Phil ran down the street as hard and fast as he'd ever moved before, cursing his shit luck as Aurora disappeared around a corner hot on the trail of her prey.  The sounds of Chicago at night was a crazed cacophony he had all but tuned out until he nearly ran square into oncoming headlights and a horn screamed at him, causing him to dive out of the way and into a pile of trash on the corner.  Scrambling up to his feet he looked around.  

"FUCK!  FUCK!  FUCK!"  He screamed out, kicking at the pile of garbage sending a cat running with a yowl.

He'd lost sight of Aurora.

Aurora planted her hand on the rough-hewn stone wall and vaulted over it with ease.  She was short of breath but the chase was the best part of any hunt.  The target knew he was dead, but he hadn't yet given up hope of escape.  She would have to pull it out of him bit by bit, until he yielded to her - his better.  All she had to do was keep moving and move she did, up, over, and around obstacles, the fuckwit threw in her way. 

She could take the shot, she knew that - but guns drew attention and she needed answers from Crackers before he gave up the ghost.  Someone was targeting Trust and her mother needed a name.  Aurora was going to prove she could be as good as any two men in the operation and get her what she needed.

Crackers then threw her for a loop as he sprinted into a narrow street lined with working girls and green doors indicating speak-easys.  There was a lot more eyes here, the asshole was smarter than he looked.  If Aurora had been half as dumb as most of the goombas her mother employed, Crackers would be in the wind for sure.Fortunately, she wasn't like any of the other goombas.  She was better.  She was the best.

Marcus hadn't seen Phil and Aurora for almost three minutes and he was nervous.  His job was painfully clear.  Watch her.  Protect her.  Die for her if necessary but if she gets so much as a papercut on your watch, you answer to me.

Or something along those lines was the exact threat Don Mastrosimone had given to him at Hollowood the day that his charge and his boss reunited after their ... whatever that was in the park.  At this moment, with her God alone knew where he had this sinking feeling he might just get to see what the bottom of Lake Huron looked like after all.

The smell of booze and ladies perfume assaulted him as he came round the corner into the Windy City's red light district.  Mobsters, molls, johns and whores miled about and the stench of their sins was only barely masked by the veil they tried to cover it all in.  The cheap lights, the lively jazz music, the fake smiles and face paint to hide the truth.  This was no place for Miss Byrne.  Marcus' eyes slid over face after face until he found one he recognized.

He smirked making his way to intercept, throwing out an arm just as he reached Crackers running at full-speed from the lioness nipping at his heels.  The force of the impact lifted the rat up off the ground and into the air, then he went back down hard to the pavement.  His bottom and back slamming down so hard it could be heard as his head bounced not once, but twice, sending him into unconsciousness.  Marcus kicked him one more time for good measure, telling himself that it was for Don Mastrosimone who wouldn't approve of Aurora having to be here in this place.

"Good work."  Aurora praised as stopped before him.

"Thank you, Miss."  He then noticed, "Where's Phil?"

Aurora looked around seeing the crowds closing in, coming to find out what happened and who was involved - but no Phil.  "Must have lost him.  We can't wait.  Pick up the guy.  We need to scram."

Marcus threw Crackers over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and ushered Miss Byrne out of the alley - his gun now in his other hand.

Alex came into Integra's office and put down the morning papers, reports, and notes from the overnight activities.  Prioritizing, before her, a few in particular.

Dragon's people being hit.  Significant losses in recent shipments of products and a handful of people.  Dragon on the warpath.  Every gun she's got is on the hunt - wolf and lioness included.  Things dire enough Dragon is using her youngest hatchling as runner.  Lioness set on the path of possible rat.  Arrived in Chicago forty-eight hours ago after Lioness' target fled Philly and went back to his old stomping grounds.  Pursuit continued until four hours ago.  Rat has tight lips.  Lioness left me to watch over rat while she retires to sleep for a bit.  Not sure the kid's done this shit before, but she's refusing advice to take him home to be questioned by Dragon.  Advise. 

-Phil

Word on the street is Don Byrne is expanding Trust operations and is actively hiring guns and muscle.

Two dead in bloody robbery on HWY 81 out of Ottawa.  FBN witnessed on scene investigating seems to indicate they know this is tied to the Cosa Nostra.  Two men gunned down.  One sprayed by Chicago-Type-Writer and the other double-tapped by pro.  Word on the street is that Trust is offering big money for the person(s) responsible.  

