Brigitte ran down the alleyway, trying to keep up with her mother.  For a woman in her mid-forties and for having recently had a child, the woman was still in peak physical condition.  It astounded the blonde utterly.  She was young, her mother older, it should have been clear who would win out in a foot race… 

A bit of brick exploded near her head as bullets flew past her.  Brigitte cursed and rounded the corner, smiling as she saw her mother swinging into an open car door.  Brigitte dove in atop her.  Before the door was even closed, Billy called out loudly, “DRIVE!”  

Brigitte kept low as the car assaulted by a hailstorm of bullets, peeled away from the curb at breakneck speed.  Only after they were a block or two away did she lifted herself up and disentangled herself from her mother’s body.     

“Good timing, Sexy.”  Aurora quipped.  “Tell me you got another clip?”

“The airport,”  Billy instructed the driver in a breathy voice.

“Billy?”  Aurora’s voice had a tension in it that Brigitte could almost feel.  Her mother was almost climbing into the front seat to look at her husband.  “Oh God!”  She gasped. 

“Roar.”  Billy reached up to his wife’s face, Brigitte couldn’t see around her mother, she couldn’t see what had caused her mother to gasp so horribly.  

“The hospital.  We need a doctor...”

“Roar.”  Billy snapped a bit more firmly.  Aurora stopped, but the look on her face was absolute devastation.  The look on her father’s face was absolute love.  Brigitte watched as Billy raised hand soaked black with blood, to touch Aurora's cheek. 

Brigitte covered her mouth attempting to stifle her own reaction.

“I finally chucked a seven.”    

"Papa..."  The word came out of Brigitte's mouth unbidden.

Billy's eyes turned from his wife to his daughter, "It's time for you to go, Ange."  Brigitte watched as her father's eyes turned to his wife again.  She thought she knew what was coming.  This was the point where her father tried to make her mother leave.  This was the moment where he tried to save her life.  She would fight him.  They would argue the whole way to the airport.  Brigitte didn't want to think of them doing that in this moment but she knew them so well.  That's what they did... Bulls were unmovable stubborn things and Lions were fierce things who fought for what they wanted.  

But she was wrong.  This was perhaps the first and only time she'd never seen them go back and forth.  There was just a look.  Billy met Aurora's eyes and then he looked down to his wound, and then back up to her face again.  In that moment, something passed between them.  Silent, solemn, loving... brave.  

The Bull took his lioness' hand and smiled at her and she smiled back with a shuddering sob and a nod - holding in her tears, not of sadness Brigitte thought, but oddly of joy.

"Okay."  Billy said with finality.

"Okay."  Aurora agreed.

"No."  Brigitte said shaking her head.  "Mama, you ... you never forgave yourself for leaving Nona Bella and you would have given anything to be there for your Papa.  Please.  Please don't make me go."

The car pulled into the airport drive, heading towards the hanger where the plane was already preparing to leave on Billy's orders.  

Billy nodded and sighed. "She's right you know. You never did forgive yourself, and you never forgave yourself for what it did to dad either." He looked back to Brigitte.

"I'll make you a deal. You can stay if you want to, but you have to be near the plane. Right next to it. Shoot for as long as your gun has bullets, and then leave when there's nothing left. If we make it, great, perfect and you helped. If not, then you go so you can hunt these fuckers down, just like your mother did for her mother." He turned back to Aurora. "If you don't survive, what the hell was the point Brigitte? Besides, you're the only one strong enough for this. God made you an orphan young so you knew how to deal with it. I know you can handle it."

He stepped out of the car then, onto his own to feet, and winced at the pain in his side. Pain was good, pain meant he was still alive. And just as he had that thought, he heard the squeal of tires.

Brigitte watched her parents, her father's attempt at reassuring her mother that their daughter would okay.  She knew there was no way she would convince them to give her an inch more.  They were unified in their decision and at peace with it.  They had already decided how this was going to end and all she could do was fight like hell to try to make them wrong.

As the car came to a stop near the plane, Aurora and Billy stepped out.  Brigitte had only just grabbed the handle of her door when she saw four cars come around from either side of the hanger.  The cars were full of men, armed men.  In less than a heartbeat, the road out of the airport was blocked.  There was no way to know if their people had held the plane or not, but Brigitte expected they did.

