Cut my tongue or bury me alive
Couldn’t see disaster through the lies
Pawned my reputation for a dime
Drag my name, got nothing left to hide
I sold my soul, I just wanted everything
As I fold, send love to my enemies
Watch me burn, but soon you’ll get your turn
You’ll see, you and me, we’ll be together for centuries
– Trouble, Gabbie Hanna

---

Tuesday, January 9, 2018

Sultanamet District: Sultan Ahmet Park

The Sultan Amet Camii was a mosque that towered over the plaza, with its six minarets. Lucky had chosen a tourist district nearly a forty minute walk away from Kiremit Fatih, and far away from the Maslak lab, hoping that would also dissuade his father—or Nikolas—from bothering with them. But still, Lucky’s shoulders itched as he ambled along the plaza, towards the park and the crop of benches in the center of the park. His arm was casually slung over Britt’s shoulders, her arm around his waist. They looked like any other tourist couple, enjoying the historic scenery of a mosque built four centuries earlier.

He’d tossed on a baseball cap and had given Britt a matching one — if anyone had stolen their wallet or purse, they’d find identification for Devon and Paula Richardson of Houston, Texas with season tickets to the Houston Astros.

The shoulders his arm rested on were tight with tension, slightly hunched. Lucky sighed, dropped his arm and reached for her hand, lacing their fingers together. He pulled her towards a bench.

“Sit. Take out the guide book I gave you,” he said to her, his tone low. “You’re going to read from it. Pitch your voice just a bit too loud. I’ll keep my tone lower.”

“The nagging annoying wife?” Britt asked, irritation flashing. “Next time, I’m coming up with the cover.” She muttered this but followed his direction. She dug into the oversize, paisley flowered bag, retrieved the guide to Istanbul. The irritation was better than the nerves. He didn’t mind pissing her off.

“Talk to me about this place,” Lucky told her, and she complied, opening to the spread about the Blue Mosque.

“The Blue Mosque—” Britt wrinkled her nose. “Why do American tourist guides always change the names? It’s not like this is hard to pronounce—”

“Criticize later.”

She rolled her eyes, and he grinned at her, hoping it did look like a couple bickering as they relaxed on a bench. “The Blue Mosque was constructed between 1609 and 1616 and was the first mosque outside of Mecca to have six minarets, due to an architectural misunderstanding.” Britt glanced up. “What do the minarets do? Why does that matter?”

“They’re towers used to call Muslims to prayer. Five times a day,” Lucky said. “You want to talk about that scene with Nikolas back at the house?”

“Not really,” Britt murmured. Then she raised her voice. “It wasn’t funded from the spoils of war as previous mosques had been, but from the Treasury. How do you know about the minarets?”

“I like to read. It sounded like you were looking for your own way out,” Lucky reminded her, his jaw clenched slightly. “I thought we had a deal.”

Britt sighed, set the book down in her lap, and looked across the plaza to the mosque. “You know, when I read in the papers that Nikolas had died, I was devastated. I still loved him. Then he showed up, and he asked me for help. He said he needed me, and I just—I wanted to believe that meant something.” She shook her head. “But he just knew he could blackmail me. He knew that I was on the run, that even if I went home and got free of the charges he’d put on my head, then I’d still be in trouble for being with my father.  I’m just another pawn on the chessboard to him. Maybe I needed to hear him admit it before I could go through with all this.”

She picked up the travel guide again. “The mosque was damaged by fire in 1912, but much of it has been restored—”

He put two fingers in the center of the book, pushing it down so that she’d look at him. “That’s how he sees all of us, Britt. Did you really need him to spell it out? Did you think he’d let you go before he was ready?”

“He never said it before. Maybe I knew, but I could let myself believe—” She sighed. “Even if we get Jason and Drew to buy our story — if they find out Nikolas is alive, it won’t make this okay. You know that. Maybe even unmasking Valentin won’t be enough.”

