I looked around the room and smiled. Sam just finished ordering another round for everyone at the table. Tori was trying to get him onto the dance floor. Frisco sat with his back to the wall, grinning at Sam and Tori's antics. All the while, he kept an eye on everything that was going on in the place. I had complained at first when he insisted on this table by the wall. I had initially reserved a table by the dance floor. But this spot definitely had its advantages. From here, we could see everything that was going on in the club. After I finished talking to the bartender, I returned to my seat between Sam and Frisco.

Sam turned to me and said, "Hey Skye, Your club is busy tonight."

"I know. The bartender says that it has been like this all week. I'm almost disappointed that I'm going to have to give up running this place."

"You're going to have plenty to keep you occupied. We will have you so busy that you won't have the time to miss this place," Frisco commented.

"Oh the joys of building an empire. Funny, I never really wanted to run the club in the first place."

Frisco looked at me curiously, "You don't strike me as someone who would jump into something that you didn't want to do. How did you end up with this place?"

"You would be surprised at the number of things that I have done that I didn't really want to do. My grandfather talked me into taking it over when Jax offered it, back when I was trying to take him to the cleaners."

"Just wait a minute. You were trying to bankrupt Jax? When did this happen?"

"Back before we were engaged, I caught him lying to me and assumed the worst. I made a pact with the devil, my grandfather, to take over Jax's holdings. It's a pity that I didn't stick to that plan."

"What happened?"

"I found out that Jax hadn't cheated on me and we became engaged. Then Jax found out about the pact that I had made with grandfather after I called it off and dumped me. Grandfather turned around and framed me for his attempted murder."

"I don't recall anything in the news about someone attempting to kill your grandfather."

"The family kept it quiet. Someone had pulled the plug on my grandfather's respirator at the hospital. Of course, my family runs that hospital so everything was kept quiet. It was my father that pointed the finger at me to the police. Not that I could blame him. At the time, I wasn't sure if I had done it or not. I was to drunk to remember what had happened that night."

"What did you do?"

"Well Jax had kicked me out and the police wanted to talk to me so I disappeared for awhile and got sober. Jax and Ned set up a trap to prove that Grandfather had pulled his own cord. It is probably the one and only time that Ned ever lifted a finger to help me out. I'm still not sure why he did it. I mean, Ned has hated me from the moment I stepped foot into the mansion. But he was able to use that incident to get the leverage he needed to take over ELQ. So I suppose that he helped me in order to help himself. It turns out that my grandfather hates me so much that he was willing to take the chance that he might die in order to send me to jail for something I didn't do."

Tori looked at me in amazement. "With family like yours, who need enemies."

Frisco interrupted, "I have been think about this club. Do you have anyone specific picked out to run it?"

I looked at Frisco curiously, "I haven't made any final decisions yet. Did you have something in mind?"

"Would you mind if one of my people took over the day to day operations of this place?"

"Frisco, this a place where a great deal of the public comes to eat, drink, dance and have a good time. I fully expect it to be profitable. I don't want people coming in here with guns. It would be bad for business."

"No guns. You get the final say on who runs the place. I promise that the person will actually run the club. I just thought that with all the people here, it would make a great contact point."

"I thought you would have your people contact you in private."

"That's not always possible. Sometimes it is necessary to go someplace where it is very busy to pass important information without being noticed."

"Ahh, hiding in plain site."

"Exactly."

"I would have the final word on who runs the place?"

"I will have the files for you to choose from in the morning."

"What are they doing here?" Sam said.

At Sam's annoyed tone, I lifted my head to see who had come in. Ah, Brenda and Jason. I see that she is still walking around free. "I told you so."

"What?"

"When we went to Switzerland, you were worried that Brenda would be locked up for supposedly killing Alcazar. I told you that she wouldn't be in that cell for long. There are to many people that run to her rescue every time that she falls down."

Frisco looked at me. "She still has to face a trial. My superiors don't want her going to jail for something that we arranged."

"What about sending her to jail for all the things that she has done. She set fire to a boat that killed how many people? Why the hell wasn't she arrested for that?"

"When are you going to let them know about her disease?"

"I'm working on it. Give me time. From what I hear the trial won't start until mid next week. I promise that it will come out before they ever sentence her for anything. Considering that she lured my husband from me and got him shot by her other lover, I think I deserve a little payback."

"I will give you two weeks."

"Two weeks until what?" All the hairs on the back of my neck stood straight up at the sound of Jax's voice. Damn it. Of all the men in the world, why did I have to fall for him?

"Hello, Jax. What's the matter? Did you loose something?" I smirked.

