I wanna heal, I wanna feel what I thought was never real
I wanna let go of the pain I’ve felt so long
Erase all the pain ’til it’s gone
I wanna heal, I wanna feel like I’m close to something real
I wanna find something I’ve wanted all along
Somewhere I belong
– Somewhere I Belong, Linkin Park

---

Tuesday, January 9, 2018

 Plane: Main Cabin

Once they reached cruising altitude, Jason went to the galley kitchen in the back of the jet while Drew flipped through work he’d brought from Aurora. He liked it more than he’d thought he would, and it hadn’t taken much to get the hang of it. As he sorted through the papers, he saw the file Curtis had left in his office.

Jason returned from the kitchen, two bottles of beer in his hand. He offered one to Drew who took it, and said, “You know, I don’t know if I drank Rolling Rock before I was you,” he mused.

Jason twisted the cap off, took a seat on the sofa attached to the other side of the plane. “No?”

“No. Maybe I should ask.” Drew took a sip, then set the bottle to the side. “When we, uh, first started looking into all of this, we both wondered how Victor knew I existed. How did he find a twin that no one else had ever heard of—except for Heather,” he added.

“You said there was something about the birth certificate,” Jason said. “Did you find something more than that?”

“Maybe. Victor worked for DVX — Anna did some time as a double agent for them. And she said that one of the basic steps in learning about your mark was to start at the beginning. If we’re right, and you were targeted because of Elizabeth, Victor would have looked for leverage against you. He’d have started with records. Maybe looking for a family member to exploit or turn. Our original birth certificates were filed with us as twins. So Susan—our biological mother—knew about me. I was born alive.”

“Yeah, you told me that. And from there, Victor traced you into the system.” Jason furrowed his brow. “Do you know how?”

“Not really. We have some guesses. If he looked for a kid my age in the system, the paperwork is there. The timing of Susan’s death, how I ended up in the system—I was dumped at a fire station in Poughkeepsie with some forms. A fake birth certificate and a surrender form. It was six weeks after Susan was murdered, but the surrender form was supposedly signed by my biological mother, Susan Cain. Poughkeepsie is on the other side of the state.”

Jason frowned. “It was that close to her murder? The story Elizabeth got from—” He grimaced. “Franco,” he muttered.

“I know he’s not a reliable narrator, but most of the story he shared with Elizabeth rings true enough. Betsy probably lied to him to stop the questions,” Drew said. “Saying that I was older. He was having some strange memories, and he painted something with two boys. Elizabeth said he was obsessed with it and that’s why he went to Betsy. She told him a few stories before he finally nailed her down on me. But Betsy told him I died.” He paused. “There’s a lot about this that doesn’t make any sense. The only people who were there were Heather and Betsy — and neither one of them is all that credible.”

“That’s putting it mildly. You think you getting put in the system was connected to Susan?” Jason shook his head. “I don’t see how. The guy who killed her died not long after, didn’t he? And confessed.”

“Yeah. And that’s all you ever knew—which means it’s all I knew. Curtis didn’t like how it fit together, so he started asking questions. Robert got involved — he was the original investigator on Susan.” Drew held up the folder. “And they started putting together questions that weren’t answered back then. This is a case summary, with everything they knew then and what we know now.”

Jason took the folder, but left it closed. “There’s a reason you’re telling me this now.”

“Yeah. Yeah. The surrender form is what creates most of suspicion. I was taken from Betsy who could be traced back to Heather. I was dumped on the other side of the state. And I wasn’t just abandoned — that would have sent up red flags. Maybe got some media.”

“And maybe Alan or one of the Quartermaines would have seen it. We were identical,” Jason said. “But surrendering you to the state—”

“Stops all of that. There’s no reason to go any further. They just drop you in the system and move on. No search. No publicity. And keeping me as Andrew means I answer to a name I recognize. No one’s asking questions.”

Jason exhaled slowly. He set the bottle of beer on the table next to him, held the folder with both hands. “Which means you think someone deliberately put you in the system to make you disappear.”

