Thanks to everyone who has sent in reviews and reminded me that I need to keep working on this fic. It helps to motivate me.

Scorpio's Eight

Chapter Twenty Seven

They Get You Coming and Going

Zander hung up his cell phone, after talking to Spinelli, and then ran up the stairs at Greystone, two at a time.

Using a flashlight to cut through the darkness, he made his way into Sonny's master bedroom. Inside the secret room he found the painting.

"There you are, gorgeous," he said, with a huge devilish grin on his face.

220 million dollars looked damn good, no matter if it did come in the shape of one ugly ass painting.

XXXXXXXX

Luke laughed when Jagger walked into Luke's Club with the painting. "Easy come, easy go for Mac and Anna tonight, huh?"

"Looks like it," Jagger said as he passed over the painting.

"You did good. Where's that brother of yours?"

"Had to leave him behind. I wouldn't have done it but I know he's safe with them. They might cuss him out but won't do him any real harm."

Luke nodded and poured them some drinks.

"Stone's a good kid. Little too straightlaced for this life, though, if you ask me. He don't even seem to like the con."

"Not like the rest of us do, nah, but its all he knows."

"I heard that," Luke said. It was all him and Bobbie had known since childhood. They hustled to survive and never cared it wasn't exactly legal.

Luke raised his glass and clinked it with Jagger's. "To the life."

"The life," Jagger repeated.

Luke smiled as he looked at the painting. "You want it?"

"Me? I don't have much use for art. Besides I figure you took it tonight for a reason, no? Got a client waiting on it? Or was this just a revenge thing? Carly didn't really fill me in on the details."

"We never talk shop when we don't have to. You knew as much as you needed. But whatever we had planned for The Ever Faithful don't have anything to do with this little baby. She's nothing more than a doppelganger."

Jagger shook his head. "You had me play State Trooper for a fake?"

"You don't think that I'd let Anna and Mac just walk away with what they think is our score, do you? That's just bad form. Besides, they'd never let us live it down." Smiling, Luke downed his drink and poured another.

Just then the fire alarm went off, and about five seconds later firemen rushed inside the building.

"Did you call 911?" asked a fireman, as he came through the door."Where's the blaze?"

"There isn't one, far as I know," said Jagger.

"You will have to evacuate while we search."

Luke started to protest but just then the sprinklers went off. He grabbed the painting and they headed outside. Both were on high alert for a ambush. The area was lit up with fire trucks.

They started to head for Jagger's Hummer but before they made it there, Maxie Jones came walking up.

"Leave a cigar lit again, Luke?" she asked "I hope you haven't managed to burn down my favorite bar in town."

"Have no fear. The booze is safe, darling."

"What are you doing here tonight?" Jagger asked

"Came to see if I could find you, actually," Maxie said to him. "We have a problem. It seems your brother slept with my sister the day after that wedding. And the ass has not called her since. He broke her heart, if you want to know the truth. My father is thinking about pressing charges since she is only seventeen."

"I could have sworn Georgie is eighteen already," Luke mused, as his eyes darted around.

"She lets people think that. She's trying to grow up too fast. Georgie has too damn bright of a future for me to allow anyone to crush her spirit." She poked Jagger in the chest. "You keep Stone away from her or I will see him locked up under the jail, and believe me, there will be no key to be found, you hear me?!! You and me screwing around, that was just drunken fun, but Georgie is not like that. Stone used the wrong woman this time."

Jagger said "I don't know what your sister has told you but I seriously doubt she has any sort of relationship with my brother at all. They danced a few times. The rest of this is clearly a figment of her over imaginative teenage mind."

"Are you calling my sister a LIAR?"

Luke and Jagger eased back a step as Maxie started to rant at them. "Let me tell you something, Mr. Blow Into Town and Screw the Locals, my sister has never told a lie in her life. If she says she slept with Stone, she SLEPT with Stone. Your brother is an asshole. If he knocked her up I will make him sorry he ever laid a hand on her, and my father will make sure that precious Hummer of yours, your house, your mama's house and anything you even think about owning for the rest of your life

is turned into a pile of rubble. And that is just for starters..." She got close to Jagger, shoving a finger in his face, while her other hand slid into her bag.

"Okay, okay," Jagger said "calm down."

Luke's phone rang. He turned away and answered it. His eyes searched the crowd for Mac or Anna.

"Hello? Hello? What the...bad connection, I guess. I hate these damn cell phones. Hello?"

Maxie ranted on "You fucking calm down, I'm calm! You can't mess with a Jones girl and get away with it."

Thud.

Luke still clutched the painting in one hand. He went to spin around and see what had just hit the ground behind him, but then he felt something shoved into his back. A second later he fell to the ground.

Maxie smiled and shoved the taser gun back in her purse.

A fireman rushed over. "Are they okay? What happened?"

"I don't know. I think they might be on drugs," Maxie said with concern in her voice. "Oh my god, please help my Uncle Luke! Just hold on, Uncle Luke, you'll be okay."

The fireman said into his walkie talkie "I need a bus to this location. We have two victims down."

As soon as he bent to take Luke pulse, Maxie picked up the painting and said "I better go call his daughter. She will be so worried." She headed for her car and, within two more minutes, was out of the parking lot.

She called Anna. "It's done."

XXXXXXXXXX

Anna smiled. "We got it back."

Mac walked out of the bathroom at the Lake House. He had just tied Stone to the toilet.

He asked Anna "How did you manage that?"

"Sent in The Intern."

"You ever gonna tell me who that really is? I hear about this guy but never see him."

"When he's ready- good enough- you will."

"If he got the painting back that quick, I'd say he's not bad."

"It's his good looks," she said with a smile, glad he had no idea Maxie had joined the family business, "no one would suspect his motives are so nefarious. I'm going to meet up with him and get it back, then hand it over to Faith. You stay here with our guest."

"Baby sitting duty? You got to be kidding me."

"I don't kid about work, you know that." She headed for the door. "Make him hot chocolate and cookies. Play Daddy Mac. I am sure he will be asking to be adopted before the night is done."

Mac shook his head. "Fine you go off and have all the fun without me. I have some punishment in mind for Young Cates anyway."

"You better be nice. He's a good friend of Sweet Caroline."

Mac smiled. "I can teach him a lesson without laying a hand on him."

"You have fun with that."

Mac followed her toward the door. "Be careful with Faith. She's a loose cannon on a good day, and I ain't seen her have one of those in years."

XXXXXXXXXX

Faith slid bullets into her revolver, slowly, one by one until the chamber was loaded.

That bitch is late, she thought. Anna should have been here forty-five minutes ago.

A smile curved her lips as she imagined Sonny's expression when he realized his fortune was gone, never to be recovered. He would lose his mind and then, in his madness, all of his territory. It would be a glorious downfall to watch.

She burst out laughing. In a sing song voice she cried "Mine, mine, mine. It's all mine! You lose, Sonny boy. You lose."