6 Revenge and Recovery

It was loud, so Empress-damned loud. Why? Who knew? Certainly not Luke. The last thing he remembered was screaming Vicky's name as he lost control of the car. Even that was foggy. The last clear memory he had was the shootout in the club. So much blood everywhere, so many people screaming and crying for help with their dying breaths. He was pretty sure he had killed at least one of the attackers, not that it mattered. Then Vicky got shot. Wait. That's right, Vicky got shot.

Luke opened his eyes in a flash and sat up frantically, looking around and trying to piece things together. He wasn't dead, so that was a plus. His head was on fire though, and the bright light from the winter sun coming through his window wasn't doing it any favors. His shoulder felt like it had been hit with a sledgehammer, too. He looked down at his body. He was covered in dried blood and scratches. Then more things started coming back to him. The blood wasn't his; at least it wasn't all his. Vicky had drenched him when he was trying to put her in the backseat of the car. Vicky. Was she dead? What had happened?

He tried to stand up, ripping the IV's out with each hand. The machine started beeping loudly and his headache began to get worse. He hopped off the bed, but couldn't put any weight on his right leg, and fell face first onto the hard linoleum floor. His headache instantly increased tenfold, and he let out scream. Within what felt like only a second, the door sprang open and two nurses shot in the room, helping him off of the floor and putting him back into the bed.

"Let me go!" He screamed at them. "I need to see Vicky! Where the bloody hell is Vicky?" He tried to move again but they held him down to the bed.

"Relax, mister," one of them said to him, "if you put too much weight on that leg, you're going to break it. You're lucky you didn't already."

Break his leg? Who cared? Vicky was hurt, maybe even dead as far as he knew, and he wasn't going to let something as trivial as a broken leg get in her way of finding his friend. He started getting light-headed as he felt warm liquid dripping down his face. He tried her hardest to resist and get up, but eventually things started to go black and he was out once more.

The next time he woke up, it was dark. The only sounds he could hear as she slowly opened her eyes were the faint beeps of the EKG machine that he was hooked up to. His head didn't hurt as much anymore, but it was still foggy. He slowly scanned his eyes around the room until he caught a glimpse of a person standing outside, looking in from the large window. Immediately the figure turned away and began walking down the hall. He wanted to get up again, but he was too weak. He figured it was probably because of the drugs that were making their way on a steady course through his veins.

Then as everything finally started coming back to him, he remembered Vicky again. He felt too heavy to move, but was still in a panic. He started darting his eyes across the room for something to help. He finally came across a big red button on the edge of his armrest. He tried as hard as he could to move, finally bringing his hand up to it. He pressed down as hard as he could on it and then waited.

After a minute that drug on for years, a nurse finally came through the door. It was one of the same ones that held her to the bed before. Or at least he thought she was, everything was still a bit foggy and he didn't really remember. She was a short lady with tan scrubs and deep red hair. She looked like she was only a couple of years older than Luke at best, but had a look in her eyes that said she had seen more than most.

"Is everything okay Mister Thompson?" She asked with a smile, cocking her head to one side.

"No," Luke started, trying hard to speak through the drugs. "I have no idea what's going on, and the last time I tried to find out, I was forcibly restrained to this bed. I need you to tell me what happened to Vicky, and I need you to tell me right now."

"The person who you came in with?" The nurse asked while walking up to Luke's bedside. "I'm not exactly sure. She's still in the ICU but they should be finishing surgery soon. She was hurt pretty bad, as I'm sure you know."

A small wave of relief washed over Luke. She wasn't dead. Incredibly hurt, sure, but at least there was some hope. "How long have I been here and what is wrong with me?" He asked, feeling a little bit better at least after hearing about Vicky.

