The loud shrill from the phone woke her from her slumber. She had been out with Jimmy_Coonan and several people from the crew last night. They had one heck of a party, and she was slightly hung over. The shrill was making the pounding in her head feel like an explosion every time it rang. She rolled over, grabbed her smokes and lit one as the phone stopped ringing. "Ah, so much better." she thought to herself, as she inhaled a deep puff of smoke. Just as she climbed out of her bed to make a pot of coffee, the phone started ringing again. She rolled her eyes and reached over to answer it. 

"Hello?" she said hoarsely. The voice on the other line was speaking so fast, that she couldn't understand what the caller was saying. 

"Hello.. slow down please!" said Niki

"Niki... Barton was killed last night on his way home" It was Jimmy_Coonan on the other end of the phone. 

"Wait, Barton?!" She shouted into the mouthpiece. Barton had been one of her top bodyguards, he had been with her for years, and he was among her most trusted advisors.

"Yes, after he dropped you off he went home, and his girlfriend Shelby just called me. He never made it into the house, he was killed outside, on his own door step. Shelby found him this morning went she went out to get the paper. He had a note pinned to his chest. It read, 'Consider this a down payment' " Jimmy explained.

"A down payment for what?" she wondered to herself. "Jimmy, send a car, we've got to get to the bottom of this!" said Niki.

As she waited for the car, she paced, back and forth, her mind was racing. She couldn't figure out what on earth this was about. 

Then, the phone rang again. It was Narrator , one of his associates had also been killed last night, with a similar note pinned to his chest.

Then, it hit her. THE DRUNKEN BASTARD. Sheila had been left behind, and alive. She picked up the phone and called Jimmy.

"Jimmy, we need to call a meeting with all the heads of NY. We have to discover exactly who is gunning for us." said Niki

Jimmy's head was still swirling.  A night of whiskey.....cut short without women involved.  A death.  A narrow escape from the cops.  Little sleep. And now this.  He had to gather his senses and get his head straight.

Niki was safe and on her way to the HQ.  He was now waiting on his own car while getting the others on the phone.

His first call was to James_Storm.  He had the farthest to travel. 

H-H-Hello?  Jimmy could tell James was feeling the effects of last night too.

James.....buddy there has been some trouble.  Take a head count of all your people and get over here right now.  MissNiki_ has called a meeting and wants all leadership there. 

But.....James started to come to and understand but Jimmy cut him off.

No time to figure it out now.  Just get your hands and get to our HQ.  COUNT YOUR PEOPLE!!!

Next was Raymont_Reddington.....

Ray!!  Somethings up.  Count your people.  Get your hands and get your ass over here!

Being in Brooklyn on a daily basis, Raymont knew that it wasn't everyday that Niki called such an urgent meeting.  He didn't need much conversation from Jimmy.

As Jimmy's car made the 5 minute trip from his apartment to the HQ he kept running over the previous night in his head....

He tried to remember all the patrons in the bar......who could be behind this?  Then he remembered the one stranger at the end of the bar. 

He kept sending drinks over.....and didn't panic when the shit hit the fan.  Who could that guy have been?

Jimmy was the first to arrive and rushed into the HQ.  He quickly began to brew some coffee.....enough for all leadership of NY.  This could be a long meeting........

MissNiki- paced, as she often did when her nerves were on edge. She knew this was no small matter, and it would need to be dealt with swiftly. You can't expect to take out hits on her people and live to tell about it.  She thought back to the night at the Drunken Bastard. Everything had happened so fast, that it was mostly a blur. But, she remembered that Sheila had been left alive.. wait a minute. Who the fuck was Sheila? That's how fast everything had happened, she seriously thought that ThatGuy had been with Sheila, the barmaid.. not Gertrude, the resident "Good Time Girl". John, the guy that Richard had killed had been Gertrude's cousin. Everything was making more and more sense. Gertrude had been hobnobbing with several guys from another crew that was in from Ft. Worth. She wondered to herself if they hadn't killed Barton and Narrator's guy. As she waiting for James_Storm to and Narrator to arrive, she steeled her her nerves with a cup of coffee that Jimmy_Coonan had just brewed, with a shot of whiskey for good measure.

