BUFFALO, NY

26 Hours Missing

Aurora sat atop the Prudential Building putting together a sniper rifle with the same sort of reverence that monks go about their daily prayers.  The gun was special.  The gun was her father's and God willing today she'd take one of the most important shots ever taken with this gun.  The shot that ended the man who took her little girl.

Dark circles were under her eyes.  Aurora had tried to sleep.  Sleep when on an important mission was vital.  Lack of sleep could prove deadly for her or someone she cared about.  But sadly her mind had gone to all sorts of places she didn't like when she closed her eyes and her body was fitful.  Rest wasn't really restful.  She'd pushed Billy to nap too, but she could see he was little better than she was.  It had only been a day, an yet it might as well have been a month.

Gavin was at home with Oscar and Mavis, safe and sound.  Dad had not called yet, though to be fair, Aurora hadn't expected he would and maybe it was better he didn't even know.  Maybe they'd have her back before he had to know... maybe.

Charlie had been sent on to New York as planned and he hadn't gone alone.  Despite everything that had happened it was Aurora who had spoke to bringing in Addie to help him.  In truth, she didn't know if Addie was ready, but they had few other options.  Everyone else she might have trusted was tied up or too far away.  Addie was family.  Addie loved Brigitte.  Addie cared about Charlie and Addie was right there.  If Addie was ever going to be trusted again, it had to start somewhere and where better to start when there was literally no one else?

Addie had reacted as expected, she was horrified to hear of Brigitte being taken and of Neil's death and as soon as she knew there might be a way to find her... and that Charlie needed help, she seemed ready to go to work.  If there was hesitation on Addie's part or fears, she did well to hide it or Aurora was too distracted to notice.

Billy checked his pocket watch again.  He was pacing.  Aurora put herself down into position and began sighting in the platform where the train was scheduled to arrive in ten minutes.  She wiped the sleep from her eye and then looked up to her husband.  The wind whistled loudly, but still the city street could be heard a distance below.  She sat up onto folded knees and put her hands down onto her thighs.  She tilted her head to the side and considered Billy, the giant looming over Buffalo - watching.  Waiting.

"Luce dei miei occhi?"  She found herself speaking just loud enough to be heard.  

Billy looked back to her and she held out her hand to him.  

"Prega con me."

Billy knelt down next to his wife and crossed himself before beginning to recite the Hail Mary. As soon as he was done he let go of her hand and then kissed her on the head.

“I don’t know what’s coming next Roar, I really don’t but if I have any say over anything at all our little girl is going to be giggling in your arms again before the sun sets.”

He stood again and raised the binoculars to look back to the tracks again, following it back to the west and south. Something wasn’t right. Something was missing, the train should have been there by now. He turned then and looked back toward the Federal Building behind the building they were on. Still no movement.

“Should have been here by now.”

“What time is it?”  she asked furrowing her brow.  

“5:12.” He said looking at the watch again.

“5:12?”  Aurora stood up and began taking the rifle apart.  “The train is late.  Too late.”  She began to tremble as she took the gun apart as fast as she could.  “Even if you factor in a bit for them to stop the train elsewhere, how long can it take to open a fucking door and pull out a kid?”

Billy shook his head.

“Fuck it, pack that shit up and let’s get in a car. We can follow the tracks, the train can’t have just disappeared right?”

“No.  And we know what set they’d be coming in on. We follow the tracks and we find the train.  The only other option we might have would be me putting in a call to try to find out why one of my fucking trains isn’t on schedule.  I mean, mom did have controlling stock, surely that entitles me to a fucking answer on one of my trains?”

Billy gawked at his wife.

“Are you?... Why didn’t this come up before now?!”

She shook her head, “I… I didn’t think about it before.  I’ve been thinking about…”  She closed her eyes and winced.  “It doesn’t matter.  I thought of it now!”

“Yeah alright, either way, we need to find the train. You want to go find a phone and make a call while I pack the car? Or you want to just follow the tracks?”

Aurora closed the case with her father’s gun inside.  Standing up she shook her head, “I don’t even know for sure who the fuck I’m calling.  I mean, I know I own shit but fuck Billy I’ve never even… what the fuck do I know about this shit!”  She was angry, but not at Billy, she was angry at herself.  For once, her husband had proven to be more right than she’d wanted to ever admit.  If she’d taken the time to know all the businesses the way he knew his, maybe she’d be in a better position to help Brigitte when she needed her mother to come through for her the most.

She shook her head, “We’ll follow the tracks.  I’m sorry, Billy.  I’m sorry.”

Billy waved a dismissive hand. “Sorry for what? Nothing you can do. We follow the tracks, and after we get Brigitte back, I’ll introduce you to a thing called the central office of scheduling.” He smiled and patted Aurora lightly on her backside with a wink.

Aurora didn’t smile.  She was wearing her guilt on the outside right now it was clear she was viciously castigating herself for her shortcomings.  

Billy’s smile faded quickly. “Hey, Roar. Not to be that guy, but we’ve got a kid to save, smiling clearly isn’t helping, so we both put the smiles away until we get our girl back, but that means you gotta focus with me here. We alright with that deal?” He held the door to the interior of the building open for her as he asked.

Aurora nodded.  She seemed to take a moment, internalized what Billy had said and her amber eyes focused on something distant for only a brief moment before she nodded again and then met her husband’s gaze.  “I’m good.”  She said a bit more confidently.  “Let’s go.”

 

Billy and Aurora's car traveled down a long stretch of highway out of the city and into the countryside.  Fields and wider open spaces emerged and small groups of trees began to appear, forests along the roadside which made the tracks sometimes hard to spot.  Of course, as night began to fall it made spotting the small swarm of headlights and the train’s light, all the easier.

Aurora had been holding Billy’s hand but took her back as soon as she saw the train and all the people milling about.  

“There’s a dozen of them, maybe more… God… why are they still here?”

She went silent then, as the car parked and the two of them got out.  Billy walked immediately up to the nearest Agent and asked, “Is there an Agent Smith here?”

“Sir, I’m going to have to ask you & your lady friend to return to your car,”  the man looked at Billy as if he could see the large guns under his jacket.  

“Wife.”  Aurora snapped.  “I’m his wife and if you don’t find Agent Robert Smith right the fuck now I’m gonna…”

“Mrs. Mastrosimone.”  Robert’s long-suffering voice echoed from the darkness near the train.  “What a pleasure to hear your dulcet tones this evening… let ‘em through.”  

