He came out of nowhere. Sam felt the gun pressed to her side as soon as she alighted from the SUV, outside the offices of McCall and Jackal PI. Breath that smelled like stale onions and garlic, washed the side of her face when he whispered harshly close to her ear.
"Make any sudden moves and I'll shoot you right here. Give me your piece!"
She tried to see his face but he was angled behind her, poking her hard in the side to indicate she better not turn around.
"I'm not carrying anything."
Roughly, he groped her pockets then ran his hand around her waist, removing the small gun tucked in the back of her jeans.
"Nice try. Lie to me again and you'll regret it!"
Her voice was equally cold when she asked, "What do you want?"
He was steering her towards her office and Sam obeyed, knowing once she got inside all bets were off. He pushed the door open with his foot, an indication he'd been inside before she got there, as it was no longer locked. She fell to the chair in front of the desk where he shoved her, then stood directly before her, giving her the chance to see that she didn't recognize the dark haired grunge. As she studied the hard face and cold brown eyes, she realized that he didn't bother to have it covered. He wasn't trying to hide his face, which told her instantly he didn't plan for her to survive his visit.
"I told you I'd see you again."
The cold drawl of a familiar female voice sounded behind Sam from the direction of her bathroom, and after waiting patiently for her to make her way round to face her, Sam looked up cooly.
"I see you brought company this time. What's the matter, knew you couldn't take me by yourself?"
The next second, Sam's head snapped to the right when the lanky blonde slapped her as hard as she could, then stepped back to gloat at the angry red fingerprints that appeared across her cheek.
"My family had nothing to do with you! You just had to stick your nose where it didn't belong! Well, guess what, gangster chick - you're gonna give me every penny you shorted me, and then some! Where's the safe?"
"What safe?"
By the looks of things, they'd tossed the office thoroughly in their search and now she knew what they'd been looking for, but the safe in the room was well masked in clear view, the front of it designed to blend perfectly with the decor. Jason and Spinelli were the only other people who knew exactly where it was…these fools could look all day and they'd never spot it right in front of their noses.
"This doesn't have to get bloody - give me what you owe me and we'll leave."
"Listen, greedy bitch! Nobody owes you shit in this life! Try working for what you want, instead of running around with Dopey, robbing innocent people when they do!"
This time it was her boyfriend's fist that crashed into Sam's jaw, and after spitting out the blood that pooled in her mouth, she looked them one to the other, her anger growing in bounds when she plotted payback.
"Do we look like we're here to play nice, lady? You'll give us every penny in this place, or I'll gut you and watch you bleed, then find it myself!"
Sam sneered as she met his eyes in contempt. "You two really are as dumb as you look, aren't you? What type of money do you expect to find in a PI office?"
Onion breath knelt before her and gripped Sam's knee, digging bony fingers in while the yellow teeth grin with the missing incisors, nauseated her. "But you're not just a PI now, are you? You think we don't know you're washing money through here for your mob husband and Sonny Corinthos?"
The blonde grabbed a handful of Sam's hair and painfully yanked at the roots. "Enough wasting our time - show me the damn safe."
Gritting her teeth, Sam closed her eyes for a brief second while she willed herself to stay calm, then she opened them to seek out the skinny grunge. The gun was lowered and tapping his leg as he started pacing nervously in front of her, his ire growing at her lack of co-operation.
"There - is - no - safe." She dragged the sentence out to push a button, ready when it worked and brought the man striding over to hit her again. He punched her in the stomach and Sam doubled over as if in pain, at the same time reaching down to the leg of her jeans to come up swinging, stabbing him in the jaw with her trusty, leg-strapped companion, catching him completely off guard. Leaving the knife in, she scrambled up and over her desk, tumbling to the floor just before a shot sounded in her direction, following his grizzly, horrific howl of pain.
"Shoot that bitch!" The angry blonde's shout echoed her boyfriend's obvious sentiment when a second bullet zinged above Sam's head as she yanked the lower drawer open and reached inside to the bottom of the middle one, quickly unsnapping the loaded .357 magnum strapped there, dropping flat to her back, so the small space beneath the desk afforded a view of their legs as they shuffled to get around it. Taking quick aim, Sam fired and connected with the man's right foot, sending him dropping to the ground with a screech of pain that filled the room. With the excruciating pain to keep him busy, Sam aimed for the blonde, who had dropped to her knees near him in panic, her flashing hands relaying she had no clue what to do.
Jumping to her feet, Sam was just in time to get the drop on the woman who started scrambling to grab the gun from where it had fallen during her boyfriend's melee.
"Stop!" When she froze with a whimper, her hand hovering just above the piece, Sam finished circling the desk to order, "Slowly, slide it over here!"
After only a moment of hesitation, the woman did as she was told, and Sam, knowing the man still had the gun he'd taken from her earlier, used her foot to send it the rest of the way behind her, still covering them both as she reached for the phone on her desk, not too worried at the sight of him still gripping his ankle and howling like a banshee as he bled out. After requesting 9-1-1 assistance, Sam instructed the frightened woman to move back and take a seat on the floor, up against the far wall.
Kneeling in front of him and with the blonde still in eyeshot, Sam rested the cocked gun snugly to the side of his head, her eyes telling him to just try her.
"I have a very nervous trigger finger, so I wouldn't move an inch right now, if I were you!" She grabbed the left pocket of his coat, finding her gun there, taking it with her as she stepped back to brace herself against her desk to cover them both with a piece in each hand. The blonde was shaking and crying, eyeing her boyfriend's blood with a disgusted grimace on her face.
"This isn't right! You can't just do this to us - you butted into my life! Just let us go!"
