Hello readers. The muse was good for this story, not so much for my others (especially since I had time to write over the holiday). She's a fickle mistress. Anyway, here's another chapter and thank you for the support.

Jeremy Shane: Thanks, here is another.

Fanfic-Reader-88: I hope it became clear who was 'The Bat' in the last chapter. There may be something more to Freddie than just a reporter from The Daily Planet.

DeppThroat: I hope it was a pleasant surprise with the visitor. Who's 'Batman'? :D Battles are more personal when the people on the other side are friends. He makes an interesting choice as a butler.

Boris Yeltsin: I'm going to try. Time is always the biggest factor, especially with the number of stories I have on my plate.

Challenge King: Thank you. I hope with the last chapter people started figuring out who was who.

Twilight Warrior 627: Thank you for the praise. It's intended to be as much as possible a down to Earth story with the only 'marvelous' thing that separates it from our world is 'The Superman', so the villains are something comprehensible, the Mob, not 'supervillains'. It may be a crossover with those two main characters, but my intention is for this to have 'The Bat' as the star and 'The Man of Tomorrow' being a supportive role. However, there will be a few sprinkles of what life is like in Metropolis.

On another note, illusorygentleman has started a new story, it's a horror/murder mystery story entitled, 'Schneider's Island'. It is rated M for violence, so fair warning.

Rating: T Violence

Chapter 2

Freddie quietly watched the millionaire gracefully make her way to speak with nearly each and every guest. She'd politely smile and exchange a few words, particularly thanking them for attending and willing to gamble some money away for a good cause. They in turn commenting on how lovely she looked this evening (a sentiment that he completely agreed) then she'd move on to another person or couple. The reporter didn't think the thanks was needed to the elite of Gotham since from the understanding of anyone that paid even a scant amount of attention to the city, people were trying to find any way to indulge in what was considered the vices by the 'Drys' without having to travel to Atlantic City. Also, the free flowing alcohol was a particularly good incentive to show up and quickly lose one inhibition on throwing their money away.

As Freddie trailed behind her, Jade eventually made her way to Commissioner Dickers and Mason, still at one of the roulette tables. Commissioner Dickers turned from his position at the end of the table and charmingly spoke to the hostess, "Miss West, you look absolutely lovely this evening."

"Thank you Commissioner."

Mason turned away after making his bet and directed an overdramatic grin to her. "Bobby is absolutely right Miss West. You look stunning this evening."

She bowed her head somewhat modestly, keeping up appearances and knowing there was a hint in their voices that they were trying to flirt with her without it looking as if they were flirting. She held little doubt they were doing such a thing as she noticed them stealing glances at her cleavage and chest.

The Commissioner continued, "Thank you again Miss West for holding this benefit. I know the officers' families deeply appreciate the gesture."

She returned with a lovely smile, "You're quite welcome."

Commissioner Dickers finally noticed Freddie's presence and passed a glance to the reporter, giving him an odd look at seeing his choice of dress wear for the event, but commented with a strained voice of politeness, "So you decided to bring along a date instead of Mister Harris escorting you?"

She passed a quick glance towards Freddie then politely answered, "No, this is Freddie Benson. He's from the Daily Planet and here to do a puff piece on me." She let out an easygoing laugh, "I guess the editor wants to ingratiate himself with me after purchasing the paper by having a good piece written about me. I'm not entirely thrilled with the idea, but I don't want to unduly influence the paper by telling him what stories to print."

Dickers' smiled somewhat faded at hearing the word 'press', especially someone from out of town that didn't understand the press' place in Gotham.

Mason however responded with a hearty laugh, "You could always fire him. That would teach you next editor not to try to kiss your arse, if you pardon my language ma'am. I'm of the mindset that my arse is for sitting, not kissing." He looked to Freddie and continued, "So you're the one that got caught with the, how do they say, 'the short straw'?"

"I actually asked for the assignment as to give me the chance to cover 'The Bat' and this… clown fellow burning down people's businesses. I'm sorry, but the word is that one of your establishments was burned down by the white face clown… that it was really a gambling and speakeasy establishment. Would you like to squash those rumors with an official comment?"

Mason's smile turned into a borderline gob smacked expression, clearly caught off guard by the turn in subject and question.