Long thought retired hitman, The White Wolf of Race Street, spotted in LA asking around about a guy named Tracey Daniels.  Alias: 'The Box' 

Billy's phone rang in the early morning, just after he'd arrived for the day.  Rebecca tapped on the door and peeked her head into Billy's office.  "Miss Byrne is on the line for you."

As soon as Billy picks up.

"Hey sweetie.  Sorry I haven't called, I've been absolutely swamped.  Tell me everything I've missed since I saw you last.  I just... need to hear your voice.  I miss you."

Billy picked up the phone with a smile and shuffled some papers on his desk to the side as if Aurora were actually there and could see them. He didn't want to ruin any surprises.

"Nothing to report from here really. Been kinda quiet actually. I really like it. Gives me a chance to expand business a bit, and more important to make some other plans for projects I've got cooking. Speaking of which, you've got your passport right?"

He looked over at a brochure he had sitting on the one chair in his office. He was going to wait a bit, but after Integra had her vacation, Billy was going to take Aurora back to the old country for a bit. Integra first though. She deserved it.

"You having trouble at school? You said you were swamped. How's Will doing?"

"Will?  Having the time of his life."  she scoffed, clearly not approving of whatever her brother is up to. 

"Me... no, I'm not at Vassar.  Some things came up with the Family,"  The way she said the word it was clear she didn't mean The Byrnes per say but the Cosa Nostra. 

"I'm... uh, I'm in Chicago actually.  There was a slim chance that work was gonna take me up through Detroit, but ain't going to happen now.  I need to tie up some loose ends here and then head straight back to Philly."

She sighed. 

"My passport... yes.  I have it.  Though I hope you haven't booked any flights or anything just yet?  Might be best we wait until the end of winter term.  Hopefully, by then all my school and Family work will be handled."

Billy could hear her take a drink of something.

"How's Tegs doing?"

Billy nodded into the phone.

"My sister's fine. She's working through a couple of reports today, but she deserves some time off so I think I'm gonna give her some time to herself, write her a blank check to do what she wants for a week or so. Then Eva too. So by the time they are both back and well rested, you and I can go on a trip together."

Billy turned in his chair to look over the warehouse.

"Hey listen, I don't want to keep you from your work. If you've got Family business, you should take care of it. Don't want your boss hanging over your head you know?"

Distantly she could hear the sound of another train pulling in to unload, it's horn blaring loudly.

"Yeah..."  She sounded hesitant.  "I should get back to it.  I just wanted a pick me up before I started what's probably gonna be a long day." 

She gave a wry chuckle.

"Maybe I'll have a big breakfast before I get started.  Someone once told me it was the most important meal of my day after all."

Another pause.

"I'll call again as soon as this is dealt with and I'm back safely in Philly.  And um... you might give Marcus a little something extra this week.  He earned it last night.  Oh and... um... I picked up a new pair of pumps I can't wait to show you."

She gave a short giggle.

"Talk with you soon, okay?"

Billy nodded.

"Ok Roar."

As he hung up the phone he looked toward the door where Rebecca was sitting in her chair waiting for something to do.

"Any idea what Aurora would be doing with pumps? I mean, she's not trying to drain the Great Lakes right?"

Rebecca just shook her head and rolled her eyes at Billy, picking up her newspaper she read the headline.

Newest Wave of Deaths Hitting the Streets

She looked back up at her boss.

"Says here this guy died of an overdose in some abandoned lot. More and more of that these days."

Billy looked back at his runner.

"Got the guy's name in there?"

Rebecca shook her head.

"Nah, just says his face was all screwed up like someone took a hacksaw to it some years back."

Billy nodded.

"They left out the part about his kneecaps being blown off then."

Rebecca nodded slowly. Apparently her boss had been busy when he went away.

Aurora hung up the phone as Marcus came into the room carrying a small paper sack that smelled delicious.

"You want a donut, Miss?"  He offered her one.

She shook her head, not because she wasn't hungry - she was starved, but she wasn't sure it would be wise to face the day's work on a full stomach.  She'd rather suffer hunger pains than to empty her stomach in front of the man she was meant to unnerve into speaking.

"Thanks, Marcus, I think I'll pass."  She put on her shoes and then stood back up.  "I think I'm ready."

He nodded and opened the door for her, following her down the hallway.

"You know, if you don't mind me saying so,"  Marcus began, "I'm kinda glad I'm here with you right now."

"Oh?" Aurora said to him as they left the hotel an made their way towards the car.  