“Yeah.” Drew paused. “It’s an angle we’ve been looking into for a few weeks, but I didn’t want to say anything to you unless I had to. Because the only people who would have wanted me to disappear—” He stopped when Jason looked at him. “I don’t know for sure. But right now, everything points to Monica.”

Jason’s jaw clenched. “Monica. You think—” He stopped. Actually considered what Drew was saying. “She always told me it was different back then,” he murmured. “After the accident. When she wanted me to know that blood didn’t have to matter. That you could learn to love someone and make them your family. She’d done that for me.”

“There were those stories about you not exactly being welcome back then,” Drew said. “Not inheriting, not getting the Quartermaine name. I know you knew about them because I did, too. But I don’t know if either of us ever knew just how much Monica and the rest of the family didn’t want you around and would have exploded if there were two of us.”

Jason hesitated, then shook his head. “No. It’s—it’s one thing to resent a kid born from an affair. But you’re talking about dumping you in the system—”

“Alan almost lost custody of you to the state.” Drew gestured at the file. “It’s in there. The state investigated him for neglect. After Susan’s murder, he left you at the gatehouse with a nanny. No parent living with you full-time, so they threatened to take you away. Alan brought you up to the house, and Monica left him. She took AJ and walked out. She didn’t care about you then. The investigation was closed when Alan moved you into the house. But Monica gave him that ultimatum. It was her or you. And he chose you.”

“I didn’t—” Jason pushed himself to his feet, restless. “I didn’t know that.”

“Yeah. Until I heard that story — Scott told Elizabeth about it, and Curtis went digging for the files. She’s probably forgotten all about that,” Drew added when Jason frowned at him. “But once I heard that, it changed things. You were here, a kid Alan knew and loved. But Monica didn’t give a damn. Why would she care about one she never met, and Alan didn’t know about?”

“Okay. I get that, but—”

“I asked her.” Drew rose. “On New Year’s Eve. I went to the house, and I asked her if she ever regretted it. I didn’t ask if she did it—just if she was ever sorry. If she ever looked for me. And she knew what I was saying, Jason, but she didn’t deny it. All she told me is that if Alan had known about me — if they could have brought me home, they would have. And I do believe that.”

Jason grimaced, looked towards the front of the plane. “I don’t know why it’s hard for me to accept Monica might have done this. After the accident, I always thought the worst of them, and they usually proved me right. But—but not her. I always thought—” He looked back at Drew. “Is there anything else tying her to it?”

“Not specifically. Not yet. Just more evidence that Monica wasn’t thinking about you as Alan’s son. The night Susan died, she’d called Monica, Edward, and Alan to the house. They thought it was about the blackmail about Grandmother’s first marriage. Susan also called for a reporter to be there. The reporter was there first. She found the body — and the family who’d arrived while she was upstairs — they came up. The police were called, and Alan went to find you. He didn’t know Susan had sent you away with the housekeeper. He wanted Robert to start looking for you, but Robert remembers that Monica and Edward weren’t that interested. They didn’t care if you were gone. They were more concerned with covering themselves about the murder.”

Drew winced when he saw Jason’s expression tighten, and he stopped. “I’m sorry. I know that sucks to hear. I know—”

“It’s the truth, isn’t it?” Jason rubbed his mouth. “All that proves is what I already knew. What Monica always said. She didn’t love me at first. She didn’t think of me as family. Then she did and never stopped. So—”

“The day after I asked her, after Robert confronted her, Tracy flew in from Amsterdam. Unannounced.”

Jason frowned. “Tracy?”

“Yeah. Tracy had her own run-ins with Susan — an affair with Tracy’s husband, Mitch Williams. The thing is, Jason, we think Susan knew about me at the end. Before she died. We think it’s why she changed her blackmail demands, and it’s why Tolliver killed her.”

Jason fisted his hands at his side. “What—”

“Tolliver always said Susan was backing down from the blackmail and that’s why he killed her. Robert said it never made sense to him. Why call a reporter and the family over if she was backing out? But you might do that if you were threatening to go public with a second son. Another trust fund. Eighteen years of financial demands in front of them. Susan changed her will to leave her estate to her descendants. It wasn’t plural before that. It was only you.”

