If Tomorrow Never Comes
Chapter 4
Emily paused at the door to Kelly's, her hand on the knob. She'd noticed Lucky, Liz, Nikolas, and Gia sitting together at a table in the far corner. She smiled when she saw Gia roll her eyes at whatever Liz had just said. She hadn't wanted to like Gia not after everything with the blackmailing but sometimes she couldn't help herself. Especially whenever Gia made a quip about Liz. She loved her best friend but recently she'd been getting on her nerves. Always Lucky said this or Lucky did that. Hell, she'd even seen Lucky with a bored look a few times. Not that I blame him.
After a few minutes of staring through the window she pulled her hand back and took a step away from the door. She wasn't in the mood to deal with anybody right now. She felt eyes on her and turned her head to the right seeing a man standing in the shadows staring at her. She gave an involuntarily shiver and smiling stepped away from the entrance. "I'm sorry. I'm blocking the door."
The man shook his head as he began walking toward the dock. "Changed my mind. Thanks."
Emily stared at his retreating back an eerie feeling of deja vu coming over her. Zander. She remembered blocking the entrance to Kelly while she watched Lucky talk to Liz. Remembered feeling eyes on her back and turning to see a stranger staring at her. She hadn't known then who he was or what he's become to her. God, she needed to see him. No, I promised Carly I'd stay away. But she could go see if Carly had spoken to him yet. That could work. She was so deep in thought she didn't notice the two people walking toward her.
"Hey Emily."
She jumped at her name whirling around to see Juan and Shari give her strange looks. She put her hand on her chest, panting slightly. "Jesus. You guys scared the hell out of me."
"Oh. Sorry." Juan replied.
"It's alright," she said reaching over and punching him playfully on the shoulder. "Where have been, huh?" They exchanged a smile. She'd been so glad that she and Juan had decided to stay friends. After her kidnapping they had both wanted to pretend everything was the same and it would have succeeded if her mind hadn't kept wandering back to her kidnapper. When things had started to become normal again he'd climbed back into her life and she'd been more confused then before. Juan had tried to ignore it but after a couple of days he hadn't been able to anymore. She remembered the day it had happened. She looked over at Juan and she knew he was thinking about it, too. It was 2 days after Zander came back and she and Juan had met at the park.
She looked up at the sky watching the fading colors of the sunset. Turning her head she smiled over at him. Her smile quickly fell when she noticed the hidden tears in his eyes. Reaching her hand over to take his she clasped it tightly. "Hey. You okay?"
He'd looked from their joined hands to her face. Smiling sadly he shook his head. "I was convinced I was the one." He saw the look of confusion cross her face and decided it was way past time they got this straighten out. They should have had this talk when she'd gotten back from Canada. Hell, he thought, if he was honest he's admit this conversation was 3 months overdue. " I thought I was the one for you, Emily. I thought, you know, we were meant to be. "
His chest felt heavy at her next words. "But you don't think so anymore?" He looked to see the tears in her eyes. Damn but this was hard. He shook his head, "No. I don't. You don't either." He held his hand up to stop her from denying it. "Come on, Em. You knew before I even admitted to myself. If I really loved you as much as I said, if we were meant to be together, would I have done what I did to you the night of the rave?" He continued when she said nothing. "No. I wouldn't have. Or if I would have would it really have taken us this long to work through it. No, Em. You don't love me. Not like that. I don't think I love you that way, either." He looked down watching the moonlight glisten on the fallen leaves. He heard her sniffle and his heart broke a little more. Looking over at her he pushed her hair away from her face. "If we were right then you would have been able to come to me when Zander came back." He saw her startled expression and chuckled despite himself.
"How long have you known Juan?" she asked angrily, pulling her hand away from his. She'd been feeling like a louse for the last few days and here he'd known all along. "Hey. Don't get mad at me champ." She glared at him and he sobered quickly. "I saw you guys. together."
"What? When?"
"Earlier today. Here in the park."
"Why didn't you say anything?"
