Love takes off masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within. James Arthur Baldwin

Patience, in his opinion, always tended to widen the gap for error.

In the past, he never gave that chance a possibility. Immediate action and fast efficient results were a critical part of his line of work and the people he paid, but this assignment was turning all his hard and fast rules upside down.

This was supposed to be easy. In and out. Get the job, erase the problem and wipe away the trail of evidence into nonexistence. Jason and him had been the best at these sort of " problems." It was the main distinction that extended their authority above the rest of the New York bosses.

The West Coast men have been hearing stirrings as well, wanted to do business, get their noses wet with the action that had been whispered around in their hotels and casinos.

Sonny, of course, would oblige. He was a man of equal opportunity. He would never shut anyone out that was willing to pay for his protection, services, name or all of thee above. He liked the power and loved the dollar bill signs that registered in men's eyes when they heard the well-known proficiency his name carried.

More money for them meant more power and money for him in the end.

But this one case was fucking everything up. Jason was…

Sonny shook his head, not willing to go there yet when he didn't have any concrete information.

He didn't understand how one little job had bloomed into this total nightmare. This was supposed to be hush hush, no one, not even his men were in on this particular job. He wanted it advertised after Mr. Webber was fish food what had happened. So people would know- would gasp in the horror that even a legit accountant was in fear of his life if he crossed the line.

Now everyone knew. Sonny had to find things out, gut out for the truth until the lies came spurting forth like the fucking inside of a dead animal. Now it didn't matter how sloppy or publicized this thing was becoming. He needed to know, needed to find the lying pricks who did this and make them suffer and if that meant the unintentional damage to his operation, he would pay the price and make repairs later.

Nothing was permanent that he couldn't fix it. No one, no one was irreplaceable.

He hated waiting. Waiting always reminded him of being detained like in school when he had to be at the mercy of some higher ruling. Being small, insignificant was not something Sonny every wanted to revisit emotionally.

So when the shrill of the phone cracked like a whip in the empty room Sonny didn't wait, even for the first ring to finish. Jamming the button down Sonny answered, borderline agitated and the conversation had even started yet. " Yeah."

" Boss, its Gino. We just got back. We're on our way home."

" Tell me what you found out." Sonny asked as he peered out his window. His form the only presence and light in the room.

" Well, we tapped into the main database of the warehouse, made a duplicate of Mrs. Genario's computer's memory ….she, uh, found Mr. Morgan's private files, pictures."

" When was this?"

" Beginning of September."

Sonny bit down, feeling a convulsion of rage steam up in his body, but he remained calm in his delivery. " That's what I thought. Anything else?"

" Nothing except…" He traveled off.

" What?" He spit out, pushing his fisted hand into his pant pockets.

" Well, while we were accessing the memory and a bill was brought up for a leased mini van under the name Douglas Whitemore. It was purchased and received the same week as the files were. The description of the minivan wasn't familiar to anyone when we asked around, but we found out that that was the same car that was found when cops put out an apb after the Webbers went missing. Anyway, we found out it was the same one the cops discovered two days later in Kentucky somewhere. We got a hold of the police files and it was identical in license plate and everything to the car that was seen in front of the Webber house the morning they disappeared."

" Really." Sonny drawled, cupping his chin. " What do you think that means?"

" I don't know…maybe they were up to something…"

" Or," Sonny added, his voice a deep shake, " maybe someone tipped them off…"

There was a pause. " What do you want us to do?"

" Get rid it all. Go to the Genario's house. You know the rest." Sonny ordered mechanically, his monotone voice not deviating for a second. " Stay out of sight for a couple days. Things are going to go down and I need clearance. If anything happens I'll be in touch."

He clicked the phone off before waiting for their response. Sonny was never one to linger for a person's farewell, no matter who it was. He pressed speed dial five and hoped to god that Anthony was smart and didn't hold him up. He was in no mood for games. It was finally time for action and Sonny's blood was boiling to the highest degree under his silk blue shirt.

" Hello?"

" What the hell are doing?"

