A DARK AND TWISTED LOVE


CHAPTER ELEVEN


"I'm going to talk with Luke this morning," Lucy told Kevin as she applied her makeup.

"Going to get your stories straight?" Kevin teased. "You know, I really don't like this, Lucy. You didn't tell the authorities that you saw Nikolas Cassadine leaving the direction of the scene of the crime yesterday, did you?"

"Not exactly," Lucy admitted. "There's no law against running in the park, and certainly nothing that would indicate that he'd just offed Kat. Besides, they were friends."

"And, let me guess on this one. You can't honestly swear that you had your eyes on Luke Spencer the entire time that he was in the park."

"Of course not," Lucy told him. "I didn't see him until he'd come close enough for me to see, and then..."

"And then? Exactly how long was he out of your eyesight, Lucy?"

She was silent, so Kevin continued, "Long enough for him to have killed Kat?"

"Luke did not kill Kat," Lucy informed Kevin in no uncertain terms. "Not that he might not have wished to, but if he was going to kill someone, he wouldn't sneak up behind them and strangle them with a cord. He’s more direct."

"That's comforting," Kevin commented. "Though I tend to agree with you. Still, I'd rather that you didn't get involved with him and his problems at the moment. You are, after all, just getting out of the hospital, and Luke's difficulties tend towards danger."

"Like yours don't?" Lucy asked, pointedly. "Don't try to talk me out of this, Kevin. Luke's been my friend for a long time, and I'm not going to jump ship on him now."

"And if I ask you not to do it?"

"Don't ask, Doc."

"Look, Lucy. You married that jerk, Stanton, to save Serena, and that whole fiasco nearly got you killed. You've lost your business, and you're still recovering. You don't need to heap more on your plate just now."

"Doc," Lucy warned, ominously. "Luke would help me, if I asked."

"Did he when I was losing it? I distinctly recall learning that his problems back then were such that you were left to manage very nearly on your own, and that if Mac Scorpio hadn't been in charge, hadn't hesitated when you begged him, then I'd probably be dead."

"You see?? I had to help. It was my karma to help you."

"Me, Lucy. Not Luke Spencer. Leave that to Laura."




Laura rolled over and smiled at the man who had shared her bed the night before. He opened sleepy eyes and smiled back. "Good morning, luv. I take it your other half hasn't returned and demanded my hide?"

"He doesn't know about your hide, nor do I intend to tell him." She shrugged as she sat up. "He wouldn't understand."

"We men do tend to be a little territorial over our women," the man grinned. "Which is why I don’t have one of my own. I can't imagine getting all worked up over a woman doing what I'm doing enough to ask her to make anything permanent."

"And if you did?"

"I won't. I'm quite pleased with things as they are just now." He chuckled, and then sat up in bed beside her. He tipped her mouth to his, and kissed her gently. "I'm not the marrying kind, Laura, and you knew that when we began this affair. Everything that we're doing will be mutually beneficial, and as pleasurable as we can make it. When it's over, when everything is said and done, we part as friends." He looked down at her and kissed her deeply. "Very good friends."


Luke Spencer moaned and held his aching head. Sitting up, he wished that he had just gone somewhere and quietly died the night before rather than endure the pounding that was going on inside his head.

"Luke! Luke!! Open up!"

"Quit pounding," Luke grumbled as he staggered to the door and with no small effort, opened it. Lucy was standing before him, attired in what had to be highlighter yellow. He winced and closed his eyes. "Well, if it isn't little Miss Sunshine. What's the matter, Luce? Can't find any clouds?"

"Fumes is more like it," she snapped back. "Good grief, Luke. This place reeks of.." She sniffed...." What all have you been drinking?"

"Anything that couldn't run faster than I could."

"Eeeuuwww! You want to tell me what's going on? Don’t tell me this has anything to do with finding Kat, because I know better. You didn't care what happened to her." Lucy looked closely at him. "You can't go on like this, Luke. When is Laura coming home?"

"She's home, Lucy."

"And you're here? What the hell is going on?"

Luke staggered to his feet in search of another bottle, which Lucy briskly removed from his hands. "Don't do that, Lucy. Don't get in my way."

"Friends don't let friends drink drunk," Lucy paraphrased. "You've had enough."

"There isn't enough," Luke told her, and reached for the bottle. Lucy swiftly upended it in the philodendron that Laura had placed in Luke's office some months earlier.

"There. Now, unless you want me to do that with all of the liquor, you'd better sit down and tell me what the hell is going on."

Luke closed his eyes and shut her out, so Lucy did the first thing that came to her mind. She walked out to the bar and got a pitcher of water, which she quickly turned over Luke's head. Sputtering with rage, Luke's eyes flew open and he surged to his feet, swearing vociferously.

"Now, what's wrong?" Lucy demanded. "What’s going on?"

"I think I'm going to be sick," Luke warned, and then dashed from the desk into the nearby bathroom where he relieved himself of much of the previous night’s poisons. He sat heavily on the toilet; his head in his hands, feeling sick at heart, as well as in body, and that was where Lucy found him moments later.

"You're going to talk to me, Luke Spencer, if I have to drag it out of you word by word."

"I just want to be left alone," Luke groaned. "Go away, Lucy."

"I'm not going away. You need to talk. Is this about Kat?"

"God, Lucy. Kat wasn't worth a drink of water."

"Then it's about Laura?"

"And Lucky, and my whole $%^&* life."

"And?"

