Something I’ve done that I can’t outrun
Something I’ve done that I can’t outrun
Maybe you should wait, maybe you should run
But there’s something you’ve said that can’t be undone
And you fall away from your past
But it’s following you
You fall away from your past
But it’s following you, now
– Fall Away, The Fray

---

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Penthouse: Living Room

“Well, what if we just wait for the cops to come to us?” Nadine wanted to know, and Johnny shook his head, irritated with himself for getting them both in this situation and with her for being too stubborn to see this was the best answer—

“They’d never believe we didn’t do this to avoid questioning.” Johnny took another deep breath — something he was quickly getting used to. You had to think twice with Nadine because she was usually rambling and talking circles around you— “You know, this is a real hit on the ego,” he said, trying to lighten the mood. “Didn’t think I’d have to beg someone to marry me.”

Nadine scowled. “You’re joking about this? You can’t be serious. You shot someone, Johnny! Why doesn’t that bother you?”

“It—” The brief attempt at a smile faded and his stomach rolled. He didn’t want to think about it. Was doing everything he could to avoid it. “It does. I just—I didn’t want to do it. I don’t want to hurt anyone—”

“You have a gun. People who carry a gun want to hurt people,” Nadine muttered. She crossed her arms, looked away. “Why else would you bother?”

“To protect myself—” Johnny pressed his lips together. She didn’t know him. Not really. She could never understand, but if he was ever going to have a chance to convince her, he had to try to explain it. “The last time Sonny caught me unarmed, he tossed me into a padded room for a few weeks, okay? I wasn’t going to let that happen again—”

“Wait. What? What are you talking about?” Nadine came towards him, her blue eyes wide again. “When was this?”

“It was—earlier this year.” He looked away. “When Kate was shot the first time and Michael went missing. Sonny blamed me for both crimes. He refused to believe it wasn’t me, and when I wouldn’t tell him where Michael was, he tossed me in an abandoned mental institution complete with padded walls,” Johnny retorted. “And I nearly lost my damn mind. So, yeah, Nadine, I started carrying protection so it couldn’t happen again—”

“I didn’t…I’m sorry—”

“We can’t all be lucky enough to grow up in Indiana with the cows,” Johnny muttered. He wandered over to the windows, stared out over the city.

“It’s Ohio, and there weren’t that many cows.” Nadine exhaled slowly. “I’m sorry. I am. I expect people to react like I do, and when they don’t, I judge them for it. I just—I don’t want to do this, Johnny. I don’t like to lie to people. I don’t like to hurt them. I’m a nurse. I’m supposed to be the person you trust, you know? And if I do this, it’s throwing out so many things I believed in. Right and wrong. They’re not just words to me.”

“I know that.”

“And back home, stuff like this is black and white,” she continued, joining him at the window. “If you get hurt, you tell the people who help. The police, the doctors. And if you hurt someone else, you get punished. But maybe I just saw what I wanted to see. Because Jolene grew up in the same house, the same town, and she…” Nadine’s gaze skittered away, and he found himself studying her profile. “Ever since we found out what she did, I had to wonder how I couldn’t see it before. She’s my sister. And she’s done terrible, awful things. I came to Port Charles because I wanted to put good back into the world. I wanted to do it where she did her damage. And instead, it’s like I keep making it worse. I tried to help Nikolas, but he just got mad at me all the time. And I tried to help you, but I ended up in jail—” She bit her lip.

“I don’t know your world, Johnny. And maybe I can understand that, for you, this makes sense and keeps me safe. But it makes me part of your world—I don’t know if you get to just step back out, you know? We can tell ourselves what you’re asking me to do isn’t a real marriage, but it is, okay? It’s paperwork and contracts and it’s putting my name next to yours for a long time. It’s not something you decide in a minute. Or because someone’s screaming at you that it’s the only option. It’s not the only option, Johnny. It just…” She sighed. “It looks like it might be the best one. For both of us.”

