That's right, baby! One week! ONE WEEK!
For ONCE! I made it!
Woohoo!
CQ
Chained 19
"Who's your dentist?"
Was she losing her mind? Was he actually asking about her dentist? She sat as far away from him as possible without pushing the door open and hurling herself into a ditch.
She couldn't jump, her daughter was snoozing peacefully in her car seat. Not a care in the world, sleeping like a baby, in fact.
Ignorance is bliss. Alexis wished she was ignorant. Aw, what a luxury. To just be stupid. No cares, no worries, no horror filled moments of self doubt when you realized you'd dragged not just yourself, but your innocent little daughter, into a life with a mad man.
All while trying to escape another mad man who was now dead.
Thanks to you.
Lorenzo worried that she was slipping into shock. She looked confused and had a thin sheen of sweat across her face. He gave up asking her, grabbed her purse and pulled out her PDA and scrolled to the Ds.
Dentist, Loraine Brooker. He was willing to bet that all of her doctors were female. "Has Kristina been to the dentist yet?" He asked the question softly, working hard to keep the urgency out of his voice.
She looked at him like he'd grown a second head. How was he supposed to know when kids started going to the dentist? She had teeth so she'd probably been at least once. "Alexis, is this Kristina's dentist, too?"
"Why? You want to kill her? Don't like my overbite?"
"Damn it, Alexis," he mumbled and pulled out his cell phone. He didn't even bother with a hello, just gave the person on the other end the name, address and telephone number of her dentist.
Alexis felt a vague sense of hope when she realized they were heading home. Wong was at home. Wong could help her.
The limo was moving so fast the tail pipe actually scraped the drive as they pulled in. They came to a screeching halt in front of the house.
He was surprised when she didn't jump out, but she looked over longingly at Kristina and he realized the one and only reason she wasn't running from him was her daughter.
It certainly wasn't because she'd come to her senses and realized he hadn't done this. He wanted that, needed that. Why didn't she trust him?
He practically climbed over her to exit the limo on her side. He grabbed her hand and pulled her after him.
"I need for you to focus, Alexis. We only have a few minutes. What do you want to take with you?"
"We're not going anywhere," she told him stubbornly.
"I want you to imagine the house is on fire. Now Kristina is safely outside and you have 5 minutes to run back into the house and get whatever you can carry out. What do you want?"
"I want you to leave." Her voice sounded flat, dead.
"I don't have time to argue with you about this anymore."
"I can't go anywhere, Lorenzo. I'll be a suspect. No, I'll be their number one suspect."
Lorenzo dragged her into the house. "Photos, you'll want Kristina's baby pictures."
"If I leave, I'll only look guiltier," she told him.
He looked in the hall closet and found a moving box still left over. It contained earmuffs and scarves. He dumped the contents in the floor of the closet and pulled her along through the house into the living room to the bookshelves where she kept the photo albums.
She watched as he put Kristina's baby book and two photo albums into the box. He then dragged her into the den and loaded the three home movies she'd made of Kristina's first year.
"What else, Alexis?"
"If you leave now, I won't mention you. I won't turn you in, I swear."
"What else, Alexis?"
"Don't do this. Don't turn me into a fugitive."
"You won't be a fugitive and in less than half an hour, you won't even be a suspect anymore."
"Who have you set up to take the fall, Lorenzo?" What innocent person is going to jail in your place? What other life have I ruined?
"What else, Alexis? You won't need clothes, toiletries, all of that can be replaced. What else cannot be replaced?"
"You'd just let some innocent person pay for your crime?"
"Alexis, when we have more time, I will explain all of this to you."
"You can't explain away murder, Lorenzo."
"You did," he snapped and then sighed, she was frustrating the hell out of him. He didn't have time for it now. Later, later she could rant and rave all she wanted.
And hate him and blame him
He grabbed her hand again and dragged her back toward the bedroom. At least she wasn't fighting him physically. "You mentioned a necklace once, said it belonged to your mother?"
