Princess Natasha Alexandra Mikkosovna Cassadine had just stared at Dr. Neil Byrne after he had told her so matter of fact that he would be working at the nursery, and that meant that they'd be in the same vicinity. Not what she wanted at all but he stood there, stubborn as always and just told her how it was going to be.

Damn him, she thought as he smiled at her, knowing that she would have to yield to him on this issue. At least for now while she thought of different ways to get off of this island and back to the real world that she had left in shambles behind her on that fateful night the world as everyone still alive knew it finally ended.

"Well I'd like to talk to you but I've got to start loading…"

She raised her brows at him.

"Manure…that's right, your area of expertise," she said.

He just smiled and the way he looked at her, he looked right through her. She felt her body warming up against her will. She felt her breasts harden…at least her clothes would hide them. Why couldn't she control the way her body reacted around him?

Because there had been times before their falling out when he had made her feel so damn good…had held onto her tightly as he nursed her straight into some place pleasurable with his mouth or his fingers or…she clamped her mouth shut and then looking straight at him, daring him to keep looking at her like that.

"No that's only one of my areas…you know some of the others…"

He winked at her and then walked off, heading to the office to no doubt finalize the processing or hiring as he called it of another foundling by Adela. Alexis just sighed as she watched him go, and how his pants molded so nicely to his ass, the same one she'd squeezed with her hands many a time…as their bodies collided before meshing together in harmony not so sweet. But no, she had to be strong here because she no longer cared about him…did she? After what he had done, the words he had said…she felt them anew, like a splash of icy water in her face when she remembered them.

She returned to the ground where she crouched as she stacked the potted herbs on the shelf, where she knew they'd sell rapidly enough because it was the perfect time of year for them and they were in much higher demand once again after people started returning to the older ways. Working kept her mind off of him, didn't it…but then she remembered what he had said about the largest kingpin still alive on the eastern seaboard making bail and that sent a chill through her because she knew he was right in that he might come looking for her. If not him, he might send some hired men to do the job. No, she thought knowing the blast from not so far in the past would want to deliver his message to her personally. He had promised her as much the last time she'd seen him.

And probably very painfully before finishing her off….she felt fear fill her at the thought that he might want her to suffer so much she would beg him to kill her. No, she definitely had to be a realist in that she needed to find some way to protect herself from that king of the thugs if he came for her. Because despite what some people around her might believe, she had nothing left to feel about anybody but hate…They had their ways of getting through that last assignment they had done together and she had hers.

Valentin Cassadine's way of coping had involved taking off one day armed of course to go hunt down the members of the old posse who had slipped through the WSB's' net. He had gotten some of them and a couple of them didn't live long after meeting up with him.

Her way of dealing with the botched assignment hadn't involved murder.

She sighed, rubbing her face smudging more dirt on it but that was the story of her new life, was to not work inside an office building, not to try to reinvent herself over and over again every time her decisions (usually involving the male gender) blew up in her face. Not that any of that mattered any more. Not in the here, now or the after. She'd come full circle back to the days when she'd spent a brief period of her life knowing happiness and love before having both erased by a single act of vengeance. Days spent under a forgiving sun kneeling in the earth and whispering for her seeds to sprout beneath the damp earth, hoping they were listening to her.

She learned to like her new job because she had grown up living off the land in a sense even during the darker years after she had woken up one morning calling for her parents who she was told had died in a plane crash. That was the morning Alexis Davidovitch woke up after a long dreamless sleep.

"They look nice…"

Alexis looked behind her and saw Adela standing there.

"I hear you hired a new guy," she asked, "Sure you made the right decision?"

Adela smiled at her.

"He told me he had a history with you but no specifics and I didn't pry," she said, "as long as he can hoist those heavy bags of potting soil and manure, he stays."

Alexis rolled her eyes.

"Okay I hope you know what you're getting yourself into with him."

Adela's eyes danced, her mouth pursed.

"I'll let you also know I invited him to the beach party tonight," she said, "to welcome to our nice village."

Alexis shrugged after she got on her feet.

"Whatever… I don't know if I can go…"

Adela's eyes grew sterner.

"I think you should reconsider…we don't have very many opportunities to come together, try to have some fun and forget what we don't have."