I'd be woken up shortly after a call from Jimmy_Coonan. I'd arrived home for the night after a lot of drinking. Most of James nights with Beer Money Inc ended with a lot of drinking. I drank a beer, got onto the road over to the headquarters where everyone was waiting for me after Justin had posted a roll call. Half dressed because at this time of the night who needs there sport jacket I ran in and counted the bodies. Still drunk from the partying I was certain my number was accurate, but there was no possibilities I was correct.

"I need everyone to stay here for the night, there are plenty of beds. There has been a lot going on this week and I am too drunk to explain. I explained. Stay safe everyone, I need Narrator to drive me to Brooklyn," I said.

"Narrator, grab that bottle of whiskey, it's for on the way. If we aren't finished with it I know MissNiki- will enjoy some more!," James laughed.

Narrator was serious as always as we entered the car and started our travel over to Brooklyn where the others were waiting. We were on the road in no time and both conversed over the curiosity of the events. Was there a possibility they were connected and someone was after us? I was glad that my right hand was sober enough to drive, because I had a new bottle of whiskey to drink. I pulled the cork from the bottle and took a large swig. I was pushing the limits and was already past my limit, just being ignorant at this point. Narrator knew it was up to him to get us to our destination and then from there it was unknown.

After getting off the highway we drove into the headquarters of Stormy Waters. Narrator knew the significance of being called in on short notice, though I decided to continue to party as if there wasn't anything going on. Once we parked I made my way out almost falling out of my seat. Making a sound I was certain of Narrator had a look on his face that was begging for me to get my shit together. I put the cork back on the bottle and left it in the automobile. I nodded to my right hand to agree that I would do my best to sober or be coherent once inside.

Dead associates, the last thing you want to be woken by besides James' banging on your door at 3 A.M wanting to "get the party started man". There had been rumors going around that we had pissed off some folks due to the "Drunken Bastard" incident but we didn't pay much attention to those stories since in our line of work you pissed people off just by living. We didn't imagine anyone would act against us, sure we were relatively new to being the top dog in New York, but there was no doubt we ran things so to have someone attack our people was downright disrespectful.

Narrator exited the vehicle and went around to the passenger side to make sure Niki couldn't tell James was completely hammered.

"Alright, we shouldn't be in there for more than an hour. I know you celebrated a little too much last night so let me do most of the talking with Niki and Jimmy. Also, I know you have a small flask in your back pocket." said Narrator as the took the flask from James and threw it back into the passenger seat of the vehicle.

They pushed onwards towards the entrance of the warehouse to find more men than usual guarding the front. This is ridiculous he thought, there is no chance they would attack us directly, is there? The doors of the warehouse flung open inwards, and they were met with the gazes of every associate in there. On edge, they all were. They knew it could have been any one of them that took the knife to the back instead of Barton. In the center of all the ruckus was Jimmy and Niki conversing about what their next step should be.

"Niki, we got here as fast as we could. What's the plan?" said Narrator.

"As you know, we have a big problem on our hands. I'm positive it stems from that night at the Drunken Bastard. If that girl, Gertrude was still alive, then she may be looking for retribution. I know she's been "running around" - oh hell, we all know she's sleeping with those guys from Ft. Worth. We need to take her and them out, and fast." 

She stopped briefly to take a drink of her coffee. She sipped slowly, savoring the shot of whiskey that she had put in it earlier.

"They are trying to run a little operation out of Manhattan, on third street... you know, the old pizza shop? I say we pay them a visit, with twenty or thirty guys... We aren't going to let these cowpokes get the best of us. " She looked at James_Storm," do you still have a friend in the city planning office? If we could get the blueprints for the building, we can cover every exit. No one should leave that building alive!!"

She resumed pacing as pieces of the plan came together. She didn't want to leave anything up to chance, as they poured over every detail of what was about the happen next. She summoned MasterYoda to make more coffee as they worked and talked through the late morning hours. 