She didn't answer, just let him drag her around the house like a broken doll. He opened the jewelry box in the center of her dresser.
"What do you want, Alexis? We can't take it all, too obvious. It can't look like you took anything, but if there is something you can't live without.."
He looked in the box and it was all the same to him.
He looked at the dimensions of the jewelry box, very deep. It had to have a false bottom. He lifted the velvet compartments on top and found one hidden underneath.
In the bottom, she had four pieces of jewelry.
Two sapphire necklaces, a medallion on a gold chain and a plain gold wedding band.
He had no problem with the first three, but would have preferred to leave the last. Jasper Jacks. She kept her wedding ring. He dropped it in the box. She was angry enough with him as it was. He also spotted a plastic poker chip that must have some sentimental value, he tossed it in the box as well.
"Take these for Miss Kristina." Wong was standing in the doorway with two stuffed animals in his hands, a bear and a lamb and he tucked them into the box Lorenzo had placed on the dresser.
"Wong! Thank God." Alexis was suddenly much more animated.
He looked at her, his eyes filled with sympathy. "Ms. Alexis, I'm so sorry about this."
"Wong, he did this, I know he did this." She looked from Wong to Lorenzo and her eyes turned cold.
Lorenzo swallowed and looked at Wong himself. "What do we know?"
"Not a great deal, the bomb squad is still there. Appears to be very simple. Set to a timer."
"Shows little regard for collateral damage." Lorenzo frowned.
Wong nodded.
Alexis shook her head back and forth slowly. He even had Wong fooled. She inched toward the door slowly.
"Can you duplicate it?" Lorenzo asked.
"I'll try. Not enough intel to know for certain what they used, but I can use something similar."
"Use the limo, I thought about the house, but since the first was a car bomb, might as well make the second one as well. If it's not an exact match the police will conclude it's retaliatory."
"That will still work," Wong agreed.
A second bomb? In the limo? Alexis made a run for it.
It was stupid, it was pointless. She was in heels, they were in the middle of nowhere, there was no one to help her. But Kristina was still in the limo. Maybe the driver had stepped out for a smoke, maybe he'd left the keys in the ignition. Maybe if there was a God she could out run them and get back to the limo and save her daughter.
She didn't care if they blew her up. Didn't really care what they did to her anymore. She even felt on some level that she deserved it.
But they were going to kill her baby. Blow her up like they had her father..
She didn't make it very far before Lorenzo caught up to her. He had her elbow but she managed to jerk it free. His foot slipped, he grabbed her thigh on the way down and they both hit the hardwood floor at the same time.
She fought like a wild animal, screaming, kicking, scratching and crying. Crying so hard she was choking. It was not a pretty sight.
He gave up on trying to calm her down and settled for just keeping her from getting away. He sat in the floor, his arms wrapped around her from behind, keeping her arms locked down to her sides. His grip was so tight she couldn't even take a deep breath and was reduced to shallow sobs.
Alexis heard several car doors open and close from the front of the house.
"They're here," Wong announced.
She screamed at the top of her lungs. No one came running to her rescue. Wong lowered himself to a squatting position in front of her. "She's hysterical," he announced, as if it weren't obvious to everyone.
"Can you give her anything?" Lorenzo asked.
Wong shook his head sadly. He knew she wouldn't swallow anything he gave her.
"I trusted you." She was looking directly into his eyes.
"You still can," he assured her.
"You said you worked for me. Help me," she pleaded.
"I do work for you but..."
"Don't let him hurt my baby."
"Alexis, I would never..." Lorenzo couldn't even finish. It was pointless, she was convinced he was the devil.
"No harm will come to you or Miss. Kristina, I promise."
She shook her head. "Your promises don't mean anything anymore. You're a liar!" she screamed.
"Miss Alexis, you understand the concept of martial law?"
She ignored him, looked past him toward the door. She heard activity, people out front, who was there, why wouldn't anyone help her?
