason sick to his stomach. She looked so young.
The blonde nodded. “Video contacts are in – Oracle is connected and recording. My earrings contain speakers and will provide audio for the video feed. I also have trackers imbedded in my rings, bracelets, and hair-bow.”
“Good,” he said. “If at any point you want out, you just give the signal. I mean it, Steph. Your safety is my top priority tonight.”
Which was why he also had Orphan and Red Robin on standby for backup, “on patrol” but close enough to respond in a pinch. Neither of his siblings had been happy about the mission tonight, either. Jason didn’t think he could have kept them away even if he’d wanted to.
“I know. Tonight’s definitely gonna suck, but we’re gonna hopefully put an end to these disappearances for good. So promise not to pull me out unless I give the signal?”
Jason crossed his arms. “Steph, you know I can’t promise that. I think you’re tough as shit, but in the heat of the moment, it’s a lot harder to keep from crossing that line. Trust me.”
She reached over and squeezed his arm. “I know that, Jay. I just also know that you’re very protective, and this is probably going to be very triggering for you. I just don’t want you to jump the gun and blow the op the first time a creepy guy grabs my ass. We won’t get anywhere with that.”
“I’m not gonna fucking do that,” he snapped. Then, he took a deep breath, gripping his steering wheel tightly. “Sorry. I just hate this fucking op. But Steph, I trust you. I promise not to pull you out before you ask unless I sense you’re in genuine danger. Can we agree on that?”
“Of course,” Steph smiled. “The only reason I feel even somewhat okay with doing this is because I know you’ll be there to have my back.”’
Jason only hoped he could live up to that trust.
Steph was not having a good time.
As the new girl, she had been delegated as a cocktail waitress. While this meant she didn’t have to get fully naked (though the lingerie she was wearing hardly left anything to the imagination), it also meant she didn’t have a stage to separate herself from her patrons. The amount of smacks her poor ass had endured… it was dehumanizing, really.
Across the club, she could see Jason brooding in the corner. Several girls had approached him, but he’d brushed off every single one in favor of watching her like a hawk. Admittedly, she would have felt better about his constant vigilance if she hadn’t been mostly naked, even if she knew he would never purposefully look at her inappropriately.
“Haven’t seen you ‘round here before,” a middle-aged man reeking of cigarettes observed with a wide smile. His eyes were glued to her cleavage the entire time he spoke.
Stephanie forced herself to smile back even though he wasn’t looking anywhere near her face. “Just started today. Can I get you anything?”
He reached up and cupped her ass. The touch burned like acid, but Steph did nothing to discourage it. The club managers had very strict rules about “displeasing customers.” Maybe if they were similarly strict about the treatment of their staff, a dozen women wouldn’t have gone missing.
“How about a private dance?” He suggested lewdly.
“Sorry, they’ve got me on drink duty tonight,” she explained, as if she were genuinely bummed about it.
The man raised an eyebrow. “Oh, sweetheart, you’re way too sexy to be working tables. You’re the best looking broad they’ve had here in ages. If I’m gonna be shelling out the money for the VIP room tonight, I want you down there with me.”
That piqued her interest. That was the first she’d heard of this VIP room. She decided to try to learn more. “You really think I’m good enough for the VIP room?”
“Honey, I would pay triple to get a dance from you. What’s your name?”
“Lucy,” she responded, the cover name flowing out of her mouth naturally. Just to seal the deal, she rubbed her fingers up and down his arm. “What’s yours, handsome?”
She had the guy practically drooling over her now. “You can call me Hal. Well, Lucy, it’s your lucky day. I’ll put in a good word for ya with Jack. He owes me a favor, anyway.”
Jack was one of the managers. He didn’t really speak to the “talent,” so Steph hadn’t officially met the guy yet. From what she’d overheard the other girls saying before opening, he wasn’t too nice of a guy.
“Really? I’d be so appreciative if you did that for me. After all, I didn’t take this job just to serve drinks. If I wanted to be a waitress, I’d work at Olive Garden or something. I just feel like my talents are being wasted, y’know?”