Guns in hand, the Mastrosimone family stood behind their doors ready to fire - ready to die. 

"Sono la leonessa Aurora Mastrosimone!" Aurora's voice boomed across the open airfield like a God.  Brigitte found herself unsettled by the tone, the absolute conviction and the murderous intent she could hear within the voice that had loved her so tenderly all these years. "Vengo dagli architetti della Grande Pace, Marie e Salvatore Luciano. Sono la figlia del lupo bianco e il drago di Race Street, Gavin e Bella Byrne. Sono la moglie del toro, Billy Mastrosimone, lo sai che non mentire, puoi vincere la guerra ma non pensare che almeno alcuni di voi non verranno con me all'inferno oggi."

The men got out of their cars, not opening fire but with the confidence of men who had already won.  The war was over.  They had the leader of the city and his right hand now it was only a matter of where they died.

"Donna Mastrosimone,"  A weathered man with deep lines in his elder face said in a heavy Italian accent.  "Business should not be done where so many might see... let us give you the dignity in death that you and your bloodlines have earned."

The man turned to Billy and spoke, "Stand down, Don Mastrosimone, and we shall return your body to your children to be buried.  Force us to expose ourselves to the people inside the airport and you and your wife will sleep in New York Harbor tonight.  Do not make your child bury what will wash up weeks from now."

Aurora turned her amber eyes towards Billy.  "I love you."  She whispered.

Billy smiled at Aurora and then to Brigitte. "I love you both." He tossed his black gun backward into the still open car door.

"You guys, know I'm already dying right? I'm honestly not sure I'm going to make it to a dignified place, but hey, if you don't mind some blood on your car floor, I think we can manage."

He nodded toward the plane.

"Go ahead kiddo, get out of there and kiss your siblings for me huh? And don't forget, vanilla is the secret to the pancakes." He could feel his legs beginning to give way under his own weight. It was time now, or else he wouldn't make it to the other car, so he began to walk in that direction.

"Papa!"  Brigitte sobbed and dashed forward.  The men began reaching for weapons in response, clearly unsure what Brigitte was intending to do.

Aurora threw the black gun which had killed Marie Lucania into the car beside its twin, her arms held up to show she had no weapons. "DON'T SHOOT!  DON'T SHOOT! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD PLEASE!"  

Brigitte threw her arms around Billy and held him tightly, burying her face into the crook of his neck while Aurora shielded them both with her body.  The men, to their credit, did not fire but watched in silence as Brigitte sobbed until she could feel his blood through her own shirt, hot on her belly. 

"I love you, Papa."  She whispered, trying to be strong the way he told Aurora she would be. 

It was then Brigitte felt her mother's hand on her shoulder and she released her father.  Aurora turned Brigitte to face her as Billy walked away to meet his fate on his own two feet.

Aurora straightened Gavin's jacket on her daughter's shoulders and adjusted Salvatore's guns in their holsters, and then she took off her wedding set.  "For you to use when you get married.  Remember what I said to those men.  That is who you are.  My daughter.  In you... is a legacy of greatness.  Never forget it.  Never.  Swear to me."

"I swear."  Brigitte whispered, barely able to speak at all.

"Get on the plane.  Go to Hollowpoint.  Don't go to your siblings just in case they've got people watching you.  I know it'll be hard being alone, but you'll be okay in Philly.  Try to reach Bacchus in Italy.  Warn Oriana and Tara what's happened.  Tell them not to come back to New York." 

Brigitte nodded and squeezed Aurora tightly one final time.  Aurora pulled back and locked her amber eyes on Brigitte's.  They seemed on fire with pain and rage, "Do as your father asked you."  She growled the words so quietly that only Brigitte could hear.

Brigitte nodded emphatically.  

 "I wanted to make you a queen... but you were already an Angel." Aurora kissed Brigitte once on each cheek.  "I love you."

"I love you too."  She said.

Then Aurora pushed her away, back towards the plane.  "GO."

Brigitte moved towards the plane pausing to glance inside the car at the two coal-black guns laying on the front seat and then ran up the stairs to the open door of the plane.  Looking back she could see her one of the men holding the back door of the car open for her mother.  If she didn't know better, these men could be any number of men who had been assigned to protecting her parents over the years.  Helping them into a car to drive them off for a night out together.  

