Isabella was glad that William had agreed to drive, she jumped into the backseat and began to undress down to her small clothing.  Some tiny nagging thought of modesty popped into her head, but fuck it!  

What did she have left to care about?  Elias was dead and gone... and she wasn't going to get knocked up even if she fucked all of New York.  Her womb was rotting in some trash dump weeks ago.  So, who the hell cared if she changed into a more practical attire right in the back seat of her own car with man she barely knew driving?

Certainly not me.

Her dress slid off her body and the mess of scars from her bra line disappearing under her panty-line became visible.  She pulled a blouse and trousers out of her backpack and quickly slipped into them.  She pulled on socks and some sensible shoes to move about and run in.  Running, she suspected, might just be a very large part of tonight's activities.  She took off her long earrings and put on short studs.  Again: safety first.

"So..."  She asked as she climbed over the seats and came down in the passenger seat beside him.  "...you ever have any run ins with a gang out of Delaware City lead by Tyler Durden?"

Somewhere on this trip something had gone horribly astray. William was careening down the road at an unsafe speed, several drinks in, with no idea where he was headed, in the company of a woman he barely knew to go start a fight. He hadn't been this reckless in years and the worst part was that he was having the time of his life!

"So where is it we're go--" He started but was stunned into silence by what he saw.

Jut when he though things were about as wild as it gets she started pulling off her dress in the backseat. He knew he should focus on the road, but she wasn't being shy about it and he felt daring enough to appreciate the view. When her scars became visible he lost focus long enough that the car began to drift to the edge of the road. The curb gave him enough of a jolt to remember what he was doing and he turned back to the task at hand with a newfound respect for Isabella. He knew that a person needed to be tough as nails with a will to match to survive the kind of damage it would take to end up with that kind of marks. He wasn't even sure if he'd be able to handle it. William made a point not to look again until she had joined him in the front.

Clearing his throat and trying to pretend as if he hadn't been acting like a schoolboy in a girls locker room he responded, "Not that any witnesses can attest to. But if I did, and I'm not saying I did, the little bastards had it coming for trying to nose into what wasn't theirs." 

A dark thought crossed his mind for a moment and he turned to Isabella with a serious expression thinking of what he'd just seen in the back seat, "Those bastards haven't given you any...undue trouble...have they?"

"Nothing I didn't give right back to them."  She said dryly.  She settled into the seat and looked at William again.  He did LOOK the part.  He'd get her in the door for sure, but whether or not they'd be able to pull it off truly had yet to be seen.

She began pulling up her hair into a loose fitting bun, something to show her neck off but also practical enough to keep it out of her face in a fight or running scenario.  "Durden has businesses all over the United States, well, businesses might be a generous term for a loose canon anarchist who dares call himself a Godfather."  she scoffed.

"Still, you gotta give him respect - no one recruits the way that son of a bitch does.  It seems he has an endless supply of loyal toadies willing to die for him at a moment's notice and one of the ways he does that is by letting his captains run underground fight clubs all over the place.  He makes money on gambling, booze, drugs and recruits from the winners.  Millions change hands in places like these... the seedy underbellies of cities where politicians can go to feel truly dangerous & powerful while enjoying their vices and pretty dames who never learned the word no."

"As a Don, I've had my invitations from Durden to come by with prize fighters to try their craft against his best, but I've never accepted.  It's the sort of thing that I supposed would always go south real fast.  Even if Durden wasn't there, he probably has standing orders for how VIPs like me and the leaders of other families are to be treated when we show up.  If I walked out alive I'd probably be empty pocketed and my prize fighter would no doubt end up in Durden's employ or sleeping with the fishes."

She smiles at William and the corners of her mouth seem to barely brush upon her sad doe-like eyes, "But there is a shit ton of cash tied up in these places... and between you and me, this trip to New York was always doomed to lead to something horribly wreckless... with you here, I might just have a reason to survive it."

"No pressure then." 

That's what came out of William's mouth. What was going on in his head was more on the lines of "If the durdens don't get me, the infamous Salvatore Luciano will." He supposed it was possible they'd pull this off though and then they'd be heroes. Well, she'd be a hero and he'd be the man who helped endanger the daughter of a godfather. Either way, he couldn't shake the feeling that he really didn't have a choice. He turned and looked her in the eye for a moment and saw the sadness there alongside her words.

this trip to New York was always doomed to lead to something horribly wreckless...

 She would have done something dangerous regardless of what he chose now. If he turned them around and drove her back it would have just put it off to another night. One where he couldn't do anything about it. He wouldn't have been able to live with himself knowing that, so he'd just have to see it through.

"So we're going to go to one of their prize fights and I'm gonna stand in as your guy. You don't make it sound like we're just gonna go and participate though. If he's got as many goons as you say, how are we gonna turn the tables? I mean, I haven't met many guys I can't roll but I can only fight so many at a time. You look like you can hold your own too but we're just two people."

"I haven't ever been on the inside of one of these places.  So, it's hard to make a true plan without casing things, but..."  she realized then she was wearing Elias' grandmother's ring still.  She didn't dare risk it.  She pulled on the ring and twisted, taking it off of her finger for the first time since he put it there.

"I figured you giving as good as you get in a match or two might serve as a distraction.  Meanwhile I figure out what I can lift during the excitement."  She opened the glove compartment and put the ring inside.  

