The last building on the edge of town was the epitome of the Wild West, the untamed land that was talked about in hushed circles back east. The large wooden domain with a clean swept boardwalk and bright lights that reflected off of the sandy ground outside was the reason the neighbors started a petition five years ago to have the saloon owner run out of town.
But when Sonny Corinthos wanted something, he made sure that he got it.
He never intended on opening a saloon, his parents were most likely rolling over in their graves back in Boston at the thought of their once prominent lawyer son now living his life in sin dealing cards, supplying alcohol and housing prostitutes.
Surely he would burn in hell for this but what a way to go.
Sonny smiled slowly as he admired The Devil's Gate from inside of his wide office space. It was a week night, so the crowd wasn't as crazy as it usually was on Saturday's but he was still generating a profit and the customers looked very happy. He had a few women working the room, ones that Sonny had hand selected himself, girls of the upper crust who knew how to be discreet.
If a man wanted a whore, there were places for that on the other end of town, if a man wanted a good time he came to The Devil's Gate.
Sonny's eyes scanned the room, following the highest paying girls that he had hired. Rachel was cuddling up to some out of town business men in the corner who were being fed an endless supply of liquor. Courtney was sitting on some cowboy's lap, his hat on her head, laughter erupting from her full lips. People were aware that she wasn't all there in the head but she provided some much needed laughter for the men and some comfort in their beds. His most adorned attraction just appeared at the bottom of the stairs, her eyes warily as she looked around her, her body encased in a deep purple dress that had a slit revealing black stockings and a bodice that was cut indecently low.
Samantha McCall was the woman that every lonely man dreamed off; the innocent southern belle they all wanted to show a good time.
Sonny could easily see that she had at least five prospects calling her over to their tables but she side stepped them and made her way to the safest place she could find in the booming saloon. She slid her arm through his son's and planted herself at Michael Corinthos' card table.
That's where she would stay for the evening until Sonny told her otherwise.
"Am I keeping you?"
Sonny turned around with a raised eyebrow and looked at Johnny O'Brien. His old friend was slung back in a wooden chair, feet propped up on Sonny's desk, glass of whiskey in one hand, bottle of Jack Daniel's in the other. Sonny laughed at the grin planted firmly on his face.
"No, I was just keeping an eye on things," Sonny said as he moved back towards his desk and sat down in the chair behind it.
"Things?" Johnny asked craning his neck to look at the window and noticing the woman that was hovering by Michael's side, "Or person?"
"What are you doing here again?" Sonny asked as he reached inside of his desk drawer and pulled out a bottle of his favorite bourbon, the one that he had to have imported from back east.
"I decided that there was nothing left for me in Boston," Johnny shrugged, "I was hoping that maybe you could help me find a job here."
"A job doing what?" Sonny asked as he poured himself a generous amount of bourbon and then took a small sip, "The last thing you helped me do wasn't exactly on the right end of the law."
Johnny shook his head, "There's nothing out on me, no one's looking for me. I just came out west for the same reason everyone else does. You get bored with the parties and with people expecting you to always do the right thing. You can't bend the rules unless you make the rules and we both know that I wasn't doing that back there," he smirked, "I'd like to start up my own ranch but I don't have enough money in the bank yet and I need something to hold me over until I do."
Sonny nodded, "I could always…"
"No hand outs," Johnny said, "You should know better than that."
Sonny gave him a small smile, "I'm always going to want to give you something. You made sure that whatever evidence they had against me disappeared. You allowed me to come out here and raise my son. A simple thank you doesn't seem enough."
"Put me up," Johnny said, "Let me work here a couple of nights till I'm able to find a ranch I might be able to get some experience at."
"I'll do you one better," Sonny said as he reached over and started to write down a name for Johnny, "You can stay in one of the free rooms as long as you need and pick up whatever shifts at the card tables or behind the bar. This guy," he said as he slid the paper towards Johnny, "Is a good friend of mine. He owns the biggest spread this side of Texas."