"Have you ever made mistakes that you couldn't take back, mistakes that affected your entire life and the lives of those around you, even the lives of those not yet born?"

Lucy paused and thought about that. "This goes back that far?"

"Yes. I raped my wife and my son found out and he hates my guts. He even hates Laura's guts."

Lucy digested that for a few minutes. "I, uh, see. Okay, Luke. That was years ago and you and Laura have worked through it. Right? See, I’m guessing that she and you wouldn't have er, married, if you hadn't. Right?"

"Who the hell knows? I thought we had, but now I'm not so sure. Nikolas..."

"Nikolas is Stavros' son from the time she was kidnapped. Right?"

"Wrong," Luke answered. "Stefan thought that Nik was his."

"Yikes."

"Yikes, indeed. Why didn't you just let me die?"

"Because you're my friend, and I don't have that many. So apparently Laura and Stefan had a thing going on the island. So what? She thought that you were dead, and Stavros was a pig. Wait a minute. You said that Stefan thought that Nik was his. He isn't?" As Luke shook his head, Lucy asked, "Then whose is he?"

"At this point, I don't give a damn. Laura told Stefan that Lucky was his."

"Holy ****! Lucy dropped to her knees beside Luke. "I'm so sorry," she told him. "Lucky knows?"

Luke nodded. "He knows because Nik told him."

"I see. So Lucky hates your guts because of something that happened to you and Laura years ago, something that you and she got past?"

"That's just it. Maybe she didn't get past it."

"What makes you think that?"

"Because Kat told me that Laura and Stefan were...you know.... getting it on in the study on Spoon Island yesterday. That was why Kat was so mad. She was leaving Stefan and wanted me to go after Stefan. That was going to be her revenge."

"Bitch!"

"Aren't you going to join the group arranging to lynch me?"

"Hell no," Lucy answered. "I figure that living with Laura, the goddess of goodness and purity has been punishment enough."

"I did everything I could to make up for what I did. I built my whole %^&*world around her, gave her everything I had, and now I find out that it's all been a big lie, and that she has the hots for Stefan."

"Did you confront her about this?"

"She knows that I know."

"And?"

"She says that she loves me."

"She's sleeping with another man and she tells you that she loves you? You're not buying that, I hope."

"Nope," Luke answered. "I’m not buying it."

"So what are you going to do?"

"I don't know that, either," Luke answered.

"Let me make a suggestion," came a voice from the bathroom door. Luke and Lucy looked up to see Garcia standing there. He smiled at the two of them.

"Why don't the two of you come back down to headquarters with me and let's talk about the murder."

"Oh, god," Luke groaned. "I really don’t need this today."

"Kat didn't need to get murdered, either," Garcia pointed out. "But she did, and we're wondering who did it. Signs point to you."

"I told you that I didn't kill her," Luke told him. "And I didn't."

"And I told you that I was with him and I can vouch for him," Lucy told Garcia. "He didn't kill Kat."

Garcia nodded thoughtfully. "Frankly, Spencer, I believe you, but there are questions that need to be answered. Questions about why you and Kat were arguing in your club yesterday."

Luke looked miserable, and stricken with an inspiration, Lucy spoke up. "Because Kat found out about us."

Garcia looked incredulously at Lucy who began to spin a tale of deception and desire. "You see, Laura suspected that we'd had something going for a while, and she asked Stefan to find out for sure. I think that Laura has been a little too sensitive about her figure lately—having babies does tend to add a few pounds to some women. Of course, there are those of us who work it right off. "

Anyhow, Laura was, well, let’s call it what it is. She was jealous of me and Kat thought that Laura and Stefan were....you know, seeing each other, and she got mad. She went to Luke to demand that he do something. Kat had trouble holding onto a man, you see. There was Scott Baldwin who left her at the altar—of course that was my fault, as I told Scotty that Kat was after his money, which she was.

"Then there was Damian Smith, her mobboss honey whom she dumped for Ned Ashton, who was already married to Lois and dumped Kat rather publicly when Lois jumped out of a cake at the Outback. Of course, dumping Damian nearly got her killed, nearly got me killed, but we saved her bacon, and then she latched onto Mac Scorpio, whom she tried to remake as a stuffed suit, and now Stefan Cassadine who put her out in the garden shack which has since become known as the "Katbox". She thought that if Luke got Laura back in line, that she and Stefan could live happily ever after, but I could have told her that she was fighting a losing battle.

"You see, a man doesn't put his future wife up in his little love nest while everybody else lives at the big house. Kat was never going to be more than his shack-up honey and she was having trouble with that idea."

"You and Luke?" Garcia was stuck on that first revelation. The rest of the rambling tale had sort of gone over his head. Luke watched in awe as Lucy numbed Garcia into compliance with her outrageous tale mixing truth and fiction.

"It's sort of complicated," Lucy continued, weaving her story. "You see, Laura has been gone for a long time, and, well, one thing led to another. And another. And now, I guess, the truth is out. I'm sorry, Luke, but you wouldn't listen when I told you not to put my shoe over the bar. Laura has never really forgiven you for that."

"But Kevin? I thought that you and...wait a minute. You married that Stanton guy."

"Which really made Kevin angry."

"You lost me, Lucy," Garcia told her. "Does Kevin know about your 'thing' with Luke?"

"I think that he suspects," Lucy confided, "and I really don't want to hurt his feelings. He’s so sweet, and I really do love him, but he, well, he has no sense of adventure. I mean, Kevin is all about what goes on inside your head, while I'm about everything else. You see, it all started in Puerto Rico..."