"Until you are safe, until you and your daughter are safe, we have to do what Mr. Lorenzo says, do you understand?"
She wasn't listening, she was struggling again. Lorenzo and Wong managed to get her up out of the floor and she fought them every step to the door.
Once outside she saw two black SUVs with the windows tinted as dark as the limos. There were four men waiting for them and she understood why her screams had gone unnoticed.
They all worked for Lorenzo. She'd seen them all at various times. Bodyguards. She knew none of them by name. They seemed to stay further back than Sonny's guards, but she'd begun to recognize them just the same.
One man was lying half underneath the limo, setting the bomb no doubt. Next, they'd put the jewelry on her, she supposed, tie her up, stick her in the back of the limo with Kristina and set the timer.
The sun was very bright and the trees were very green and almost shimmered. Some part of her knew she wasn't even thinking straight anymore.
The dentist, the jewelry, the details of the bomb. Seemed all very last minute, but he'd probably planned it from the very beginning.
He was holding her from behind, his arms wrapped around her. She couldn't get enough air, couldn't breathe deeply enough.
One of the men opened the door to the back of the limo.
"Oh please, please, I'll do anything. She's just a baby. Take her with you. Leave her in the house, don't do this."
Two of the men unloaded four gym bags from the back of one of the SUVs. They all seemed immune to her hysterics.
Everyone was very serious and seemed quite determined to get this over with. She couldn't blame them. Wasn't a very fun job, blowing up a woman and her kid.
One of the men climbed into the back of the limo with two of the gym bags. The other man stood in front of Lorenzo and sat one of his bags down and unzipped it. "She's closer to two years old, but it was the best I could do, boss."
He pulled out a tiny human skull.
Alexis lost consciousness.
Lorenzo nodded and the man quickly moved to load the child's skeleton into the back of the limo.
Alexis sagged in Lorenzo's arms, dead weight. He pressed his face into her neck. She'd never know he was crying, too. He pulled in a deep breath and then lifted her up into his arms and turned to Wong. "When you find them, call me immediately."
"She'll understand..." Wong began but Lorenzo shook his head and carried her to the back of one of the SUVs.
"No, she won't. You have to find whoever killed Corinthos and then you have to prove they did it."
"Otherwise, you can't come back," Wong said.
Lorenzo laid her in the backseat just as one of his men fastened Kristina into a car seat next to her. Still sleeping, the baby was blissfully unaware of the day's tragic events.
Lorenzo looked at Wong sadly, "Otherwise, she'll always believe I was behind it and she'll never forgive me."
Wong handed the cardboard box to Lorenzo as he climbed up into the front seat.
They watched as four bodies were set up in the limo. One male in the driver's seat, one male in the back along with one adult female and a small female child, older than Kristina, but close enough. It had cost almost half a million dollars, but in less than three hours he'd acquired 4 bodies, all with dental records.
Television always made faking one's death look so easy.
It wasn't.
They heard a phone ringing inside the house.
The police, most likely.
"Find them, call me."
"I will," Wong assured him.
The driver climbed in next to Lorenzo. The first SUV left. The driver started the second and Lorenzo closed the door and rolled down the window. "Go back into the house. The timer is set for 20 minutes from now. Wait for the explosion, call the police. Randall has the dental records, he'll switch them out tonight."
"By this time tomorrow, you'll all officially be dead."
"Tell Juliette not to mourn me too much, no one will believe it," he smiled.
"If anyone can handle this, it's Juliette. She's not the one I'm worried about." Wong glanced at the backseat.
"She'll be alive, that's all that matters for now."
Alive, but not free. She'd be trapped with him until it was over and he knew that until he had proof of who was really behind it, she was going to blame him.
On a logical level, it made sense. The timing was too good. Corinthos was literally on his way to ruin her life. Of course she thought it was Lorenzo, who else could it be?
And not that many people had known about it. It hadn't been common knowledge at that point. Was it random? One of Sonny's enemies just happened to get it right at that exact moment? It just didn't feel random. Lorenzo didn't even think he believed in random.