"However, regardless of how things end, I want your word now that we follow Tyler's rule..."  She tucked her shirt into her waist band of her slacks.  "...no one talks about the Fight Club and what you see or hear in there.  Not even to my father.  Ideally he never learns of this, he'd never understand & he'd never be okay with it.  Not one bit.  The only way I'd be okay with you going back on your word to say nothing, would be if I'm unable to lie for both of us and he somehow found out we were here.   So - no talking about Fight Club, agreed?"

Oh thank God. All he had to do was help her make it through a lion's den and he wouldn't have to worry about her father. He could deal with murderous street thugs. He'd just have to make sure that if one of them ended up getting hurt it was him. He did his best to ignore her pulling off her ring because she obviously didn't want to talk about it and he didn't need to be distracted from their business.

"Alright, you've got my word. I won't say a damn thing about any of this so long as it's avoidable in any way. How much farther do we have to go anyhow?"

He wasn't in a rush to put them at risk, but he knew that the sooner they start this off the sooner he can find out if he wakes up in a hospital or a morgue. Either way, he was going to enjoy the company that got him there. For now, he mght as well try to lighten the mood before things kick off.

"I'll make sure to give them a show that'll keep'em attentive. You just watch out for yourself, cause if you get in a bad spot I'm gonna end up wading into the crowd and that'll end bad for everybody. Can't very well let you get out of your promise for a night of hedonism and excess by getting hurt."

"Just here."  She says pointing to the curb and as the car came to a stop she said, "Maybe the violence is my excess." 

She opened he door.  "As for the hedonism," she looked him up and down again, as if considering what she might do with him at the end of the night. "...that will entirely depend upon how much of us crawls out of this hellhole." 

With that she exited and looked at the old steel door where a lone man stood with his arms crossed, illuminated by a yellow street lamp.  The man looked like he had a mouth full of skunk ass, and wasn't allowed to spit it out. 

"Well, he looks friendly."  She said as William came around from the driver's side to join her.  Together the two of them approached the door man.  She smiled.

"Who the hell are you?"  He growled like a bear with a sore tooth.

"Don Luciano."  She said overly sure of herself.

"Don't know no Don Luciano."  He said.  "Know a Godfather... and a Boss."  He looked her up and down in a way that made her stomach turn.  "Pretty sure that Tyler said the Godfather wasn't a sexy broad."

Isabella's nostrils flared in anger and she squeezed Williams' arm.  "When I come out... you're going to choke on your teeth."  She said flatly.  A promise, not a threat.  

The big guy chuckled, a sound that was unnerving coming out of such a body.  "Welcome to Fight Club, BOSS Luciano and good luck to your boy... he's gonna need it."

A short hallway lead from the steel door that banged shut behind them.  Head was a red curtain, an old cloth and beyond it a cacophony of noise such as she wasn't prepared for.  The smell of sweat, old cigarettes, bathtub alcohol and blood... so much blood.  "You ready?"  She said.  She wasn't sure why she asked, in the end it was too late for either of them to turn back.  She swallowed the lump in her throat.  She could do this... she WOULD do this and then she'd sleep well.  She wouldn't have to think about that sound anymore.  She wouldn't have to think about what he looked like in his final moments... or that they were all her fault.

Loud swing music kicked in as she pulled aside the curtain - though she didn't know where it was coming from - and the crowed roared in disgust as one of the fighters went down.  A bell rung signaling the end of the fight.  It was into this mess that Isabella and William entered.

The middle of large open space was a fight ring... if it could really be called that.  A sea of people kept the fighters from leaving the arena... and on the ground level bets were being taken with an odds maker towards the front of the room with a large chalk board.  Each match was written down in advance and odds were given.  It was there that fighters were most likely registered and it was there, they had to make their way first.

Around the room on an elevated mezzanine were tables, the sort you'd see in the most chic restaurants in town.  Men in suits and women in dresses watched the rabble below entertained by the blood lust and mayhem on display for their enjoyment.  Molls worked the men in suits and probably lifted a year in honest wages in a single night off such fools.   

Isabella looked it over and found herself having a small bit of envy over not having a similar operation.  "Here we go."  She said taking a step forward.

The piece of work at the front door was on his list for later. If they ended up running out of here at top speed he'd hesitate long enough to put that scum's face into the wall. But that was later. The slam of the steel door put him out of mind.

"Ready? Hell, I've been missing this part." And it wasn't entirely a lie. He did miss the fights as well as the money and the way other men looked at him after he'd pounded another guy until he looked like so much meat. He'd found the money and respect in his new life, but the fights had never been quite the same. When they pulled the curtain aside the noise of the crowd wrapped around William and roused a spark in him like meeting a long lost friend.

He'd never seen a fighting ring in a place this big or well put together before, but it was all the same either way. Two men enter and for a few minutes the only thing that matters is taking him apart before he does the same to you. Survival of the fittest. Those up in the high roller seats thought they understood what it meant to be powerful, but when it came down to it they were nothing but scavengers looking to score off of the real predators in the room.

Noticing Isabella's awkwardness coming into the room, he briefly put a hand on her shoulder and spoke with maybe a bit too much eagerness. "We've got this. I'll make sure of that." He decided that it would be best if he was the one that drew attention so he took a step forward and started clearing a path to the odds maker. William's blood was already rushing in excitement for the ring and left him a little rougher with the stragglers than he might otherwise have thought prudent. The result was an increasing number of spectators turning to see what commotion was being raised and why it was outside the ring. By the time they reached the chalk board the betters were already making room for them and staring in concern.

