Do not own General Hospital or any of the characters.

Warning, this will be a short chapter!

The Flame of Franco

Wedding Crashers...

"So you think this is where Franco has Sam? Queen of Angels?" asked Lucky towards Jason. The detective had arrived back quickly to the Penthouse as soon as Jason had phoned him. He had also come with Dante. Lucky had been informing Dante about everything that Jason had told him earlier about Sam's kidnapping when Jason had phoned him.

"Where else would he have her?" snapped Jason as he paced in front of the fire place. Lucky had just come back and was looking at both the invitation and the photo.

"But the church is a very public place to be hiding someone. Why wouldn't have anyone seen her. People go to the church all the time to pray and such," spoke Lucky as he shook his head. It didn't seem to make any sense why Franco would kidnap Sam and hide her in the church.

"Queen of Angels is closed at the moment," replied Dante, he had been with Lucky when Jason had called and had come too. "It's been closed for months now. It had flooding during the spring." Dante knew this for a fact because him and his mother were frequent worshipers at Queen of Angels. Every Sunday. They had moved mass to another church in town for the time being.

Lucky and Jason both looked on at the detective with interest at this bit of information. This made sense now as to why Franco or how Franco was able to hide Sam in a church without anyone seeing her or anything.

"Okay, so if this is where Franco is hiding out Sam. What's going to happen, we are just going to barge in?" asked Dante looking from Lucky to Jason and back. He hated how he was working once again with the mobster. But he wanted to finally capture Franco and put the psycho behind bars. And Jason was the only way they would be able to.

"Well, this invitation is dated for tomorrow at three. So maybe he doesn't even have Sam there at the moment and we have to wait until tomorrow for this wedding or whatever it is," explained Lucky as he continued to look down at the invite. This was messed up he thought to himself. Franco was really a piece of work. Who kidnapped a woman and made up a fake wedding just to get someone attention, like Franco was to get Jason's.

Jason didn't know what to say at this. A part of him wanted to storm into the church guns blazing at the very moment. But he knew that Lucky had a point. Franco might not even be there. It was better to wait another long 24 hours until he made an appearance.

"Shouldn't we have at least someone go and check out the place, just in case. Franco is a dangerous guy. It's better to get Sam now if we know where Franco has her, instead of waiting around," explained Dante. He didn't care about Franco's agenda with Jason. He cared more about doing his job and rescuing a poor woman from a dangerous man.

Jason looked over at the detective at this. He was surprised to hear Dante thinking logically at this. That he cared about rescuing Sam. But he knew he was just doing his job. He then looked over at Lucky to see what he thought about this. Jason knew how Franco's mind worked, or more like he had a good sense of what the artist thought. If Franco wanted to meet face to face on a certain date and time then he wouldn't be too happy if he showed up sooner then that set date.

Lucky shrugged his shoulders at this. "It wouldn't hurt I guess to do a drive by and check the place out, just in case. When it comes down to it, this is about saving Sam. And by this picture," he then gestured to the photo of Sam in a wedding dress, "It shows that Franco is up to his old tricks with her. He already hurt her once, I don't want to see it happen again. 24 hours is a long time to wait and he could do anything between now and when we have to meet him." Lucky then looked over to Jason and met his eye, "Are you coming?"

Jason desperately wanted to go with them and find Sam himself. But he knew Franco would be upset with him if he made an appearance before the time he was told to. It was too risky. But he also wasn't one for just sitting around while someone he loves is in danger. He nodded his head in reply. He would take the risk. For he wanted to be the one to save Sam and kill Franco. He had let Sam down before, he didn't want to let her down this time.

She deserved better.

"Well at least we know where her car is," pointed out Lucky as the three men pulled up in front of the church. The detective was pointing across the street to where Sam's vehicle was parked.

The street surrounding the church was surprisingly quiet for the time of day.

"Man, Franco seems to want to get caught or something this time. Doesn't he?" spoke Dante as he opened the passenger door and got out. "Leaving the victims car right in front of where he is supposing keeping her. It couldn't be more obvious."

"He is making it obvious because he knew this wouldn't be the first place I would look. He knew I would go to California, thinking that he would show is face there," replied Jason dryly to the detective as he got out of the backseat of the SUV.

No one spoke another word as they began to walk to towards the doors of the church. All three men had their weapons drawn and at the ready. They stopped short a few feet away though to make a plan.

"So Lucky, I think you and Jason should go into the church while I'll do a walk around the exterior," spoke Dante as he held his gun at this side and pointed to the ground. His brown eyes studied Lucky's face before glancing over at Jason.

Both men nodded their head in agreement. It sounded good to them. However before any body could do anything the sound of a gun going off filled the air. It had come from inside the church.

"Was that what I think it was?!" asked Lucky in confusion. He had not been expecting that. However, no body answered him as all three men turned their attention towards the doors and began to quickly make their way inside the building, weapons drawn.

"POLICE! DROP YOUR WEAPON!" cried out both Lucky and Dante at the same time as they stormed into the abandoned church, followed close by Jason. The gunshots had stopped as the three men stormed into narthex of the church and headed towards the main body of it.

Pushing open the doors, all three moved into the aisle. "DROP YOUR WEAPON AND PUT YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR WHERE I CAN SEE THEM!" cried Dante.

All three men froze though at the sight that lay before them at the altar of the church. Sam, who was dressed in a wedding dress covered in blood was standing over Franco's body. There was a gun in her hand.

Sam looked just as shocked as all three of them did as she fixed her attention onto them. Her hands were shaking as she suddenly let the gun go from her grasp. It fell to the marble floor. A loud thumping noising ringing off the walls of the church as it bounced slightly. She was biting down on her lower lip as she raised her hands above her head. Tears were streaming down her face as she looked passed Dante and Lucky, and locked eyes with Jason.

I'm afraid this is where I am ending this chapter! I know, cliff hanger! More will be coming soon though! Thanks for reading and please review!

Julie