“Where
the hell else could he be?” Sonny yelled, standing in the middle
of Luke’s club. He, Alexis, and Johnny had broken into the
place to find Spencer about twenty minutes ago. But Luke wasn’t
in the office, the club, or the apartment upstairs.
Alexis felt her shoulders slump in defeat. “I can’t believe
I’m saying this, but Luke was like our best shot in this whole
thing. What are we gonna do if we can’t find him?”
Sonny heard the little break in her voice and he instantly swept
her into his arms. “Luke’s around here somewhere, Alexis,”
he told her and tried to joke her out of her fear. “We’ll
find the bum. He’s never too far from this town.”
She laughed tremulously into his shoulder. “Yeah, he’s
like a homing pigeon.”
Sonny chuckled back. “Right.”
Johnny stood in the corner trying to be unobtrusive while watching
them. He couldn’t believe the tenderness the Boss was showing
Ms. Davis right now. It was like the old days. And it was, in Johnny’s
opinion, about damn time. No one made the Boss laugh like her. No
one made him think before blowing his top. No one was as loyal as
this woman. Certainly not Carly. She was all about herself and her
needs, and damn anyone who stood in her way. Alexis was different,
Johnny thought as he watched her disentangle her arms from Sonny’s
neck with what looked like, Johnny smirked, a whole lot of reluctance.
“So what do we do now, Sonny? Send up the Bat Signal for Luke?”
“Natasha, baby, how many times I gotta tell ya? You send up
a Bat Signal and all the undead Cassadine vampires rise and walk
the earth. We couldn’t have that, could we?”
Standing in the doorway, examining the broken lock of his club entrance
was Luke Spencer. He turned a whimsical expression to Johnny and
gestured to the lock. “You do this, O’Brien?”
“Yessir, sorry.”
“Nah, it’s nice work. Remind me to call next time I’m
near a bank.”
Unbeknownst to Luke, Alexis was melting down in the middle of his
blues club. She was just so grateful that they’d found him.
Or more correctly that he’d found them. She ran across the
dance floor and hugged him tightly. “You don’t even know
how glad I am to see you!” she told him.
Luke’s long arms wrapped around Alexis, a mixture of surprise
and aroused libido chasing across his weathered face. “Damn,
Natasha, what was it? The Bat Signal joke? If I’d known it
would get me this close to your hot little body, I woulda used it
eons ago.”
Sonny cleared his throat, and gave Luke a look of menace the older
man could not miss. “You wanna get that twinkle outta your
baby blues, Luke? We’re here on an important matter.”
That was when Luke felt the slight tremors running up and down the
length of Alexis’ slender form. He pulled back from her and
saw the tears running down her lovely face, a face that looked as
if it had seen its share of tears tonight.
“Baby cakes, what’s this all about?”
Alexis cocked her head to the side so she could look him square
in the eye. “Someone we both know and despise.”
Understanding dawned on Luke’s face. “Ye gods, the vulture’s
back?”
“Yes, and she has my child.”
Luke recoiled a bit. Kristina. The little sweetheart that Lulu couldn’t
stop raving about. Damn, Helena had gotten her hands on that child?
Luke swiveled to frown at Sonny, the question in his eyes easy enough
to read.
“Yeah, she’s my daughter,” Sonny answered the silent
query.
The older man simply raised his eyebrows, then grasped Alexis’
arm to lead her across the room. “Come on over here, Counselor,
and have a sit down before you fall down,” he bade as they
took seats at a corner table. “Claude!” he bellowed.
“It’s three in the morning, Luke,” his ex-partner
reproved him. “Where d’you think Claude is? Sleeping behind
the bar?”
“Oh yeah, I forgot,” the club owner remarked sheepishly.
“You know I lose track of time. O’Brien get us all some
drinks, will ya? Make mine a double anything.” He looked into
Alexis’ eyes. “So now spill it. Tell me how it happened.
Leave nothing out. And we’ll see if old Lucas Lorenzo can’t
reactivate his Jackal Detector once again.”
The words lifted the corners of Alexis’ mouth and for once
Sonny was grateful to Luke for his sick humor. She slowly recounted
the night including a description of the computer message that still
chilled her to recall it. Sonny interjected the part about the videotape
as Luke smiled bitterly over his glass of gin.
He looked at the lovely attorney, compassion in his eyes. “We
really missed the boat all those years ago,” he murmured. “If
our plan had worked on Helena instead of poor Kathryn Bell…”
Luke and Alexis shared a long serious look, and a secret understanding
passed between them. Sonny, watching, felt an unreasonable stab
of jealousy. Instinctively, he found Alexis’ hand where it
lay on the tabletop and covered it with his own. Unconsciously,
Alexis flipped hers over and intertwined her fingers with his. Luke
hadn’t missed either rather possessive gesture, and smirked
to let Sonny know it.
“So she’s back and in vintage form,” Luke quipped.
“She set up a winner of a plot. Probably used a stable boy
to do her bidding. You know how she loves the stable boys.”
“Well, I don’t think she’d even look twice at our
stable master, Yuri,” Alexis remarked. “He’s only
ten years younger than Helena which makes him too damn old for her…”
Alexis’ voice trailed off and her eyes took on a faraway look.
The two men stared at her quizzically. “What’s up, Princess?”
Luke asked. “You got something?”
”Well, no…I don’t know. It’s just that after
I was drugged I fell on the floor. But he—the kidnapper was
still in the room. I saw his boots…work boots…and I thought
they had mud on them…”
“But?” Luke prodded.
“But when you mentioned the stables I thought of…I mean,
it looked more like saddle polish. It could have been polish staining
the boots.”
“And this Yuri guy is the only one who works in the stables?”
Sonny asked.
“Well, yes, now that we’ve cut the staff,” she noted.
“But I’ve known Yuri Brezhnikov for years…since the
island. He’s always been so sweet. I don’t think he would
be the one.”
“That’s why he probably is the one, Natasha,” Luke
scoffed. “You know how that old bat works. She’s had him
in her employ for years. She knows his weaknesses….”
Johnny cut right to the chase. “So how do we track this Yuri?”
“You said he sent you an email, Alexis?” Luke questioned,
and when she nodded he added, “Lucky may be able to trace that
back to some kinda online address or whatever. Don’t ask me
for the technical terms; I’m illiterate when it comes to machines.
But the Cowboy may be able to get it done. I’ll ask him first
thing in the morning.”
Alexis stiffened. She knew that Lucky Spencer had joined the force
some time back. “Luke, I don’t want the PCPD involved
in this…”
“Damn straight, Counselor. I agree, but me and Lucky have a
deal. He still gets to be my kid if he doesn't do the cop thing
around me. I tell him not to say anything about this and he won’t
Alexis. Trust me.”
Sonny watched as Alexis met Luke’s blue gaze. He could tell
that Alexis did indeed trust his ex-partner. It brought him another
unwelcome stab of envy, and made him wonder what the hell was happening
to him where Alexis was concerned.
They were friends, right? Close friends. Close friends who shared
a child and a crisis right now. He was married and that was all
he could have with Alexis…friendship. His head knew that, but
did his heart?