William stepped out of Isabella's way and inclined his head in respect to her as he spoke to the odds maker who was standing with a look halfway between amusement and disdain. "I believe my sponsor would like a word with you."

Isabella watches as the two men pummel on each other inside the ring as William takes charge of the situation.  She moves through the crowd effortlessly and is able to see each horrible blow landed.  She watches as one man crumples over as the other man punches him in the gut.  She blinks and she see's Elias' face in the place of the bludgeoned man, screaming in pain. She tries to dismiss the image, but she can't.  For a moment it's not two boxers in the ring... but two other men, men who haunt her constantly.

As William finishes speaking, the man at the chalk board turns towards her.  Seeing all those people waiting on her caused her to waver, she very nearly begins to introduce William and reach for her wallet.  Instead, she wets her lips and speaks words which cause the man to drop his chalk, shake his head and look as confused as a small dog in front of a mirror.

"They call me Hot Rod Luciano,"  she said loudly enough to be heard.  "... and I want you to put me in." 

She turns to William and offers him her purse, "Change of plans, use the money... all of it.  This is what we're here for.  Only this."  She says loud enough for William's ears alone over the growing din of laughter and jeers.  In Italian she sneers loudly, "Unless there's no one here man enough?!?"

The man at the chalk board could barely contain his laughter and yet, he had his orders.  He waved two small boys to run down to her.  They begin to weigh and measure her so the oddsmaker could begin to estimate what the odds of her winning might be.

For a moment there William had been worried that something bad was going to happen. He got them attention and Isabella hesitated just a bit too long to make her play. He was worried she'd lost her nerve, that she would make them look weak and invite the situation to sour at the start of this job. This wasn't the kind of place you showed that kind of weakness and expected to come out intact. Then she spoke and that doubt evaporated like so much steam from a tea kettle.

This wasn't bad. This was absolutely fucking INSANE!

Isabella had made it clear that she wasn't coming into this night in the best frame of mind but he hadn't expected her to try and commit outright suicide on him. And to use him as her charity case burned him up...to draw him into this thing and pay him off to just watch her walk out: out of her home, her family, her life, and now his. Hell, the car ride had started to make him think that she might have the potential to be more than just a night of fun. None of that even took into account knowing that he'd have to face the fact that he let a godfather's daughter die on his watch. Not just let her die though, he literally drove her to meet her end. Even if no one else never found out he'd regret that to the day he died.

Looking on as the boys finished up their measurements and Isabella was prepped for the ring he felt the fire rise up in him again. William would not have this bullshit. Not on his conscience. If there was one thing he'd learned it was that a person ought to fight for the right reasons. That most definitely did not apply here to Isabella. He knew he had to act fast, but he wasn't sure what he could do. If he tried to force her out of here these bastards would gang up on him for trying to interfere with a signed fighter. He couldn't just watch and hope it turned out well, he knew too much to think that would happen. She'd have to leave on her own accord and to do that she'd need some sense knocked into her...

"You gotta be about the craziest dame I ever met, you know that?" His eyes were lighting up with pent up anger and adrenaline and William started to pull off his shirt as he looked between Isabella and the odds maker. "You want a real fight? Fine. But you're damn well gonna have to deal with me first. Put me in as her opponent. Brickyard Billy Bowden, and if any of you bastards remember that name you'll know better than to get in my goddamn way."  

William took the few steps to close the distance between them and moved up so close to Isabella that she could feel his breath. Through a snarl he whispered so low that only she could hear. "I told you I'd get us out of here one way or another. I'm not letting anyone leave me behind again."

Isabella felt her stomach sink as 'Billy' set his mind to being her opponent.  The obvious thoughts went through her mind first... how much this was going to hurt her, but she had intended to her.  In fact, she welcomed it.  Still, a bit of survival instinct was hard to conceal as he loomed over her.  He was taller than her, and twice as wide.  His arms were bigger than her neck... he could hurt her... a lot, more than was probably sane.

The other thought was a touch of guilt.  A made man shouldn't hit another made man.  As a Don she KNEW this.  This flew in the face of all that was right... she NEVER would have dreamed he'd make such a move... but what choice had she left him with?  Perhaps, stupidly, he hoped they'd walk out together if he could knock her down with a solid blow?  What would Don Mezzo say about this fine mess?  Worse, what would her father say?  

Billy's wrath was justified.  Sadly, it just made matters easier.  An angry man wouldn't pull a punch and the last thing she deserved was anyone's mercy.  

William took the few steps to close the distance between them and moved up so close to Isabella that she could feel his breath. Through a snarl he whispered so low that only she could hear. "I told you I'd get us out of here one way or another. I'm not letting anyone leave me behind again."

As the ref approached, she looked to the boards.  She was the worst long shot to win she'd EVER seen and she'd one in the Mickey Mace match back in 29. 

"I don't want out."  she said looking up through her lashes at Bill.  With the way she said it, it might well have been 'I'm sorry' instead of what she said.  The 'ref' (if he could be called that - more likely he was there to pull away bodies) tried to instruct them in the 'rules' of the fight.  Again, the term had to be used with great care because a match like this didn't really focus on a need for fairness or they never would have let her in a ring with a man who weighed twice what she did.    

Isabella raised up her fists and stepped back as she was instructed to do.  She didn't want to hurt Billy, not that there was much chance of it, but if she didn't swing at him and at least try then she knew they'd accuse her of fixing the match... or worse, Billy would refuse to swing and she very much wanted him to.  