“It’s—there’s no facts in that,” Jason said. “You just think you have the story—”

“I know. But in order to get facts, to do anything else, I needed you to know.” Drew sighed. “I don’t like thinking this anymore than you do. I may not be you, but Monica’s been my mother for the last two years. And I don’t want to think she had anything to do with this. I just don’t know how to put it away. Someone dumped me in the system. They threw me away. I think I deserve to know who.”

“Yeah. Yeah.” Jason cleared his throat. “You do. I’m sorry. This happened to you—”

“It happened to us both,” Drew cut in, and Jason looked at him, reluctantly. “It’s not easy to accept it, but we were brothers. And maybe Susan wasn’t a good person, but no one has ever said she was a terrible mother. I don’t know if someone lied about me being dead, but that part of Heather’s story always made sense. You know what kind of grief that brings, Jason. We both do. Losing a child at birth after you’ve carried them for nine months.”

Jason looked away, and Drew knew they were both thinking of Sam. He continued, “They murdered your mother, Jason. You don’t even know her. Even when you had your memories of before the accident, you didn’t remember her. This happened to both of us. You don’t have to want the answers, but I’m tired of pretending I’m not angry about how this happened. We both had our entire lives stolen twice, and damn it, I want to know why. I want to know by who. But I can’t do it without you.”

“Why?” Jason asked, his voice low, his eyes still on the carpet below.

“Because you’re my brother. Monica is our mother. If I go forward, and I find out she did this, that affects us both. I don’t want to hurt you. Is that so hard to understand?”

“No.” Jason hesitated. “No. It’s not. Can I—” He looked at the sofa where he’d left the file. “I need some time. I want to read what you found. To—to just let it sit.”

“Yeah. That’s fine.” Drew returned to his seat. “Take what you need. We’ve got other things to think about.”

Kiremit House: Lucky’s Bedroom

“Come in,” Lucky said, grabbing a t-shirt from the dresser drawer. Britt stopped just inside, her eyes wide. “What?”

“I didn’t—” She paused, gestured. “You should have told me you were still getting dressed—”

Lucky glanced down at his bare chest, then back at her. “You haven’t seen a chest before?” He pulled the shirt over his head. “How’d you get through medical school?”

“You know, you can be a real bastard sometimes,” she muttered, but closed her door. “I don’t want people walking in on me when I’m half-dressed—”

“Little different,” he said, edging around her and the bed to get to his desk. “If you were half-naked, it’d stop traffic.” He booted up his laptop, glanced over his shoulder to see her frowning. “What?”

“I can’t decide if that was a compliment or an insult.”

“A fact.” He straightened. “What did you need?”

“What?” Britt said, then shook her head. “Right. Sorry. Distracted.” She folded her arms. “What are we telling the others? Which cover story did you want to go with so I’m ready?”

“We’re going to lie to them. Dad always liked the Siberia lead. And you put yourself on the record saying you hated it, so he’ll like it even better if he thinks we’re going against your recommendation.” Lucky sat at his desk. “I’ll give them the intel we got about Helena having a research location up there. It’s true enough, but they don’t have to know that I spent a month finding it only to learn she’d abandoned it ten years ago.”

“And you think that’ll work?”

“Would it work on Jason and Drew?” Lucky shook his head. “No. It wouldn’t. But will Dad and Nikolas buy that it’s good enough? Absolutely. They trust me.”

“And it doesn’t bother you to lie to them? They’re your family.”

Lucky twisted on his chair. “Did you miss the part where Nikolas knew my son was alive and lied about it? Or that my dad is the reason Helena was able to get her hands on Jake in the first place?”

“No. No, but—”

“I thought we had a deal, but if you’re having second thoughts—if you don’t want to do this, if you don’t want to be part of it,” he said, “then don’t go with me today. Go help my dad, stay here and read files. I don’t know. I won’t tell Nikolas what we talked about. But I’m doing it, Britt. So the question is — what do you want to do?”

Britt sighed, sat down on the bed. “I want to go back to my life. I want to practice medicine again. It’s just—I don’t know. How can you be so sure this will work?”