"Because of the way you two were looking at each other. It was like it was you and him and that was it. Trust me, I wanted to walk up to him and punch his lights out but then he got this look on his face and you reached out to him. You gave him this look." You never looked at me like that." His voice cracked slightly as he continued. "I didn't get it. I knew I hated it. But not like I should of. I was mad because here you were standing with the guy that had kidnapped you. That you were putting yourself in danger but it didn't bother me the fact that you were with him. Man, I can't really explain it but I didn't want to stand there and watch so I took off to walk here before we met up." He turned on the bench to look at her, his eyes looking out over the park as he spoke. "So, I'm walking thinking why the hell didn't I feel madder. Betrayed. Something. What man feels just concern when they see their girlfriend with some guy? Pissed. Yeah. Jealousy. Uh-huh. Concern? No way." He looked down at the bench then up to stare at her looking somewhere past his shoulder and she watched a small smile form. " So, there I am feeling stupid for not being jealous when I hear voices. I turn my head and there in the middle of the park are Sonny and Carly arguing. I couldn't hear what they were saying but I could tell they were discussing something serious. Suddenly, Carly reached over and touched his face and it happened." His eyes focused on her hers that smile still on his face. "She got that same look on her face. It was like the only thing that mattered was him. He needed comfort and even though she was angry with him at the moment she needed to give him that. Then, all of a sudden he smiled at her and since I've known him Emily I never saw Sonny smile like that." He shook his head looking back out over the trees.
"What happened after that?"
"Oh. He glomped her." They started laughing and she'd hugged him quickly. "I'm sorry this happened, Juan."
He pulled back to look at her face. "I'm not. We got some happy memories from this and we got our friendship out of it."
"You still want to be friends?"
"Well, yeah. I mean whom else am I going to bother with my petty little problems. You're the only friend I ever had Emily. I'm not going ruin that even though I don't agree with want you're doing." he took a deep breath ".I'll be there for you. I'll help you however I can. Even if it does mean helping out Zander." He'd smiled at her then and grabbed her for another hug. "Thank you, Juan."
"Hey. You've been there for me. It's the least do. You believed in me when no one else did." He said as he rose from the bench, helping her up with him.
"What are friends for." she replied, kissing his cheek and walking away.
" They're for getting you involved with kidnappers. That's what they're for." He ranted walking behind her. She threw her hat at him and they walked away their laughter fading in the twilight.
"Hi Emily." Shari's voice brought them out of their thoughts. Emily looked over at the other girl. She'd gotten to know Shari the last couple of weeks and she grown to like her even if they're first couple of meeting hadn't been exactly great. She made Juan smile and that was all that counted with Emily. "Hi Shari. What are you two up to?"
"We were headed to a movie but I came to see if Taggert was still here." Juan replied.
Emily looked behind her to Kelly's "I didn't see him in there."
"Really? Maybe I should go find him."
"Yeah. Carly said he really needed to see you."
Emily turned quickly at then mention of Carly's name. "Oh. When'd you see Carly?' Maybe if she could catch up with her.
"Over by Lucky's old boxcar."
Emily felt her heart leap at that. She's gone to see him. She calmed herself quickly not wanting to give anything away. She knew Juan had meant what he said but he didn't need to be involved anymore than he had to. Juan had seen the way her face had lit up the minute he's mentioned Carly and the boxcar. He looked over at Shari. "Shari, do you want to go in and get us a table? I need to talk to Emily for a minute"
"Sure. No problem. It was great to see you Emily."
"Yeah. Nice to see you too." She smiled at the girl as she walked past her into Kelly's. She looked up at Juan. "What do you need to talk to me about?"
Juan waited until Shari was all the way inside the restaurant. He looked behind his shoulders and around the courtyard slowly. Emily did the same not sure what she was looking for. Juan turned to her and stepped to stand as close to her as he could.
"Juan, what is it?" He was making her nervous.
He looked down at her, "Have you lost it? You got Carly involved in this."
Zander stared at the amused woman standing in front of him. Her words echoed in his head. He looked around to the entrance of the door and sure enough he saw a tall, brown haired man standing at the entrance, his hand inside his coat pocket. He looked back at the woman and slowly dropped the weapon to his side.
"Good. Now, we're getting somewhere."
"Yeah? How do you figure that?"