"Brigitte..."

"Oscar?"  She blinked in disbelief at the sight of her father's dear friend and life long associate.  Disbelieving he was actually here with her now.  Her father had made sure the man who had been there in the very beginning for her, was here with her now.  

He put a hand on her arm, "We should go." 

Brigitte stepped inside and ran to the window, watching the cars, keeping her eyes locked on her parents leaning on each other in the back seat of the car as it pulled away.  It was the last time she or anyone they loved would ever see their faces again.

As the plane pulled away from the grip of the earth, the reality of it all settled in for Oscar.  He alone had been there for it all.  This was how the story of the Lioness and the Bull had ended, not with the blazing sounds of guns , but the quiet rumble of a plane's engine and the tears of an orphaned angel.

***

"THE TRAIN IS LEAVING!"  Sage screamed.  "RUN!"

Jack lept onto the train as it began to move, groaning and complaining, spitting steam at its base.  He held a hand out to Izzy who had a heavy bag on her back.  She took his hand and he pulled her up, Gavin some distance back felt guilt at having relief that two of his siblings were safely inside when he still had so many to get safely away.

Cerise popped up behind the car door firing twice and falling back down beside Gavin, "Time for you to go, Papa Bear."

"Stop calling me that,"  Gavin growled.

Cerise kissed Victoria on her head.  "Get on the train.  I'll cover you."

"Indigo and Azure are still out there."

"Malcolm isn't fast enough,"  Cerise said nodding to the train.  "If you don't go help him now, he's fucked.  Go!"  Cerise pushed him and Gavin, in spite of himself broke into a run, Victoria bouncing in the carrier that was strapped to his chest.  A storm of gunfire erupted behind him, he didn't look back to see what was happening though.  Instead, he focused on Malcolm trying to get to Sage's extended hand at the back of the train.  With a grunt, Gavin scooped up the boy and tossed him into Sage, knocking them both back away from the edge.  Pushing himself to the point of breaking, Gavin lept off the end of the platform at the last possible second, crashing onto the back of the train with as little grace as possible.

Pulling himself up he, Malcolm, and Sage looked back to see Cerise, Indigo, and Azure returning fire on the force that had come for them, thinking their car belonged to the Don and his wife.  Sage grabbed hold of Gavin and began to cry.  Malcolm went inside without comment.  Gavin knew... they were doomed - just like his parents.

Gavin shot awake, gasping, covered in sweat.  

"I heard you calling out to them." Malcolm was sitting on the edge of his bed.  "It gets better.  You stop seeing it eventually.  And sometimes you can't even remember how their voices sounded.  You start to forget.  It won't hurt forever."  

"It needs to hurt."  Gavin's voice rumbled.

"That's stupid.  Who wants to hurt?"  Malcolm furrowed his brow.

"Hurting means they mattered,"  Gavin said.  "It means I loved them."

"I loved my family,"  Mal said coldly.

"I know."

"But I don't cry."  He said.  "It's like my tears are broke.  I just feel... angry."

Gavin wet his lips.  "My Dad would know what to say to that."  He admitted.  "I just know you can't just stop crying, Kid.  You don't want to let it all fester in there like poison.  Just... let yourself feel it."

"I don't want to,"  Mal said.  "I don't want to feel anything for anyone ever again.  You shouldn't either.  People die.  They leave.  It's what they do and then what?"

Gavin reached a handout and put it on the boy's shoulder, but Mal stood up.  

"Cry if you want,"  Mal said.  "I'll be strong."

"Mal?" Gavin called after the boy but Victoria began to cry and Gavin turned his attention to the littlest Mastorsimone instead.  "Shhh... little fire.  It's okay.  It's okay.  Are you hungry?  Early breakfast... we can do that.  Come on."  Gavin picked up Victoria and went down to the kitchen to prepare her a bottle.  Once finished with it, he turned back around and found a pair of blue eyes looking at him.

"Hello, Papa Bear,"  Cerise said with a smile, holding a place on her side which was stained dark with old blood.

"Cerise... dear God."  He put Victoria down into her bassinet with the bottle and rushed to the young woman's side.

"It's not as bad as all that... a graze.  How are you with a needle and thread?"

"Good enough..."  He admitted.