The younger agent stepped aside letting Billy and Aurora proceed towards Robert.  “Alright Bob, bad news first.”

Bob sighed.  “The train was stopped three miles prior to this location.”

Incredulously Aurora gasped, “What?”  

“Alright Bob, what’s three miles back that way then?”  Billy asked.

“Nothing.  That’s the point.  A big fucking open field through which the train conductor could see a truck broke down on the tracks in enough time to stop for it.”

Billy could feel Aurora tense beside him.

“I assume we have the plates of that truck and everyone on the train has been questioned to find out what the plates of the getaway vehicle were?”

“We’re talking to them now…”

“How the fuck did they know, Bob?  HOW?!?  We didn’t tell anyone so it wasn’t our people that let the kidnappers fucking know we were coming for them!  They were in a GOD DAMNED TRAIN CAR… they stowed my daughter like fucking cargo and how the FUCK did they know!?!”

Bob stood silent for a long while before admitting, “I don’t know… yet.”

“THIS.”  Aurora said.  “This is why you’re useless.  Trust.  Loyalty.  These words mean nothing to your people.”  

She hissed, “OMERTA.”  

Bob nodded and spoke softly.  “We have other leads.”

Aurora made a noise that sounded as if she thought their other leads could go fuck themselves, and then, she walked back to the car, leaving Billy to talk with Bob alone.

“Witnesses saw her."  He offered to Billy,  "She seems to be okay.  She was walking with one of the suspects, hand in hand.  She wasn’t struggling or trying to run.  The witnesses think that she is the daughter of one of the men… which… of course, they couldn’t know she’s been kidnapped if she wasn’t making a fuss.  Why would they, especially since they’re speaking in French.  I’m disinclined to believe that whatever their agenda is, that it involves hurting her.  If that’s any comfort.”

Billy shook his head.

"I'm not sure that it is. If she wasn't fighting, then either they said something to her, that's not my kid, or... or she knows what they will do if she does fight back."

Billy's face had nothing but a shadow of darkness fall over it as he racked his brain.

"I don't know what to do here Bob. I think I'm going to have to start making phone calls to friends. Get everyone I know and their brother with eyes out for my kid at this point. I've already got some folks in New York keeping an eye out, but that city is huge. I'm gonna put in calls all over the place now. It can't just be me and my family anymore, it's time to turn up the heat, these guys got away one too many times."

He took a deep breath.

"Last guy who lost my kid died for her Bob. Don't lose my kid again or my wife isn't gonna be the one you need to worry about. And don't forget to call me next time either. I have resources you don't, don't forget that shit."

With that he pulled out a half dozen cigars and handed them to the Agent.

"They're quality, give em to your boys, thank them for their work. Before I go, you got anything you want to tell me?"

Aurora walked back to the car fuming under her breath.  She put her forearms on the roof of the car and put her head down as tears began to fill her vision.

"You're really are worried about her, aren't you?"

Aurora turned and looked at Elijah, her eyes red and puffy.  "I'm her mother..." She said incredulously.  "I'm not worried, I'm terrified."

He shook his head.  "He's been telling me you're not like them."

She scoffed.  "Bob's right.  I'm not.  I'm worse.  Now go away kid, find some other gangster to make your bones harassing."  She opened the car door and sat down trying to dry her eyes and control her emotions.

Elijah walked over to the car.  "Kids are resilient."  He offered supportively, "When you get her back... she'll be okay.  She'll bounce back."

"And how would you know?  You a Dad?"

Elijah shook his head 'no' and said, "I lost my parents young.  My father when I was six, my mom a few years later."

Aurora swallowed her next snarky reply and whispered, "I'm sorry you suffered like that.  Losing a parent is the worst pain in all the world."

Elijah nodded, "Thanks.  That means a lot coming from you."

Aurora narrowed her eyes.  "Did I kick your favorite puppy or something as a kid?  You've been surly as shit with me from the moment we met.  How the hell is it that you dislike me so damn much?"

Elijah wet his lips and opened his mouth to speak.

Bob shook his head, "I can't do that.  The optics."  He said, "Save 'em for when we get her back.  They'll go over better then."

He looked around, "Not a guy here is going to sleep well tonight after the interviews we've done tonight.  You want to think that people are smart and that people would realize something wasn't right... that they'd stand up and say something, DO something especially when a kid is involved ... but no.  People are stupid.  They see everyone else letting two men walk off a train in the middle of nowhere with a kid and they just assume that it must be okay because no one else is speaking up."

He sighs.

"We found the orphanage she spent some time in."  He admitted.  "That's our next lead.  I want to ask the people running the place what they know about Brigitte and her past.  These guys speak French and a few associates of mine feel pretty strongly that it might be possible that some relative has come back for her - that maybe they got no idea who you are, nor do they care.  My gut has told me these are some bad people but maybe I'm the one who is wrong.  Maybe too many years of working organized crime have me blind to the simple truth that families will cross oceans and do insane things to get back their children."

"I figure it might be easier for us to cross the possibility of it being her old family off the list than trying to narrow down what pro is behind this... and who knows, maybe we get lucky?"  He sighed.  "Get a lawyer, just in case.  Someone who has a history of fighting these sorts of legal battles... after what happened with the Vanderbilt girl... you don't want to put her through that after everything else she's lost."

As Bob referred to Aurora he looked in the direction of her and spotted Elijah and her speaking at the car.

"Fuck ..."  Bob said moving quickly towards the car calling out, "ELIJAH!"

Aurora was staring at the young Agent.  She wasn't moving.  She almost looked as if she wasn't breathing as Bob got up to him.  Bob grabbed his shoulders and pushed him away from Aurora.  

"I told you, you had one rule if you were going with me ... ONE!"  Bob's face was almost right against Elijah's, Elijah backed away from his superior.

Aurora's amber eyes remained locked on Elijah - she was silent.

"Get in the car."  Bob snapped before Elijah could say a word.  He pointed and Elijah moved towards the car and Bob followed him.  Elijah looked past Bob to meet Aurora's gaze.  He said nothing.  Aurora said nothing.  The two just stared at each other, silently measuring and considering. 

Billy dropped the cigars as he sprinted toward the car after Bob, he knelt down and touch Aurora.