"Simple. You put the gun down and that's a good thing on three accounts. One, Johnny here," she began, pointing to the man standing a little closer to entrance, "won't have to kill you which could have lead to his butt in prison. She pulled out a small gun from inside her coat sleeve and he heard a muffled curse coming from Johnny's direction. "Although I'm sure he'd of disposed of you somehow," she said as an afterthought looking over at Johnny then truning back to him. "Two, I won't have to shoot you which would have caused my husband to possibly kill me and that leads to three, I won't have to tell Emily I killed or hurt her friend. So, see putting that gun down was a really good move."
Zander stared at Carly his mouth hanging open. She was the least threatening woman he'd ever seen in his life. She was definitely pretty and kind of petite but not scary. Well, not until she'd pulled the gun from her sleeve. Then she'd looked as scary as the guy in the entrance. He could tell by the way she held the gun she knew what she was doing.
"Yes. I know how to shoot," she said, reading his mind. She laughed at his startled look. "Kid, you have got to get a better poker face." She waited for him to speak but after a minute all he could do was stare. Damn, I hope I didn't scare the kid mute.
"You okay? Kid?" Carly moved a few steps closer.
Zander came out of his trance as she started to walk toward him. "My name's Zander." Zander gasped slightly, when he saw her smile. Whoa.
Johnny almost laughed aloud when he saw the look of awe on Zander's face when Carly smiled at him. Hell, he knew what the kid was feeling. That woman could make a mans legs go to jelly with that smile. Although, he himself preferred brunettes. Well, a certain brunette, anyway. He turned his attention back to the two people in the boxcar.
"Well, Zander, nice to meet you. As I said my name's Carly and I'm a friend, well I consider myself a friend of Emily not really sure how she feels about that but anyway, she asked me to help so here I am."
"Exactly how where you going to help me. Have the mannequin over there beat me and then shoot me?"
"Hey, watch it buddy. We don't know each other well enough. When we do you can insult Johnny all you want." She turned and winked at Johnny who just smirked and shook his head.
"Are you always like this?" Zander asked, hiding his smile. He liked this woman. He wasn't sure why but she seemed like she meant what she said. She was funny and the guy at the door seemed to like her a lot too.
"Pretty much. Wait until you meet Sonny? Right Johnny?"
Johnny nodded fervently' "You said it. Mrs. Corinthos." That was for that little insult comment.
Carly sneered at him but said nothing. She heard a small thud and she and Johnny turned to look at Zander who was bending to pick up the gun from the floor. This couldn't be happening to him. He didn't have this much bad luck. He couldn't possibly have just threatened the Sonny Corinthos wife. "Did you say you? You called her. You're name is Carly Corinthos?" he squeaked.
He watched Johnny and Carly look at each other, back at him and nod slowly in unison.
"THE Sonny Corinthos?
Looking at each other again and then back at him they asked. "Is there another?"
Zander started shaking his head, trying to contain the hysterical laughter that was trying to escape. Of course. Of course he threatened the biggest mob boss of the east Coast's wife. Why was he surprised? I mean wasn't he the one that kidnapped the daughter of the most prominent family and then proceeded to fall for her. "Of course, cause it's my kind of luck. Sure, Zander point a gun at a mob boss's wife. Sure, come back to this stupid town after you were lucky enough to get away the first time. Hide out in what appears to be the most populated abandoned boxcar in the world." He began pacing back and forth stopping to let his head fall in his hand. "Because my life not complicated enough already. No. No. Strive to piss off the most powerful man in this town. That'll make it all better."
Carly and Johnny just stared at him as he muttered to himself. Carly turned to look at Johnny who just shrugged. He put his finger to his ear whirling it in a circle. Carly sent him an exasperated look. "He is not." She turned back to Zander. "Hey, Zander. Don't worry. Sonny won't find out from either of us that you had a gun. I mean gun? What gun? Johnny did you see a gun?"
"Yes."
She looked over her shoulder at her favorite bodyguard. "Joohhhnnnyyy."
"Caaarrlllyyy." He mimicked her shaking his head at her unvoiced request. Like hell he wasn't telling Sonny. If he didn't and it got back to him somehow he was dead. Dead. "Don't even think about it, Carly."
"Come on, Johnny. What did Sonny say to you? I mean I know you were supposed to follow me to keep me out of danger blah, blah, blah but I know my husband and he wouldn't go back on his word and he gave me his word that he wouldn't interfere. So, are you telling me my husband sent you to spy on me? Are you telling me he went back on his word? That he has no faith in me?"