"You've been here a little under two days. As for your wounds, you received quite a few cuts from the glass in your windshield breaking as well as a major concussion and a cut in your head that needed about seven stitches. You re-opened that one and added a few more bruises as well as a black eye this morning when you tried to get up. You completely dislocated your right knee in the crash and got a pretty deep cut down your left side, which will unfortunately leave you with quite a nasty scar. You've also got a small fracture in your left shoulder that will heal with time. Other than that, you are doing pretty well, all things considered of course."

Luke processed all the information that was coming at him. His mind went back to the shooting. "Something terrible happened at the club I ran. I need to know more about it. Was there anything in the news about it?"

The nurse then walked over to the other side of the room, picked up a newspaper and walked it back over to Luke. "We've all heard, Mister Thompson. The shooting has been on the front page for the last two days. Here, take a look."

She held the paper in front of Luke so he could read it. On the cover in large words were:

THE ASCENSION DAY MASSACRE: SIXTEEN DEAD AFTER A SHOOTING IN PORT DISTRICT CLUB

Below that was a picture of the club. Body bags were being wheeled out into ambulances, with guards circling around and placing police tape. It seemed unreal. He hoped that the business would survive after publicity like this. Then he started reading the article.

A grisly scene continued to unfold this morning as details emerge about the vicious shooting that took place on the eve of one of our most sacred holidays at the South Port club 'The Hop!'. Just after 11 PM, witnesses reported that a gang of armed thugs in masks entered the building and began firing into the crowd. In an attempt to protect their club and guests, the owners returned fire shortly afterward, even managing to kill three of the armed people who entered.

"It was so horrible," a survivor told us this morning. "One second we were dancing and having fun, and the next thing we knew it was chaos. I saw two people next to me drop and choke to death on their own blood. It's something that will stay with me for the rest of my life. I just don't know who could do something so terrible."

Currently both of the owners have been reported to be in Beacon General Hospital after a daring attempt by one of them to save the other after she had been shot, resulted in a car accident and some minor damage to the outside of the hospital. Currently the death toll sits at sixteen, but there are over forty people in the hospital with serious injuries, and based off of information that we had received from an anonymous source at the hospital, the death toll will most likely be quite a bit higher when everything has settled. The culprits are still at large, but we were assured by the guard that they are following up on a few strong leads. No potential motive outside of a general robbery was given. We will keep you up to date on the story as it progresses."

Luke's frown turned into a deep scowl as he read on. Not only was it a big story that was making headlines, but his accident and even them killing some of the thieves had been announced. The more he read over it, only one thing popped into his mind.

"I need you to get me a phone," he said dryly. "I have a few calls to make."

"Sure thing. I can't imagine what you went through. You should also know that you are kind of a hero around here. When the story got out about you trying to protect the people in your club, and trying to save your friend's life, even going so far as to smash in the building, people around here were amazed at just how brave you were."

She gave Luke a deep smile at that and started to walk toward the door.

"Oh yeah," she said, turning back to face him. "I almost forgot. There's someone here to see you. She wanted to be notified as soon as you woke up. She said she was family. Her name is Sunny Morella. Would you like to see her?"

Luke was filled with both relief and dread. What would Sunny say about everything that was stolen? How could they handle the heat that would most likely be brought down on them? Most importantly though, how would she handle what had happened to Vicky? He tried to calm himself.

"That would be lovely, send her in as soon as possible, please. You can forget about the phone as well. I won't be needing it."

The nurse just smiled and nodded to him as she exited the room. Luke sat still, staring at the ceiling and trying to put everything that had happened together in his mind, but all that came were more questions.

Had Vanessa and Max made it out of the club alive? Was Lisa able to cover everything up before the guard showed up? He didn't know, and started to play out the worst-case scenario. For all he knew, there were guards posted and waiting to take him in. He figured that she could handle interrogation if it came to it, but seriously questioned the resolve of some of the others. Max wouldn't say anything of course. He was family, even if he wasn't on the inside.

Lisa would most likely keep quiet, but he could never be sure. They were friends, at least as far as Lisa was concerned, and she had done quite a few illegal things for them already. However, if she thought that for some reason it could bring her husband back, Luke was sure that she would potentially take that option. He needed to talk with Lisa when he got a chance, and make sure that nothing like that would happen.