“If my dad knew what I knew about Jake, he wouldn’t be helping Nikolas do anything. And I know Dad doesn’t know because I’m the one in charge of getting files from back home. Dad only knows what I tell him. Nikolas can’t touch the files. He figured Spinelli would know. ”

“And he would have,” Britt said. “So I guess he was smart not to download them.”

“I don’t know if this is going to work, Britt. I just know we have to do something different. If it ends up leading them to Nikolas, then that will be his problem. He’s the one that got in with Helena. Again.”

“But what if Nikolas was just working with Helena to get Jake home? What—”

“Let me show you something.” Lucky tapped a few keys on the computer and brought up a video file. “This is the first file they found on the drive Helena left for my mother. I didn’t show it to Dad or Nikolas. So if they find out—”

“This is another secret you’re giving me,” Britt murmured. Their eyes met. “How do you know you can trust me?”

“Leap of faith.” Lucky tapped play, and Helena’s voice filled the room.

“Ah, my dear Laura. I see you’ve found my little secret. I do wonder how long it will take your simple faculties to locate it, but you were always smarter than your husband. Women generally are, darling. And if you’re watching this, then you know that you have loved and lost Nikolas. Is he with you? Wouldn’t that be delicious?”

Lucky pressed pause. “When Helena died, she told my mother that the wild goose chase she sent her own would lead her to something she’d loved and lost. Nikolas was still alive when Helena died. He was working with her.”

“But Helena might have just believed he was on her side—”

“I don’t care,” Lucky said flatly. “That wasn’t his choice to make, damn it. That was mine. It was Elizabeth’s—we raised Jake. He was our son—” He pressed his lips together. “He’s not mine now. Not in any way that counts, but he was mine until the accident, and I loved him. Nikolas decided to play God, Britt. I don’t care why.”

He pressed play again, and Helena continued.

“If he is, you should take great pleasure in knowing that I never forgave him for betraying me. He thinks I don’t know. He thinks that I don’t know he’s plotting against me. He thinks he is going to outsmart me and win. But I am always one step ahead. Even in death.”

Brit swallowed hard, her eyes wide. “She knew. She knew Nikolas was working against her.”

“He’d done it before, and we’d won. But Helena learned her lesson. Nikolas was so damn smug. He still is. He still thinks he can control everything. It gets worse.”

“Ask him about dear little Jake and how helpful he was in in my plans for him. I do hope you enjoy the boy for as long as possible. Perhaps Elizabeth will think again before she takes on the Cassadines. “

Britt exhaled. “When you said you suspected Jason and his brother were targeted because of Elizabeth—”

“Helena told us as much. There’s no way Nikolas didn’t know that. And instead of warning Elizabeth, he played games. Dragged her into the Jake Doe mess.” Lucky’s finger hovered over the button. “Let’s finish it.”

“My grandson is a disappointment to the bloodline.” She paused. “But I suppose even a disappointment would be better than the animal I unleashed on the world. I am sending you these files, Laura, in hopes that you will ensure Nikolas keeps his inheritance. That whatever Valentin has done can be undone. Without me here to stop him, I fear the worst. I am not a woman of many regrets, but in my desire for revenge, in my desire to bring pain, I turned to the wrong ally. You and I, Laura Spencer—we’re not quite finished with one another, and I have many enemies that cannot be left unpunished. Until we meet again.”

“She knew Nikolas was working against her, but she still tried to protect him.” Britt tipped her head. “It’s strange. She didn’t say the one thing that might have changed everything.”

Lucky frowned, looked at her. “What?”

“A secret for a secret?” Britt asked, and he nodded. “My mother told me a story last year in Russia. I didn’t know whether to believe her or not. She lies so much. And even when she’s telling the truth, it’s shaded with a lie. But listening to Helena—if it were the truth, why wouldn’t she have said so? So it must have been a lie.”

“Britt—”

“I couldn’t understand why Mother cared about what I was doing in Russia. Why my father would intervene. With Helena and Victor gone, my parents should have been out of the Cassadine family business altogether. But Mother didn’t want Nikolas’s plans to succeed. She wanted Jason in that coma. I asked her why, and her answer doesn’t make sense anymore.” She flicked her eyes back to Lucky. “She told me that Faison—that my father—is Valentin’s biological father. That Valentin is the child of Faison and Helena.”

