Chapter 38

The stormy summer night was the longest night of Zander and Emily's life, or so it seemed. Devon's fever broke a few hours after he had gotten the medication he needed and they were allowed to take him home the next morning.

The skies cleared for the beautiful sunshine, white puffy clouds could be seen in the blue sky for miles and it felt like a calmness had come over the city of Port Charles. Zander escorted Emily down to the limo which was waiting out in front of the hospital entrance. Marcus was waiting for them as he stood with the back seat door open. He helped Emily climb in and waited for Zander to follow her. Before Zander did so, he gave Marcus a few instructions.

"You will take her and Devon back to the cabin, but you will be dropping me off at the warehouse .... there's some business that I have to take care of."

Marcus nodded before Zander climbed in the back seat of the limo and he shut the door. There was still the matter of Zander's missing shipment to take care of, and thought since he was in town, he'd take care of it now. Marcus drove the warehouse as his boss instructed and stopped the limo in the alley behind the main building.

"Marcus is going to take you and Devon back to the cabin. I have some things to take care of here in town." Zander said to Emily and then leaned in and gave her a kiss.

"This is about last night's phone call, isn't it?" she asked before he got out.

He evaded her question with another kiss. "I'll be back as soon as I can." he replied as he got out of the car.

He closed the door behind him leaving Emily and his son inside. Marcus stood guard by the car as Zander walked to greet his other man, Thomas who was approaching.

"I want you to go with Marcus back to the house with Emily. I don't want her to be alone out there." Zander said concerned.

"Are you expecting something?" Thomas asked before getting in the limo.

"Let's just say I'm taking precautions. I'll have someone bring me back in an hour or so." Zander replied and Marcus opened the door for Thomas. He climbed in and sat next to Emily, Devon wrapped in the blanket in her arms. Emily wasn't expecting to have company on the ride back to the cabin, and it worried her that perhaps Zander thought she needed the extra protection.

"Something bad is going to happen, isn't it?" she asked Thomas as Marcus got behind the wheel and started to drive away. "That's why he sent you along with me ..." she continued.

"It's just an extra precaution, Emily. Nothing to be concerned about." Thomas replied trying to calm her fears the best he could without giving her too much information that she didn't need to know.

Zander walked into the warehouse with another man, Cory. He was Zander's General Manager, for the lack of a better word. Cory oversaw everything that came and went from the warehouse and knew the inner workings of all that happened there. Cory and Zander walked into the office and Zander took a seat behind his desk. Cory sat down in the chair after he closed the office door.

"So tell me about the partial shipment we have sitting here. What's missing, how much is missing, and who's responsible for taking it?!" Zander demanded to know.

"The best we can tell is, it was no amateur, this was a professional hit. And since Morgan isn't cooperating with us, we've run out of culprits. There isn't anyone else in Port Charles who would have enough balls to steal the large amount that was taken. Besides no one else would have the connections to make such a large amount disappear like it has. It has to be Morgan. He's seriously becoming an annoyance, sir."

"Yes I know he is, but I made some promises that I can't go back on, at least not yet. So Morgan still breaths till I say so. We just have to keep our eye on him for the time being. Which is why I want to heighten security around here and I'll be adding a guard on Emily at all times." Zander wanted to be sure his family was protected even if his gut instincts were wrong.

It was going to come to a head between him and Jason, he could feel it. The tension between the two organizations had been building for some time and after the explosion a month or so ago, it was becoming quite apparent that there would be more then just a shipment lost, soon enough.

"We have another shipment coming in at the end of the week that will fill what we lost with the first one. I'll be sure to have extra manpower here at the warehouse." Cory replied as Zander flipped through some paperwork that laid on the desk.

"Good and I want a 24 hour watch on this warehouse after it comes in. I don't want anything happening to it." Zander instructed as he looked down at his watch.

"Why don't you go home to your wife and son, sir? Gregory and I can handle things here." Cory suggested as he got up from his seat. "Randy can take you home." Cory added.

Zander got up from his seat and walked towards the door, passing Cory. "I want to take a look at that shipment first." Zander said as he walked out of the office and waited for Cory to follow.

Cory led the way to the very large containers that had arrived a few days earlier. He saw a few other men standing off in the distance and motioned for them to come and help him open the boxes so Zander could take a look for himself at what was missing.

Three big burly men approached and helped Cory open the containers that Zander wanted to see. Once opened, Zander sifted through the paper stringy packing in search of the product that was deep within the crate. Zander reached in with his hand, up to his elbows in packing and pulls from the crate a clear plastic package filled with white as snow powder. Cory pulls a pocketknife from his belt loop and stabs the bag with the tip, extracting some of the product from the bag as he removes the knife. He licks the knife with his tongue to taste the quality of the powder as the others look on and waited for his stamp of approval.

Zander walked away from his men once Cory nodded that the product was quality powder and the men nailed the crate shut once more. Zander put his hand to his head and massaged his forehead with his fingers as Cory approached him.

"Do you want to distribute the stuff?" Cory asked and Zander turned on his heel towards him.

"It's business as usual, Cory." is all Zander said as he began walking towards the enormous overhead door to leave.

Cory walked towards the others and called for Randy. "Take Zander back to his wife at the cabin." Cory slapped Randy on the shoulder as he passed. "And don't let him out of your sight till he's inside the house!" Cory hollered after Randy. Randy waved in acknowledgement and followed his boss out the door to the limo that was parked in the alley.

Zander looked down at his watch and noticed he had spent more time at the warehouse then he had expected to, so he used his cell phone and called Thomas to see if everything was okay at the cabin.

"I take it everything went smoothly getting Emily back?" he asked as Thomas answered.

"Yes it did, no problems here." Thomas replied.

"Good, Randy's driving me back now, I'll be there shortly." Zander closed his phone and put it back in his jacket pocket as Randy opened the back door of the car.

"Is everything alright, sir?" Randy asked noticing his boss looked drained.

Things were not fine with Zander, he had a bad feeling about things for a while now, he just couldn't shake it. He was hoping that the feeling would pass, like all the others before had. He sighed deeply as he lied to his guard ..."Things are just fine, Randy ....." With that, Randy closed the limo door and climbed in behind the wheel of the limo.

Zander wasn't sure which is was more worried about, the fact that at that very moment he had a couple hundred thousand dollars in powder in his warehouse, or that he had his wife and child at home waiting under guard for their protection.

He leaned his head back against the seat and closed his eyes to rest them. He was so completely drained from what had been happening over the past few weeks, he was surprised he knew his own name. He just hoped that the trial would be over soon and he could finally put the past behind him and concentrate on the present and what the future held for he and his family.