" I was just about to call you…I'm on my way back." Anthony explained, his voice cracking.

" You find anything?"

" Jason was there."

" Yea."

" But he wasn't alone."

Sonny paused, all motion inside him stopped like freeze frame. " Who was with him?"

" A woman…a woman matching the description of the girl you told me." There was a short bout of silence before he continued his report. " All I saw was shadows, but it was definitely Jason and some woman. She was small, tiny build….they were…they seemed like they were close."

" Close," he said the word like a curse.

" Well, I don't know how close…they were in the kitchen and they were kissing-"

" Enough. I don't need to hear the rest. Get you ass back here and bring Ritchie to the penthouse."

" Max?"

" Did I ask for Max? No. Just bring Ritchie and if any of the other guys ask where you're going tell them you're taking a trip to the city or something. I don't want them to know what's going on."

" Is …did something happening?" Anthony didn't hide the excitement in his question.

" Yeah, something's going to happen. Something big." Sonny answered with a deceptive sliver in his voice, but of course, it went unnoticed to the unwitting guard. " And only you can help me."

She didn't know what woke her first, the light flutter soothing its way up and down her spine in warm pressing intervals or the simultaneously expanding soreness working through her...ready to do battle for reign in sensation.

Elizabeth didn't care. The weight of what felt like fifty men was on her, her nose was stuffy, her eyes itchy like someone had poured dust under her eyelids, and she was pretty positive the temperature in her body had depleted to the singular digits.

Pushing the covers over her shoulders she suddenly remembered her nakedness. She was completely and totally bare under the comforter. And since she knew a third leg hadn't sprouted out of some orifice of her body in the middle of the night, it had to be Jason's leg tucked very high and snug between Elizabeth's thighs; along with the drape of his fingertips on her hip, dangling onto her back so that every time she breathed out the callous ends grazed her.

God only knew where the rest of him was. Elizabeth dared herself to open at least one eye; semi mortified, mostly elated at seeing his sleepy face close to hers. Wondering if his mouth would be soft, wandering towards a smile as it was last night or would the permanent straight line that was all Jason be set in place.

She missed him.

Sleeping took up too much time. But both were exhausted beyond the limits of normal tiredness and resting had become a requirement after the seventh time of making love. Funny, thinking about any one specific sensation made all the other glorious instances tumble down like a momentous rockslide that never ended. One she particularly never wanted to stop.

Just remembering….

" Hey."

The soft brush of his breath stirred the hairs around her forehead.

Her eyes opened and she rubbed them for a few seconds to get the morning blur out of her vision. When her eyes finally settled and focused Jason wasn't in his state of rakish sleepiness. He was alert, wide eyed, fixed on her like he'd been laying there for hours staring. Except his hair which was sticking up and out.

" Hey yourself," her sore throat made it almost impossible for her to get the words out. She knew she was getting a cold, it had been lingering inside her for weeks, but the screaming she did all last night did not help her condition either.

The preposterous thought that he had never slept but instead was watching her made her stumble a bit inside. Self-conscious she wiped her rebellious hair from her eyes, flattened it back, and brought the covers higher.

" I hope I didn't snore. I tend to do that when I'm overly tired. Plus I think I was on my back for a while…when that happens look out…I sound like an ornery gorilla. Not good."

His throaty chuckle made her stomach tighten as his eyes crinkled causing the blue to wink at her like an invaluable jewel

He seemed specifically fascinated on what she was saying. Well, maybe not what she was saying, but how her mouth pronounced each syllable and word. His eyes were dedicated to the very small action and maybe the thought was crazy to her ears but Jason certainly hadn't veered from her face, not even when he went to scratch his back or leg; didn't seem to want to leave her from his sight for any second.

" Did you sleep good?" she murmured her question. God, with the things he had done to her last night and this morning why was she now embarrassed?

He nodded, bringing his face closer in excruciatingly slow inches, squeezing her hip affectionately. His eyes sparkled down at her, his mouth falling a bit from its slight crooked grin as his gaze roamed her body.