Dickers quickly spoke up wit a slightly harsh tone, "For the record, there is no 'Bat'. It's just some tabloid nonsense that the press is trying to stir up since they can't splash crime headlines as they can in Chicago or New York because crime in Gotham is actually down since the mayor's and city council's policies on alcohol were enacted last year and fully supporting my aggressive policing policies. No serious journalist is wasting his or her time on the matter and for the sake of your professional reputation, you shouldn't either. And as for this 'clown', my officers have not seen one shred of sustainable proof that such an individual exists. The fire marshal is still investigating whether there was any arson involved or it was some kind of accident, possibly an electrical wiring failure."

Freddie politely smiled and nodded his head. "Thank you for the advice sir. I deeply appreciate it being an outsider to Gotham."

Dickers smiled, figuring that he had effectively cowed the young man with the fatherly warning. He thought perhaps he could use him in some capacity in Metropolis.

Mason gathered his wits after his initial hesitation and spoke, "Actually for the record, I owned only a minor percentage of the establishment. The majority owner is a business partner of mine, Beck Oliver. If you have any further questions, he would be the one to speak with. My part in the business was to finance capital as a legitimate business investment."

Before Freddie could question him further, the roulette dealer shouted, "Red Twelve!"

Mason and the commissioner turned back to the table and the business man laughed in celebration at winning his wager. He looked back to the hostess and politely remarked, "If you'll excuse me, it looks like I'm on a winning streak."

Jade politely smiled. "Of course Mister Thornesmith. It was nice to speak with you. The same with you commissioner. Thank you for indulging Mister Benson."

Dickers laughed, "It was our pleasure. I always have the time to speak with such an upstanding member of the community."

Jade passed along another smile then turned and led Freddie away from the table where they started walking between the gambling tables and crowd without any particular destination in mind. Jade quietly asked with a slight turn of her head to him, "That was bold to ask him such a thing."

"I'm a member of the press; I'm suppose to ask the hard questions."

"Questions like that could get you killed."

He answered with a surprising amount of self-confidence that he hadn't shown over the last hour, "All the more reason to ask them."

She cocked her left eyebrow up, the one that when she was younger she had pierced during what was called her 'gothic phase' while in high school and early college, actually impressed with the young man's strong words. She softly warned for his benefit, "He is the crime boss of Gotham. He's to be given a certain level of respect for that… but not fear."

"How does he manage that? How does he make his money? What keeps him in power? As one of the wealthiest people in Gotham—the entire Eastern Seaboard—I would think you would know."

"Is this off the record?"

He nodded his head and displayed a firm expression, "Absolutely ma'am."

"I'll have to trust that you really do have professional ethics…"

She kept walking through the crowd while Freddie eagerly followed until they were at the perimeter of the room and Jade continued her pacing. Out of suspected earshot or the ability to be overheard from the attendees, she continued, "Mason and his fellow bosses have the mayor and the city council in their back pocket and it is really their policy on alcohol that Dickers just mentioned. They have the council purposely keep the alcohol taxes so high in the city that people will look elsewhere to get their booze at reasonable and sometimes dirt cheap prices."

"Like New York City and their tobacco taxes is creating a black market for cigarettes?"

"Exactly."

He rhetorically asked, "So no one is ever going to prosecute him or his fellow gangsters for trying to cheat the city because the mayor and council members get kickbacks from the profits of untaxed liquor? Is it the same reasons they ignore the reported illegal gambling?"

"Yes and the fact that people—especially the elites—like their booze cheap and their gambling without having to travel to Atlantic City, but Robbie, our newly elected D.A., will prosecute them if he can get the evidence for it and make it public. They couldn't cover that up. The scandal would be too much and the state would get involved about the illegal gambling. He was elected on the promise to root out the corruption that everyone knows about, but doesn't want to do anything about. The problem is that they may want the cheap booze and the gambling, but crime is becoming rampant since almost everyone in the government is on the payroll they have no real ability to stop them from doing anything else they want: protection, extortion and prostitution. It's only 'down' because they're not reporting it."

"You trust him to do that? As you said, he's an elected official and I and my partner have had to deal with a number of them in Metropolis. They can disappoint you."

She answered with a curt tone, irrationally feeling insulted by the alluded to insult, "I've known Robbie since my freshmen year of high school. He's my friend and one of my best friend's boyfriend. He's a good man and they won't buy him off."

He nodded, trying to placate her for the unintended insult to her friend and quickly tried to shift the subject away from the district attorney. "But how do you know all this?"