Lucky stilled. “What?”

“It didn’t make sense. Because if they knew I was in Russia, wouldn’t my father know about Nikolas? And if they were helping Valentin, wouldn’t that mean Valentin knew Nikolas was alive?” Britt exhaled. “And now Helena—she’s talking about the wrong ally, but she could have just told the truth. But she says nothing. So is it a lie? Is it something else that my mother made up to make me stop asking questions?”

“You never told Nikolas any of that. Even if it meant Valentin knew about him.”

Britt licked her lips, then bit down. “No. I was afraid he’d think I was lying. That I was working with my mother. You see how little it takes for him to think I’m keeping secrets. If I’d told him this, he’d think it was an excuse for my failures.” She smiled faintly. “As if I was trying to hand him the Holy Grail and distract him. Because it’s what he needs. All he has to do is prove Valentin isn’t Mikkos’s son. But I didn’t trust my mother. If I’d told Nikolas, and it wasn’t true? He’d have blamed me. So I stayed quiet.”

“This is…” Lucky looked back at the screen, at the frozen image of Helena. “This is wild. I never thought—that’s a hell of a secret, Britt, to trust me with.”

“Yeah, well. If we do this today—” Britt rubbed her arm. “Then there’s no turning back.”

“No”

“And this video — if they knew about Nikolas—they know he was part of the plan. They know he was working with Helena and knew about Jake. If they find out he’s alive, it’s going to blow back on all of us.” Britt paused. “Have they talked to you about it?”

“I already made sure they suspected him before this video came out. I told Elizabeth Nikolas sent me to Greece.” Lucky closed his laptop. “I don’t know if I believe your mother. Why wouldn’t Helena tell the truth then? If she was so worried about Valentin, you’re right—why wouldn’t she just give my mother the ammunition she needed to protect Nikolas.” He tapped his fingers against the desktop. “We need more before we do anything with that story.” He looked at her. “But if we could confirm it — that’s the smoking gun. I could go home with that, and I’d get you cleared. We could both be done with all of this.”

“We can’t just tell them it might be true. Elizabeth will hear that it’s coming from me, and she’ll never believe it. She’d right not to,” Britt admitted. “So we need to know if it’s true.”

“But first—we need put Jason and Drew on Nikolas’s trail, without Nikolas finding out. That’s our first priority.”

Plane: Main Cabin

Jason strapped himself into the chair and Drew sat next to them, reaching for his own seatbelt. “So who do we think is going to show up at the meeting?” Drew asked. “Luke or Lucky?”

“Lucky,” Jason said without hesitation. “Luke doesn’t want to be in the same room with me, not alone. And I doubt you count as an extra person since you know why Luke and I don’t get along now.”

Drew nodded. “Yeah, that makes sense. But Lucky hasn’t handled any of the contacts about the property search—he’s only handled the files.”

“That’s true. But Luke thinks he’s smarter than everyone else in the room.  Which was never true and always got him into trouble.” Jason shifted, glanced out the window. They were flying lower now, and land was visible. “If he’s handling the property search, then he’s going to keep doing his own thing. He’ll send Lucky to distract us.”

“That makes sense. But we’re agreed — nothing they say is the truth without evidence.” Drew winced as they hit a pocket of turbulence. “I hate flying,” he muttered. “Even on a private jet.”

“We need to search the addresses Spinelli gave us and find out where Luke and Lucky are staying. I want to see this Britt Westbourne in person,” Jason said.

“And we don’t want to confront them too soon. It would be much more satisfying if we could catch them in a lie.” Drew paused. “I don’t like that it’s all been one-sided. They’re using us for the files.” He leaned forward. “Think about it. We asked them to find Faison. Nothing. They were asked to look for Valentin. And nothing. We’ve given them everything we have.”

“You want to cut them off?” Jason asked. “I can get behind that, but Elizabeth and Laura aren’t going to like it.”