His mere casually thorough voyage of her made her body contract in and out like a life pulse to her sexual drive. " I think it's cold outside. I mean colder than usual. I heard the wind rattling the walls. It's weird because it's only fall. I mean not even deep fall…like the beginning…" she shrugged at him, hoping the abundance of his stare would ease off slightly.

His face was suddenly completely somber now. He cast a dark scowl at her then tore his gaze away like he wanted to get up and wreck some piece of heavy furniture.

" Jaso-" She watched him hold his breath, the square of his jaw spike out like he was trying to silently referee for control against the spasm of anger that quickly showed itself in him.

" What's the matter? What's wrong?"

" Did I hurt you?" he whispered, sitting up and breaking all physical connection with her.

" Did I?"

She didn't like the acute loss of heat that overtook her the moment he was no longer touching her.

" Hurt me? Jason, no. I'm fine. What are you-"

" Don't lie to me." When she blinked up at his dogged insistence, his blunt face chipping away at her, it made an impossible task for her to remember how to speak. " Did I hurt you?"

Her breathing arrested, somewhere between her heart and her throat, but the ache that accompanied it was what made it challenging to talk. " No…how could, Jason…" Taking in the fear that was etched in the lining of his face, it might as well been scarred on him, she answered quietly. " I'm fine. I've…Jason, you could never hurt me."

His face was stuck, uncompromised by her piercing honesty. Her hand lifted, cupped the side of his face tentatively as the warmth of his skin absorbed into hers. The feeling transfixed her, stilling her travel as her body rioted to life from him.

" Last night was…well, it was…something I'll never forget. Something I don't want to. Even though I know it's going to kill me later on-"

" Elizabeth-"

" But I don't care." She plainly announced, rendering him a glance that sparked and charged between them. Sizzling, enlivening in atmospheric flashes. " I don't care what happens. I won't regret what we did…it was too…beautiful."

Her eyes skimmed his but as usual he revealed nothing.

Unlike last night.

Last night he bad been a well of emotion and she had drank up his outpour like she had been in a lifelong famine. His eyes, his face, the way his body shook and strained over hers, begging, needing more. All of him screamed to her, for her…and that was all she had to know to realize what she meant to him.

" Thank you… I mean I know it probably means more…I mean it's not as special because you've been with…"

She groaned, frustrated that she wasn't voicing herself properly. " Listen I just mean …I know that you've been with other people and you don't have to-"

" Stop."

" No, I just mean I know-"

" No. No you don't know." He cut her off. The octave of his baritone deepened in its rawness. " You have no idea."

His eyes darkened, peeling away the layers she had flimsily used to shield her feelings.

She sat up, bringing her face within inches of his, but he drew away, only small necessary steps to fully look at her. He stared at her, didn't try to hide the fact that he couldn't stop staring and wasn't in a rush to stop.

She was so gorgeous like this.

Wild and innocent. Lush and loved.

Her whole body glistened, radiating with a feminine glow. She was flushed and he had worked her body to the breaking point, appreciating her with his mouth and body and now his stare, which was liberally grabbing at her.

" First, answer me." He gravelly requested. " Did I hurt you?"

She leaned closer, tried to remind herself not to touch him. " No. You didn't."

The relief came in small droves as he examined her face, his eyes then picked the rest of her apart, trying to decipher whether she was telling him the whole truth or not.

" But you…" He lifted one finger but pulled back, holding himself in check before he gave into the crucial impulse to touch her, "There's red marks.." He looked away, disgusted. " I'm sorry. I shouldn't have been so rough."

" No." Her head shook and she gathered his face in her hand, forcing him to turn and listen. " No. You weren't. You were everything…" She blushed, her voice dipping…
" I liked it."

His face fell into shadows, the plane and curves of his features darkening. His stare turned intimate, invasively penetrating as he memorized her body and face. A primitive satisfaction overcame him as he watched her blush under her own admission.

He wanted so badly to touch her, pin her down and make her come so hard there would be nothing left inside her to give anyone else. Ever.

