Chapter Two

"Sonny?"

"Yeah. Ric said that you were asking for me," Sonny told her, walking closer to the bed, not quite sure how he should approach. She looked a little disoriented and Sonny wasn't sure if she remembered calling for him. When she didn't say anything, he moved closer towards her.

"Are you comfortable?" He asked, trying to break the uncomfortable silence. As he watched her trying to regroup and assess her surroundings, he could see the realization of where she was hit her. "You're in the hospital, Alexis, you were attacked last night," Sonny told her as he watched the memories come flooding back in her mind. He also caught the unmistakable flash of panic and fear in her dark eyes.

"Oh my god, Sonny! Kristina, she's gone, they took her! I couldn't fight them off; it's my fault, I didn't protect her! Why was I so stupid? I need to find her, please God..." Sonny could see Alexis struggling to get up, her breathing becoming more rapid, the heart monitor beeping faster. He swiftly moved to her bedside and gently pushed her back.

"Alexis, please, honey, you're going to hurt yourself. Breathe, Alexis, please just breathe," Sonny desperately pleaded with her. "I'm sure Kristina is fine, and we're going to get her back."

"No, you don't understand. They won't reason. They've...they've got my... my baby girl," Alexis choked on the words, hot tears falling down her cheek.

Sonny looked at Alexis, and gently smoothed the hair from her face, and tenderly took her hand. "It will be okay."

Sonny's mind was reeling with a million thoughts. He had no idea what he was doing here. It made him uncomfortable but there was also a familiar feel to it that he found himself missing. He knew he should leave and speak to Alexis when she was fully aware of herself, but he could not bring himself to do it. She had seen him at his worst and he knew that Alexis would act strong for those around her. As much as he hated himself for letting her get to him again, he wanted to be there for her.He knew he needed to gain her trust again, and he her's, but he still wanted her to feel, that with him, she could let her walls down. She was a fighter, but even fighters lose the battle every once and a while.

"Alexis, what did you want to-?" Sonny asked, as he looked down at Alexis' face and noticed that she had fallen back asleep. He also noticed that he had been caressing her face with feather-like strokes the whole time, and that her head had moved into his hand.

Removing his hand from her face, he fell into the chair beside the bed, and for what felt like the first time, let out a breath. No matter how many times he ran it over in his mind that he should not be doing this, he could not let Alexis face this on her own. For now, his anger towards Alexis was irrelevant. Alexis needed someone to trust and someone who would be there for her. How could he not care? He couldn't, he told himself, Kristina's life was too important. No matter how many times they saw things differently, if Sonny needed Alexis' help with Michael, she was there for him. Sonny could not deny that to Alexis for her child.

Anxious as to what she had to say to him, he knew that it would have to wait for the time being. The best thing for her was to sleep and gain her strength; Sonny had a gut feeling that her nightmare was far from over.

Cold eyes watched the little girl sleeping on the cot in the room adjacent to the main area. Her face was red and puffy from the hours of crying and screaming for her mother. He had almost lost his cool with her, but we would not touch her, yet; the condition of the little girl all depended on how well her mother would co-operate. Something told him that the girl's mother would do anything to get her daughter back and he only wished she wasn't foolish about how she would go about doing so.

Walking into bedroom, he saw that Kristina, as her mother called her, had a deadly grip on the frame that contained her mother's picture. After the police had cleared out of the apartment, he had sent one of his men to grab anything that would shut the kid up. Not having much time to grab anything, since the apartment always had people coming in and out, he grabbed the first thing he saw - a photo of mother and daughter resting on the desk. The photo seemed to do the trick, because as soon as the little girl saw her mother, she stopped screaming and feel asleep. Every now and then a small whimper could be heard, but it was a gratifying sound compared to the screaming.

"Bruce," he heard a voice call his name.

"What is it, Alec?"

"Something you might want to see," he said, handing Bruce a newspaper. There on the front page was an article about Alexis' attack and the kidnapping of Kristina.

"The bitch is a lawyer, how convenient. Do you think if we're nice and give back her daughter, unharmed, she would consider representing us if we got arrested?" He joked flatly, throwing down the paper.

"Yeah, maybe, but that's not all. Look at what's below it," Alec said, once again picking up the paper and handing it to Bruce. Bruce took the paper and read the smaller article below, "Man brutally murdered in small-town apartment."

"I can't believe it! Listen to this: 'Gary Sanders' 'girlfriend' came over to see if he wanted to go out for the evening. When there was no answer at the door, she used the key he gave her and found him dead in his favourite chair.'
"You idiot! I told you to run the check and make sure his wife, his children, or even his damn butcher wouldn't be around anytime soon! What do I pay you for, anyway, huh? If that bitch sees this paper all she has to do is put two and two together and point a finger!"

"No one knows what any of this is about. It would be hard to connect the attack and the murder since they are in different places, around the exact same time. And you said so yourself, we have her daughter so she wouldn't say anything about it. Would she?"

"Well, her being a lawyer should hopefully mean that she's not stupid enough to say anything, now doesn't it? If she has an ounce of love for this girl, which I'm pretty sure she does, she will keep her mouth shut. Miss Davis knows the price for her child." Bruce walked back to the open door of the little girl's room, but stopped just before entering.

"I only want the tape, Alec. If I don't get what I want, it only costs me fifty-four cents," he said with his eyes fixed on Kristina. "The price of a bullet."