She looked at Narrator and said, "You've been very quiet, do you think this will work?" She trusted Narrator almost as much as Jimmy_Coonan . She had worked with him when she was in The Storm Chasers with James. 

Raymont wakes up with a heck of a headache. He opens his eyes just to see a woman he could remember by his side.

He reaches the ringing phone , only to find Jimmy welling in the line.He could only distinguish one phrase.

''Get your ass here now.''

He knew something was up. Niki has called a meeting. He could clearly remember them to have drinks ,with a lot of others, the night before.

What could have happened in the last hours?

He gets up  and starts getting dressed. A car was already outside, waiting for him to go to the meeting.

As he gets there he opens the door, only to find Niki walking around anxious.

''Sorry i am late, but the hangover almost killed me. What did i miss?''

"I agree that we do have to deal with these people quickly but to be honest taking thirty men to cover a small shop is overkill. That scenario plays out one of two ways, either they're tipped off that three dozen soldiers are headed their way, or we somehow manage to get there undetected and pull off the job. The problem with that is there's no way we'd escape Manhattan without a lot of heat." said Narrator as he paced back and forth.

Narrator sat down since he figured his nervous pacing was making everyone else anxious. How can we send a clear message while staying out of view from the local police? Their influence wasn't strong in Manhattan so no way would the cops look the other way, not without a serious buyout.

"Alright here's what I propose. It's a two-stage operation, and we split into two groups. Niki, Jimmy, Raymont, and MasterYoda you guys including some associates will comprise group one. Your job is to kidnap Gertrude and make some noise while doing it. We want the people she's working with to know it was of that took her. Once they figure that out they'll come looking for, and they'll walk right into a kill zone." said Narrator before breaking into a confident smile.

"Then what will you and James be doing?" said Niki.

"We will be torching their shop." said Narrator.

"Why? If they're going to come after us once we have Gertrude what's the point in torching the place?" said Raymont while stroking his chin.

"Because fuck them that's why. We'll all meet back up here to set things up for their arrival. All good?" said Narrator.

After Narrator finished talking with MissNiki- and the game plan was finalized he head in my direction. He knew that my favorite thing to do when drinking was being destructive. He didn't have to explain to me what we were doing, this was our true nine to five. As we all exited MissNiki- headquarters together I opened the back of my automobile to show them all of the gasoline we had stored and ready to go. There was a couple of crates with supplies for some molotov cocktails as well!

I closed the trunk back up and wished them the best knowing I would see them shortly. Narrator and I were on our way before we knew it and heading in the direction of the opposition. The old pizza shop on third street, it was a good thing this place was already closed because things were about to get nasty. It wouldn't take us too long to get across the bridge and quickly into Manhattan. I popped open the glove compartment and grabbed a small flask. Taking a long drink, I screw the top back on and throw it into Narrators lap.

Oh shit there it is, looking in the direction of the pizza sign on the corner of 3rd and Main. I parked a block away just to be safe, we had to be quick about what we were about to do even though I sought absolute revenge. Once parked we both got out and made our way to the back. Narrator mixed a few cocktails and I grabbed two large containers of gasoline as we crossed the street. There wasn't anyone on the streets at this time of the morning so we had a straight path to there building.

In front of the pizza shop you could see some lights on in the second and third floors so it was obvious we were not going to make it inside. We had to come up with a plan and quick. I suggested that Narrator head to the far end of the store and take the gasoline and a cocktail with him. We both broke a window on each side of the building subsequently setting off there alarm at the same time. As quickly as possible we dumped as much of the gasoline inside of the windows and there building as we could before setting off the cocktails. There first floor quickly became engulfed in flames and we could here them heading down the stair as we ran off laughing. 

Once out of what we thought was shouting distance we turned around to admire our work for a moment. The pizza place was completely up in flames but we had a problem. Then men had made it through the flames and were all loading into there vehicles. We ran faster then I ever thought we were ever going to have too! It was terrible I ran so fast back to that car I was glad we were on the same page because I didn't wanna have to leave him behind.

We sped off as fast as we could, though I could see them in my rearview off in the distance. Hopefully MissNiki- and her group had come through with capturing Gertrude because they were on hot on our trail.