Authors Note – hey everyone! Sorry I haven't updated in a while. Here's chapter 7, and hopefully I'll be faster next time

Chapter 7

"What is it?" Jason raced into Sonny's office, shutting the door behind him.

"It's Dante," replied Sonny as he stood up from his desk chair. "Some escaped convict named Ralph Maszen is after him. He was spotted by the pier."

"What does he look like?"

"Here," Sonny fished around in his desk drawer, pulling out the two photos. He handed them to Jason, who looked briefly before flipping them over and reading the notes.

"Franco," whispered Jason under his breath. "This is the kind of thing Franco would do."

Sonny nodded. "Then you know what we're up against. Take him down before Dante or someone he loves ends up dead."

"Are you sure? With Dante out of the picture –"

"Just do what I asked. Kill Ralph. Now."

Jason nodded. "Fine. He'll be out of your hair in no time."

After Jason left, Sonny poured himself a drink and sat back down. He examined the picture closely for some hidden or cryptic meaning, something Franco would have left. But nothing really caught his eye. Frustrated, he threw the picture down and opened his top desk drawer. Inside was a gun.

Sonny had a feeling he'd need to use it soon.


It was a very tiring day for Lulu. After Dante had left in the morning, she'd gone to work with an exhausted Maxie. Of course, Kate had hated the layout, and Lulu had spent the entire day re-doing it. It was the very least she could do for her best friend, who'd pulled an all-nighter for her. Maxie, on the other hand, spent the day napping and pretending to help Lulu whenever Kate decided to check in on them.

When it was time for the girls to go home, Maxie had driven over to see Spinelli. Lulu went over to Kelly's to see Dante.

As she walked into the diner, Lulu spotted Kristina sitting in a corner table. Her eyes were bloodshot, and she was shaking. Immediately, she ran over to see her.

"Kristina?" Lulu sat down opposite of her and brushed some hair out of Kristina's face. Ever since the truth about Sonny being Dante's father had come out, Lulu had seen a lot more of Kristina. She was, after all, Dante's sister.

Kristina glanced up at Lulu briefly before looking back down at her lap. "I-I'm fine," she stuttered.

"No, you're not. What happened?"

"Nothing. Just-just a bad mark. I f-failed a t-test. It was an imp-important one t-t-to," Kristina started to cry a little harder. Lulu didn't believe that that was the case, but she knew Kristina wouldn't give her any more information.

"Why don't you come with me to visit Dante? His room's here. He'd probably be able to help you better than I could."

"No." Kristina was defiant. She rubbed her eyes and stood up, grabbing her purse. "Thanks Lulu, but it's okay. I need to get home anyways."

Lulu waved as Kristina left, and then made her way up to Dante's room. She decided not to tell him about his sister because it would just be another source of stress he didn't need. Taking a breath and fixing her hair, she knocked on the door.

"Hi," Dante stood in the open doorway without a shirt, looking surprised to see her.

"Hey, handsome," Lulu kissed him on the cheek and walked into the little room. She went over to the window immediately and looked out, spotting Kristina pushing someone away. "Who's that?" she whispered more to herself than to anyone else.

Dante joined her at the window. "Hey, isn't that Kristina? And that guy, he's," he paused to think, "He's her boyfriend, Kiefer."

Outside the window, Kristina was pushing Kiefer away, but he grabbed her arm roughly. It looked like he could be yelling at her.

Dante turned around and picked up a wrinkled shirt from his bed. After putting it on, he said, "That freak, Kiefer what's-his-face, tried to hurt Morgan a while back. I'm not going to let him hurt Krissy too." With that Dante was gone, the door left open behind him.

Lulu didn't follow him. Instead, she remained at the window to watch over Kristina. Kiefer still had a hold on her arm, and he began to back her up towards the brick wall. That was when Dante came out the diner's front door and grabbed Kiefer's shoulders. Lulu couldn't hear anything so she cracked open the window.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Dante shouted as he smashed Kiefer up against the wall. "Kristina, go to my room," he added harshly as Kristina, clutching her arm where Kiefer had grabbed her, started to walk over to the door.

"Don't you dare, Kay," said Kiefer flatly. Dante pushed Kiefer harder into the wall, but Kristina paused.

"Go!" yelled Dante, and she ran into the diner.

A couple of seconds later, someone came to break up the guys, and Kiefer took off. Dante, shaking his head, followed Kristina into Kelly's.

Lulu heard a feeble knocking on the door and opened it right away. "Kristina," she whispered, wrapping an arm around her boyfriend's crying little sister. "Here, come sit." Lulu lead Kristina over to the bed and sat her down, just as Dante stormed in.

"That son of a-" he began, but stopped once he saw Kristina collapsed in tears next to Lulu. "Krissy," he sat down on her other side and rubbed her back.

"I-I'm fine," she whispered, looking up at the both of them. "Really. M-me and Kiefer d-don't fight a-a lot. I-I don't know w-what ha-happened."

Lulu looked over at Dante, who shook his head as if to say she's lying. Taking a breath, Lulu said quietly, "C'mon Kristina, I'll drive you home." Kristina nodded, and they stood up. Dante kissed his girlfriend, hugged his sister, and watched the two of them leave.

Overall, not the evening he'd been expecting.