Chapter Five
Jason waited until he had a few free minutes, then called Elizabeth. "Are you okay?"
"Yes, Jason, what does this mean?" she asked. "Are you in any danger from this family?"
"Not unless Sonny starts something with them. The Ruiz family follows the rules, they don't go after innocents, they don't go after women, no matter what the provocation. Even women who have turned on them have gotten a free pass to a certain extent." he said then told her. "What does worry me is that if the police take out Miguel, they will want revenge since it was one of their own who messed up. Lucky could bring the wraith of a very pissed off family down on the station."
"Be care, please?" sh e asked. "Are you going to try and find him?"
"Yes, before he kills someone." With that, Jason asked "Will you keep an eye on Sam, try to keep the leeches away from her?"
Lorenzo was on the phone, pissed off as he talked to John Zachara yet again."Did you hear the news?"
"About the Ruiz brother, yes." he replied shortly. "Look my father has escaped his guard, I have to go track him down."
With that, John hung up, then heard the sound of his door bell ringing. Seeing Javier with his son entering, he said "I heard about Miguel, and I have no idea where he is."
"We know, we also know your father is on the loose." said Javier looking at the younger man. "What we want to know is anything you have on an Officer Lucky Spencer. He is how my son is now on an all points bulletin."
"Spencer."with that, he went to the filing cabinet. One thing Trevor did do right, there were very thorough files on everyone of the players in Port Charles. Looking through, he found nothing more than a single sheet of paper, the file that had been there days ago was now gone. Thankfully since taking over, John had read all the files in this cabinet.
"Problems?"asked Javier in a threatening tone. He wanted, no needed to find his son. Miguel had tasted their product, forgetting that to be a winner one didn't use the product.
"Nothing, just refreshing my memory of the names." he replied then closed the drawer, his mind on all the file had had in it.
"Lucky Spencer, idiot son of Luke and Laura Spencer. He is a weakling. He needs propping up and uses women to do it, he also has a sister in school someplace in Europe. He is the younger half brother of Prince Nicolas Cassadine, a connection of the late Helena Cassadine. His father owns a boat down on the pier. A Casino that is closed more than it is in operation."
"Any weaknesses?" spat out the tattooed man behind his father. "Addictions, alcohol, drugs, women?
"Yeah, a big one." he said with a smirk at the man's idiotic weakness. "He is obsessed with a woman who doesn't want him. One Elizabeth Imogene Webber. Ex-wife of Trevor's son Richard. Its a toss-up who she hates more, Ric or this Lucky."
"Thanks."said Javier then added "Will she play ball if we ask her to set him up."
"Maybe not, she has a kid, a boy with a former enforcer of Corinthos. She is a very protective mother." he stated safely knowing that to the Ruiz family like most mob families, the woman could help if asked but not be forced. "Plus oddly enough, while Corinthos and she are very distant, his second in command, Morgan is close to her."
"Morgan?"asked the accented short bald man wearing all black which made his tattoos even more sinister. "Jason Morgan?"
"Yeah."he replied knowing that the other man had to be aware of Morgan's reputation.
"I thought he had a thing going with some pregnant ex-mistress of Corinthos?" he asked curiously and with disgust at the disrespect.
"No."His mind on all he had learned keeping an eye on the Jones girl, he said "Corinthos asked him to take her in when she found out she was pregnant. He wanted the kid, she wanted out and money. Corinthos wishes Morgan would take her off his hands, but Morgan isn't biting, to both Sonny and this Sam's dismay. Rumor is he is looking for an out and a new place to live."
"Thank you, good doing business." with that, Javier left, knowing he now owed the younger man but it would be worth it if he could get Miguel back before the police cut him down with their high powered rifles. The information about Morgan wanting out would be filed away, who knew when that might come in useful.
John was debating what to ask the Spaniard for when he heard the sound of bells. "What the hell?"
Going to the edge of the property, he was now staring at the stables. "What are you doing father and why am I getting worried."
Across town, Anthony was thanking his reindeer wrangler, the man had now trained them to shake their heads on cue. Hearing footsteps, he saw the painted man and gave a soft laugh. "Mon ami; Miguel."
"Why you help?" asked the other man as he stood there looking at the short silver haired devil.
"You want to take down rapists, don't you, Miguel?" he crooned.. When the man nodded yes, he said "Right there, on that boat, he raped a woman years ago, got away with it."
