The death of Fuego Steve…..

Belle awoke to the pounding on her front door. She was groggy, still half asleep as she wrapped herself in a robe and stumbled to the front, pulling the door open.

“They killed him! They killed him Belle.” Her bodyguard and friend Emmett burst into her apartment, clearly frantic. She looked at him in stunned silence from a moment before closing the door behind her.

“Killed who Emmett? Calm down and tell me what’s going on." Emmett had recently started working for Belle; FuegoSteve had heard about the man and informed his crew. Belle had taken on the job of finding him, and after successfully breaking him out of jail, he had offered her his services. In their short time together, she had come to rely on his hard work and level headed outlook.

"Fuego Steve. Woonbot. Henry. They're all dead. Even Toaly and Athos. Gone. All our Made men.....everyone is dead."

Belle was sure she was misunderstanding the man. Why would anyone want to kill her boss? Then again, this was the world of crime, anyone could have wanted to avenge an old grudge. But to kill so many people...there had to be more to the story. Was all of Chicago under attack? What would their Godfather Chairman do when he heard the news?

Emmett looked at Belle, his eyes watery. "I went to the Hqs this morning to drop off the taxes we collected last night. When I got there, everyone was dead. The Hqs were being bombed to the ground. I saw some of Fuego's bodyguards dead in the streets. It was chaos. I ran down the street to check on Toaly and it was the same sight. I spoke to some of the men, Henry apparently escaped the initial attack but was forced to hand himself over if there was any chance of saving anyone else."

"But surely Godfather Monsterhair has been informed, right? He'll get revenge for Don Steve. He wouldn't just let his city be attacked." Belle was pacing now, her mind going a thousand miles a minute. She stopped when she saw the look on Emmett's face. He locked eyes with her, his voice pained.

"That's just it Belle. Word on the street is that the Godfather did this himself, with North Side. This was an inside job."

Belle stood frozen in place, staring at Emmett. An inside job? How could they do such a thing. Don FuegoSteve had always spoken so highly of all the other Chicago leaders. Why would they turn against him? There had to be more to the story.

"Oh, and you were sent this, it was on your door." Emmett held out a sheet of paper. He appeared calmer now, though clearly still upset by what he'd seen. Belle took the paper and read it over - it was an invitation from Malachi, letting her know she was welcome to join his crew. She had done a little work for the man recently, gathering the names of local individuals for him at the request of Don Steve. She appreciated him thinking of her so quickly but she didn't know what she would do right now. She set the paper aside and sat on a kitchen chair, looking over at Emmet.

"Let's find some of the others. Kiara, Butch, LaReina, Alberto, G0ldfish. See who's still alive and what their plans are. Send out some messages, tell them all to meet me at my bookstore, we can use the back room there to talk things out. They can bring anyone else they can find."

Emmett nodded and headed out to ensure the messages were sent. Belle hurried to get dressed and get to her bookstore, which would be open only for her now crewless friends to gather and figure out what they would do.

Some time later….

The next few days were a blew to Belle. After meeting with some of her friends, they had each come up with plans. Some of their crew had decided to stay in Chicago and take jobs among their attackers. She could understand their choice; Chicago was home and it was hard to leave the city behind. But Belle couldn’t stay; the thought of staying and working for someone in Chicago other than Fuego was just too sad. Many of her friends had decided to head out to Las Vegas and work in The Strip. She’d decided to do the same, so she’d packed up and moved across the country to the west coast.

After arriving there, she had identified a different family to join, one called spof. While it was a strange name, the woman who ran operations there seemed rather nice and it was a small group in a large city. In fact, the city was so much bigger then Chicago that it was hard for Belle to adjust.

She’d had some success early on, helping to capture some escaped zoo animals for Godfather Disorder and earning a decent amount of money selling drugs and doing other jobs, much of which she shared with her new crew leader. Still, something felt off.

Maybe it was because after a few weeks the friends she’d followed from her old crew had up and moved all the way across the country to New York. She missed them terribly, though she was making new friends in her new crew. Belle was starting to feel homesick for the small town she had left and for her father, who she still hadn’t been able to find. She was starting to think she’d never find the man, but she tried not to let herself have those thoughts.

Sitting in the small, hole in the wall apartment she’d rented when she’d moved out here, she sipper from her coffee mug, glancing up as Emmett came into the room. “Got a letter for you boss.” Emmett handed her the folded-up letter, which Belle read over, her brows furrowed together. The letter was from an old friend, telling her of a new crew that had just started out in Philadelphia. Her friend was asking if she’d consider moving out to join her in Philadelphia, to help them build the city back up after it had sat empty for some time. While she was already in a crew, she was just an associate and she knew that meant she was still free to move around if she wanted too. It wasn’t until she took her blood oath that she was bound to a particular crew. But still, Belle rather enjoyed working for Ms. Bunny and knew she would need to give this some thought.

She wrote a letter in response asking her friend to give her a few days to think about the offer. She'd drop it off at the post office while running some errands for the day.

More time later…..

Philadelphia. The City of Brotherly Love. Belle had spent the six hour plane ride reading about the city in a book she’d picked up. For example, she’d learned that it was called the city of Brotherly Love because that’s what the name Philadelphia stands for. The founder, William Penn, had wanted a colony where a person wouldn’t be prosecuted for their religion and where everyone would get along and be, in a sense, brotherly. He started the city off on the right foot when he bought the land from the Lenape Indians, despite it being chartered to him by Charles II.

Since then, the city had grown into a place of historical significance, especially throughout the Revolutionary War. From the First Continental Congress, the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitutional Convention, Philadelphia had been the nation’s capital until 1800 when it moved to Washington D.C.

All this knowledge had made Belle more excited about the move. She’d decided to take her friend up on her offer and after talking to Ms. Bunny, she’d packed her things once again and moved across the country. On the bright side, she was much closer to her friends in New York. On the other hand, she was in a whole new city again and starting from scratch. Well, not completely from scratch. Emmett was still with her and he’d assembled a little team of men to work with him. She didn’t really see why she needed protection, she was still a nobody in this world, but Emmett insisted.

Belle had the address to the new headquarters in the letter that her friend had sent her, so once she was out of the airport she’d hailed a cab and asked the driver to take her there. It hadn’t been a long drive, but she was nervous as she climbed out and headed to the front door. She wanted to explore and visit all the historical sites, but she knew it would be better to check in first and get acquainted with her new crew leader and family members.

Knocking, she waited patiently for the door to open. This was a new beginning for Belle, well another new beginning, but she planned to make the most of it. Moving across country was no easy task, but as Belle disappeared inside the building, she a feeling it was going to work out well for her…