Chapter Nine

With the morning came more worry from the adults and more playfulness from the children. Sam sat alone on the porch, drinking the herbal tea that Lucky hated and thinking about her family. She tried to be the best mom, wife, and step-mom in the world all while overseeing the Cassadine docks under her cousin, Nikolas.

It was all so perfect. So, of course, Sam was waiting for the bottom to fall out from under her.

Lucky always wondered why she bothered waiting on something bad to happen, and Sam always answered because something always does.

"Morning, Fair Samantha." Spinelli stumbled quietly from the house, wiping sleep from his eyes with a small grin at his first friend besides the ever-elusive Stone Cold. The young man hadn't spent much time with his sister-in-law in the past few years, but he could still read her like an open book.

And she was two seconds away from taking Cam and Laura-Lee and bolting from Luke's little house on the prairie.

"Fair Samantha, are you okay? I could go get the Valkyrie or even the Mother Goddess if you want."

"No, Spinelli. Don't. I'm fine. I just -- I hate being treated like a woman." Sam spat violently as she stood up and crossed her arms. Who the hell did Lucky think he was, leaving her behind to go carousing around the world with his father? They were a damn team. He was supposed to take her with him to chase the bad guys. Or in this case, Nikolas' crazy grandmother.

"My fair Samantha, My Blonde One's Brother means no harm to his lovely Goddess-Wife. He wants to protect you." Spinelli stumbled over his words lightly, sitting to avoid the pacing brunette as she stomped around, mad at the world.

"Well, he can throw that idea straight out the window. I don't need my damn husband to take care of me, Spinelli. I need him to love me."

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"What do you mean that my grandson is missing?" Helena spat at Andreas, sitting straighter in the Victorian chair on her luxurious yacht about 5 miles offshore from Port Charles itself. It was finally time. Time to make the Spencers pay for once and for all.

However, it seemed having Luke blacklisted from every member of the underground world hadn't kept him from her intentions. He had run off with his brood, Natasha, and Nikolas.

That was simply unacceptable. She would simply have to find them and make their suffering that much more intolerable. This never would have happened had Stavros been alive to take care of their enemies.

"I'm sorry, Madam. We tried our best to locate your grandson, but our efforts were futile." The man said, reserved and quiet and desperate to be dismissed as to miss the rage the news would inevitably send the aging matriarch into without any doubt.

"You have failed me, Andreas." Helena's wicked eyes held a gleam Andreas had never witnessed before on her, and he didn't like it one bit.

"It won't happen again." Andreas promised, unconsciously moving toward the door. His palms were already damp and his forehead was quickly catching up from his nerves taking hold of him.

"No, it won't." Helena agreed and quickly she pulled the antique revolver out from her lap and shot her employee in the heart, killing him instantly for failing her.

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Luke surveyed the room like a cheetah looking for the weakest gazelle, and he spotted his mark almost immediately.

"What the hell are we doing here? Seriously… I think you're losing it in your old age." Lucky said, sitting at the bar. His foot tapped nervously against the aged bar stool as his hard pounded in rhythm. Complain as he may, he knew his father was on his game. Most of the time. Lucky just wasn't sure if he was willing to bet the house on it.

"Bite your tongue, Cowboy. That's who we're here for," Luke pointed toward the back corner of the smoky bar, and Lucky spun around to get a look for himself.

He hadn't seen Felicia Jones - or was it Scorpio?- since the winter of 2007 when Georgie had been murdered by the Text Message Killer. In the tight leather pants with big, blonde hair, Lucky wasn't sure if he was looking at the woman who used to host block parties and drive around carpools for her daughters while they were in school.

Luke, on the other hand, knew good and well that the ex-housewife of Mac Scorpio was no man's little woman. She pulled her own punches, and with his trademark smirk and double scotch, he watched her play the Russian drug lord in the dingy Las Vegas bar without breaking a sweat.

"Felicia?" Lucky said in disbelief. "That's not who I was expecting. Especially not in bar at 9 AM."

"Don't underestimate my generation, son. You'll wind up surprised every time." Luke said, downing his drink and started to make his way over to Felicia. After all, stirring the pot was one of his favorite pastimes.

Getting in a little time annoying his ex-lover before whisking her off to help him finish Helena for once and for all wasn't too much to ask for in Luke's opinion.

But before he could take two good steps away from the bar, he felt a prick in his neck, and everything faded to nothing.

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