Present…
"There are things in my life that I'd rather forget," Sam said, "and even more things that I never wanted Jason to have to know." She twisted her hands in front of her and sighed. "Alexis got him away from the cops, but they're looking into this, and I know Javier. He's going to come to find out what happened. And yeah, I probably should have just let Jason handle it, but then he'd have to know. But now, he has to know anyway, right? And all of you. And you'll probably tell Jason that I'm no good for him, and he'll believe you, because he trusts you. He loves you like a brother. If you say I go, then I go."
Sam looked up, then instantly lowered her head. She felt like she were in a scene from a Puzo novel. She wasn't in a den, but the darkened living room of Lorenzo's penthouse was close enough. Lorenzo sat in a large, black leather chair, right leg crossed over the left. His arms laid easily on either armrest. His right hand held a glass of Scotch. He'd offered her a drink, but she couldn't take it. Sam's hands shook so bad that she probably would have dropped the glass.
Luis stood behind him, eyes dark and face formed of blank lines that gave nothing away. His left hand rested on the back of his twin's chair. His right hand was shoved into the pocket of his tailored pants. He was a mirror image of Lorenzo, save for the shorter hair, and it unnerved her. They both gave her the same serious glare and unreadable face.
Lorenzo took small drink from his glass, let it roll around in his mouth, then swallowed. He kept his eyes on Sam, and she wished he would turn away. Right then, feeling like she was coming to the Don for a favor, she wished that he would look up at his brother. Anything to get his attention off of her.
"What are you asking me to do, Sam?"
Lorenzo's voice came so suddenly that it took Sam by surprise. She had half expected him to just sit there and stare at her until she walked out of the room. "I don't know what I'm asking," she said in a shaky voice. "I just… I don't know."
Sam turned around and stared at the mantle behind her. There were pictures of both Alcazars, and all the people who meant anything to them. Carly, Sofie and Sage, Brenda, Michael, and then there was Jason. He probably hadn't understood the need to take the picture. Sam remembered him telling her that there was nothing to a picture for him. It was just something pretty to look at, but it held nothing real. But for Lorenzo, it obviously meant something. His arm hanging over Jason's shoulders, grinning into the camera, the picture was special enough to him that it was right between a picture of his wife and daughters and one of him and Luis.
"I was all messed up when I met Manny. I mean, I've done a lot of things that I shouldn't have done. I've done drugs, I've stolen, I've been a prostitute—A lot of really screwed up stuff, ya know? And Jason knows about most of it, he just doesn't care. When I met Manny, though, I was so strung out, and he straightened me out, so I thought it was a good thing, ya know?" Sam scoffed. "Yeah, it was fantastic."
Sam took in a deep breath and closed her eyes as she exhaled. If the story was hard to think about, it was even harder to tell. To actually say aloud all the things that she did with Manny, the things that he did to her.
"See, I thought he'd cleaned me up, but he'd pretty much gotten me strung out on something else. On whatever he wanted to dish out." Her eyes opened slowly, and she turned once again to Luis and Lorenzo. "I've taken a lot from a lot of people, but with Manny—I don't know. I mean, I figured he knew what was right. He'd helped me, ya know? He got me cleaned up, he took me down to South America, he even got me a ship. Strung out, you're worth nothing on a ship. Clean, I was the best. He picked up the S.S. Manuela for me, and I took that thing everywhere."
"I'm sorry, but what does this have to do with Jason?" Luis put his other hand in his pocket, bumped Lorenzo's arm until he moved. He sat down on the arm of the chair. "Fascinating story, but considering we've got to say something to Ruiz when he comes looking for his brother, and Jason's been brought in for questioning, we need to fast forward."
"I'm getting to that alright?"
Lorenzo put a hand on his brother's leg and shook his head. They seemed to have an entire conversation in the few seconds before he looked to Sam, and she didn't have a clue as to what was said. Lorenzo nodded towards her and said, "I realize this is hard. Ignore my brother. He gets impatient." He nodded again. "Go on."
Another deep breath, and Sam thought she was ready. "I found out…" When her words faltered, she realized she wasn't ready after all. "Ya know, maybe I will take that drink."
Both men were still until Lorenzo pushed Luis off of the arm. "What? It's your house." Lorenzo just stared at him and muttered under his breath. But he poured the drink. "I thought you were a former addict. Should you even be drinking?"