"You alright Roar? Hey hun, you ok? You look like you seen a ghost."

He pulled her into a hug.

"Don't listen to whatever he told you, we're gonna find her, I promise. Don't worry. Bob thinks it might actually be her old family come back for her, and if that's the case we are headed to New York, we meet up with Addie and Charlie and see what we can dig up."

He was rambling, he didn't know what the kid had said to his wife, but he was damned sure the kid was getting an earful. It made Billy feel less like hitting the kid, but not much.

"What did he say to you?"

She stopped looking at Elijah and Bob, but it took a small act of willpower.

"Not now.  I can't.  Not now."  Her words were barely breathed.  Her body was sore, exhausted, though more emotionally than physically.  

"New York.  We'll ... go to New York City, as you said.  I'm just... not focusing."

She shook her head trying to kick off the weariness. 

"I'm tired and I need to eat something."  It hit her then, the look of the train car all opened up and the men walking around in it.  It wasn't a fine dining car or even one with seats - just an empty boxcar meant to haul things... not people, not little girls.  How had Brigitte been surviving these past twenty-some hours?  

She finally tore her gaze away from the train and met her husband's eyes.  "If they're family... then they fed her, right?  You don't suppose they wouldn't have come without a plan for feeding her... do you?"

Aurora was grasping for some hope that her darkest thoughts weren't true. 

"We need to find her family first.  How do we do it?  The papers said they were dead.  Brigitte said they're dead... her father in France, her mother in New York.  How does Bob think he's going to find her family without so much as their names?  How the hell did they even find her with us?!?  We took her all over the United States... changed her name... the sort of influence and power to track her down, it had to be massive."

She shook her head.

"We need to find these people."

Billy nodded. Though he hadn't thought about half of what Aurora had just expressed to him. She was right, her parents were supposed to be dead. There were always aunts and Uncles though, and changing her name, Billy had a feeling that only went so far. A beautiful little French girl who was left in New York and then wound up in the custody of a mob boss. How many children in America fit that bill? Brigitte would have been one of the easiest children in the world to track down.

"I am sure she was fed. Bob said she was holding hands with one of the suspects. It might not be her parents Roar. Parents aren't the only family a kid's got. What would happen to the kids if you and I? Uncle Will right? Might be an Uncle or something like that. At least then we know she's cared for, and they aren't going to hurt her."

Billy got into the driver's seat then and sighed a deep sigh before starting the car and driving back to Buffalo. From there, they would go south.

Aurora stared out the window and watched the moon through the trees as the miles blurred past and her mind wandered.

"Whose blood was it?" Aurora asked innocently, her wide amber eyes looking up to her daddy expectantly.

"Well. That is a very good question. This blood... well, this blood belongs to a bad man."

"Why is he a bad man?"

"Another very good question... He was a bad man because he hurt people... he hurt good people."  

"Why was he bleeding?"  she asked.

"WELL... he... because of me. I hurt him."

"You hurt him?"

"I did."  Gavin admitted.

"But you said hurting people made him a bad man."

"I did. Well. Hmm.  Look at it this way. Sometimes in our business, I have to hurt people. I don't like hurting people. I used to, but I don't now. But the people that I hurt now are bad people. They do bad things to good people, so I do bad things to them."

Aurora ran a hand into her blonde hair.

Aurora watched as the young Agent offered his hand.  "Elijah Garrett."

"Garrett..."  Aurora took his hand but already the wheels were turning.  He couldn't mean...

"Yes."  The young agent said softly for her ears only.  "I've waited my whole life to meet someone from you family.  To ask the question no one could answer for me.  Why was it I had to grow up without my father?  Why did we lose our home and everything I knew?  Why did my fathe'rs friends stop calling and coming over?  Why was my mother alone... and why did she eat my dad's service revolver two years later?"

"Your father..." She began but stopped.  "I'm not the one who can tell you what you need to hear." 

Elijah nodded.  "I know.  But you can tell him where I am, when he's ready to talk about it." 

Aurora shook her head, "It was a very long time ago... my father isn't the man he was back then.  Aruguably that whole incident changed his whole life."

"Mine too."  Elijah said, the hurt and anger in his tone palpable.

"He's an old man.  He's lost everything.  If you intend to make him suffer I'm afraid you-"

"I intend to have answers."

"Tell me you have nothing to do with the kidnappers knowing about coming for my daughter."  She swallowed a lump in her throat and felt the itch to reach for her guns.

"I'm not a monster... just the victim of them.  Question is, Aurora Mastrosimone... Aurora Byrne... Aurora Luciano... are you?  Are you a monster?  Are you like them or are you something different?  Are you the sort of woman your daughter will one day need to protect from her own choices in life the way you are trying to protect your dad now?"

"You can't understand..."  Aurora tried to defend.

"Maybe.  Or maybe your father is what think he is... maybe your mother was too and that's why you need to protect him now.  Because if what he did was justified, if there was good reason, then he should have no problem sitting down to explain it all to me... man to man."  

She caught sight of her eyes in the reflection created by the dark forest they were passing.

Aurora threw the first punch.

Then a second.

The crowd was stunned as the young girl pummeled upon Dermott who had no idea what hit him.  Then, they went absolutely mad.  Aurora was vaguely aware of money changing hands again, but she didn't care.  It felt good to hit someone.  She was pissed. 

"Rora?"

Pissed about her little brother ruining this great evening.  Pissed that her parents' marriage was in shambles.  Pissed that her birth mother wasn't here to give her advice about any of this. 

"Rora..."

Pissed that it was her birth father who had taken her mother from her.  Pissed that what should have been one of the happiest moments in her life, had become something horrific. 

"Rora!"

"I LOVED HIM!"  She roared.  Dermott's blood became Anthony's and Joey Nose's blood.  Nothing made sense, all she could feel was anger the likes of which she'd never allowed herself to touch upon in her whole life.  

"STOP!"

Aurora never realized she'd taken Dermott to the ground, never noticed that she'd torn her mother's dress, never noticed that she'd knocked the boy out cold and was now beating him to death right in front of an audience of horrified onlookers ...

The moonlight made her eyes disappear for a moment and then, they came back again - for a moment she could see her mother's eyes and hear their father's voice.

"You are a Luciano aren't you?"

Aurora put her head back on the seat and closed her eyes.

