Luis Alcazar stared out the window of the jet and sighed. In a matter of hours, he would be in Port Charles and everything would be different. If he had his way, he would be able to pick up where he'd left off, but that wasn't possible. Eventually, he might get everything back, but in the beginning… In the beginning, he wouldn't be surprised if she slapped his face when he showed up at her door.

Brenda Barrett had been in the forefront of his thoughts since he left. The last time Luis had seen her face, she was sleeping peacefully. Her head was turned to the side and black hair washed across her face in waves. He resisted the urge to touch her as he slid from the bed. There was no way she would go with him and if he'd done anything to wake her, he probably wouldn't have gotten out of Port Charles in time. Instead of leaving Caracas on his personal jet he would have probably been sitting in Pentonville.

He'd kept an eye on her while he was gone, with spies situated all around town. His brother occasionally sent him reports on Brenda, but he felt that Lorenzo was holding something back. On the surface, she seemed to be fine. She had her record company, her new boyfriend, her friends… Everything should have been find for her and that's what Lorenzo told him, but Luis didn't believe it. He could look at a picture and be able to tell that she wasn't really smiling, that her eyes were holding a dark pain. A pain that he had caused her.

Luis sighed and leaned back in his seat. He liked to believe that his brother would have told him if there were something wrong, but he knew that in the long run, Lorenzo would keep his mouth shut. His twin knew that he was impetuous and didn't think things through. He knew that Luis would have come back too early if he knew that Brenda needed him, which was exactly why he didn't believe when Lorenzo told him that she was fine. She was too fine, too much of the time.

He would see for himself, though, and soon. He would stand at her door and look into her brown eyes and see that she hadn't been alright without him. He'd see that she wished she had left Port Charles with him just as much as he did. He'd see that she had pretended to move on with her life because she didn't know if he'd be coming back, and then she'd realize that what she had with that raiding lothario wasn't anywhere near what they had.

…Or she would slam the door in his face.

Luis groaned and looked out the window again. The jet taxied slowly down the runway and Luis gripped either side of his seatbelt. The jet picked up speed and his head rolled back to the center. He closed his eyes and envisioned Brenda's face, sleeping and peaceful as the last time he had seen her. More peaceful than it would probably be when he finally saw her again.

As much as he missed her, as much as he missed their fights, he knew that Brenda would have to wait. He had more pressing business in Port Charles. By now, whatever evidence the Port Charles authorities had on him would have disappeared. There were other crimes for them to be concerned with that even if they wanted to revisit Luis's case, there was nothing for them to do. Enough time had passed that he could go back to the place that he and his brother had made their home decades before.

In the immediate days since Lorenzo and Jason had been shot outside of the Port Charles Police Department, the Alcazar businesses had been raided in Venezuela and Brazil. Couriers had been exposed and detained by the police. Entire arms shipments had gone missing. Someone was trying to destroy their empire and Lorenzo needed his brother's help. With Jason out of action, even though Zander and Lucky had been promoted, there were things that only an Alcazar could take care of. And as the danger increased, Zander and Lucky would be needed on more important details.

Security needed to be strengthened and Luis expected that, once he arrived, Smith and Spencer would be assigned to security of Lorenzo's family. In their Port Charles organization, the two young men had shown their worthiness and loyalty. Luis couldn't think of anyone else that his brother would have trusted other than Jason Morgan to watch over his family.

The family… Luis had warned Lorenzo in the beginning, when he first found his infatuation with Carly Roberts. Theirs wasn't a business that made for an easy "happy home." They were dangerous and their lives put those around them in danger. They had enough to worry about without the addition of a wife and children. He thought Lorenzo had learned that when his first fiance had been killed, but no. He still let his heart melt, first because of this woman and her son, then Stone Cates, and finally his own twin girls. Luis had tried to warn him over and over again, but of course, Lorenzo had not only refuted his claims but thrown his own hypocrisy in his face.

"You think to tell me to deny my heart when you've devoted yourself to this woman? You've invested in her endeavors, you've run with her through South America with bullets flying. And you are going to tell me how dangerous it is to love?"

"I'm different, Lorenzo. At any minute, I can leave. Yes, I love Brenda. I would kill to keep her. You are not the only one who has been shredded by the love of a woman in the past. But, in the end, if I had to run and I couldn't take her, I would still go. If it were my life or the rest of it with Brenda, I could run. Can you say the same thing? This woman… Her son… You've invested your heart, but could you leave it behind?"

"I wouldn't have to. Carly would go with me."

"Are you so sure of that? Would she leave her family here? Would she uproot her child and run with you?"

"She would go with me."

"Would you leave her if she didn't!"

Lorenzo never answered, and in his silence, Luis knew that he wouldn't. Now, with his settled life, his healed heart, if he had to choose between living his life safely in a country with no extradition treaties or staying behind and going to prison or worse, Lorenzo wouldn't leave. He would go to prison or die before he uprooted his family. The fact that Luis had already proven his point, that he had already made the hard decision was almost enough to make him laugh.

Lorenzo was the Alcazar that most thought to be the sensical one. He thought things through and made wise, well-informed decisions, whereas Luis was more apt to act on impulse. Luis was more spontaneous, more wild with his decisions. Lorenzo was methodical and thought of things on a much grander scale. Luis was concerned about the here and now. And yet, in the end, it had been Luis who did the sensical thing. It was Luis, the one most likely to let his heart lead him into trouble, who had left his heart behind.

The seatbelt light went out and Luis unfastened his belt. Crossing his right leg over his left, he reached out to the side and picked up the in-flight phone. He dialed quickly and waited for the other line to pick up. At his brother's voice, he sighed. "I'm in the air," Luis said. "Did you do what I asked?"

"No, Luis, I didn't." Lorenzo's sigh was audible and the frustration in his brother's voice carried over the distant phone lines to settle in Luis's lap. "I haven't had a conversation with Brenda in over two years. I am not about to have one now, even to let her know that you are coming home. You'll just have to wait and see."

"Dammit, Lorenzo…" Luis groaned. "Fine. I expected you to be a little more helpful."

"You always expect me to be more helpful, and every time, I tell you the same thing."

"You are not the keeper of my personal problems."

"Exactly. I'll see you when you land."

Luis hung up the phone without response and groaned again. He rose his hand and massaged the bridge of his nose. He was weary and beaten, and he'd wasn't even close to Port Charles yet. He could only imagine what would happen when he actually landed and took his first walk around the small port town in years.