“I know that—”

“Nikolas doesn’t. He’s waiting for something that will magically make all of this okay. He’ll never find it. There will always be a reason to keep pretending.  All of us acting like there’s a smoking gun that will let this end. That I can just go home. None of us can. I know from experience—” Her lip curved into a half-smirk. “You’ll just keep lying because deep down you know what you did is so bad that you don’t have the right to forgiveness. To redemption. Some lies, some crimes—they’re beyond any of that.”

“Like what you did to my sister?”

She flicked those brown eyes at him again, then looked at the guide book. “Yes.”

“And what I’ve done to my sons. What Nikolas is doing to Spencer.”

“Yes.” Her voice wobbled, then steadied. “And what’s worse is that we all know it. We know what we’ve done. And we keep trying to protect ourselves from the fallout. More lies. More secrets. It’s better to just stop. Even if it hurts. Because at least it’s the pain you chose Better you than someone else to bring it crashing down. I’ve had enough of that.”

“Yeah.” Lucky stretched out his legs, folded his arms. “Yeah. Well, that’s what we’re doing today. The first step to making it stop.” He met her gaze. “And that’s why they’ll believe us. Or at least investigate the lead. Because we both want it to stop.”

“If we really wanted it to stop, we’d tell them everything,” she murmured. She looked at him. “But we’re not doing that either. Because, like I said, we both believe there’s a piece of the truth that will let us off the hook. And until we can accept there’s not, we’ll just keep lying.”

———————

“Well, I’ll be damned.” Drew stopped. “Do you see that?”

Jason paused at the corner of the plaza, scanned the rows of benches arranged near the mosque’s entrance. The benches were backless, made from white stone with slats of wood across the surface. The weather was balmy, in the low sixties, a stark change from New York, but despite that, there weren’t many tourists in the immediate area.

In the second row, there were a pair of Americans, sitting close to one another, their heads brushing close, each sporting an identical black baseball cap with an orange star and white letter H logo. The caps were pulled low over their faces, but Jason had known Lucky Spencer since he was a kid, but the woman was a stranger to him.

“You were right about Lucky,” Drew continued, “but that’s not Luke.”

“No. It’s not.” Jason considered the scene. “Well, I guess we don’t have to confront him about Britt anymore.”

“This should be interesting.”

They didn’t walk straight to the pair — instead, Jason reached into his back pocket for a folded up map of the city he’d grabbed at the airport, and made a show of looking at it, looking up at the mosque, then around the square, as if he was getting his bearings.

Drew pointed at the benches, then they walked over, a row away from Lucky and Britt, who were looking at a guide book of their own.

“Excuse me,” Drew said, his voice a bit louder than normal. “Are you American? Do you speak English?”

Lucky looked up, then nodded. “Yeah—” And Jason blinked at the slight twang in his tone. “We are. You lost?”

“Looking for the quickest way back to our hotel,” Drew said. “My brother got us turned around and now, we don’t remember—” Jason shot him a dirty look, and Drew just grinned at him. Jason hadn’t agreed to be thrown under the bus, but he supposed a bit of sibling banter would help if anyone was listening.

Not that anyone would be fooled — if there were any Cassadines watching, they damn well knew who all four of them were. But there was no point in taking chances. No point in being arrogant that they knew all of their enemies. Anyone could be following them. No reason not to play it safe.

“Let me see your map.” Lucky held out a hand, and Jason gave it to him. He sat across from the pair, perching on the edge of the bench. Drew sat at the other end. “You, uh, made good time,” the other man said, looking at the map, his tone lower now.

“Came straight from the airport,” Drew said, his tone clipped. He glanced at Britt, her fingers curled tightly around the edge of her book, but her face blank. “Britt. Funny to see you here. I don’t think you’ve met my brother.”

“No. Um, no. Not while he was awake anyway.” Britt glanced at Jason. “But I’ve heard about you.”

“You said you were coming to help us with the list of properties that Spinelli gave us,” Lucky said. “But Dad said you were unhappy with how slow we’ve been working. The lack of progress.”

“That’s why we came. To make it go faster.”