Alexis almost protested but then she saw what Adela was up to…the woman had a razor sharp mind for plotting escapades, which was fine but count her out. She gave up all of that with her old life.

"He's really gorgeous isn't he," Adela said, "I almost wanted to squeeze his ass while he walked by but that's harassment isn't it?"

Alexis didn't really respond to that because not only had she been tempted now and then by one man or another, she had actually known how it felt just like how a few other things felt about one particular man. Like when the hardness of his muscular chest pressed against her breasts and what it felt like to have his tongue inside her mouth and his fingers massaging her sweeter spots, as he called them. Oh if she had ever needed anyone to help her find it…she knew who the expert in that department was.

"He might enjoy it. He enjoys women a lot. Ever since the love of his life died...well his dreams died with her so it did simplify things."

Adela arched her brow.

"I wouldn't think of it, not while I'm going out with Randy but he's sure nice to look at isn't he?"

"I don't think about that," Alexis said, "I'm really too focused on my work here and he...well we used to be related."

Adela just shot her a look like she definitely didn't believe one word she said, but then she hadn't sounded convincing. Yeah, she looked at him and part of her wanted him still at least as family but all she had to do then was remember what happened.

"So I'll see you there later then," Adela said as she breezed away not waiting for an answer.

Not that Alexis would give her one because she hadn't made her mind up yet. She'd think about it…not the cast of characters in the story that became part of her family lore as she continued working.

Miles away, many miles away, Rodrigo sat in his lawyer's office right next to one of the tallest buildings in L.A. a free man.

Technically not free because he had only posted a hell of a lot of bail money to get out of jail until his trial and his lawyers had warned him that the really difficult work lay ahead. He had been charged with multiple felonies including orchestrating assassinations of his competition or those who betrayed him including a couple of federal agents including the one who had once worked closely as his administrative assistant.

Slitting her throat after his squad of guards were finished with her where she had been tied up on a bed inside one of the cottages on his estate had been pleasurable. He had waited until the last one had gotten off of her and zipped his pants before pulling out the stiletto, which he simply cleaned off with a handkerchief after pulling it out of her.

It had been easy enough to set up her fed contact to pick her up and taken him down much more quickly, a shot to the head before placing them both in the trunk of the car and setting it on fire.

He had left that part of the task up to the experts and then he set out to get ready for one of his millionaire partner's party out on an estate overlooking an impressively sculptured coastline.

There had been a beautiful young woman who hadn't turned out to be what she appeared let alone the woman he'd known, yet another operative who had tried to mess with his plans. But not a fed or WSB, simply part of a team of investigators they had hired freelance to more easily slip past own team of operatives who had hacked successfully into the federal files of the operatives.

Her name had eluded him. The dozen or so tied to her turned out to be as fake as she was and she had left L.A. at some point after…after having some sort of confrontation with the head of the assignment, Brock. Rodrigo's own team of attorneys was busy working on how he and his men had been entrapped by the millionaire through the Feds and their hirelings. After leaving jail, he had gone to stay in a hotel bungalow near Malibu and had gone on a 10 mile run, to get all that pent up energy out of him before dawn and later after a nice hot shower, he had dined on brunch at one of the five star restaurants off the beach. He made up for lost time enjoying the finer things that he had missed during his six weeks in a federal detention facility while keeping his body physically hardened by all kinds of exercise including martial arts.

Then he had started planning his next moves. He had to appear up and up while out on bail to please his expensive attorneys but he had already started sending some of the best men he had on a hidden payroll to search for her and the entire band. And he promised a lucrative bonus to anyone who could pinpoint her location and bring it back to him. His top guy, Milan had already started working on locating his elusive prey.

For a long time there hadn't been much luck but he knew that if she had left L.A. it hadn't been to get away from him…so she wasn't in deep hiding and she wasn't in federal protection. That would make it easy enough to locate her quickly and then when he got the call that she'd been found, he would travel to where she was and move on her himself.

He had missed her in his own way…the feel of her silky smooth skin under his touch…the way her body felt when taking him inside of it…the exquisite feeling of lying in between her thighs, pressing her against the sheets of the bed. It made him go hard just thinking about it…so she hadn't meant it…that didn't mean anything now.

As soon as he had her alone and away from the rest of her world, everything would change.

But then the world changed not with a bang but a whimper.