She stopped in her tracks and turned to face him, quickly bringing the reporter to a stop. She looked him in the eyes past his glasses and gave him a beautiful smile that struck a nerve, the same nerve that his partner would strike when she would smile, but it was never directed at him, but to the 'Man of Steel'. She teased, "I'm beautiful and filthy rich. Use those reporting skills and figure it out."

He spoke before he could catch himself, "You certainly are ma'am, but you don't wear it like the others I've seen so far tonight or most of the ones in Metropolis. I don't see how they would necessarily let you in on their inner circle to find out the game they all seem to be playing."

Jade's cheeks formed the barest of hints of flush on them from his complement as unlike all the others she had spoken with over the last hour except of course her friends, she heard and saw in his face the true sincerity of his words without any apparent alternative motivation such as Dickers or perhaps Mason had with her. She reached over and grabbed her second glass of champagne off of a passing tray then casually answered while directing her attention on the various gambling tables, "My business headquarters is in the heart of the city with a number of my subsidiaries. I've had multiple layered conversations with officials to know how things work over the years in Gotham. I wouldn't want surprised inspections from any number of departments that would conveniently say that any one of my business was in violation of some code or hampering of permit renewals or getting new ones for new construction."

"So you have to bribe them too just to keep them off your back?"

She snapped her head to look at him and gave him a harsh glare, but his look lacked any judging of her and quickly softened her stance. "No, I understand the message that my best interests would actually be them getting reelected and that I should do my part to help."

"Campaign contributions? Legalized extortion."

"In a word, yes." She quickly took another sip from her drink, trying to calm her anger of having to give any one of them a dime of her money.

The pair fell into silence as Jade enjoyed her drink while Freddie looked over to guests, just observing them and trying to memorize faces for possible future reference.

Jade eventually asked after finishing half her drink, "Why did you think I wouldn't be part of their 'inner circle'?"

Freddie snapped his head back to look at her and asked, "Excuse me?"

She turned slightly to look at him and softly questioned, "You said you didn't believe I would be welcome into their circle. Why?"

He cleared his throat and directed his gaze away from her penetrating eyes and answered, "Because after watching you for the last hour, I haven't picked up any of those arrogant and self-important tendencies as the others attending."

"Maybe I'm just a good actress?"

"I have no doubt of that ma'am with your background in acting while in high school, but I kind of pride myself in observing human behavior and when you observe it long enough, the true person eventually slips through to be scene."

She directed a grin at him and teased, "So you've done your research on me?"

"Any good reporter does their background research on a subject before they're interviewed."

"So this is an interview now?"

"Not necessarily this, but I was hoping at some point that you'd sit down to a formal one."

"We'll have to see. While you follow me around for the next few days, you'll see that I'm a very busy woman and if you truly have faith in your skills of observing people then you'll learn about me far more than a sit down interview."

He politely smiled that bordered on a charming one. "I look forward to it Miss West."

She returned the smile then hid it behind another sip of her champagne, but the look in her lovely blue eyes expressed a mild playfulness that she was looking forward to see if he could meet her challenge.

A few gentlemen's heads turned at the late arrival, including some of the older ones that had no real business looking at the newcomer in the manner the younger ones were directing at the young woman. After Jade had lowered her glass, she instantly smiled when she saw the young woman and quickly approached her, leaving Freddie to unexpectedly catch up with her, and call out, "Tori?"

The quite lovely brunette looked around the throng of guests for several seconds trying to figure out the direction of the familiar voice calling out to her then brightly smiled at seeing her hold high school nemesis when she laid her eyes on her. She happily laughed as she quickly approached, "Jade?"

The young ladies shared a quick hug when Jade was in range then pulled back and easily commented, "I'm so glad you could make it. You look fantastic Tori."

For the second time of the night, Freddie's breath was nearly taken away at seeing another lovely young woman (the first of course being Jade) as to his eyes, the newcomer was absolutely beautiful in her orange silky satin halter sheath floor-length dress with her hair tied up in the back with some hair parted over the right side of her forehead to frame her high cheek.

"Thank you Jade." She bowed her head to get a good look at Jade then happily comment, "You do too. I'm sorry I'm late. I had to run a last minute errand then I had to run back to my dad's place to change."

She bent her head forward and whispered, "I'm just happy you're here to rescue me. Cat ran off with Robbie somewhere and André's busy making his own rounds with the guests."

Tori turned her head slightly and smiled to the handsome reporter that had walked up next to Jade and teased, "Why would you need rescuing from such handsome date?"

