If
Emily or Nikolas thought it odd to see Sonny come down their stairs
for breakfast from Alexis’ bedroom, neither one said it. What
they did say was good morning.
For a man who’d probably gotten only a few hours of rest, he
looked impeccable. Freshly showered and shaven, wearing a silk shirt
and slate gray slacks. Only looking closely did one see the lines
of strain about his mouth.
“Do you want something for breakfast, Sonny?” Emily asked,
passing him a cup of coffee.
“Nah, I’m good,” he told her, sitting down on the
couch. “Stomach’s a little…funny.”
“Alexis still asleep?” her nephew inquired.
“Takin’ a shower, I think. Any word from Luke?”
Nikolas grimaced at the gleam of hope on the older man’s face.
“No, I’m afraid not. But give it time. If I know Helena,
she covered her tracks pretty well. But on another note, your men
are hard at work. They’ve tracked down most of the sixteen
people we employ regularly. One of your guys checked out Yuri’s
apartment over the stables…no luck. But Yuri isn’t due
to report to work till this afternoon. There’s still a chance
he could show.”
“You got a picture of this guy so I can hand it out to them?”
Sonny asked.
Nikolas’ eyes lit as he hopped up from his chair and hurried
to an ornate chest in the corner of the room. He drew out a photo
album. “There are some in here of my riding competitions when
I was young. Yuri’s been with us for years; he’s bound
to turn up in a photo or two.”
The ringing of the phone interrupted and Nikolas hurried to grab
it from his desktop, thinking it might be Luke.
“Hello?”
“Hello, my darling one.”
It was a voice that twisted his heart within his chest. Helena.
“Grandmother,” Nikolas breathed, for a moment frozen with
shock. Then he turned to Sonny and gestured wildly for him to pick
up the other extension from the coffee table. Sonny carefully and
quietly did so.
“Grandmother, is that you?” Nikolas repeated.
“The one and only,” Helena trilled gleefully. “It
does my heart such good to hear your voice once again.”
“I wish that I could say the same,” he replied cuttingly.
“But we received your messages, Mr. Corinthos, Alexis, and
I. We know you have Kristina. We want to know how we can get her
back…safe and sound.”
Helena laughed so hysterically that bile rose in Nikolas’ throat.
He cast a glance at Sonny and saw that the man was ready to explode.
“My darling, at first you sounded so very defiant, the epitome
of your dear father, Stavros—”
“How did I know you’d find a way to work him into the
conversation,” the prince muttered bitterly.
“He’s germane to the conversation, my dear. Because under
his tutelage you would have embraced your true nature. You would
have led the family well. People as insignificant as Sonny Corinthos
and the bastard Natasha…not to mention their spawn…would
be of no interest to you.”
This time Sonny opened his mouth presumably to hurl verbal acid
in the face of the old woman. But Nikolas held up a hand forcibly
to stop him just in time. “I love Alexis and Kristina. They
are my family.”
“They are illegitimate! They are NOT your family. Dear boy,
how did you let them poison you like this?”
“They haven’t poisoned me—”
“How else do you explain this plan to dismantle the Cassadine
estate? Are you mad? Didn’t you think I would react when you
planned to take apart everything Mikkos worked to achieve? Didn’t
you imagine I would take action?”
“I had no idea it would matter to you now that you’re
busy hiding from Interpol and half a dozen other government agencies.
Is that what this is all about? The money? The properties? That’s
what you want?”
“That’s too simplistic, Nikolas. I would have expected
such an answer from Stefan,” she derided.
“Then what is it that you do want, Grandmother?”
Helena’s voice dropped to a level that sounded almost feral.
“Amusement, child, what else is there left in life?”
Nikolas saw Sonny shut his eyes, his teeth clenched to keep from
erupting. This was bad. Nikolas felt it in his soul. Helena would
derive pleasure in direct relation to how much she made Alexis suffer.
There was only one way to fight that: to offer his grandmother something
she wanted more. If it wasn’t the money or the properties,
control of the Cassadine estate, then what did he have to bargain
with?
