Chapter Four
Lucas had been travelling with Cassie and the group of motorcyclists for a few weeks now. After leaving Chicago, they had rode their bikes down to Canada. Their first stop was Vancouver, where Carla, Adam, Nina, Jason, Dan, Tyler and Bruce had all grown up together. They had spent their first day in Vancouver and it was now late that night. They were staying at a motel and Lucas, Cassie and Richard were all sitting outside.
Cassie leaned back against Richard's chest and sighed, "Today was a lot of fun." she said out of the blue.
Lucas groaned loudly, "Actually, it wasn't. I can't believe I let you two drag me to Science World like I was a little kid or something. Then you ran off together. Where'd you guys go, anyway?"
Cassie felt her cheeks heat up, "The Shadow Room." she murmured, hoping Lucas wouldn't push it any further. She sunk deeper into Richard's arms and took a cigarette out of her pocket and lit it with shaking fingers. As soon as Lucas noticed the cigarette dangling from Cassie's mouth, he reached over and yanked it away from her, throwing it onto the gravel in front of him. Cassie let out a squeal of protest and wacked Lucas on the arm.
"What did you do that for?" she exclaimed angrily, "Those are expensive!"
"You know, I found out that you were my sister right before you faked your death. Now that I know you aren't dead, I have to make up for lost time when I thought I wasn't your brother." Lucas explained, carefully watching her reaction.
Cassie looked at the ground. She could tell by the tone of his voice that he was thinking about that time in the hotel when Rex and Mimi had walked in on them. After finding out he was her brother, she had started avoiding him. And if he brought it up in front of Richard, she was going to end up paying for it. There was no way she wanted Richard to know that she had come so close to sleeping with her half-brother. Not feeling the way she felt about him.
"I'm sorry about that." Cassie responded, "I shouldn't have started ignoring you. We could have been friends."
"We could have." Lucas nodded, "And we still can." he noticed Richard looking at both of them with undisguised confusion but didn't say anything about what had happened. Cassie smiled at Lucas gratefully, knowing that he wasn't going to say anything.
"I'd like that." she said. Richard pulled his own cigarette out of his mouth and blew a cloud of grey smoke into the air.
"So," Richard began nonchalantly, eager to change the subject to one he was more familiar with, "What do you think of Carla, Lucas?"
Lucas remembered the way Carla had been making plays for him on the entire trip. On any other occasion, he would have been flattered and might have even responded. But he didn't feel like being with anyone if it wasn't Sami.
"She's nice." Lucas said weakly, unsure of how to answer Richard's question.
"Nice?" Richard repeated, his lip curling into a small sneer, "Does that mean you're screwing her yet?"
"Oh, God, no." Lucas shook his head emphatically.
"Good." Cassie gave him an approving glance, "And don't. Carla's a slut."
"She might be a slut but she's a hot slut." Richard raised an eyebrow, "And I would know."
Cassie hated it when he stood up for Carla or mentioned how he had slept with her. She knew it shouldn't upset her so much, he had been with Nina, Kari, Carla and herself, not to mention all the one-night stands he had with girls he met on the motorcycle trip. She had seen him walk off with more than one woman and every time it hurt like hell. She knew he didn't owe her anything, he had never made her any promises. That didn't stop the burning sensation of rage and hurt she felt whenever he found someone new. She kept trying to tell herself that it didn't matter, that it was just the kind of guy Richard was. She knew it all along and should have known better than to fall for him. But she had always fallen for the wrong guy and this time was no exception.
"Lucas, you can do so much better." Cassie told him, "Carla is nothing. She's a stupid whore that deserves to get an STD and die." Lucas looked shocked at the conviction that Cassie spoke with but Cassie hadn't been able to contain her hatred for Carla. She was already making Cassie's life a living hell by hitting on Richard, there was no way she was going to mess up Lucas' life too.
"I wasn't planning on doing anything with Carla." Lucas assured Cassie and Cassie sighed with relief. Richard just looked at Lucas without understanding.
"Why not? You can tell that she wants you." Richard said.
"Well, I don't want her." Lucas retorted hotly. Richard let out a little moan of frustration.
"Then what do you want, Lucas?" he asked, his voice tainted with exasperation. Lucas stared straight ahead as he pictured Sami's baby blue eyes and long blonde hair in his mind.
"Something I can't have." he replied in a soft voice. He wondered if things would be different if Sami had come with him. She would have liked the motorcycle trip, she always liked adventures. Maybe if she felt the same way he did, she would have come and then they would have been the ones ditching Richard and Cassie to go up to the Shadow Room. It didn't take a genius to figure out what Richard and Cassie had been doing in there and he had to admit, it would be a very interesting place to do..... He abruptly pushed that thought out of his mind. Sami obviously didn't want him so he wasn't going to ever be making love to her, in the Shadow Room or anywhere else.
Richard eyed Lucas with sympathy, "What does that mean? There isn't anything you can't have if you want it badly enough. You just have to do everything you can to get it."