Her patron nodded fervently. “Oh, Lucy, with tits like those, I couldn’t agree more. You just wait right here.”
With that, he hurried off, presumably to go find Jack. Steph couldn’t believe her luck. She hadn’t expected leads to come so easily.
A familiar presence pressed into her side. Evidently, her exchange had been enough to get Jason’s attention. “You okay?” He asked her. With the loud bass of the club music, there was no chance of him being overheard. And, based on his body language, any onlooker would assume he was either flirting with or propositioning her.
Steph played along. Giggling and rubbing her hand on Jason’s chest as she leaned into his ear. “Apparently there’s a VIP room, and apparently I may be invited down.”
Jason’s voice was gruff. “Not without me you’re not.”
“Don’t get too excited. We don’t even know if he was telling the truth. That would be too easy, wouldn't it? Like, there’s no way I’d just get invited in like that on my first night.”
“Steph, I say this with as much respect and platonic love as I can: you’re fucking hot – by far the sexiest woman in this club. So yes. I absolutely believe you’d get plucked up immediately. Which is why I’m not letting you out of my sight.”
She felt her cheeks heat up. Sure, Steph knew she was attractive, at least conventionally, but knowing that it made her a target sent shivers down her spine. Now more than ever, she was thankful Jason was there to back her up should things go south.
As promised, Hal returned a few minutes later with Jack in tow. Jason made himself scarce, blending into the crowd while still staying close enough to get to her.
The manager raked his eyes up and down Steph’s body as if inspecting a piece of meat at the butcher. “I see what you mean, Hal. She’s definitely perfect for the VIP room. Lucy, is it?”
Steph nodded, keeping her mouth fixed into an eager smile.
“Put down your tray and come with me. You’re being promoted.”
She obeyed immediately, her heart beating in her chest. This was it. Hopefully, this would lead her to the missing girls.
Jack led her through the club to an inconspicuous door. He knocked three times, and a bouncer opened up from the inside.
“Welcome, sirs,” he greeted, waving them through. Steph followed, trying to ignore the growing dread in her gut. What if Jason wasn’t able to follow her? She quickly forced the thought from her mind. There was no way he’d let that happen.
At the bottom of the stairs lay the VIP room. It was plushly furnished with lots of red leather and heart-shaped furniture. The lights were dim and the music soft – a deep contrast to the overstimulating club vibe of the upstairs. Along the back wall, there were four more rooms blocked off by heavy, velvet curtains. Stifled moans could be heard coming from behind one of them.
She quickly scanned the room. Other than her (and the one presumably in the private room), there were five women, all of which were in varying stages of undress. The patrons outnumbered them about two to one. Some of the men were playing cards, others were smoking cigars or cigarettes. Some were occupying themselves with the women. But all of them stopped what they were doing to ogle her. It made her yearn for a shower.
“Everyone, this is Lucy. She’ll be joining us this evening,” Jack introduced her. He then turned back to Steph, taking a roll of stickers out of his pocket. “All of our VIP girls get a sticker so security knows to pay extra attention to them. Just take one and put it wherever they can see.”
The stickers were just red hearts with the club’s logo on them. Steph peeled one off of the sheet and stuck it to her arm. It felt like she was branding herself.
Hal took her hand, pulling her towards him until he could grab her hips. “Now that you’re no longer ‘on drink duty’, you can show me how appreciative you are.”
Right. She had said that, hadn’t she? She really had to stop opening her big mouth. “What did you have in mind?”
“Well, I did mention a private dance earlier, did I not?”
Suddenly, the bouncer reappeared at the bottom of the steps. “Boss, I need you upstairs.”
Please be Jason. Please be Jason. Oh God, please let it be Jason.
Hal’s hot breath tickled her ear. “You’re going to be fun.”
“So is this where the real magic happens?”
Stephanie could have cried with relief when Jason came sauntering down the stairs. Beside him was Jack, looking far paler than he had been upon leaving. What had Jason said to get him allowed entry?