"Where.  Were you.  Today?!?"  Bella demanded.

"You're making a huge deal out of nothing!"  Aurora countered.

"Damn it, Aurora, you don't realize the shit that could happen to you!  There is a reason we keep a bodyguard on you!"

"DON'T YOU THINK I KNOW THAT!?!"

"Then why do you keep ditching them!?!  Do you know what that does to me every time you -"

"You're too BUSY to even notice I was gone for hours!"

"Now listen here!  I work my guts out so you can have this nice home and these nice clothes..."  Bella motioned to the clothing in Aurora's massive closet.

"I DON'T WANT THEM!!!"  Aurora lept from her bed and began tearing the clothes off the hangers and throwing them to the floor.

"Mom?"  William peaked his head in the room.  

"Go back to your room, William..."

"Yep!  And there it is... we gotta protect little William!  Heaven forbid he see or hear anything troubling!  We all know which kid REALLY matters around here."

William backed out of the room, unseen by either woman.

Bella turned back to Aurora, "Don't say that..."

"WILL SO MUCH AS STUBS A TOE AND YOU WRAP THE KID IN BUBBLE WRAP... HE DOES SOMETHING WRONG AND THE WHOLE WORLD CHANGES TO MAKE HIS ACTIONS RIGHT - I DO ANYTHING YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND AND IT'S THE DRAGON FOR ME!  WHERE'S ALL YOUR CONCERN FOR ME!?!  IT'S ALL FOR WILL!"

"DO NOT TAKE THAT TONE WITH ME YOUNG LADY!" 

A tear rolled silently down her cheek.

"So..."  Bella began, "I just realized I didn't buy enough bacon for the big breakfast tomorrow and a few other things.  What do you say about us going to the market and picking up some Neapolitan ice cream?"

Aurora, laying on her bed, turned to look at her mom.  "Don't you think vanilla would be better, all things considered?"

Bella shrugged.  "I don't know that we're at vanilla, just yet... do you?"

Aurora put down the book she was reading, "It feels like vanilla."

Bella walked in and sat down on the edge of her bed.  "I don't want it to be vanilla, kiddo, but this life... it demands vanilla.  That's the reality.  That's what I'm trying to protect you from.  I want your life to be a Neapolitan life."

"Did you always want a Neapolitan life?"  Aurora sat up.

Bella shook her head no.  "But I was young, and stupid..."

"Maybe you weren't stupid.  Maybe you were just young."  She reached out and took her mom's hand.  "Just because I'm not where you're at yet - doesn't mean my desires are less valid, does it?"

"Not less valid... but you might not live to be where I'm at if you don't listen to me." 

"I might not get to where you are, even if I do."

She drew a deep breath trying not to think about a lonely willow in a darkened Philly graveyard and the bodies buried beneath it's swaying limbs nor the one grave which remained unfilled... and the call which had not yet come.

"Look, I'm not dying or anything. I just feel worn out. Worn down. I've been losing friends for thirty years straight, and I don't make new ones nearly as quickly. There's just... I'm the last one left, Rora. I've buried every one of my old friends. I lost your mother. I lost Tara. We've been getting chased across the country, bouncing from place to place to survive..."

She pulled her jacket tight around herself and forced herself to relive the a single memory over and over ...

"Je te aime maman." 

... until sleep claimed her.

Salvatore dancing with her across a thin plate of glass hovering above a darkened chasm that seemed yawn endlessly below her. 

Billy watched her, his ankle braced on his knee a large cigar in one hand smoldering... Keats naked to the waist pouring golden liquid into a sniffer glass held by his other.  Billy's large body reclined as if he were a king resting easily on a throne but his eyes... they yearned for her, beckoned her to come and sit in the empty chair beside him.  To come and let him love her. 

Her father was juggling a thousand tiny objects from her mother's house in Port Huron and mixed among them were knives that bit his hand from time to time as he missed the handles and caught the blades instead and yet he kept on juggling. 

Will was putting a noose up into the limb of a tree and did not answer her calls for him to look at her or to tell her what horrible thing he had planned. 

Onward she spun past a thousand faces both living and dead who were laughing all about her.  She wanted the dance to end but Salvatore only picked up the pace, as she became more desperate calling out to all the people for help, but none could or would answer her. 

Just as she was about to give up, just as she was beginning to believe herself at the mercy of an uncaring world or the man whose lead she was forced to follow - a hand grabbed her wrist so violently that she felt as though it might break.  She cried out in pain and looked up to meet a set of intensely blue eyes which made her heart race in the most unsettling way.  She liked it, but it bothered her that she liked it so much.  She found herself shrinking before his unyielding eyes, wanting to run both away from and towards him all at once. 

His deep velvety voice growled softly, words in Russian, words which gave her pause and settled her uncertain mind in a way she had not been able to on her own - it was a truth she knew and yet one she had not allowed herself to embrace ... not since the death of her mother.

"Kto oni, chtoby skazat' volkam, chto delat'?"

Aurora snapped awake, the last fleeting thought of her dream being Volkov's eyes and the knowledge that she did not actually speak Russian.  She'd lain upon her arm oddly while she slept.  Her wrist was horribly sore and her hand felt as though it was being stabbed by a thousand tiny pins.  Flexing it she looked to Billy who had driven them all the way to New York City and had let her sleep.  

"Charlie's hotel?"  She asked as they pulled into a parking garage beside a large hotel.  "Do you even know where we'll start?"  She stifled a yawn. 

"Maybe the group who put together the train?  I have information about them.  Maybe we can find the orphanage she lived in after her mother passed?  Or od you have another plan?  Maybe we should call home too?  Check on Gavin, see if anyone has called?  They may yet ask for a ransom."

Through the heavy labored breathing Billy had driven. Through the spat of rain in upstate New York. He never slowed the pace of the car, just drove. He felt the weight he had been feeling for months. Aurora muttered in her sleep more often than she cared to admit, lucky for Billy most of the time he was sleeping too. This time he was not.

Out of everything that she said he only understood one thing.

Sal.

That's when it hit him, the real weight of it all, of everything, the whole goddamned world. Billy Mastrosimone was a man who traveled the streets with a smile and an open palm. He rarely killed, and when he did it was only those who really deserved it. And yet he sat here, with a pair of guns that he fired even more rarely. Guns that were meant to kill. Made to kill. Molded to kill. Forged to kill.

