Chapter one Part one

"What the hell have I done?" Skye whispered as she lay in the bed in her drug-induced state. "This is the last place I would have guessed that I would be this morning," she mumbled somewhat hysterically. As her mind slid further away Skye tried to remember how she came to be in Alcazar's bedroom.

I never would have agreed to this if they had asked me at any other time. But they came to me right after I saw my husband go to her. I still can't believe he went to her. How could he make love to her? Did our vows mean so little to him? My God. We are barely married and he is already sleeping with her. How could he! He spends all this time reassuring me that I am the one he wants to be with and then bam. The first convenient little excuse that comes around and he abandons me for her. He wants to divorce me for her. Okay maybe it isn't such a little excuse. I did with hold information. I didn't tell her that she wasn't dying when I found out about it, but I only found out a few days ago. I was scared. I was scared that my husband would do exactly what he did. He left me for her.

And then he approached me.

I had been sitting on that bench for at least an hour. I didn't know where to go. Home? I don't have a home anymore. Sure he said I could have the lake house, but without him it really isn't my home, at least not anymore. I just sat there. Not sure what I should do next or where to go.

"I think that we can help solve each others problems, Mrs. Jacks."

I looked up to see the man behind the voice. He was kind of handsome. I think he was about my age, maybe a little older. He had a sort of rough look about his face. I think it was in his eyes. They spoke of someone who had been to hell and back. For some reason he seemed vaguely familiar. "Excuse me, do I know you," I sharply replied. "What the hell would you know about my problems?"

I watched him shift his weight onto his cane as he grimaced slightly at some pain. "May I sit down?" he replied politely.

I stared at him for a second and nodded my head. Suddenly curious as he carefully maneuvered himself onto the bench beside me, "What happened to you?"

He seemed to weigh his words carefully before he answered, "A mutual problem by the name of Alcazar."

Now he had my attention. So many things ran through my mind at that statement. My husband left me for Brenda. Alcazar had brought Brenda back to town. Because of her, Alcazar had threatened my husband. Because of Brenda and Alcazar, we didn't go on our honeymoon. Alcazar shot my husband to get to her. Because of her, Alcazar had gone after Sonny Carinthos. Not that I really cared about what happened to Sonny, but Cristina didn't deserve to be killed in the crossfire. Alcazar had ripped so many lives apart in his quest to obtain Brenda's affections. At that moment, I felt that Alcazar was to blame in many ways for the problems I was facing.

"What did he do to you?"

"He did what he does to so many people when they get in his way. I work for an organization that has an invested interest in eliminating the problem, if you are interested."

"If I am?"

"My car is over there, if you are interested in being part of the solution. Think about this carefully, because once you come with me you won't be able to walk away." With this statement, he got up and began to walk slowly to the car.

I sat there for a second and watched him. I considered my options. I could sit here and continue to do nothing. I could go home and continue to fight a loosing battle for a marriage that my husband apparently wasn't all that committed to. Or I could go with him. I could hear what he has to say. He seems to be offering a chance to get even. And right now, getting even sounds so much better than staying here or going home and giving everyone another chance to hurt me.

I got up. I walked over and got in his car. "So, you seem to know who I am. May I ask what your name is?"

He smiled. I decided that he had a nice smile. I'm not sure why it mattered to me that I liked his smile, but it did. His smile wasn't just in the curve of his lips. When he smiled, his entire face reflected that smile. For some reason, that fact reassured me. Considering I felt like I was jumping in blindfolded, I needed to be reassured. "My name is Frisco Jones."

He started the car.

Part two

"Where exactly are we." I looked around the room. There wasn't much here, a desk, a computer, a couple of chairs, nothing that would tell me more about my new potential ally. Half of one of the walls was a mirror.

"My office."

"I guess you haven't had that much time to move in yet."

"I won't be here that long."

"Don't you have an ex-wife and a couple of kids here? It seams to me that it is kind of rude of you to stop in town and not say 'Hi.'" He looked kind of startled. "This town isn't that large and people do talk. I saw an old picture once of you and Felicia. I was actually surprised to find out that her daughters weren't Mac Scorpio's."

"So you know all about me."