“I thought maybe you were starting to doubt asking for help, so I wanted to give you a sign of good faith.” He gestured at Britt. “We found Britt like we said last month. She’s been helping us since.”

“Helping?” Drew raised his brow. “The way you helped yourself to Lulu’s embryo?”

Britt winced. “No, I’ve been—I want my life back,” she said after a minute. “And I can’t really make up for what I did. There’s nothing that makes that okay. But this—I can be useful. My parents were part of this. My mother—” She looked at Jason, then at Drew before dropping her eyes to her lap. “My mother ran the lab where they kept Lucky. She held Robin hostage. And that’s probably just the tip of the iceberg. That’s before we even talk about my father’s crimes. I just—I want a chance to stop it. To make sure they can’t do it again.”

“So when I found out you were coming, I told Dad I’d handle it. Told him we had stuff to discuss about the files. The thing is—” Lucky grimaced.  “You’re right not to trust me and my dad. Or at least, not entirely. We’ve been looking for Cassadines since Jake showed up.” His mouth tightened, and he kept staring at the map. “Haven’t had much success.”

“Funny you didn’t mention that when you were home last month,” Drew bit out.

“Dad didn’t want to let anyone know. I wanted to tell you when you got home,” Lucky said to Jason, “but Dad didn’t want you to be part of it. Thought you’d derail it.”

“Derail,” Jason bit out. “Luke has no right—”

“Your priority is the memory experiments,” Lucky said, and Jason closed his mouth. “To get Drew’s memory back. To get answers. Mine and Dad’s—it’s to get rid of every damned Cassadine left that isn’t Spencer. Or Alexis and her kids,” he added almost as an afterthought. “To make sure Helena’s gone, and so are all her loose ends.”

“That doesn’t mean we can’t share information,” Drew said. “Or make it okay you’ve been lying to all of us—”

“No, it doesn’t,” Britt said softly. “So we’re stopping. Right, Lucky?”

“I’m stopping. I can’t tell you what my dad is going to do. He was working from a different list — one we put together from things we’d picked up. But once Spinelli told him about Maslak and the connection to Klein, he headed straight there.”

Drew tipped his head. “Has he found anything?”

“Yeah. It’s one of Helena’s research facilities. I’ve been tracking them down over the last few years to see if there are any other Cassadines on ice. I’m not having another Stavros show up to kidnap my sister again,” Lucky said tightly. “I’ve already found some abandoned ones in South America, one in Siberia. I can get you the others I’ve checked off if you want to look into them.  But Spinelli was right on the money about Maslak. Dad saw Valentin there Saturday morning, and after some recon, he found out they’re closing up shop. Moving it. We think it’s back to Spoon Island. Valentin doesn’t want to be away much longer.”

“He found Valentin and the lab and said nothing,” Drew said. “Are you fucking kidding? We had to fly all the way here—”

“I knew you’d want to see the place in person. I know you don’t trust me or my father. And Dad— ever since I brought Britt in on this, he’s been pissed at me. He doesn’t trust her.”

“Finally something Luke and I agree about,” Drew snapped.

“Look, you don’t know me,” Britt said. “Neither of you do. But I am the only connection anyone has to my parents. I know where my mother traveled — where we lived. I worked at the lab in Russia before I came to Port Charles. I worked with Klein. I know the experiments. I’ve worked with the protocol. You don’t have to trust me. But I’m the reason you’re even awake,” she snapped at Jason.

Jason scowled. “You think that I should be grateful—”

“My mother threatened me. She threatened me Spencer if I woke you up. But I did it anyway.”

Jason sat up, straightened. “What?”

“My father wanted me to wake you up. I don’t know why. He wanted me to do it, and he said if I did, I’d be free. He’d make the charges go away, and I could go somewhere that wasn’t Port Charles and start my life over.” She paused. “So I went to Russia, and I started to work.”