So, as the fight began, she came out swinging for all she was worth - letting anger at herself flow through her long limbs in an attempt to get Billy to give as good as he was getting.  While her blows weren't as hard as some, she was lithe and quick, and unwilling to go down with one single well played knock out punch.  She deserved for this to go on a while.  She wouldn't let Billy just end it prematurely.  And so, she moved like water flowing across glass.  

He wasn't putting his all in, not after the first few 'knock out' punches missed horribly.  So, she had to keep that fire in his belly going.  She knew to do that she'd have to poke at exposed wounds... and since there weren't any physical ones, she'd have to go for the only one he had she knew about.  She'd burn in hell for it... she was sure, but at least she'd get what she rightly deserved.

"You should come to Detroit."  She snapped as she came close, ducking one of his body shattering blows, jabbing him in the ribs twice before backing out.  She'd been in so few fist fights as to be almost laughable at this, in all truth, but she'd watched a few good fights and she was trying best. 

"Vela would love to see yo-"  He hit her face.  She was so busy chatting that she fell for his faint and out of no where that left paw came up and cracked her on the chin good.  Her lips spit and blood rolled down her chin to the cheers of the crowd.  She was dizzy as she backed away a few steps,  William hesitated, perhaps concerned he'd done real damage; but pain was one hell of a motivator.

Isabella roared and rushed at him swinging like a mad woman, the taste of blood reminding her why she was here.  She'd make Billy punch her the old fashioned way!  She hadn't come here to torment a friend or play games with his heart... but to purge herself of this damnable guilt.  To try to find some sort of justice, if there really could be any.  Blood for blood... hers for his. Justice for Elias.

"I don't want out."  she said looking up through her lashes at Bill.  With the way she said it, it might well have been 'I'm sorry' instead of what she said.

She wasn't going to make this easy for either of them. Isabella's opening salvo was bold, but reckless. If she hadn't been so damn fast she probably would have helped him set a new record for quickest knockout, but as it was he found himself swinging at air. This is why he hated fighting little scrawny guys and it was no surprise it held true for fighting this woman as well. He just wasn't sure he could bring himself to settle this by a slow beating. She'd screwed him over tonight but somehow he couldn't bring himself to be angry enough to make her suffer like that. 

Isabella was landing hits left and right, but they just didn't have the technique or weight behind them to do much damage. She was trying her damndest though and he would have the bruises to prove it. His ribs had plenty of stinging from the two shots to make that clear enough. If she were pacing herself she might even stand a chance of wearing him down. Maybe.

"You should come to Detroit." "Vela would love to see yo-"

His fist moved before his mind, just like the old days. His left cracked her good and he was about to go in for the kill when he saw her bleeding and stunned and his thoughts caught up enough to stop him. The Skinwalkers had nothing to do with this and the thought of people he cared about that he hadn't seen since...no. He wouldn't let himself go there. If he did he might do something he'd regret. He'd be doing a disservice to Vela, and Aqulia, and Tenkai, and all the others. Especially to the one that taught him better in those days. Seeing her recovering from the bell ringing he'd inflicted was already beginning to make him feel like this was a mistake.

"I won't let you-" Isabella's renewed assault was like a bull coming at him full of rage and didn't give him a chance to respond. A pygmy bull maybe, but still. He fell back a couple steps and bobbed around the incoming punches as best he could, still taking some grazing shots to the head and shoulders. This approach was only going to make it harder to avoid hurting her. He'd have to get her to focus, to see something worth fighting for and check that anger. Then maybe they could turn the fight against the ones who deserved it. Barring that, he could let her take her anger out on him. He'd heal from whatever she'd inflict on him. She'd just have to figure out how to survive the vultures around them when it was done.

First though, he had to get a word in edgewise around the shots coming at him. There would be nothing for it but to stun her again. He waited for one of her awkward punches to come at his face and stepped into it, raising one arm to push her fist away from him while turning his opposite side into a hard body blow. It was a cheap shot knowing the kind of scarring she had, but it ought to knock the wind out of her for a while. Long enough to convince her there was a better way to do things. As the air rushed out of her lungs in a pained gasp he wrapped his blocking arm around her to hold her to him by the neck and shoulder so he could whisper.

"Vela doesn't need to lose another home. You owe her and all the rest of them better than that. You do this and you aren't the only one it's gonna kill." If he'd known her a bit better he probably would have told her it would kill him just as quick as them to watch them set adrift again.

William released his hold and pushed her back, not even raising his arms up to guard as he watched her tumble to the floor. He hated hurting a woman like this, but he knew it was going to be the only way to get her to listen. The laughter and jeers of the crowd rang in his head more painfully than any punch he'd received as he shouted at Isabella before him. What he said sounded like it could have come from any of the crowd around them, but the strain in his voice gave away the concern behind it.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?"

The blow to her side sent her reeling.  That rib, the one that had caught the bullet at her father's home, burned and ached as if it had been shot all over again.  Shock waves sent bright lights dancing before her eyes.  She stumbled back and away from him.  Instinct told her to run but she pushed her fear down into the furthest corners of her mind.  The blow to her head, and now the one to her body, was a very clear message.  It would be best if she ran; but, then again, Elias didn't run.

Her body slammed against the hood of the cop's car hard. 

"You're under arrest."  He said, with too much glee.  She tried to act unshaken.  She was a Don now.  Fuck them.  Her father would have her out of this in no time... but while she didn't fear the law itself, she did fear power in the hands of short sighted men... and this one was taking full advantage of her position. 