"Only that you were married, divorced and had a couple of kids. That isn't what concerns me. I am assuming that you will fill in some necessary blanks. Like why are you here? How you know Alcazar? Why exactly you want to take him down? Why you would need me to help you? Why I should help you?"

"You are going to help me because you want to take see Alcazar pay for what he had done probably more than we do." I started to protest, but he silenced me with his next words. "Before you protest, may I point out that you got in a car with basically a complete stranger at the mere promise that you would have the chance to take down Alcazar. In the future, you will need to learn to be a little more careful about who you trust."

"So I shouldn't trust you."

"Do you trust me?"

"I don't know you. Currently I really don't trust anyone. But you managed to get my attention. But you still haven't told me anything about how you know Alcazar and why you want to take him down. No offense, but I'm not going to just take your word that you want Alcazar dealt with. I want some factual information and I want some proof."

"What do you want to know?"

"Who do you work for and why Alcazar?"

"That information can not leave this room."

I laughed; "I don't exactly have a lot of friends right now that I would feel comfortable talking with anyways." I said sarcastically.

He sighed and stared at me for a moment. I felt like he was trying to get my measure. He must have been satisfied with something because he started on his story.

"I work for an agency called the WSB." He seemed to be waiting for a reaction.

"This WSB would stand for?" I already knew what the WSB was, but I wasn't going to tell him that. I wanted to know how much he would tell me.

"Let's just say that we send agents around to gather information and handle some delicate security problems."

"In other words you're a spy."

"Something like that."

"How exactly does Alcazar fit into the picture?"

"The WSB created him."

"What?"

"The WSB backed Alcazar for many years. Originally he was an agent. In a world of terrorists and gunrunners, it helps to have your own bad guys. They can lend credibility to your covers and they can get us into places we normally couldn't get near. So we created our own. Alcazar created a network for the WSB. We have been using it for years."

"Let me guess. Your creation has decided to play his own game. I guess you should have kept him on a tighter leash."

"He never had a leash to begin with. To make things worse, he knows how the network runs. Hell, he designed the network. When he doesn't get his way, he can cause a lot of trouble."

"Is that what happened to you?"

"A few months ago, my assignment conflicted with one of his private agendas. I spent a month in the hospital and another in physical therapy."

The pieces of the puzzle started to click into place. "That's how he got the charges dropped. They had him on everything from kidnapping to attempted murder. The case was airtight. There was no way he could have been found not guilty. While we were in the courtroom, someone brought in a letter for the DA. Just like that the charges were dropped."

"We can't risk putting him in prison and he knows it. If he went to jail he would use what he knows against us."

"It sounds like he is already using what he knows against you. So if you can't lock him up and throw away the key, then what is your plan?"

"I need your help to get my people close enough to kill him." Chapter one part three

"You want to kill him!" I put a shocked expression on my face. It wouldn't be wise at this point to give to much away. While the news about Alcazar's involvement with the WSB had come as a surprise, their solution hadn't. I had already guessed what they needed to do. Alcazar had them trapped. If he created networks for them then he had probably created ways for him to get back into their systems. If he had been an agent himself, he probably had contacts within the WSB. That would make it very hard to move against him. Since they brought me here, my guess is that they already tried and failed. "Wait doesn't an agency like yours have people who specialize in this sort of thing? Why would you need me?"

"We ran into a couple of problems with eliminating Alcazar. First of all, he always sees us coming. Alcazar has made a point of keeping track of what is going on in the WSB. Whenever we send someone in they can never get past his background checks to get close enough to do the job. Secondly we can't call out an open hit on Alcazar. We need at least 24 hours after the hit to close all the gaps and eliminate all the weak links he created. If his associates knew that we were the ones that took him down, we wouldn't have time to secure everything before they retaliate."

"How about an accident?"

"We thought of that but an accident would raise to many suspicions."

"I hope you aren't asking me to volunteer to take the blame."

"No, we have an unique opportunity. A good number of people in this town have very good reasons to kill Alcazar. If we do this right, it will be impossible for anybody to pin his murder on anyone. The list of suspects will be to long."

"What do you need me to do?"

"All you need to do is deactivate his security system."

"Oh, is that all." I rolled my eyes. "Why do I have the feeling that my part isn't as easy as you tried to make it sound? Where is this security system located?"

"He controls the security system from a computer in his bedroom."

