Chapter 7
Dante had been calling Lulu all afternoon with no answer. He figured she was working a story and couldn't talk. A feeling in his gut just kept nagging him that something wasn't right as the afternoon wore on. He left her one more message:
"Lulu. Baby it's me. Can you just call me back and let me know you are okay? I'm sure I'm just being paranoid but I'm worried I haven't heard from you. I love you!"
When another hour went by and he didn't hear from her, he decided to jump in the car and head over to her office just to check on her. When he arrived there he asked the receptionist if he could see Lulu.
"Lulu never came back from lunch. She and Jared left together to go to Kelly's. Maybe they are out working on a story?" The receptionist said.
Dante was in a full panic now. He called Lulu again and still got no answer. He jumped back in his car and raced over to Kelly's.
Lulu came to handcuffed to a pipe in an empty and dimly lit warehouse. Her jaw ached and she knew she must have a black eye. The last thing she remembered was realizing Jared was the one beating up the dancers as they were on their way back to the office from Kelly's. He then proceeded to beat her until she passed out. It looked to be dark outside through the high windows of the empty warehouse. Dante would be frantic. She wondered where Jared was and how she was going to get out of this mess. She needed to get home to her husband. She heard voices in the hallway and then the door opened. In walked Jared and trailing behind him was Delores.
Dante went to Kelly's and the waitress told him that she saw Lulu at lunch with Jared and they left hours ago. She didn't notice anything unusual. Dante was frantic. Anything could have happened to her. He decided to try over at Johnny's club and see if anyone there knew anything.
Lulu looked at Jared and then Delores. She was confused.
"Lulu! I see you have met my husband." Delores said.
"Your husband? Jared is your husband?" Lulu asked incredulously.
"Yes, Delores is my wife. She keeps me out of trouble most of the time. Until you came along and had to figure out who I was." Jared said. "Now we have to take care of you and divert the blame elsewhere. See, we are in one of your father-in-law's warehouses. Your sad death is going to be blamed on the mob war that's constantly going on in Port Charles."
Lulu felt sick to her stomach as he explained this. It was all coming together. Why Delores was always transferring to new police stations and why she was such a bitch to Lulu. She was mad that Lulu was digging around and discovered the truth.
"If you just stayed home like a good little wife this wouldn't be happening. Now Dante is going to be widowed before even being married for six months." Delores taunted. "Don't worry though. I'll be around to help him with his grief. We'll be fucking in no time. My husband doesn't mind if I spend time with others while he is out doing his own thing."
"You are disgusting." Lulu spat out. "Dante wouldn't touch you with a ten foot pole even if I was dead."
"We'll see." Delores smirked. "Now we have to go take care of a few things before we kill you. Don't go anywhere."
Jared and Delores left her alone to wait to be killed. She immediately bent over and pulled the hairpin out of her hair and got to work on the handcuffs.
Dante frantically pulled up at the club and ran inside. He sprinted up to Johnny's office and banged on the door.
"What?" Johnny said as he opened the office door.
"Johnny, it's Lulu. She went missing this afternoon have you heard from her? Has anyone here heard from her?" Dante asked in a rush.
"No man, I'm sorry. Lulu hasn't been here today. When was she last seen?" Johnny asked very concerned.
"She went to lunch with that Jared guy she works with. That one that saved her in the parking garage. She hasn't been seen since they left Kelly's after lunch."
Johnny picked up the phone and started dialing.
"Who are you calling?" Dante asked.
"Spinelli. I'm going to have him pull up all of the cameras around Kelly's to see which way they went."
Dante nodded. Normally he wouldn't accept any help from the mob affiliated computer hacker but this was his wife.
"Spinelli, it's Johnny. Lulu is missing. Yes, the original blonde one. She had lunch at Kelly's with her co-worker and then disappeared. We need you to try and track the car with the surveillance cameras in the area. Yes. Email me everything you find." Johnny hung up the phone. "He's on it."
"Thanks man. I'm going to call Ronnie at the station and get him out there looking."
Dante made phone calls as they waited for Spinelli's results. After Dante finished his calls, Johnny motioned for him to come over and look at the footage that Spinelli found. Jared's car was headed back to the office when it suddenly took a turn toward the waterfont area. The cameras were spotty over there but the car picked up again by an empty warehouse that Dante knew belonged to Sonny. The car must have stopped on the opposite side of the building from the camera because it didn't come into view again.
"I'm going to get my wife." Dante said as he rushed out of the office.
Jared and Delores came back to find Lulu exactly where they left her.
"Well Lulu. This is goodbye. I'll be sure to think of you when I'm fucking your husband in the bed you used to share." Delores taunted. Lulu didn't let Delores' words get to her. She knew if she didn't make it that Dante wouldn't touch Delores ever.
"This building will blow up in 10 minutes killing you and erasing any evidence that we were ever here." Jared said. "I will be moving on to the next town while Delores stays here to make sure the PCPD doesn't connect us."
Lulu couldn't let them get away. If they left then Jared would continue victimizing women with Delores' help.
Delores came closer to make sure Lulu's handcuffs were tight and Lulu surprised her by freeing herself and giving her a swift uppercut to the jaw. Delores was caught so off guard that she fell backwards and hit her head on the concrete floor, knocked out. Lulu ran trying to get past Jared but he grabbed her and pulled out his gun holding it to her temple.