Billy had been through too much lately, and he was getting very sick and tired to feeling helpless about all of it. Too much relying on other people. When you were a Don you had to rely on other people. When you were a Godmother you had to let people make mistakes and punish them for it. Billy wasn't a Don anymore. It took a long time for him to figure that out. It took part of his entire world, but by the time he pulled into a parking garage in New York City he had made up his mind.

"Yeah, you call home, then we go to the orphanage. While you're on the phone I need to just clean my guns once."

Without looking to Aurora then, he stepped out of the car and grabbed their bags. Now he just needed to figure out one last thing.

He made his way up to the room adjoining Charlie and Addie's. He opened his door, put the bags on the bed and then knocked loudly on the adjoining door to the other room.

"Get your asses in here right the fuck now."

He looked to Aurora and pointed to the phone waiting for her to make the call home she wanted to make.

Aurora went to the phone as Billy tried to pull in Addie and Charlie.  Her eyes lingered on Billy, something in him had changed in the miles between Buffalo and NYC.  It wasn't shocking that he'd be worried and upset, but it was jarring.  She'd never done anything of this sort with her husband and certainly nothing as important as this mission.

Picking up the phone she dialed up the apartment in Detroit.  Mavis answered she could hear Gavin fussing.  "Oh."  She said, unable to resist a smile pulling at her lips. "Is my bambino fussy?"

"I know it's soon, but I think he's cutting a tooth,"  Mavis explained.

"Someone's in a hurry to grow up and eat breakfast with his Dad."  She said softly into the phone.  "So everything is okay?"

"Yes, Ma'am.  Any word from the police?"

Aurora shook her head, "Nothing good... but soon.  Have we gotten any calls?  Xanxus or my father?"

"No, Ma'am.  I'm sorry."

Aurora sighed.  "We're at a hotel in New York.  If Xan, my dad, or siblings call.  You can give them this number."  She rattled off the digits and glanced out into the sitting room where she could see Charlie and Addie had come in.  "Give Gavin a kiss for me and his father, okay?"

"I will.  Stay safe, Mrs. Mastrosimone."

Aurora hung up and walked into the other room, silently listening to Billy bringing the others up to speed and giving them their marching orders for tomorrow morning.

Gavin winced, rubbing his back, as he leaned his forward to rest against the back of his hand. Two straight days of no sleep, dodging, and fighting the Bratva... but he'd done what he'd set out to do. Volkov was safe, and he was coming back to America. Gavin's sky blue eyes glanced up to see the tall, broad-shouldered Russian where he was waiting by the car.

Fishing into his pocket, he dug out the phone number and punched it in, closing his eyes as the number connected. The shady but reliable message system was one of the final vestiges of Tara's network that hadn't been destroyed.

He listened without emotion as he heard the man's monotone voice speak, "Message from The Lioness. Call home. Urgent."

Gavin hung up the phone immediately, throwing it more coins as he quickly dialed the number for Rora and Billy. One of them had to be home. They weren't. But Gav's nanny gave him the number for New York, and the eldest Byrne listened closely, trying to focus his mind on wondering whether it would be Billy or Rora that answered... and trying not to think about what was so urgent that he had to call home. And why they were in New York. As the phone kept ringing, he failed to keep his mind from imagining worst case scenarios.

Aurora had only been listening to Billy talking to Charlie and Addie for a few minutes when the phone rang and her heart leaped at the trilling metallic sound.  It was one of three people.  Mavis wasn't likely.  She'd just spoke to the woman.  Dad was possible and she hoped for him... but it as also possibly Agent Smith.    

"I got it."

She sprinted to the phone only allowing it one ring. 

"Hello?" 

Her voice was full of pent up anticipation, hope, and fear.  At the first hint of Gavin's voice, she found herself nearly collapsing into the chair with a gasp.  She held her breath struggling to find the right words.

"It's me. What happened?"

Aurora gasps and then is silent a second.  At the sound of his voice, she lowered herself into a chair.  Her eyes meeting her husband's across the way, as he was clearly hoping it was Bob.  Aurora wet her lips and said to Billy, "It's Dad."  Gavin could hear her swallow.

Then, she starts with only one word, "Brigitte." The she pauses collecting her thoughts, unsure how to go forward.

Gavin went cold, hearing his granddaughter's name, but his eyes focused and his body went taut as a cold fear coursed through his veins. "Alive?"

Aurora found herself oddly comforted by the straight forward demand for a sit-rep from her father.  "Unknown."  she whispered.  "Neil's gone.  They've had her 26 hours now.  Last she was seen was in Buffalo.  Alive and well then... a few hours ago."

"She's alive." Gavin asserted.

"Two men.  Middle-aged.  French.  Looks professional.  They've had help."

"Definitely alive. You don't kidnap kids to kill  them two days later." 

Aurora nodded at the phone even though her father could not see it.

"It's either money or personal. Either way, we'll find them and get her back."  Gavin said.

"Did you find Anton?"  

"Yea. We're good. By French... the country? or the language?" He asked.

"Pretty sure the country."

"Okay. Volkov and I will head there, just in case. Where was Neil last seen?"

Aurora sighed.  "He's the reason we are on their tails so close.  There was a car accident.  They ... set it up to take her.  He didn't make it."

Oh, thought Gavin, that sort of gone.

"I'm sorry, Dad."

"We'll handle that later."  He paused before adding, "Alright."

"Yeah.  Will knows.  He's going to Detroit to help with Gav."

"Good. You and Billy stay in New York. Check upstate for private planes. Watch out for Canada as well. Could be a French connection.  Make damn sure someone will always be around to answer your phone at home, in case there's a ransom call.  Volkov and I will head west. It'll take us time to get there, but if they're heading back this way, we can try to be waiting for them."

"We're on it.  Will, Mavis and Oscar are taking shifts at home on the phone and with Gav.  We're boots on the ground here, hopefully, between us and all the other people looking for her... someone will find them before they leave the country - if that's their plan."

"We're... maybe 10-12 hours from Paris if we push it."  Gavin explained.

"Alright."  She said quietly.  "Tell An... Volkov that I said thank you.  I know he should be laying low, not running into the city of lights. Hopefully the next time we talk I'll be telling you it's not necessary for you to stay there."