“Yes sir,” Jack replied eagerly.
Jason caught her eye. “Great. Before we get to that, first, let me introduce myself to everyone. You can call me Peter. I’m here on behalf of Red Hood. Evidently some girls have gone missing, so he sent me to make sure you’re all behaving. Here’s how this is gonna work: show me a good time, and I’ll be sure to tell the Big Man what he wants to hear. Piss me off, and I might let it slip that you’re running a brothel out of the basement he doesn’t know about. And you know how cranky he gets when people do shit behind his back. Capiche?”
The room flooded with assurances. Damn, Steph had known that Red Hood was a big deal in Park Row, but for all of these men to grovel at the feet of someone claiming to work for the guy? Impressive.
Jack gestured around the room. “We’ve curated the best selection of girls and reserved them for our most esteemed clients. I’m sure you’ll find at least one to your liking. They’re all very eager to please.”
Jason made a show of looking over each girl before settling onto her. “How about you, Blondie? Wanna hang with a guy who doesn’t need Viagra to get it up?”
Hal huffed indignantly, gripping her tighter. “Now, wait a minute–”
“She’s all yours,” Jack announced, as if Steph were a livestock at auction. “Lucy, be good for Mr. Peter, now. Hal, just walk away, and your tab’s on the house tonight.”
With a finally growl, the man released her, and Steph felt like she could breathe again.
Jason sat down to play cards with some of the men. After lighting a cigar, he pulled Steph down onto his lap. The gesture was exaggerated to look rough and possessive to the rest of the group, but Jason was very mindful of where his hands landed.
“You be my good luck charm. M’kay, Darlin’?”
Steph giggled. It suddenly felt so hot inside the basement. Had it been this warm a minute ago? “Yes, sir.”
As the cards were dealt, the men talked. Steph tried to follow along with the conversation, but her brain was feeling little fuzzy. She was suddenly very aware of the man she was pressed up against. Jason had always been like a brother to her, but right now? He looked so damn sexy in his leather jacket and tight-fitting t-shirt. And that white streak in his hair? It was definitely doing something for her.
She blinked, momentarily coming back to herself. Where had all of that come from? She didn’t like Jason like that at all. And beyond that, she had a mission. She needed to focus on the…
What was she doing again?
Something was very wrong.
Stephanie was hot – not in an attractiveness way, but as in a feverish, skin-like-fire kind of way. And she was acting weird. Jason was trying to gather intel from his fellow patrons at the card table, but his partner was making it damn near impossible to concentrate. She’d straddled him at some point and kept burying her face in his neck and kissing his skin and rubbing her body against him like Damian’s cat. He was pretending to eat it up, of course, but something (everything) about it felt off, like it wasn’t just her playing into her cover.
“Easy,” he whispered as he nibbled on her ear. Steph simply moaned and started sucking on his pulse point. Alarm bells were ringing in his ear like it was noon at Notre Dame.
“That one seems to like you,” one of his compatriots – one of Park Row’s seedier landlords – pointed out with a boisterous laugh. Similar to Jason, he also had a woman in his lap. She, like Stephanie, was all over the guy, except she was taking it a lot farther. She’d already discarded her bra and was very clearly stroking her companion underneath the table. It made him sick.
Jason fixed his face into a wolfish smirk as he pet Steph’s hair possessively. “I tend to have that effect on women; though, Lucy here is definitely more eager than most. I can’t say I’ve ever been to place like this where the girls are so…compliant.”
“Just you wait,” another one of the men added. “By the end of the night, she’s gonna be naked and begging to choke herself on your dick. The longer that sticker stays on, the more desperate they get!”
Wait a fucking minute.
Jason quickly found the sticker they were referring to – a red heart on the back on Steph’s arm. Was it drugging her transdermally? He needed to get it off of her now. But how to do that without blowing their cover?