“Yeah, well, we’ll cross that bridge when we get there. I’m done letting the Spencers run the show. We asked them for help. If they want to play their own game, they can do that without us.”

Kiremit House: Kitchen

“How’s the lab work going?” Lucky asked, leaning against the counter and taking a bite of his sandwich. Seated at the table and reviewing blue prints, Luke grunted. “Sounds like fun. You sure you don’t want to take a break and come with us?”

“No, I want to make sure we’ve got everything handled — and you’d better remind the Dark Prince we need a new hideout. We can’t stay in the city once we get the stiff out of the lab.” Luke frowned, the rest of Lucky’s words registering. “Us? Who’s us?”

“Britt.” Lucky sat across from him at the small round table. “She’s going to the meeting.” Luke scowled, and his son added, “Look, the last thing Elizabeth knew, I was heading out to meet with Britt on a lead. We got the call supposedly while I was doing that. I bring her with me, it’s a sign of good faith that I’m being open about it. The last thing I need is them finding out she’s part of the team—”

“She’s not. You and me, Cowboy, we’re the team. Nikolas has the resources, and Little Obrecht is the fly in the ointment.” He set down his pencil, scowled. “You’re not thinking about trusting her, are you?”

“I don’t trust anyone,” Lucky said. “But Britt’s also part of the cover story. I’m sending them to Siberia and sweetening the deal by saying the last time Britt saw Liesl, she mentioned Siberia. We’ll give them everything that sent me there last summer, and that should take care of them—”

“What about the list?” Luke said. “How you gonna keep them from Maslak?”

“Reverse psychology.” Lucky swiped crumbs from his jeans. “I’ll split the list in two and offer them the top half which includes Maslak. They don’t trust me, so they’ll insist on taking the bottom half. Easy peasy.”

“You’re awfully confident—”

Lucky considered his father’s complaint, then nodded. “Yeah, I got a little leverage. Elizabeth’s call last week. The Patient 2 files. I know she’s showed them to Jason. They bothered her, and Jason’s always deferred to her when it comes to me. And well, maybe it gave him a reason to give me a break. He and I, we kind of went through the same thing. The Cassadines stole our lives, played with our heads. At the end of the day, the only issue he and I ever had was Elizabeth.”

“And the fact that you were a cop.”

“I’m not anymore.” Lucky leaned back against the chair. “There’s no need for me to be pissed at Jason anymore. I’m not trying to save my marriage or convince myself that Elizabeth is in love with me. I’ve moved on. Or at least I’ve accepted how things are now. Jason and I got along fine before the fire. No reason I can’t try to find that again. Besides—” he got to his feet. “We got something else in common.”

Luke’s eyes followed him to the sink. “Oh, yeah, what’s that?”

“We both hate you.” Lucky poured a glass of water and missed the way his father flinched. “You’re the reason Helena got her hands on Jake. He’s never forgiven you, I’m sure. And all he has to think is that I’m not that fond of you either. See? I got it handled.”

“Lucky—”

“I don’t hate you, Dad,” he said.  “It’s just a useful role to play. Makes him think we’re on the same team. We are, we just have different goals. Besides, you know where I stand on this. You knew where I stood two months ago when we found out about Jason and the twin thing. Which Nikolas didn’t tell us by the way.”

“I know, but Valentin—”

“—is a threat, yeah, yeah. I heard the argument.” Lucky took a long swig of water. “Doesn’t change that it makes more sense for us to bring them in and turn over the lab. But Nikolas said no, and you think Valentin is dangerous because Helena was scared of him. I got out voted, and after Chimera last year, after Jake nearly killed everyone because of what she did, I’m not interested in risking it. So I bowed to the majority. Don’t worry about today. I got it handled,” he repeated.

“Yeah, okay. And you’re sure you need Britt? Because I could use an extra body on the lab project—”

“You wouldn’t trust her with any of it, anyway. She helps my story look better. I’m gonna head up, do some reading before we have to head out.”

Luke watched his son leave, a bit discomforted. Lucky seemed like he was on top of everything, and Luke didn’t have a reason to doubt him. But things had shifted since Jason Morgan had returned home and blown the whole thing open, and Luke wasn’t sure how much longer this was going to last.