As he continued to think, he heard the door crack open and turned his head toward it. He saw something she had never seen before. Sunny was standing at the door, but she looked different. She had clearly been crying, and her usually sleek, ginger hair was a total mess. Luke had known her for well over a decade, and had never once seen her radiate anything but the essence of cool and composed before, even when things had gone wrong with the business to the point where someone had to die. She never once lost her composure.

Once they made eye contact Sunny practically rushed over to his bedside.

"Lucas, sweetie, I'm so glad you're awake!"

She put a hand on Luke's, looking over her wounds. Luke saw a tear roll down her face, and could feel a few rolling down his own. He couldn't even remember the last time he cried. At his mother's funeral maybe? He didn't know. Crying wasn't something he had time for.

He was still stuck in a bit of a haze from the drugs and was struggling to talk.

"I'm so glad to see you. What happened? Is everyone okay? Is Vicky okay?"

Sunny sniffled a bit and hung her head low for a second. "We don't know yet. She lost a lot of blood and is still in surgery. They said the bullet didn't hit any of her major organs, just in and out." She picked her head up and shook the stray strands of hair from her face.

"Everyone else is fine. Max and Vanessa are here with that new girl you hired, waiting outside of Vicky's room. Vanessa got grazed by a stray bullet, but she's okay. Lisa is out taking care of something for me right now, she's fine too. Shaken up for sure, but otherwise she's good."

That was a relief at least. Most of his friends were fine, but not the one that he really cared about. He was also a little annoyed by the fact that it was Rose who was sitting out in that waiting room instead of him, but he pushed that out of his mind. There were more important things to be upset about for the time being.

"What about the club?" He asked, trying to raise his head up off of the bed.

Sunny sighed. "They got just about everything. It doesn't matter though, that will all be settled soon."

Her eyes grew dark when she said that, Luke knew exactly what she meant.

"I pulled some strings with the guard, and no one is asking any questions. You were all the victims here and no one is looking to indict any of you for anything. It's not illegal to keep weapons in a business, and any killing was strictly out of self-defense. You'll have to give an official statement sometime soon, but it's nothing you can't handle. Right now, all that matters is making sure my little Vicky is okay."

She started sniffling again and Luke saw a few fresh tears roll down her cheek. He couldn't imagine how this must have affected his surrogate aunt, and he really felt for her. They were the only family that he had for a large part of his life, and he couldn't bear to see it fall apart now. He reached up her hand slowly and started slowly stroking Sunny's arm.

"You know," Sunny started, sniffling again. "When Tantarella died, I didn't know what to do with myself. Her and Moe were always my best friends growing up and she was the best little sister anyone could ask for. I remember when I got the call. I was sitting in my office and looking over some numbers from some jewel operation I had going at the time, when the phone rang. It was a short message, as things of that nature usually tend to be. I remember screaming so loud I was sure that the entire district heard it. Then I threw my phone and most of the things on my desk with it right out of the window down into the street."

She shook her head, looking away from Luke. "At the funeral I made a promise to her that I would keep her family safe, whatever the cost. When little Vicky came to live with me, I intended to make good on that promise, and never let it happen to her. I didn't even want her to work for me at first. She was just so angry though, nothing would calm her down. I knew that she would find a way to vent her anger eventually, and I figured that it was better doing something that I could control instead of leaving her to her own devices. Now look where we are. This is my fault."

She started to cry again, breaking into deep sobs, and Luke couldn't take it. It was all just too much. He just kept rubbing Sunny's arm, trying not to cry himself.

"She's going to be okay. I know she will," he said, trying to give Sunny his most convincing assured look. "We're going to figure out who did this. I promise, I'll make sure it happens."

Sunny shook away the tears and then returned her gaze to Luke, with fire in her eyes. "I have no doubt in that my dear. Our friend who Lisa held in the back for us has been moved out to the warehouse. I'll get the information out of him that we need. It's just a question as to how long it takes."