Johnny saw the big black hole he was digging himself into. Why the hell couldn't it have been Francis' shift? He knew either answer he was screwed so he went for the one that would get his Boss some points. Maybe then he'd go a little easier on him when he found out about this and oh he'd find out. He always did. Why me?
"Well?"
"He told me to make sure you were safe but that he didn't want to know what was going on except if you were in danger then to forget what he had just said and to get him right away."
Carly laughed loudly, shaking her head. "That's my hubby. Always looking out for me, you know?"
Johnny smiled slyly, "That's why you love him."
"You got that right."
They turned to look at Zander who was laughing. She smiled at him. She liked this kid. A lot. He reminded her of someone. She looked at her watch. It was getting late and she needed to get this done in time for dinner. Gave her 5 hours. "Listen, Zander, just do me a favor, I know this is asking a lot but can you just trust me?"
Zander paused, looking from Carly to Johnny and back. Nodding slowly, he took a step toward them. "I can."
"Good. Then, first give me that thing," she said as she took his gun away, "Now, I've got to get some errands run before it gets any later. I'll be back to get you in 3 hours. Stay put. Okay?"
"Okay. Three hours."
Carly flashed him a grin and stepped down from the boxcar. "Hey, kid."
He turned to look at her as she stuck her head in the door. "What?"
"Try to stay out of sight. I mean what kind of a criminal are you anyway" Winking, she disappeared from the door. He heard Johnny joke as they as they moved from the boxcar. "Maybe we ought to start giving lesson. What do you think, Carly, Criminal Activities 101?"
Zander smiled as he heard her and Johnny's laughter as they walked away. He rubbed his hands together, blowing his hot breath into them periodically. He was freezing and all he had on was his stupid windbreaker. He shivered a little, moving his feet a bit as he tried to get the numbness out. He froze when he heard the sound of rustling leaves. Someone was coming. Damn. He looked around him trying to find some kind of defense. He saw a board behind one of the crates. He walked to it and picked it up. He prayed silently that whoever it was went away. He heard then stop at he entrance and watched as a foot was placed on the boxcar floor. He raised the board over his head and closed his eyes.
Chapter 4
Emily paused at the door to Kelly's, her hand on the knob. She'd noticed Lucky, Liz, Nikolas, and Gia sitting together at a table in the far corner. She smiled when she saw Gia roll her eyes at whatever Liz had just said. She hadn't wanted to like Gia not after everything with the blackmailing but sometimes she couldn't help herself. Especially whenever Gia made a quip about Liz. She loved her best friend but recently she'd been getting on her nerves. Always Lucky said this or Lucky did that. Hell, she'd even seen Lucky with a bored look a few times. Not that I blame him.
After a few minutes of staring through the window she pulled her hand back and took a step away from the door. She wasn't in the mood to deal with anybody right now. She felt eyes on her and turned her head to the right seeing a man standing in the shadows staring at her. She gave an involuntarily shiver and smiling stepped away from the entrance. "I'm sorry. I'm blocking the door."
The man shook his head as he began walking toward the dock. "Changed my mind. Thanks."
Emily stared at his retreating back an eerie feeling of deja vu coming over her. Zander. She remembered blocking the entrance to Kelly while she watched Lucky talk to Liz. Remembered feeling eyes on her back and turning to see a stranger staring at her. She hadn't known then who he was or what he's become to her. God, she needed to see him. No, I promised Carly I'd stay away. But she could go see if Carly had spoken to him yet. That could work. She was so deep in thought she didn't notice the two people walking toward her.
"Hey Emily."
She jumped at her name whirling around to see Juan and Shari give her strange looks. She put her hand on her chest, panting slightly. "Jesus. You guys scared the hell out of me."
"Oh. Sorry." Juan replied.
"It's alright," she said reaching over and punching him playfully on the shoulder. "Where have been, huh?" They exchanged a smile. She'd been so glad that she and Juan had decided to stay friends. After her kidnapping they had both wanted to pretend everything was the same and it would have succeeded if her mind hadn't kept wandering back to her kidnapper. When things had started to become normal again he'd climbed back into her life and she'd been more confused then before. Juan had tried to ignore it but after a couple of days he hadn't been able to anymore. She remembered the day it had happened. She looked over at Juan and she knew he was thinking about it, too. It was 2 days after Zander came back and she and Juan had met at the park.
