Chapter 2
Sami walked into Club Babylon and smiled at the staff cleaning up from the night before. She walked up to the bar and Bliss turned to her. "Good morning Mrs. Roberts!" she said. "Morning Bliss." Sami said returning the girl's smile. She was glad that she had kept Bliss on after the club had changed over from a "gentleman's club" to a dance club. Bliss was smart and funny and the customers all loved her. She was also studying to be a veterinarian, so the job afforded her the money she needed to pay for her schooling. Sami picked up the mail and flipped through it. "Anything doing that I should know about?" Sami asked as she ripped up some junk mail. "Nothing out of the ordinary, except that Count Dimera is in his office looking at the books." Bliss answered. "Really?" Sami said cocking an eyebrow in surprise. It wasn't often that Tony ventured into the club to work, let alone look at the books. "Here," Sami said pushing the torn junk mail towards Bliss. "Throw these away for me please." "You got it boss." Bliss said as Sami walked away and towards the back to Tony's office.
Sami opened the door to Tony's office without bothering to knock, and stepped inside. It was as gloomy as always, but she supposed that was the way he liked it. She had tried to convince him to redecorate it, but his answer had always been a very strong no, so she had stopped trying. The office was as much a reflection of the man as anything else in his life was these days and it saddened Sami to see him so unhappy. He'd been so alone since losing his sister Lexie and finding out that the Cassie and Rex weren't really his children. They had been fathered instead by Sami's own father, Roman Brady. He spent much of his time burying himself in business and trying to clean up the mess left behind by his father and cousin.
Tony looked up as Sami walked into the room and his heart leapt at her smile, as it always did. Sometimes he wished she didn't look so breathtakingly beautiful and that she didn't smile at him like that, but he knew he wouldn't change a thing about her. She was everything a man could want: smart, witty, strong, defiant and maddeningly independent. And if any man wanted her it was Tony Dimera. He'd been attracted to her ever since she'd first approached him two years earlier with an offer of friendship. He'd dismissed the attraction however and gone after her mother out of revenge against John Black instead. He'd even helped Sami land the object of her desires at the time, Brandon Walker, by dating her to make the ex-boxer jealous. And then the unthinkable had happened and he'd kidnapped by his identical cousin Andre and his insane ex-wife Kristen and held captive for almost a year. It had been towards the end of his captivity that Sami had been thrust back into his life. She'd broken up with Brandon and had been sleeping with his cousin under the mistaken idea that she was actually sleeping with Tony. It had all been a ruse however. Sami was actually acting as an undercover agent for the ISA in an effort to discover who had been murdering their agents. Unfortunately for her, she'd been discovered and imprisoned alongside Tony. Sami's misfortune had been Tony's good fortune however. After being confronted by Kristen and his lecherous cousin, who was determined to make Sami his bride, Sami had come up with a plan to free Tony and herself from their cell and save many of Salem's citizens from a bomb. The bomb unfortunately had gone off at a party at the Kiriakis mansion. It had killed a few people who hadn't gotten out in time, among them Victor Kiriakis' wife Nicole and Tony's sister Alexandra. Andre had also supposedly been killed, although no positive ID of the body could be made and Kristen had disappeared without a trace. The loss of his sister had been devastating to Tony and Sami had been there along the way to help him through it. She'd stubbornly refused to let him wallow in guilt and self pity and had instead pushed him to try and bring some good out of all the bad his family had done. He'd been doing so with her help, donating not only his money, but also his time to charities with her by his side, and falling deeply in love with her along the way.
"Well, well," Sami said to him now, crossing her arms over her chest and sending a mocking look his way. "To what do we owe the honor of this little visit?" Tony smiled back at her. "Well, can't a man take the time to review his investment?" He said to her. "Of course he can?" She answered with a smirk. "It's just not usually here that you tend to work. You prefer the gloominess of the mansion to the gloominess of your office." She sat down on the edge of his desk, giving him an ample view of one shapely calf. The smell of jasmine permeated his senses and he could hear the blood roaring in his ears. He shifted to hide the discomfort that her closeness always caused and gave her a small smile. "Well Sami if this office is gloomy it always brightens considerably when you enter." He said to her. Sami shook her head and laughed at his charming remark. "Tony, Tony what am I going to do with you?" "Not what I'd like." He thought to himself and then shook the image it brought to mind away. "So Sami," He said turning back to the books. "Since you're here perhaps we can go over some of these entries in the books, hmm?" Sami took his cue to change the subject and sat down across from him to work.