A/N – Thanks for the comments! Glad I could surprise you.

Sorry for the lateness. Work was horrible today and this is my first free moment.

Chapter 31

Sonny is stunned when Elizabeth comes into view.

"Is this where you were the whole time?" Sonny asked.

Liz slowly stood. "I don't owe you an explanation. Why are you here?"

"And you think I owe you one?"

They traded glares before Piph moved to Liz's side.

"You too? Did you know?"

"I'm not answering unless my lawyer is present."

Francis slightly turned his head which just made Sonny focus on him.

"So, you're working for Maximus now?"

"Sometimes…"

Sonny rubbed the back of his neck.

Sam threw an apologetic look at Liz which was ignored.

"How is Jason?"

"He's starting to wake up," Liz said.

"That's good."

Liz couldn't think of a single person she hates more. What a bastard.

Cameron moved towards his mom protectively.

"Wow, you've grown," Sonny said.

"That's what happens as the years go by."

Sonny's eyes narrowed.

"Don't look at my son like that," Liz said.

Francis cleared his throat. "Do you have protection?"

"Marco is by the elevators."

Francis nodded. Marco wouldn't be a problem if they abduct Sonny. From what he knows, the man is sick of his boss.

Maximus and Max strode toward the group.

Sonny eyed Maximus. "Are you okay?"

"I am. Welcome to Palermo." He has to play it cool but he really wants to rip Sonny apart and feed the pieces of his body to the sharks.

They shook hands.

"Max, why don't you take Sonny to see Jason. When you're finished, I'll take him to the mansion."

Sonny nodded and followed Max.

When they were out of earshot, Liz honed on Sam.

"What the hell?"

Sam sighed. "He told me he was coming and I didn't know what else to do. I spoke to Drew and told him."

"It must have been a bad connection. He's not in a great area right now," Francis explained.

"Sonny asked if I wanted to come and I thought I should since he's not supposed to know. He hasn't told Carly anything. He didn't know about you, Elizabeth."

"What does he want?"

"He wants to see Jason first before he tells Carly just in case it's bad."

"If Carly comes here…" Liz didn't finish the threat. Her eyes grew wide. "Shit! Jake doesn't know and I think he's carrying."

"I'm on it," Francis said rushing to the room.

IiIiIiIiIiIiIiIiIiIi

Sonny entered Jason's room and is surprised to be met with a glare from Jake that rivals his father along with a gun pointed at him.

"What is he doing here?"

Sonny freezes as Max makes a motion for Jake to cut it out behind him which Jake is not happy about.

"I heard about Jason. Can you put that away?"

Jake doesn't move for another moment as he wishes he can put a bullet between the man's eyes. Finally, he lowered it and Sonny breathed a sigh of relief.

"Why do you have a gun, Jake?"

Jake's head tilts. "You don't know?"

"No."

"Only two at a time," a nurse warns in Italian.

Max wonders if it's safe to leave them alone.

"I'm an enforcer for Maximus."

"You're what!"

"You heard me. I have to go, but if he does anything to hurt my dad, shoot him," Jake says gruffly as he rushes away to find his mom.

Sonny is stunned. "What was that?"

"He's a little hot-headed. Don't worry about it. I'll talk to him."

"He needs to show some respect."

"Sonny, focus on Jason right now."

Sonny muttered under his breath as he moved closer. "Jesus," he said as he studied his friend. "He looks like shit, man."

"Yeah, but he's waking up. That's a good sign."

"Can he hear me?"

"They have him heavily sedated, so no, although we talk to him anyway just in case."

"Leave me with him, Max."

"Okay."

Max goes into the hallway and nods to the guard as they silently communicated.

IiIiIiIiIiIiIiIiIiIi

Jake spots Sam and is immediately alarmed. "What the hell is going on around here? I almost shot him."

"Watch your tone," Liz said. "Sonny insisted on coming and Sam tagged along to try and make sure he didn't do anything stupid."

"I tried to warn you," Sam said, immediately stepping backward when she saw Jake's murderous expression. "Is there something else going on?"

Liz sighed. "You sure you want to know?" Since Sam is in playing hero mode, it's better to just have her on their side then snooping around causing trouble.

Sam nodded.

"Sit," Liz said before sitting on a chair. Once Sam was settled, she began.

"I left town because Carly asked Sonny to take care of me."

Sam's eyes bulged but she said nothing.

"He ignored that request at first, and he was just going to kidnap me and leave Jake before Jason, but I disappeared, so Sonny decided that maybe it was best to let me go. Unfortunately, Drew insisted on finding me which pissed him off and he put a hit out on me so he could feed me to the fishes."