Sam looked at the woman and remembered a time when running a con was what she knew, the only way that she lived, and she pictured herself where it ended up…on the business end of Bill Monroe's fists, scrambling for the shotgun that would save her life when he advanced with the intent to kill. She remembered how she turned things around in Port Charles, making something of herself and being so much the better for it. She thought about finding out about Alexis and how she'd given her up at birth, for her sake.
"You can stop wasting your breath - I don't feel the least bit, bad for you. You took a painful time in Justine's life, when she had to give up a baby she loved, so she could have a future, and you tried to milk those nice people out of what you think they owe you, when you're not even her? What exactly do they owe you for? Being too damn lazy to work for a living, like everybody else? Here's a free tip…when you and your mangy boyfriend finally get back into society, first learn how to bathe, then try earning your money. It's a whole lot sweeter to spend - I can tell you that! And a second tip, that might keep you alive…if there was mob money here and you got your greedy paws on it - do you have any idea how dead you would be before you even got to spend a penny?"
"Git me a docta!" The sad sound garbled from the floor, as the writhing and wailing continued.
The blonde was annoyed with it. "Oh, shut up, Carl - this is your fault! You let one tiny little woman get the jump on you?"
The sound of sirens filled the air, sending renewed panic through the young woman, and relief through Sam.
"Please, Sam? Please don't let them take me - I wasn't going to let him hurt you, I swear. We just wanted enough to get out of town and set up someplace. Let me go and I promise I'll never bother you again - please!"
Ignoring the trumped up pleas for mercy, Sam swung the door open to allow the first two armed officers entry, simultaneously raising her own guns, fingers off the triggers, as they swarmed in aiming at her.
"Put the guns down, now!"
She carefully held them out towards the nearest officer, who took both quickly and waved her back inside the room, two more following suit and quickly taking charge of the intruders, with paramedics in tow.
"Sam, everything okay here?"
She looked from the officer cuffing the weeping woman to see Dante Falconeri had entered her office and was studying the chaos.
"Yeah, it's under control."
"I can see that." Dante shook his head, looking in wonder at the tossed room, the subdued intruders who were twice her size, then back to the tiny woman with the big skills. "You do know that you're pint-sized, don't you? Cause I gotta tell you, everytime I find you in a situation like this, I have to wonder how the heck you do it?" He knew he wore a shocked expression but it was fully warranted. "You took these two all by yourself?"
Sam pushed her hair back from her face and let her hand rest there for one second. "They broke in and tossed the place, Dante - I had to protect myself!"
The Detective rolled into professional mode, raking the awe from his voice. "Okay, tell me what happened?"
It took the PCPD hours to process the scene, so after giving her statement to Dante and assuring him she didn't need the medical assistance that he offered, Sam left them to it and went home. She'd had enough of the day and just wanted a nice hot bath to wash those grimy people off her.
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Jason went to sit on the couch and sighed going down, throwing his head back in frustration at what he had to do. He'd just come from visiting Jake, where he'd been cornered by Elizabeth and given the shock of his most recent months. Just when he thought he had a new, clear path to what he truly wanted, to what he needed, she hit him with another brewing storm. He sighed again and looked at Sam, who had curled into the chair across from him, watching him curiously. She'd ducked him for weeks, even going on assignment for a few extremely long days, where he ached to join her, to watch her back, to keep her safe…but had to settle for visiting Danny at Alexis' instead. She'd finally stopped running and allowed infrequent, civil conversations between them, even as she still kept him at arm's length. He'd give anything not to have to utter the dreadful words he needed to now.
"Elizabeth thinks she's pregnant."
Sam knew something was off with him. The moment she saw him at the door, a mixture of anger and disbelief marring his handsome face, she knew something had happened.
"Thinks she is - the nurse doesn't know?"
"She hasn't taken a test yet - says she just knows her symptoms after having gone through it a few times now. I'm meeting her at GH in a couple hours to find out for sure."
Sam shrugged and shook her head dismissively, "She probably is…I've never known anyone more fertile in my life."
He knew her. Knew she wasn't as calm on the inside as she sounded out. "I wasn't trying for this, Sam." When she didn't look at him, his heart fell, feeling her pull even further away once again. Every single time he made a bit of headway and started to let him in - wham! Every time! "I was always careful…this is totally unexpected."
"Pregnancy is a very real part of having sex, Jason, so you have to expect it's a possibility when you engage." She tried not to let the rapid increased pounding of her heart affect her mood when she whispered below her breath, "Unless you're me."
"I know, but we were both being careful - I swear. She wasn't anymore ready for another one than I was."
A strained silence developed between them and neither wanted it there. Sam knew the woman would stop at nothing to get him back and she knew very well the lengths she would go to appear innocent, while she struck the mostly deadly blow. She'd just been toying with the idea of lowering her walls and allowing him to get a little closer. Good thing she hadn't.
"What are you going to do?"
"I'm not going back to her, if that's what you're asking." His soft voice washed the space between them as he ached to pull her close. All during the tirade from earlier, the only thing he could think about was what this news would do to the fragile link he'd finally managed to bridge between them. He couldn't afford to let Elizabeth destroy that now.
Sam was equally soft spoken. "It's not…but you've laid yourself at her feet before when she told you she was pregnant, even when she said the kid wasn't yours…what makes now any different? You always thought she needed a husband and father for them, and you've quite willingly, offered to fill that role…more than once."
Sting! Jason looked at her lowered eyes as she studied a raised knee on the opposite chair, mentally kicking himself for how much he'd hurt her. What had been the matter with him? Had he always been just a blind man walking? The lack of competition was so blatantly evident that he couldn't understand for the life of him, how he ever let her get away from him. How he ever did anything to hurt her.