Salvatore's phone rings on his desk. 

He's up late, the witching hour was already upon him, and there he was.... still stewing over the matter of the recent attack on his home and family.  With each passing day, during which the identity of his mystery enemy continued to elude him, Salvatore had to feel less and less sure that he'd discover who had done it before they struck again... and perhaps more true to their mark this time.  Perhaps he'd lose Isabella next time... or God forbid Marie - maybe his own hour might finally be upon him, that hour when his legendary Luck finally ran out.  No doubt this did NOT help Salvatore sleep well at night and was, perhaps, the reason for him being up late tonight?

Whatever the reason he was there to answer his phone.

"Boss?"  Tiny's voice was quiet and stressed.  "Sorry to bother you so late, but me and a few of the guys you got on Miss Isabella... we're concerned.  She's... working... late.  Was thinking this was the sort of thing a father might want to step in on.  I can fill you in over the phone but considering some of the stuff... might be best I fill you in on sight.  We're down at the Detroit River Docks.  I can send Tim to bring you.  No way in hell she'll notice him missing while she's like this."

"Fuck, I'll be ready when he gets here," Lucky said before hanging up the phone. 

Lucky got up and changed into his typical Black suit and tie. He holstered his favorite Colt 1911 before putting on his hat and heading downstairs. He thought about what trouble she might be getting into at this hour. "Why now with all that's going on?" he asked himself. 

Lucky had time to finish a cigarette before the car pulled up. He got in the backseat and the car and the car pulled off without the two men saying a word to each other. 

Lucky sat in the back of the car and fumed. This time he would have to set her straight, She may be his daughter but she was a member of this family and doing stupid shit cant go unhandled. 

Tiny opened the car door when the Don arrived and began giving his report immediately, "We took her out to do a little face time with some people from other families - all real public, she was never alone save to take a piss and that's cause we don't have a dame to put on her damn detail."

"She danced with a few guys, had a drink with Elias, and things seemed to be going like clockwork between them ... nothing inappropriate, he kept his hands where they needed to be the whole damn time."  He shook his head, "That's the fucked up part none of us get - she went to the bathroom looking like a girl waiting for her favorite sweetheart to ask her out, and came out like they killed her best puppy in there.  We figured some dame and her must have had words... fuck maybe about Elias even cause she bit his damn head off the moment she put foot outside the bathroom."

"I'm telling you," Tim cut in on Tiny's run down, "she was watching the fucking buildings when we left the joint.  Combined with the questions she's using in there... she's not telling us something."

"Well, whatever the case... she made Elias himself drive her home, only to have all of us take her out again five minutes after he left.  Said she forgot to handle some shit."  Tiny said.

"The only shit she forgot to handle is whatever happened in the bathroom."  Tim said.  "I'd stake my damn life on it but she ain't talking to us working stiffs... made us get out of the room while she works."

Tiny walked Sal towards a warehouse door.  "She had us go out and round up this guy, a fucking goomba shithead ... liquored up so fucking bad that when we found him he could barely walk.  He don't know anything - ."

"Or if he does we got no clue why he ain't talked yet... she's putting the screws to him bad in there."  Tim added.

Inside the building, faintly, Salvatore can hear a man screaming.  As Salvatore reaches for the handle of the door Tiny adds the last detail of information that matters... "The goomba leads a gang of street toughs... he ain't worked seriously for anyone in a while, but back in the day he was on Tyler Durden's payroll... at least that's the way I heard it.  So, at least you ain't got to worry about him being from some other crew that might come back on us negatively."  Tiny shrugged.

Entering the room, it's humid in here, though the sun sank below the horizon long ago - the heat is held in this tin shed something fierce and it's easy to see how someone could be made VERY uncomfortable in here.  Faintly you can hear Isabella's voice.

"I know you talked to him, maybe... maybe you give me the gist of what was said in that meeting and I can loosen up the straps a bit.  Hell, I'll even give you a sip of this water.  You gotta be fucking parched by now."

"I don't know nothing!"  A man sobs.

"Billy."  The sound of flesh impacting flesh can be heard long before she and her victim come into view.  "Billy I told you."  Another strike.  "Don't."  Strike.  "FUCKING."  Strike.  "LIE TO ME."  A blow that sounds wet and a man whimpering can be heard as Salvatore rounds a corner to see Isabella standing in front of a man strung up on the wall with industrial straps.  His wrists and ankles are bleeding where he's been secured... clearly the work of Sal's men as she couldn't lift him to put him up there.  His body has been cut and beaten horribly for some time now and an intense light beats down on the man where Isabella is 'working' which adds to the already unbearable heat.  She, as you approach is sipping water.  

Isabella is in a pair of slacks and a white tank top, the outline of her bandages still visible.  Her hair is pulled up off her face and she's sweating and looks tired, but angry... VERY angry.

Lucky walks up to Isabella with a pissed off look on his face. 

"What..." he says before being interrupted by the man strapped to the wall yelling 

Lucky looks over at him and waits for him to quiet down. 

"What the..." the man interrupts him again. 

