There were times when Samantha hated her current life.

Being the Head of the Court of Owls not only came with a lot of responsibility but also with a lot of danger. And most of the time, the only way to get out of danger was to take down the opponents permanently.

She was starting to lose count of the people she had taken out herself or ordered to be eliminated so far, all in order to keep her hold over the Court and to find out the truth behind Lavina's scheming.

The latest one had been Reginald Jenkins though she wouldn't have killed him if he hadn't posed a threat to her own identity being risked. There was a high chance Lavina or someone else from the Court would be tailing her and could get information out of Jenkins.

So before that could happen, she had to silence him forever.

To the outside world, she was just Samantha Vanaver; the only daughter of a wealthy businessman who had died as an aftermath of Joker's havoc at Gotham Theater. She had to put up that pretense of being just an ordinary woman currently suffering from the death of her father and the Vanaver group of companies going into deficit. There was nothing else she would want to be tied to her name.

And especially not the truth about her leading the Court.

So far she had her potential next moves lined up in front of her. The first one of them was the Gray Son, also known as Batman, who was quite a formidable target.

She knew there was a high chance that the man suspected her of being tied to the Court despite not showing any suspicious behavior when he had handed her the Talon dagger back.

The second one was Lavina Vikander herself but lately, she was trying to steer clear of the woman, not intending to go to her house any time soon or else those darn owls would pluck her eyes out.

And the last was Bruce Wayne; Lavina's ex-fiance and the Mayor's son, quite a prominent figure in the high society of Gotham. 

But targeting him could also backfire because the man already held a grudge towards her due to the secret relationship between her and Lavina. No wonder he blamed her for the breaking off of their engagement too.

So that left only the first and the hardest option to tackle for her. Unless she could figure out another route.

At least Richard hadn't completely shunned her back when she had talked to him about the connection between Timothy's death and Lavina's plans. It was evident that he had a soft spot for Tim and would fall for it if she used it again.

But he wasn't someone to be messed with, she had assessed that much from studying his background and his current dealings. If he figured out that she was just using him, everything could backfire on her drastically. 

"Rose," she spoke up, addressing the Talon who was staying on her guard, "what do you know about Richard Grayson?"

The Talon stiffened and that slight change in his demeanor didn't escape her notice. 

"Nothing," he replied bluntly.

"Are you sure?" She asked again in a softer tone, "he's the same person the Court refers to as the Gray Son. How could you not know anything about him?"

"I only follow the orders I am given," his reply was stoic yet forced, "and none of those orders included gathering information on him."

"Alright," she nodded, seemingly satisfied by his answer, "let's call it a night then. You may leave."

She watched him cautiously as he left, thinking whether or not to follow him. Something was off about him and she had gotten more certain of it from his reply about the Gray Son.

Either he was hiding what he knew about the Gray Son or he just didn't want her to know anything further about him. In both cases, there had to be an ulterior motive behind his voluntary decision of keeping silent.

"Calvin Rose... You just might be the fourth option I was looking for," she thought, getting up from her chair after deciding to follow him.

He couldn't have gone far enough for her not to catch up. And if her suspicion regarding him was right, then he would be headed straight over to Vikander Mansion.

***

Icy blue eyes skimmed over the copy of the post-mortem report in his hand. Barbara was leaning against the wall beside him, observing his expressions.

After Richard had mentioned the possibility of Reginald Jenkins being murdered and the Court having a hand in it, Barbara couldn't put the matter at rest. So she had taken the risk to copy off Jenkins' post-mortem report and the results were what she had anticipated.

After work hours ended, she brought that copy to Richard's place and showed it to him.

"So I was right," he mumbled, "internal bleeding... It says right here."

She nodded, "yes. It can't be a coincidence."

He looked up, blue irises meeting her green ones, "but wasn't this confidential? Why did you dig it out?"

She sighed, "after all you told me that day, I couldn't just sit by and do nothing. I had to find out the truth."

His eyes softened, seeing the determination on her face, "Babs... I've said this once and I'll say it again. Either you're very brave or very stupid."

She was not expecting that remark and looked rather taken aback by it, "hey, what did you just say?"

"You heard me," he replied, handing her the report, "you could get fired if they found out that you copied this report."

"But then I would never have found out whether your assumption was right or not since I wasn't put in on this case," she mumbled, "come to think of it, I haven't been assigned any new cases lately."

"And here I thought I was the reckless one," he remarked offhandedly but then saw the thoughtful look on her features, quickly catching up on her last remark, "so you think they are intentionally not giving you any cases?"

"Seems like it."

His brow furrowed a bit but then he straightened, arriving at a conclusion, "perhaps the GCPD doesn't trust us as much as they make it seem. We'll both have to be on our guard then." 

"I guess..."

"And in the future, please don't risk your job by copying off confidential info like this one. I will find other ways to make up for it."

Barbara knew Richard was only worried for her but she also knew that his other means weren't quite conventional either and could still put them at risk.

"So far, this report proves that Jenkins had been murdered using the same technique that I suspected," he mused, "which means I have something to look after as well."

"Wait, what do you mean?" Seeing the decisive look on his face, she grew somewhat alarmed. "What are you going to do, Richard?"

He considered whether he should tell her or not but then he had trusted her with everything so far. It was pointless not to trust her that once. "I think I need to have a little chat with either Lavina or Miss Vanaver. Since Lavina is someone I would rather not approach directly, I'll choose the latter."

She looked slightly concerned, "Samantha Vanaver? What does she have to do with this?"

He nodded, standing up and went to his drawer to take out the dagger he had kept and showed it to her, "she has just as much to do with this as Lavina. Because I think she is also involved with the Court."

***