Freddie bashfully bowed his head and glanced away at the brunette while at the same time Jade knotted her brow. "Date?" She looked over to where Tori was directing her gaze and it dawned on what her lighter brunette friend meant. She softly laughed and slightly shook her head, "Oh no, Mister Benson is not my date. He's a reporter from the Daily Planet in Metropolis sent to do a piece on me. He's going to be my shadow for the next few days."

Tori softly laughed while she slipped up beside the reporter and looped her arm around his arm, "That's a shame Jade. I think he'd make a fine date. Mind if I snatch him?"

Freddie attempted to hide the soft blush forming on his face which drew another soft laugh from Tori.

Jade paused, feeling an odd and to her mind a childish jealous reaction at Tori showing any interest to the young reporter that was suppose to be her shadow for the next few days. She thought it was perhaps some buried resentment carrying over from high school about how she had always been afraid of losing a guy to the sweet, girl-next-door Tori regardless of the fact that she had only known Freddie for about an hour with no conscious desire for him. She suppressed the feelings and awkwardly laughed off, "You'd have to ask Mister Benson, but don't you think you should introduce yourself first?"

Tori laughed, eager to take up the suggestion from her friend and sweetly asked the reporter as she looked to meet his eyes and rested her other hand on his bicep, "I'm sorry, I'm Tori Vega. I'm an old friend of Jade's from high school."

"Tori Vega? I thought your resemblance to the actress was just a coincident. I've seen a number of your films. You were fantastic in the Wizard of Oz."

"Thank you, I just wish I would have gotten Jade to play with me in it."

The millionaire rolled her eyes and took a quick sip from her drink before remarking, "I was not going to wear green makeup or look that hideous. Besides, I wouldn't have the time. I do have a business to run."

Tori confidently smirked as she retorted, "André runs the business for the most part, so that's no real excuse. Mark my words Jade: I will get you for the prequel."

Jade rolled her eyes before taking another sip of her drink.

Tori looked back to Freddie and continued, "The Daily Planet you said? I love that paper. It's not news if it isn't in the Planet. Benson? Your name sounds familiar. I'm trying to place what stories I've read your byline."

He nervously chuckled, "You're probably thinking of my partner, Carly Shay that I usually share with her. She's the one that usually gets the first line—not that I'm complaining or anything. She deserves all the credit she gets."

The young ladies could hear something more than just professional praise in the young man's voice and they each drew their own conclusions. Tori tried to hide her mild disappointment that he might not be available. Nevertheless, she continued with an upbeat tone in trying to make conversation, "Hasn't she been the one reporting on that 'Superman' fellow you have flying around Metropolis almost to the exclusion of everything else after saving her from some helicopter accident? Can he actually fly?"

He nodded his head to the side and bashfully answered, "Yes on both accounts."

She slightly wrinkled her nose whispered off in a dreamy manner, "He could save me anytime."

Jade noticed the slight frown that had formed on Freddie's face. She felt a twinge of pity for the reporter in realizing that it bothered him that Tori had made an inadvertent comparison between him and 'The Man of Steel'. She could understand the hurt feeling about the comparison to other women—particularly Tori and not feeling as if she measured up in the eyes of their group from high school, but it had to be worst for him when she took the leap in believing that he liked his partner, but she was too infatuated with 'The Superman' to give him a look. How do you measure up to a guy that is supposedly faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound?

The darker brunette spoke up, "There's more to being a man than just saving the 'damsel-in-distress'. What about the man behind the big red 'S'? Would he be there for the things that he couldn't fix with just brute force? There's being there for the little things as much as the big things that sometimes just can't be fixed or would he just take off thinking it was pointless because he couldn't bash the problem away. Would he be there for the things he's powerless to fix? After saving you, would he be there in the morning or would he just fly off to save someone else, leaving you behind?"

Tori looked on her friend with a mildly shocking expression then softly laughed, "And you're not a romantic?"

Jade slightly frowned then mumbled before taking another sip from her drink, "Whatever Vega."

Freddie randomly spoke up, "He would be there."

The girls turned their attention back to him and gave him curious expressions.

He awkwardly laughed then hesitantly answered, "I've… I've never spoken with him, but from what I gathered from Carly, he seems like a good guy behind the cape. In the end, he's just a man in a silly red sheet with probably the same hopes and dreams like the rest of us. Wouldn't he be looking for someone to be there for him?"

