Cesare was entertaining guests in the Hollywood Ballroom like normal. His days had grown increasingly luxurious as time went by, and he often thought of how different his life looked in so short a time. Nikki was playing the hostess across the dance floor like she'd grown up in high society her whole life. She could impress the heiresses of fortunes and the star draped actors of Hollywood in kind with her smiles and hushed tones. Her voice made people feel as though everything they were hearing was a secret meant only for them...

As he admired her from his seat in the Ballroom, he saw Ricardo enter through the main doors and scan the room for him. Cesare instinctually put out his cigarette in the ashtray on the table as he lifted his arm to aid Ricardo in his search. The bodyguard approached him and subtly conveyed the news,

"Cesare, we've got a lead on Maggio..."

When he'd finished, Cesare stood, "Bring the car around, Ricky." He quickly retrieved his jacket from the back of his chair as Ricardo rushed out of the room.

He looked up in time to see Nikki eyeing him from her conversation, he knew that she'd read his eyes, so he made his way towards the door hoping to be away before she could realize what was happening...

Even from here, she knew. Only one thing would make him run off...again. The smile melted away from her face and she barely excused herself before slipping through the crowd at top speed and heading Cesare off at the door. 

"You promised. I can't stop you...I always understood the 'why', just now the 'how'. If that's the weak regard you hold me, us, in, I have to say, Cesare, I'm beyond hurt," she said, turning away to lose herself in the crowd. She couldn't help throwing one last barb over her shoulder as she went, though. 

"My gun, contacts, and experience exceed yours a thousandfold. Smart men use their resources, but I see that's not the case here," she finished, focusing on the nearest bar now and how much liquor it would take to drink herself into a stupor and a nearly comatose sleep. She wasn't doing this again. 

She dug into him like a knife. He knew she was right, though much of her anger was in the fear he'd disappear and he would never do that again. She needed to know that he wasn't going to quarter off part of his life from her, no matter the pain it put him in to share it.

He caught her by the arm as she began to leave, "You're right," he pulled her close and paused as she regarded him, "I'm... not good with grief, Nikki." He turned his head from her and averted his eyes, trying to focus on some abandoned corner of the room.

"And..." he took a breath in to calm himself, "this is how I cope, I guess..." it was obvious in the slight waver of his voice how difficult the admission was. He was not used to being hurt, and there was a certain amount of shame in admitting it, even to her.

He finally returned his gaze to her, "You're right, and my fiancée should not be left guessing." He ran his hand across her cheek, "Come with me, Love. Come and see what I'm like."

Nikki studied him a long moment and then gave a curt nod before they departed to their living quarters upstairs. Both changed into more appropriate garb...what Nikki fondly referred to as their 'work clothes'...before both set to work preparing a go-bag. Digging through shelves in the closet, each item tossed inside them seemed to get weirder by the second. Cesare threw in a hunting knife, Nikki threw in a set of brass knuckles. Cesare watched this and countered with a small explosive. Shooting him a competitive smile, Nikki added a hand torch. Grinning now, Cesare topped her with a container of highly corrosive solution, to which she blew him a kiss and finished off with a tiny envelope of powder that looked like cocaine. At his raised eyebrow, she turned it around for him to see the label. 

Anthrax.

With that, the two departed the suite and were joined by Ricardo as they slipped out the service entrance in the back and into the vehicle he had idling. Ricardo got behind the wheel and accelerated down the alleyway. In the back seat, Nikki studied Cesare's face, deep in thought under the passing street lights.

"Your show, I'll do whatever you need me to," she said quietly, reaching for his hand. Family business she simply didn't fathom; Nikki had killed her own father. But she respected it nonetheless. 

The car moved inexorably towards its destination, a mansion in the Hollywood hills. When it crept to a stop several houses away, Nikki eyed the place before turning to Cesare once more.

"Interesting. Even under the circumstances, we're slumming," she said, hoping to lighten the mood a bit and wipe some of that heartbreak off of his face. It was a terrible thing to see there, and it hurt her heart, too. He was, after all, the only family SHE would ever have.