Luke smiled for the first time since he had woken up.

"Who do you have doing it? I want in."

Sunny just shook her head. "You are in absolutely no condition to be getting any information out of anyone right now. I have Fran on it, and Lisa should be joining her soon. It won't be long before we have a name. For now though, I need you to relax. You need to get better as soon as you can. I promise we will figure this out. I need to go back to the ICU to check on Vicky. I'll let you know as soon as anything changes."

Luke's smile quickly turned into a frown. He should be the one doing this. Who cared if one leg and a shoulder were hurt? He had another perfectly fine one of each, and he didn't need brute strength to extract any information that he needed from anyone, that's what hammers and knives were for. He knew, of course, that there was nothing that could be done about it, and was certainly not going to argue with Sunny at a time like this. He just thanked his dear auntie and tried to go back to sleep. It wouldn't come, though. He couldn't rest knowing that Vicky may not be alive when he woke up.

Across town, outside of a cold warehouse, Lisa was parking the car that Sunny had given her to take care of her daily business. She was getting paid far more than she could have imagined, and was happy to do whatever she needed to help. She had heard from Sunny that Luke had woken up earlier that morning, and although he was a bit frantic, everything was fine now. She still hadn't heard anything about Vicky, which worried her. She had never been to this warehouse before, but had known exactly what she was looking to find inside from Sunny's message to her earlier.

She opened the door quietly and shut it behind her as she stepped towards the source of light in the middle of the large room. There were barrels and boxes lining it on all sides, some of them extending almost all the way to the ceiling. She didn't know it, but she was closer to her missing husband then than she had been in the last week, or ever would be again. They were all just barrels to her though, so she paid them no mind and kept walking.

Finally, after tracing the sounds of some very muffled screams and the occasional chuckle, she located Fran. She was ragged, and had a slightly crazed look in her eyes. She was wearing an apron that had enough blood on it that its once pearly white appearance had faded into a salmon pink.

She looked over at the robber who she tied up in the back room of the club two days earlier. He was hanging from his wrists, suspended on a meat hook in the air just high enough that his legs dangled off the floor. He had short black hair, and was covered in blood, some from what Fran had done, and more still from the shredded, stinking wound Vicky had left in his leg. He had deep green eyes that, in happier times, she was sure were very vibrant. Now they were glazed over in pain and fear.

He had been cut hundreds of times over his body, and both of his arms and legs were broken in some way or another. It also looked like he was missing part of one eye, and most of his teeth. As she stared at him, she wasn't paying attention to where she was walking and bumped into a table that had been wheeled in. Fran jumped up and quickly picked up a knife, turning to Lisa quicker than she could have imagined the lanky blonde moving.

When they made eye contact, she relaxed, setting the knife back on the table.

"Sweet Empress, Lisa! Don't sneak up on me like that. You could have been killed. You really need to learn to announce yourself when you enter a room, darling."

Lisa gave a sheepish grin, while reeling inside at the potential danger she had completely unknowingly put herself in.

"Sorry, I guess I don't really know the protocol for these kinds of situations. I'll make sure I say something next time."

Fran walked over to her, giving her a quick hug and trying her best not to get any blood on Lisa. "It's okay dear. I'm glad you're here. As you can see, I've been working quite a bit with our friend here, with no luck so far. He's a pretty tough one, I'll give him that. Now that you're here though, I think that should change quickly. I've got something that is pretty much a guaranteed way to get our buddy here talking."

She looked over to the gagged man. "I hope you're ready," she said, giving him a very menacing smile that sent chills down Lisa's spine and caused him to squirm against the chains that held him on the hook.

She turned to Lisa. "I would have done this much sooner but it's a two-person job. There's a table on wheels just over behind him in the corner. Be a dear and roll it over here for me while I get him ready."

Lisa did exactly that. The table wasn't heavy, and she wasn't even sure what they would need it for until she saw what was attached to it at the top.