"Alcazar," Johnny said quietly, "I'll look into it."
"It's about an hour ride east of here," Sonny said, "Past the ritzy part of town," he grinned as he sealed the cap on his bourbon and deposited it back into his bottom drawer, "Now that we've taken care of some business, what do you say that I introduce you to some of the girls?"
Johnny threw back the rest of his whiskey, "I think that's a fine idea."
Lucky Spencer stopped just inside the door of The Devil's Gate saloon and his eyes quickly fell on the men tending bar. He was about to turn around and exit when he realized that it was too late, Luke had already spotted him and was motioning him over with a face that indicated he would chase after his son if he decided to leave.
Heaving a sigh, Lucky shoved his way through the crowd and towards the long bar.
He knew that his parents would be pissed he didn't show up today. His baby sister was coming home from back east and the entire town was properly waiting for her with flowers, hugs, kisses and questions about the fancy life back east. He didn't want to be there with open arms, not when for the last four years he had to listen all about the girl who was living out everyone else's dream.
Lucky knew that he was being petty but he could never shake that feeling. It started to creep up on him when he had confessed that he had no intentions of going back east to become a businessman but to be a cattle owner instead. That was when his father cut him off financially and Lucky had to start making it on his own. Lesley Lu followed her parent's wishes and became the apple of her mother's eye.
He figured his parents would be grateful he wasn't turning out to be a bartending gambler like his father but anything less than a fancy back east person didn't seem to be enough for them and when he tried to get it out of his mother as to why that was she clammed up and stated she didn't want to talk about it.
So Lucky rarely stayed at home and avoided the small town of Charlesville altogether on days like this, when the prodigy returned and he was made even more aware of the failure that he was.
He shouted his order of a double to his raging father who ignored the request and wagged a finger in his face instead, "You have no right disappearing the way you did today. Your sister was upset that she wasn't able to see you. We had to make some excuse about you out chasing cows."
"I don't chase cows," Lucky said looking for someone else to get him a drink, "I round them up and I was looking for land today, no big deal," he shrugged.
"It was a big deal to your mother and your sister," Luke said, "Your mother had a wonderful dinner made for everyone and once again your plate was left to go cold."
"Dad, I'm really not in the mood for this right now."
"I don't care what you're in the mood for," Luke said and then sighed, "I know that you have this notion in your head of becoming a big rancher but…"
"This isn't a notion," Lucky said getting up from the bar stool, nearly knocking it over in the process, "And I think that for a man who is standing behind a bar and making his money this way he has a lot of nerve to tell me how to make my own living."
"I'm not saying that," Luke said, "I'm just saying you don't have to break your back doing this. Just relax for the next couple of years, the trust will be…"
"You and Mom can keep your money and your dreams and give them to someone else," Lucky said, "They're not mine and I don't want 'em." He pushed himself away from the bar and weeded his way back through the crowd, nodding to Michael Corinthos as he passed by to find a card table.
"It doesn't look like that went well," Sam said quietly as she watched Lucky sit down at a table in the back of the room, ordering some liquor from one of the girls.
"Don't worry about it," Michael said to her as he dealt another round of cards to the men sitting at the table with him, "My father wants you to stay with me tonight. I don't think he likes other guys eyeing you."
"How am I supposed to make any money if I'm never working?" Sam whispered as she watched the men around her sizing up their cards and then her, "Not that I don't appreciate what you're father is doing for me."
"I don't understand his motives," Michael said as he pulled out two cards and slid them towards the center of the table, "I just do what he says."
Sam smiled as she leaned in and pressed a kiss against Michael's cheek. She then rubbed it when she realized that she had transferred some paint onto him. He looked at her curiously.
"What was that for?"
"For being such a great son," she smiled, "Now pay attention."