As he pushed his hips tight against her backside, she stubbornly refused to give him the satisfaction of a sound... or maybe she was simply worried that if she acknowledged his nonverbal threat, she'd have to admit that the fearless Don Luciano was actually afraid. 

Her boys were already in cuffs, she'd told them to stand down.  She figured if they came quietly they'd just head down town... her dad's lawyer would come, it would end without an incident, but that wasn't what was happening at all.  The moment the FBN didn't have her boys drawn on them anymore - something changed.  These fucks were too cocky, too violent, and now... too much everything.

The sound of a struggle made her turn.  "DON'T YOU FUCKING TOUCH HER!"

Isabella's hand came off her side.  She hadn't realized she'd grabbed it protectively as she'd retreated from William's punch.  She looked down at her own hand, bloody from punching as hard as she ever had before.

While Elias struggled, the cop bent over her shoulder and licked her ear lobe, she could smell his pastrami breath, feel the saliva run down her earlobe and into her ear canal.  Isabella winced.

Elias threw the men off himself like a bear hyped up on coke.  He crossed the distance between them so fast it made her head spin.  He shattered the face of the man holding her down, blood rained down on her.  She'd never seen him so primal and full of fury.  Her eyes welled up with tears.  She grabbed his hand and they started to run, but the bullets seemed to be coming from all directions.  Backs against a cop car, no back up, and one gun between the two of them.  They were well and truly screwed.

She turned to look at him, and as so often happened, she found herself yelling at him...  

"What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"Hit me."  She said coming at him.  She threw a punch, and despite the pain she kept throwing them getting increasingly furious at her seemingly ineffectual blows. 

"Hit me, damn you!"  She said again.  

"NOT UNTIL YOU TELL ME!"  Billy demanded, seeming to stubbornly take the blows getting backed into a corner, but refusing to return the favor.

"IT'S."  She punctuated her words with blows. 

Elias put the cop's iron down in the dirt and purposefully took her screaming face in between his palms and leaned forward.  He kissed her as slowly as she could ever remember being kissed before.  As if he had nothing else going on in the world around him, as if nothing else mattered.  

"ALL." 

"We're getting out of this Izzy."  Elias said, still holding her face, eyes locked on hers - refusing to let her look at the impossible situation they were in.

"How?  How the hell..."

"When I tell you to, you're going to make a break for it."

"I won't leave you."  She stubbornly protested.

"I'm going to give you cover fire, I won't hit them.  I'll let them arrest me when the clip is empty.  Get your father, have him send lawyers.  I won't say shit.  If I have to, I'll do time and when I get out, I'm going to marry you."

"MY." 

He smiled at her. She would never forget that smile.  Not so long as she lived. 

"You promise?"

"In all this thing of ours, I've never felt for anyone what I feel for you.  I'd follow you into Hell, Izzy."  He kissed her forehead.  "Now go."  Without hesitation, without letting her reply or say the word 'goodbye' he stood up and began firing on the cops.

And she ran.

"FAULT!" she threw herself at him, her feet clearing the ground the force of her full body weight unexpectedly knocking him to the ground.  In a normal and fair boxing match she'd be pulled off him... but in Tyler Durden's fight club, no one gave a flying fuck about fair.  She rained down her fists on to William's face.

She rounded the corner, she could hear the distant sound of gunfire stopping without a single one sounding as though it hit its mark.  It was a good thing, as a mobster one learned such crazy things as that.  That, at a distance, a gunshot sounded different if it hit metal, missed it's mark, or hit a target.  

She crossed herself, thanking God that Elias had lived.  They'd arrest him.  He'd be fine, just like he said.  It was all going to be JUST as he said it would be.  He get out, they'd get married and... and...

No one was calling the fight and William... God bless him, merely held up a block and took everything she tried to give until she had nothing left at all.  Exhaustion was taking over.

They pulled back the sheet and she nodded stoically.  

"The police officers had no way of knowing about Mr. Landucci's liver condition, Miss Luciano."  The coroner said.  "They used force to subdue and restrain him.  There will be an investigation, but... considering the fact that he had used a gun on them while trying to evade capture..."

"I understand."  She whispered hoarsely.

Isabella collapsed onto William's chest with little more fight left in her than a small child, hiding her face in shame.  For the first time since it had all happened - she let herself truly cry. 

Just like that, in a snap of the fingers, Isabella had gone from being wild to an absolute force of nature. Whatever dam had been holding back her guilt had finally cracked and the sheer force of all that was behind it was more than she or William could stand up to. He had rarely in his life felt so overwhelmed as when he suddenly went down under her weight and he felt the first bit of actual fear he'd experienced in this whole thing. Pain seared across his face where her furious assault had torn into him and by the way it was fading around his right eye he suspected it would be nearly swelled shut before long. As she collapsed onto him, William reflected that he was lucky she wasted so much of her strength in the first few volleys or she may just have killed him.

Instead, she'd used up every ounce of whatever it was that was driving her. The fear that had come over William absolutely melted in the face of the vulnerability of the moment and he quietly lowered his arms from their position guarding his face and wrapped them around her tightly. This fight that never should have begun had run its course. He still wasn't sure what had brought Isabella to this point, but he knew that for the first time since the casino she was facing it. She might not be winning yet, but she was fighting. Sometimes that was as much as you could hope for.