Lucky walks over to the man pulling his 1911 out and holding it to his side as he walked

"I am trying to have..."  *BANG* Lucky shoots the man in the right Knee. 

"A conversation with my Daughter," he says after the man stops screaming. 

"Interrupt me again and it's your balls next," he says pressing the barrel of the gun to the man's groin for emphasis. 

Lucky turns back and walks over to Isabella with his gun still in his hand. 

"What in the hell are you doing? And who the fuck is this pissant?" he says to her angrily. 

"Don Luciano,"  She says looking to Tiny and Tim - NOT Sal.  "I hadn't expected to see you... no one should have troubled you.  I'm sorry you were bothered and had to come all the way down here for this basic ass shit."

She looked back to her father, finally speaking to him.  It was clear she was grinding her teeth a bit to keep herself from showing the true level of her emotional state.  "Billy Two Toes."  Her nostril flared slightly.  "He's a sub-par bookie with some rather questionable acquaintances in his past... or so he'd like me to think it's his past."  She shakes her head. 

"I'm just trying to jog his memory and loosen his tongue about his friends that are visiting Detroit.  I wanted actionable intelligence when I stopped in to see you... not jack shit nothing... so I had your boys help me bring Billy, here, in to talk.  Billy here is very loyal to his old friends.  Commendable, if unfortunate, considering he lives and works in our turf now ...and his loyalty SHOULD BE to you, Don Luciano."

It was clear from the look on Billy's face he wanted to say something but didn't dare to, so much as, sniffle for fear Sal would shoot his nuts off.  Tears silently ran down his cheeks, but Isabella clearly had no pity for him.

"I'd fucking gut him like a fish for his damn insolence, but we're short on guys with his brand of intel.  So, I'm trying to encourage him to open up about ..."  She hesitated, gritting her teeth again before finishing with, "Tyler Durden's gang and it taking longer than some men," She looked to her bodyguards, "... apparently have a stomach for."

Lucky sat and listened to his daughter talk. Then he silently walked over to the man strapped to the wall. 

"You know who I am?" he asked the man quietly

Lucky watched as the man nodded yes. 

"You know what I will do to you if you don't tell me what I want to know?" he says to the man 

The man nods again

"You still have connections to Tyler's fuckwits?"

The man shakes his head no...

Lucky grabs the bullet wound and squeezes... 

"I thought we had an understanding," he says as the man screams. 

"I don't he hasn't come around Detroit since you took over." the man gets out between screams. 

Lucky lets go of the man's leg. 

"Who fucking hit my house?" he asks. 

"All I know is that there were guys looking for men recently. But I don't know who and I don't know why?" he tells Lucky. 

Lucky has his men release him and get him some water. Billy is sitting on the floor when Lucky walks up behind him and Shoots him in the back of the head. 

Lucky watches the body fall over and then he walks over to Isabella. 

"Why are you questioning low life pissants like that" he says pointing to the body 

Isabella collapses like a balloon with all it's air let out - she holds her side as if it hurts.  "GOD DAMN IT!"  She roars.  She stands up and goes over to the corpse and kicks it repeatedly, the barest bit of pink showing through her bandage suggesting tonight's exertion likely popped a damn stitch.

"GET OUT!"  She screams at the bodyguards who hesitate and look to Lucky.  In response to their hesitation she fumbles with her gun and continues to scream,  "I SAID GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!  AM I NO ONE IN THIS FUCKING OPERATION I SAID MOVE!"  

Lucky nodded and the bodyguards left the warehouse to take up posts outside.

She wheeled on her father, gun still in hand though not pointed at him.  "Did you HAVE to kill him?  Would it have fucking killed you to TRUST I had a reason?  Am I some useless god damn associate that you can't even have THAT MUCH faith in my GOD DAMN JUDGEMENT!?!"  She puts a hand on her side again and visibly winces.

"How can I have their respect,"  She says slowing down a little due to her pain.  "... if you treat them like fucking babysitters who are allowed to call you in to check on me every damn time they don't know why I'm doing what I'm doing?!?  MUST I explain everything I do to them just to avoid having you troubled?  I mean... FUCK!  You can't trust me not to be sucking Elias' cock how the hell can you trust me to be a god damned capable member of this FUCKING FAMILY!?!"  She kicks the corpse again, hand still on her bandages.  "YOU STUPID PIECE OF SHIT, BILLY!"

Lucky puts his gun away and pulls out a cigarette and lights it and takes a long drag, letting the smoke out slowly, while he calmly stands and listens to his daughter rant on about one thing or another. 

When she finished he turns to her 

"They call me because we are locked down and you decided to go back out to talk to this asshat," he says before hitting his cigarette again. 

"And did I have to kill him...Yes, I did. He knew that was happening when he spilled what he knew to me. what where you going to torture him some more?" he asked calmy. 

"YES!"  She said in a huff before realizing how stupid that really was.  She leaned against a table and sighed, her gaze distant and her tone sad... troubled even.  "Coming out of the bathroom... I spotted the gunman on the roof across the street from Oli's Wobbly Pop Shop."  She wet her lips, now regretting she didn't have a cigarette of her own.  "That's how I knew it wasn't a lie.  They had Elias in their sights... they were gonna kill him if I did anything but leave without sounding an alarm."

