Taylor had just finished a night of gambling on the Strip, mixed with a little bar-crawling. She caught a cab back to the hotel run by some local family but there wasn't any beef going on right now. The poker tournament over the weekend was great, lots of bigwigs in town to chill and play cards, throw money around. Overall she expected the American mob scene to much different than it had been so far, maybe things were going too well, too quiet. 

The cab parked in front of the casino and hotel, Tay threw the driver a 20 feeling generous and walked inside almost immediately being flagged down by the man at the desk. She raised an eyebrow as he called over, 

"Miss Callaghan? Someone's been calling for you the last 2 hours. It seems urgent." She walked up towards the desk lighting a cigarette.

"Aw yeah? And whose that?" The man cleared his throat.

"A man, said his name was August and you would know who. As I said it seemed rather urgent." She might've been drunk but hearing that name she snapped back to reality a bit.

"No shit... Alright then preciate the heads up..." She laid another 20 out on the desk for the receptionist and hurried to the elevator making her way to the room where there was a phone she could use in private. 'Shit, August trying to get a hold of me like this? Somethings wrong... Either he's in deep shit or I am...' 

After getting into the room and locking the door she setup a chair in the corner of the room by the phone and dug her 1911 out of her jacket placing it on the table beside her as she sat down and dialed up the phone going through the operators giving them the number. It wasn't very long after it started ringing someone picked up on the other end, a man with a familiar Irish accent came through the reciever.

"Tay? That you? Better fuckin be you been tryin to get a hold of ya for ages." She let out a sigh settling back into the chair and tapping her cig on an ashtray.

"Yeah yeah big brother it's me, what the hell is goin on?" She could hear him let out a sigh of relief on the other end.

"Alright sorry, I had to make sure you were still breathin..." Her heart sank into her stomach a bit hearing the tine in his voice. "I know you been runnin with some crew out of Philly, well word on the street is their HQ got hit."

"The fuck you mean got hit? What happened Auggie?" 

"I don't know the details, doesn't seem like anyone does. All I know is your old bosses and buddies are getting their brains blown out all over town. You're fuckin lucky you ain't here right now but you're in deep shit you got me?"

It took Taylor a few moments to even process that information, she wouldn't even entertain that idea unless it was coming from August. He wasn't in with the mob, at least not officially yet, but he knew the streets well. How could this even happen? Out of nowhere all the people who helped her setup in this country, got her established in the scene, taught her everything she knew about the business. They were all just dead in one fell swoop? They had to have gone out fighting at least, maybe if she was there she could've taken a bullet... Her mind started to wander when August pulled her back.

"Tay! Listen to me. I don't know what you're thinking, but if you dont flee the country or make some new friends you won't be long for this life either. If you wanna run I'll help, cant go back to Ireland just yet but we got other options. If you wanna stay in Philly, Alexa's crew is hiring.. But that might be a sore subject for you right now huh." She took a long drag of her cigarette and watched the smoke float up into the ceiling fan as she exhaled gripping her gun in the other hand with white knuckles.

"Yeah... We ain't running. Fuck that. You still got your shop stocked up?" August grinned hearing that tone in her voice.

"Oh yeah sis, just got a new shipment of stuff from the great war. You gonna swing by whenever you come back into town?"

"Sounds like a plan, and hey, thanks for the heads up..."

"Don't mention it, just watch your ass alright?" 

"Yeah, you too Auggie. I'll see ya sooner than later..." She set the receiver down with a heavy exhale finally able to let some of the emotion out. Putting out the cig in the ashtray she immediately fired up another one and began a long night of sitting in the corner, chain smoking and staring at the door. She tried to act tough not to worry her brother but she expected any second that door would splinter open and some lowlife assassin would come in to send her down the Styx. Well either way, if she would die tonight or a few weeks from now, she wasn't about to forget the people she had lost. Chromatik, Starborn, Doc-Holiday, BigHurt... Gods know how many of the others wouldn't or didn't make it out...

Eventually she dozed off, her cig burning a hole in the fabric of the armchair and 1911 still in her lap. She woke up in a cold sweat a few hours later and the sun was already up. Slightly hungover, exhausted, she thought maybe it was all just a nightmare. She went straight for the phone and tried dialing directly to Chromatik's office at the HQ... But nothing. After a few more attempts at getting a hold of the bosses she set the phone aside and accepted reality. She had to come up with a plan to get back to Philly without being killed the second she got off the plane. 'August said something about Don Alexa... Might be worth looking into...' She thought to herself tiredly moving the furniture back to where it belonged and holstering her pistol in her waistband. First thing was to get out of Vegas, if her enemies wanted her dead this would be a decent place to do it. All the gambling, booze, men and women she could ever want, way too easy to get caught off guard. After packing the rest of her things she took a deep breath and headed out the door into the unknown hoping if someone did try, she would at least get a few shots in too.