Once Miguel had gone onto the Haunted Star, Anthony let out a chilling laugh as once again someone else did his wet work. All knew that the Ruiz family had a real issue with rapists and he took pleasure in using that to take done Luke Spencer who had created the problem of Sonny Corinthos.
When he saw the insane man exiting the boat, he made the call. Sure enough, Lucky Spencer showed up, Miguel made a point of tossing his knife overboard. Luke's son shot at the man covered with blood exiting his father's casino. As Miguel fell to the ground the police arrived and quickly checked on the unarmed asylum patient.
Lucky was soon stopped by Mac Scorpio who said "He was unarmed. Why did you shoot at him?"
"He killed my father, Mac." he yelped as he saw they were now glaring at him. "He killed him."
"You had no right, none." said Javier coldly as he came onto the scene. Looking at Mac he asked if the man was going to arrest the officer. Taggert took great pleasure in doing so.
Lucky was protesting his innocence the entire way to the station while Javier called his attorney and said "I want to know the best special prosecutor you know. I have a case here in Port Charles that is in need of one."
"Port Charles is corrupt but even more than that, the Mayor is usually playing both sides of the road. You need a local man, not an outsider. Avoid Lansing though, he is too high profile and too easily swayed by his vendetta against his brother."
Mac was on his way to his office when Taggert entered "What is going on?"
"Nothing, maybe. I just... I found this in Lucky's pocket." he said handing him the folded note. "It says I'm telling you why. SC."
"Okay. Why are you showing me this?" he asked.
"What if Spencer isn't so clear of that brainwashing. Look at this, maybe someone ordered him to do this." Taggert didn't think even Spencer was that stupid, but the note, well it made him wonder if Lucky was getting orders from a higher order.
Grimacing, Mac said "And this Miguel killing Luke, what are you saying that that was done on purpose?"
"I still have questions about the sudden rash of deaths connected to Port Charles."Taggert had wanted to tie it to Morgan and Corinthos, but Lansing had nothing to do with his son, Sonny had never gone after the Cassadine woman, and as for Tom, well the person who most would want her dead, yeah, Morgan might have done that one, but to the warden, it looked like a fight gone bad and he had no way of proving differently.
"Lansing isn't our case and they think that it might be a suicide, Tom died in prison and Helena, well I still think that Luke did that." replied Mac as he grabbed his keys. "I think we have a simple case of Lucky thinking that he could get away with killing the man who killed his father."
"He might, there are quite a few people who don't know the true history of Luke Spencer. All they know is the Cassadine feud and what started it." warned Taggert as the other man soon left for the day.
At home early the next morning, Elizabeth heard a knock on the door and saw Audrey standing outside. Opening it and sliding out so that the other woman didn't get to come in, she crossed her arms and asked "What are you doing here?"
"I came to babysit Cam. You need to go to the police station. Lucky needs you. That man killed Luke and then Mac had the nerve to arrest him." Audrey couldn't believe this, Lucky had killed this man in self defense and here was his own co workers prosecuting him.
Confused for a moment, Jason had told her last night what had happened, yet to listen to Audrey the case had nothing to do with that truth, Elizabeth said "Grams' I am sure that there is more to the story. I know that it was Lucky's fault he escaped today. Or did you not hear about poor Steven."
"You know very well that your brother hasn't spoken to me more than once since his return. And we both now whose fault that is." she snapped. Audrey still couldn't believe that Steven of all people was upset with her. Didn't he realize that Elizabeth's choices affected him too.
"Elizabeth, do you have a moment?" asked Mac as he came to a stop in his driveway. "Mrs. Hardy. How nice to see you."
"Why did you arrest poor Lucky for doing his job. Elizabeth and I think it is disgusting." she said sharply.
"Don't put me in the middle of this." said Elizabeth who asked Mac to come inside. "Grams I am sure that you want to rush right down and support Lucky. Well I wish you the best of luck but I am not going to the station."
Audrey's eyes narrowed as Elizabeth let in Mac Scorpio after keeping her out of her home. "Well we will see about that."
Fuming she drove off, never seeing the old man sitting in a nondescript three year old sedan making a note and saying "You are now on the naughty list. Keep it up, Mrs. Hardy and it will be for life."
Inside, Mac explained the situation to Elizabeth who had sank into the cushions on her sofa. "Taggert is seeing coincidences but oddly enough, I realized you might be able to offer some insight."
"Wait, Tom Baker is dead?" She was shocked to find that she was happy about that.