Of course, the other possibility made his blood boil, but it seemed even more absurd.
That someone had set him up. Had chosen that moment not just to protect Alexis but to make sure she hated him.
Like by taking out Corinthos at that exact moment they'd planned to remove BOTH men from her life.
Kill her former lover and blame it on her current lover effectively removing both threats from her life at the same time.
Bold move.
"When you find them, Wong, bring them to me."
"Sir..."
"Either she's going to know I didn't do this or I'm going to give her good reason to hate me."
"Mr. Lorenzo don't..."
"Because if she's going to hate me for being a murderer, I'll give her a reason to. I'll kill the bastard with my bare hands."
The window was up before Wong could object. The SUV pulled away and Wong watched it disappear down the long driveway, knowing it was headed across the border to a private airfield in Canada.
He wished he could join them, wished he could make this easier for her and her child but she didn't trust him anymore at the moment than she trusted Lorenzo.
No, the best way to help Alexis Davis was to find the person responsible for killing Sonny Corinthos.
And then proving it.
And then making her believe it.
The faster, the better.
Wong checked his watch. 15 minutes until show time. Enough time to perhaps put a cake in the oven.
But the explosion would probably cause it to fall.
Popcorn. Alexis always had plenty of popcorn.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
AJ felt like he'd licked the inside of an ashtray clean.
He'd survived drinking binges that had lasted for weeks. Woken up with hangovers that felt like his skull was split wide open.
And he preferred it to his current state because..he smelled FOUL.
He was positive that brushing his teeth for the rest of his life with industrial strength BLEACH wouldn't get the taste out of his mouth.
And his throat? It was like he'd gargled with sand.
What had possessed him to smoke an entire pack of cigarettes in one night?
Or rather who?
And then he remembered who and he stayed with that thought and changed that thought into something else.
Something where the thought got to wear the little present he bought her. The one hidden in the trunk of his car.
Tiny, pink, perfect.
Someone was pounding on the door. "Police, open up."
AJ's perfect, pink dream went poof! Police? For what? Smoking?
He sat up on the couch and looked around. No drugs, no dead bodies. He supposed it was safe to let them in.
He scratched his head and wondered what he'd done this time, but on his way to the door it occurred to him that maybe they weren't there for him.
He wasn't the foreigner who liked to run around with an unregistered hand gun. Ha! Maybe they were there for Juliette! Maybe she was the one in trouble. Maybe he could even help her. Be her hero. Save the day. Be the good guy for once!
He opened the door.
"A.J. Quartermaine?"
He sighed, of course they were there for him. They were always there for him. "What did I do this time?"
"We need you to come down to the station and answer a few questions."
"What's this about?"
"Sir."
"Look, tell me what it's about or I'm calling my lawyer right now."
"Sir, where were you at approximately 9:30 this morning?"
AJ smiled broadly at the officer. "9:30? This morning?"
"Yes, sir."
"Well, let's see, I guess I was, oh, let me think.."
"Sir, this is very serious."
"I was asleep. Sound asleep right here in this room."
The officer looked past AJ into the suite. "Any witnesses?"
"Witnesses? More than one? Pretty kinky," AJ smiled but waved the officer into the room to follow him. "No, just the one witness." AJ knocked gently on the bedroom door. "Juliette? You decent?"
There was no answer.
"Sound sleeper," AJ told the officer and then knocked again a little more loudly. "Juliette?" Still no answer.
"Perhaps she's in the shower?" the officer suggested but looked doubtful.
AJ pushed the door open and peeked inside and then opened the door fully. The room was empty. He hurried across to the bathroom, empty as well.
AJ turned around and stared at the officer. Ya, he shoulda known. He was ALWAYS the one in trouble.
For ONCE! I made it!
Woohoo!
CQ
Chained 19
"Who's your dentist?"