"You had to make this difficult you little bitch." Jared said, gripping her tighter. Lulu tossed her head back and knocked Jared in the face, sending him backwards and forcing him to release his grip on her. She turned around and kneed him in the groin before she used the palm of her hand to break his nose. Then she took off running knowing she didn't have much time to get out before the building blew.
Dante raced towards the warehouse and just as he was exiting the car, the building exploded. Debris rained down on him as he ran toward the burning building screaming Lulu's name over and over. He tried to go in but the flames were too hot. He didn't know how anyone could survive that blast. He fell to his knees in front of the building and cried.
The fire trucks and cops all arrived at that time and started working to put out the fire. Dante begged them to get his wife out. "My wife is in there. You have to find her!"
"It's too hot to go in there. The roof is in danger of collapsing. I'm sorry but it is unlikely anyone survived the blast."
Dante stood there horrified as he watched the building burn.
Just then, a fireman came around the side of the building carrying Lulu's lifeless body. She was covered in soot. "I need a medic! I found her just outside the back exit." He called as Dante rushed over. The fireman laid her down on the gurney as the EMTs got to work. The fireman held Dante back as they worked on her. "Let them help her."
"She has a pulse!" One of the EMTs shouted. They put an oxygen mask over her face to help her breathe and started to load her into the ambulance.
"I'm going with her." Dante said as he pushed his way onto the ambulance. Nobody tried to stop him.
He talked to her the whole way to the hospital. "Lulu, baby it's me. You are going to be okay. We are on our way to the hospital."
She opened her eyes and looked at him. He immediately started to cry. She squeezed his hand but couldn't speak and then closed her eyes again.
They brought her in to the hospital and Dante waited outside as she was examined. After a few minutes the doctor came out to get Dante and they went back into Lulu's room.
"Your wife suffered from smoke inhalation since she was right next to the building as it was burning. It appears she was also hit on the head rendering her unconscious. We have the mask on her to help her breathe until her lungs clear. We will have to carefully observe her for the next 24 hours but she should be fine. She also has bruises on her face consistent with a beating."
Dante didn't even want to think about what Jared had done to her. "Any idea when she will wake up?"
"Should be any time now. You are welcome to sit with her. She can take the mask off once she wakes up." The doctor left and Dante sat down in that all too familiar chair next to Lulu's hospital bed.
"Baby, I love you. You're going to be okay." Dante said as he took her small hand in his. "I'm right here for when you are ready to wake up." He stared at the bruises on her face and thought about Jared. That son of a bitch better have died in the blast or Dante was going to kill him with his bare hands.
Olivia showed up and gave Dante a hug. "Are you okay? Is Lulu going to be okay?" She asked.
"I'm fine. The doctor said Lulu should recover but they are watching her closely for the next 24 hours. That bastard put his hands on her. He beat her up." Dante said, seething with anger.
"Honey, that's awful. You gotta set that anger aside though and focus on Lulu. She is going to need you when she wakes up." Olivia said.
"She needed me to protect her and I didn't. This never should have happened." Dante said feeling guilty and helpless.
"You can't let that eat you alive. She needs you now and you have to be there for her." Olivia said. "I'm going to be outside in the waiting room if you need anything."
Dante went back to staring at Lulu, waiting for her to wake up. A few hours later she finally opened her eyes. She reached up and removed the mask over her face.
"Hi" She said.
"Hi" He said. "I love you. I'm so sorry."
"I love you too. You have nothing to be sorry for."
"Do you feel any pain? Should I get the doctor?" Dante asked.
"I'm okay, just really sore and my lungs hurt. I'm just happy to see you again. I was scared that I wouldn't."
"I thought I lost you when that building blew up. How did you get out?"
"I picked the lock on the handcuffs and knocked Delores out."
"Wait, Delores?"
"Yes, she is married to Jared. She has been helping him all along."
"That lying bitch!"
"I know, I was shocked. So I knocked her out and then Jared got me and had his gun to my head. I knocked my head back into his and then got him in the groin and then broke his nose. I ran and the building blew right as I got to the door."
"Baby, you saved your own life. I'm so proud of you." Dante leaned in to give her a gentle kiss.
"All I could think about was that you would be worried and that I had to get back to you." Lulu said as she stroked his face.
"I was frantic." Dante said and he kissed her one more time. "I need to call Ronnie and tell him about Delores."
Dante made his call and hung up the phone looking confused.
"Ronnie said they only found one body in the warehouse of a male. No female."
"Delores must have gotten out before the blast. She could be anywhere by now."
"I'll tell you one thing. Until she is accounted for, you are not leaving my line of sight at any time. I don't care if I have to take a month off of work and follow you around."
"I would argue but last time I did that I ended up handcuffed to a pipe in a warehouse rigged with explosives. We stick together until she is caught." Lulu said and then she yawned.
"Go back to sleep baby. You need your rest."
"Will you lay here with me?" Lulu said as she scooted over.
"Of course." He said as he got in next to her and wrapped her in his arms. She quickly drifted off to sleep as Dante held her close. Delores was not getting anywhere near Lulu. He would kill her himself if he had to.