"Yeah.  I've heard about your father - Salvatore and your mother Isabella - they're legends at this sort of thing.  This son of a bitch has no idea what he's in for."

Aurora hesitated as Marcus opened the car door for her.  "Yeah.  No idea..."

She slid into the backseat and folded her hands into her lap.  Marcus got into the driver's seat and proceeded to take Aurora back to where she could get to work on trying to make Crackers talk.  Staring at the reflection of her eyes in the glass, Aurora tried to think about what Bella and Salvatore would do to a man to get the answers they needed ... but it wasn't going well.  She found this distasteful, but the idea of failing her family - of more people dying - she couldn't accept that either.

Cutting up dead bodies wasn't so hard... surely it wasn't going to be so terrible to do the same things to a living man, right?  And surely he'd break once the pain started.  She wouldn't have to go at this very long... would she? 

Surely not.

"Well?"  Bella said picking up the phone.

Gavin chuckled, "Hello to you too, beautiful."

Bella sighed.  "Hello.  I'm sorry.  Now, what do you have for me?"

"Afraid the news is bad.  I found The Box, but he's in a pine one now."

"You didn't!"  She stood up from the desk, wishing he was here to shout at in person.

"No.  The drugs did.  Someone loaded him up on Amphetamines."

"Someone?"

Gavin looked around the room.  "Yeah, he wasn't having a party here - this place is trashed and not in a fun way.  So, that's one more mouth silenced."

"Damn it!"  Bella slammed her fist on her desk.

"Did Squirt report in?"

"No."  Bella admitted.  "If we don't hear from her by tonight we'll send people to follow up on her."

There was a long silence.

"Bella?"

"What?"  She said, clearly annoyed.

"We're gonna find out who is behind this and put a stop to it.  Go eat something, get some rest.  I know you... and if you're not taking care of yourself right now, you're useless to us.  I'll be home in about six hours."

"I love you."  She whispered.

"I told you,"  He reassured her.  "This is under control.  Stop worrying.  I'll be home soon." 

With that Gavin hung up the phone, confident this wasn't a situation in which he needed to return his wife's verbal affections. 

Integra nodded towards Alex as he dropped off the morning papers, opening one and looking through it, grabbing the note from the overnight activities before focusing on that. Her eyes skimming over the information before she took a moment to organize the papers and reports on her desk, taking the notes with her as she headed towards Billy's Office.

She could faintly hear him talking as she opened the door a bit, knocking lightly on the door frame as she poked her head in. Based off what she could hear him speaking about, it sounded like he was talking to Aurora, which made her eyes soften a bit.

She held up the notes from the previous nights' activities, holding them up to catch her brother's attention, not wanting the person on the other end of the phone to realize there was anything wrong.

It wouldn't be until after he had hung up the phone that she even said anything. "This just came in... and if my boys are finding out about it... it makes me wonder who else is noticing."

Phil held open the door.  Aurora stalked past him, her high heels clicking on the floor tiles as her eyes locked onto the man tied to the chair in the center of the room near the drain in the floor. 

Billy was right, there was something about that sound.  It wasn't just what she felt, it was how the face of her target twitched at the sound.  Death was coming for him.  He knew it and where normally she tried to kill unseen and in silence, she needed this man to know precisely what she was capable of doing to him if he didn't cooperate.  The heels had greatly added to the effect.  Well, at least that was one good thing from her putting off this process for a few hours.

She stopped in front of him and tried the direct approach.  "I need to know two things.  The first is who hit the Trust, and who gave the intel of when and where those shipments would be."

Crackers shook his head, his hair matted with dirt and blood from where he'd cracked his skull the night before.  

Aurora sighed.  "I had hoped a night of thinking about this would have improved your willingness to cooperate."

"I know who you are."  He muttered through cracked lips.

She narrowed her eyes.  "And who do you suppose I am?"

"The devil's daughter..."  He muttered.  "I'm a dead man anyway."

Aurora stood there staring at the man, crossing her arms in front of her, "Most folks would take that as an incentive to skip the pain, talk and hope I'd give them a death they didn't see coming.  Clean.  Quick."

He shook his head slowly, "No such thing... you're the Devil's daughter."

Aurora had planned to use her gun to end it when the time came but instead pulled the small knife which her father had given to her on her seventh Christmas.  

"Despite my ... origins, I am the daughter of the White Wolf and I can tell you which identity means more to me."  She stepped closer to him.  "Talk and I'll slide this into a place which you won't even feel.  You'll pass out and never wake up.  The easiest of deaths a man could hope for in our line of work.  Just... tell me what I want to know."