Was she losing her mind? Was he actually asking about her dentist? She sat as far away from him as possible without pushing the door open and hurling herself into a ditch.
She couldn't jump, her daughter was snoozing peacefully in her car seat. Not a care in the world, sleeping like a baby, in fact.
Ignorance is bliss. Alexis wished she was ignorant. Aw, what a luxury. To just be stupid. No cares, no worries, no horror filled moments of self doubt when you realized you'd dragged not just yourself, but your innocent little daughter, into a life with a mad man.
All while trying to escape another mad man who was now dead.
Thanks to you.
Lorenzo worried that she was slipping into shock. She looked confused and had a thin sheen of sweat across her face. He gave up asking her, grabbed her purse and pulled out her PDA and scrolled to the Ds.
Dentist, Loraine Brooker. He was willing to bet that all of her doctors were female. "Has Kristina been to the dentist yet?" He asked the question softly, working hard to keep the urgency out of his voice.
She looked at him like he'd grown a second head. How was he supposed to know when kids started going to the dentist? She had teeth so she'd probably been at least once. "Alexis, is this Kristina's dentist, too?"
"Why? You want to kill her? Don't like my overbite?"
"Damn it, Alexis," he mumbled and pulled out his cell phone. He didn't even bother with a hello, just gave the person on the other end the name, address and telephone number of her dentist.
Alexis felt a vague sense of hope when she realized they were heading home. Wong was at home. Wong could help her.
The limo was moving so fast the tail pipe actually scraped the drive as they pulled in. They came to a screeching halt in front of the house.
He was surprised when she didn't jump out, but she looked over longingly at Kristina and he realized the one and only reason she wasn't running from him was her daughter.
It certainly wasn't because she'd come to her senses and realized he hadn't done this. He wanted that, needed that. Why didn't she trust him?
He practically climbed over her to exit the limo on her side. He grabbed her hand and pulled her after him.
"I need for you to focus, Alexis. We only have a few minutes. What do you want to take with you?"
"We're not going anywhere," she told him stubbornly.
"I want you to imagine the house is on fire. Now Kristina is safely outside and you have 5 minutes to run back into the house and get whatever you can carry out. What do you want?"
"I want you to leave." Her voice sounded flat, dead.
"I don't have time to argue with you about this anymore."
"I can't go anywhere, Lorenzo. I'll be a suspect. No, I'll be their number one suspect."
Lorenzo dragged her into the house. "Photos, you'll want Kristina's baby pictures."
"If I leave, I'll only look guiltier," she told him.
He looked in the hall closet and found a moving box still left over. It contained earmuffs and scarves. He dumped the contents in the floor of the closet and pulled her along through the house into the living room to the bookshelves where she kept the photo albums.
She watched as he put Kristina's baby book and two photo albums into the box. He then dragged her into the den and loaded the three home movies she'd made of Kristina's first year.
"What else, Alexis?"
"If you leave now, I won't mention you. I won't turn you in, I swear."
"What else, Alexis?"
"Don't do this. Don't turn me into a fugitive."
"You won't be a fugitive and in less than half an hour, you won't even be a suspect anymore."
"Who have you set up to take the fall, Lorenzo?" What innocent person is going to jail in your place? What other life have I ruined?
"What else, Alexis? You won't need clothes, toiletries, all of that can be replaced. What else cannot be replaced?"
"You'd just let some innocent person pay for your crime?"
"Alexis, when we have more time, I will explain all of this to you."
"You can't explain away murder, Lorenzo."
"You did," he snapped and then sighed, she was frustrating the hell out of him. He didn't have time for it now. Later, later she could rant and rave all she wanted.
And hate him and blame him
He grabbed her hand again and dragged her back toward the bedroom. At least she wasn't fighting him physically. "You mentioned a necklace once, said it belonged to your mother?"
She didn't answer, just let him drag her around the house like a broken doll. He opened the jewelry box in the center of her dresser.
"What do you want, Alexis? We can't take it all, too obvious. It can't look like you took anything, but if there is something you can't live without.."