“You—” Johnny began, but the door behind them opened, and Jason stepped inside. “Uh, hey.”

“Did you decide what to do?” Jason asked, his hand still gripped on the edge of the door. “What’s it going to be?”

“We’re going to need tickets to Vegas,” Nadine said, facing Jason. “Johnny asked me to marry him, and I said yes. Can you help us with that?”

Morgan Penthouse: Living Room

Fifteen minutes later, Jason closed the door to his own penthouse and found Audrey descending the stairs. “Hey. Is she—”

“All settled in and still resting.” Audrey rolled the sleeves of her sweater to the elbow, crossing to the living room sofa where there was still another bag to unpack. “I’m going to sit with her until she wakes.” She glanced at him. “Unless that’s something you want to do—she’s going to have a lot of questions, and you may be better equipped to handle those. We still have a few hours before Bobbie is going to bring the boys home.”

And number one on the list would be why she’d been discharged from the hospital less than six hours after surgery. “Yeah, I—” He grimaced when his cell phone buzzed in his pocket. “Hold on.”

“I’ll be upstairs.” Elizabeth’s grandmother disappeared around the landing, and Jason flipped the phone open.

“Yeah?”

“Hey, Jason. I know you said you didn’t want to be bothered but there’s something that’s come up,” Cody said. “I could be there in ten minutes—”

“No. No—” Jason grimaced. There were too many pieces in motion now, too many that he couldn’t control. Patrick and Spinelli at the hospital, Elizabeth recovering from major surgery at the penthouse instead of the hospital, the boys who deserved a normal life, Johnny and Nadine across the hall, Sonny in the hospital—

He just wanted it all to stop, but that wasn’t an option. “I’ll come to you. Just wait for me.”

He put his phone away, took a deep breath, then went to tell Audrey that he had to go out. Again.

General Hospital: Kate’s Hospital Room

“No, no, no—” Kate winced, trying to slide to the side. “Get me a wheelchair—now!” she ordered when Jax remained still. “Jax, I’m telling you—”

“Honey, you’re going to open your stitches,” Olivia said, hovering over her cousin’s bed. “Connie, please—”

“My name is Kate!” And then her face crumbled, tears sliding down her cheeks, her eyes blood shot. “Damn it, Olivia! Damn you all to hell! My name is Kate!”

Maxie stood by, wringing her hands. She didn’t know how to fix this. Didn’t know how to make it stop, and she didn’t like not knowing the next step. She’d told Kate about Sonny, and after that, it had all crumbled. “Kate, you really should try not to jostle too much. Patrick said he’d come by and tell you anything you needed to know, right? And we have to wait for him—he’ll tell you if it’s okay to get out of bed—”

“Listen to Maxie,” Jax said, coming forward finally. He gently pushed her shoulders back and Kate laid flat, closing her eyes, her chest still heaving from the force of her sobs. “You’ll do no one any good if you hurt yourself—”

“You should have let him see me—” Kate opened her eyes, looked at him. “You were supposed to be my friend.”

“I am—”

“No, no, no, my friend would have known—my friend would have let my fiancé through the door. This happened because of me, didn’t it?”

“We don’t know that—”

Maxie opened her mouth because, well, they did know that. Sonny had been downstairs asking to come upstairs, but Olivia had refused him. Kate didn’t know that part, and Maxie wasn’t in a hurry to tell her. Bad enough she’d had to tell Kate about the head shot and not waking up —

Better to keep quiet about where Sonny had been just before the pier. Even Maxie knew that.

“Sonny just wanted to know you were okay,” Maxie said finally. She pushed Olivia aside, took Kate’s hand. “That’s all he wanted to know the whole time. So let’s just focus on that. He wouldn’t want you to hurt yourself worrying about him. I’ll call Patrick. Make him hurry.”

“When does it stop?” Kate asked. She opened her eyes. “When does it end? The violence, the death, the terror—Michael, me, Sonny—there’s always more, isn’t there?”

