Warning! Spoilers ahead for The Next Batman: Second Son #7!
Tim "Jace" Fox might have plenty of vigilante experience that will undoubtedly help him become the next Batman, but he just acted as though he would resort to anything to keep himself from getting into a fight.
The cowardly moment in question comes in The Next Batman: Second Son #7, written by John Ridley with art by Travel Foreman and Mark Morales when a woman walks by a couple of hoodlums who immediately start making lewd comments about her. When she ignores their advances, the thugs get physical, only to find themselves on their backs or in other compromising positions after sustaining various blows to key body parts that knock them off their feet. At first, it's believed this was just a random occurrence until Jace can be seen from the sidelines, lurking in the shadows as he watches the entire scenario play out.
Turns out, Jace hired these petty fools to test out the woman's strength and overall abilities instead of discovering them for himself. Regardless, her impressive display (and their utterly embarrassing defeat) acknowledges Jace's worst fears: That she is going to be a handful. Named Eabha O'Roark, this threat to Batman is the bodyguard for a courier that's associated with the philanthropist and purported criminal Tyler Arkadine.
Jace has been hot on Arkadine's trail ever since his time as Batman in Vietnam when Jace infiltrated the philanthropist's mansion for suspecting that his business dealings were just a front for a massive trafficking operation. Of course, Jace's attempts at finding definitive proof failed, forcing him to make a tactical retreat. Serendipitously, Arkadine's courier arrives in Gotham shortly after Jace returns there himself on his family's request, allowing him to keep tabs on the suspected criminal. It is Jace's belief that this courier will uncover the truth about Arkadine, and as the bodyguard, O'Roark will have to be dealt with.
What's odd about Jace's aforementioned cowardly act (or non-act) is that he's proven himself quite capable in a fight before. In Vietnam, he fought against Arkadine's thugs head-on and seemed to relish in the thought of having to get up close and personal with them since they didn't have any guns. Then, later on in Gotham, he knocks out some bouncers who were beating up a man whom Jace had originally planned on "convincing" to leave his sister alone. It's possible that Jace is just being overly cautious with O'Roark, knowing she's associated with someone who he has some serious issues with. But the fact that he actually hires some goons to test her out seems like overkill. If he chose this standoffish approach to avoid her discovering his identity, Jace could have very well just donned the trusty ski mask that he's worn since Vietnam. Maybe Jace just needs a Bat-Family of his own like Batman to do all his dirty work?