She twisted her hands in her lap. “But my mother showed up. She wanted me to stop. She said that waking you up was a terrible idea. And that if I did, she’d make me regret it. She said she’d wipe out the entire line, and I just—I couldn’t be responsible for that. So I told her I wouldn’t do it. I left the lab. And I went back into hiding— from my father this time. I don’t know why they were on separate sides of this,” Britt continued, “and I wasn’t interested in finding out. But I left the protocol for someone else to finish. You were two treatments away,” she said to Jason. “I disguised the treatment as the normal medications you were supposed to receive for your health, and I hoped that it would be enough. Because I knew if you woke up, you’d go home and you’d go after who did this to you. And maybe then I could really be free.”

“Why wouldn’t you tell us that up front?” Drew demanded. “Don’t you see this makes it harder for us to trust you?”

“I’m putting my life in your hands,” Britt said. “If my father found out what I did, if my mother knew that I woke Jason up anyway, if either of them knew where I was, I’d be dead. And so would Spencer. And I don’t know if they’d stop there. And that’s not even counting Valentin. It would have been easier for me to keep lying to you. I want my life back.”

Drew raised his brows to Lucky. “And you?”

“I want the Cassadines gone,” he said tightly. “I’ve lost too much to them. My life — Jake — and you saw that video from Helena. She went after Elizabeth, and she’s got a plan for my mother. I don’t know if Chimera was that plan or if there’s something else. I can’t afford to take that risk. You want to get to the bottom of the memory experiments, and I need the Cassadines wiped from the face of the planet.” He grimaced. “Except for Spencer. He’s still an innocent.”

“Let me get this straight,” Drew said. “Both of Britt’s parents were involved in Jason being in Russia, Luke found Valentin and his lab and kept his mouth shut, and now it’s being moved back to Port Charles?”

“What else are you keeping from us?” Jason demanded. “That can’t be it. I want the other labs. Anything you’ve looked into.”

“I can get you that. I’ll tell you everywhere I’ve been. You can go through and eliminate anything I’ve already done. But if my dad has more secrets, that’s not on me. You can do with this information what you want.”

Drew exhaled slowly, exchanged a look with his brother. “You gonna tell Luke you rolled on him?”

“No. He didn’t want you involved. He thinks I’m sending you to Siberia, but you can tell him. I won’t stop you.”

“We need to talk about this,” Jason said before Drew could say anything else. “Because I don’t know you,” he told Britt. “And I don’t trust you,” he threw at Lucky who grimaced. “We’ll be in touch.” Jason got to his feet, looked at Drew. “You ready?”

“Yeah. Let’s go find our hotel. Thanks,” Drew said to Lucky and Britt, raising his voice again. “We can take it from here.”

Kiremit House: Study

“It’s a tight schedule,” Luke admitted, “but I think we can pull it off.” He set the map down in front of Nikolas. “The lab pretty much clears out around five and it’s a skeleton crew anyway. There’s not much in the way of security.”

“Too much security makes it look like there’s something to hide,” Nikolas murmured. “Uncle used to say that.” He glanced up at Luke. “What about security guards?”

“Just the cameras and motion sensors, which I can handle. There’s a guy in the lobby over night, but they do a shift change at seven. The desk is empty for about ten, maybe fifteen minutes. We get two vans that are identical — I’ll drive the one with Stefan to the airport and Lucky will take the other. He’ll head out first, to draw the attention of anyone trying to follow. He’ll lead them on a wild goose chase, then head to this warehouse—” Luke tapped the map. “Little Obrecht will be waiting with a car running. They’ll head to the airport from there, hoping that we’ve lost anyone tailing us.”

Nikolas shook his head. “This—it’s risky—”

“Maybe. I, uh, had a thought.” Luke took a seat. “The brothers are here, and it’s a pain in the ass to be sure. But we might be able to use that to our advantage. They don’t know Stefan exists. But Valentin sure as hell does. He’ll need someone to blame.”

Nikolas was a quiet for a moment. “That’s true. Are you having second thoughts?”

“Do I think it’ll cause issues back home? Maybe. But it’ll shake Val up. We might get him to make a mistake. Maybe he goes after someone. He hasn’t hit a kid yet, like the old bat.” Luke paused. “The thing is if he doesn’t target one of the kids, he could still go after someone Jason or Drew cares about.”