The faint shadow of a smile fell over him as she spoke. He was glad she'd come. Still, the day was going to be grim and his disposition had been spoiled. He simply squeezed her hand in recognition of her affection.

He waited peering out of the window for a glimpse of Christian Maggio, one of the men who'd betrayed his brother so long ago. He was no doubt living in relative ease believing he'd gotten away with it. Cesare was going to teach him how wrong he was...

"Alright, we're going to block their driveway. No doubt he'll come out to tell us to go, that's when we'll jump him. Once he's in the trunk, he'll be easy to deal with." He took a moment to check his pistol. He didn't want to use it. Things ended too quickly when he did...

After some time of apprehensive silence, the young starlet exited the mansion with her bodyguard and headed for the car. A few paces from the vehicle, he noticed their car blocking the end of the driveway. He waved to his employer before making his way down the drive towards them. Cesare nodded to Nikki as he replaced the gun in his waistband and opened the back door of their car.

"Hey asshole! You can't park there!" Maggio shouted as he approached Cesare.

"What's that?" Cesare feigned, urging the man to keep approaching.

"I said, you can't p-" Cesare sucker punched the bodyguard as he came within reach and sent him stumbling back over the curb.

"Ricky!!" He roared to his own man who exited to open the trunk of the car.

Cesare stood over the man as the actress emerged from her car to see what all the commotion was, grappling for the man's collar to drag him behind the car. The woman let out a blood curdling scream when she saw her man being attacked. The noise caused Cesare to look up at her which gave the man just enough time to get a hand in his jacket and retrieve his own gun. Cesare looked back down just in time to see the barrel of the gun line up with his eye. Without thought he jerked his head backwards and thrust out his hand, feeling metal before the shot rang out.

He became very aware of his heartbeat and the feeling of water running over his hand and the sensation of a hook digging into his shoulder and spinning around... he fell over onto the man blurry-eyed and gasping until he heard the click of a cylinder turning. Suddenly hyper-focused, he raised himself up and caught the man's wrist as he slammed the back of his bloody hand across his face. He pinned the gun arm to the road before Ricardo delivered a knock-out kick to the man's face and he went limp.

Cesare rolled over onto his back breathing heavily.

"Jesus Christ, boss! Are you okay?!" Ricardo asked, looking him over.

"Just get him in the back, Ricky." Cesare said, giving himself a couple more seconds to gather himself before raising himself off of the road and to his feet. It didn't take long for Ricardo to stuff the man into the back of the car. His left hand was shot through the webbing just above the base of his thumb. He'd caught hold of the gun and moved just enough for the slug to embed itself in the soft tissue below his collarbone on his right side just inside of his shoulder. It bled worryingly...

Cesare opened the back door of the car, and was met with Nikki's face...

The moment things went sideways, it was as if the whole world had been suddenly submerged under water. From this angle, Nikki was sure Cesare had been shot in the head, but he was already back in motion by the time she'd lunged across the backseat and reached for the car's door handle. Ricardo was busy hefting the unconscious man into the trunk when the rear door opened with her hand still on the handle in an effort to turn it. Cesare appearing before her, and she opened her mouth to say something when the starlet's shrieks punctured her eardrums. And with no where else to vent her anger and fear, Nikki moved.

Sliding across the backseat to her own door, she jerked the handle and stepped out, walking briskly up the driveway as the other woman stupidly continued to traipse down it in her fur and ridiculously high heels. The problem with actors? They tended to forget life wasn't the silver screen. Nikki never stopped moving; she simply stalked up to her, reared back her fist, and slammed it into the woman's jaw, silencing her with what would eventually be found out as a broken jaw. She would be missing several roles in the six months to come, what with said jaw being wired shut during recuperation.