“I know it seems that way,” Maxie began, but then she faltered. Because it was that way. The murders last year — Emily and Georgie. Cooper. Then Logan—and Lulu. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath. “It seems that way, but we can’t lose hope. You should rest, okay? I’ll find Patrick.”

PCPD: Commissioner’s Office

Mac closed the door after Harper entered, his expression somber. “Sonny’s not expected to recover. He’s breathing on his own, but they don’t expect him to wake up, barring a miracle.”

“Hard to believe.” Harper leaned against Mac’s desk. “After all this time, all the times he’s had bullets put in him — someone finally gets him.” He waited for a beat. “Security footage from Elm Street gave us a bit of a lead, but not really the smoking gun. About forty minutes before the first 911 calls came in, Johnny Zacchara and Nadine Crowell are caught on the corner of the camera, heading for Bannister’s Wharf.” He tapped his pencil against the notepad in his hand. “I checked at Kelly’s, and they were there for lunch maybe twenty minutes before. But after that — nothing. None of the cameras were pointing at that part of the pier. No reason, too. There aren’t any businesses.”

Mac sighed, rubbed his face. “Nadine Crowell. I should have known. What’s she doing having lunch with Johnny Zacchara?”

“Well, rumor had it she was dating Nikolas Cassadine who just took off to California with Spencer.” Harper lifted his brows. “Maybe she and Johnny Z are commiserating over their love lives. Or lack of. Lulu Spencer isn’t doing well, either.”

“Maybe. Any sign of Johnny or Nadine after the shooting?”

“No. And we can’t do much with what we have. Hospital says Nadine worked four twelve-hour overnight shifts — so she’s off for three days now. I stopped by the apartment building where she lives, but didn’t get an answer on the intercom. As for Johnny Z, he doesn’t have an address in town, and I can’t do much but put in a call to Lansing the younger to request an interview.” Harper made a face. “I’m not counting on a yes from him.”

Mac sank into his desk, rested his chin on his hands. “Morgan wasn’t helpful either. Claims he last saw Sonny this morning before he got called into the hospital. I stopped by the Towers, and the security guard confirmed it. Morgan left around nine this morning, and Sonny left about ten minutes later.”

“But doesn’t show up until two hours later on the pier, shot.” Harper took a moment. “Are we more curious about this car accident Elizabeth Webber was in? The timing of all of this—right after the church shooting, right before this one—”

“I’ll have to talk to whoever investigated what happened on Saturday, but I skimmed the report — that looks like a solid DUI situation.” Mac paused. “This is the first time Morgan has been linked with Elizabeth since what happened on the bridge with Diego Alcazar.”

“If that accident was to distract Morgan, they’d have to be in the inner circle to know she was in the picture, right? Could be someone close. What do we know about this setback? That timing was guaranteed to keep Morgan from focusing on whatever Sonny was up to.”

“Nothing. Elizabeth’s condition isn’t a matter of law, so unless they hand over her medical records, we might never know. Morgan mentioned a possible discharge, so maybe not that serious.”

Harper shook his head. “I don’t know. Something doesn’t smell right.”

“Well, until we can get Nadine or Johnny into an interrogation room and see what they have to say, we don’t have much to go on right now.”

Morgan Penthouse: Master Bedroom

Elizabeth’s eyes flickered at the sound of voices, and she licked her lips, slowly becoming aware that something was different. The…sheet beneath her fingers felt smoother. Softer. Her other hand brushed the material covering her abdomen…it wasn’t the rough cotton of the hospital gowns, but…

And…the lighting. It was dim. The shadows were different. She forced her eyes open, trying to focus on the figures across the room. “Gram…Jason?”

The voices stopped, and Jason came into focus. He knelt beside the bed, reached for her hand, and brought it to his lips. “Hey. I didn’t think you’d wake up just yet. Are you in any pain?”