Nikolas rose, paced the small room. “That sounds like you’re putting Elizabeth in the cross hairs. She’s the only one they have in common—or Sam.”

“They’re both resilient women. Elizabeth’s gone toe to toe with a Cassadine or two in her time, and she can hold her own. Sam? Maybe. But he risks activating Natasha. It’s a risk, but if Stefan disappears without someone to blame, Valentin will know someone else is involved. If you really want to stay under the radar, then maybe we should try to time this rescue to make sure they’re the suspects.”

“I’m not sure I’m comfortable with framing them outright,” Nikolas said, though he was tempted. Luke had a good point — if Valentin stayed focused on Jason and Drew—

“We need to make a decision soon. Lucky’s hoping we can get the brothers out of here tomorrow.”

“They just got here.”

“To locate Valentin. But he—” Luke lit a cigar and looked at the tip. “Left the city late last night. He’ll be home sometime today. The boys will get that news from back home, and I’ll send Lucky over tomorrow with the information. I know Jason Morgan — he’s not staying here a minute longer if he knows his family is in the same city as Valentin. He’ll pull up stakes. After that, it’s just a matter of making a few calls, tweaking a few things to make sure the plane doesn’t leave until we’ve got Stefan in our hands.”

Nikolas nodded. It made sense in a cold, rational way. The universe had provided them with a clear set of suspects, and it would allow Nikolas to operate in peace.

“He also might suspect the WSB which could keep him from doing anything that blow his cover,” Luke said. He exhaled his cigar smoke in a ring. “You want me to get your uncle out of that lab, I’m telling how we can get away with it.”

“I want my uncle.” Nikolas hesitated, looked towards the window. “And I don’t want to leave any possibility he might find out it was me. Make the calls. Make sure Jason and Drew don’t leave before we have him.”

“And everyone back home?”

“You’re right. Elizabeth always said she can handle herself. Jason will have the boys protected. It’s a risk, but it’s a necessary one. Let me know what else you need for the plan.”

Sultanamet District: Grand Ambiance Hotel

“You know, I think I knew Turkish.” Drew shoved open the door to the room. He dumped a white plastic bag with a Styrofoam container inside on the sliver of a desk by the window. He eyed the twin beds skeptically. “Those are way too close together,” he decided.

Jason ignored him, tossing his duffel bag on one of them. He didn’t care where he slept or if he got any rest. It was—he grimaced. Still the middle of the night back in New York, and he wasn’t going to drag Spinelli or Elizabeth out of bed for this story.

“Figure we can’t call home until around or two here. Probably the earliest.” Drew unwrapped his kebab. “What do you think about the story?”

“Most of it is true,” Jason said. He dragged out the laptop, then glared at it. He didn’t know what to do with it. Should he just type Liesl Obrecht into a search engine? Damn it. Why had Valentin chosen a location with a nine hour time difference—

“Most of it?”

“Lucky played it straight today.” Jason considered the conversation, replayed it back in his head. “He was good at computers once. I wouldn’t be surprised if he picked that habit back up. Spinelli planted trackers on those files. Maybe Lucky found them.”

“Ah, so maybe he knew we were watching and came clean before we could accuse him. That’s pretty smart.” Drew frowned. “So he came clean on Maslak and Britt. That fits.”

“He told us things we found out through the trace,” Jason pointed out. “Britt? The lab? But we never asked about the network. Or where they were staying.”

“And he didn’t volunteer it.” Drew nodded. “I see your point. He told us as much as he needed before we could confront him. Do we push him on the location next time?”

“Maybe. But it also might be useful for Lucky to think he’s one step ahead of us for now. After we go see this lab—” Jason shrugged. “We’ll see what happens.”

“You think the rest of it is true? About Britt’s parents?”

“I don’t know. I never knew either of them. Did you?”

“Oh, yeah. I knew Liesl Obrecht. She decided to hate me from the moment I came into her hospital without insurance.” He tossed Jason his food and took out his tablet. He tapped a few times, then showed Jason the article he’d pulled up, detailing the appointment of Liesl Obrecht to Chief of Staff of General Hospital. “How much did Elizabeth tell you about her?”