All my nerves tingled as Jax slowly looked over the entire length of my body. "I seemed to have misplaced something very valuable to me. But don't worry, I have every intention of reacquiring everything that I lost. I see that you are celebrating. I wouldn't get to comfortable."

"But Jax, I have a lot to celebrate. Between becoming head of Deception and successfully raiding your companies, I am in a very good mood and not even you can spoil it."

"Yes, I noticed that you have been a busy girl. But today was just the first strike in our little war. Tomorrow will be another story."

Just then, Brenda walked up and put her arms around Jax and kissed him. "Hello, dear. You absolutely must save a dance for me." Brenda turned in my direction. "Oh, I hear congratulations are in order. You know, I used to be the model for Deception. If you need any help, I'm sure that I could step back into the role to help you get your feet off the ground."

Yeah, right. Maybe when hell freezes over. My churned at the thought of having to spend any more time with this woman than necessary. I put on a false smile and said, "Thank you for the offer, but I already have a model."

"Yes, but does your model already have international recognition like I have?"

Sam chose this moment to speak up. "I'm sorry, but as the main investor in Deception, I don't believe that you project the right type of image for our company. While the fascination that the public might hold over how you faked your death four year ago, might temporarily get us into the public's eye, between your current murder trial of your ex-lover/arms dealer, and the fact that you disappeared from the public's eye for the last four years in order to shake up with said arms dealer, I'm afraid you're current reputation would only cause more problems."

"Who the hell do you think you are to talk to me that way? I'll have you know that I have been on the cover of some of the top magazines in the world. People paid a lot of money to have me pose for them." Brenda spat out.

"Four years ago, that may have been true. But the public is a fickle thing. You disappeared, voluntarily, from their view. People have had plenty of time to forget you. Plus in four years time a younger generation grew up and became consumers and they never heard of you. For four years, you haven't had any work in the industry of any kind. I'm afraid that people will judge you on your current reputation. The public that adored you four years ago, isn't going to respond well to advertisements of a tramp that was sleeping with a gun smuggler for four years."

As Sam talked, Brenda's jaw just dropped. One second she was standing there, looking at Sam like she wanted him dead and the next, she had grabbed his knife off of the table and took a swing. Jax quickly grabbed her arms at her wrists and held her back. His grip on her wrists was so tight that she cried out and dropped the knife. At Brenda's cry, Jason ran up the steps and pulled Brenda out of Jax's grip. Jason saw Brenda crying and rubbing her wrists, turned to Jax and said, "What the hell do you think you are doing?"

"Keeping her from facing another murder conviction. She took a swing at Skye's new business partner with a knife." Jax answered.

Jason turned to Brenda. "You did what?"

"You really should keep better control of your wife's behaviour, Jason. If she keeps swing knives at people who upset her in public, no one will ever believe that she didn't kill Alcazar in a fit of rage." I added. "On the other had, maybe you should go for the temporary insanity defence. A few more incidents like this and they could lock you up in a nice soft padded cell."

Jason quickly wrapped his arms around Brenda to keep her from taking a swing at me.

Jax gave me an annoyed look and said, "You aren't helping Skye."

I shrugged. "It was just a suggestion."

Jax turned to Jason and said, "I suggest that we take Brenda to the other side of the room and calm her down before she manages to draw the attention of everyone in the club."

Jason nodded and started moving Brenda to the other side of the room with Jax following right behind him.

"This night just gets more and more interesting." I said.

Tori nodded and turned to Frisco. "What I don't get is why no one here has recognized you yet Frisco?"

"It has been over ten years since the last time I was here for any length of time. I haven't seen anyone enter this club yet that was here that many years ago. It's hard to imagine that many new faces moved here over the years."

"I know what you mean. I went to my high school reunion and I hardly recognized anyone in the area. Everyone that I knew growing up had left and others had moved in to take their places." Tori replied. I started to phase out of the conversation as I watched Jason and Jax calming Brenda at the other side of the room.

"You went to your high school reunion? What did you tell them you did for a living?" Sam asked.

"I told everyone that I was a martial arts instructor." Tori answered.

As Brenda threw her arms around Jax, my churning stomach was threatening a revolt.

"Skye are you okay? You are turning awfully pale." Sam said.

I shook my head, looked at Brenda in Jax's arms one more time then at Sam and said, "Excuse me." Then I ran for the bathroom.

A few minutes latter, I was leaning over the toilet, feeling slightly better for having emptied the contents of my stomach. As I sat down on the stool with my head on my knees, I heard footsteps come up to me.

"I thought that you could use this." Tori said. I looked up and she was holding a wet towel.

