Chapter Twenty-Three
"Ouch, Lucas, not so hard!"
"I'm sorry but if we want to do this quick, I'm going to have to do it hard!"
Joe and Frank stared at each other in confusion. They had just finished locking the man and woman up in a closet, after tying them to some chairs. But from the sounds of things, the two of them had already managed to escape their binds and were not having such a bad time in the closet together. Joe shrugged his shoulders.
"We might as well leave them to it. I don't want to hear any sound effects." Joe said to Frank, heading for the door.
"But Kate just left for the wedding." Frank protested, "She told us to stay here and make sure that they didn't leave the closet."
"So? It's not our problem, we tied the people up like we were supposed to. Can we help it if they got out of the ropes already? Let's go, this is boring." giving in to his friend's words, Frank followed Joe out of Kate's house.
Inside the closet, Lucas continued moving his arm along the rope, trying to wear the rope away. Rope burns stung his wrists and forearms but he gritted his teeth and tried to focus on anything other than the burning sensation in his arms. Nicole, however, was not doing the same. She was also trying to wear the rope away but she wasn't trying anywhere near as hard as Lucas was, she was too busy whining about how much her wrists hurt to really concentrate on wearing away the ropes.
"Ow! God, the things I do for Brady. And I don't even know why anymore. He acts more and more like Victor every day." Nicole complained, "I can totally imagine Victor doing to this to someone if given the opportunity. I can't believe I married Victor."
"At least your mom doesn't lock you up in closets in order to keep you away from the love of your life!" Lucas fumed, "Stupid bitch. I swear, Will and I are not having anything more to do with her after this. Will's not even going to go to her funeral when she dies."
"You sound like Eminem." Nicole muttered, wincing as the rope abraded her sensitive skin, "But I agree, you should do everything you can to make her miserable after what she's caused you to put my poor wrists through!"
Lucas and Nicole were sitting back to back on separate chairs in the dark closet, their wrists tied together tightly by the ropes Kate had given the two men. Lucas knew they had to keep working to get out of the ropes. He didn't know how long it would take but he knew they had to get the ropes off before Sami and Brady got married.
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"I still don't get it." Belle said as Sami wrung her hands together, "One day you're doing it with Lucas and the next you're marrying Brady. Where is the sense in that?"
It was about the fifth time she had asked that question and Sami was beginning to seriously regret ever having asked her to be her bridesmaid, "I told you already! It is complicated and I don't want to talk about it!"
Belle looked taken aback, "Okay, then. You don't need to bite my head off."
Sami was instantly contrite, "I'm sorry, Belle. It's just not a very good day for me and I'm a little short-tempered right now. Don't worry about it."
"It's not a very good day for you? But you're getting married." Belle pointed out, "How could it not be a good day? Don't you love Brady?"
"Not even the slightest little bit." Sami said honestly, "The truth is, I cannot stand him."
"Then why are you marrying him?" Belle inquired.
There, she had now pretty much asked Sami the same question at least six times, "None of your business!"
Belle looked irritated now, "I'm too perfect to allow myself to be treated like this. I'm going to go find Shawn. He never talks to me like this."
Sami sighed and raked her shaky hands through her hair. She fingered the material of the wedding gown and sighed again, wishing she was anywhere but where she was at that moment.
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"I'm hungry." Nicole announced as she and Lucas continued to work on the ropes.
"You look it." Lucas told her.
"Are you saying I'm too skinny?" Nicole didn't wait to hear his answer, "Do you realize that I am plotting your mother's death at this very moment. It will be messy and I will not feel bad."
"Shut up and help me with these ropes." Lucas grumbled.
"I am. I just happen to be talking at the same time. I can multi-task you know. I'm not single-minded like you." Nicole shot back.
"I am not single-minded." Lucas replied.
"Yes, you are. All you ever talked to me about was Sami-this and Sami-that." it was an exaggeration but Nicole didn't care. The rope burns were making her cranky and she could tell they were having the same effect on Lucas.
"What about you and Brady? He isn't a god or something, Nicole. Of course, he probably is to you considering you could never get someone like him." Lucas said.
"I think I already did." Nicole reminded him.
"That was 'getting him'. He threw you out of his bed after your sleazy night of sex and went after someone else. He treated you like the tramp you are, just like almost every other man in your life."
"You didn't!" Nicole flung at him.
"That's because I was stupid and I wasn't able to see you for what you really were. But Brady saw right through you and once he realized how cheap you were, he tossed you aside." Lucas said.
"So, you're saying that I'm never going to get a guy who's going to love me for who I am?"
"Precisely."
Nicole fell silent and focussed all her attention on wearing out the ropes, ignoring the tears that were beginning to trickle down her cheeks.
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John watched as the proceedings continued, grumbling under his breath. Marlena looked over at him and frowned.
"You've been in a bad mood ever since you found Sami and Brady were getting married. What is wrong with you?" she demanded.
"What is wrong with me? It's more like, what is wrong with them?" he sputtered, pointing at Brady and Sami, "They can't get married. I'll never be able to live it down."
"Why is so bad that they get married? I'll admit, I didn't see it coming but I don't see why you're making such a big deal out of this." Marlena replied.
"I raised both of them. Sami is my little girl and Brady is my little boy. This is wrong. Belle and Brady might as well get married then, at least they get along!" John countered.
"Please, John, don't wreck their wedding day with all your negativity. Don't you want them to be happy?" Marlena asked.
"Oh, yeah, Brady looks like he's having a fabulous time." John muttered sarcastically, "And Sami is just jumping for joy, isn't she?"
"They don't look very happy, do they?" Marlena now noticed that both Brady and Sami looked miserable but she hadn't noticed before because she was too busy brooding over whether or not to sneak off and fill the cake with blood like she had at Roman and Kate's wedding.
"I'm telling you, Doc, this is no wedding. For people like me, it's a provocation for suicide. And that's a fact." John added.
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"Nicole, are you crying?" Lucas asked after hearing her sniffle a couple times.
"Yes." Nicole finally sobbed, "It's these rope burns. They're so painful."
"Liar. I made you cry, didn't I? Now you're making me feel bad, stop it."
"I'm not crying over what you said." Nicole retorted, "I'm crying because my rope burns hurt and because I'm scared that Brady is going to marry Sami when I don't want him to."
"Okay." Lucas continued working on the ropes and was silent for a few minutes, "I'm sorry though. I didn't mean what I said."
"I said I didn't care!" Nicole said defensively just as the final strands of the ropes gave away. Lucas began unknotting the binding around his and Nicole's other wrist while Nicole undid the knots around her ankles. After all of the knots were untied, they stood up and rushed out of the house.
"God, I hope he didn't marry her yet." Nicole said breathlessly, jumping into the passenger seat of the Lambourgini that was now Lucas'.
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Kate sighed with relief. No one had voiced any objections about Sami and Brady getting married, meaning neither Lucas or Nicole had burst it at last minute, ruining the wedding. Too bad for Sami, she thought wickedly. She had seen the way the woman's eyes had looked around the room hopefully, as if praying that Lucas would show up and stop the wedding. But he hadn't. And now the moment Kate had been waiting for had finally come.
"You may now kiss the bride." Kate leaned back in her seat and stared hard at Sami and Brady, waiting for them to exchange the kiss that would ensure Sami would never have anything to do with her son ever again.