“Not much.” Jason skimmed the article. “She was involved with Robin’s kidnapping. And, like you said, she worked at GH for a while—”

“Until late last year. Even managed to keep her job after she held Elizabeth hostage for a few days.” Drew sank his teeth into his beef kebab, and only belatedly noticed Jason’s stare. “Oh, she didn’t tell you that?”

“No.”

“This was a few months before I showed up. You know about Britt and the stolen embryo—no, I guess not from the look on your face.”

“You brought that up earlier,” Jason said. “Is that why Elizabeth doesn’t trust Britt?”

“Oh, yeah. Britt was Lulu’s OB, and Maxie was supposed to be a surrogate for Lulu and Dante. Britt implanted herself with one of the fertilized embryos, tricked Patrick into thinking it was his kid, and the whole thing finally got unraveled about a year later.” Drew furrowed his brow. “Elizabeth found out and blew up Nikolas and Britt’s engagement party. Then the baby and Liesl went missing. Turns out she was hiding out at Elizabeth’s, holding her hostage. Elizabeth got shot in the shoulder before it was all over.”

“Shot,” Jason repeated, mystified. “She never said—and this Obrecht woman kept her job?”

“She definitely had something on the board. We never found out what. I came along that fall, and like I said, Obrecht hated me.” Drew tipped his head. “Of course now, that makes me wonder what she knew. Did she know I was supposed to be you and wanted me out in the world so Helena could corner me? Activate the chip? Or so Maddox could get his hands on me.”

“You’re leaning towards believing Lucky and Britt, then.”

“We already knew Liesl was in on the experiments, so it doesn’t surprise me she pops up in Russia. And Britt backing off from waking you up—” Drew cleaned his fingers. “Yeah, something in that makes sense. I think it’s true enough that Liesl Obrecht should go on the list of people to find. Right next to Cesar Faison.” He hesitated. “But Lucky’s part in it makes less sense. He never knew Britt. If you believe him, he only met her last week. But he clearly trusts her. Considering what she did to his sister, you’d think he’d be more reluctant. That’s not how it came across today. They seemed like a team.”

“He’s always liked playing hero.” Jason hesitated. “At least once he grew up. He was angry after Manny kidnapped Elizabeth, and he hadn’t been the one to save her. He was obsessed with trying to catch me in the act of committing a crime so he could, I don’t know, prove to her that he was the real hero.”

“And he certainly didn’t mind all the celebration he got after getting the credit for tossing Ruiz off the roof.” Drew winced. “Sorry—that’s your memory—”

“No, but it’s true enough. He tried to get into the Metro Court during the hostage crisis—and that Irish girl—” Jason shook his head. “Maybe. I’d buy Lucky protecting someone for that, but there’s something else missing here. Luke and Lucky being at odds enough that Lucky looks like he’s flipping on Luke? I don’t know. I don’t like it.”

“Me, either.” Drew checked his watch. “You could try Elizabeth now, you know. She might be up.”

“Yeah.” Jason got to his feet. “I’m gonna take a walk, look at the neighborhood a little more. I’ll call her while I’m out. I don’t like the idea of calling her in a room—”

“Yeah, you never know who’s watching or listening. Out in the open is better.”

Jason left and found a street cafe next to the hotel. He ordered a drink, then took out his phone. He needed to fill her in, that much was true. But he also just wanted to hear her voice.

She answered on the first ring. “Jason? Hey!”

“Hey.” He smiled. “Sorry to call so early—”

“No, it’s fine. I had an early shift. What’s up? What’s going on there?”

Jason took a deep breath and told her everything.

Fatih District: Portafari Balat

Concerned that Jason and Drew would be following them, Lucky took Britt on a walking tour of the city and stayed as far away from the house on Kiremit street as possible. She tried to start a conversation with him several times, wanting to talk about what had happened, but he continued to avoid it. Not until he was sure they weren’t being followed. Finally, he was satisfied they were alone, and decided it was time for lunch.

