No

I did check, after picking everyone up and dumping them at their houses, Kianna was free. I slept at her house and she fussed over my cuts, making sure they’d been patched up right. Then she made sure I got fed and ‘taken care of’

It meant I had to wake up even earlier to get everyone else to work, but it was worth it. Then I stopped by and helped out the idiot kids as my good deed of the day, and got a bit of information about the organization and a few names, none of which really matter. They were excited at the prospect of getting an actual local involved.

Asa was doing a video with a shockingly successful local influencer, who was a taxidermist, Bradford Thorne. Gotham was fucking weird. He had a good reputation, but it was still...unusual and she wanted someone else around in case he got bad-weird. She hadn’t heard anything negative from the other influencers who’d done his ‘Brad teaches taxidermy to X’ series, but still.

I showed up and Andre was indeed there. Good. I guess. We all walked in together, the studio was professional, cameras already set up. The only thing we’d be doing is keeping an eye on things and shooting ‘behind the scenes’ footage Asa could release separately.

The video was going fine, but there was no chance to talk with Andre. We had to be quiet to not interfere with the audio. Which made the fit redhead who walked in wearing a workman’s clothes, saying “Yo, Brad. Job’s done, but like I said, fitting all that soundproofing in meant going with the more expensive--whoa, who’re all these people?” sort of a surprise.

I turned and smiled at her. “Eli Cain,” I extended a hand.

She shook it, “Jenna Duffy, I’m the contractor working on his basement.”

The flash up announced:

Target Acquired, Jenna “The Carpenter” Duffy: -32 SP

What the fuck? Why would she have a secret identity? Who the hell was the ‘Carpenter’? I’d never heard of anyone with that pseudonym. How had she 'wronged' me? Oh, fuck, what had I walked into? I smiled to cover it up, “Well, if you’re working for him, you’re obviously good. I’ve got some work I might need done, got a card to give me?”

“At your apartment?” Andre asked, clapping me on the shoulder heavily. I doubted it was accidental that he was spiking me, but I couldn’t figure out why, we’d barely interacted at this point.

I glanced over at him, but before I could say anything, Asa cut in, “Oh, you’re finally dealing with that mess your parents left you? That old place on Clearmont?”

I blinked at the rescue. My parent’s house had been sold when they left town. But technically Kianna owned two properties. The house Kianna lived in and a place that she’d lived in when she first moved to the city. It had been gutted in a fight between the original Firefly, a gang of mercenaries hired by Scarecrow, the League of Assassins, and Batman. The whole area had burned. She hadn’t rebuilt there, but used the insurance money to pay off the mortgage and put a downpayment on her current place. They still technically owned it, but it was in a ruined bad part of town, with a tear down on it. The property taxes were minimal, so Kianna held onto it basically as a gamble.

While I’d been thinking, Jenna had been fawning over Asa a bit, as she apparently really liked her stream, which was no surprise, the girl had muscles. She shook it off after a glance at the annoyed Brad though and looked back at me. “You said something about a job?

“About time to deal with that old place,” I agreed. This was a bit weird, Andre, who presumably would want me seeing someone else, was trying to foul it up and Asa was trying to play wingwoman…

“Sure thing, just give me a call,” she pulled out a card and passed it over. +1 SP (Jenna: -31)

Brad finally cut in. “Thank you, Jenna, send me your bill and I’ll get you your money. Asa, we’ll need to redo the last three minutes.” They got back to it. After the shoot, Asa and Brad had lunch on camera, while Andre and I were relegated to another table.

A little chat, and I finally just straight up asked him, “Tell me the truth, do we have a problem?”

“No shit, sherlock.”

“What is it?”

“You’re always sniffing around Asa, and I know you’re fucking my wife.”

“I thought you had an open relationship.”

“We do. But she’s almost fifty, it’s obvious you’re after her money and after Asa’s pussy and both of those are mine.”

I actually saw white, more at the first part of the sentence than the last. He really didn’t see what Diamond was, even after decades together. This was broken and I was going to fix it. The question was…how? And that depended on a few things. “Why are you so jealous about Asa? She’s not a cheater. If you were just possessive, then this would be about your wife, not her money.”

“Asa’s a slut. If she can’t get dick, she’ll get pussy, and that’s so fucking hot!”

“How is it hot for you? You don’t get to see it.”

“Of course I do, that whole apartment is wired. She makes the hottest girls scream, and I get to watch it, then fuck her too! It’s the hottest thing…I shouldn’t be telling you this.”

“Don’t worry about it.” He relaxed instantly. I looked at him and made my choice about what he was…