Julian and Alexis turned around just as they had come close to exiting the hedge maze close to the front entrance of the estate. Oh god, she couldn't believe the man standing in front of her. He brought out some homicidal instincts she thought she'd buried.

"Where are you going," the man asked, "Why's he here?"

Alexis smiled gritting her teeth.

"I needed to get some fresh air Franco," she said, "He's here to wish me well before the wedding."

Julian looked over at the man with the lean build who looked like he'd been hitting the wet bar before most of the guests arrived.

She turned to look over at Julian.

"That's Franco, as you know," she said, "He's here for the wedding. For the record I did not invite him."

Yeah, Julian thought he knew the man and he made sure his hand was nowhere near his gun. He had no use for the man who'd terrorized his daughter either.

"Franco…," Julian said, "We'll be back in about 10 minutes."

Franco folded his arms and then Julian could see the guy really was a bit plastered.

"Does Shawn know you left the house?"

Alexis sighed.

"I don't need his permission to do anything," she said, "The room got stuffy and I wanted to go take a short walk…but you know how Shawn would like me to be congratulated by well-wishers."

Franco nodded but still looked skeptical.

"Maybe I should find him."

Alexis shrugged.

"Maybe you should do that," she said, "but he's busy now wrapping up business before our wedding and honeymoon and he won't want to be disturbed."

Franco thought about that and finally nodded back.

"Okay…but don't be gone too long or the wedding won't start on time."

He walked away and Julian and Alexis headed towards the gate. It looked like it had been left unattended for a while and Julian decided to take full advantage of that. They walked through and then headed up the road towards where he parked his Porsche.

"Halt…where you going?"

They looked behind them and saw a group of men dressed in tuxes walking behind them. Julian looked at Alexis.

"I think this is where we pick up the pace," he said.

She nodded and they both took off at a run, towards the bend where just beyond it would be their getaway vehicle. Hell, it wasn't the first time he had been in this position. Okay, maybe it hadn't been fleeing a wedding but other equally difficult situations and it all amounted to the same thing.

"Hey come back here," the men said.

Julian looked over at them and realized he had a decision to make. He stopped, grabbed Alexis and then pulled her against him.

"What are you doing?"

Julian whispered.

"Play along…"

He pulled out his gun and pressed it against her side then he turned around to face the men.

"One step closer and I'll blow her head off," Julian yelled, pressing the gun harder against her side.

The men backed up a few steps.

"That's better," Julian said, stepping backward with Alexis towards the Porsche, "I'm taking off with her and when I'm ready to collect a ransom, I'll give your boss a call."

"You wouldn't dare," one of them said, "He'll smoke your ass."

Julian didn't look impressed.

"He'll have to find me first," he said, "and he tries to pull anything, the woman's dead."

The men stood there frozen as if they couldn't believe the sight in front of them. As if they couldn't believe that anyone would challenge the Big Five Families including one of their best hired hit men, Shawn.

"I'll keep in touch," Julian said, as he and Alexis headed towards the Porsche.

Once the men left, they headed towards the car quickly and got inside, before turning around to head back down the mountain past the estate's front gate.

"You might want to duck in case they start shooting," Julian said.

She looked over at him.

"What about you?"

"I got to keep driving…"

Julian revved up the car and they drove faster past the estate and weren't too surprised to see a car jet out of the gate following them down the mountain road. Then quickly after that, gun shots ringing out including one that dinged of the fender.

"Damn they're shooting at us," Alexis said, trying to drop out of range.

She looked over at Julian who slouched lower but focused on getting them down into highway in one piece. But the shots continued and one whizzed by Julian's head.

"I'm going to have to speed up," he said, "Hold on!"

The car sped up even faster, the frame straining under the demands from the acceleration but they pulled slowly away from the pursuing car. Julian made the most of the opportunity by catching the turn onto the coastline highway and then losing himself in traffic. He wove in and out of the lanes as drivers honked at him in indignation but the distance between them and the car behind them lengthened further. They pulled abruptly off into a side street and the car sped past unaware.

"That was close," Alexis said as Julian stopped the car before heading further down the side street to another which would lead them back to the highway some distance further.

"We'd better find some place to lie low," he said, "Those men will be back."

She just looked at him.

"What was that back there," she said, "Why did you do that?"

Julian sighed.

"So that he doesn't suspect that you were leaving freely," Julian said, "So he'll focus his anger on me."

She slapped his arm lightly.

"Why did you think I needed you to protect me?"

Julian looked directly at her.

"Because he's a dangerous man Alexis and I don't want you to get hurt."

She shook her head at him.

"I'm the one who got myself in this situation," she said, "It's my responsibility…besides what gives you the right to say that, considering you're a capo quite a few steps and executions above an enforcer."

Julian drove until they reached a small diner and parked in the back.

"Where are we," she asked.

"I've got someone meeting us," he explained, "They might be able to help us but we've got some time to kill."

She studied the man next to her, the ruthless mobster, and the man who'd discovered he had a family, but today she had seen a different side of him. He knew his way behind the wheel of a car.

And then she noticed something else.

"Julian…you're bleeding…"

He looked over at his shirt sleeve which had been dampened by blood.

"It's just a graze…"

They pulled into the parking lot and she moved over when he stopped the car and rolled up his sleeve. The wound seeped blood but didn't look bad. It needed to be cleaned up.

"Do you have a first aid kit inside here?"

Julian nodded.

"In the glove compartment…came with the car."

She pulled it out and opened the kit, looking down at the contents. She perused them and then grabbed some gauze and some tape and some antiseptic. She poured some of the medicine on the gauze and gingerly tried to clean it up.