“No…just…my throat is dry.” Elizabeth’s lashes fluttered again, but she tried to force them back open. “Am I…this is…” His bedroom. She’d only been here a handful of times. “Jason…”

“You’re home with me. I’m going to pick up the boys and bring them to you. Your grandmother is here to take care of you.”

“Home…” The word felt strange on her lips. Home was the house on Lexington Avenue, wasn’t it? But she wanted it to be with him, and that meant the penthouse, didn’t it? But then…the hospital? “Why…here? Didn’t…I have…surgery?”

“Not right now, darling,” Audrey said, her voice drifting to Elizabeth from behind Jason’s hazy figure. “Rest a little longer.”

“Mmm….” Her eyes closed, and this time she gave in to the pull of sleep.

Jason reluctantly got to his feet, keeping her hand clasped in his until the last minute. He’d wanted this, he thought, for so long. Elizabeth in his bed, the boys down the hall, and now he couldn’t even let it sink in. She was in his bed, yes, but hooked up to an IV after major surgery and nearly dying only hours earlier. This wasn’t how she was supposed to come home. None of this was happening the way he’d planned.

“You’d better take care of whatever you need to do,” Audrey said, drawing his attention. “The sedative Epiphany gave her at the hospital is going to wear off fully in a few hours. I think she’d rather hear what’s going on from you. You’ll want to be back.”

“Yeah. Yeah, okay.” She was right, Jason knew that. But that didn’t mean he was any happier about having to leave just when he’d brought her home, still unconscious from all that had happened in the last twenty-four hours.

If Jason wanted to be sure he was here when Elizabeth woke up again, he needed to deal with Cody, make sure Johnny was on his way to Vegas, and the boys were tucked away here where it was safe.

“I’ll be back in a little while, and I’ll pick the boys up from Carly’s, save Bobbie the trip. I know you’re doing it for her,” Jason said, stopping at the doorway, looking back at Audrey. “But thank you.”

“She and those boys are my whole world, Jason. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for them.”

General Hospital: Locker Room

Patrick tugged the scrub top over his head, balled it up, and shoved it in his locker until he could drop it in the laundry on his way out the door. It had been a long shift, he thought, and it was going to be an even longer night going over the ICU files.

Robin had been horrified to learn that Elizabeth’s setback had been deliberate medical sabotage, and she’d already taken the files home to get a head start. He hated that she was involved, that she was thinking about all of this instead of herself, her health, and their child, but Robin’s pesky determination to do the right thing was one of the things he loved about her.

Most of the time.

The door creaked open behind him, and Patrick glanced over his shoulder, going still when he realized it was Matt rounding the first row of lockers. The younger man also halted, freezing when they locked eyes.

…I think you might want to think about giving yourself permission to forgive Matt for existing.

Elizabeth’s words echoed in Patrick’s head, and he sighed, looked back at his locker, then reached for the shirt he’d stowed inside. “You called Robin.”

“I shouldn’t have,” Matt muttered. “I regretted it almost immediately. So if you want to be pissed—”

Patrick turned back to face him, fastening the buttons on his shirt. “I wouldn’t have told her I was the one who operated on him. And you don’t know this, but Sonny used to be part of Robin’s life. So what happened today to him upset her.”

“Oh.” Matt grimaced. “Damn it, I didn’t know that—”

“She also looked after Michael when he was a baby. She doesn’t talk about it much, but it weighs on her.” Patrick removed his shoes, then sat on the bench to change out of the sneakers he wore on the floor. “So, no, telling her that once again I was the surgeon who couldn’t perform a miracle wasn’t my plan.”

“Shit. Shit, I’m sorry. I was just trying to—”

“I would have been wrong.” Patrick balled both his scrub top and pants together, and Matt just stared at him. “But just because it was the right thing to do that doesn’t mean I understand why you did it.” He tossed the scrubs into the laundry cart near the wall. “You’ve made it very clear that you don’t want anything to do with me.”

