Somehow, some way, Sam made it through the evening. Manny hadn't said a word to her beyond their first encounter, which was both a blessing and a curse. But she considered it luck that he seemingly hadn't said anything or let on that he'd known her before during the course of his conversation with Lorenzo.
Deep down, however, she knew there would be more to it than that. She knew that Manny Ruiz wasn't going to just let anything go. His implications about Jason were enough to make Sam afraid. What would he do to Jason? Would he bring a war down on his head with the Alcazars by killing him? Did he just want Sam to run, again? If he couldn't have her, no one could?
She shook her head and begged for answers. But, did God really listen to the requests of gangster's molls? Probably not. There were other, more saintly people that he could listen to, and if there were one thing that Sam McCall most definitely was not, it was a saint.
Maybe she should have said something to Lorenzo. He would know what to do, mostly because he always knew what to do. That's why he was the brains in the business. He knew how to handle any situation that arose, and usually in a way that required the least amount of bloodshed. Luis's answer was always to just kill the offending party and get it over with. Granted, that might be a useful tactic against Manny, but one war in that year was plenty.
But, she couldn't go to Lorenzo, because she didn't have any proof. Beyond the fact that she didn't want her connections with Manny known, she just didn't have anything other than a bad feeling and a broken snowglobe that was already thrown into the trash. She didn't know Lorenzo Alcazar well enough to think that he would take her side in any manner, let alone one that could affect his business.
And that left Sam where she used to be all the time… on her own. There was a time when she would have enjoyed that. Before Jason, she didn't need to run to anyone. She didn't want to run to anyone for help. She was self-sufficient, thanks to the horrible tutelage and parentage of Cody McCall. She may have appreciated help more, these days, but she knew how to work without it.
And that meant she had to talk to Manny.
Hands touched her shoulders and Sam jumped. Turning, she found that she didn't need to be afraid, but if it weren't Jason standing behind her, what would she have done? What if Manny had made his way back to the Haunted Star after parting company with Lorenzo? She was in evening wear, and it left no room for knives or guns. She'd have just been at his mercy, a place she'd been more than once.
Jason looked down at her with concern. His crystal blue eyes were jaded with worry. "Are you alright? Did something happen?"
Sam shook her head. At some point in the night, she had pulled her hair up and locked it in place with a stash of pins she got off one of the dealers. Sometime during that and her frightened spin, however, it had come undone. Her hair slapped her face and she shoved it back quickly, her hands shaking with the motion.
"No, I'm just… I'm tired. It's been a very long night."
"So, I heard." Sam looked up at him curiously and he said, "I was told that Lorenzo and Manny came by here. It wasn't too much work for you, was it?"
Sam's throat was dry, and she had to convulse the muscles twice to get some sort of lubrication to slide up and down her throat. Almost with a twitching motion, she pushed her hair back again, even though none had fallen forward. "I, um, I left it for someone else to do." She shook her head. "Just the normal hostess duties." Sam shrugged. "There were a lot of people here, and I'm not used to it, so…"
"So, you ran yourself ragged, when you could have just hired someone else to host this place until Luke gets back." Jason let out a heavy breath and brushed his fingertips down Sam's cheek. "I know you want something that's your own, Sam. Something that's not just 'us,' but you need to pace yourself. You'll end up in the hospital this way."
He was right, and she knew it. Between the wedding and the Star, she was going to drive herself crazy. She could have probably done a better job of delegating, and after tonight, she was going to definitely be delegating the Haunted Star. The hell with running herself to exhaustion. She didn't have a good enough excuse to have Jason put someone on the Star as security, and aboard a ship in the middle of the night was not somewhere she wanted to be alone with Manny roaming the town.
With a sigh, Sam moved into Jason. Automatically, his arms wrapped around her. She pressed her head against his chest and took in the smell of him. When he'd left the penthouse that morning, he had smelled of Drakkar Noir. The only reason she knew the scent specifically was because she had been the one to buy it for him. Now, though, after a day of work, the cologne was still on him, but above it were the smells of sweat and gunpowder. He'd been up to something, and the only way she'd know any details were if it involved her.
Sam didn't care, though. She hadn't wanted to know the details of his business, and nothing was going to change that. She'd had enough of being in the middle of that kind of thing that she was happy with living oblivious to the details. But, more than that, she didn't care because he was holding her.
With thoughts of Manny weighing on her, Jason's arms around her tiny shoulders made her comfortable. She was at peace when Jason was near. She was at home within his embrace. She was calm and safe with his touch. For the little while that they were together like this, she could forget about Manny, but she knew it wouldn't last forever. There was too much danger involved.
"You'd tell me if there were something wrong, wouldn't you?" Sam looked up as Jason spoke. He brushed her hair back, then slid his fingers in at her scalp. "You'd let me help you."
"Jason…"
"I'm going to let it go for now, Sam, but I know when something's not right. You've been strange the past couple of days. Carly and Brenda told me…"
"Carly and Brenda have no business telling you anything." Sam closed her eyes and let out a heavy breath. Slowly, she opened her eyes and looked up at Jason. "The two of them together bother me, you know that. Besides, I'm planning a wedding. I'm gonna be off my game a little. It's a lot to do."
"We could have just gotten somebody to come in and do the ceremony at the penthouse. This big thing was your idea, remember?"
"Yeah, because I wanted to see you in a tuxedo." Sam winked at him, then sighed. "I'm fine, Jason. Forget what Carly and Brenda said. They don't know me, so they can't judge me."
"No one's judging you, Sam, and this isn't just about what they told me. This is about what I see." He took his hand from her hair and pressed his palm lightly against her face, his fingers pointing up and the butt of his palm resting against her chin. "I see you worrying about something. I see something waking you up in the middle of the night, and you won't talk to me about it. When you're ready, Sam, you can talk to me. I thought you knew that by now."
"I do. I mean, I know." Sam shook her head. "I just… Some things I can handle on my own. There are just some things that I don't want you to worry about, and this is one of them." There were also things that she didn't want him to know about, and this was one of them. "I love you, Jason."
"I love you, too."
"Then, just let it go, alright? Just… Just hold me now, okay? That's all I need right now. That's what'll make it all go away right now. You holding me." She pressed herself against him again and held him tightly. "Just hold me," she whispered.
Jason wrapped his arms around her, but she could feel the hesitation in him. She'd spent so much time telling the Quartermaines that Jason wasn't stupid, she felt horrible for pretending that he was stupid enough to not notice there was something wrong. But, she couldn't tell him. She had to deal with Manny on her own. Sure, Jason could kill him and get rid of the body. He'd done away with Corinthos, and even though the body had been in plain view, he'd escaped prosecution. She had no doubt that he could get away with killing Manny.
But, the question was… Could he still love her if he knew the whole sordid history of her and Manny together?
