"I'm not going to let him hit you, so you can get that idea out of your gorgeous head right now."
Brenda pouted slightly at Luis than shrugged.
"Fine, Señor Alcazar. What's YOUR brilliant idea on how to get Sonny arrested?"
"I don't know, but I'll think of one. Just know that it won't be the one you're planning."
Brenda narrowed her eyes at him, then stood up, walking away from his quickly cooling lap. This part was going to be harder than she first thought. Sonny was a crafty criminal. He'd escaped jail so many times that it started to look like there was no way to get him in there. For a while, he'd just had a very good attorney. From what she'd heard, Alexis had kept him and Jason out of jail for years. After that, there had been Justus and some short-lived woman whose name Brenda couldn't even recall. But after that…
Once the good attorneys had dried up, it seemed to be a simple case of inept police work. Surely there had to be ways to get Sonny in jail for good, or at least long enough for his children to be taken away from him. Whatever those ways were, though, the PCPD had managed to let them all slip through their fingers. He'd shot a man in front of their own station, for crying out loud, then kidnapped a woman. And in the end? In the end, his hostage had gone Patty Hearst on everybody and, once again, Sonny was a free man.
The only thing left that she could think of was to get him on some kind of assault and battery charge. Something very obvious and very blatant. Not even the Port Charles Police Department could screw that one up. A few hits, hard enough to bruise, and he'd be in jail. His attorney could probably get him out, but no judge could cover up a pay-off on someone who'd been arrested for assault. Besides, it wasn't like he hadn't come close to doing it before. Just the thought of how many times he'd come close to hitting her made Brenda wince, and according to Sam McCall, Sonny had grown even more unstable in the past few years.
It was a perfect plan, if Luis would just go for it, and it wasn't just Sonny's inevitable fall that made it perfect. This was a plan that wouldn't implicate Jason in any way, shape or form. It had already crossed her mind to have Luis set up some kind of sleezy business dealing, but Sonny would undoubtedly bring Jason with him. When she said she wanted Jason clear of it all, Brenda had been telling the truth, so there was no way to do involved their business directly. Jason wasn't going to end up in jail, leaving his pretty little brunette all alone, just as a by-product of Sonny. If Jason went to jail for his own screw-ups, that was one thing. But because of her… it just wouldn't happen.
"I have federal connections," Luis finally said after a long pause. Brenda turned towards him, arms crossed, and waited. "I can call in a few favors, send in a few tips and have him put away."
"Nope. Thought about that." She sighed heavily. "Anything federal you do, his little FBI agent-turned-lawyer is going to counter. Honestly, Luis, this is the only way…"
"I said no, and that's final." His gaze was so fierce, so intense, that Brenda froze. A chill ran down her spine. She couldn't remember every actually seeing that look on his face. Even when he threatened to kill Sonny and Jax… That hadn't been anger as much as pain and despearation. "We'll find another way."
"There is no other way!" Brenda shook her head. "Look, if we do something federal, we've got to go higher than Reese can go. Even if I were to let you do something unmentionable, they wouldn't go straight for Sonny. They'd go to Jason, and I'm not putting him through that."
Luis sighed and turned his head from her. "Even now, after all that's been done to you, there's still someone here you want to protect." He stood up and crossed the floor slowly. He walked around Brenda, and headed towards the door. In recent days, these were the times when she wished they were still on the yacht. At least there, he really had no place to run. In the penthouse, though, he could take off and be gone for days if he wanted. Not that he'd done that, as yet, but she couldn't help but wonder if he would. And if he'd come back if he did.
Luis stopped at the door and sighed. The jacket to his charcoal Armani suit was long discarded. His white dress shirt billowed around him, unbuttoned but still tucked into his slacks. The crinkled ends of his tie hung loosely around his neck. He looked every bit like the troubled leading man in some movie, and this would have been the part where his leading lady walked up to him, put her arms around him, and reassured him that there was no reason to worry. But, Brenda had long since lost her leading lady abilities in a cyclone of guilt and tumult, so she could only stand and stare at him.
"Will you pass up your chance for revenge for Morgan? If that's the only way that this can be done, will you just let it go?"
"Don't make this about Jason, Luis," she said with a sigh, "because it's not. I just… I came here with a purpose, and I want to make sure that's what happens. Okay, so I don't want Jason to be caught up in this. I'm sorry if the one person who had kind words to say to mean when I left is important to me, but…" She shook her head. "I love you, Luis."
"Brenda…"
"I know what this is about, and I understand. Lord knows, if you'd abandoned me for another woman, I'd be the exact same way. But, I love you, and anything I feel for Jason is just as a friend. And yeah, as a friend, he's important to me and I don't want him hurt. But beyond that, if Jason is involved, he'll cover for Sonny."
Luis looked at her, and Brenda couldn't read him. Whatever he was thinking, he kept his eyes clouded, leaving her unable to see what was rolling back and forth between his ears. If he'd been anyone else, she'd have said that he'd been overreacting. If their situation had been different, she'd have told him that his jealousy was unwarranted. But considering how things ended last time and the fact that Brenda didn't know if she deserved his trust… Luis was allowed to be wary.
"We'll think about Sonny later," Brenda told him, hoping that a change of subject would loosen him up. "Right now, though… Alexis is almost finished with the last of the paperwork. She said your attorneys did a pretty good job."
"I'd hope so," he said with a snort. "Lorenzo and I pay them enough. They'd better be worth the money."
"Well, they're very good internationally," she said as she walked towards him, "but they apparently forgot about his ELQ stock." Brenda reached out and, reluctantly, Luis took her hands. When his hands wrapped her own, her shoulders visibly relaxed. "She's working on a way to get that away from him."
"I suppose we can wait a little longer."
Luis rolled his eyes and Brenda giggled. "It won't be much longer. As for the rest…" She shrugged and moved closer to him. "We'll handle the rest."
With a sigh, Luis pulled Brenda against him. His arms encircled her and he sighed again. "I'll see what I can do on my end, tomorrow," he told her. "We'll find some way to destroy him that doesn't include destroying you, too."
"It won't destroy me, Luis."
"Lie to yourself, Brenda, but don't lie to me."
"I'm not…" She sighed and pressed her head against his chest. "We'll finish them both off, and then we'll get married." She tightened her hold around his waist. "Your brother can stand beside you, and I'll even let Carly come if he wants to bring her. It doesn't matter, because I'll be your wife, and we'll be happy. All of this will be behind us, Luis. That's what we need to be thinking about. Our life together, and how happy we'll finally be."
But Brenda knew that he was still thinking about her initial plan, and all the things that he would and could do to stop her. And Brenda… Instead of flowing dresses, flowers, and vows, her mind was occupied with just how to get Luis away from the penthouse, so she could get Sonny, and his temper, right where she wanted him.