Matt pressed his lips together, looked away, then jerked a shoulder. “You haven’t exactly been a pile of a sunshine either.”

“No. No, I haven’t.” Patrick exhaled on a long sigh. “Because I built up my father in my head, and you existing messes that up. Easier to hate you than to deal with what’s really wrong.” He met Matt’s bewildered eyes. “Everything I know about being a father, I learned from Noah Drake. And he was a good one. Until he lost my mother on the operating table. He dove into the bottle and nearly killed himself before he got sober. I eventually forgave him, even gave him part of my liver because I thought, well, hell, he’d been a terrible father for the last ten years because he really loved my mother. Existing without her, losing that piece of his soul—after I found Robin, I thought I understood.”

Matt dropped his eyes, looked away. “But if he loved your mother—”

“Then how do I explain you? Maybe I could say well, you’re not that much younger than me. Maybe Dad made a mistake and then spent the rest of his life atoning for it. Maybe Mom forgave him. Maybe they got past it. But Dad can’t even say there’s not more of you out there. You’re just the only kid he knew about.” Patrick swallowed hard. “So, yeah, it was easier to hate you for showing up than to hate him for not being the man I thought he was.” He picked up his keys and wallet, then closed his locker. “But I’m done letting Noah Drake direct the path of my life.” He turned to face Matt again. “And I’m done making his mistakes your problem. I don’t know if we can be brothers. I don’t know if that’s even something you want. But if you want to try, well, you know where to find me.”

Penthouse: Living Room

Johnny checked his watch. “Won’t be long before we can leave for the airport.” He didn’t look at Nadine — he really couldn’t. Now that the decision had been made, he was oddly aware that in a few hours — unless she changed her mind — they’d be married.

Married.

He crossed back to the windows — the sun had begun to sink below the horizon, and night was creeping across the downtown. This morning, he’d gone to the hospital, hoping to find a way back into Lulu’s life.

And now, ten hours later, he was responsible for shooting Sonny and planning to marry another woman. He still didn’t know if the other man was going to survive. Jason hadn’t said anything, but surely, if his best friend was dead or on the brink of death, Jason wouldn’t be helping them, would he? Wouldn’t he be more upset?

Restless, doubts creeping in, Johnny rubbed a fist against his heart. He really didn’t know what to do next — only that he had to keep putting one foot in front of the other and do a better job protecting Nadine than he had Lulu.

“What do we tell everyone?”

Her question startled him, and Johnny turned, frowning. “What?”

“Well, I mean…” Uncomfortable, Nadine folded her arms, remaining by the sofa, across the room. “I don’t know. You’re not even technically broken up with Lulu, right? She could wake up tomorrow—”

“You saw her,” Johnny broke in. “Do you think that’s going to happen?” His chest was tight. “I dragged her to that wedding, even though they all told me not to, and she crawled so far inside herself I couldn’t get her back—”

“Johnny—” She bit her lip. “All I’ll say is that Logan Hayes attacked Maxie, and Lulu defended her. So at the end of the day, he’s really where this starts. And if Nikolas or Lucky or anyone blames you—including you—you’re just wrong. I hope you’ll believe that someday.”

“Yeah, well…as for why we did this—” He gripped the back of a dining chair, staring down at the dark wood. “We don’t have to over think it, right? We can just be impulsive. We met at the hospital, commiserated over our shitty love lives, and decided what the hell—”

“Let’s get married?” Nadine finished skeptically. “You think anyone is actually going to buy it?”

“I think they’ll have no choice.” Johnny crossed the room to her. “We stick together on this, right? The cops need a reason to pull us into an interview, and with spousal privilege in the mix, then we have a chance of making sure nothing can happen. And you know, Scott already believes you were protecting me at the trial —”

“What, we’ll just let him think I was?” Nadine demanded, planting her fists on her hips. “First, he insinuated I was doing it because of Nikolas and Lulu, which was just convoluted lunacy—”

“Marrying me will actually streamline his theory,” Johnny pointed out. “Now there’s not six degrees of connection to Nikolas. It’s just an arrow pointing straight to me.” He lifted his brows. “You think Scott won’t jump on that?”