She looked up at the sky watching the fading colors of the sunset. Turning her head she smiled over at him. Her smile quickly fell when she noticed the hidden tears in his eyes. Reaching her hand over to take his she clasped it tightly. "Hey. You okay?"
He'd looked from their joined hands to her face. Smiling sadly he shook his head. "I was convinced I was the one." He saw the look of confusion cross her face and decided it was way past time they got this straighten out. They should have had this talk when she'd gotten back from Canada. Hell, he thought, if he was honest he's admit this conversation was 3 months overdue. " I thought I was the one for you, Emily. I thought, you know, we were meant to be. "
His chest felt heavy at her next words. "But you don't think so anymore?" He looked to see the tears in her eyes. Damn but this was hard. He shook his head, "No. I don't. You don't either." He held his hand up to stop her from denying it. "Come on, Em. You knew before I even admitted to myself. If I really loved you as much as I said, if we were meant to be together, would I have done what I did to you the night of the rave?" He continued when she said nothing. "No. I wouldn't have. Or if I would have would it really have taken us this long to work through it. No, Em. You don't love me. Not like that. I don't think I love you that way, either." He looked down watching the moonlight glisten on the fallen leaves. He heard her sniffle and his heart broke a little more. Looking over at her he pushed her hair away from her face. "If we were right then you would have been able to come to me when Zander came back." He saw her startled expression and chuckled despite himself.
"How long have you known Juan?" she asked angrily, pulling her hand away from his. She'd been feeling like a louse for the last few days and here he'd known all along. "Hey. Don't get mad at me champ." She glared at him and he sobered quickly. "I saw you guys. together."
"What? When?"
"Earlier today. Here in the park."
"Why didn't you say anything?"
"Because of the way you two were looking at each other. It was like it was you and him and that was it. Trust me, I wanted to walk up to him and punch his lights out but then he got this look on his face and you reached out to him. You gave him this look." You never looked at me like that." His voice cracked slightly as he continued. "I didn't get it. I knew I hated it. But not like I should of. I was mad because here you were standing with the guy that had kidnapped you. That you were putting yourself in danger but it didn't bother me the fact that you were with him. Man, I can't really explain it but I didn't want to stand there and watch so I took off to walk here before we met up." He turned on the bench to look at her, his eyes looking out over the park as he spoke. "So, I'm walking thinking why the hell didn't I feel madder. Betrayed. Something. What man feels just concern when they see their girlfriend with some guy? Pissed. Yeah. Jealousy. Uh-huh. Concern? No way." He looked down at the bench then up to stare at her looking somewhere past his shoulder and she watched a small smile form. " So, there I am feeling stupid for not being jealous when I hear voices. I turn my head and there in the middle of the park are Sonny and Carly arguing. I couldn't hear what they were saying but I could tell they were discussing something serious. Suddenly, Carly reached over and touched his face and it happened." His eyes focused on her hers that smile still on his face. "She got that same look on her face. It was like the only thing that mattered was him. He needed comfort and even though she was angry with him at the moment she needed to give him that. Then, all of a sudden he smiled at her and since I've known him Emily I never saw Sonny smile like that." He shook his head looking back out over the trees.
"What happened after that?"
"Oh. He glomped her." They started laughing and she'd hugged him quickly. "I'm sorry this happened, Juan."
He pulled back to look at her face. "I'm not. We got some happy memories from this and we got our friendship out of it."
"You still want to be friends?"
"Well, yeah. I mean whom else am I going to bother with my petty little problems. You're the only friend I ever had Emily. I'm not going ruin that even though I don't agree with want you're doing." he took a deep breath ".I'll be there for you. I'll help you however I can. Even if it does mean helping out Zander." He'd smiled at her then and grabbed her for another hug. "Thank you, Juan."
"Hey. You've been there for me. It's the least do. You believed in me when no one else did." He said as he rose from the bench, helping her up with him.
"What are friends for." she replied, kissing his cheek and walking away.
" They're for getting you involved with kidnappers. That's what they're for." He ranted walking behind her. She threw her hat at him and they walked away their laughter fading in the twilight.