Francis smirked at the expression.

"Wow."

"He doesn't know that I know."

"You could be in danger."

"I'll protect her," Jake said sending a chill through Sam due to his lethal stare.

Liz slightly smiled.

"You're okay with him being an enforcer?"

Liz rolled her eyes. "Of course, I'm not, but it's his life and I love my son, so I will support him."

"I work for Maximus too as an accountant," Cameron threw in.

Sam chuckled. None of this was anything she had expected.

"It's ridiculous, right?" Liz said.

"It's like your worst nightmare probably," Sam said. "What do we do now?"

"Sam, I think you know Sonny's fate. Jason is not going to let this go. He feels betrayed."

Sam nodded. "Okay."

"So, you're okay with him never leaving here?" Piph asked.

"I—I get it. Sonny went too far. I just feel bad that Jason has to deal with it."

"My father will be fine because he has us." Jake had drawn a line in the sand, and she knew it.

Drew rushed toward them and Sam took off and jumped into his arms.

"I'm going to gag," Liz said.

"Double…" Epiphany said.

"Triple…" Cam said.

"Infinity and beyond," Jake added.

Francis chuckled. "Ah, the love in this room."

Sam kissed Drew. "I missed you."

"Me too. How bad is it?"

"Sonny is in with Jason. Jake almost shot him, and I know everything, even about Sonny and Carly."

Drew let out a deep breath. "Okay."

"Did you find anything else?"

Milo headed toward his brother.

"Yes. Let's join the group."

IiIiIiIiIiIiIiIiIiIi

Liz listened raptly as Drew filled them in.

"Andre was pretty accurate about the meds Jason was given."

"Then we'll just have to wait and see how much organ damage he sustained," Piph said. It was a high dosage he had been on for almost seven years. It wasn't a matter of maybe, the damage had been done.

"What about your memories?" Sam asked.

Drew dug in his pocket and pulled out a flash drive. "I hold them in my hands."

Liz smiled. "I'm happy for you."

"Me too." The first thing he'll do it make a backup.

Sam isn't sure what to think. While she is relieved that this nightmare is over, once he gets his memories back, she's not sure what that will mean for them.

"There's no guarantee that the reversal will work, but I want to try."

"What does that mean exactly?" Liz doesn't want him to be hurt.

"We don't know fully and we weren't the only twins that they experimented on."

"Who else?" Piph asked.

"Anna and Alex Devane and Kevin and Ryan Collins."

"Wow," Liz said.

"Anna is willing to temporarily get Andre out to reverse it with the promise of a shorter sentence."

Piph shook her head. "I wish he would rot."

"I'll see to it. There is one thing I didn't tell Anna because I wasn't sure how, although it makes sense from her reactions that maybe she already knows." He isn't sure of anything anymore.

"Why do I have a very bad feeling about this?" Liz said.

"It's bad. Peter is Henrik. Faison is his father and Anna is his mom."

Piph and Liz gasped.

"Holy shit," Liz muttered.

"I don't know how to breach the subject, but I figured it was better for me to not admit anything."

"She may know he exists but not who he is given all the games Faison likes to play," Max said.

"True. Either way, Peter is a dead man. We'll leave it up my brother to decide his fate."

Liz sighed heavily, hating that Jason will have to deal with all this shit when he awakes.

"Peter isn't going anywhere. He's after Maxie and not going anywhere, so he can wait. We'll deal with Scarface first and then move on from there."

"Damn, he doesn't even rank as Godfather?" Cam said.

Francis snorted. "Please…"

"I wanted to kill Spinelli every time he said that," Max said.

Sam gripped Drew's hand. She has a bad feeling about all of this and hopes it doesn't end with more bloodshed or someone being injured.

IiIiIiIiIiIiIiIiIiIi

Sonny is shocked when he is patted down by Carlos before they move into Maximus's office.

"The boss is a bit paranoid right now. He'll be in shortly."

Sonny nodded but is seething that is being treated like a low life. He glanced at his phone and spots a few missed calls from Carly but figure he'll call her when he's done.

Maximus strode into the office and Sonny is surprised when Carlos stayed with them. Johnny is in the hallway just waiting to be called inside.

"What's going on?"

Maximus sits across from him and sighs. He will take pleasure in bringing Sonny to his knees. There is no way he can let the man go back home or contact Carly.

"Imagine my surprise when Max called to tell me that you asked him to get rid of Ms. Webber."

Sonny tried to school his features, but he realizes coming here was a huge mistake.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Are you calling my son a liar?"

Sonny held up his hand. "Look, Maximus, I have no beef with you."

"What do the words no women and children mean to you?"

"You don't understand."