Sam sighed. "That's part of the story, and I can drink just fine. I've been doing it for years since Manny, so I think I can have one." She shook her head. "I know you don't like me, Luis…"
"I don't know you to like you. Lorenzo has vouched for you in the past, which has been good enough. But, now you bring us this story." He handed her the glass, then retook his perch beside his brother. "These are all things that we should have known when you first knew that Manny was in town. Not after you've already killed him."
So blunt and matter of fact. Luis was the reason that Sam had almost turned and left when she came into the penthouse. She may not have been particularly close to either Alcazar, but Lorenzo was easier to talk to. He had a more sympathetic side to him. He felt more human. Luis apparently only showed his humanity to a select few, and Sam was not one of the chosen few.
Sam gulped down half of the bourbon, and a few lines dropped down her chin. She wiped her mouth, then gulped down the other half. She closed her eyes and waited for the warmth to wash over her. She would need a few more drinks to gain a drunken calm, but one should have at least been enough to get through the story.
"This isn't the first time I've gone after Manny, it's just the first time that I actually got him." Sam sighed. "I let him do a lot to me. All of his dirty, perverted fantasies…" Sam shuddered. "I just let him do it. Even though it hurt, and some of it was sick, I let him. Until I found out the truth."
She paused and Lorenzo nudged her on. "And that was?"
"He was the reason I was strung out in the first place. He'd seen me on an island and decided then and there that he wanted me. So, he paid people to get me messed up, so he could run to the rescue and save me." She let out a harsh bark of a laugh. "My great rescuer. Well, I let him know I wasn't doing it. I wasn't playing his game anymore.
"I wanted to kill him and I tried. But, he started talking and before I knew it, he had taken the gun from me and the shit he did with that gun—" She stopped and her head tilted slightly to the side as she bit back the painful memories. "Let's just say that the second I was able to walk without pain, I took Manuela and we were gone. I scuttled her, and then I just ran. I ran so long that honestly, I'd put him out of my head. I'd put him behind this wall, and it was only when he showed up did I let it all back up."
"So, why didn't you tell Jason when you first knew he was in town?" Luis asked. "Why didn't you tell us so we could take care of this before it go to so far."
"And have Jason know how dirty I was? Tainted goods is one thing. I'm so spoiled there's no name for it. And ya know, I thought maybe Manny would just go away for a while. I thought he'd realize it wasn't worth it. But, he was going to kill Jason. He wouldn't care about the war he'd cause. He'd kill Jason, and then he'd kill me for leaving him. Yeah, he'd work his magic, do his thing, but then he'd kill me. I couldn't let that happen, and since it was my fault, I had to take care of him."
"So, you shot him."
"Yeah, but I didn't leave the gun. I used one of Jason's non-registered guns so it wouldn't come back around to him, and I weighed him down when I threw him in the harbor. I didn't know the fish in the harbor would chew through the ropes. I didn't even know they had teeth. Manny was just supposed to disappear. That's all. Just disappear like always, because he's disappeared so many times that Javier wouldn't care."
"But now there's a body." Lorenzo pushed himself up and paced the floor slowly. He finished off his drink and set it on the bar, then began his pacing again. He stopped to share another long, conversational look with Luis, then paced again. Finally, he turned to Sam and said, "You need to tell Jason this."
"I can't! He wouldn't want anything to do with me!"
"If you think that, then you don't know him as well as you think. Jason won't judge you for things you had no control over. His job is to cover these things up, and he needs to know the entire story. You need to tell him, and then we'll proceed from there."
"You're the fixers. You two are the ones that take care of things like this."
"We delegate," Luis said with a smirk. "We delegate to Jason."
"Great." She rolled her eyes. "But, I'm not telling Alexis. She knows I killed Manny, that I knew him before, but that's all she needs to know. Jason may not judge, but Alexis does. There are enough people around who think low of me, I don't need another."
"Alexis doesn't think low of you," Lorenzo told her.
"Yes, she does. And so do all of you." The glass was still in her hand. Sam crossed to the bar and slammed it down. "You all think I'm less because I don't prance around in Prada and Gucci. I'm a lower class, somehow, but that's fine. Whatever. But Jason-- I don't want him to hate me over this."
"He's not going to hate you, Sam. He's just going to wish that you had let him take care of it. It's his job."
"But, it shouldn't be. His job should be to love me, not to protect me from every bad mistake I've ever made in my life. I wasn't going to let him do that. And I sure as hell wasn't going to let Manny kill him. I'd have let him kill me first."
Lorenzo turned to her, ready to speak, but it was Luis who got the words out first. "And that is why we're handling this situation at all, instead of having you over to Javier Ruiz on a silver platter."