"Yes. I am sorry, I thought you were notified." he said awkwardly. "He died in August. A fight with another inmate."
"What I don't understand is what you think I could possibly know about it." Elizabeth wished she had answers for him, but she had no knowledge.
"I wanted to at least pick your brain, Taggert remembered recently about your faking you death back when Helena was around that year. You were like I said married to Lansing, you might have the best understanding of how his mind works and uh, I uh, Tom's death was a bit suspicious." he replied then went through his questions only to find she had never met Trevor Lansing.
"I guess Taggert is right, Luke finally took out the old bat." He stated even though something about that statement bothered him.
Reluctantly. Elizabeth said "No, that is one thing I am positive of. Luke has long enjoyed their battles to ever kill her. I would suspect Nik except that Emily said he was looking into her death himself. He suspected a Cassadine was behind the shooting."
"Thank you." Mac said and began to leave. Stopping he considered telling her he was well aware of her late night guest but decided who she was seeing was her business and hers alone.
The next day after having endured Audrey's visit, the conversation with Mac Scorpio and several calls from reporters asking her opinion of Lucky Spencer. Elizabeth was working at the hub when she realized that the circus had to be in town, why else were all the clowns and freaks descending on the hospital.
"Elizabeth, where is your brother?" asked Sonny annoyed to find out he hadn't been seen all day. Reaching out and stopping her hands from where she was now writing in a chart, he demanded an immediate answer.
Counting to ten, as she had just answered this question for Ric, she said "In Kristina's room with his patient."
When he had walked away, she glared at his back just as she heard Carly and Courtney coming off the elevator and cringed when she heard them demanding to see Sonny. "Try Kristina's room, but do so quietly, Carly this is a hospital."
Scoffing at her, Carly hightailed it to where her ex was talking to that annoying asshole of a blond doctor and pushed her way in front of him. "Sonny we need to speak to you."
"Not now." he snapped then glared at his ex-wife. "I am consulting with the doctor in regards to the child you forgot to tell me about."
"Well if you don't want to lose your other children, you had better damn well pay attention." she shrieked. "Social Services just showed up at Lorenzo and my home and are threatening to take Morgan and Michael away from me."
"What did you do now, Carly?" he asked furiously then looked at Steven and said "Where is Alexis?"
"I have no idea. When I came into Kristina's room this morning, she wasn't there." he stated then went back into spend time with his very young patient who didn't understand all the changes going on in her life and was frightened by all the loud voices.
Sonny was calling Jason when he had a thought. "Elizabeth have you seen Jason this morning?"
"He was in with Sam when I checked on her blood pressure." she said hiding her smirk at the answer. Jason had barely made it into the room when she had arrived. Seeing the frustrated expression on his face had made her day, they had been in the middle of a very happy morning, when his phone had rang and they had had to go to the hospital.
The gruesome threesome rushed towards the room only for Jason to exit it and look at them. "What is going on here? Why are the three of you yelling. As if Alexis trying to get Sam arrested isn't enough, now you three come shouting into her room."
"JASON, JASON, you have to do something, YOU JUST have to." said Courtney as she reached out and tried to cling to his arms while Carly was throwing herself into them as she burst into tears.
"What is going on?" he asked Sonny who looked equally pissed.
"Carly is in trouble with Social Service because of Morgan and Michael being over at Lorenzo's house. She has an interview with them and the boys do as well." he said handing over the paperwork then as what he said set in. "Wait, Alexis did what?"
"Sam is in her room, sedated because Alexis tried to have her arrested. Kelly Lee put a stop to it. Alexis tried to blackmail her with her past."
Swearing, Sonny glared at the door on the opposite end of the hallway and said"This has all the markings of Ric. I know he is behind this."
Jason didn't agree, but let it slide for now as he read the paperwork."Wait, Sonny, did you read this, yourself or just rely on Carly to tell you what it said?"
"Why?"he asked.
"Because according to this, all Carly has to do is relinquish custody to you. If she does that, no charges will be brought and she can have unlimited visitation as long as Lorenzo isn't around." he said tossing the paperwork back to his partner.
Sonny's eyes narrowed then he said "Carly I expect the boys suitcases to be packed and at my house by the time school is out. Leticia can bring the boys over when she is able to. Why did you react like this when there was such a simple solution."
"NO! I am not losing my boys." she cried out. She didn't understand, all she had done was file paperwork giving her sole custody of the boys, then all at once half of the government had descended on her house.
