Chapter 8

Gia threw all her weight against Jason. They both tumbled to the ground as the bullet struck the tree behind Jason.


"So the little lady wants to go first. I can arrange that," said Hank.


Hank aimed his gun at her. Gia closed her eyes as another shot rang out. She waited for the bullet to hit her. She expected a sharp pain, but she felt nothing. Maybe being shot to death wasn't as painful as she had thought it would be.


"Gia, are you ok?"


She thought she heard Jason's voice. Was Jason dead too?


"At least we are together," she thought to herself.


"Gia!" Jason shouted at her.


She felt him shaking her. She opened her eyes to see Jason staring at her.  "Jason? Am I…am I dead?" she asked.


Jason laughed. "No, you are alive." He kissed her tenderly. "And so am I thanks to you."


"But he had the gun pointed at me. I heard the shot."


"The shot came from my gun Gia," said Sonny stepping out from behind a tree. "I got here just before he aimed at you."


Gia looked and saw Hank lying on the ground with a gunshot in his back.


"He won't be bothering you again," said Sonny.


"Thanks Sonny, you saved our lives."


She turned to Jason and threw her arms around him.  "Oh Jason, I thought I was going to lose you forever."


"I'm fine. But you sure scared me when you did that. Don't you know that you could have been killed?"


"I know, but all that mattered to me at the time was to save you."

Jason squeezed her tighter to him.  He looked at Sonny.  "How did you find us?"

"Instinct.  I heard on television about the chase and I figured that after the police car crashed you would abandon the car.  So I went to the crash site and headed away from Port Charles on foot."

Jason looked nervously in the direction they had came from.

Sonny knew what he was thinking.  "I was careful.  No one followed me.  Now, we've got to get you too out of town."

Jason nodded.  "Yeah.  Any ideas?"

"I have it all set up.  If you keep going straight this way," he said pointing, "you'll come to a small cove.  I've got a man waiting there with a boat.  He's been instructed to take you to this little town just south of New York City.  There will be a car there to take you to a secret location in the city.  You can hold up there while you plan your next move."

Jason stared at Sonny for a moment.  "Um, how long have you been planning this?"

"Ever since Gia called and said you were arrested.  I was going to bail you out and then sneak you out of town, but Gia beat me to it," Sonny said smiling at her.

"Are you coming with us?" she asked.

"No, but I'm going to work on finding out what happened.  I know this was a setup."

"Thanks Sonny," Jason said taking Gia's hand and heading off towards the cove.

Meanwhile on the other side of town.  Alexis hurried into the Port Charles Police Department.  Sonny had called her right after he had talked to Gia.  She had a flat tire on the way there.  She had been stranded in the middle of nowhere for hours so she didn't know about Jason's escape or the chase.

Alexis headed straight for Lieutenant Taggert.  She sat her briefcase down on the desk.  "Ok, I want to know exactly what you have on my client."

"What client?" Taggert asked sarcastically.

"Jason Morgan," Alexis said not understanding.

"Well lets see.  Originally it was arson and murder but now he's also escaped from police custody."

"Escaped?"

"Yes," Marcus said.  He hesitated a moment before adding, "with my sister's help."

Alexis exhaled sharply and sat down.  "All right, let's forget the escape for a moment.  What evidence dog you have against him on the arson and murder charge?"

"I have two witnesses who saw him leave the warehouse right after the gunshot was heard."

"But no one saw him shoot…. Um who is he supposed to have shot?"

"Zander Smith."

"Zander?  Zander is dead?" Alexis asked shocked.

Before Marcus could answer Mac came in holding a file.  He dropped the file on Marcus' desk.

"We just got the autopsy report back," he said.

"So did Zander die from the gunshot wound, smoke inhalation or the burns?" Marcus asked.

"He was killed by the gunshot, but…" Mac told him.

"But what?"

"They checked the dental records.  The body in the warehouse was not Zander Smith."