He looked in the box and it was all the same to him.
He looked at the dimensions of the jewelry box, very deep. It had to have a false bottom. He lifted the velvet compartments on top and found one hidden underneath.
In the bottom, she had four pieces of jewelry.
Two sapphire necklaces, a medallion on a gold chain and a plain gold wedding band.
He had no problem with the first three, but would have preferred to leave the last. Jasper Jacks. She kept her wedding ring. He dropped it in the box. She was angry enough with him as it was. He also spotted a plastic poker chip that must have some sentimental value, he tossed it in the box as well.
"Take these for Miss Kristina." Wong was standing in the doorway with two stuffed animals in his hands, a bear and a lamb and he tucked them into the box Lorenzo had placed on the dresser.
"Wong! Thank God." Alexis was suddenly much more animated.
He looked at her, his eyes filled with sympathy. "Ms. Alexis, I'm so sorry about this."
"Wong, he did this, I know he did this." She looked from Wong to Lorenzo and her eyes turned cold.
Lorenzo swallowed and looked at Wong himself. "What do we know?"
"Not a great deal, the bomb squad is still there. Appears to be very simple. Set to a timer."
"Shows little regard for collateral damage." Lorenzo frowned.
Wong nodded.
Alexis shook her head back and forth slowly. He even had Wong fooled. She inched toward the door slowly.
"Can you duplicate it?" Lorenzo asked.
"I'll try. Not enough intel to know for certain what they used, but I can use something similar."
"Use the limo, I thought about the house, but since the first was a car bomb, might as well make the second one as well. If it's not an exact match the police will conclude it's retaliatory."
"That will still work," Wong agreed.
A second bomb? In the limo? Alexis made a run for it.
It was stupid, it was pointless. She was in heels, they were in the middle of nowhere, there was no one to help her. But Kristina was still in the limo. Maybe the driver had stepped out for a smoke, maybe he'd left the keys in the ignition. Maybe if there was a God she could out run them and get back to the limo and save her daughter.
She didn't care if they blew her up. Didn't really care what they did to her anymore. She even felt on some level that she deserved it.
But they were going to kill her baby. Blow her up like they had her father..
She didn't make it very far before Lorenzo caught up to her. He had her elbow but she managed to jerk it free. His foot slipped, he grabbed her thigh on the way down and they both hit the hardwood floor at the same time.
She fought like a wild animal, screaming, kicking, scratching and crying. Crying so hard she was choking. It was not a pretty sight.
He gave up on trying to calm her down and settled for just keeping her from getting away. He sat in the floor, his arms wrapped around her from behind, keeping her arms locked down to her sides. His grip was so tight she couldn't even take a deep breath and was reduced to shallow sobs.
Alexis heard several car doors open and close from the front of the house.
"They're here," Wong announced.
She screamed at the top of her lungs. No one came running to her rescue. Wong lowered himself to a squatting position in front of her. "She's hysterical," he announced, as if it weren't obvious to everyone.
"Can you give her anything?" Lorenzo asked.
Wong shook his head sadly. He knew she wouldn't swallow anything he gave her.
"I trusted you." She was looking directly into his eyes.
"You still can," he assured her.
"You said you worked for me. Help me," she pleaded.
"I do work for you but..."
"Don't let him hurt my baby."
"Alexis, I would never..." Lorenzo couldn't even finish. It was pointless, she was convinced he was the devil.
"No harm will come to you or Miss. Kristina, I promise."
She shook her head. "Your promises don't mean anything anymore. You're a liar!" she screamed.
"Miss Alexis, you understand the concept of martial law?"
She ignored him, looked past him toward the door. She heard activity, people out front, who was there, why wouldn't anyone help her?
"Until you are safe, until you and your daughter are safe, we have to do what Mr. Lorenzo says, do you understand?"
She wasn't listening, she was struggling again. Lorenzo and Wong managed to get her up out of the floor and she fought them every step to the door.