Tourists were common enough that Lucky and Britt’s American accents went mostly unnoticed. Britt slid into a seat by the window overlooking the cobblestone streets and reached for the menu.

“What do you think they’re doing right now?”

“Probably calling Port Charles. They couldn’t have done that until this afternoon with the time difference. And then they’ll decide on a game plane with what they’ve learned.”

“When Elizabeth finds out I’m here, she’ll tell Jason to ignore everything. She doesn’t trust me.”

Lucky glanced at her over the top of the menu. “Does that surprise you?”

Britt grimaced and looked like she wanted to argue. “No,” she said finally. “But I didn’t do anything to Elizabeth directly.” She paused. “That she knew about—

“She would have forgiven you faster if you had.” When Britt frowned at him, Lucky continued, “Elizabeth finds it harder to let go of her anger when you hurt someone she loves. You tricked Patrick into believing it was his baby, you lied to my brother, and you kept Lulu’s son from her. These are all people she cares about.”

“Still—”

“I had an affair,” Lucky said bluntly. “And while I had that affair, I repeatedly accused her, publicly, of having an affair with a colleague. And then I had another affair a year later. And long before that, I slept with her sister and lied about it. Elizabeth kept forgiving me. She didn’t—” He pressed his lips together, tossed the menu aside. “She didn’t write me off until my actions hurt the kids. So, no, I don’t think the fact that you’re helping is going to make her happy.”

“So why—”

“Because they might not trust you, but they’re not stupid. Your story makes sense. It’s mostly true. They just don’t know that you gave Nikolas’s role to Faison. And your mother was involved before you told them about Russia. They know she worked on my case. What we told them fits. They’ll be interested enough to look into it. And from there—”

“From there, I guess we’ll see.” Britt exhaled slowly.

“Nice touch, by the way, coming up with that story about Russia. It looks like you got pissed off enough to come clean—”

“I did.”

“Exactly. It worked out.” He tipped his head. “But I find it interesting that you cast Faison in Nikolas’s role instead of dropping some hints. I’m not the only one protecting him.”

Britt leaned back. “You said you weren’t ready. We had an agreement.”

“Yeah. We did. But just in the interest of fairness—now that Jason and Drew know you’re actively involved, they’re going to dig into your past.”  He met her eyes. “If you’re keeping any other secrets from me, you need to come clean now. If Jason or Drew come back with something you’ve lied to me about, I will throw you under the bus—”

“I thought we’d agreed to trust each other—”

“We did.” He waited. “But I’m not stupid, and my father raised me never to play all my cards at once. Did yours?”

“My father didn’t raise me at all,” Britt said coolly, “and the only lesson I ever learned from my mother was to go after what you want and damn the collateral damage. Does that mean you still have secrets from me?”

“This isn’t about me—”

“You could go back to the house right now and tell Nikolas about Valentin. About who he really is.” Britt lifted her chin. “That’s all the leverage I had left. You tell him that, and that I knew all this time, there’s nowhere I can hide. It’s the one thing Nikolas needed to break this open, and I kept my mouth shut.” She closed her hand into a fist. “I didn’t know if my mother was telling the truth. I still don’t.”

“And I don’t know what my brother would do with that information, or you if he thought you were lying. If I’m right—” Lucky smiled grimly, “He kept Jake’s survival a secret.  I don’t know what else he’s capable of.” He met Britt’s gaze again, held it. “You really don’t have any other secrets?”

“No.” She arched a brow. “You?”

“Beyond Nikolas knowing about Jake and being part of all of this, no. Nothing I can prove. But I have—” He paused, considered his words. “I have my suspicions that my father might know more than he’s saying. Most of my life, he’d never have given Nikolas the time of day. He’d never have worked with him like this before. So there’s something they both know and they’re not telling me. I’m tired of sacrificing my life for other people’s problems. I never asked to be part of the Cassadine-Spencer blood feud, and I’ll be damned if my sons are next to be sacrificed.”

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