Until then, he had a job to do.

Kiremit House: Living Room

Britt scrutinized the map again, then frowned when she saw Nikolas stroll into the room. “I thought you’d agreed to stay on the upper levels. You’d visible from the street here.”

“I don’t think Jason or Drew have located us. Not yet.” Nikolas stayed towards the back of the room, and Britt went to pull the shades. “Luke tells me you’re going with Lucky today to meet Jason and Drew.”

“Yeah. Lucky wants to make sure they’ll check out the Siberia lead.” Britt turned back to him. “And my mother’s high on their list of people to find since she’s the only living doctor other than Klein and Maddox who worked on the project.” She folded her arms. “So we’re putting her in the lab. She probably worked there at some point. She worked pretty much everywhere over the years.” She returned to her travel guide, studying the street map tucked inside.

“Yeah.” Nikolas paused. “If Luke gets my uncle out of the lab, if we can get him away—you’re coming with us.”

Britt frowned, looked up. “What?”

“If he’s in the same coma as Jason — you’ll be able to finish the job. You’ll have more time. And you have your notes from before. You could wake him up.”

“I could—” She hadn’t really thought past getting Stefan out of the lab. Lucky was planning to put Jason and Drew on the road to the truth about Nikolas — was he also planning to go with Nikolas and his uncle? “I could try. But maybe Lucky’s right. Robin would really be better — she wrote the protocol.”

“She’s not an option. You’re the only medical doctor we have.”

So much for trust.  “Okay, uh, where are we going? Marseilles or Greece?”

“Don’t worry about that. You just need to be on the plane when we leave.”

“And then what?” Britt pushed. “Nikolas, I’ve done everything you’ve asked. More. It’s been over a year since you promised those charges would go away. But it feels like you keep moving the goal post. You wanted me to wake up Jason, you wanted me to come here and read medical files, now you want me to wake up your uncle—how do I know there’s not one more thing you want from me after I do that?”

“You said you wanted to help with Valentin. Now you’re changing your mind—”

“No, no, of course not. But—” She shook her head. “It’d be nice if I weren’t a fugitive. Can’t you make some calls—”

“I’m supposed to be dead, Britt. How do you want me to do that?”

“Then have Luke or Lucky — someone—”

“This is so typical of you—” He headed for the doorway, then turned back. “I’m on the verge of getting everything I need to get back to my life, and you want me to stop and worry about you. Do you ever get tired of being selfish?”

Her throat felt tight. She opened her mouth to protest, then saw Lucky descending the stairs, slowly, his brow furrowed. “I’m sorry,” Britt said. “You’re right. You’re right. Now’s not the time. We’ll talk about it later.”

“No, we’ll talk about it now because I don’t want to have this conversation again,” Nikolas snapped. He strode forward, grabbed her arm and yanked her forward.

“Let go of me—” Britt shoved him back.

“What’s going on?” Lucky stepped into the room, his jaw clenched.  “Britt?”

“Nothing. I just—Nikolas wants me to go with him and his uncle — to wake him up. And I just—I asked about the charges. That’s all.”

Lucky frowned, looked at his brother. “She’s supposed to go back to Geneva when we’re done here. I’m supposed to head to Bosnia. You can take Stefan wherever you want—”

“You and Luke can do whatever the hell you want when I have my uncle back, but I need someone to wake him from that damn coma. Britt’s better than nothing.”

She flinched, swallowed hard. Took the hit. “I told him I’d help. I just—”

“I’m not making any promises until I can go back to my life, Britt. You want to be done with this? There’s the door. You have, what? Another two or three years before the statute runs out on what you did with Spencer—and what medical board would let you keep your license after that?”

“Okay. Okay. You never—” She paused. “You never said it that way before, Nikolas. You never tied it together. I can’t go home until you do. Message received.”

“Good.” Nikolas passed his brother and started up the stairs. They heard a door slam a moment later.

Lucky looked back at her. “You ready to go?”

“I’m ready to get the hell out of here,” Britt muttered and hurried for the door, yanking it open.

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