Johnny had said goodbye to his new boss weeks ago, and she hadn't bothered to show here face since. Sure, she called from time to time to check in and make sure he was sorted with cash and didn't need anything from her. It was liberating and gave the man the chance to feel like he was the one who actually owned the business. Johnny was starting to know the customers by name, and they were starting to think the same thing as he was, that he owned this place. So when another day rolled around, the man was feeling quite cocky as he opened up the doors. When the first customer came in, Johnny had a bit of a swagger to his step walking around the place, serving drinks and flirting with the ladies. 

"One bourbon coming your way," Johnny said to Apollyon and nodded to the two men sat there, "Anything for you?" Johnny asked the other. While waiting for the response of the customer the door opened, and for some instinctual reason the bartender looked up to see who had walked in, nearly dropping the bottle as Grace Angeletti was finally back in town. 

"Hello Johnny," The woman said as she took a seat at the bar. "Red wine, please." and she watched him curiously as he poured the drink for her. He seemed on edge, which wasn't how he was behaving last time. Sure she had been gone a long time, but she wasn't too concerned about leaving a man to run a bar that did minimal profit. It was curious, and the more she watched him, the more on edge the man seemed. "Interesting.." Grace said before thanking him for the drink. 

With a slight wave of her hand, Grace said, "No don't worry about me. I'm going to relax after my journey and then head into the office to see how things have been." and when the color drained from the bartenders face, Grace knew something interesting was bound to happen this evening. She didn't make out like she noticed, she just smiled and sipped her wine, half watching the man as he fumbled around, half watching the patrons. Turns out this trip to Detroit wasn't going to be such a waste after all. 

Giorgio, dodging a shot from Bebe, had run into a bar nearby and looked around. The place was fairly empty and he hid behind a counter as he reloaded his revolver. He fired a shot into the air to scare off all of the patrons of the establishment and told the barkeep to get out. He needed the area clear of anyone incase of a shootout. He poured himself a drink and took a shot and then heard the voice of a familiar person. It was Grace, a Don from Las Vegas that he was fighting with. He took a shot at her and scared her off, watching her run off into the middle of the night.

He didn't have the chance to hit her, but he needed to escape the carnage from the last 36 hours. He needed to create a distraction so he decided to pour drinks all over the floor to create a mess. He looked inside of a backroom and found some gasoline for a stove in the back. "Perfect. Just what I needed" Giorgio said to himself as he spent a few minutes pouring the gasoline onto the floor of the bar. He took a match out of his book and lit it. He tossed the match onto the gasoline all over the bar and watched it begin to burn. Within minutes, the entire place was engulfed in flames.

Giorgio wasn't much of an arsonist, but it would prevent Grace from having a safe spot in Detroit while he was hunting her and others. He could hear sirens of police and fire trucks speeding through the intersection and he put on his hat and walked off into the dark alley nearby and began to speed himself up as the police showed up.

The weather had been rather changeable lately and therefore all ways of getting out of the city were blocked. The storms were too strong to allow the buses, trains and planes to start.

So Circle-of-Fire went back to the Down and Dirty Detroit Bar, which had been started here by her Right-hand Grace. 

Grace was not there, fortunately she was in another city where there was more to do, at least that was what Grace had told her over the phone.
Grace had told her that Johnny was running the bar for her while she was busy in another part of the country to keep her business up to date.

It was not easy to find an empty chair in the bar, more because everybody was locked up in the city. But of course, Johnny, a nice man who was not quite dry behind the ears yet, came up to her and pointed to a quiet spot at the back of the bar.

"Thank you Johnny, it's still terrible outside. We should be glad that you are open and can serve us hot or cold drinks. I'll just start with coffee as I need to warm up a bit."

"Yes ma'am, coffee is coming."

Circle-of-Fire looked around her and thought it was a nice place. Perhaps when all the storms were over she could come here more often to rest from her travels.

Johnny came back with her coffee, set it down in front of her.

"There you go ma'am, I gave you a piece of cake with it. You look like you needed something to snack too".

Circle-of-Fire had to laugh at Johnny's accent, but was happy with the coffee and the cake.

Sal walked in with Popeye, Benny and Tony they looked around as they made their way to the bar.  Sal ordered Canadian Whiskey for himself and the men with him.  They were stuck in Detroit and trying to make a little cash to maintain.  Drinking was an upside and relaxing a little was like receiving gold.  

Sweat dripped down my forehead and into my eye, squinting it out. One quick wipe and I tried snapping my brain back to "reality". The days had been rough, there was blood everywhere both literally and figuratively. The airport was still on lockdown and business that needed took care of was just that.

Tonight was about recouping and letting myself breath. The perfect spot was two blocks from the motel I was staying at. Nobody but myself and the heat tucked in my waistline was needed. The walk over was.. peaceful? Nothing but the hum of life and then the creak of a old wooden door to invite me in and feed into my vice.

The smoke in the air gave me the welcoming I wanted, needed even. A quick sit on a stool and I called out,

"Four shot of whiskey, please".