"He'll be fine. We'll keep moving around, but the further west we get, the safer it is. And he's coming back to the states. Once he's on our turf, they'll leave him alone."

"That's..."  Aurora hesitated and shook off her surprise, "great news."

Gavin paused, his mind still racing in a thousand directions. He very much wanted to be driving quickly westward.  "I love you, Rora. We'll get her back. You and Billy take care of each other. And then we'll all take care of whoever did this."

"Dad, you haven't pissed anyone in the Milieu off have you?"

"What the fuck is the Milieu?"

Aurora laughed for the first time in over a day, "Bob says it's the French Mob.  He brought them up to Billy earlier.  He and I haven't dealt with them, but I figured I'd ask.  You've traveled more than us and ... well, the guys who have her... they clearly got some outside help.  I think Bob suspects it must be their version of the Cosa Nostra."

"I dunno. Nothing comes to mind. But... who knows? Okay. I'm moving. Will call."

Aurora heard the phone disconnect.

"I love you too."  She said to no one and then she hung up the phone.

Standing up she walked into the sitting area, "Dad and Anton will be in Paris in about eleven hours.  They'll be waiting there in case we get word the people who have her flew home.  Hopefully we're just being overly cautious.  So..."  she looked to Billy, "What's our plan?"

Billy nodded.

"First is sleep. Then we we get up in the morning, and all four of us are splitting up. One of you to the Orphanage to ask about Brigitte, and the parents, and everything else. Whatever we can dig up there, they should have kept paperwork, get it. The second one of you is going to stay here and man the phone. We need to keep information lines open and there might be a call at any point, and this is the only way to contact us."

He looked at the two of Addie and Charlie for those two tasks, he had something else in mind for himself and Aurora. 

"Third one of you is going to the library. Aurora I think that should be you, and there is a good reason for that. We need to pull up every newspaper you can from the past three years. She remembers her mom, she has actual memories, so she can't have been younger than that. We need to look specifically for want-ads for missing children, especially anything in French. Pull up French newspapers too while you're at it, if there are any in the city. The more we've got the better. Aurora, I know that's going to be a lot of reading for you, but you can narrow it down with key words."

He looked at the three of them then and nodded.

"In the mean time, I want to sleep with my wife. Neither of us have gotten much sleep, or decent sleep of any kind and we could both use it. I'll meet the two of you downstairs for breakfast and then we tackle this once and for all. Anybody got any questions?"

The four went back and forth for a while on who would go where and do what.  Aurora wasn't happy about the idea of the library but eventually conceded that as they didn't know who the kidnappers were or where they were going, maybe there as a point if the had nothing else to go on.

This led to her asking where Billy intended to be and his plan to go to an area of the city known for French immigrants and his hope to shake down residents to get answers and find someone from the Milieu.  Aurora, of course, felt she could help there and so she and Billy debated where she was of more value, reading newspapers or roughing up Frenchmen.

Addie pointed out that while she would be helpful in speaking to the person at the orphanage they might not release any information to her because she wasn't immediate family.  Then Charlie pointed out they needed someone by the phone in case someone called from home - but like everyone involved it wasn't certain his skills were best served sitting phone side.  Aurora added that his skills weren't just physical but he, as a former cop, thought a lot like the Feds and if they called he might think to ask Bob things she would not.

It was during this discussion that Billy realized that an avenue might have been overlooked and he called the New York branch office of the FBN.  After speaking to a few people he was given a phone number where he could reach Bob.  Billy pointed out to him that someone, a third party, clearly was involved.  The men on the train who had his daughter had no way of knowing how/when they'd be ambushed.  Whoever put that truck on the tracks to stop the train clearly had been assisting the kidnappers and might be their way to find them. 

If the information leaked out of Bob's office, someone had likely called their boss with the intel.  That boss might be in Buffalo... but they might also be somewhere in France.  Either way, phone records for that day should show if a call was put into New York or France.  This might narrow down Bob's search for the Agent who had leaked the information & help them find the unknown mastermind of this crime.  Bob thanked Billy for his help but made no promises that his idea would yield results, only that he'd look into it and he urged Billy to get some rest.

Of course, the group didn't immediately do that, they went back to the drawing board.  After some more discussion, nearly an hour, it was agreed that Aurora's thoughts on 'no lone wolves' were right.  They would stay together with two and two and prioritize their movements.  Charlie and Addie would stay at the hotel and serve as a communication hub.  Aurora and Billy would check-in between each place they planned to go the next day.

First, they would visit the orphanage.  As Brigitte's parents they alone could hope to get information about the child and since they couldn't know if a man or woman would get the job done or what technique they'd have to apply until they were there... it was best not to toss dice and go together.  If they were going to know where Brigitte was from and where she might be going and who was her birth family; that paperwork inside that office was one of their last best hopes.

Second, they would visit the library.  If they found nothing with the orphanage then perhaps the library would yield information on her origins.  Maybe ads looking for a lost child?  Records of crimes?  They were searching for a needle in a haystack but with no idea where they were going... Billy wasn't willing to close any door for leads.

Third, the Milieu.  If night came and they had no leads, they would go to the French themselves and begin looking there.  The men might have spent time among their own or if they were part of organized crime as Bob seemed to suspect perhaps they could find someone they could make talk.

By the time Addie and Charlie went back to their room, Aurora felt a mix of two things... ready to fall down and desiring to run out that moment and break into the orphanage to find the information.  In the end, she found herself stripping off her clothing and weapons, piece by piece wordlessly on one side of the bed while Billy mirrored her actions on the other.  The whispers of fabric and metal buckles coming loose, the only sound between them.  

In Detroit, baby Gavin slept peacefully unaware under the watchful blue eyes of a troubled young man who had only just entered his nursery.  William Byrne stared down at his nephew and thought of his niece - the whole family - again in peril.  Not even a year since the last time they'd lost someone, they were going to bury someone else.  Neil.  Tomorrow he'd call to see about having a plot near his mother's secured for the man.  He was family and deserved to spend his final rest beside the people who he had served so loyally in life.  Namely, he deserved to rest near Isabella whom he'd loved dearly.  Will stroked the boy's soft feather thin whisps of hair atop his head and wondered if his nephew could escape the pull of the life that held fast to the rest of his family - perhaps, even now, still held him.