She wheeled it over and placed it right in front of the chained man. Fran smiled again and pointed to the table. "Have you ever seen one of those before, darling? No doubt if you've ever been in a butcher shop, you'd be familiar. It's called a meat slicer. I don't think I need to tell you what it does. This isn't just any old meat slicer though, it's an industrial one. They use it on whole sides of beef, so I think it'll work just fine for you."

His eyes went wide with terror and he started fighting as much as he could against his bindings and began trying to scream through his gag. Fran walked up to him, wrapping her arms around the chains that held him on the hook.

"Now now dear, there is no need for any of that. You are going in there one way or another. How easy the process of getting you in there is entirely up to you. If you would have just told me what I needed to know earlier, this wouldn't even be happening, so you have no one to thank for this but yourself."

She lifted him up off the hook and he started kicking his back legs wildly, blood splattering in every direction from his broken bones flailing around.

Fran turned to Lisa. "Grab his legs and help me get him on this thing," she said, trying to keep him still.

Lisa had been completely benumbed after bringing the table, thinking of what they were going to do to him with the meat slicer. She was busy trying to suppress her horror when she heard Fran call out to her. She sprang into action and rushed over to him. She wrapped her arms around his legs, but it was tough keeping him still. She focused as hard as she could as they slowly moved him over to the table, putting him on his back.

He tried to struggle wildly as Fran strapped his arm into place beneath the heavy blade of the slicer and wrapped a rubber tourniquet just above where the blade was set on his arm. Lisa held his legs down and Fran turned the switch on the bottom of the table, bringing the whirring blade to life.

While Lisa was busy keeping him still, Fran stared at him dead in the eyes.

"Now. Here is how this is going to work. I'm going to start asking you questions. Any time I get an answer that I don't like, or no response at all, I'm going to lower the saw into your arm, little by little. Once that's gone, I'll get to work on the other one, then your legs. Let's begin."

With that, she pulled the gag out of his mouth.

"Who hired you to attack the club and what were the other attacker's names?" She asked with a very strange amount of courtesy.

He looked at her for a few seconds before giving her a simple reply.

"Fuck you."

Her eyes went sharp. She stuffed the gag back in his mouth and turned the crank, bringing the blade down into the flesh just above his elbow. It connected and blood started spraying from the spinning blade into Fran's apron and face. He let out a deep scream and tried to break free, cutting deeper into his arms as Lisa held down his legs. She raised the blade and looked down at him.

"Let's try this again," she said with her hand still wrapped around the crank. "Who hired you to attack the club and what were the other attacker's names?"

He stared her down again but instead of cursing her he simply spit a thick glob of blood right into her face. She stuffed the gag in his mouth and brought the blade down again, digging deeper into his arm. They heard the bone snap and saw the blade cut smoothly through the rest of his arm. The arm fell to the floor with a limp thud. Lisa had to bite back the urge to vomit.

Fran took the gag off again. He was crying a little this time, with small sobs escaping out between low screams and ragged breaths.

She looked down to him again. "I'm going to ask you this one last time, and then I'm putting your pitiful little member beneath this blade. Who hired you to attack the club and what were the other attacker's names?"

At first, he didn't say anything. Fran gave Lisa a glance and she started to move his legs. He finally broke.

"Please," he started through his sobs and ragged, pained breaths. "I don't know who the others were. We hadn't met before that morning. April Haywood brought us all together to do the job. We weren't allowed to ask any questions. They just told us to go in shooting and grab whatever was in the back room. It's the truth, I swear. Just kill me, please, just kill me. I can't take the pain."

Fran started chuckling, and eventually it erupted into a full-on laugh. "April Haywood? April fucking Haywood! You've had me out here all Empress-damned day doing this, going so far as making me chop your grubby little arm of with a fucking meat slicer, just to protect that low life piece of trash? I hope it was worth it. I can assure you she wouldn't have done the same for you."