Tori quickly asked, "Wouldn't that be Carly?"

He quietly answered, "She sees the 'S', not the man."

Jade turned her head slightly to the side while she narrowed her eyes on him, hearing something in his voice, but it wasn't jealousy. She couldn't place her finger on exactly what she heard, possibly something akin to regret… regret that Carly had chosen someone else over him, but it just quite wasn't that. She didn't have the chance to dwell on it further as Tori remarked, "I could use something to drink and I'm betting that Sikowitz made sure the have the best hors d'oeuvre made."

The lighter brunette grabbed Jade's free hand and started pulling Freddie along by the arm to find one of the passing hors d'oeuvre trays.

Gary, Detective Vega's partner tried to make his way through the crowd as inconspicuous through the crowd, but he wasn't entirely successful while in his business attire and hurriedly weaving his way through the elite. He finally made it to the end of the gambling table where his boss was watching Mason continuing on his winning streak. He quietly walked up next to the commissioner and whispered to both men, "There's been a break-in at your apartment Mister Mason."

A hard expression formed on Mason's face in an instant and harshly whispered out, "What did they steal?"

"We're not sure. One of your private security guards was overpowered as he tried to stop the robbery, but when he came to, your safe was locked back up, so we don't know what was stolen out of it."

The commissioner and the business man looked to one another with a mixture of anger and concern. Mason quickly told the dealer he was cashing out and taking his winnings. After gathering them, he turned and walked around the table with Dickers and Gary right behind him, intent on returning home as quickly as possible to see what was stolen.

Several minutes after finding and consuming a number of hors d'oeuvres, Tori went off to find André to catch up with him and possibly finding Beck after the hostess informed her that their mutual friend was at the event, but the slightly older brunette made it a point to tell Freddie to keep his arm warm for her.

As the remaining pair stood off to the side, Jade commented with an odd, sour taste in her mouth, "It looks like Tori's taken a liken to you."

"I find that hard to believe. She's surrounded by plenty of other well-off fellows in her business. I'm just some lonely reporter."

"She knows any one of those 'well-off fellows' would try to take advantage of her at the first opportunity besides having their name attached to hers in the press. They wouldn't care about her, just her name…" She turned to look him straight in his soft blue eyes and whispered, "…like some people only see the 'S' and not the man."

He hurriedly raised his right pointer and middle finger to the side of his glasses to make sure they were straight on his face.

She knotted her brow quickly, unsure as to the reason to his odd reaction of trying to straighten his perfectly sitting glasses.

He stared back, a hint of fear in his eyes that she could make out, but her curiosity couldn't be satisfied with a question as the terrible RAT-TAT-TAT sound suddenly filled the leisure room as a well dressed man with a Halloween clown mask fired his Thompson submachine gun into the air as he was joined by several others holding .38s and Colt .45s and large wool bags at the end of the room.

"Everyone down on the ground and step away from the money!" he needlessly shouted after firing as the gathering nearly as one dropped to the floor and some attempted to hide under the gambling tables.

Detective Vega ducked behind one of the pedestals out of sight and pulled his service revolver from his side holster under his left breast pocket. He quickly tried to assess how many there were along with trying to spy Tori, but she was lost somewhere in the crowd.

The other clown masked thugs quickly walked to the tables and started filling the bags with money, no one dare willing to oppose them.

One of the clown wearing thugs walked over to Jade, possibly recognizing her as the hostess of the event, and grabbed her by the upper right arm and pointed the end of his .38 just under her chin. He shouted, "Where's Mason Thornesmith?!"

Freddie snapped in a harsh tone, so harsh it surprised Jade and the thug, "Let her go."

They turned to look at the Metropolis reporter and for an infinitesimal moment Jade swore that his pupils turned red. Apparently the thug saw it as well and was stunned into silence. Jade gathered her wits quicker and lifted her left foot and stomped as hard as she could manage with her high-heeled shoe into the man's loafer covered foot.

He roared in pain, loosening his grip on her arm long enough for Freddie to push her to the side away from the clown thug and she landed hard on her left shoulder. She looked up just in time to see the well dressed clown turned his gun on Freddie and fired at point blank range.

"Freddie!"

He covered the left side of his abdomen with a closed fist and fell backwards to land on his behind and his back against one of the pedestals holding up one of the marble busts.