Once outside she saw two black SUVs with the windows tinted as dark as the limos. There were four men waiting for them and she understood why her screams had gone unnoticed.
They all worked for Lorenzo. She'd seen them all at various times. Bodyguards. She knew none of them by name. They seemed to stay further back than Sonny's guards, but she'd begun to recognize them just the same.
One man was lying half underneath the limo, setting the bomb no doubt. Next, they'd put the jewelry on her, she supposed, tie her up, stick her in the back of the limo with Kristina and set the timer.
The sun was very bright and the trees were very green and almost shimmered. Some part of her knew she wasn't even thinking straight anymore.
The dentist, the jewelry, the details of the bomb. Seemed all very last minute, but he'd probably planned it from the very beginning.
He was holding her from behind, his arms wrapped around her. She couldn't get enough air, couldn't breathe deeply enough.
One of the men opened the door to the back of the limo.
"Oh please, please, I'll do anything. She's just a baby. Take her with you. Leave her in the house, don't do this."
Two of the men unloaded four gym bags from the back of one of the SUVs. They all seemed immune to her hysterics.
Everyone was very serious and seemed quite determined to get this over with. She couldn't blame them. Wasn't a very fun job, blowing up a woman and her kid.
One of the men climbed into the back of the limo with two of the gym bags. The other man stood in front of Lorenzo and sat one of his bags down and unzipped it. "She's closer to two years old, but it was the best I could do, boss."
He pulled out a tiny human skull.
Alexis lost consciousness.
Lorenzo nodded and the man quickly moved to load the child's skeleton into the back of the limo.
Alexis sagged in Lorenzo's arms, dead weight. He pressed his face into her neck. She'd never know he was crying, too. He pulled in a deep breath and then lifted her up into his arms and turned to Wong. "When you find them, call me immediately."
"She'll understand..." Wong began but Lorenzo shook his head and carried her to the back of one of the SUVs.
"No, she won't. You have to find whoever killed Corinthos and then you have to prove they did it."
"Otherwise, you can't come back," Wong said.
Lorenzo laid her in the backseat just as one of his men fastened Kristina into a car seat next to her. Still sleeping, the baby was blissfully unaware of the day's tragic events.
Lorenzo looked at Wong sadly, "Otherwise, she'll always believe I was behind it and she'll never forgive me."
Wong handed the cardboard box to Lorenzo as he climbed up into the front seat.
They watched as four bodies were set up in the limo. One male in the driver's seat, one male in the back along with one adult female and a small female child, older than Kristina, but close enough. It had cost almost half a million dollars, but in less than three hours he'd acquired 4 bodies, all with dental records.
Television always made faking one's death look so easy.
It wasn't.
They heard a phone ringing inside the house.
The police, most likely.
"Find them, call me."
"I will," Wong assured him.
The driver climbed in next to Lorenzo. The first SUV left. The driver started the second and Lorenzo closed the door and rolled down the window. "Go back into the house. The timer is set for 20 minutes from now. Wait for the explosion, call the police. Randall has the dental records, he'll switch them out tonight."
"By this time tomorrow, you'll all officially be dead."
"Tell Juliette not to mourn me too much, no one will believe it," he smiled.
"If anyone can handle this, it's Juliette. She's not the one I'm worried about." Wong glanced at the backseat.
"She'll be alive, that's all that matters for now."
Alive, but not free. She'd be trapped with him until it was over and he knew that until he had proof of who was really behind it, she was going to blame him.
On a logical level, it made sense. The timing was too good. Corinthos was literally on his way to ruin her life. Of course she thought it was Lorenzo, who else could it be?
And not that many people had known about it. It hadn't been common knowledge at that point. Was it random? One of Sonny's enemies just happened to get it right at that exact moment? It just didn't feel random. Lorenzo didn't even think he believed in random.
Of course, the other possibility made his blood boil, but it seemed even more absurd.