She looked over to Lisa, then motioned to a bloody blade on one of the other tables.

"Do him a favor. I've gotta call Sunny and fill her in, then get out of this disgusting apron."

She glanced back down at the man one last time before walking away, scoffing.

Lisa tried to object, but Fran was already nearly out of the warehouse before she had a chance. Before she knew it, she was alone with the knife and the almost dead man. She slowly picked it up in and held it shakily above him. She tried to block out the thought of what she was about to do.

He had tried to do the same thing to her, after all. Well, not directly, but still he would have had no qualms in shooting her just like he did to Empress-only-knew how many people in the club before he went down. That still wasn't enough to make her want to do it.

She knew that there was no way out. She couldn't just let him live and go against Sunny's orders. Who knew how volatile that decision would end up being? Especially if Vicky didn't make it out of surgery alive. Her name would most likely go right down on the list with the others. Plus, it wasn't like he was going to live for much longer anyways. Even if she rushed him straight to a hospital, he probably wouldn't even survive the trip. She was doing him a favor, just like Fran said.

With that in mind, she grabbed the knife from the table and approached him. She was thinking of the best way to get it done as quick, and relatively painless as possible. Through the chest? No, what if she couldn't get deep enough or she hit the wrong spot. How did they do this in the movies? It came to her. She stood behind him, looking down at his wide, green eyes. They were thick with fear, but clouded with pain and begging for release.

She took a deep breath.

"I'm sorry," she muttered softly. She then ran the knife across his neck in a quick motion. It made a sickly slicing sound as it went clean though. In what seemed like only a split second, blood began pouring out like a river all over his chest and the table below him.

As the blood began to flow freely from his neck, she could hear him choking out his final breaths. Finally, after what had felt like an eternity, his one good eye rolled back in his head and his chest stopped rising. She wanted to turn away from the horrible scene that played out in front of her, but couldn't do it. She watched the life go out of his eyes as she felt fresh tears fall from hers. The last thing she thought as his breathing stopped was what Al would say if he could see her then.

Back at the hospital, Sunny was still waiting with the others in a set of chairs outside the surgery room that Vicky was in. Max had his arm wrapped around her shoulder with her head resting in his. Beside him was Vanessa, who had been asleep for over an hour. On the other side of her was Rose, who had been there since she heard about the shooting and had spent most of the time crying to herself. She never had much that was nice in her life, and she finally found someone who made her a little bit happy and then before she knew it, it was all ripped away from her. Just like her shop, just like her old life. It just kept happening.

No one had spoken in the hour since Sunny returned from visiting Luke. They all sat in silence, waiting to find out the fate of the person that tied them all together. The silence was finally by a nurse walking into the room.

"Excuse me," she said, looking at the group. "There is a call for you Miss Morella. They said it's urgent."

Sunny untangled herself from her nephew and stood up without saying a word, following the nurse out of the room to the phones.

When she was alone with the phone she finally spoke.

"What's the news?" She asked flatly.

While there was a bit of a problem with the reception, she heard the message from Fran clearly.

"We got a name. April Haywood hired them. What do you want to do now? I'm ready to roll over there as soon as you give the order."

Sunny seethed at the revelation. April. Of course it was someone like April. That woman would take any job from anyone she could, no matter who the target was. She was smart, not as smart as she thought that she was, but smart nonetheless. She was just a mercenary, though. She had no real motive for this outside of credits. They needed to find out who was actually behind it, something that Sunny had every intention of doing.

"Don't do anything yet. I'm going to make some calls and get surveillance on her as soon as I can. I want to see if she meets up with anyone. Nothing major is going to happen until I make sure Vicky is okay. In the meantime, you can go back uptown. I'll have something ready for you in a few days if you like. Ask Lisa to head here before you leave, I need to talk with her about something. Thank you for doing this for me. I'll make sure you have a nice bonus waiting for you when you get home."