But he had already gone beyond the extremes with her. He didn't trust himself and was sure he'd end up scaring her with the voracious essentiality her body provided him. He couldn't contain the fresh wave of need that sprung on him, railroaded him every time his stare strayed her way.

" Are you sure I didn't-"

" Don't Jason. There was nothing that we did together that I didn't want to. I trust you."

" Don't say that." His features closed off. Squeezing his eyes shut, swallowing hard, his nostrils flared out. She felt helpless as she watched him pull away, his face torn up by some misery she was unaware of.

" Jason." She moved to place a hand on his arm but he dodged her effort. He was breathing hard now, his face eclipsed by this unnamed anguish. Stopping in mid sentence her direction of thought shifted. " Do you regret what happened?"

His head shot up. " What?"

Whoops. Wrong question.

He sounded enraged that she would even suggest the idea. But what else was she to think when he was acting like this?

" I'm just saying.."

" Well don't." He stopped her, his outrage slipping through from his short clipped response. " What happened between us was…"

" Was what?" She compelled in soft eagerness.

His glare died down only to mount, overwhelming her as he devoured her infinitely with his blue eyes, eating away at her fragile defenses and ready to demolish the self control they both clung to. " I'm not good with this here. Words… they don't come easy to me."

" It's okay," she encouraged.

" No it's not." He leaned in just as she did. Sidetracked by her beauty, he skimmed his way up her shoulder, his fingers diving gracefully through the silky soft curls. " Just …I want you to know…he took a deep breath, " …what happened between us…I've never.."

She couldn't sit back and witness his internal struggle for words. She understood him, knew how he felt without having to say a damn thing. " Jason."

" No." The frustration welled up in his features.

" I don't need to hear it. I already know how you feel." Her hand smoothed down his chest, tripping over the bulge of muscle, feeling the acute heat of him under her. " You don't have to say anything."

One second she was sitting next to him, practically on his lap, next his mouth was on her, a greedy hungry sweep of lips taking her, making her body fall down behind her onto her pillow.

There was no soft steps of seduction. Jason had knocked her flat on her back, pinning her wrists at her sides as he let her feel the throbbing velvet skin of his erection scorch her inner thigh while sucking the breath and life from her lungs.

His mouth sank into her, nipped the bottom of her lip in small worshipping scrapes that made her already ache for him to be inside her. His lips clung to hers, tripped over and under slowly like a maddening taunt, shattering her equilibrium as a delightful but heavy dizziness rampaged her.

He stopped only for a second, the blue dancing flames of his orbs emblazing into hers, both soothing and stalking her with his nonverbal meaning. To Elizabeth, he also seemed to be preserving her for memory's sake, trying to capture every last small detail of her face and skin, the small indent in the corner of her mouth that drove him fucking crazy…every last drop of her.

His lips rubbed across hers, but he didn't kiss her as he spoke directly into her mouth.

" Let me show."

" I-I-Jason?"

" Since I cant…" Jason shook his head, rubbed his thumb over her bottom lip and she felt his cock jump at the contact. " Let me show you," he said strangled, his mouth submerging into hers, demanding her to keep up as he took endlessly, never stopping, never giving her an inch to back away.

And she was glad because this moment, like all the rest, would be hers forever. Even if he couldn't.

He was on overload.

Had been for the past several hours.

Walking the length of the living room, putting his contracts in order, organizing his desk, changing the code of his personal money vault behind the Caravaggio painting he had adorned over his luxurious fireplace.

Things were going to change. Irreversibly. Sonny could feel it in the air, sense the permeable finality fill the room, vacuum out his insides like he'd been hollowed out from this implausible act of betrayal.

Jason.

His mind still hadn't wrapped around the fact, the concrete truth that kept staring at him relentlessly. Even with his eyes closed he couldn't escape what he was facing, what he was about to do.

Jason Morgan was a man he trusted blindly. Without hesitance or second thought, Sonny considered the younger man an extension of himself. Grew up on the wrong side of town, made dumb choices, but in the end, got picked up and dusted off to be handed a more appealing side to life.

With all the filth and muck both of them had survived, together and apart, the experiences had linked and bonded them like blood brothers- for life, and Jason had thrown it away carelessly for some fucking girl.