“Tell me more about these ‘stickers’,” he requested. He lifted Steph’s chin as if inspecting a trophy, though in reality he was trying to get a better look at his friend’s face. She was smiling at him dopily. Her honey brown eyes were glassed over with blown-out pupils. He discreetly checked her pulse and found it to be racing.
Shit.
“I ain’t no scientist, so I’m not sure how they work exactly, but s’far as I understand, they make the girls crazy horny for you. They’ll do whatever you want with no pushback at all. And the best part? The next morning, they don’t remember a thing! So they come back, and you get to do it all over again like it’s the very first time!”
“The only downside is, a lot of girls burnout after a while,” the landlord explained with a disappointed sigh. He then gestured to the girl on top of him. “Like this one? This is, like, her fifth night in the VIP room. I’ll be really surprised if she’s back tomorrow.”
Jason didn’t like the sound of that at all. It was time to get Steph out of there.
“Well, I gotta admit that Blondie’s got me a little excited. Save my spot, will ya? We’ll be back in a bit.”
With that, Jason stood, lifting Steph up with him. The blonde moaned a bit as she wrapped her legs around his waist, melting against his chest. The other men at the table whooped and egged him on. Jason hated it. These men were no better than the one’s who had used him back when he’d been just a starving kid on the streets. And they thought he was one of them.
Stephanie. Focus on Stephanie.
He carried her into one of the private rooms and placed her on the bed before fixing the curtain into place. Then, he ripped the damn sticker off.
“Steph, can you hear me?” He whispered, cupping her face.
“So w’rm,” she slurred. She was still smiling and giggling intermittently.
Jason ran his hand through his hair. He needed to get her back to the Cave ASAP. It was very possible that the missing women had died due to adverse reactions or overdoses from the drugs, and that the club had hidden their bodies to cover its ass. “Burnout” indeed.
Backup. It was time for backup.
He pressed his emergency beacon that would signal Orphan and Red Robin to come busting in. After taking out his phone and texting them details, he shrugged off his leather jacket and wrapped it around Steph so that no one else would see her in that horrible lingerie.
“You’re gonna be okay, Steph,” he promised, gently turning her on her side so she wouldn’t aspirate if she vomited. “I’ve got you.”
Steph licked her swollen lips. “F’ls good.”
Somehow, he highly doubted that.
Less than five minutes later, he heard shouts as two Bats started kicking ass. Jason felt dizzy with relief. Steph was still breathing regularly, but he’d been around enough drug users in his life to know that could change very quickly. They didn’t even know what was in the stickers to begin with.
The curtain flew open.
“She’s really out of it,” Jason reported as his siblings came in. “The sticker was only on for maybe twenty minutes? It must be immediate release. I swear, I didn’t know –”
Orphan paused just long enough to squeeze his arm. “You did good. She will be okay.”
Red Robin shook with barely contained rage as he checked over his best friend. “Agent A’s on standby at the Cave. I’ve called the Batmobile in for extraction. GCPD and EMS are on their way to collect everyone and treat the other victims.”
At the sound of Tim’s voice, Steph’s eyes fluttered open. “T’m…”
He shushed her as he carefully gathered her into his arms. “I’ve got you. You’re okay. I’ve got you.” He then looked back up at Jason. “Orphan is going to stay here with the victims until the police arrive. There’s a service exit we can take back upstairs to avoid the rest of the club.”
Jason frowned. “What do you want me to do? I can’t exactly be seen leaving here with a Bat.”
Tim looked unbothered. “We’ll split up once we get upstairs, and then you can take your car back to the Cave.”
“What about everyone down here?”
“They won’t see you. Trust me.”
When they left the private room, Jason saw exactly what his brother meant. Every single man in the basement was unconscious. The girls were huddled together in the corner. From what Jason had been told, none of them would remember seeing him.
“That’s Jack, one of the managers,” he said, pointing to the man. “The sticker must have come from him.”
Orphan rifled through the man’s pockets. Sure enough, she pulled out the roll of heart-shaped stickers. “Here, take some for testing,” she suggested, ripping a strip of them off and putting them in an evidence bag. Jason nodded in thanks and shoved the bag into his pocket.