"Then make me understand."

"She had hurt Jason immensely. I had to protect him from her. He can't focus when she is around and that could mean his death. She gets his head all messed with her lies and manipulations."

Johnny had to stop Jake from going into the room and beating Sonny senseless.

"You thought that Jason would be okay with you hurting the mother of his child?"

"No, but he was messed up. He couldn't remember and she had lied to him."

"So, in other words, you couldn't control him, so you thought getting rid of Elizabeth was the way to go."

"Yes."

"I've grown pretty fond of Elizabeth. I am the one that told Max to bring her here."

Sonny abruptly stood. "Max defied me."

"Sit the fuck down."

Sonny dropped onto the seat knowing he's a dead man.

"Thank God that my son had the cajones to turn your ass in. You were going to kill her over your hard-on for Jason."

Jake, who had been listening from the other room, practically sent the door off its hinges as he strode into the office with his gun raised. "I should kill you right now."

Sonny stood and slowly turned. "I don't think you have the balls to do it."

The gun fired, the bullet hitting Sonny in the leg and making him crumble.

"You little fuck!" Sonny screamed.

Johnny stood in between them. "Give me the gun, Jake."

"Get out of the way!"

"Give me the fucking gun, now!"

Jake's stared him down. "Why?"

"Because your father gets to decide what happens to him, not you."

"He was going to kill my mother!"

"Exactly…"

Jake's jaw was clenched so tight, he almost cracked a tooth. He understands the history and why his father would want dibs, but it still doesn't quench his thirst to rid the earth of Sonny once and for all. He shoved the gun into Johnny's hand and then left.

"Get the doctor," Maximus instructed Carlos.

Sonny is on the floor panting. "You're dead."

Johnny smirked. "You wish. Luckily, Jason didn't listen to you when it came to me. I didn't betray the organization—you arrogant prick."

Spittle flies out of Sonny's mouth. "You're all fucking traitors!"

"I'd put a bullet between your eyes, but Jason wants to be the one to figure out how to punish you, so I will honor that."

Johnny jerks him to his feet making Sonny yell in pain. "I overheard you one time saying you hate confined spaces. Your life is going to suck until Jason is well enough to deal with you." He pulled a bleeding Sonny along and dragged him outside to a separate building where he'll stay until they move him later and then Jason can let them know how to proceed.

IiIiIiIiIiIiIiIiIiIi

Jake stares at the water in the lake. Hearing a car, he waits until he can hear her footsteps before standing and turning around.

"I came as fast as I could." She freezes when she sees the devastation in his eyes. "Oh, my God. Did he?" Her first thought is that his father may have died.

"No."

Sophie tentatively moved closer. "Then what is it?"

"Everything—God. I just hate that I can't do anything about any of this. My dad is hurt, and I just got him back. I feel like I'm losing control." He can't tell her about Sonny or what happened because of the business.

He crumbles and she goes to him and joins him on the ground, holding him while he finally gave in and had a good cry. When he finally settled, she stroked his hair.

"I don't know what you're going through, but whatever it is, we'll figure it out. I never want to see you look like that again."

He wiped his face and then rolled onto his back and their gaze locked. "I'm a bad person, Sophie. Maybe you should go." There isn't once part of him that wants that, but he doesn't want her to be hurt because of him. After everything that had gone down, he understands the fear his parents experienced and why they tried to protect him.

She caressed his face. "What if I don't want to? Do I get a say?"

He wondered how many times his mom and dad had this conversation. His mom had told him about the whole it's your choice thing conversation and he agrees with his father. "I won't take your choice away, but if you knew what I'm capable of you'd leave."

He pushed up so he is closer. "My life is dangerous, and I like it that way. It's the only time I feel like I can do anything—accomplish something. I fit in this life. Maybe it's because of my dad. I don't know. I've had a taste and I don't want to go back."

She nods even though she doesn't entirely understand.

"Do you love nursing?"

"Yes."

"If I asked you to give it up, would you?"

"No. I've worked too hard and—" A slight smile edges onto her face when she realizes what he just did.

"I don't just want this life though. Someday, I want it all and I'll figure out how to make it work. I like you." They had spent the last few days talking, helping him keep his mind off his dad.

"It sounds like a good plan."

They are only inches apart.

Even though everything inside him is screaming at him to walk away, he's finding it difficult to take that first step. "May I kiss you, Sophie?"

She shivered as his breath skipped across her lips. "Yes."

Their lips met in a tender kiss and then Jake's tongue slid across her bottom lip and she gasped, making it easier for him to deepen it. It was one of the best things he has ever felt in his life. As they torridly kissed their bodies pressed together and they never wanted it to end.