Lucky finishes his cigarette and flicks it across the room. 

"so what did you do?" he asked her 

"I know this wasn't the guy going to shoot Elias."

"I panicked."  She shook her head.  "I got mad at Elias.  Seemed smart to get him out of their without letting anyone know Tyler's men were in the vacinity with guns trained on us."  She sighed. "It worked.... too well.  Elias probably thinks I'm fucking insane.  One minute I'm staring into his eyes longingly, lamenting my father's protective nature, and the next I'm bitching at him like some sort of crazed animal.  And he's left to wonder what the hell he did wrong."

She holds her side and slides down onto a metal chair with noticeable pain.  "I made him take me home, then once he thought I was safe for the night; I knew I had to get back out and find information on the Durden crew in the city.  That way I had something to bring you that wasn't what Tyler WANTED me to bring you.  I refuse to play that sick fuck's game.  He wants you in his debt... and he wants a war between us and someone else badly enough he's constructed a ... presumably ... believable bit of information for you about who shot me."

She shook her head.  "Between the thought of losing Elias, Durden wanting to ensnare you, and this fucking ache in my damn side... maybe I needed to blow off steam as much as I needed the information that this jerk had cause I'm sure he knew where they were staying in the city."

She got the worst of it out of her mouth and yet, her eyes still had hint of tears barely held in.  She knew there was more she wanted and needed to say but this bit required letting Salvatore think on it a moment.  She couldn't hit him out of left field with the other part until he'd decided what he thought of her actions tonight.

"Tyler cant do shit to me... he is a pissant fuckwit that really needs a role model," he says to her. 

Lucky looked at his daughter. 

"We live a dangerous life. As you damn well know. Every day we are in danger. BUT this was unnecessary." he says to her. 

"You saved Elias you could of just let me know what was going on and I could have brought that little bitch to heal." 

She looked up to Salvatore.  "We live a dangerous life?  Everyday we're in danger?  Hell, in another minute all those we love could be gone?  Yea... I know... so, let me see Elias."  She blinked and a tear escaped her left eye.  "I was nearly killed... I thought we were fucking goners, and I know what a bad ass you are and how being shot probably didn't shake you one bit, but I'm not you!"

She winced at her own weakness.  "I'm like Marie."  She sighed.  "When she told me how she felt about you being shot... Dad it's like I feel right now after having been shot!  I'm helpless to stop this shit and worse... I can't even show Elias how I feel about him without worrying that it'll be your gun rather than someone else's which sends him into the ground."

She shakes her head.  "Please... please, with all respect and love, I'm asking for you to have mercy on me.  I'll send all the other men away and obey whatever conditions you set - but don't make me spend another day acting as if he doesn't matter to me.  Please consent.  Give us your blessing to see each other.  Let me hold him and be held... for pity's sake... let me kiss me and let me tell him how I feel."

When Sal didn't instantly reply she pulled the photo out of her pocket.  "Here.  It's what Durden wants you to have... its a mug shot of the bastard who shot me - or so his messenger says.  He says when you look into the guy's background, you'll figure it all out - who tried to hit us and why."  She offered it to Salvatore.  

Lucky looked at his daughter. 

"Oh, me getting shot effected me. The first time I realized how I felt about Marie and made it a point to tell her and show her," he says. 

"I realized how short our lives can be and, much like you and Elias, I had to be with her. But I couldn't be at least not then. It took me getting shot again and pushed away and another dying for me and Marie to be together." He looks at her. 

"I don't keep you apart to be cruel or mean. I do it so you can come into your own and he into himself. Because without that you may not make it in this life. Its hard to explain but this has been a test for you as much as him. To learn that in order to survive this life for as long as you can you must remain loyal to this family first." he says

"Taking actions that put yourself or this family asks risk for another will only lead to tragedy," he tells her. 

"And if he dies... before you think I've learned?"  She looks deeply pained and shakes her head.  "No.  Wait.  Please don't answer that... I don't think I can bear to hear you say, what we both know you will say.  I don't know that we come back from that and be the same people we are to each other right now; so I'll pretend that the question never occurred to me... out of the respect I have for you as my Father."

She looked down at the ground a small bit of rage and disgust on her face though in what measure and exactly what for, she had clearly decided was best not to detail out in the face of her Don.

Instead she offered the photo once more.  "Are you going to take this photo?  Or should I just try to look into it myself... or fucking burn it?"

Lucky walks over to his daughter and hugs his daughter holding her close.

"I love you, I want you to be happy you take that and work on it with Elias," he says to her before letting her go. 

"You ..." Isabella seemed so confused.  She looked up to her father who had his arms around her and she simply stared at him for a long while, resting her head on his chest listening to the sound of his heart.  She swallowed back the words that were hanging on her tongue and replaced them with, "You can count on us."  The words sounded much more defeated than she had intended for them to sound, but she meant them.  She just prayed, silently that they'd live to be old enough to have learned her father's lesson to his satisfaction.