Fran assured her that there was no need. They were family, and an attack on one was an attack on all. Sunny thanked her, but insisted that the bonus would be there regardless. She had earned it.

After that they said their goodbyes and Sunny started walking back to the rest of the group. April had made a very bad move, going after her. Sunny was sure that she knew it too, and would most likely be trying to leave town within the next few days if she hadn't already. None of that was really important then. She needed to make sure that Vicky was okay before she got to dealing with April. She would be dealt with either way, after all. It was just a matter of time.

She could hear a commotion from behind the door to the ICU and saw the tall frame of Max standing in the hallway. Her mind instantly expected the worst as she rushed through the swinging double doors, almost running directly into Vanessa as they all stood around listening to the doctor that was speaking with them.

"Did something happen to Vicky? Is she okay?" Sunny blurted out as she ran into the room.

The doctor gave her a stern glare, clearly not enjoying being interrupted and having to start whatever he was saying over.

"As I was telling the others here, Victoria is okay, for now at least. Her recovery is going to be a long and difficult process, and she is very lucky to even be alive. She lost a lot of blood and almost broke her back in the crash. If her friend had been even a minute or two later, there would have been nothing we could have done. The worst is over now, though and if The Empress is in our favor, she should be just fine within a few months or so."

Sunny rushed the doctor and threw both of her arms around him. "Thank you so much," she said, crying tears of joy. "Anything you want, credits, a new car, a new house. Anything, just name it and it's yours. You saved my little Vicky."

He slowly and gently freed himself from her tight grasp. "That won't be necessary, Miss Morella. I'm just doing my job. I've got other patients to attend to, but if you'd like, you can see her in a couple of hours after she gets some rest. I would recommend that you all do the same as well in the meantime." With that, he left. As the others were embracing, and expressing how happy they were, Sunny walked at as fast of a pace as she could without running to Luke's room.

Luke had fallen back asleep since Sunny had left earlier, despite his best attempts not to, and was shocked awake as her door flew open. He saw Sunny's face and had automatically assumed the worst. Before he could ask what was going on, he was wrapped in a deep hug.

"She's okay!" Sunny exclaimed loudly into his ear. He barely heard it though, as the drugs had begun to fade away and aching body was suddenly on fire after the embrace. Sunny sensed it right away and jumped back.

"Oh my, I'm so sorry sweetie!"

Luke winced in pain as he pushed down on the button that he had been informed was for extra drip of the sweet painkillers into her blood.

"It's okay Auntie," he said through a strained smile. It really was okay. Just knowing that Vicky was alive had put all the pain aside. "How is she?"

Sunny smiled, wiping a tear from her eye. "They said that she has a long road of recovery ahead of her, but she should be fine otherwise. You saved her life. The doctor said that if you were even a minute or two later she would have died. There are no words for how proud and thankful I am right now, Luke. I don't know how I can repay you, but I promise I'll find a way."

They had a light hug this time as Sunny cried a few more tears of joy into his shoulder. "Do we know what happened yet?" Luke asked, whispering into her ear.

"Yes," Sunny whispered back. "We got a name, but let's not worry about that now."

Luke sat up a little bit as they separated from their hug. "I'm not worried. I just have a favor to ask. I know it will take a couple of weeks for me to heal up, but I want to be the one who takes care of this."

Sunny just nodded to him. "I knew that's what you'd say. I told the others to hold off for now, we're keeping tabs to make sure she doesn't go anywhere, but nothing will happen until you are ready. I promise. For now, I think it's time we both got some rest."

Sunny then hopped up onto the empty bed that was beside Luke and stretched out on it. "The hard part is over, Luke. Thank you again. Thank you so much."

Luke didn't hear any of it. The drugs had worked their magic, and he was already fast asleep after hearing the good news. Sunny let out a deep contented sigh, and followed Luke into the night.