What did that say?

What did all this mean if Jason was never who Sonny thought he was?

Sonny wasn't some goddamn gullible kid. He knew Jason was a man of his word. Things like money and woman didn't steer him from his single-mindedness. Nothing did. That was one of the attributes that made Jason priceless to Sonny. He simply didn't care about the things that most men did. Wealth, power, the waterfall of indulgences that awaited him couldn't be numbered if it took a life time to count, but Jason was never interested.

He liked his job, like the anonymity of his work and the role of shadow he played to Sonny and rest of his organization. Jason was never a man who was comfortable being in the spot light. He liked the behind the scenes action, jobs that required getting your hands dirty. Jason was happy that way…and Sonny felt like he had struck gold when he found the lost teen and molded him into what he needed.

What had changed? Jason wasn't a man who changed for any person. Even Sonny had a hard time convincing him to wear a tux to galas and events that necessitated party attire. No one made Jason Morgan do anything he didn't want to.

So what did this mean? What did this say about their so called partnership if Sonny had thought one way only to be hit over head that he was being fucking misled the whole time? If he didn't know Jason, a man he considered his brother, what did he really know about any member of his crew? Any opponent waiting for the opportunity to take over?

He heard the rustle of feet and faded whispers before the knock on the door broke him from his frame of mind. He had to be focused, stay on track or he was going to slip up which he bet his enemies were hoping for.

And Sonny Corinthos would never allow that. Never.

" Come in." He said pleasantly. " The door's unlocked."

Anthony and Ritchie entered, shoulder to shoulder. They were talking, laughing at the tails end of some joke neither offered to share.

" Ritchie, sit." Sonny's small voice suggested instead of rising in its usual demand. He waved a hand to the empty couch at his left before standing and fixing the unseen crinkles of his tailor made shirt and pants.

" Anthony, good work." Sonny smiled, genuinely thankful for the swift job the guard achieved in such a short amount of time. Anthony smiled unhindered, standing awkwardly in the middle of the room, not knowing if his boss wanted him to stay or go.

Ritchie sat, his customary anxious self. His stare darted between the two men at both sides. He wiped his brow already sensing the doom of the conversation between him and his boss and they hadn't even spoken two words to one other. He leaned back into the couch, told himself to breath, relax. Max knew where he was besides Sonny seemed to be in a good mood, and Anthony had just told him that Sonny was at the end of accomplishing some big assignment.

Maybe, now, Sonny wouldn't be as irritable.

" So, uh, so..boss," Anthony shifted his weight from foot to foot. " You want me to stay or go?"

Sonny smiled.

Anthony smiled back.

Shaking his head, Sonny snickered like Anthony had just told a racy joke. Pulling something from the back of his pants, neither man saw the gun before it was too late. The cold metal device was already aimed and pointed at the guard opposite him as Sonny saw the look of crippling fear bunch his features together " No I want you go. But thanks for asking," And he pulled the trigger.

The man's head went back as the bullet hit him right between the eyes, his body jerked as it followed lead like a wave in slow motion, falling in a lump on the cold shiny living room floor.

Sonny's black eyes were zeroed in on the dead man, but he heard Ritchie's muffled scream through the hand over his mouth.

" Holy...fuck.."

Turning, Sonny scratched the side his jaw with the nose of his gun, licking his lips as he took in Ritchie's expression, his own marinating with an oddly menacing look of pleasure the longer he witnessed Ritchie squirm and twitch in fear.

Sonny sauntered towards the couch, bent forward when he reached the man cowering under him, eyes bulged and glued to the blonde guard whose brains were leaking out on the floor not five feet away.

Sonny, patting the man's shoulder a couple of times, finally gripped a painful hold on him like a claw. It made the man under him flinch as another cry tore from his mouth. " Now. I think its time we discuss what really happened with the Webbers. I have a feeling this time …you're going to be a lot more talkative."

They never left bed.