In New York, Aurora's clothing lay in a crumpled pile at her feet.  She let loose her long blonde hair and shook it out, then she put her guns into their place and glanced to her husband.  Billy sat on the edge of his side of the bed, back toward her.  She could not see his face looking so troubled, in deep thoughts as he groggily hung his shoulder holster upon the bedpost.  The black guns which were the mirror opposite of her own nickel and pearl guns seemed to absorb the little light left in the room and held her gaze for a long moment until at last, she settled down on the edge of her side of the bed.  Facing away from each other, the two sat in the long shadows wrestling their demons & fears. 

Halfway around the world, a car tore westward towards the city of lights, carrying two men.  For one of those men, his last visit to Paris was to end, not preserve, life for his family.  For the other, his last significant visit to Paris was to marry his late wife a lifetime ago, back when his daughter was no older than her own son was now.  The years had been full of good times for that man, but the Pack had seen a fair share of crises too; more than a few investigations, long hunts for enemies, and what his wife's people would have called vendetta.  This was not their first rodeo, not as a group and only the latest in a very long storied past for the Old Wolf, Gavin Byrne.    

Back in the hotel room wordless they moved, almost in sync, into the bed and down under the covers.  The sheets were ice on his bare skin, but beside him, he could feel a fire.  Billy looked at her, her pale hair a beacon almost as bright as the shine on her metal guns, her shoulders white as milk in the night, the tattoo of the dragon and wolf's heads entwined starring back at him just over her heart on her back.  He reached out then, his fingertips touching the dragon's black scales and when he could no longer stand the longing to be warmed by his wife's body heat and presence, he took hold of her and pulled her tight to him.

Startled, Aurora turned to look at Billy.  She was going to speak, but her lips were claimed too quickly and the words died on her tongue as he rolled atop her and between her thighs.  On some level it seemed wrong to Aurora's mind that they make love now with their daughter's life in peril ... and yet, perhaps there was no better time?  For all the times their coupling had been an act of instinctive passion, this time was purposeful, slow, and meaningful.  He was a balm to her mind clouded by dark fears, her feelings of impotence, and her aching heart as she was to his.  They clung to each other through the act and after, not out of selfish need but out of love and commitment, a ferocious determination that they would endure this horrible thing & come out the other side - together.    

Aurora and Billy ate breakfast, a proper one, quickly and after promises to check in once they reached the library, the to got into their car and drove to a three-story brownstone in Brooklyn.  Ironically Brigitte had been kept no more than a mile from the place where her Grandmother Isabella had called home as a child. 

Billy put his arm around his wife as the two of them went past the sign which read:

NEW YORK FOUNDLING
& ORPHANS HOME
est. 1869 - Sisters of Charity of New York 

Aurora reached out and run the bell and waited only a moment before the door came open and the sounds of children hit them like a wave.  A nun, elderly and stooped over, smiled up at them.  Aurora imagined the old woman was hoping they were a young couple looking to adopt and saw in them a chance for one of the children to have a happy life.  

"Good Morning."  The woman said in a warm tone, the smile lines on her face moving animatedly as she spoke.  "Can I help you?"

"I'm Aurora Mastrosimone, this is my husband Billy and we are the adoptive parents of a little girl who lived here for a time, about a year ago?  We were hoping you might be able to talk with us about her?"

The sister looked worried then, and uncomfortable.  "I'm afraid, that in many cases it's for the best we don't do that - you see, if we speak about the mothers who give their children over to our care then it's possible that future women might decide not to.  You do understand that, for the safety of future children, we just can't do that, yes?"

Billy had no time for bullshit, and yet, here it was staring him in the face.

"Sister. I swear to you on my honor as a Catholic, I come meaning no ill. Our daughter is missing. Someone took her. We think it might be her birth-family because from everything we understand, both of her parents are passed on into the Lord's care."

He shook his head and put up a hand to stop anyone else from saying anything before he was finished.

"There is nothing to fear from us except love. We are trying to get our daughter home, that's all. Please help us to take good care of a child who you once were called by God to wrest from the jaws of the Devil himself. We have taken her and lifted her face to the Lord in thanks, and now we must be the ones to walk through the valley to find her again. As scripture says we shall fear no evil for we know that the Lord is on the side of the righteous and the good. Will you walk with us Sister?"

He put on his best catholic boy's face. An innocent one. A dumb one. It didn't hurt that he meant what he said. Part of acting, it would seem, was rooted in latching on to the truth in what you were saying.

The old woman looked at Billy for a long moment and then nodded.  "Come inside," she said waving them in.  Billy and Rora walked past half a dozen children looking up at them curiously.  Two of them were clearly trying to put their best smiles on hoping to be seen and remembered.  Aurora gave a smile to both of them as she passed, silently praying they find families for them soon.

The old woman held open her office door and let Billy and Aurora enter before closing it behind them.  "Mr. and Mrs. Mastrosimone, I do thank you for answering the Lord's call on your heart to take in a child.  That you're good Catholics and have kept the child in church is all I pray for that every child has a chance for in life... a loving, god-fearing, family with the means to provide them security.  It's been my life's work."

She went to a file cabinet and pulled out a set of keys from the pocket on the apron she was wearing.

"What was your child's name?"

"Brigitte Burdet is what her papers said."  Aurora quickly offered.

"Brigitte?"  The old woman paused, recognition sparkled in her eyes. 

"You remember her?"  Aurora took hold of Billy's arm.

"Oh yes... that sweet girl.  We couldn't understand a word she said.  I felt horrible for her.  Sister Teresa who normally handles our french children was in the hospital with appendicitis and hadn't found an interpreter to talk to the poor girl for the short time she was with us."

"You couldn't have ... gotten a local from the French community to help?"  Aurora was confused, New York was full of people who could talk to the girl, why wouldn't they have done this for her?

"You don't understand, we would have, but I felt it was safest for the girl that she get out of New York as quickly as possible.  You see, her first night here, two men broke into the home... they found Brigitte and were with her when we got a passing officer to assist us."

Aurora looked at Billy and looked back to the Nun hopeful.  "They were French?"

The Nun shook her head, "No.  You see, that's the problem they were having, they were trying to get her to tell them something but they couldn't understand a word she said.  The police later told us that they believed the men were thieves and they were looking for something her mother had... of course, I wasn't so sure and so I put Brigitte straight into our Mercy Train program so she'd be out of the reach of that riff-raff."

