"H-hey boss," Frost nervously knocks on Jason's hotel room door. He was ever mindful to stand as far back as possible, to avoid random stray bullets. Since they had been in New Orleans Jason's moods had grown very erratic and more unpredictable.
The door opens and Frost can see Jason's hollow eyes peering back at him. "I do hope, for your sake, that this is something of an important nature," he says lowly.
"Think we found our inside guy," Frost says and slides a folder through the crack in the door.
Jason takes it and opens it. His eyes go left to right as he reads. "HaHaHaaaa," he suddenly laughs, "this is perfect."
"Yes sir. Ace is at the casino now. He's there, just a few blocks away. He's losing pretty big," Frost informs him.
"Good! How much does he owe the house?" Jason asks with an eager smile.
"A hundred and twenty-seven K," Frost says.
"Well what are we doing standing around talking about it? Let's go," Jason says as he exits his hotel room and practically skips down the hallway.
**********************"
As if by some clever design of fate, the one guard who had caused Harley the most grief, turned out to be the one guard with a gambling problem. Mr. Alpha asshole. All Jason would have to do to put him in his pocket, was pay off his debt to the house. One hundred and twenty-seven thousand was pocket change for the Joker, and well worth the small price to get Harley back.
"Lester, Lester, hit me one more time. Come on man! Damnit!" The guard shouts and slams his fist down on the table. He ignores the hooker on his lap, "Call upstairs and tell them to float me another fifty K, ok?" He tells the dealer, realizing that all his money is gone.
A hard hand clamps down on his shoulder. "Boss wants to see you."
The guard turns to look at the burly looking bouncer, "Hey! Do you know who I am?"
But the man hasn't the patience to play, he zaps Alpha asshole with a tazer to his nostrils. He then drags him to a back room in the kitchen and shoves him down in a chair. A man stands nearby and menacingly stares at Alpha as he slams a meat cleaver down repeatedly into a huge chunk of beef. But Alpha is a man who isn't easily scared, he deals with the worst of the worst five days a week. His bored eyes look over his shoulder at the guy making a show of chopping up the meat.
"Good job man. He's killing it," he motions with his thumb. "Come on man. Why am I here? All right, yeah, I'm down. I get it, all right. I had a run of bad decks. It's not my fault. All right?" He rolls his eyes in boredom.
The boss peers down at him, "Dude, this is real. I had to stop these guys from burning down your house with your wife and kids in it." Alpha asshole's face goes blank as he looks over the hard faces staring at him. "But you're lucky," the boss points at him.
"Maybe, yeah. Why do you think so?" He raises a curious brow. "Yo slick, what's up?" He asks as he watches as Frost comes in with a brief case and hands the casino boss a suran wrapped stack of cash that said 127K on it. Someone was paying his debt, but who, and better yet, why? He motions to the man handing over the cash. "Griggs. And you are?"
Frost just stares, "You might wanna keep your mouth shut."
"Can I go man? Come on. What the hell is going on man?" Alpha asshole Griggs says, still not understanding the series of events. "This is crazy." But then a hand could be felt on his shoulder,
a split second later a second followed. But it wasn't the pressure the hands used that made a chill run down his spine, it was the voice.
"Blah, blah, blah, blah.
All of that chitchat's gonna get you hurt," Jason says and slaps both his hands on Griggs's upper arms, just at his shoulders.
"Oh!" Griggs jumps, "My God!" He paralyzes when he hears the creepy voice starts making various snarling, growling sounds. Slowly he could see his perhiphal vision filling with color. Bright gold. But then he saw green, bright shining green hair.
Griggs's lips part in shock and horror. His eyes take in the pale white skin and bright red lips. And of course, how could he miss the tattoos and scars, or the silver teeth gnashed at him. Griggs swallows hard as Jason suddenly smiles.
"Oooh," Jason coos and stands straight. The smile completely leaves Jason's face. He tongues the inside of his cheek
and extends his left hand out in Griggs's face.
G
riggs sees a good Joker head ring with purple stones for eyes. He glances at the other men in the room, wondering what he should do. Finally he shrugs and kisses the ring on Jason's pinkie. Before he can even process anything, Jason straddles Griggs's legs and takes a seat on his lap.
"I could tell you meant that," he smiles big and grabs both sides of Griggs's face as he cackles with delight,
"HaHaHaaaa," he then becomes serious faced again, "You gonna be my friend?" He peers at Griggs.
"Yeah..." Griggs barely whispers.
Jason takes Griggs, and every other person in the room by surprise when he presses his ruby lips to Griggs's.
"Mmmmm," he licks his lips. Then he lightly slaps Griggs's cheek several times,
"I can't wait to show you my toooys."
He nods to Ace, who steps forward and extends a phone out for Jason to take. He smiles at Griggs and slowly slides his hand inside of Griggs's jacket. He drops the phone in the inside pocket. "This phone you shall give to Miss Quinn. Right?" He asks and pats the phone from outside of Griggs's jacket.
"Yeah... whatever you say," Griggs nervously agrees.
Jason giggles and rests his hands on Griggs's chest. "Mmmm, you're big aren't you?" He asks and squeezes his pectorial musles like a woman's breasts. "I guess you would have to be though to watch over alllll those horrid criminals."