That someone had set him up. Had chosen that moment not just to protect Alexis but to make sure she hated him.
Like by taking out Corinthos at that exact moment they'd planned to remove BOTH men from her life.
Kill her former lover and blame it on her current lover effectively removing both threats from her life at the same time.
Bold move.
"When you find them, Wong, bring them to me."
"Sir..."
"Either she's going to know I didn't do this or I'm going to give her good reason to hate me."
"Mr. Lorenzo don't..."
"Because if she's going to hate me for being a murderer, I'll give her a reason to. I'll kill the bastard with my bare hands."
The window was up before Wong could object. The SUV pulled away and Wong watched it disappear down the long driveway, knowing it was headed across the border to a private airfield in Canada.
He wished he could join them, wished he could make this easier for her and her child but she didn't trust him anymore at the moment than she trusted Lorenzo.
No, the best way to help Alexis Davis was to find the person responsible for killing Sonny Corinthos.
And then proving it.
And then making her believe it.
The faster, the better.
Wong checked his watch. 15 minutes until show time. Enough time to perhaps put a cake in the oven.
But the explosion would probably cause it to fall.
Popcorn. Alexis always had plenty of popcorn.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
AJ felt like he'd licked the inside of an ashtray clean.
He'd survived drinking binges that had lasted for weeks. Woken up with hangovers that felt like his skull was split wide open.
And he preferred it to his current state because..he smelled FOUL.
He was positive that brushing his teeth for the rest of his life with industrial strength BLEACH wouldn't get the taste out of his mouth.
And his throat? It was like he'd gargled with sand.
What had possessed him to smoke an entire pack of cigarettes in one night?
Or rather who?
And then he remembered who and he stayed with that thought and changed that thought into something else.
Something where the thought got to wear the little present he bought her. The one hidden in the trunk of his car.
Tiny, pink, perfect.
Someone was pounding on the door. "Police, open up."
AJ's perfect, pink dream went poof! Police? For what? Smoking?
He sat up on the couch and looked around. No drugs, no dead bodies. He supposed it was safe to let them in.
He scratched his head and wondered what he'd done this time, but on his way to the door it occurred to him that maybe they weren't there for him.
He wasn't the foreigner who liked to run around with an unregistered hand gun. Ha! Maybe they were there for Juliette! Maybe she was the one in trouble. Maybe he could even help her. Be her hero. Save the day. Be the good guy for once!
He opened the door.
"A.J. Quartermaine?"
He sighed, of course they were there for him. They were always there for him. "What did I do this time?"
"We need you to come down to the station and answer a few questions."
"What's this about?"
"Sir."
"Look, tell me what it's about or I'm calling my lawyer right now."
"Sir, where were you at approximately 9:30 this morning?"
AJ smiled broadly at the officer. "9:30? This morning?"
"Yes, sir."
"Well, let's see, I guess I was, oh, let me think.."
"Sir, this is very serious."
"I was asleep. Sound asleep right here in this room."
The officer looked past AJ into the suite. "Any witnesses?"
"Witnesses? More than one? Pretty kinky," AJ smiled but waved the officer into the room to follow him. "No, just the one witness." AJ knocked gently on the bedroom door. "Juliette? You decent?"
There was no answer.
"Sound sleeper," AJ told the officer and then knocked again a little more loudly. "Juliette?" Still no answer.
"Perhaps she's in the shower?" the officer suggested but looked doubtful.
AJ pushed the door open and peeked inside and then opened the door fully. The room was empty. He hurried across to the bathroom, empty as well.
AJ turned around and stared at the officer. Ya, he shoulda known. He was ALWAYS the one in trouble.
Much excitement, much action, much tension. Things are moving along very nicely, aren't they? Poor Lo, working so hard to fix this for her and having to fight her too, and he's so utterly resigned to her hating him. But poor Alexis, too -- she does seem to be in a kind of shock over this. She can't accept any explanation so does without, and therefore everything is cast in the worst possible distorted light.
