The Claudia Zacchara Collective

Gunpowder and Lead

February 2008

Rated R- for extremely harsh language.

Part Five

Jason watched Claudia cross the room at the No Name. She wore a black dress, those red heels that always got him hard, and a black coat that she shrugged off before sitting down. Crossing her legs, she ignored him, took a cigarette out of her purse and lit it.

He could tell right away she was pissed. "What?"

"Your partner Sonny- that's what."

"You talked to him?"

"What's the point in that? He doesn't want to work with me. Doesn't even think a woman should be in this business. He's trying to make an end run around me because he knows I can run our territory better than my father ever did. Don't sit there looking like this is news to you. You know exactly what he's up to."

Jason gave her a look that said Tell me anyway.

Claudia said "He sent Ric Lansing to try and get my father released from the hospital."

"Sonny doesn't even deal with Ric. And the last thing we want is Anthony on the street."

"Really? You telling me it wouldn't be a hell of a lot easier for you to take out my family if someone bat shit crazy was in charge?" Claudia asked. When he didn't answer her, she added "Yeah, that's what I thought."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

She kept her mouth screwed into a pout, her eyes raged with intensity and she knew he was falling for her act this time. It felt good to pull one over on the always one step ahead Jason hitman Morgan. Even though she knew that Anthony had called Ric himself, because she had his phone at the institution tapped, Claudia figured blaming it on Sonny was a good way to get Jason to wonder if his partner was keeping things from him. And put her and Jason on the same side against crazy ass Sonny.

Jason told her "Its not Sonny behind it."

Claudia stared at him for a long moment. She crushed her cigarette, leaned forward and looked right into his eyes. "Do I have your word on that?"

He gave her a slight nod.

Claudia added "Well you better hope then that you really do know Sonny as well as you think you do. Cause if he is the one that's trying to spring my father...I will consider that an act of war and the truce will be off."

"There is no truce."

She smiled. "That's what we're here for tonight, isn't it? It not like this is some sort of date. You aren't looking to get me in bed, are you, Jason?"

"Why would you ask me that? We're talking business."

Claudia squirmed a little in her seat as heat flooded her body. She searched his eyes. "You didn't say no. You always just say "no"- and leave it at that without any wiggle room."

"You don't know what I always do."

"I catch on quick."

Just the idea of him wanting her sent a thrill racing through Claudia. Hot damn, she thought.

She would rather hate his guts. Rather plot his death than fantasize about him and her in some hot tub somewhere, him pulling on the string of her red bikini as she straddled his lap, but there was no denying that, for her at least, the pendulum was starting to swing in the other direction.

She wanted him dead about sixty percent of the time and in her bed the other forty.

That was more than she could say for anyone else in The Five Families. She would have no qualms about ordering their deaths- business is business. And for now, Jason fell in that same category but still Claudia couldn't lie: between the hard chest and abs he was sporting and those blue eyes that she could get lost in, it was near impossible to not want to go there with him.

The thought of his fingers brushing over her nipples...she exhaled and sat back...Damn, it will be hard to sleep tonight, she thought to herself.

He looked away from her and motioned the waiter over. They ordered salads, steaks, baked potatoes and roasted vegetables. He poured Claudia wine and brought Jason another beer.

Once the waiter left Jason asked "You want your father to stay locked up. That's not much of a united front. You trying to get rid of Anthony for good?"

Nice try, she thought the said. "My father is sick. He needs treatment. Why would I want him on the street and easy pickings for someone like you?"

Maybe one day she would tell him the truth about her feelings for her father but there was no way in hell she was going there right now. Jason would know what she wanted him to know and not a thing more. He was a means to an end for her. If she could broker a deal to use his shipping lanes, she would be able to insure her ability to move black market prescription drugs through Port Charles. The profits were good now, just using trucks to move between her territory and Canada but she could triple her business if she could start bringing her product in by boat, too. There was less risk because the Coast Gaurd could be bought off much easier than the local cops. There were just a handful of guys patrolling the harbor, while there were fifty cops on the PCPD force and a couple hundred more over in Rochester. There was no way to find enough dirty cops to absolutely guarantee that her truck wouldn't ever be pulled over. So using the roads always provided a considerable risk.

Jason asked "Why would you want Anthony back around...and running things when its obvious you want to be in charge?"

She let her eyes drop and tried to make her voice seem hurt. "And you think I would wish harm on my own father just to get his spot?"

"Yeah, I do."

"Well, don't hold anything back. Go ahead and spill your guts. Just how low is your opinion of me? You think I'm heartless? Murderous? Vengeful?"

"Yeah."

"You don't even know me, Morgan. Or are all Zaccharas scum to you?"

XXXXXXXXXXX

She actually seemed offended, Jason noted, and this time it wasn't just a put on to make him sympathize with her. He hadn't said it to hurt her, but they needed to get the truth out on the table.

"I didn't call you scum. But yeah...I have to ask myself who's side you are on? Your father's or your own."

"I've heard about the dysfunctional clan you hatched from but the Zaccharas are not like the Quatermaines. We love each other dearly."

"Now?"

"Always."

"You tried to kill Anthony when you were sixteen."

She inhaled a quick breath and her face hardened. A second later she recovered and took a drink of her wine, acting as if what he said was no big deal. "I wasn't a perfect shot back then. He got hit on accident."

"No, you shot him on purpose and he lived on accident. Rudy covered for you and moved you to Rome to live with him."

"You sure think you got it all figured out. You concoct this theory in the last week? Cause when we met on the docks...you didn't recognize me."

"That doesn't mean I didn't know you exist and know all about your past."

"The Spinelli factor."

Jason didn't answer but she was right. There had been no police report about the shooting, nothing in the papers, but Spinelli had combed all the Zaccharas, and their other enemies, records- including medical. Anthony's chart at St. John Hospital in Crimson Point indicated he was brought in suffering from a gunshot wound to the stomach and had to have surgery to save his life. One day later Claudia was on a plane to Europe, but Johnny stayed behind. If it was about protecting his kids, Anthony would have sent both. If it was about a vacation, Claudia would have postponed to stay by the bedside of her possibly dying father. It had to be about getting a dangerous girl as far away from the man who triggered her rage as possible.

Jason didn't waste time wondering what pushed Claudia so far back then...or if she was still as deadly...because it didn't pay to imagine what might have been. She was capable of murder. Her threats couldn't be taken as bluffs. He needed to get her backed down, for the sake of Carly and the kids if nothing else. Jason could accept that him or Sonny might die because of their business...but he would not accept any harm coming to the ones he vowed to protect. Emily was gone now. He wasn't losing another person.

Sonny had told him earlier today to "Get it worked out or else I'm taking them out." There was no way Jason was risking the Zaccharas getting wind of that and making a preemptive strike against them.

He had no choice but to end this shit with the Zacchara family- and do it tonight.

Time to make nice.