I sighed as if the weight of the world had landed on my shoulder. "I knew I wasn't going to like this. Okay, assuming I can get into his bedroom, how do I deactivate it?"

Mr. Jones pointed to the desk. "This computer is an exact copy of Alcazar's computer." He pulled out a disk and what appeared to be a small black box with a couple of wires hooked to it. "Now pay close attention. I am going to show you how to hook this up and then I want you to practice doing it."

It was really quite simple, hook up a couple of wires, activate the disk, and the computer program did the rest.

"So the security system goes down, then what?"

"A couple of those specialists that you referred to earlier will come in and finish the job and then they will leave."

"And what about me. I am not taking the fall for his murder."

"Skye, you are talking to the people who has kept Alcazar from going to prison for crimes much worse than we are going to commit. You won't go to jail, but there are some small details that have to be accounted for during the police investigation like how your fingerprints will have gotten into his bedroom."

"Oh god, I would be their number one suspect."

"Relax, I have a plan. You won't even be a suspect. In fact they will be 100% convinced that you didn't have anything to do with his murder before they even get his body to the morgue. In fact, you will even have their sympathies. With what we are preparing, they won't want to ask you any questions. All you will have to say is that you really don't remember." Chapter one part four

It wasn't hard to get in here. He thought I was drunk. Oh God, in so many ways I wish I was drunk. A little alcohol on my clothes gave me the right scent. The pill they gave me made me appear drunk. I slurred my words. My reflexes were slower. I had trouble walking in a straight line. There was one major difference. I knew exactly what I was doing and I felt everything that was happening around me.

If I had been drunk, I wouldn't still remember his every touch, the feel of his body on mine. The memories are enough to make me sick. I pretended to be asleep. He seemed to buy it. At least I wouldn't need to go looking for the computer. The first thing he did when he got out of bed was sit down in front of the contraption.

Great, now that I'm here, how am I going to get him to leave the room long enough for me to do the dam job? That's when I had my lucky break. Someone was at his front door. He left the room to let whomever it was in. I slipped out of the bed, grabbed the disk and electronics out of my purse and hooked them up to the computer as instructed. I just finished activating the disk when I heard her raised voice.

I can't believe it. That's Brenda. I thought that she was afraid of him. What the hell is going on?

"How long do you think that you can get away with this latest act Brenda? Eventually they will find out that you are playing them for fools."

I moved quietly to the door and looked out the crack.

Just then Brenda did a complete about face, grabbed a knife and ran at Alcazar with it. My God, and this woman was supposed to be sane? What happened to all that nonsense that she was spouting about how life was precious and she wouldn't even wish Alcazar dead?

Alcazar managed to get the knife out of her hands. It fell to the floor. Brenda looked from him to the knife and ran out the door.

If I hadn't seen her medical files proclaiming her to be 100% healthy, I would have had no problem believing that she had that illness that would drive her into insanity. If this is what she acted like on a regular basis, no wonder everyone was so quick to believe that she had inherited the disease from her mother.

After Brenda ran out the door, Alcazar moved to the balcony. I turned away from the door for just a moment. I heard him scream.

I moved back to the door. Alcazar wasn't on the balcony anymore. Two others stood in his place. They were covered in black from head to toe. They must have heard me because they moved swiftly from the balcony to where I stood. It was amazing to watch. There movements were swift and absolutely soundless. A mouse scurrying across a carpeted floor would make more noise than these two.

The one slipped by me and began removing all evidence from the computer that the security system had been compromised. The other motioned for me to get back to the bed. I nodded my head in understanding.

I knew what was coming next. He pulled out a syringe and injected me in the leg.

"How fast does this work?" I whispered.

"Almost instantly" he replied. "In case I don't ever see you again, then I'm sorry."

"It's okay." They had explained everything to me beforehand. I already felt the drug kicking in. I faintly felt him grabbing my arms really hard. I think he might have slapped me but I wasn't sure. I wasn't feeling much of anything. One moment he was carefully arranging me on the bed and then I think they left. They move so quietly that it was hard to tell.

The last thing that I could remember was the sound of footsteps in the next room and that feeling, that little spark of electricity that makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up whenever my husband is near. My last thought was, "What the hell is Jax doing here?" Then everything went dark.