"Hi Emily." Shari's voice brought them out of their thoughts. Emily looked over at the other girl. She'd gotten to know Shari the last couple of weeks and she grown to like her even if they're first couple of meeting hadn't been exactly great. She made Juan smile and that was all that counted with Emily. "Hi Shari. What are you two up to?"
"We were headed to a movie but I came to see if Taggert was still here." Juan replied.
Emily looked behind her to Kelly's "I didn't see him in there."
"Really? Maybe I should go find him."
"Yeah. Carly said he really needed to see you."
Emily turned quickly at then mention of Carly's name. "Oh. When'd you see Carly?' Maybe if she could catch up with her.
"Over by Lucky's old boxcar."
Emily felt her heart leap at that. She's gone to see him. She calmed herself quickly not wanting to give anything away. She knew Juan had meant what he said but he didn't need to be involved anymore than he had to. Juan had seen the way her face had lit up the minute he's mentioned Carly and the boxcar. He looked over at Shari. "Shari, do you want to go in and get us a table? I need to talk to Emily for a minute"
"Sure. No problem. It was great to see you Emily."
"Yeah. Nice to see you too." She smiled at the girl as she walked past her into Kelly's. She looked up at Juan. "What do you need to talk to me about?"
Juan waited until Shari was all the way inside the restaurant. He looked behind his shoulders and around the courtyard slowly. Emily did the same not sure what she was looking for. Juan turned to her and stepped to stand as close to her as he could.
"Juan, what is it?" He was making her nervous.
He looked down at her, "Have you lost it? You got Carly involved in this."
Zander stared at the amused woman standing in front of him. Her words echoed in his head. He looked around to the entrance of the door and sure enough he saw a tall, brown haired man standing at the entrance, his hand inside his coat pocket. He looked back at the woman and slowly dropped the weapon to his side.
"Good. Now, we're getting somewhere."
"Yeah? How do you figure that?"
"Simple. You put the gun down and that's a good thing on three accounts. One, Johnny here," she began, pointing to the man standing a little closer to entrance, "won't have to kill you which could have lead to his butt in prison. She pulled out a small gun from inside her coat sleeve and he heard a muffled curse coming from Johnny's direction. "Although I'm sure he'd of disposed of you somehow," she said as an afterthought looking over at Johnny then truning back to him. "Two, I won't have to shoot you which would have caused my husband to possibly kill me and that leads to three, I won't have to tell Emily I killed or hurt her friend. So, see putting that gun down was a really good move."
Zander stared at Carly his mouth hanging open. She was the least threatening woman he'd ever seen in his life. She was definitely pretty and kind of petite but not scary. Well, not until she'd pulled the gun from her sleeve. Then she'd looked as scary as the guy in the entrance. He could tell by the way she held the gun she knew what she was doing.
"Yes. I know how to shoot," she said, reading his mind. She laughed at his startled look. "Kid, you have got to get a better poker face." She waited for him to speak but after a minute all he could do was stare. Damn, I hope I didn't scare the kid mute.
"You okay? Kid?" Carly moved a few steps closer.
Zander came out of his trance as she started to walk toward him. "My name's Zander." Zander gasped slightly, when he saw her smile. Whoa.
Johnny almost laughed aloud when he saw the look of awe on Zander's face when Carly smiled at him. Hell, he knew what the kid was feeling. That woman could make a mans legs go to jelly with that smile. Although, he himself preferred brunettes. Well, a certain brunette, anyway. He turned his attention back to the two people in the boxcar.
"Well, Zander, nice to meet you. As I said my name's Carly and I'm a friend, well I consider myself a friend of Emily not really sure how she feels about that but anyway, she asked me to help so here I am."
"Exactly how where you going to help me. Have the mannequin over there beat me and then shoot me?"
"Hey, watch it buddy. We don't know each other well enough. When we do you can insult Johnny all you want." She turned and winked at Johnny who just smirked and shook his head.
"Are you always like this?" Zander asked, hiding his smile. He liked this woman. He wasn't sure why but she seemed like she meant what she said. She was funny and the guy at the door seemed to like her a lot too.
"Pretty much. Wait until you meet Sonny? Right Johnny?"
Johnny nodded fervently' "You said it. Mrs. Corinthos." That was for that little insult comment.