Jade gritted her teeth in outrage and put on a murderous expression a hair of a second before she grabbed on both sides of her dress and yanked up to give her legs some more freedom of movement then kicked out hard on the back of the thug's left knee.

He roared in pain as dropped to that knee and in nearly a flash Jade had rolled up on her knees and forearmed him in the face as hard as she could swing. He jerked backwards and collapsed on his back, overextending his hurt knee as his leg failed to slip out from under him. She leapt on top of him to mount his chest and punched him once in the face then twice than a third time after his nose was broken and he was out cold.

Freddie looked a little wide eyed at seeing the aggressive act on the part of the millionaire. She turned and scrambled off the clown towards the reporter. She frantically patted his abs, trying to find where the bullet went in him to stop the bleeding, but she couldn't find any blood.

He moved his closed fist away from his abdomen and awkwardly laughed, "I guessed he missed."

She looked at him dumbfounded, unable to comprehend the idea that the thug could miss him at such a range. She quickly shook it off and looped her arm under his left armpit to help him on his feet.

As she turned away from him to see if any of the clown's fellow crooks were coming to check on him, Freddie opened his hand to see the .38 slug had mushroomed out on his palm. He closed his hand and slipped the slug into his blazer's pocket without Jade none the wiser.

On the other side and further down the room, another one of the thugs that wasn't busy swiping as much cash and chips off the table had reached Beck and Sam, who had ducked under the end of one of the gambling tables. He apparently realized Beck's identity and had the intent on killing the young man as he was raising his .45.

Beck was far quicker as he slightly turned from his knelt position and shoved his hand into the slit of the dress and between Sam's legs.

The crook paused at witnessing at what he thought was such a crude act, but in that hesitation, the long haired young man pulled his hand from underneath Sam's dress and snapped around to train the .38 Colt Detective Special at the clown mask wearing thief.

The robber only had a split of a second to realize what had happened at the same time his eyes shot open as Beck didn't hesitate to pull the trigger and after the split second, the slug went between the man's eyes. Only a bit of blood splattered forward onto Beck as he shielded Sam while a splattering of blood went out the back of his head.

Beck was immediately on his feet then knelt down to pick up the fallen man's .45. He handed Sam back the .38 then dug through the man's pockets before pulling out two magazines and shoving them into his own pocket.

A look of outright fear played on Sam's face, but not for herself as she shouted in a short breath, "We got to find Cat."

"We have to find Jade first."

The blonde knotted her brow that joined her furious expression.

He ignored her obvious anger and sharply retorted, "I have to know she's safe, but she's the first one we should find because this place has to have a safe room and Jade would be the one to know it so I can get you, Cat and her to it."

She wanted to argue with his goal, but she couldn't find a flaw in it.

"Stay close and don't be afraid to use that," he sternly instructed with a motion to the revolver in her hand.

The one carrying the Tommy gun glanced around and was unable to see Mason. He looked to the others of his crew in sight that were looking for the mob boss, but saw that they were having just as little luck. He growled in frustration then shouted, "Damn! Mason's not here! We got to go before the law shows up! Grab as much cash as you can then follow me!" He turned and started his way out the door and the others obeyed his command of grabbing any stray money on the tables then followed him towards the door.

A trailing member of the crew that had made his way to the back of the leisure hall was rushing to catch up so he wouldn't be left behind, but as he was making his way halfway back to the entrance, Detective Vega turned from his hid position behind a pedestal and punched the crook in the stomach. He duped over from the wind knocked out of him then went face first into the ground when Vega pistol-whipped him just about the left temple.

Beck had caught up behind the police detective and knelt down to help Mister Vega try to restrain the crook as other robbers didn't notice that they were three short while they dashed out of the main entrance of the mansion. Detective Vega wasn't concerned at this point about the others as they were fleeing as it removed the dangers from the guests and he would nab everyone of them since he would make the one they caught talk.

The long haired young man grabbed the downed criminal by the collar and pulled off the clown mask. Beck's eyes widened in recognition then spat out when he instantly recognized him, "You're one of Steven's guys."

Detective Vega instantly recognized the name of one of his daughter's exes that he knew Beck was referring to all the main associates to Mason, but more importantly his mind quickly put the pieces together about the criminals' true purpose: an attempted hit on the Mob boss in a poorly disguised robbery. Now he had to get to Steven before the streets ran red with the blood of mobsters and the innocent.

Author's Note: I hope you enjoyed that chapter with a little background to the setting and action to lead us further into the plot. Until next time, take care.