Nadine wrinkled her nose. “You have a point. Okay, but what about anyone else? Our friends? I am not a good liar. Leyla is going to read me like a book, and—”

“I don’t have any friends,” Johnny said dryly.

“All right, the poor little rich boy act is getting old,” she muttered. “All I’m saying is that I’ve watched a lot of Law & Order and can’t they, like, arrest us if we lie about why we got married?”

“That’s not how it works.” Johnny hesitated. “Look, if you’re really worried about it, we’ll just say it was spontaneous, impulse. We were over—” He made a gesture with his hand. “Overwhelmed by lust or whatever.”

“Overwhelmed by lust,” Nadine repeated dubiously. “That’s never happened to me in my entire life, and I’m telling you right now no one who knows me is ever going to believe—”

Johnny cupped the back of her neck and jerked her forward into his arms, cutting off her retort with his mouth. Her hand, still raised in the air, fisted in his shirt. Her brain short-circuited and everything fell away —

He drew back slightly, his eyes meeting hers, his breath still warm against her lips. “Any questions?”

“I—” Had forgotten her own name, she thought, struggling to form a coherent thought. Instead, she did something even crazier. She used her hand, still holding his shirt, to drag him back for another kiss. His hands slid up to cup her cheeks, his thumbs fanning across her jaw.

This time, Nadine pulled away, licked her lips, then swallowed hard when his eyes followed the motion. “Okay, maybe we can make that story work after all.”

Coffee House: Office

“I’ll make this quick,” Cody said, as Jason closed the door behind the other man. “Our guy at the PCPD says they have almost nothing. It was broad daylight, but no one really saw anything. Elm Street Pier is usually quiet that time of day, and not much in the way of surveillance.”

Jason knew that — it was one of the reasons he’d always liked it. “What do they have?”

“Johnny Z and Nadine Crowell forty minutes before the shots in the area. Leaving Kelly’s maybe twenty minutes before the calls. It’s enough that they’re trying to get in touch with both of them,” Cody continued. “Nadine’s off the schedule at GH for a few days, so she’s not expected anywhere. And Harper put in a call to Johnny’s lawyer. I don’t think they’re expecting one back.”

That was a good thing, Jason thought, but that could change. A witness could always come forward — “That’s the PCPD. What about the DA’s office?”

“Scott’s out this week. He’s visiting Serena at college,” Cody reported. “But, yeah, everyone expects him to light a fire under Mac’s ass when he gets back.” He paused. “That’s not why I wanted you to come down. Do we still have Johnny Z under wraps?”

“He’s at the penthouse across the hall. I’m doubling back to take them to the airport. After that? They’re not my problem anymore. Why?”

“Because some of our guys are hearing from the Zacchara camp. Anthony hasn’t seen his kid in two days, and he gets antsy when Johnny’s out of touch.” Cody hesitated. “They’re going to the airport? Are we talking about the island?”

“We’re talking about making sure no one can testify against the other,” Jason said, “and that’s it. They’ll be back in Port Charles tomorrow. Get in touch. Make sure they know Johnny’s safe and staying that way.” No one wanted an antsy Anthony Zacchara on their hands. They’d had enough of that on Spoon Island a year ago. “What else?”

“Karpov. He’s reaching out, wondering if you’ve changed your mind.”

“No.” The word had left his mouth before Cody had completed his statement. “He set Sonny up for this. He went to Sonny about the shooting, claimed to be able to connect it to Johnny, and Sonny bought it.”