Cerise nodded.  Alright then.  Quiet your voice, if we're lucky the kids will all stay asleep.  Please tell me this place has something hard to drink."

Gavin went to the cabinet and fished out the bottle of whiskey he'd found yesterday.

"Perfect," she said settling onto the couch as Gavin went for a needle, thread, and some alcohol.  "You ever sitch a wound?"

"Just tears in clothing,"  Gavin said cleaning the needle in the alcohol.

"Same principle."  She said lifting her shirt. 

Gavin drew breath threw his teeth, "This is going to hurt."

"Not my first rodeo."  She said pointing at an older scar on her upper arm.

"Azure?  Indigo?"

Cerise shook her head but said nothing else as Gavin threaded the needle.  Gingerly he touched her skin near the open wound, it was hot to the touch.  The blonde drew a steadying breath and nodded to him before taking a big draw on the whiskey.

Gavin steadied himself and pushed the needle through her skin.  She winced.  

"I'm sorry."  He quickly said.  

"Don't be stupid.  Just do it."  She grunted.

He nodded, watching her stoicism as he worked.  Outside the sky was just beginning to lighten.

"How'd you find us?"  Gavin asked.

"I do my homework."

"Homework?" 

"Yeah," Cerise said as he pulled the thread tight.  "I dug around in your mom's shit when we first got to the house.  I wanted to know her bolt holes.  Heard her tell you Port Huron when we parted ways with her.  Knew it had to be one of the two places here."

Gavin sighed.  "I'd be mad but I'm glad you did it.  Mom will be too."  

"Would have been,"  she corrected quietly as Gavin tied the end of the string.  "They found them.  I saw it in The Times.  Frontpage news when a mob boss of a city ends up dying."

Gavin looked down and Cerise offered him the whiskey.  Gavin drank from it like he was drinking water.

"They must have let the cops know where to find them right after it was done.  The police found them on the beach.  Together, if that makes a difference to you."

He nodded putting the bottle down.  "I should go to New York, make arrangements for them..."

"You don't have enough to do for the living that now you're going to go play with dead bodies?"  Cerise shook her head.  "They'll shoot you if they see you, Gavin.  You're the eldest son of a Don they just murdered... the kids need you here.  This is where your parents would want you to be."

Tears began to rise in Gavin's eyes.  Cerise stared at him as if he'd grown horns.  For a moment the girl watched him as he struggled with and eventually allowed his emotions.  Then, without warning, she kissed him.

Gavin, startled and sat back.  "Woah... we can't ... you're... no."

"I'm sorry,"  Cerise said genuinely not knowing what to do now.

Standing up, Gavin sighed and without another word, stalked off leaving Cerise alone in the darkness.

***

"Thank you, Oscar,"  Brigitte said, hugging him.  

"I can stay.  I worked for your dad for years, I know the ropes of rebuilding..."

"I'm not rebuilding Oscar,"  Brigitte said stepping back and wiping his tears.  "You have a family.  My father would be grateful to you for getting me out ... but this is where we part ways, my friend."

"The little angel... all grown up."  Oscar gave her one more hug.  "Please remember... your father and mother would want you to live a happy and long life.  I know how upset you are, but give yourself some time before you go making any big life decisions.  Please.  For them?"

Brigitte nodded, "A few days."

With that Oscar got back into the car and Brigitte watched as it pulled off into the darkness of the forest, leaving her alone on the front step of a massive home.

"Hollowpoint,"  she whispered looking up in awe at the castle from every story in her youth.  "We're finally home, Mom."  Adjusting the leather jacket on her shoulders, picking up her bag, she headed inside the Philadelphia home which had not seen a Byrne inside its walls for the past two decades.

***

Lou Rossi chomped on the thick cigar in his mouth, watching the leggy brunette dancing in front of him.  He slipped another c-note into her g-string and cackled as she rolled her hips at him, licking her lips suggestively.  

"You're right Lou,"  Alessandro 'Les' Romano chuckled.  "The cigars are good."

"Best you'll find here in the States."  The fat older Italian grit his teeth trying to control his urges as a hint of the girl's sweat wafted past his nose.  It was clean and smelled of... lilacs?  Yes.  Lilacs.  

"So what now?"  Les continued, "You seized the liquid assets, I'm guessing the businesses will be in litigation for years."