"How's the game going gentlemen?" Sonny smiled as he approached the table and placed his hand on Sam's shoulder, "I hope my son is giving you a fair shot."
"If I didn't believe that you ran a clean house Sonny I would be thinking your offspring were cheating me over here," one man chuckled, "He's got a great mind for this game."
"That he does," Sonny said as he clasped his other hand on Michael's shoulder and then leaned down towards Sam, "I need you to go see a friend of mine," he said motioning towards Johnny who was standing just outside the swinging doors of the building, "Give him whatever he needs tonight," he then placed a kiss to her dark hair.
"Dad," Michael said, "That isn't…"
"It's okay," Sam smiled as she stood up from the chair, "Gentlemen, if you'll excuse me."
"Thank you Sam," Sonny said as she started to walk away.
Sam turned around, giving him a small smile, "It's what I'm paid to do, Mr. Corinthos."
"You have to tell me all about the men back east," Kristina smiled as she watched Lesley Lu brush out her long black locks, "I'm sure that they were more handsome than half of the men here."
"They were more handsome than some of the men here combined," Lu laughed softly from her vanity before placing her brush down and turning towards Kristina who was sitting on the bed, "I met this one man, he had to have been in his late thirties and he knew how old I was and he was trying to convince me that I was the woman of his dreams. Oh he brought me flowers and candies and he took me to the theater and to dinner and I nearly fell in love with him."
"Nearly?" Kristina sighed as she hugged a pillow to her chest, "Oh Lu, I would've been head over heels."
"Well I was," Lu said, "Until I found out that he only worked at the bank, he didn't own it and Mama says that I should settle for nothing less than the best," she smiled, "So I told him that it was nice meeting him but I had to go home for a little while and I didn't think I'd be able to find the time to write."
"Oh Lu, that's mean," Kristina laughed.
"I know," Lu sighed as she stood up and walked towards her window, "And I really wish that I could be like you Kristina, I wish I could fall for the man of my dreams and believe that he'll whisk me away to our own private little world and things will be okay."
"That could still happen," Kristina said.
Lu shook her head, "I didn't want to leave this town at first but when I did," she turned back and smiled at her best friend, "You wouldn't believe the world that's out there and I want to experience more of it, I want to experience all of it and I can't do that if I settle down here. I need to find myself a man that will be able to provide me with the life that I want, the life that I deserve."
"But you have the money," Kristina said quietly, "I know not now."
"Not ever," Lu said as she leaned against her window and squinted her eyes, trying to follow a bright orange glow in the inky blackness of the night, "I'm a woman; we don't get the same opportunities as men. You remember how hard it was for me to convince my mother to allow my father to buy me a horse?"
Kristina laughed, "You threatened to steal Lucky's."
"That I did," Lu said quietly as she watched the glow shift upwards and then she could make out the form of a hat, which was perched on top of a body that was leaning against the wall of The Devil's Gate saloon at the edge of town.
She couldn't make out the eyes but she knew that they fixated on her.
Lu wanted to stamp her foot when she realized that she was once again staring at the cowboy that sat across from her on the long bumpy ride home in the hot mail carriage. He was the one that manhandled her and didn't even offer to help her down after the tiresome ride.
Not that she would want his hands on her, but at least he could have offered.
And now, with the moon being hidden by the clouds and his cigarette being snuffed out by his dusty boots, she couldn't see a thing but she could feel it, she could feel his smirk, feel his heated gaze on her robe covered body.
She hated what that feeling felt like.
Just when she was about to yank her lacy curtains shut, Lesley Lu noticed another shadowy figure slip outside the swinging doors, cuddle up to the body that was leaning against the post and then the two of them disappeared back into the murky saloon, away from her hazy view.
She gave an unladylike snort, one that hadn't been heard from her in quite a while, and finally yanked the curtains closed, turning back towards her friend with a smile.
"It doesn't matter, in the end all men are the same," Lu smiled as she sat down on the bed with her friend, "That's why it's always better to marry for money instead of love."