“Whoa. Back up—” Cody put up a hand. “What are you talking about?” Jason told him about Sonny’s visit to the penthouse before the shooting, his tone clipped and impatient, but he left out the attempt on Elizabeth’s life. He’d keep that close to the chest for now. “That’s why this happened?”

“It set everything in motion, and that’s enough for me. Karpov gets nothing. Is there anything else?”

“No. But are you sure you don’t want to hear Karpov out?” Cody called as Jason headed for the door.

Jason turned back, considered Cody carefully. “Any deal would mean undoing everything I’ve worked on for the last three months. And it would be worse than before. It would mean using our shipping lanes and connections to Canada for his product. We don’t run drugs. He does. We start running drugs through Port Charles, we get the whole force of the state and FBI, not to mention the DEA. They don’t care about us up here when they’re worried about the southern border. So unless you disagree with that—”

“No. No. I just—” Cody paused. “It might be worth our while to at least make him think we’re entertaining the idea of making a deal,” he said. “If we’re right, in the last five days, Karpov had Kate shot and managed to goad Sonny into a confrontation that put him in the hospital. We thought he’d moved on, but he not only came back, but escalated. I think we need to slow him down.”

Jason hated that he had a point — hated it even more that Jason hadn’t considered it from that angle. He was off his game — behind a step — and he didn’t know how to make it stop. And Cody didn’t even know that Elizabeth’s medication had been sabotaged.

“Yeah. Yeah, okay—” he nodded, dragged a hand down his face. “Get the details. Tell him we’re thinking it over—”

“I’ll take care of it. I’ll let you know if anything develops on any of those fronts — the cops, the DA, the Zaccharas, or Karpov. You should go home and get some sleep.”

Zacchara Estate: Study

Trevor closed the door, then turned to face an impatient Anthony seated behind his desk. “All right. First, let me say that I’ve heard from Port Charles. Morgan’s guy, Cody. He says Johnny is safe, and he’ll be in touch.”

Anthony’s mouth pinched, and he picked up the glass of whiskey in his hand. “That’s what’d they say even if my boy were at the bottom of the lake. Did he offer any proof?”

“No. But I think we may want to give Johnny some time to check in. Hear me out—” Trevor said, holding up a hand when Anthony snorted. “It’s not the first time he’s gone off the grid. I’ve spoken to my son—”

“Another worthless waste of space,” Anthony muttered.

“He knows the players better than we do. You know we never paid any attention to Port Charles before Johnny got mixed up with that girl. Richard has been in that circle, he’s been thrown out of that circle, and he was married to the nurse that Jason Morgan is linked with now. I think it’s worth considering his point of view on this matter.”

“Let me guess.” Anthony leaned forward, rested his elbows on the desk, steepled his fingers together. “He wants to sit and wait, too.” He said this with a sneer that had a dribble of sweat rolling down Trevor’s back.

“When I told him you thought maybe you’d grab the older kid from school to force Jason into telling you something, Ric seemed to think that was a poor choice. I know you and I both thought maybe it was a good move since it’s not Morgan’s kid. He’s just some bastard son — guy didn’t stick around long enough to even give the kid a name.”

Anthony shrugged lightly. “I wasn’t planning on hurting the kid. Just wanted to let Morgan know I meant business. What’s the harm? I’ll give him back, more or less the way I took him. I still think it’s a good idea—”

“But I went back, and I looked at our information, and I think maybe Richard’s got a point. This kid — Morgan’s been around that nurse since before this kid was born. And he’s been hanging around Corinthos’s ex-wife for days. He’s part of that circle now. And we know how Morgan felt about the older boy, the one who’s in the coma now. I’m thinking maybe he might be more attached than we thought. Let Johnny have twenty-four hours to get this sorted. If he doesn’t check in, we can talk about ways to send a message.”

Anthony studied him for a long moment, then relaxed his hands. “Ah, well, it’d be too late to grab the kid now anyway. But if that boy doesn’t get in touch before noon tomorrow, I’m giving the order.”

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