Alexis frowned as she tried to discern who was on the other end
of the phone line. The soft feminine voice on the phone was unfamiliar
and lightly accented, but in it she also detected a thread of fear.
“Yes? Who is this?”
“It’s Nadia…Yuri’s wife.”
Oxygen arrested somewhere on the path between Alexis’ lips
to her lungs and she had to cough to resume breathing.
“My God, Nadia, do you have my daughter? Do you know where
Kristina is?”
There was a great pause on the line and Alexis lost the last remnants
of sanity she was clinging to in this situation. “Damn it,
answer me! Do you have my daughter?”
“Yes, Ms. Davis,” came the long awaited answer. “Kristina…she
is here.”
Alexis clasped one hand to her chest, felt her racing heartbeat.
“How is she? Is she alright?”
“Yes, she is well. She is sleeping peacefully now.”
Alexis sent up a silent thank you to the heavens, something she
rarely did, but something her heart instinctively told her was right.
“Where are you? Tell me, where can we find you?”
“I have things to ask of you first. I need to know how my husband
is. At the cottage, when I was running with Kristina, I heard a
shot. Yuri hasn’t contacted me in so long. I need to know how
he is.”
Red flames ignited and combusted in Alexis’ eyes. The woman
expected her to give her an update on the man who’d taken her
daughter?
“Nadia, I couldn’t care less right now about Yuri!”
she flared. “He’s a kidnapper. He took my child. You just
tell me where YOU are.”
There was the sound of soft sobbing on the line, but then the voice
that had been frail spoke through the tears and sounded surprisingly
strong. “You cannot blame all of this on him! This was Helena’s
doing. She ordered him to take the child, and he was scared so he
did it. But then he saw your baby and he couldn’t do what she
ordered. Yuri risked his LIFE…and my children’s lives…to
save your child, to hide her and defy Helena. And now he was shot
because of it. I want to know how he is and I want to know NOW!”
Alexis breathed deeply, trying to imagine a paper bag in her hand,
willing herself to calm down and behave rationally. If she wanted
her child back, she had to feign concern for this woman and her
husband.
“O-Okay, Nadia,” she acceded. “Yuri was shot, but
he’s holding his own. He’s in a hospital upstate and my—my
friend is watching over him so that Helena does not get to him again.
He’ll need time to recover, but he will live.”
Alexis hoped that her prognosis for Yuri was accurate because she
had no idea if it was or not.
“Oh God,” his wife sobbed brokenly. “Thank God. He
is alive.”
“Now I’ve told you what you wanted,” Alexis said.
“And Yuri is being protected. But what about you? Helena has
a man looking for you and my baby as we speak. I am quite sure you
can’t keep my daughter and yourself safe without my help.”
There was again a silence on the phone line. Eventually the woman
said, “I do need your help. I want to return your child and
then go to make sure my own are alive and well. For that I need
your assistance.”
“Money,” Alexis breathed. “Sonny—the baby’s
father—he’ll bring you lots of money so that you and Yuri
can disappear with your children. Just tell me where you are…”
“No,” Nadia interjected. “Not this Sonny person.
I do not know him. My husband has known you for a long time. He
trusts your character. I want only you to come for the child…with
the money.”
“Me?
”Yes…and alone. If I think you have someone with you I
will run, Ms. Davis. And that will draw all kinds of attention that
we don’t want--”
“Okay, okay,” Alexis interjected. “I’ll come
on my own. Just give me the address. I need to see my child.”
Nadia Brehznikov rattled off a street name with which Alexis was
familiar. It was in the north end of town, in quite a nasty, crime-ridden
section.
“You have an hour, Ms. Davis. If you do not reach me by then,
your daughter and I will be gone. I cannot stay in Port Charles
even one more night.”
The phone went dead the next second. And after a moment more of
frozen shock, Alexis sprang into action. She quickly dialed Sonny’s
cell phone before remembering that he’d broken it. Frantic,
she searched her mind for Johnny’s number. Then she recalled
that she’d written it on a sticky note beside her bed. Once
she found it she dialed him up and was frustrated to hear his voicemail-greeting
click on after only one ring.
“O’Brien…leave a message,” bade Johnny’s
husky voice.
“Johnny,” she said, breathless, “this message is
for Sonny. Sonny, I-I got a call from Nadia. She says she has the
baby and that I can come for her if I go alone and bring cash. Sonny,
I know you said to wait and that you’re going to explode when
you hear this message…but I have to go. I have to get our baby
back. It’s-it’s on the north side of town, 12 Windsor
Street. Nadia’s only giving me an hour. If--If I’m not
there in that time, she says she’ll leave with Kristina and
we’ll never see her again.”
Alexis inhaled deeply and pressed a palm to her stomach to quell
her panic. “I-I also know this may be one of Helena’s
tricks to trap me. If it is, then I know you'll get our baby back
on your own and you'll take good care of her. I trust you. I’m
sorry it took so long to realize that. And I hope you can forgive
me. Because I-I…” the last words were said in one long
expelled rush of air before she could call them back: “Oh-god-I-shouldn’t-say-this-but-I-love-you.”
And with that, Alexis threw on her coat, crept down the stairs so
as not to alert Emily, and headed into the Great Room. She found
the keys to the desk beneath the base of a lamp as usual and unlocked
a drawer at the bottom that contained ready cash for emergencies.
If this didn’t qualify as an emergency, then Alexis didn’t
know what did.
From there, she headed out to the launch. She’d left her car
in the parking lot by the docks and she knew that with driving time,
the trip should take a half hour or so. She was cutting this close,
she worried as she steered the speedboat towards the Port Charles
pier. But by God, she was determined that she would make it. She’d
stolen so much time from both father and daughter. She was bound
and determined to make that right. She would not rob either of the
people she loved for one more second.
“I shouldn’t say this but I love you…” She hoped
her words weren’t too little too late.
