MARTYWRITES.COM Presents "WEB OF DECEIT"





CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

"She's where? Doing what?" Faison hung up his cellular phone and looked at Stuart Matthews who was enjoying a fine glass of Kentucky bourbon. Only the finest, he smiled, savoring his impending success. Faison chose to shatter Stuart's serenity. "You fool," he spat, moving from Helena to stand before the other man. "You were supposed to have Angela under control, out of sight. But, she's in Port Charles, at Luke's Club, and she's just been announced to be the newest model for Jax Cosmetics." Faison blew a cloud of cigar smoke into Stuart's face, and ordered. "You bring her in tonight, or, this will be your last night anywhere."

Blanching in spite of himself, Stuart set his glass down. "I think that you're making a mistake. Angela can be of use to us there, especially with Tom keeping an eye on her."

"You think that she's stable enough to do anything? She killed Victoria, and I won't forgive her for that. She killed because she enjoys killing and she thinks that she answers to no one."

Stuart grimaced, wishing for another soothing drink of bourbon to calm his nerves. "You brought Angela into this-you get rid of her."

"You wish for me to destroy your daughter?" Faison asked, blowing a smoke ring towards the ceiling as Helena watched, fascinated by him.

"My daughter?" Stuart asked. "I don't have any children."

"Does the name 'Rosemary' mean anything to you? I believe that you know her as Rosemary Andrews now, but back then, she was Rosemary Douglas. Of course, a man of your voracious appetites might not remember one woman from his much indulged past."

"Rosemary had my baby?" Stuart was stunned. "You're kidding."

"I never kid," Faison told him. "She was adopted by Frank and Linda White. Frank is dead, Linda will be shortly, and this is your last chance to remain among the living. Either you give me your complete cooperation, or you and Rosemary's baby will cease to exist."

"You wouldn't do that," Stuart maintained, watching what he was beginning to believe was the gleam of pure evil in Faison's eyes. "You need me and what I bring to this arrangement."

Shaking his head, Faison told him. "Stuart, you are a fool if you think that I don't always have contingency plans. Your death will be nothing more than a minor inconvenience. An extremely minor one, at that. Your associate, Peter Castle, will be most anxious to cooperate with us, and now that we have the formula, the one that Angela so sloppily obtained for us, we no longer need Matthews' Research." He smiled. "You know, I'm beginning to believe that your being alive is more of an inconvenience than your death will be." He snapped his fingers, and a pair of darkly clad men entered the room. "Mr. Matthews has outlived his usefulness to us. Dispose of him. Permanently. See to Angela's death, as well. Her body must never be discovered."

"NO!!!!" screamed Stuart as he was dragged from the room. "Please!"

"How tiresome," Helena observed, as she accepted Lesley Lu into her arms from the nanny who had just brought her into the room. "Hello, my child." She kissed the child on the cheek, and smiled. "She will be the most powerful woman in the world, someday. But, her name-it is no name for a Cassadine."

"I agree," Faison nodded. "How about Anna?"




"God, what a night!" Lucy muttered, as the last of the guests left the club. The doors were locked, and she turned to Luke who motioned her into the back office. "Boy am I parched!"

"She never got the chance to do anything to anybody's drink," Connor assured her. "She was watched every moment, but she never had any idea, because as far as she knew, everybody was staring because she's the new model."

"Great," Lucy said, accepting a tall glass from Luke. She took a few swallows, and smiled. "I love orange juice."

"Straight up," Luke grinned. "You need to be clear headed tonight." He motioned to Ned who had just arrived. "Ashton, what brings you here?"

"A few mutual acquaintances of ours will be incommunicado for a while, and you both need to know the details." His face was grim, and he suggested. "I could use a scotch, Luke. And, so could you."




"Mom," Chrissie asked. "Where's P.J.?"

"I thought he was with you," Suzi answered, taking the groceries out of the car. She'd planned to serve her son's favorite spaghetti, and was mentally reviewing her ingredients, hoping that she'd remembered everything. She was trying not to think about Jared, and his recent death. It shouldn't have affected her, she told herself, but it had, and every time she looked into Chrissie's dark eyes, she saw Jared's.

"He left this morning-gone to play tennis, I think. Dad just called asking for him-he seemed a little worried about him."

"Why?"

"I don't know. It was kind of weird, I thought."




"Anna?" asked Nik as he and Lucky hurried back to their room. They locked the door behind them, and secreted the pick that Lucky had used. "Who is that guy and what is he doing with Helena?"

"I don't know," Lucky answered. "But I've got a bad feeling about him."

"Same here. I hate to see Lesley Lu in their hands."

"At least we know that she's okay."

"And here. We need to figure out where here is and then how to get all of us away from here."

"We also need to find out what they are doing and how we can stop them. You don't think that this is just about us, do you?" Lucky shook his head and told him. "You really don't know just what your family, that is, the Cassadine family, has done in the past, do you?"

Nik shrugged. "Actually, I don't. I guess you could say that I've been sheltered."

"Then sit back, bro and let me enlighten you, and make you happy that you have Spencerian blood in your veins."

"That bad?"

"Worse than you ever thought," Lucky assured him. "You know, now that I know you're not a Cassadine, I feel a lot better about things."

"That makes one of us," Nik told him. "You try finding out that your entire life has been a lie and see how you feel."

"Guess it would make you a little upset," Lucky conceded. "But at least you've learned that you come from a long line of survivors with the best instincts around."

"Just keep telling me that," Nik muttered. "Because I think that we're going to need all those instincts to get out of this mess."

"We'll get out," Lucky promised him. "Dad will figure it out if we don't escape first."

"You have a lot of faith in him."

"You will, too. We Spencers stick together."

"If he ever accepts me."

"Now that we know you're not a Cassadine-no sweat. Of course, I hate to think how Dad is going to take knowing that Mom left you behind. And, just think of how Stefan is going to feel when he finds out that you're not a Cassadine, that he's carefully cultivated a Spencer all those years."

Nik sighed and sat back. "How would your dad feel, if the situation was reversed?"

"Man, I don't know," Lucky admitted. "He's going to be royally pi**ed off when he learns about you, but if he thought that I was a Cassadine.....jeez!!" Lucky smiled, and then added, "I'd make a lousy Cassadine. I mean, I can scheme with the best of them, but man, if I had to do any of that lordly brooding stuff that Stefan does...." He mimicked Stefan's expression, and Nik laughed.

"You know, you look just like Stefan when you do that."





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