MARTYWRITES.COM Presents "WEB OF DECEIT"





CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

"I can't believe that you arranged this so quickly," Connor remarked to Lucy who was standing at the bar at Luke's club. "Two days notice and this place is crammed with people." The club was, indeed, jam packed, but Lucy simply accepted it as her due.

"I announced that we were having a party tonight for the newest face of Jax Cosmetics. We have Brenda, a gorgeous, dark-eyed brunette, and now we have Angela, the face of puckish innocence." She looked around. "If she ever shows up."

"She'll be here," Connor promised. "She won't be able to resist the adulation. I just hope that she won't recognize me."

"Your disguise is perfect," Lucy assured him. "You look totally different in red hair and mustache. The change of clothes, and accent-you're safe this evening."

"I just hope that you are. Remember-don't drink or eat anything this evening unless I give it to you, and only then. If she tries to give you those drops-it only takes an instant to drug your drink. The odds are that 'Tom Hardy' will be here, but so will several of our people, Mac included. I spoke with him this afternoon, and filled him in on what we've learned."

"Does he know about..."

"Not yet. The fewer people who know about them, the better." Connor looked around, noting the absence of a few people he'd have expected to show up. "I wonder where Sonny and Jason are?

Lucy gave him a curious look, and then shrugged. "Luke hasn't arrived yet, either. He was really antsy when he left here earlier. I wonder what he knows that we don't know?"

Connor shook his head, then nodded towards the door. "Here comes Katherine Bell. There's Felicia." Connor smiled, and for a minute, Lucy detected what she thought was more than average male interest.

"She's free just now," Lucy remarked. "She and Tom broke up not long ago."

"Oh really?" Connor gave a dimpled grin. "Then I'll have to pay her a visit soon. Very soon." Then, his expression changed to one of guarded observation. "And here's our special guest."

Angela strolled in, demurely dressed in a summer dress of white cotton with eyelet embroidered lace framing a modestly scooped neck in the front. As she turned to smile at Luke who was now welcoming guests at the door, the back of the dress told Lucy what she already knew. A deep vee in the back dipped well below Angela's waistline. Yes, Angela was, at once, both more and less than she appeared to be. With a smile carefully in place, Lucy called to her newest employee. "Angela!!! Welcome to Luke's Club."

Angela turned to smile back at her. "Ms. Coe! This is so...incredible! I'm sure that this will be a night I'll never forget!"

"Nor will I," Lucy agreed fervently as Connor melted back into the crowd. "Neither will I."




"So, where are we?" Lucky asked as he and Nikolas crept through the secret passages of the mansion in which they'd been imprisoned. "You got any clues?"

"No idea," Nikolas answered. "There are things here that I recognize from my childhood, but I know that we're not on our island off the coast of Greece. I know every inch of that place, and this isn't it."

"Okay, but you seem to know a lot about the place, all the same."

"Yeah, I know. I'd guess that whoever designed it must have been the same person that designed Wyndemere and the mansion at home. What seems unique and secretive at first becomes obvious when used repeatedly. Like this-see this lever? It opens to the drawing room....wait, shhhhh there's somebody down there." Both boys listened quietly as Helena talked with a man of relatively small stature who stood smoking a thin cigar.

"How much longer until we act?" Helena asked, oblivious to the fact that she was being observed from above. As they spoke, the butler announced a visitor.

"Mr. Matthews is here."

"Good evening." Stuart Matthews smiled at the other two people and continued. "Sonny Corinthos is ours."




"Sonny," Jason began again, trying to relax against the ropes that bound him.

"Shut the **** up!" Sonny said, lashing out in his anger and hitting him with his clinched fist. Jason recoiled from the blow, but was unable to strike back. "You think that it's all a game, that since you're a Quartermaine that everything will come out all right. You've been laughing at me all along. The "brain-damaged" rich kid who has been working to set up the mobster. God, what a fool I've been! I show you compassion, and you turn on me. I should have known better than to trust a Quartermaine."

"Let us help you," Robin tried, but to her horror, Sonny brought the back of his hand against her cheek, leaving her gasping with pain, and Jason straining against the ropes.

"Help me? Don't tell me," Sonny mocked, his tone frightening Robin more than she'd thought possible. "You want me to do a 180 and join the other side. Right? I don't think so. I like what I do, and what I am. You know what I am?? I'm the most powerful organized crime boss on the East Coast. That means that I don't take **** like this from anybody, least of all from people that I trusted, people who said that they were my friends."

"Sonny," Robin started, her eyes beseeching him. "Stone wouldn't have wanted you to hurt us."

"Stone?" Sonny paused, and then sneered. "Stone is dead. Remember? Dead! But, he was loyal until the end, unlike you. I loved you like a little sister-like my own blood, and this is how you repay me? How you honor Stone's memory?"

"I'm honoring Stone's memory by trying to save you from yourself," Robin told him, blinking back her tears. "He loved you and he wouldn't want to see you in jail which is where you're going to go."

"Because my 'friends' set me up," Sonny pointed out, his voice dripping contempt. "Sorry, Robin, but that won't work. Now, who besides Taggert knows? Uncle Mac maybe?"

Robin and Jason remained silent, as Sonny's rage built. Once more, he backhanded Robin again, taunting Jason with her pain. "Come on, Jason. You gonna sit there and watch Robin suffer? I'll make it quick if you tell me now, but if you waste more of my time, she'll scream. I'm warning you, Jason." He turned to Robin, and continued, "Or, maybe I should get Robin to talk. If she's been working with you, then she probably knows as much as you do. What do you think, Robin? Maybe I should shoot his knees? One at a time?? You know that you're going to talk, sooner or later. I just need names." Sonny took out his gun, and aimed at Jason's left knee. "Come on, Robin. Talk to me."

"You want names?" came a voice from the darkened corner of the building.

Sonny turned around to face the familiar voice, surprise mirrored on his face. Emerging from the shadows, Ned Ashton, sauntered into view, a mocking smile on his face. "I've got names."





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