"It's ok, angel. You'll make it through this. I'm not about to leave you behind." He murmured through cracked and bloodied lips. The taste of his blood a stark reminder of where they were. William knew that there wouldn't be much longer until the scum surrounding them realized what was happening and turned on them. If he was going to make a play to save the woman he now held helpless to his chest, then he had to act now.

The crowd had gone silent when the battle turned and the fighter had gone to the ground before the tiny woman he'd been so easily manhandling only moments before. Then he began to sit up, shifting Isabella to one side and sliding the other arm under her legs to lift her while he gathered his feet beneath him to rise, they began to clamor with disgust at the fight dissolving before their eyes. Before they could gather steam William shouted out and silenced them, not in anger but in the calm confident tone of a man with a purpose.

"This fight is done. There's been enough blood today. As far as I'm concerned, she beat me and she did it fair. If anyone here has a problem with that I'll be glad to show them why they're wrong, but they'll have to wait until tomorrow. We're leaving and not one of you is gonna tell me otherwise."

For a moment the whole place was silent and William began to walk to the side of the ring. The spectators began to withdraw and allow him through until the echoing sound of one man slowly clapping echoed through the room. William wasn't sure what to expect as he saw the ashen faces of the people frozen in front of him, but as he turned he realized that only one man would have that effect on this crowd. A voice called out as a man cut a swath through the ring of spectators across from the two weary fighters. He moved with the smooth, lazy confidence of a man who knew that none would oppose him as he spoke.

"Seventh rule. Fights will go on as long as they have to. I'm thinking that this one may have to go on a while."

Tyler. Fucking. Durden.

Isabella's arms draped around William's neck as he lifted her up.  She could hear his heart racing beneath her cheek as he shouted at the monstrous crowd and denied them satisfaction.  She thought that was it.  They were walking, leaving this place - never to think on it again and then... clapping.

Isabella tensed in William's arms.  As he turned a man she'd never seen in person, but had seen on enough wanted posters to last a lifetime, came into view.  Her breath caught before he said a single word.  She could tell by how he looked at them both - he had no intention of letting them leave so easily.

"Seventh rule..."

Isabella instantly regretted not paying attention to Durden's stupid rules.  Never in a million years did she think he'd follow them, so why bother?  She should have realized that some of them were there to prevent things from going any except his.

"Fights will go on as long as they have to. I'm thinking that this one may have to go on a while."

She looked up at William, her friend's eyes were locked on Durden's as if he did not dare look away.  Billy was already softened up a bit and she didn't have the energy to keep going even if he wasn't.  He was right, there was nothing left here... nothing but a sick desire to see one of us kill the other.

William lowered her to the ground.  It was clear he was about to do something noble and stupid.  She turned and looked at Tyler.  The man was handsome really.  Pretty almost, if not for the air of insanity and general menace around him.  All gangsters had it, but Tyler was something special.  The way that stringy hair of his stood, almost as if to spite gravity, gave his intense glare (which rest beneath an ample brow) an unnerving quality.  

Having seen her father in some of his worst moments should have made Tyler seem less frightening, sadly, she couldn't help but to imagine how easily this man might do those things her father was capable of, to his enemies.  In this moment, she was entirely confident that 'his enemies' were both she and William.

"This fight is over."  She repeated William's words to Durden. 

Tyler shook his head no.  "Nah.  See, I don't think it is."  He walked towards her.  She locked her knees to resist the urge to step back. 

"See, here's what I think," His eyes floated away from her own and past her.  He was clearly looking at William as he moved, but she didn't dare to look away from Tyler who only stopped when he was so near to her that they were almost touching.

"She didn't finish it.  She blew her fucking wad early in the fight.  When victory was in reach, she ran out of steam.  You could have taught her a lesson - gave her some much deserved payback..."  He lowered his voice conspiratorially, "She was in LA, you know that, don'tchu?" 

William's hand fell away from her body.  She wished she could see his face.  Was he preparing to kick her ass?  Was Tyler getting through to him? 

Tyler nodded, a shit eating grin growing on his face - he seemed to think that he'd hit a nerve.  GOD!  Had William known that she'd been there?  "She earned her power through fucking nepotism, LOOK AT HER!  She ain't like us.  She doesn't have the strength or brains to fucking lead. Her Daddy gave her power... a daddy who fucking slaughtered three cities worth of people & later your whole family.  And for what?  For his lousy piece of ass in Chicago."

Durden was good.  If she had been William she would have hit herself after Durden's words.  The guy was a dick, but she'd just spent the last three minutes pummeling William after putting him into a dangerously stupid situation.  After everything he'd been through, after all he'd seen out of her, and then hearing that she'd been in LA during the war... how could he NOT want to kill her.

"SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST!"  He roared to the crowd who cheered and chanted his name like he was some kind of God.  Over the din, he finished his tirade, "The strong lead!  The pack follows!"  

Billy's off hand reached up and grabbed her arm almost violently. 

"William, I...!"  She cried out, meaning to try to tell him who the real enemy was, but it appeared that wasn't necessary as Billy pushed her out from between them and took a fighting stance - eyes still locked on Tyler Durden.

Tyler's smirk became a cackling mask of glee.  "ALRIGHT!"  He said nodding enthusiastically as he began to take off his belt, shoes, and shirt.  Instantly the betting pit became a zoo as the odds-maker frantically wiped her name off the board and wrote in big bold letters over it's remnants the name 'TYLER.'