"Thanks." I said as I reached for the towel and wiped my face. "I can't believe that the sight of those two together literally made me sick."

"Why not? Watching them together makes me ill and I'm not even the one who was married to him."

"I should be stronger than this. Its not like this is the first time. I've been married three times before. I don't know. This time, losing him feels different."

"Did you love them?"

"Who?"

"Your other ex-husbands?"

"Do you want the truth?"

"Sure."

"No. I love my first husband and when he left me, I wasn't really looking for love. With my second marriage, I was looking for companionship."

"And your third marriage?"

"I got pregnant. We got married. I miscarried. He left."

"Ouch."

"The worse part was, he expected me to do all the work to end that one. He went back to his hometown and got engaged. He didn't even bother to check to make sure that his marriage to me was legally ended until I showed up at his engagement party to inform him that it wasn't."

"I bet that made his day."

"I was pretty angry. I made him and his intended very angry. In the end it worked out. He forgave me and I forgave him. Of course his wife hates my guts but I can live with that."

"Have you ever considered writing a story about your life? I bet it would be a top seller."

"Yes actually, I started one once."

"And?"

"I kept coming to all the little events in my life that would land me a jail sentence. I decided to put the story of my life on hold until I'm very old and even then I'm going to make them wait until after I am dead to publish it."

"It can't be that bad."

"Let's see. What have I done over the years? I kidnapped my first husband's lover at gunpoint. I've helped bury two bodies, one of which was my second husband. Blackmail, extortion, bribery. I changed paternity tests once to make it look like the child's father was her uncle. The sad part of that one was that the woman slept with both brothers so either one could have been the father. I got my third husband's doctor's licence revoked. I also discovered that he was adopted and passed another man off as that person's child."

"I thought you said that you forgave him?"

"I didn't forgive him right away. I told him about the adoption and he didn't want to acknowledge his other family. I actually had his blessing to do what I did."

"You have had a busy life. Well your coloring is better. Are you ready to go back out to the party?"

I stood up and said, "Yes, we better go back. There is no telling what the guys might do while we aren't there to supervise them."

__

The first thing I noticed as Tori and I left the restroom was that Jax, Brenda and Jason had left the club. The second was that Frisco seemed to have disappeared from our table.

"Where did Frisco go?" I asked Sam with a frown.

Sam shrugged. "I'm not sure, Skye. One minute we were talking. I pointed out this cute blond that walked in the club. The next thing I know he disappeared."

My worried expression turned into a half smile when Tori kicked his leg and glared at him like she would like to do a lot more.

"Hey! What was that for?" Sam said while rubbing his leg.

"For noticing the cute blond." Tori replied.

"I wasn't looking for myself dear. I was just saying that he needed to get a life. I was pointing out possible candidates when she walked in."

"All right. You're forgiven this time."

I looked around the room and spotted Frisco trying to make his way towards the door. "So where is this femme fatal who sent Frisco into retreat?"

Sam looked around the room and pointed to a longhaired blond that was slowly closing in on Frisco's position.

"This should be interesting."

"What should?" Tori asked.

"That's his ex-wife." I said laughing.

"I didn't know that Frisco was married." Tori said.

"I think he as a couple of kids somewhere.» Sam added.

I nodded. "To girls that I know of. Maxie and Georgie."

"Maxie and Georgie? What? Were they expecting boys or something when they were picking out names?" Tori said.

"You are in no position to be picking on what others named their kids. What was it that you said you wanted to name our future offspring?" Sam paused, pretending to think it over. "Oh yes, Hansel and Gretel or Jack and Jill. Every name you picked out had a fairy tale attached to it."

"Hey, mister why don't we just name them after our parents. I just threw out those ideas to get you out of your conservative kick."

"There is nothing wrong with following a family tradition."

"There is if you honestly think that I would let you use names that came straight out of Shakespeare."

"Hey you two, are you currently expecting?" I interrupted.

They shook their heads.

"Then this entire conversation is kind of pointless isn't it? Uh oh."

"What?" Tori and Sam said in unison.

"Felicia cut him off. There is no way that he is getting out of here now without talking to her. She has seen him. He might as well give in gracefully."

"She doesn't look all that happy to see him." Sam added.

"Sam, dear, if you came to town and stopped at a night club first before seeing me, I'd be mad too."

"Well if she is mad about this then she is going to be absolutely pissed when she finds out that he has been in town for a couple of weeks."

"Sam, I don't think that is something that we should bring up in front of her." I said.

"They're going outside. Do you think we should interfere?"

I shook my head. "They have a lot to catch up on. Let's give them 15 minutes to work it out before we check up on them. We can always play referee if we have to."