"You'd think so, but Caruso, Lorenzo, and Ricci are all willing to turn on him for a cut of the action.  They'll tell the feds about Mr. Mastrosimone's little investment racket - the laundering of the money through the businesses they ran for him, and then it's open season.  The way I figure it'll be the end of next year at the latest before everything in the Mastrosimone empire belongs to me."

"Us."  Les corrected.

"Of course... us."  The pudgy man put his thick fingers on the thigh of the dancer who came down to take in more cash.  "God, would you look at that ass."

Les chuckled, "I should leave you to it.  Call me tomorrow.  We'll do lunch."

"Yeah.  Yeah.  Lock the door on your way out, would ya?"  

Les stood up and walked across the hotel room, giving one last look to the brilliant blue-eyed woman with the gravity-defying tits whose talents would clearly be wasted tonight on that fat fucker, Lou.  Lou would, he figured, try to cut him out or put him in New York Harbor.  Les had no intention of allowing his partner that chance. 

Locking the door, Les pulled it shut behind him.

"Come here, Angel."  He beckoned the dancer to him.  She compiled and as she began her dance around him, Lou loosened his belt.  "We're going to have a very good time tonight and if you're good... I might have you back again.  I'm going to be the richest man in the United States soon.  You could be my Mistress if you play your cards right."

She kissed his ears and he closed his eyes as her hands drifted down his body.  

"Yeah... see... you know what to do."  Her hand grazed him and then went down into his coat pocket which hung on the opposite side of the chair.  He didn't realize it until she was coming up with something from inside.  He didn't have anything in his pocket, so far as he'd known.  He never carried anything in his suit pockets.

"Wha..."  It wasn't a full word, but Brigitte knew what he was going to say before the garrote went around his throat.

"In French,"  She snarled, "We call it la loupe.  Do you know why it's different than the traditional garrote?"

The fat man got his fingers around the wire and began pulling for all he was worth, startled at the efficiency with which the smaller woman was strangling him.  The harder he tried to get free, the more his air was restricted.  

"Because it has two loops of wire instead of one."  she purred by his ear, her breath hot on his neck.  He tried to get his fingers free as he began to realize what she was getting at but they were stuck now as she braced her foot on the back of the chair and leaned her body back as hard as she could using the full force of all her weight.  Lou's eyes bulged, he gagged and made noises Brigitte had never heard before.  His body shook so hard that the chair cracked and eventually broke sending him to the floor in a heap.  She barely kept control of the large man, standing atop him to finish the job.

"Even if you get hold of one wire..."  she panted.  "You'll just strangle yourself you fucking prick!"  she dropped the garotte and stumbled backward.  Grabbing her coat off the table she wrapped it around herself and pulled off the dark-colored wig letting her blonde curls spring forth.  She was about to leave when she spotted the cigars marked with an M, a whole box of them.  Snagging them up, Brigitte fled, leaving Lou in a puddle of his own making.  

***

"Hey, Lady?  You want the paper?"  The Race Street newsy offered 'Madam-M' the pseudonym which Tara had started going by, a copy of the morning paper.  She tipped the boy a quarter and went on her way, reading the front page as she walked.

THE PHILADELPHIA GAZETTE

SUNDAY NOVEMBER 13, 193-

NEW YORK CITY ALDERMAN FOUND STRANGLED

BY STAFF REPORTER ALAN WOOD

A call was made to the New York City police department in the early hours of Friday the 11th, when New York City Alderman Louis 'Lou' Rossi was found dead in a Manhattan hotel room.  Reports suggest that the Alderman may have gone to the hotel to have an illicite extramarrital affair with a prostitute, but never exited the room.  Rossi recently gained press after the seizing the assests of infamous Mafia Boss Billy Mastrosimone following the underworld conflict earlier this month.  Police are now searching for the woman who may have been with Rossi.  She is said to be in her mid-twenties, with straight brown hair cut at her chin.  She may be working as a lady of the night in Manhattan.  Any information surrounding this woman should be directed to the New York City Police Department.

Tara drew a breath and exhaled.  Strangled.  Had one of her father's people survived?  Cat's body hadn't been found.  It couldn't be her... could it?  Well, in any case, she'd tell Oriana just the same.  If someone was bumping off the people who were targeting her family's assets, it was worth watching if nothing else.