On the west side of the city, in a moderately sized apartment on the twenty-first floor of the newly renovated Halloway Heights building, a thin woman in her mid-30s with dyed pink hair, sat in her favorite leather chair while chain smoking cigarettes and staring at the phone next to her silver pistol on the coffee table. Finally, after what seemed like hours, it began to ring. She dropped her cigarette into the ashtray and snatched to phone off of its receiver.

"What took you so long to call back? I've been waiting for hours!" She said as soon as the phone was up to her face.

A smooth male voice was on the other end. "Don't worry about it. I'm just trying to make sure everything is taken care of. I don't think she knows anything about you."

She started shaking her head. "You know I should kill you for this. Why didn't you tell me it was Sunny's club? Don't you know what those people do when things like this happen? I wouldn't be surprised if there was someone watching my house right now, ready to put a bullet in my head."

She was speaking frantically.

"Look April, no one is waiting for you. It's been three days already, if they knew about you, they would have already showed up. If those guys were as good as you said, then the one who they got must not have said anything. There's no way they kept him alive this long. I've got a sponsor in the family too, and I can assure you that he's got more pull where it counts than Sunny. So, if worse comes to worse she would have to have multiple meetings with the big bosses to even get at us."

"To get at you," she cut him off, "not us. What would stop you from flipping on me as soon as they brought you in front of one of their councils?"

He chuckled.

"I just got word that Vicky made it through surgery, so if nothing else, Sunny's wrath won't be as intense as it could have been. Besides, would you have refused the job if I told you it was Sunny's club?"

She picked up another cigarette in her free hand as he was trying to soothe her and lit it.

"Probably not," she said as she exhaled, "but I would have planned it with a lot more tact than this, and I would have covered my ass a lot better had I known the potential for repercussion."

The smooth voice sighed on the other end of the phone. " None of that even matters now. It's done. I don't think she's going to find you, but you need to be ready if she does. Start getting your affairs in order. I know it'll take a week or two, but it's time to get ready to move on from Beacon, or at least the Southern districts. I just need you to make sure you remember one thing."

She took a deep drag from her cigarette before putting it out in the ashtray, reaching for another one. "I'm already working on getting out of here, thanks to you. I'll be expecting a full payment from that delivery within forty-eight hours by the way. What is it that you need me to remember?"

The voice paused for a few seconds. "That wasn't the deal. The deal was that you get your cut when it's all sold. I don't have the extra capital to give you right now."

She slammed the cigarette into the ashtray, cracking it in the process. "The deal changed the second it became one of the biggest bosses in the city that I was hitting. You have forty-eight hours. I don't want to have to do anything rash here, so don't make me. Now tell me what it is that you want me to remember, I need to try and get some sleep."

There was another long pause before the voice spoke again. "I'll try my best to get it to you, but I can't make any promises. All you need to remember is this, if she finds you, and you mention my name then we are going to have serious problems. If she doesn't kill you, I'll do worse. Are we clear on that?"

She scoffed, slapping the ashtray and sending it rolling across the floor until it broke apart on the wall.

"I don't know who you think it is you're talking to Neon, but it would be wise not to take that tone with me. I won't say anything. Not out of some bullshit fear tactic nonsense that your trying to pull, but because I'm not a rat, plain and simple. So take the thought out of your head. Don't contact me again until you have the credits we agreed on. If I was willing to hit her, you know what I'm willing to do to you. The clock is ticking."

She didn't give him a chance to respond before slamming the phone down. She picked up her pistol from the table and walked over to the door to check, for the fifteenth time, that it was locked, before walking over the window and staring outside.

"I really fucked up on this one," she said to herself as she looked out on the city around her. She could see off of the mountain from there and even all the way down to the lights coming off of expressway to Endlane in the distance. "I just hope I have enough time to get out."

With that, she walked with her pistol in hand to her bedroom, locking that door and then sitting in her bed, staring at the ceiling. April wouldn't be sleeping any time soon. Almost as if on cue, a long black car that carried two men with guns and a pair of binoculars pulled up and parked across the street from the building. They wouldn't be sleeping any time soon either.