Carly sneered at him but said nothing. She heard a small thud and she and Johnny turned to look at Zander who was bending to pick up the gun from the floor. This couldn't be happening to him. He didn't have this much bad luck. He couldn't possibly have just threatened the Sonny Corinthos wife. "Did you say you? You called her. You're name is Carly Corinthos?" he squeaked.
He watched Johnny and Carly look at each other, back at him and nod slowly in unison.
"THE Sonny Corinthos?
Looking at each other again and then back at him they asked. "Is there another?"
Zander started shaking his head, trying to contain the hysterical laughter that was trying to escape. Of course. Of course he threatened the biggest mob boss of the east Coast's wife. Why was he surprised? I mean wasn't he the one that kidnapped the daughter of the most prominent family and then proceeded to fall for her. "Of course, cause it's my kind of luck. Sure, Zander point a gun at a mob boss's wife. Sure, come back to this stupid town after you were lucky enough to get away the first time. Hide out in what appears to be the most populated abandoned boxcar in the world." He began pacing back and forth stopping to let his head fall in his hand. "Because my life not complicated enough already. No. No. Strive to piss off the most powerful man in this town. That'll make it all better."
Carly and Johnny just stared at him as he muttered to himself. Carly turned to look at Johnny who just shrugged. He put his finger to his ear whirling it in a circle. Carly sent him an exasperated look. "He is not." She turned back to Zander. "Hey, Zander. Don't worry. Sonny won't find out from either of us that you had a gun. I mean gun? What gun? Johnny did you see a gun?"
"Yes."
She looked over her shoulder at her favorite bodyguard. "Joohhhnnnyyy."
"Caaarrlllyyy." He mimicked her shaking his head at her unvoiced request. Like hell he wasn't telling Sonny. If he didn't and it got back to him somehow he was dead. Dead. "Don't even think about it, Carly."
"Come on, Johnny. What did Sonny say to you? I mean I know you were supposed to follow me to keep me out of danger blah, blah, blah but I know my husband and he wouldn't go back on his word and he gave me his word that he wouldn't interfere. So, are you telling me my husband sent you to spy on me? Are you telling me he went back on his word? That he has no faith in me?"
Johnny saw the big black hole he was digging himself into. Why the hell couldn't it have been Francis' shift? He knew either answer he was screwed so he went for the one that would get his Boss some points. Maybe then he'd go a little easier on him when he found out about this and oh he'd find out. He always did. Why me?
"Well?"
"He told me to make sure you were safe but that he didn't want to know what was going on except if you were in danger then to forget what he had just said and to get him right away."
Carly laughed loudly, shaking her head. "That's my hubby. Always looking out for me, you know?"
Johnny smiled slyly, "That's why you love him."
"You got that right."
They turned to look at Zander who was laughing. She smiled at him. She liked this kid. A lot. He reminded her of someone. She looked at her watch. It was getting late and she needed to get this done in time for dinner. Gave her 5 hours. "Listen, Zander, just do me a favor, I know this is asking a lot but can you just trust me?"
Zander paused, looking from Carly to Johnny and back. Nodding slowly, he took a step toward them. "I can."
"Good. Then, first give me that thing," she said as she took his gun away, "Now, I've got to get some errands run before it gets any later. I'll be back to get you in 3 hours. Stay put. Okay?"
"Okay. Three hours."
Carly flashed him a grin and stepped down from the boxcar. "Hey, kid."
He turned to look at her as she stuck her head in the door. "What?"
"Try to stay out of sight. I mean what kind of a criminal are you anyway" Winking, she disappeared from the door. He heard Johnny joke as they as they moved from the boxcar. "Maybe we ought to start giving lesson. What do you think, Carly, Criminal Activities 101?"
Zander smiled as he heard her and Johnny's laughter as they walked away. He rubbed his hands together, blowing his hot breath into them periodically. He was freezing and all he had on was his stupid windbreaker. He shivered a little, moving his feet a bit as he tried to get the numbness out. He froze when he heard the sound of rustling leaves. Someone was coming. Damn. He looked around him trying to find some kind of defense. He saw a board behind one of the crates. He walked to it and picked it up. He prayed silently that whoever it was went away. He heard then stop at he entrance and watched as a foot was placed on the boxcar floor. He raised the board over his head and closed his eyes.