"Come again?" Lucas wondered what Richard could possibly mean by that.
Richard ran one hand through his hair, "Nothing is completely impossible. There has never been one time when I have tried to get something I wanted and failed." Lucas watched him carefully, understanding how serious he was. Lucas could see him getting his way with most things he did. He had an air of superiority about him and he seemed to so powerful.
"He's right." Cassie agreed, turning to look at Richard, "Richard has a way with words. He can seduce you, he can make anything sound like it's beautiful, like it's the right thing to do when it really isn't. Just like the devil." Richard grinned, seeming to take even the last part as a compliment.
"We should go in." Richard said, not making a move to get to his feet, "We're going to try and make it all the way to Saskatchewan tomorrow, so we're going to have to get up early. Ryan and Trent said they have a cousin who lives up in Brandon, Manitoba. We're going to go see him."
Lucas sat completely still for a minute, his heart rate spiking as he put all the pieces together. After a few moments, he leapt off the ground. Cassie and Richard stared at him in confusion.
"Lucas, what the hell?" Cassie watched him kick at the gravel angrily.
"Brandon. I can't believe I didn't think see it before. God, I am such an idiot!" Lucas growled as Cassie and Richard continued to look at him like he was insane.
"Lucas, did Shaun and Freddy share their special stash with you or something?" Richard asked, "Man, it takes a while for that stuff to kick in with you."
"I know who the killer is." Lucas turned to Cassie, "It's Brandon Walker. I saw him at the hospital and he was there right before I found out-" he cut himself off and looked at Cassie with horror flashing across his face, "Shit, I didn't even tell you what happened yet."
"What happened?" Cassie asked, the look on Lucas' face causing her throat to become tight with fear. She could tell that Lucas didn't have good news for her.
"Cassie," Lucas began, reaching over and touching her arm, "Roman and Kate got married on Christmas eve. This was after the Salem PD got messages saying that Roman would be the next victim. They had the wedding and you could only get in with an invitation and I don't know how Brandon pulled it off but somehow he managed to get in. Roman and Kate never got to go on their honey moon because-" this was so hard for Lucas to tell her and he knew once he got around to telling her what had happened with Tony, it wasn't going to get any easier, "Because the killer murdered him at the wedding."
"No." Cassie whispered, clutching Richard's arm for support. Lucas took a deep breath before continuing.
"Tony thought he knew who the killer was. But he didn't know who it was because he thought it was a woman. He was about to tell everyone who he thought the killer was but then the killer had a bucket of blood dumped on Tony's head. Before this he had let the tiger on the loose and then it... attacked Tony. He got sent to the hospital and then someone poisoned his IV."
Cassie was sobbing now, burying her head into Richard's chest, "I don't believe. Not my daddy. This isn't fair, I never even got to say good-bye." Lucas watched Richard stroke Cassie's hair as she cried. He knew how important Tony had been to Cassie and knew he would feel the same way if anything happened to his mom. He wished there was something he could do to help her through this.
Cassie stopped crying after what seemed like forever and looked up at Lucas, "So, how can you be sure it's Brandon?"
"Nicole was on the suspect list from the very start." Lucas explained, "Abe was getting close to naming her as Colin Murphy's killer. Brandon must have found out and came back to Salem. He killed his own father to protect his sister. He must have known Jack was almost ready to solve the case too, so he killed Jack. Then Maggie must have seen something. I can't believe she would let him into her house. They were never even that close. But she was such a good woman, she would have let anyone into her house. Then Caroline must have saw him or something and he killed her. I don't know why he would have killed Roman. And Tony....." Lucas' voice trailed off.
Then he remembered seeing Victor and Tony talking together and realized what must have been going on, "Tony thought Nicole was the killer. Victor convinced Tony to announce it at the circus. Brandon found out somehow and set Tony up. He must have went in and poisoned Tony, then came outside. That's when I saw him. He said he had only been in Salem a few days and asked me not to tell anyone he was back yet. He wanted it to be a surprise. Even after I said I wouldn't say anything, he obviously didn't trust me, so he planned to kill me next."
Cassie stared at Lucas, her eyes wide, "What are you doing to do?" she asked softly.
Lucas' eyes darkened with determination, "I have to go back to Salem and find him before he kills anyone else. Now that I'm not around, he's just going to move on to someone else. He already attacked Sami once- God, we have to get back there as soon as possible." Lucas gritted his teeth at the idea of Brandon hurting Sami.
"All right." Richard stood up and immediately took charge, "We are going to go in there and start riding back to Salem right now. I don't care how tired we are, we have to drive during the night to avoid as much traffic as possible. Don't worry Lucas, this bastard isn't going to get away with this."
Richard, Lucas and Cassie burst into the motel and started waking their friends up. Richard was fixed on making Brandon pay for what he had done. He had killed Cassie's father and he had seen how badly that had affected Cassie. He hated seeing her cry, he had never been so torn up by anyone else's tears but she was different. Brandon was definitely not going to get away with making Cassie suffer.