That was Lesley Lu Spencer's plan.
Lorenzo Alcazar stood gazing out into the midnight sky, his eyes roaming over the aces upon acres of land that rest before him. It was all his, the lush green grass, the large oak trees, the mesquite bushes, the barn beside the house and the corral not far from that. He owned all of it, every last square inch, and the moment that he burned the mortgage note, with his wife Emily by his side, would forever be etched in his brain.
His father had come to this wild land over twenty years ago and built this ranch with his own bare hands; his wife and son by his side. Lorenzo then watched as it was destroyed in an Indian raid nearly ten years ago, claming the spirit of his parents along with it. His father and mother did not have the heart to rebuild their empire so Lorenzo took the burden upon himself. While they retired back to their old country Mexico, Lorenzo made a name for himself in the west and single handily became the most successfully rancher this side of Texas.
At times he was cut throat and there were some instances that he regretted but he would never forget that all of those times brought him to this very spot, in his three story building with his wife exiting the bathroom behind him.
He turned around and gave her a warm smile, "Are you ready for bed?"
Emily nodded slowly as she tucked a strand of brown hair behind her ear and walked towards him in a simple white cotton nightgown, turning down her side of the bed before she slide in and found herself in the solid embrace of her husband. She sighed contently as she buried her head in his chest.
"I wish that I could stay here forever," she said quietly as he reached over her and extinguished the small lamp that was left burning beside the bed, "In your arms is where I feel the safest."
"I'm glad that I am able to make you feel that way," he said as he pressed a kiss to the top of her head, "I want you to know that no matter what happens Emily it is always going to be me and you, no matter what."
She was quiet for a moment, her fingers lazily running up and down his naked arm, "What if we speak to the Webbers and they agree with what I've said all along," she looked up at him with sad brown eyes, "That I'm unable to give you a baby."
"It could be you or me," Lorenzo said firmly, "I don't see the need to point blame here."
"Lorenzo you have to point blame," Emily said as she looked away from him again, looking back to where her fingers continued their ministrations, "That's why women are here. I'm supposed to raise your family and take care of your house and plant a garden outside. It took me three years to learn how to make biscuits just the way you like them."
"Em, I would eat the biscuits if they were as hard as the ground I walk on."
"I know," she frowned, "You have a couple of times," she sighed and closed her eyes, "I just wished my mother wasn't so stubborn. I wished she would have taught me some things about how to be a real wife instead of preparing me to marry some rich lawyer or politician and moving into a mansion where I would have servants."
"Honey," he said quietly as he pulled her closer and captured her moving fingers in his hand, bringing them to his lips for a soft kiss, "I fell in love with you because of the way you are. I don't care if my meals are burned once in a while and it doesn't matter that we don't have our own vegetable garden. I'm with you because of the way you make me feel, you make me want to better myself and be the kind of man you deserve."
"But you are."
"Then stop insisting that you're a failure," he said softly, "If we can't have children than we can't have children, at least our own," he gave her a small smile, "But sadly there are plenty of orphanages where children are looking for good parents and some of them are even in Mexico."
"We could do that," she smiled as she slid her fingers into his dark hair, "I'd like to do that."
"After we speak to the Webbers, after they give us a confirmation, then we'll discuss some things, but right now…"
"Right now what?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.
"I simply want to love you."
Elizabeth blinked her eyes a few times to adjust to the darkness that surrounded her. She couldn't believe that she had fallen asleep, not in the position that she was in, tied up to a tree, her arms stretched out behind her, wrapped around the bark. She could still taste the dried blood on her lips, her own blood from when she had bit down too hard, trying to prevent herself from screaming too much when she realized that the savages around her enjoyed her cries of pain.
She barely understood a word they had said, it was mere grunting between them to her, but she clearly comprehended the phrase 'Fiery spirit'.