She tried to go towards Tyler, to stop this - she had no idea what she'd do or say or how it would come to pass but she had to try!  Durden's goons, took hold of her arms and dragged her out of the fighting circle.  Durden called out.  "One fight at a time boys!  Don't hurt Daddy's girl while I dance with her new squeeze."

"DURDEN!!!!"  She screamed trying to get the man to look back at her, but he only had eyes for Billy now.  If the crowd had been crazy before, then there were no words to describe it now.  Men stood screaming so loudly that their eyes bulged in their sockets.  Spittle spray and sweat mixed on the floor with old beer spills and dried blood.  Shoulder to shoulder the mob of blood ravening madmen made it impossible to flee.

Tyler Durden put up his hands and looked to Billy, "Let's see what you got, Billy Boy!"

If Tyler wanted William to turn to his side he was a fool. Part of him knew that Isabella would have had to be around for LA. He had tried not to admit it to himself, but in the end it didn't matter. What was done was done and he wouldn't hold it against her no matter how much it hurt. He would honor what happened by becoming everything that Elyan had seen in him, not by looking for blood. That or he would die trying.

Tyler's last words had stung more than anything else he could have done. What did this bastard know about being a pack? Tyler only saw the easy part, but it wasn't just about strength and dominance. It was about the strong doing what was necessary to protect those they led. Sacrificing so that those who were weaker didn't have to suffer. So that those they protect could have a future and someday grow stronger than you ever were. That was Elyan's greatest lesson to him and all the others and William would be damned before he would let some feral mongrel piss all over that. Over the sacrifice that the man he so respected made for him and those like him.

The way out had narrowed. The only door out of this place now was to go right through one of the most dangerous men alive. William felt his arms protest with hot streaks of pain as he raised them again in a guard. Looking over Tyler and the lean, wiry muscles tensing across his torso he couldn't see a way that this ended well for him. If he were fresh and in the right state of mind he'd have still been a long shot. As things stood it was only his rage that had even given him the strength to make this stand. It would take a literal miracle for him to win. William had never taken up with his family's Catholic roots, but he said a silent prayer before he made his move. He wasn't going to let the odds stop him from protecting a pack and making this son of a bitch eat his words.

"Fuck you." That was the only thing he could growl out as he lunged at the man in front of him. The screams of the crowd, of Isabella, and of his own agony faded as he went to the familiar instincts of letting loose completely. Nothing in the world mattered any more except the man in front of him. His victim, he told himself. William didn't hold anything back as he went in swinging with every ounce of strength he could pull together. The outburst was every bit as wild as what Isabella had done to him, but more precise. More practiced. He may not have had an inner wolf like his old boss, but deep down in William he was every bit a predator when he needed to be. The sudden ferocity of the charge put Tyler on the back foot in surprise and a few shots even snuck through his guard.

e was too tired, too hurt, and too slow to stop Tyler if he got the upper hand so he'd put everything into that first attack. He'd left himself defenseless trying to push and overwhelm his opponent with his anger. A lesser man might have crumbled under the onslaught, but Tyler had adapted without thought or hesitation and drove home a bone-shattering hit to William's gut that stopped him dead in his tracks. Even as William had seen a thin cut open up on Tyler's pretty boy face and a bit of hope began to light up in the back of his mind, he suddenly found himself without any air. Even if the move had cost him pain, Tyler had turned the momentum around. Street fighting had made a man of Billy, but as Tyler drove an uppercut into William's jaw he could tell that he was an amateur in comparison to the creature in front of him. Tyler was faster, stronger, and just plain outclassed him in a brawl in a way that only a man who spent his life in constant combat could. Despite his ferocity, it was only luck and surprise at his outburst that saw William so much as scratch him.

As his skull thudded into the ground and his focus scattered like smoke in the wind the only thing William could think was that he'd let them all down. His family, his friends, his old boss, and most of all the woman whose screaming only now reached his ears. He'd failed to protect her too.

"Is that it, Billy Boy? One big push and you're all washed up? Y'know, maybe you two are meant for each other." The monster looming over him spit the words out, each one a taunt and a reminder how worthless Billy felt, unable to raise himself back up or even retort. Tyler was reveling in William's misery and even seemed to be enjoying the sting of the one mark that had been left on him. A new little trophy to mark another in his long list of victims.

The pounding throbs that wracked his body finally began to overtake Billy and close over him in a blanket of darkness. The last words he heard before consciousness left him were enough to make his last waking moments crush him in guilt. Tyler's voice rang out loud and clear through all the haze.

"Let the little Princess come out boys! It's time to have a chat."

"WILLIAM!!!!"  Her voice cracked as she screamed his name, her lips still red with her own blood.  

He impacted the floor so hard she thought he had to be dead, but he moved - blessedly.  The room was full of screaming men - cheering over the win, bemoaning the loss; and her voice alone expressed concern for the man whose eyes closed at Tyler Durden's feet.  

"WILLIAM?!?  WILLIAM!  WAKE UP!  WILLIAM!"  

"Let the little Princess come out boys! It's time to have a chat."

The men holding her dragged her out into the center of the 'ring' and cheers among the crowd began again as men shouted for the oddsmaker to take their bets on Durden for the win.  Durden shook his head.  "I would never... hit a woman."  he said, tone full of snark.  "That's what you wops say right?"

Isabella spit at Tyler.

"There's that Italian spunk we got a tiny glimpse at earlier."  He nodded to his men. "Let her go - she won't do nothing so long as we got her boyfriend."