The man laughed.  He actually laughed.  The laugh became a mad cackle.  He was hysterical.  He was barely able to catch his breath.  Aurora glanced to Phil and Marcus who were standing near what could loosely be called an office.  A desk, a file cabinet, and a telephone - lots of papers all about and some trash from yesterday's take-out.

"The Devil's Daughter it is then..."

Billy picked up the notes and flipped through most of them, except for one...

Dragon's people being hit.  Significant losses in recent shipments of products and a handful of people.  Dragon on the warpath.  Every gun she's got is on the hunt - wolf and lioness included.  Things dire enough Dragon is using her youngest hatchling as runner.  Lioness set on the path of possible rat.  Arrived in Chicago forty-eight hours ago after Lioness' target fled Philly and went back to his old stomping grounds.  Pursuit continued until four hours ago.  Rat has tight lips.  Lioness left me to watch over rat while she retires to sleep for a bit.  Not sure the kid's done this shit before, but she's refusing advice to take him home to be questioned by Dragon.  Advise. 

-Phil

He looked at Rebecca.

"Get Aurora Byrne back on that phone right now."

His demeanor had changed. His entire attitude had changed. Hell even his voice had changed. This was the Don speaking. Rebecca stood by the phone for a solid two minutes and then shook her head.

"Alright Integra, send word to Phil that Eva is on her way. You take your vacation and send Eva in to my office."

He turned to his filing cabinet and began to put some of his papers away to try and clean up before his left hand arrived.

Billy's secretary didn't hesitate to call back the hotel which Aurora said she was staying in.  After only a few moments Rebecca hung up Billy's phone, "I'll try the number Phil left us with now, Sir.  The hotel which Aurora was staying at says there's no answer when they ring her room."  

Rebecca stood against the desk, tapping her foot before she smiled.

"Phil?"  She said with a little too much excitement in her voice.  "Is Miss Byrne available?"

A pause.

"I understand but Don Mastrosimone..."

She covered the receiver.  "Phil's getting her."

A moment later.  

"Miss Byrne?  I have someone here to speak with you."  She passed the phone to Billy.  In the background, muffled whimpering and dripping can be heard.

"Is everything okay, luce dei miei occhi?"  She asked right off, a tinge of fear in her voice.

Billy sighed.

"I'm sending help. My doctor is leaving within the hour, send Marcus out with your location to meet her at the hotel. She can assist with your current task. I'll clear this with your Don, but I have the utmost confidence she will be grateful for the help. In the mean time, I need one answer from you."

His voice softened then.

"Do you need an extra man or two? I don't want anything to happen to you and if some of the reports that came across my desk are good, people know what you are up to."

He waited patiently for a response while looking to Integra. He put his hand over the reciever.

"Well, what the hell are you still doing in here? Go on your vacation with your boyfriend, and send Eva in, geeze, we're not incompetent you know. The place will still be standing when you get back. Promise."

He smiled at his sister then and nodded his head toward the door.

"My friend has tight lips but otherwise he's given me no reason to think he's part of a bigger conspiracy.  If he is, they've left him to hang."  She sighed.  "As for my mother, I'd was rather hoping that she thought me capable of handling things on my own."

She paused.

"But I can understand why Phil and Marcus might have been concerned." 

She shot both men a glance.

"I'll send Marcus to the hotel to wait on Eva and I'll put my guy on a shelf until she arrives.  If you don't mind, I'll fly back with her tonight?"

Billy nodded.

"Fly back if the job is done, but you might come to realize that some nuts are tough to crack. Stay safe Profondità della mia anima, I will see you tonight."

With that Billy hung up the phone and stood from his desk.

"Do I need to do everything around here goddamnit?"

He made his way out of his own office and down the hall to Eva's.

Integra had nodded towards Billy after handing him the notes before heading out to find Eva, checking her office first. She knocked lightly, waiting for a response from the other side before opening the door and offering a small smile towards the woman. 

"Hey, Billy wants to see you in his office, he has a favor to ask."

She would wait for Eva before walking back towards her brother's office with the good doctor. Her mind already wandering a little as to what she'd be doing with Alucard. She had yet to tell anyone really that she would probably be house hunting with the man she loved... thinking it just wasn't the right moment.

Hearing her brother ahead in the hall, snapped her attention back to the now as she raised an eyebrow at him. "Everything alright...?"