"Yeah, it's a real dangerous job," Griggs says as he watches the Joker's hands on him.
"I trust that I can trust you to take care of my wife?" Jason asks and raises a shaved brow.
"W-wife?" Griggs seems surprised.
"Yes. Harley Quinn. Doctor Harleen Quinzel. My wwwwwife," he flamboyantly accentuates.
"S-sure. Um, I mean yes sir," Griggs nods.
Jason rests his arms across his shoulders and interlocks his fingers behind his neck. "You're not lying to me, are you?" Jason bats his eyes at the terrified man who has shrank back from him as far as he could in the chair with him on his lap.
"No way," Griggs shakes his head.
"Good," Jason smiles and gets off his lap. "Wallet," he holds his hand out to Griggs with his palm up.
"Y-you want my wallet?" Griggs asks.
Jason cocks his head, "I thought we were friends. Do you think I'm robbing you? Hahaha HA! I just paid off your debt to this lovely establishment," Jason twirls his wrist. "I think we all know that your wallet is a bit on the thin side. I would come more likely to stealing from the casino. So stop stalling and hand me your wallet," he shakes his open palmed hand demandingly.
Griggs shifts his weight to one side and reaches into his back right pocket for his wallet. He pulls it out and lays it in Jason's hand. Jason smirks and flips it open. He retrieves his phone from his pocket and takes a picture of Griggs's drivers license. He then closes the wallet. He leans over to look Griggs directly in his eyes. Jason grabs Griggs's hand and places his wallet in it.
"Keep in mind Mr. Griggs, I know exactly where to find you. You play by my rules or else...well, let it just be known that I have a very...very vivid imagination," Jason smirks a murderous warning.
"Y-yeah, of course," Griggs quickly nods.
"But you wouldn't do that,
especially since were friends," Jason wags his finger at Griggs.
"Hell no," Griggs shakes his head in agreement.
Jason smiles even bigger and gives Griggs's a little wave goodbye.
"We'll be in touch. Come on boys," he says and starts to leave, "I'm in the mood for," he spins and starts singing, "Jambalaya, a crawfish pie, and pilaf gumbo," the words to the old Hank Williams song, as he dances out of the room.
After he was gone with his goons, the rest of the men in the room seemed to exhale the breath they had been holding. Griggs's runs his hand over his face. He thanks his lucky stars that he's still alive. He notices that everyone is staring at him. "Sooo, how about floating me that fifty K on the house?"
"Nah man," the casino boss shakes his head, "you gots to go. You done here."
*********************
They soon gave Harley her own private cell. But, just to be cruel, they gave her no bunk, sink, or table. They didn't even give her a pillow or a blanket. She had to sleep on cold hard concrete. They only let her shower once a week, and that was in shackles. She may or may not have been guilty of harming some of the @badly they treated her.
Harley looks up when she hears the bay door open to the large room they had her cage in. She sees a woman in a red shirt walk out onto a balcony that overlooked her cell. Something about the woman made Harley curious. Perhaps it was her eyes. They held no fear in them whatsoever.
Harley stands. She grabs the bars and puts her face to them, "Are you the devil?" She asks the stone faced woman.
"Maybe," she simply tells Harley.
*******************
Inside of the SUV was silent. Only the sound of the engine, and the muffled noises from the other cars on the 70 miles per hour interstate could be heard. In the front seat two of the Joker's clowns sat. One drove as the other studied a map. In the back seat the Joker and the Jester sat peering out their respective black tinted windows.
They were on their way down to New Orleans. The Joker had become concerned about the situation when Jason hadn't returned to Gotham after a week. He couldn't rest easy not knowing what was going on. There might have been a problem. If so, chances were good that the real Joker could fix things. He just couldn't leave Harley's welfare in Jason's incompetence. He couldn't even trust it in Bruce's rehabilitatian loving hands. He felt that only he could truly rescue Harley.
Jake had tried to keep his twin calm. He assured him that Frost and Ace were there in New Orleans with Jason. If a problem arose the Joker would be the first person they notified. He reminded the Joker that the plan was to let Jason bust her out of prison. Then they would take her from Jason. It was just easier and far less of a risk to J. Plus, Bruce was monitoring everything. If Harley were in danger, he was one of the best fighting chances she could have. Even Ivy had tried to keep the Joker from crumbling.
But the Joker could not be rationalized with. Nor could he stay calm. His wife was locked up in some maximum security federal prison in a swamp. Their child had been taken. God knows where it could be by now. But one thing was certain, it had to be rescued too. And the Joker wouldn't do it without Harley at his side. Saving his wife was the first necessary step to regaining his family. They would all be together again, even if he had to die to make it so.
The sound of a low gutteral growl caused Jake to turn his head.
He could see his brothers reflection on the window, teeth clenched, lips pulled back. "What's on your mind brother?" Jake asks. The Joker just ignores him with another growl.
*************************
Bruce had tried to keep the Joker in Gotham by any means he could, including a high speed chase with weaponry. But too many lives were at stake on the busy city streets. Bruce backed off, knowing that he had successfully placed a tracking device on the SUV that the Joker was in. So he returned to Wayne Manor and patiently wait his jet to be fueled. At least he knew where the Joker was heading.