Chapter 8

Skye dropped the gun, staring in shock as Sonny went over to Dawson to check his pulse. He shook his head, then looked towards the entrance to the alley. No one seemed to notice what was going on, and Sonny was glad that he had put the silencer on the gun. He started searching through Dawson's pockets, letting the flaps hang out. He finally pulled a wallet out of the inside of the sports jacket, leaving the jacket laying open. He roughly pulled the rings off the dead man's fingers. "You're….you're mugging him?" Skye asked shakily. Sonny glanced at her. "That's usually what you do when you want it to look like a mugging." Skye shook her head, dazed. "I don't understand." Sonny stood up and went over to a dumpster. He stuffed the wallet and rings deep inside a bag of garbage, and closed the dumpster. "Well, you want to call the cops and tell them what really happened?" Skye thought about it a moment. "Not really." She stared at Dawson again, realizing that she had killed a man. She started to shake uncontrollably. Sonny came over to her and pulled her into his arms. "You're gonna be okay," he whispered. "Let's get you to your hotel room."

Sonny managed to get her to her hotel room, despite the fact that she had continued to shake, and had even once doubled over in the elevator. He pushed her gently onto the bed and put a cover over her. Then he called room service and ordered two meals and a bottle of their best wine. He lay down on the bed and held her close to him until there was a knock on the door. Sonny let the waiter bring in the food and the wine. He gave him a tip and the waiter left. "Come on, Skye, you need to eat something." She shook her head. "You're probably starving, you need to get some food in your system." Skye looked nauseous. Sonny sighed. "Okay, then, have some wine." "No! Absolutely not!" He caressed her hair. "Look, I know you have a problem with alcohol, but I can't exactly order a valium or something. You need to calm down, you're a wreck." Skye shook her head. "I'm not going to take a drink. I can fight this on my own." Sonny sighed. "You're stubborn, that's for sure. Well, do you mind if I have some?" She shook her head, relieved that he wasn't going to fight her on this.

Sonny got a chair and set it in front of the food cart. He poured the wine, and then lifted the lid on one of the platters. He began to eat. "Mmm….damn I love Italy. This is great food, Skye, you should try some." He had a look of pure bliss on his face. He stuffed some more food in his mouth, making yummy noises and giving her meaningful glances. Skye suddenly began to giggle, and soon she was laughing hysterically. Sonny laughed with her. But then she abruptly switched from laughter to tears, which grew into great racking sobs. He got up from the food cart and went over to the bed, enfolding her in his arms again. She calmed down to the point of just sniffling every once in awhile, and they lay there for a long time, not saying anything. Finally she heard her stomach grumbling. "Well, I guess I better force down something to eat." Sonny nodded and got up to pull another chair up to the food cart. He poured her a glass of water from a pitcher that had been provided with the meal.

"I have to say that I admire you a great deal for not taking the wine. I apologize for trying to make you drink it." Skye shook her head. "You were just doing what you thought was best at the time. You had no way of knowing if I would be strong enough to recover from the shock." Sonny cocked his head. "I should have known how strong you were, considering you had the presence of mind to grab my gun and shoot Dawson. If you hadn't, we might have both been killed." Skye stared off into space a moment. Then she looked at Sonny. "What made you change your mind? You seemed convinced that Dawson and I were partners." Sonny sighed and leaned back in his chair. "I was convinced. As far as I was concerned, I was walking into a setup. But I couldn't leave, knowing there was the slightest possibility that I was wrong, and that you could be killed. I would rather risk death than live knowing I could have prevented a woman's rape and murder." Skye leaned back also. "I guess my involvement in all this has seemed pretty suspicious. Especially since you thought we were in cahoots even before Italy entered the picture." Sonny nodded. "But I know now that you were not involved with him. Though, I still don't know how you fit into Espressive." Skye smiled. "The major shareholder of Café Italiano asked me to serve as a consultant to find out what was going on at Espressive. There was some funny business concerning the impending sale to Mocha Mike. Now we know why. Dawson didn't want to be owned by his rival."

Sonny narrowed his eyes. "Major shareholder?" Suddenly everything was clear. "Jax! He owns Café Italiano, and he asked you to do this for him as a favor." Skye hesitated, and then nodded. Sonny shook his head. "I should have known. Well, glad we got that all cleared up." Skye sighed. "So what now?" Sonny shrugged. "Tomorrow we go over to Espressive and announce that the sale is off. After all, Mocha Mike's doesn't want to be involved in any crooked business." He gave her his most dimply smile, and she laughed.