Normally Elizabeth wouldn't have minded it but when she was being assaulted by a bunch of heathens who had just murdered her family right in front of her eyes she wished that she was as weak as them. She wished that she had let her body gone limp and let them do what they wished with her.
But then again if she didn't have her fiery spirit her own form would be lifeless, lying next to that of her mother, her sister and her father. They were butchered by the Indian's, their scalps now hanging from their war poles, her body, as like her mother and sister's, molested until she felt as if she were burning from the inside out.
Her clothes were torn from her, literally hanging in shreds off of her body. Her creamy unblemished skin was now covered with bite and scratch marks. She knew that her eye was swollen and she could feel the bruises forming between her legs.
Part of her was grateful that she was alive and the other part wanted this torture to end.
Elizabeth could see her kidnappers sitting around by the fire, warming their bodies as she shuddered in the cool air that came with the night. The desert could be blistering in the day but one could freeze to death out in the wilderness with barely any covering.
And they made sure that she had very little clothes left.
She started to rub her arms along the bark, thinking that maybe there was some way to loosen the rope they had used to tie her hands together but it didn't want to budge. Even if she did manage to untie herself she had no idea what she would do after she was released. She was in the middle of nowhere, the Indian's made sure there were no tracks to follow and she wasn't sure which way led you to an established town.
She moaned when a piece of bark dug into her wrist and realized too late that she was attracting attention that she didn't want. One of the Indian's looked towards her and gestured to another, soon their eyes were on her, gleams in their dark brown depths.
She tried pulling her legs underneath of her body, she tried to turn into herself but it was useless. She was at their mercy as two of them stood up from the wooden logs they were seated upon and made their way towards her, smirks on their hideous faces.
She felt herself start to panic and the dry heaves started, choking on tears that simply wouldn't come as one yanked a knife from his breechcloth and slashed at the ropes behind her. She knew that she shouldn't fight but she would because it was in her and it would be until her dying breath.
She was kicking and screaming as loud as she could, gasping for air as they tried to pin her to the ground. Her own voice was echoing loudly in her ears and she didn't realize the chaos that erupted around her, the fire that had been extinguished and the loud cries that mimicked those she had heard early in the day when her family had first been attacked.
The men that had pinned her down were being pulled away from her. One of them was pierced in the throat with a cruel looking weapon and he collapsed at her feet, dead. She started to sit up only to find herself up against the tree again, staring into another dark face, staring into another pair of dark eyes.
She started to scratch, started to claw even as he spoke to her in soothing tones in his native tongue. Her blue eyes were wild, frantic as she looked from one side to another, trying to find a way out as more and more Indian's appeared.
"Do not be frightened little one," he said quietly, softly, in plain English, causing her eyes to widen, "I am White Bear and I'm here to save you."
Elizabeth sighed softly before she fainted.
He could hear the raunchy music and robust laughter coming from The Devil's Gate saloon before his horse had even trotted into the town's limits. The lights were glaring out onto the dusty street as the patrons inside enjoyed the night's festivities.
The rest of the town was quiet, usual for Charlesville Arizona, with a population no larger than that of a very busy railroad station back east. Still, it was home to him, and he could never avoid coming back to it.
He wasn't a man that stayed in one town long; with his reputation it wasn't safe. He usually sought out the wealthiest ranch owner that needed his services or went after some men who were running from the law and had a big enough price on their head. Finding a home, living comfortable, it wasn't him. Staying a few nights in a saloon, with a woman warming his bed and a meal to wake up to, that was more his style.
Why he was back here, in the town he grew up in, he couldn't quite say but he just had a feeling that he was needed and if there was one thing that was known about him, besides his reputation, is was that he never ignored those feelings.
So here he was hitching up his horse in the back of the saloon and pulling open the wooden door that led to the kitchen of The Devil's Gate. No, he had no idea why he was here and he had no intention of making his presence until he was good and ready but one thing was for sure.
Jason Morgan was back.