Here's the next instalment. I hope you enjoy and I hope everyone is enjoying 2009 so far. I also hope you all had a great time over the holidays. I have a few more weeks off until I go back to school. I have a brief appointment at school next week. I plan to make the most of my time off because then I'm in school for the next ten months, getting only weekend and statutory holidays off. My sessions last throughout the semester too which—to my surprise—I really don't mind. Leave some words if you're feeling generous. ;)

Chapter 5

Maxie sat down on Sam's comfortable couch and nodded her head to the seat beside her. Spinelli sat down and put some distance between them.

"Well?" she tapped her stiletto heel on the floor impatiently.

Spinelli glanced at her and then cowered once more, immediately staring down at the floor and she could sense that he was clamming up.

"You have been spending way too much time with Jason," she remarked and he looked up at her in offence. Mission accomplished. Whenever someone insulted Jason, Spinelli immediately started to defend him as if it were a reflex.

"Perhaps it would be best to leave the past in the past," Spinelli advised her.

Maxie scoffed incredulously. "Best for you so then you won't have to explain why you helped Jason cover up a crime against your Fair Goddess, whom you betrayed when you did so."

Spinelli shook his head insistently. "I would never betray any of my friends," he vowed solemnly.

"When you helped Jason cover up Elizabeth's crime, you did so at Sam's expense."

"I never helped Stone Cold cover up the evidence of Fair Elizabeth's wrongdoing," he shook his head in denial and then finally met her gaze. "I merely aided him in the investigation of the hit and run. I wasn't privy to the knowledge that The Maternal One was involved. I was under the impression that Stone Cold wanted the person or persons that harmed Fair Samantha brought to justice."

"So Jason never told you that Elizabeth could have hit Sam?" Maxie shifted in her seat and looked at him in confusion. "How could he keep such vital information from you?" She wondered. Spinelli had been helping him figure out who was behind the hit-and-run but Jason kept him out of the loop when having that vital piece of information would have saved a lot of wasted time and effort.

"Stone Cold was probably hoping that she was not the culprit and since he had already gotten her bumper fixed before he even came to me, he most likely assumed that I would not be able to point a finger at her."

"So you uncovered Elizabeth's involvement on your own?" Maxie asked.

He nodded, his confidence in his abilities shining through in his eyes. "The Jackal left no stone unturned."

"But when Monica was cleared, you knew Elizabeth was the one that hit Sam and you didn't say anything to anyone."

"I told Jason."

"What about Sam?" she snapped. "Why didn't you go to her with the information? That way, she could have had some say in what happened."

"Stone Cold asked me not to tell another soul about what I knew until he figured out what he was going to do," Spinelli replied, cringing in fear because he now realized that explanation would make her angrier.

His prediction turned out to be true because Maxie's eyes burned with anger. "Until he decided what to do?" she repeated incredulously, shaking her head and balling her fists in exasperation. "Who the hell does he think he is?"

"And why didn't you tell Sam anyway?"

Spinelli gasped horribly. "I cannot defy Stone Cold. He is the master and I am his grasshopper."

"Well, Grasshopper, I hope you realize that by keeping your mouth shut, you did betray Sam," Maxie pointed an accusing finger at him. "Not only that, but you chose Jason's side over hers again."

Spinelli looked hurt by her words. "What are you talking about?"

"When Jason and Sam exploded, you took his side, and abandoned Sam," Maxie reminded him. "I hadn't heard her mention you in months until she came to talk to me about the time she ran into you at the shooting range she goes to."

Spinelli's cheek reddened in embarrassment at the reminder of that incident. He had been trying to prove that he could be tough like Jason so he had taken a gun and gone down to the range that he knew Jason and Sam frequented to learn how to properly shoot a gun. Sam had ran into him as the manager was about to throw him out for putting five bullet holes in the wall that was in the opposite direction that he was supposed to be firing at.

"Why did you alienate her?" Maxie asked curiously. "She was your friend while she lived with Jason but when she moved out, it was as if the two of you had never been friends."

"Sam commented every now and then that she missed you but she never made an effort to see you because she didn't want you to be uncomfortable."

"I upset the Goddess?" Spinelli looked appalled.

"You were her friend and then when she broke up with Jason, you weren't," Maxie replied, and raised her brow at him. "What do you think?"

Sam pulled her hand out of his and sighed heavily. "Well, things are going to happen to me, Jason," she replied and looked at him, her expression serious. "You can't always be there to protect me or save he day whenever I land in trouble anymore. Under cover work is what I do now. It's dangerous and it's invigorating. I like it and I'm not going to stop doing what I do just to make you or anyone else feel better."

"I would never tell you how to live your life, Sam," Jason shook his head at the implication. "I only want to ensure that you don't get killed right now. I understand that your job has risks and that you know what you're doing. You've saved my ass so many times; I know you can save your own."

"But?" Sam asked, raising her brows at him. She knew that there was some point he was trying to make.

"But the situation you're in now is not something you can handle by yourself," he finished, treading carefully.

"Says who?" Sam asked with narrowed eyes.

"You know I'm right. You've already realized that you can't get out of this on your own," Jason told her smugly and his gaze filled with knowledge that Sam hated he had. He wasn't supposed to know her so well anymore. She had changed from the woman she had been while she was with him but he seemed to have taken all those changes into account. "I know the players here. I know this world. Let me help you."

Sam appraised him. He was definitely sincere in his concern for her well-being. But could he be trusted to follow her lead and not tell her what to do?

He reached out and took hold of her chin, gently turning her face up so they were eye to eye. "I only want to help you. I don't want to take charge of your life. We were always great partners in crime."

She rolled her eyes and sighed with defeat. "Fine."

"Thank you," he said and smiled in relief.

Sam switched into business mode. "There's only way that I see to get out of this and you're right—I will need your help to get it done."

"What's your plan?" Jason asked.

"I have to kill Karpov," she told him and if not for the seriousness in her eyes, he would have thought she was kidding.

"Kill him?" he repeated in shock.

"It's kill or be killed here, Jason, and I do value my life so I'm going to take that bastard down," Sam explained and then shifted her gaze to the table in front of her. "Without Karpov, the Russians will be lost and confused. They will probably turned to Sasha—their lawyer—who knows enough about the business to keep it functioning but she knows nothing about defending the territory. Her lack of experience in that aspect will give us the advantage."

"What's our ultimate goal after that?" Jason asked.

"Kill Sasha, or pay her way out of town," Sam replied, looking back at him. "Once she's gone, regardless of how, the rest of the Russian Syndicate will follow, especially after you blow up all their warehouses and shipments, freeze their accounts, get Customs on their backs, etcetera."

Jason was impressed. It was a well thought out plan. He was definitely proud of her but he saw one glaring problem with it. "How do you plan to get close enough to Karpov to kill him?" he asked.

Sam bit her lip in annoyance. That was the flaw in the grand design. "That is where your knowledge of the players and the way things work will come into play." She hadn't been undercover long enough to get deep enough into the organization to know all the inner workings. She knew the names of most of the footmen but they were only goons. She knew Karpov and Sasha but she didn't know where they were at all times.

"We'll figure something out," Jason said with confidence. He looked at her curiously.

"What?" She asked.

"You did know you would need my help eventually didn't you?" he asked.

"Well, I sure as hell wasn't going to go to Sonny," she remarked, her face cringing with disgust at the notion. "Why do you think I haven't done anything yet? I was figuring out how I was going to get you to do what I needed without…" her voice trailed off.

"Without asking for my help," he realized.

Sam nodded and the awkwardness of the moment was felt by both of them. "You saved me the trouble by offering though."

"It was the least I could do."

"No argument here."