Wordlessly, Nikki turned and jogged back to the car, pulling herself inside not a second before Ricardo threw the car into reverse and then sent it into a tire-squealing U-turn. The man in the trunk thumped gracelessly against the interior tire well as Nikki half-stood on the rear seat, one foot planted on the floorboard while one knee rested on the seat, her eyes and hands running over Cesare's face, neck, torso. She didn't notice the injury to his hand, but she sure as hell found the hole in his shoulder. She prodded with her hand and found no exit wound in his back. Gritting her teeth, she cursed inwardly before shifting her eyes upward to meet his. What could she possibly say, though? 

Instead, she rested a hand on his cheek, planted a kiss on his lips, and tore the tails from her own button-down, which she then wadded up and stuffed into his shirt over the wound, applying slight pressure while the car careened into the night. 

Each turn of the car was a sharp stab of pain in his arm, but Cesare wouldn't let himself show it. He closed his eyes and laid his head against his headrest as they weaved through downtown. In the back of his mind, Cesare knew he couldn't leave the bullet. If it had taken a piece of his shirt into him, the cloth would pull apart and fester. He blindly grabbed for Nikki's hand, which she provided for him, silently providing him an deep needed comfort. "I'm fine..." he spoke into the air without opening his eyes.

After they entered a more industrial area of the city, Ricardo brought the car to rest in front of an old rusted shipping warehouse. Opening his eyes, just slightly, Cesare said, "This is it."

It was Ricardo that set about dragging the body of the man from the trunk as he and Nikki exited the car. It took him three tries to grasp the handle of the door firmly enough to open it with the blood on his hand. As he walked, he became aware of how much he'd bled into his shirt, tinting nearly his whole right sleeve in a deep red color.

Inside the warehouse was a table surrounded by seats. Ricardo secured Christian to a chair with ropes and bindings, an easy task with an unconscious man. As Cesare inspected the numerous tools he'd had brought to the location in preparation for this day. At one point he felt slightly light-headed and took a stumbling step into the table, knocking into it with his legs and catching himself with his arm which sent a searing shocking pain jolting through his shoulder and into his brain, "AGH!" he couldn't help the cry as he was brought to his knees through the loss of blood and searing pain.

Nikki clutched at him, barely keeping him vertical as she kicked out a chair and sat him on it. Ignoring Ricardo and the kidnapped man, she quickly rolled up her sleeves and went to work.

From a side pocket of the go-bag, she found a fifth of whisky and pulled the cork with her teeth. She drew from it herself once before offering it to Cesare, who knew immediately what she intended to do next. As he held the bottle in weak fingers, she unbuttoned and pulled his shirt away, tossing aside the torn remnants of her own shirt and grabbing the bottle before Cesare dropped it. She then leaned forward, gave him a quick kiss, and muttered "I'm sorry, Baby," before dumping half the remaining contents of it in and around the wound. Cesare flinched and groaned, but she wasn't watching that anymore. Her back was turned to him, blocking his view of the hunting knife being heated to smoking with a pocket lighter before she turned and straddled his thigh. 

"Find something. Your wallet, a money clip, anything you can find and put it in your mouth so you don't crack your molars," she said, and as he fished around and found something, she didn't bother to identify it; the moment it went in his mouth, she plunged into his shoulder with the knife. 

Fortunately, and miraculously, the slug hadn't gotten far. Or perhaps Cesare just kept his knives sharpened well and preferred a slimmer blade. Either way, she struck metal almost immediately, and wedged the tip under the edge of the slug, drawing up and out to pop it free. It rattled to the floor as Nikki quickly leaned over and grabbed the bottle again, dumping the last of the whisky over the wound before placing a hand over it. 

"Ricardo. Can you stitch? There's fishing line in that side pocket," she said, waiting for him to arrive before standing and letting her hand drop. She watched for a few moments more as he went to work, until she was satisfied that he knew what he was doing. She then took over again, applying gauze and a bandage wrap until she was satisfied with the results. Nothing could be done for the wasted shirt, however. Cesare would be spending the remainder of the evening shirtless.

Truth be told, she minded that part not one damn bit.

The room spun for a moment as the reckless firing of neurons washed over him, making him aware of a million different sensations of pain in his body and tightening all the tendons and muscle fibers in his body as the slug came free. At least the nurse was cute. When she'd finished he took her by the cheek and kissed her thankfully.