"Does anyone know what he is going to tell her?" Sam asked.

"If he sticks to the story then it shouldn't be a problem."

"What is the story? I wasn't aware that we had one for him." Tori asked

"The story is that he is going to be working for me at Sam's recommendation on security. Frisco helped Sam out when he was having some problems with one of your companies."

"What kind of problems was I having at what company?" Sam asked. "You know, just so I have the story straight."

"I'm not sure. If the subject comes up, we will have to wing it and cover our tracks later. But anyway, you owed him a favor."

"What is his reason for calling in this favor?"

"We are going with a little bit of the truth for that one. Frisco was badly wounded while on assignment. Due to his injuries, he can no longer work the field. No one will question that considering how he still has to use that can when he walks."

"At least that much is true. Do we really want to advertise that we have an ex-field agent in town?"

"It seems to be fairly common knowledge in this town that he went to work for the WSB. There's no sense in hiding the fact. It would just raise everyone's suspicions. The trick to a good lie is taking what everyone knows then adding your own special details to the mix."

"I don't know about you two, but their 15 minutes are up and I am dying to know what they are doing out there." Tori stated.

"Okay, let's go."

The three of us got up and made our way to the front of the club. Just as we made it to the front of the club, we heard some popping noises. Sam pushed me to the floor and Tori grabbed a couple of others and pushed them down. People started screaming as bullets shattered two front windows. I heard a car speeding away as the bullets stopped. I saw Sam and Tori get up off the floor. They looked around. A few people had cuts and scrapes from where the glass had fallen on them, but no one in the room had actually been shot.

Sam raised his voice and addressed the room before going out the door. "Everyone stay down and stay in here until we know that this is over. This is the safest place for you to be." Sam and Tori went out the door to check the parking lot.

I looked around and saw one of the waiters a few feet away. "Call the police and an ambulance. Someone may be hurt outside. And keep everyone in here." I said before I followed them out the door.

'Oh dear God," I thought as I saw the wreckage outside. There was glass everywhere. Everything that could be broken was shot threw. It was a good think that it was a bright night with lots of stars because that was currently the only light outside of the club. Part of me wanted to throw up again and the other part of me wanted to sit down and cry. Sam waved me over to where he and Tori were leaning over Frisco. As I ran over, I saw Sam taking his shirt off and pressing it to Frisco's bloody shoulder. Frisco kept trying to get up.

"Frisco stay down. You will just make it worse." I heard Sam say.

"I had the waiters call for an ambulance. It should be here soon." I heard myself say.

"Felicia was out here. I have to find her. She was in between those two cars." Frisco tried to get up and point. Sam pushed him back down.

Sam looked at me. "Skye come here and hold this. Keep pressure on the wound. Don't let him get up. It will make the bleeding worse. Keep him calm. Tori and I are going to check on Felicia."

I took the cloth and held it down as they took off in the direction that Frisco indicated. It wasn't long before I saw them bend down and I knew that they had found her.

"Skye, did they find her? I have to make sure that she is okay. I have to talk to her and explain."

"Shhh. Save your energy. They found her. They are by her now." I looked up and saw this look in Sam's face. He looked at me and shook his head. I knew what he was saying.

"I have to talk to her Skye. She was so mad at me. She stomped away. I thought that I would just give her some space to think things over. She needs that sometimes when she is angry. I have to make it right. I still love her Skye. Even after all this time. I still love her."

I somehow managed to keep the tears out of my voice. "Sam and Tori are with her now Frisco. Relax. You won't be doing anyone any good if you bleed to death on us. You know that they will do everything that is humanly possible to help her." I whispered a prayer to god that the ambulance would get here soon. I wasn't sure how long I could keep this up without breaking down. For once, God must have been listening because it wasn't long before the cops and the ambulances should up and someone was leaning beside me, taking my hands from his wound and pulling me away so they could do their job. It wasn't long before they had him in the ambulance and on his way to the hospital.

As I stood there, another paramedic came up to me and asked me where I was hurt. I looked down at my hands and clothes and realized that I had Frisco's blood all over me. "I'm okay. It's not mine. A friend of mine was hit." I said somewhat in shock. "They just took him away. I need to get to the hospital."

"Miss, I don't think that you should be driving. There are a couple police cars going to the hospital to get statements from those who had cuts from the broken glass. Why don't you ride in with one of them?" I nodded numbly and let the man lead to one of the police officers. I listened as he explained the situation. The officer took one look at me and nodded. "I can take you over to the hospital and you can give your statement there. If I can have your name please so we can find you again."

I just nodded and said. "Skye Chandler Quartermaine."

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