"Ouch Alexis …what do you got there battery acid?"

"Yeah, now will you sit still a minute," she said, patting the blood off of what looked like an abrasion.

"I will if you put that medicine away," he said, "It's just a scratch."

"I know, but I don't want it to get infected. My daughter might not forgive me."

She took some gauze and taped it to his arm over the wound and then gently rolled his sleeve down for him.

"That's much better isn't it?"

He smiled at her and touched her upper arm.

"Yeah…much better…now let's get inside okay?"

The two of them went inside the diner to plan their next move now that they had a pack of heavy hitters out there looking for them.

Julian and Alexis ate the hamburger platters that the cook prepared for them, with wedge cut fries and milk shakes. Alexis found herself famished and the food quite tasty as did Julian and their hosts were gracious.

"What are we going to do now," Alexis said, "We can't head back to PC. If Shawn really believes you kidnapped me, he'll send his men there first."

"I know…I think we should head to Crystal Cove not far from here," he said, "A friend of mine has a place there and there's no way to connect him to us. We just have to make sure we don't get followed."

She nodded.

"But what you did, Shawn's not going to let it go."

"I don't want him to," Julian said, "But it's not going to get him anywhere. Besides, the feds have the goods on the Big Five and they'll be going down soon and that might include Shawn…and Sonny."

She frowned at him.

"What about you?"

He shrugged.

"When they found out Sonny's behind the hit at that party…I think that'll attract their focus…and they'll forget me for a while."

She looked puzzled.

"What?"

He slipped an envelope that he'd brought from the car.

"I found this in the closet Alexis…take a look…"

She grabbed it and opened it. She blinked and put a hand over her mouth, staring at two photos.

"Oh my god…it was him…but why? His own son was there and…my daughter…"

"I don't know. I don't know who ordered it since he's an independent contractor."

She sat there processing it, feeling suddenly ice cold.

He nodded.

"The recon we did was successful. I owe the man I hired a large check."

She rubbed the bridge of her noise.

"Was I ever going to know about this," she said, "I was just about to walk down the aisle with this guy…the one who nearly took my child from me."

"I'm not totally blameless for that," he said, "I sent my man…Carlos you know him out to take Shawn out…but to the waterfront. He followed Shawn back to Kelly's and that's when he saw an opportunity…only it appeared that Shawn had other plans."

She remained confused.

"So who was the hit then? It wasn't the kids so who was it?"

He sighed, finishing his burger.

"Someone you might know…who's set to meet with us."

She finished off her french-fries.

"I guess I had been pretty busy too much so to pay any attention," she said, "It happened so fast, I didn't even know what it was about him, I guess the promises he made that he'd quit the mob and god, he was great looking…I guess you don't want to hear that part."

Julian sipped his drink.

"But to marry him…that doesn't sound like you."

Irritation filled her at his certainty that he knew everything about her.

"Maybe you don't know everything about me. Two marriages, two divorces."

"I know enough to know that you don't usually run off and get married to men you barely know."

Alexis sipped her shake.

"No, not usually…but we were going out for six months so he wasn't a stranger."

"Why did you do it..?"

Alexis remained quiet for a moment.

"He swept me off my feet, no not the way you think. He said a lot of things and I guess I believed him," she said, "He seemed so much different than he had been before but I really should have known better."

Julian wanted to tell her it wasn't her fault but knew she had to figure that out herself. Besides he had to figure out what to do next.

"We'd better head to my friends' place," Julian said, "before it gets dark."

"Do you think they're still out there driving around?"

They got up after paying their tab and headed to the car out in the lot.

"They're probably back at the estate coming up with a plan to look for us," Julian said.

"Okay…then I guess we'd better get going," she said, as they both got in the Porsche and headed to the house.

Julian parked his car in back of the house which had the ocean a hundred yards from its back door. The house itself was nicely furnished inside with a couple of bedrooms and a spacious kitchen, not to mention a back deck.

Alexis collapsed on the couch while Julian looked around the house.

"This place is nice," she said, "Where's your friends?"

"They're out of the country," he said, "They won't be back for a few months. I called them and asked them if I could stay for a little while."

Her brow arched.

"Before or after that stunt you pulled at the estate?"

"Before…I thought you might want a place to think for a while."

She glanced at him, surprised.

"Why would I need that…I don't need to sit around figuring out what I did wrong," she said, "I just need to move on."

"You can do that with Shawn?"

Alexis looked at him and nodded.

"I can't stay with him if he's a hired killer and I don't know how to confront him with that kind of information. I've got my family to think of…he's endangered them enough. He's lucky to be allowed to live and that might change."

She didn't look like she was kidding.

Julian watched as she got up and walked into the kitchen to look in the refrigerator.

"They left some beers," she said, "Want one?"

Julian nodded and she brought back two, tossing him one.

"They've got some clothes if you need any," he said, "in one of the bedrooms."

She sat on the couch opposite from the chair he occupied.

"How long are we saying here?"

Julian leaned back in his chair with his beer.

"How long do you want to stay," he said, "We can't go back to PC while the feds are camped there and we'll have to lie low for a while."

She sighed.

"Okay well I guess that will work…as long as they don't find us."

Julian reached for his cell phone.

"We're going to have to call Sam and Nikolas and tell them both to lie low in case they go after them."

Alexis hoped that it wouldn't come to that but she knew those two of her family members could take care of themselves especially with advance notice. Molly had flown to L.A. to stay with Ric for a while and he grumbled something about whether it was safe for her to stay in PC.

They finished their calls and he looked up to see Alexis looking at him.

"At least that's taken care of," she said, "Now we can figure out what to do here."

And so they sat down together to do just that.