"There is an easy solution, divorce Alcazar." said Sonny then he walked away. "Just don't expect to find me waiting with open arms. We are done, you have betrayed me for the last time."
"I won't, I love Lorenzo." she said to him. Lorenzo who was listening through the bug, grimaced. Why oh why was this blond proving so hard to get rid of. He had to grin at the finally tuned paperwork Zachara had arranged, even the actual social services had it on file.
When he heard his wife digging in her heels about staying married to him, he decided to play his part and made arrangements for her to find Courtney naked in his bed. That was going to take some finessing as since the Port Charles fire, the blond had been playing lady bountiful with the blond Aussie.
Making a few calls, he grinned when he found out that the Aussie had taken what was offered and had moved on to a red headed attorney a few years older than him. "So, Ms. Matthews, now you will pay for your part in the mess."
Elizabeth entered Sam's room at the end of her shift and saw the teary eyed woman sitting up in her bed. "How are you feeling?"
Taking her stat's, she asked her if she needed anything. "Jaysin, have you seen Jaysin?" she asked now weeping. "I feel so all alone. He promised to see me through this, yet where is he?"
"Off fixing things." Elizabeth said. "That is what he does, Sam. You will soon learn that he will get this settled, so that you can have your baby in peace. Now, have you thought of what you want to name your little girl?"
"I have a few ideas." she said her mind cooking up a plan that got even more done when Emily popped in to see her. "Emily, please stay with me, until Jaysin comes back."
"I am sorry, Sam, I am on my ER rotation. I was just looking for Elizabeth." she said politely even as she was considering a rather wicked plan. Between weeping and sulking Lucky and whining and pouting Sam, she was more than ready to run away from home. She could only imagine how insane Sam was driving Jason, and how nutty Lucky had to have been making Elizabeth with their help.
While she was trying with Sam, for her brother's sake. The truth about the baby's parentage was now out and she had seen how Sonny was around Sam regarding the baby and knew that once again her brother was doing all the work for someone else to swoop in and claim the child. Well Jason deserved to be happy and so did Elizabeth.
"Me?"asked Elizabeth a bit worried. She had heard nothing from Emily since Lucky's arrest the night before.
"Yes. And no, it isn't about Lucky." she said with a laugh then moving closer said "I really, really need to speak to you."
Following her out the door, Elizabeth stood in a supply closet where Emily had dragged her. "What is going on?"
"I need some advise from someone who has been there. Courtney is hanging around Nik a lot. I mean a lot. I think she is going to be trouble." Emily had not believed it, but the day before she had seen Courtney, flirting pressing against Nik. He had come home the night before and told her about it, so Emily wasn't too worried but she had heard enough to know that the blond was going to be trouble.
"Don't trust her for a moment." she warned then asked about the other thing.
"Jax, uh, he asked me to meet him at his building site for the new hotel."she replied. "And he mentioned it was something about you."
"I have no idea." she said her eyes narrowed as she tried to figure out what was going on. "I have to go, Epiphany is going to be looking for me soon."
"Uh, I know that we agreed not to talk about Lucky but what about the funeral, are you going?" she asked.
"I promised Nik I would go, but... I just hate to say it, but I don't want to." said Emily a bit sheepishly. "I spoke to a few people, a lot of older PC residents are attending to honor Laura if no one else."
The door opened and Tony Jones stuck his head in and then apologized for interrupting them. "No, it is nothing."
"Elizabeth, I was looking for you. Dr. Marrucci said you did a great job for him yesterday. I am doing a stent tomorrow morning. It is a routine procedure and was hoping you would like to be second asst."
Elizabeth agreed with a grin then walked out with Emily who asked how much more training she had to go through. "At least eight weeks."
"If you ever need help with Cam, I would love to spend time with my godson." she offered. "I saw him with Georgie the other day at the mall. I heard she quit Kelly's."
"She has another job and sometimes takes Cam along with her when shopping for it." Elizabeth explained. "It has been a great help since Gram's is refusing to keep him."
Jason escaped a crying Carly, telling her to agree to the judge's orders as he left the Brownstone. Bobbie had not said a word the entire time they were there, but then Carly hadn't offered a single word of comfort to her mother in the loss of her brother.
Arriving at the penthouse, he met up with his people. "Is everything set up?"
"Yes, but we have a problem. Javier and Manny are in town to see that justice is done for Miguel. I have seen them meeting with Alcazar, with Zachara. Have they met with Sonny?"