Isabella's nostril's flared.  She nearly snapped about how William was NOT her boyfriend, but she didn't want to give Durden the satisfaction.  when she didn't move upon being released he said simply, "Good girl."

"Don't push it."  she threatened.  "What do you want?"

"What I'm owed."  He walked towards her and then, without warning, drove his index finger into the scar on her rib cage.  "I see your Daddy is enjoying his seat as Godfather instead of a plot at the bottom of Lake Michigan.  I was REAL upset he didn't get back with me - considering I did him such a huge favor.  Allowing him to resolve his vendetta... and rise so damn high."

She had doubled over from the pain, he took her by the chin and lifted her to standing straight again so she was looking up into his eyes.  "I almost came to Detroit personally to show him how insulted I was... but then I learn from one of my guys in the FBN it wasn't Salvatore who went looking into the evidence - BUT YOU."

She smiled.  "I never told him."  She lied.  "So he owes you jack and shit."

"True." He stepped back.  "But where I lost a Godfather owing me a blood debt... I have the next best thing.  I have his darling first born child."  

"I'll die before I do anything for you Durden.  I won't betray my father."  

He smiled, nodding, as if impressed.  Then he looked to his men and, holding out his left hand.  One of his men his gun, chambered a round, and offered it to Tyler.  He took it and began shooting into the ceiling laughing madly and shouting wild whoops - animal like noises meant to make the suits in the mezzanine flee.  People pushed each other, trampling over one another to get at the door.  For all their want of blood, the moment Durden had a gun... the whole place began to empty out of everyone, except his Soldato.  

Tyler finally stopped, and purposefully lowered the still hot muzzle to the center of her forehead.  Part of her wanted to beg for mercy... but another part, defiant of this monster and uncaring about life or death in this moment, accepted it.  He considered her a moment, as if trying to decide whether he respected or despised her, "You're reckless enough to do it, aren't you?" 

Silent, she pushed her forehead against the steel hard enough for there to be a mark left behind later.  

"Landucci has made you careless, Hot Rod."  He said.  "You're gonna get your whole damn Tower put into an early grave, just like every one that came before it.  Lousey Lucy & Failure Frankie both lost their lives after they buried their husbands... so you really aren't scared of this are you?  Probably what you came here looking for... too chicken shit to eat the end of your own gun and figured I'd do the dirty work for you."

"Now," He lowered the gun, at first she thought he'd give up - instead the gun pointed at William.  "Tell me again if there is an unsettled debt between us that you're going to honor when I call it due.  You get one chance to give me the right answer."

"There's a debt."  She said faster than she thought she would.  It, her voice, sounded like it belonged to someone else.

"And..."

"I'll pay."  She said softly.

"Was that so hard?"  He said dropping his gun and trotting back to the odds maker's table.  There he picked up her purse and something else.  

"Can we go?"  she asked.

"Just a moment."  Tyler said turning around with a camera.  The shutter made a loud click and the bulb flashed.  Isabella, beaten and bloody, with William at her feet was clearly in the photo... with no less than three of Tyler's men behind her.  "A photo to remember this moment, just in case you decide to forget this conversation."

"The photo..."  she started to protest.

"Imagine out of context how this looks to your father.  How it looks to the Godfather of Philly.  Two men with little dicks and real big guns and a love of using them."  Tyler laughed.  "I got your daddy to gun down that old man with a fuck ton less evidence than this photo shows.  Made men putting hands to each other... worse, Billy here made you bleed... you think your daddy will EVER understand or over look that?" 

She said nothing.

Tyler winked.  "Blood for blood, Princess.  That's how you wops do it and all day LONG I now have the power to trigger a war if you don't do what I need you to do.  So...  yes, I think you can go now - but don't be stupid.  REMEMBER the first rule of fight club... and don't forget your words here or something bad might happen.  OH!  And take your boyfriend with you.  You two probably have a lot to sort out between you both... what with how your people killed each other and you beat the hell out of each other tonight.  You really do make quite the pair... rather romeo and juliet if you ask me."

Isabella looked at William wondering how the hell she was going to lift him.  Tyler offered her the purse she came in with.  She took it.  

"You could call your bodyguards."  He said, guessing her dilemma.  "But then again, they'd know you ditched them to come here and I suppose that would mean your daddy would too."

Isabella looked around the room and spotting a dolly near the wall she walked over to get it and proceeded to slowly, and to the laughing jeers of Durden's men, load William onto it.  Durden, after a few moments left with a, "Catch you later, Hot Rod" over his shoulder.  His men, however, followed her out the door and to her car ensuring no one gave her trouble (or help.)  It took ten full minutes to maneuver William into the backseat and get the hell out.

At her hotel she paid two men who were going inside, drunk, to help her get her 'drunk and beaten husband' inside.  Ironically enough, not a single cent of her cash had been  taken while in Durden's care.  The men put William down on the bed and even fetched her a bucket of ice to put on his swollen eye.

After she had cleaned up a bit, she began to tend to William's wounds.  A soft cloth to wipe away dried blood, sweat, and dirt - ice for swelling.  Sitting along side him on the bed she let her mind wander to what the hell Durden might ask of her and when he'd ask it. 

It had been the longest stretch of time, since it happened, she went without wallowing in guilt over Elias' death.  Right now, all she could focus on was her own pain, her worry for William, and now the fear of what Durden had planned.  These things occupied her mind until she slipped off to sleep beside William on the hotel bed.