Christian had begun to stir in the chair across the table. Cesare stood in response to his movements and immediately rounded the table between them landing his hand plush against the man's face with a loud smacking sound.

"Wake up, you bastard." he said as he returned to his table of instruments, "You'll want to see this."

He gently selected a razor blade from the table and stood in front of the man, "Open up." he said calmly. The man whined slightly and began panting. "Open your FUCKING mouth or I'll peel the muscle from your jaw until it hangs open by itself!" Cesare exploded, the shock of his words seemed to drive the man's chin downward in compliance. Taking hold of his forehead, Cesare wedged the blade between the man's teeth keeping his mouth stuck open. Cesare walked around the man's chair and slid it under the table as the man's head spun back and forth to catch sight of what he was doing.

Suddenly Cesare grabbed him by a tuft of his hair and drove his chin into the table below. A terrible cracking noise came from the man's mouth as the blade cracked the entire row of teeth before sliding sideways and cutting through the side of his mouth. Cesare reached around and dragged the blade through his lip. The cries of pain were terrible. Cesare took a seat on the table and waited for the throbbing nerves in Christian's mouth to calm before beginning the next horror.

When the cries began to subside, Cesare spoke, "They called my brother 'Dub' in Vegas, Christian. You were supposed to protect him. So where were you, Maggio?"

"I don't have to explain myself to you." he spat, "Why should I be afraid of a man who has to bring his broad along to babysit him?" he gazed over Cesare's shoulder to Nikki, "What's the matter? Can't get nothing done without your woman around to kiss your 'boo-boos'? he started to laugh between his cracked teeth.

"Pity I didn't put that bullet in your brain, if I had, I'd show her what a real man is."

Cesare and Nikki stood dumbfounded a moment, staring at Maggio. The nerve of this guy! In the blink of an eye, Nikki passed Cesare and hefted the glass jar of corrosive solution and winged it as hard as she could. Maggio tried to duck, but bound as he was, there simply wasn't enough give in the ropes for him to dodge it. It smashed against his forehead and exploded into shards, raining acid and glass into Maggio's eyes, face, and abused mouth. He gargled out a choked series of screams and guttural noises as his skin and throat began to disintegrate; the only thing more disturbing than the sight of him at this point was the smell. 

Idling picking up the hand torch, Nikki strolled casually back to Cesare. wisps of rancid smoke rising behind her. Handing over the torch, she leaned in close to Cesare in order to be heard.

"He's quite flammable now, Love. If you're so inclined," she added, the malicious gleam in her eyes out of sync with the innocent smile upon her lips. "Light him up," she whispered, planting a chaste kiss on his cheek before taking her position behind him again, arms crossed, waiting.

Cesare leisurely retrieved a cigarette from the pack in his pocket and placed it in his mouth as Christian belted animalistic noise into the warehouse. He calmly struck the torch and used it to light his cigarette.

He took in a slow breath before setting the lit torch on the ground and pushing it towards Christian's bound foot. The flame licked at his shoe, burning a hole through it and attacking the skin, which rolled away before the feeling even reached him. The new portion of agony finally caught up to him and he began rocking in the chair in a desperate attempt at escape.

His face was unrecognizable, but his constant hopeless cries were proof he still had life. The chair began rocking back on it's legs as he tried to escape the torch. Incredibly he finally tipped himself backwards and landed flat on his back, raising his burned foot into the air.

Cesare laughed, "Wow Christian, you sure showed me..." he mockingly applauded the man's efforts as he slid down off the table.

He took the cigarette from his mouth and rolled it between his fingers, "Here."

With that, he flicked the cigarette towards the helpless man. It flipped through the air and struck his chest before igniting the acid on his torso and engulfing him in flame as he groaned on the floor.

Cesare turned and walked towards Nikki with the light of the growing flames illuminating his back. He stopped beside her and placed a kiss on her cheek.

"Thank you."

They walked back out to the car as the cries slowly faded to silence...