Grimacing because there hadn't even been a courtesy call from the out of town mobsters, Jason got that the lack of respect was going to be an issue as soon as it occurred to Sonny.
"Who are they bringing in for Spencer?" he asked.
"Old timer. Mitch Williams, he was a former State Legislator." And someone that Frank Smith once had a file on through Jason who knew that Luke might have known when he recalled seeing Tracy's name in the file.
"Thanks. Go back to your assignments."
"Sir, we might have another problem, regarding Ms. Webber." said the other man. "The girl she has babysitting Cameron, she has a tail."
"A cop?" he asked, worried that there had been a threat against her from Lucky. Mac had been keeping a close eye on his daughters after the incident on the Haunted Star.
"No, John Zachara or his second in command." Jason didn't like that at all as he decided to use business as a way to speak to the mobster about it. Making a call he said "Alcazar has had contact with Zachara. I have someone I need to speak to about it."
"I need you here." snapped Sonny who then saw Lorenzo talking to his ex-wife and thought about his sons. "No, wait, go ahead. Do what you need to do."
He had intended to anyhow, but he let go Sonny's words and went to make the long drive to Crimson Point fro m the other side of Port Charles. Pulling off towards the estate he saw the bright yellow Barracuda he knew the kid drove and did a u-turn to follow him.
Flashing his lights, he took the safety off his gun and stopped at the side of the road. "What the hell? What are you doing Morgan?"
"I want to know why you are following Georgie Jones?" he snapped.
John looked over the blond mobster, he had thought he was into brunettes, more specifically the brunette he had seen Georgie Jones speaking to several times and finally said "I am trying to find out her connection to North Pole Enterprises."
"Have you tried asking her and why are you so interested?" he asked his eyes narrowing. He didn't want this man anywhere near his son, Johnny had a reputation of being pretty sharp and he didn't want him finding anything out until they were ready to make an announcement.
"No and none of your business." he snapped while Jason took in the flushing face and the way the younger mans hand clenched up and came up with a totally different answer than he had been expecting during his drive out there.
"Fine, but what are you doing with Alcazar?" he asked. "Your not into running guns or drugs."
"We bought some property from Alcazar." he replied. "You should know, we also have gotten the rights to the Ruiz shipping lanes through the straits."
Jason knew that that wasn't going to go over very well with Sonny who had been coveting those straits for years. "Stay out of Port Charles."
"I am not there for business." he replied not telling the other man he was dealing with his now suddenly secretive father, his attraction to whatever Georgie Jones and wanted to know who she was to his father and that Trevor had taken the family legitimate pretty much. He didn't want that known until all his cards were in place.
Both men left, not knowing that Manny Ruiz had been listening in. Going to his father he said "I have a way to get Morgan to help us with Spencer if Corinthos doesn't play ball and you were right, Trevor screwed the Zacharas over good."
"I wonder if the old man knows." he said with a calculating look on his face. "What about Spencer?"
"He is being allowed to attend his old man's funeral and he is awfully chipper for a man facing murder charges." he replied.
"Don't kill him, I want it done in prison." replied Javier knowing that his son would like to personally take out the former cop. "I want you to give that prosecutor every possible bit of help we can in regards to Spencer and his loose screw ways. I want to take him down, then I want him dead."
At the North Pole Enterprises, Anthony was flipping through a catalog when he heard the familiar voice in his head. "Are you sure?"
"Then, Okay, I will do that. Wait, what if you are wrong?" With that, he picked up the phone and began to make calls. A banker in Switzerland was in shock as he began to once again place the requests of his client in their correct spot.
"Gavenu, what is going on with this account, it has lost almost a billion dollars in the last three months?" asked his boss as he entered the plush office.
"My client has been making purchases, huge purchases with it. I checked, he is who he says he is."
"Oh well, at least it is only one of his accounts." said the man leaving. Client Serial Number NYUS 25145 had several billion dollar accounts with that particular bank known for its secrecy so he would pay attention and make sure nothing went wrong with his requests.
Back going through the catalogs, Anthony was asking what to get for their elf. Getting no answer, he said "You can't leave this to me, Maria, you know that I am a terrible gift giver."
TBC
A/N: This is setting up the Sam giving birth chapter, To those reading and reviewing, thanks. I am glad you like the story. And as for AZ aka Santa Claus, well he is having a blast spending all sorts of money, but there is a method to his madness.