“C’mon, let’s go. The longer we stay here, the more pissed off I get,” Red Robin growled. He was cradling Steph protectively against his chest.
Jason couldn’t agree more.
He pulled in right behind the Batmobile. Tim carried Steph into the med bay where Bruce and Alfred stood waiting.
“She’s started showing signs of respiratory depression,” his brother reported as he gently laid her on the table. He then covered Steph up with a blanket so they could remove the jacket without exposing her. “Her breathing’s slow and shallow.”
“We’ll get her on some oxygen, then,” Alfred decided calmly. “Master Timothy, kindly prepare a nasal cannula while I get an IV started.”
Bruce approached him, an undercurrent of rage radiating off of the man. “What happened?”
Jason retrieved the stickers from his pocket and handed them to his father. “Transdermal drugs. From what I found out, it makes the girls ‘willing’, and then they don’t remember anything the next day. They’re only given in the VIP room, which basically functions as a brothel for high-paying customers.”
The Dark Knight glanced back to the table, the frown on his face deepening.
Steph’s skin was flushed and covered with a layer of sweat. Her makeup was smudged, and her hair was plastered to her forehead. She looked like a complete mess, and Jason couldn’t help but feel responsible. It had been his stupid mission, anyway. He’d promised to keep her safe, and look what had happened.
He was gonna throw up.
He bolted from the med bay and started retching into the first trash can he came across. Stephanie never should have been in that stupid club. Jason should have been able to figure out a way to do the op by himself. He remembered all the times he'd touched her and talked about her as if she were nothing but a toy. The roars of laughter and approval from the rest of the men rang in his ears. Was he any better than them? Had he become the very thing he’d sworn to destroy?
“Jaylad, I need you to breathe.”
His father’s words barely managed to cut through his panic.
“I-I messed up, Dad. Steph–”
“Is going to be okay. Alfred and Tim are both with her, and we’ve got Leslie on standby by if things get worse. She’s stable right now. You protected her, Jason. That’s what matters.”
“How is letting her get drugged to kingdom come ‘protecting her’?”
Bruce put a steadying hand on his back. “You couldn’t have known about the stickers. But you did what you were supposed to do: you stayed close to her, and as soon as she was in danger, you got her out. Is that not what happened?”
Jason straighten, wiping his mouth with his sleeve. “I mean, yeah, but the things I did while we were down there… I treated her like she wasn’t even a person! And things just kept escalating. I didn’t want to –”
“Sweetheart, you didn’t do anything wrong,” his father soothed. “Stephanie knew the nature of the mission when she volunteered. You both did. And as much as I hated it, I allowed it to happen because lives were on the line. You did what you had to do to complete the mission and keep your partner safe. And you succeeded at both, Jaylad. Because of you, no more women will be victimized by these stickers. And like I said earlier, Stephanie is stable. You kept her safe, Jason.”
Knowing they’d be able to keep more women from being drugged did make Jason feel a little better, though not much. “I-I just feel so dirty. Like I’m no better than the men that –”
“Jaylad, don’t you dare compare yourself to those that abused you,” Bruce said sternly. “For starters, you and Stephanie are both adults. On top of that, you had predetermined boundaries of consent you’d both agreed upon prior to the mission, correct?”
Jason nodded. It was one of the things he’d been very insistent upon as they’d prepared.
“And you stayed within those boundaries?”
He thought about it. No privates were touched, and all clothes stayed on. “Y-yeah.”
“Then you have nothing to feel guilty about. You acted exactly as you should have. And now, a dangerous operation is going to be shut down, and, when Stephanie wakes up, she’ll know you kept the worst from happening. I’m so proud of you, son.”
The reassurance helped Jason’s composure return to him. He took a few, deep breaths. “Okay, I’m good now. I wanna go back to her.”
Because Jason had made a promise to keep Steph safe, and he was going to continue until she could do so herself.