Chapter 14

Grabbing the Fire Marshal, Dante shouted, "What do you mean you don't know if you can find anything? There's got to be something to tell if Lulu was in that explosion. I don't care if you have to sift thru that rubble particle by particle. You're going to find something."

"Dante, let go," Lucky said. "They are going to do everything humanly possible to find something. I know you're upset, I am too, but we have to let them do their job. Man, there is nothing we can do but wait."

Stalking off from the Fire Marshal and Lucky, all Dante could do was stare at the destroyed building. She can't be dead, he thought, I would know it.

"Lucky, I'm going back to the station. I'm going to finish checking out those names we have. Maybe I can get a hit off of something," Dante hollered to Lucky.

"I'm coming too, there is nothing we can do here," Lucky said. "I need to tell Dad and Ethan what happened. Maybe they can come up with something else on these guys descriptions."

Throwing his pen down and running his hands thru his hair, Dante leaned back in his chair. He was exhausted. It was mid morning and he had been at this for hours. It was almost twenty fours hours since Lulu had been kidnapped and nothing. Not one single hit on the names that Sonny and Luke had given them.

Sitting a cup of coffee down in front of Dante, Lucky asked, "You never said what Lulu wanted to see me about. I know this is not the time, but I've got to think about something else."

"We wanted to talk to you about your house. We wanted to know if you would consider renting or selling to us. Lulu's apartment is too little and I only had my room above Kelly's," Dante stated.

"So you and my sister were going to move in together? What's wrong with a different apartment? What was the big deal about the house?" a stunned Lucky asked.

"Lulu and I are going to live together. There is no proof yet that she was in that building. I asked Lulu to marry me and I want to spend the rest of my life with her. Lulu wanted to do that in that house," Dante answered. "Actually, if you agree, I would like to start moving in as soon as possible. That way it will be ready when we find her."

"Dante, I don't want to face reality anymore than you do, but Lulu may be gone. We need to prepare ourselves for that," Lucky solemnly stated.

"Look," Dante angrily said, "even if Lulu died in that explosion, I would still want to live there. We wanted to start our life there together. Besides that, Lulu is not dead. She was at the wrong place at the wrong time. We hadn't even gotten a call or ransom note. Nothing. There was no reason to kill her yet and until I have something concrete in my hand that she was in that explosion, I'll never believe she is dead. Shoving his chair against the desk, Dante bitterly said, "I've got to get out of here for a while and clear my head."

Meanwhile Lulu and Kristina

Jumping up from the cot, Lulu grabbed a disheveled Kristina and asked, "Are you OK?"

"I'm fine, but Lulu, what do they want with us?" a distraught Kristina asked.

"They want Sonny's territory. My guess is that they are going to trade us once Sonny gives it up," Lulu stated. "Krissy, where did they get you at? Do you remember how long it took to get here?

"I was outside of Kelly's. I went to get breakfast before school. Maybe an hour or so. Why?" a confused Kristina asked.

"So it's still early. Good. That give us time to come up with a plan to get out of here hopefully," Lulu declared. "I was knocked out when we left the Haunted Star and I woke up in a warehouse strapped to a bomb. I don't really know where the warehouse was. I guess we could still have been in Port Charles.

"What do you mean strapped to a bomb? Oh my gosh, Lulu, what happened to you hand? It's crushed. Your knuckles are flat," Kristina cried.

"I tried to escape yesterday. One of the goons stepped on my hand and said I wouldn't be picking anymore locks for a while. You don't happen to have any bobby pins in your hair do you? I can't do much with this hand but I think I can still pick a lock. I was trying to get a wire broke off from the cot springs but I wasn't having any luck," Lulu explained.

Standing up as the door opened, Lulu stepped protectively in front of Kristina as Julio can in with some food.

"Well I hear we had some excitement last night", Rivera said and he stood in the doorway. "I suggest you make yourself comfortable and don't try anything else. Sonny is being contacted as we speak. As soon as he turns his business and territory over to me, one of you will be released. There will be a meeting tomorrow to go over the details. Don't make this harder than it has to be," Rivera said as he gave them a hard look before walking out the door.

"Wait. What do you mean; one of us will be released." Lulu asked.

"Just what I said. The video of your last forty-five minutes was sent to the PCPD. Everyone thinks your dead. No one will know different until Corinthos's daughter is released and you will be long gone. You are my guarantee that Corinthos won't retaliate." Rivera said walking out the door.

"Kristina, we need to eat and try to rest because tomorrow we need to try to get away from here. How many were with him when they grabbed you?" Lulu asked as she sat down to eat.

"Rivera and three others. Why?" Kristina asked as she reached for something to eat.

"There were only Rivera and two more at the Haunted Star. So that's a total of six, maybe seven at the most. Rivera will take extra men with him to the meeting in case something goes wrong. That will leave one maybe two here. That's when we need to make our move.

Back at the station

"Dante, I'm sorry about before. This is hard on both of us. Here are the keys to the house. I understand where you're coming from but we're cops. We both know the outcome might not be good," Lucky said empathetically.

"Dante," Sonny shouted as he came thru the station door. "I just got a message that this same guy has Kristina. He wants to set up a meeting."

"What about Lulu? Did he mention anything about Lulu?

"Dante, I'm sorry," Sonny said shaking his head, "there was no mention of Lulu. The note says he wants a meeting tomorrow. He says that he will contact me later with the details."

"You can't risk anything tomorrow. You have play by his rules until we find out what he wants. You can't risk Lulu and Kristina," Dante said.

"What's Kristina have to do with this," Ethan asked as he and Luke walked up.

"Lucky, I thought you said Lulu was in a building that exploded?" a confused Luke asked his son.

"Dad, all we know is that the same guy that had Lulu now has Kristina. He sent Sonny a message that he wants a meeting tomorrow. Kristina will be released when he gets what he wants. There was no mention of Lulu. Until we get the reports back, we don't know anything about Lulu. I didn't want to tell Mom until I know something more.

"Detectives, we've got some preliminary reports back. There were traces of Lulu's DNA in that building. With the amount of explosives in that warehouse, that might be all we get," Mac told the rattled group.

"Well I guess I better go tell Mom. I don't want her to hear this from someone else. Dad, do you want to come?" Lucky asked a shocked Luke.

"Son, Dante, I'm sorry. I know how much Lulu meant to you," Sonny told a distraught Dante.

"I'm not your son and you don't know anything about me or my life with Lulu. This is all your fault." Clutching the house keys in his hand, Dante walked away from Sonny.