The nun dug into the file cabinet searching for Brigitte's information.

Billy nodded.

"She was taken by two men too. I don't know how I'm going to find her Sister, but I know we will. In the mean time..."

He took out a few bills from his pocket totaling a thousand dollars.

"Those kids look like they are having a grand time in there, but their clothes are old and each of them could use a good bath. I suspect, based on the size of the building you have two, maybe three baths. You can house what? Three, maybe four dozen children? I run an orphanage myself in Detroit and am renovating one in Las Vegas as well Sister. I find that in a building of this size you should have one bathroom per floor, and one extra bathroom for every third floor. It would cut you down by about half a dozen children to house, but that should be enough money to renovate and put in four brand new bathrooms."

He thought about the children in the other room. After he got Brigitte back in one piece, he was going to buy this place and leave the nuns in charge. The church wasn't putting enough money into it.

"Sorry to get off topic though Sister, please continue. I would like to find my daughter and save her from these villains. Do you know what they were after? Or who might have sent them by chance? We are working closely with the police you see, so any information we can give them will help them narrow things down, I'm sure."

The nun's eyes went wide at the money and then she looked at Billy and Aurora in a whole new way.  For a moment she hesitated and then she nodded, seeming to accept the gift and advice.  She pulled out a thin file with their daughter's name on it.

"Well, the police said it was a large sum of money, though I can tell you that if there had been any money to be found it would have been used to care for the little girl.  When the police found her she was alone in the room that her mother rented for them.  Her mother had been at work in a local factory when she'd had her incident."

She walked over to the desk and sat down.  Opening the folder so Billy and Aurora could see what the woman was reading to them.  "One Sarah Burdet, she's in the New York City Lunatic Asylum."

Aurora gasped.

The nun looked up, "The doctors say she'll never leave.  Her case was quite severe.  We don't like to put mental illness into the children's records, it discourages parents from adopting children who can't be blamed for the parent's illness.  It's not as though what her mother suffers from is catching.  The girl is perfectly normal in all the right ways... she's just unable to be cared for and loved by the woman who gave birth to her.  I felt it was a mercy in Brigitte's case that she not know and that her future parents remain unaware."

Billy's jaw dropped and he had to shake his head to look to Aurora.

"Alive?"

His worries, his fears, his nightmares all seemed to be bubbling up at once, that and this morning's breakfast with them. He stamped it all down as best he could and nodded to the nun.

"Thank you sister. I'm very sorry to hear about her condition, but at least we know that she is being taken care of."

He reached out and squeezed Aurora's hand slightly.

"We were hoping to know something, but clearly she can't be behind anything untoward, being where she is and all. The father? Do you know if he's alive as well then?"

Billy and Aurora both knew full-well that an asylum, whether for mental illness, or for criminals was not a great place to run a heist from, but it could certainly be done. Countless people had proven that already, and if the woman was actually insane, Billy knew what he would do to jar her out of it. He would go get her kid and hope the kid could jog the old bat's memory long enough to get some info out of her. They would need a phone before they left, Charlie and Addie were going to have to join up with them and keep an eye outside the entrance if Billy and Aurora went inside the place.

"No one knows about the father.  He wasn't living with them.  The doctors might be able to tell you more if she spoke to them about it.  Sadly, with many who come to the United States looking for a new life, we just can't know a lot about what life they've left behind.  This includes the fathers of children who end up here."

She closed the folder and frowned.  "I'm very sorry I haven't been more helpful to you.  I do hope you find Brigitte safe and sound.  I'll be praying for her and the both of you."

"You've done a great deal for us, Sister.  Thank you for your assistance."  Aurora felt like her legs were going to give out, but somehow she and Billy made it out the front door together.  

Aurora looked at Billy as they quickened their pace to the car, "The Asylum?"

"Calling Addie first, but yes."  Billy said, this time getting into the driver's seat himself.  Pulling over at the first phone he could find he put in a few coins and dialed the hotel and conveyed to his cousin the plan.  They needed to be at the New York Insane Asylum, as fast as possible, they would be keeping watch outside.  Aurora and Billy were going to have a chat with Ms. Burdet and if the kidnappers showed up with Brigitte... well, they'd be ready for them.
 

"How do you know?"  

"Doesn't matter, Callemin.  Just put the girl in the damn truck!"

"I'm hungry... can I have more candy?"  Brigitte begged as she was tossed into the cab of the truck.  Callemin was barely in before Garnier pulled off the train tracks and began driving towards New York City.

"You ate all the candy."  Callemin growled.

"I want my mama."  Brigitte began to whimper.

"We're taking you to her."  Garnier said.  "Your real mama."

"She's in Heaven."  Brigitte said sniffling back tears.  "We can't go there."

"No she isn't... she's in a hospital.  She's sick and if she sees you, she'll be all better."

"She will?"  Brigitte's voice was a bundle of confusion and hope.

"Yep.  You see, she helped us find a treasure... and she hid it somewhere to keep it safe.  Now, we need that treasure very much.  If you ask your Mama where she put the treasure so we can get it... you can go home or stay with your real Mama.  Whatever you like."

"I just have to ask about the treasure and then I can go?"  Her big blue eyes stared at Garnier unsure but wanting to believe.

He nodded.  "That's all we need kid, then you're free to go.  Told you... we're not bad guys, we're bringing you to your real family."

Brigitte smiled.  "I can make Mama toast like Papa Billy taught me.  How far is it?"

"A few more hours kid.  Then we have to wait for the morning.  As soon as the sun wakes up, we'll go see her and then this will all be over."

Between Manhattan and Queens, on a slender bit of land named Blackwell's Island, Charlie and Addie waited outside as Billy and Aurora went inside the massive gothic building both on edge, eyes wandering.  This was no place for children.  The sounds, the smell of it, it was horrifying and Aurora was sure she'd only begun to see what a place like this was really all about.  She'd heard the story of Nellie Bly's infamous investigative report of this place and she doubted sincerely that it had gotten better by the look of it.

"We're here to see a patient."

"Name?"  The nurse behind the desk said.

"Sarah Burdet."

The nurse scoffed, opening a ledger in front of her.

"What?"  Aurora questioned the noise the woman made.

"It's just that Burdet has had a very busy morning.  You just missed her brothers and her little girl.  Now... who are you and what's your relation to Ms. Burdet?"