Hours had passed, Elizabeth didn't now how many but for the first time in her life, she didn't care. She was used to working off some kind of schedule, even here, but their time in this room had stilled all the regularity of life and she wished it could remain that way for just a little while longer.

They had become so wrapped up in one another, their bodies their only attention, their mouths and limbs the reason and living of their next breath, their next thought and sight even before they were fully awake.

To Elizabeth, it felt like midnight had never left them. The moment they had kissed and every emotion and act that had followed that had frozen time and space outside these four walls. In her mind it was still last night. They still had a whole day to lament inwardly and distract each other on the surface, make themselves forget that nothing else mattered but this moment.

He was the only who ever did that to her. Made her forget.

Her hiding place had always been about that- running away from an emotion she didn't want to feel, a person she didn't want to think about. It was about just being in the moment, letting herself escape so only the bubble of her thoughts and feelings mattered and could be protected because no one knew. No one would ever know.

Jason changed that…changed her. Everything else dissolved when she was around him, encompassed by his presence and wherever he led her.

He stirred under her. " What's the matter?"

" Nothing." She said to quickly, the small drop of moisture that fell from her cheek she caught easily before it dripped on to his chest which she was laying on. " What time is it?"

" Don't." He whispered into her hair. She heard him inhale, his chest rumble like thunder as he pleasantly engulfed himself with her fragrance. " Don't think about that."

" Jason." She nuzzled her nose into his chest.

" Yeah…"

She smiled despite her sadness. He sounded like he was trying not to be roused by her and he was failing, willingly, wonderfully. But that didn't stop her. She needed to say this.

" I just wanted to…" She laid back on his chest. For some reason she couldn't look at him when she said this. " Thank you."

She heard him halt under him, even his breathing seemed to die in place. " For what?"

" All my life…I didn't know but I was waiting for someone to understand me, get to me. I thought my hiding place at home was enough, would be enough for me because I never thought there was really someone out there who could make me forget about my problems and just…want me for me."

She licked her lips, tasted the flavor of his kisses that were now an immoveable part of her being. " I used to hide because no one understood me. I never fit in and I wanted to…so badly. But you changed that, you changed me whether you know it or not. I don't have to be anyone then who I am. You don't care. When you look at me you don't see who I could be or who you want me to be. You just see me. And that seems to be enough for you-"

" Because it is."

" I've never felt that before. Never. I don't need to run away. I don't have to hide anything because you are always right there, seeing through my pretense, knowing me before I know myself…it used to scare me. Now…now I cherish…I…it's the most precious gift anyone has ever given me."

He tugged gently on the loose ends of her hair that were spread over his chest. " Hey."

" No. It's okay…I'm fine," she assured, her tears not falling just filling her eyes. " I just…I wanted… wanted you to know that because..."

He waited in his frozen state, his hand that cupped over her head didn't move.

" Because –because I'm in love with you."

The words echoed between their bodies, between the walls that cemented them in.

Neither said a word to fill the aching gap that bled and widened around. Jason's didn't move, he seemed to grow cold, rigid like a marble statue that had been buried under snow.

He didn't anything as his thumb started it's swishing across her honey-felt curls. Physically he sounded normal to her straining ears, but what was normal for him? Except for the small residual tremble that loitered every exhaling breath, Jason didn't seem effected by her admission.

She should have predicted this. She did.

Elizabeth knew Jason wasn't a man who fell in love. He wasn't some high school boy in the throws of passion, whispering sweet nothings into her ears, waiting for the day when it would acceptable to ask for her father's permission to make her his own.

She wasn't delusional, she wasn't a far cry from naïve either, but Jason didn't do long term, no matter the circumstances they were knee deep in. But, she breathed out, the burn of her unshed tears stung behind her eyes, she thought that maybe…even though they couldn't be together…that he had felt…

She wiped away the thought, now allowing herself to surrender to the whims of fanciful hopes that would never be. That would be suicide for her. She had to focus on this and only this.

Because, if she looked beyond the here and now and what they were sharing, she realized she would feel nothing. Nothing but emptiness and that was a feeling all too familiar. One her mind and body never wanted to suffer through again.