Hi all thank you again for the reviews! You guys are wonderful. Hope you enjoy. So…the bad guys…I wasn't actually meaning for it to be them but then my muse had a ton of ideas and whatnot and who am I to argue, although, I did get one point in, making it who she did, I mentioned an additional bad guy was needed because one, or both of the 'bad guys' was probably a little obvious in some ways. She acquiesced, begrudgingly.
Chapter Thirty-One
Elizabeth wasn't overly comfortable with Enzo, but with all the people she did trust back at the Towers, preparing to go through her sketches, she didn't have much of a choice. Logically she knew that the 'best' men were needed to go through that stuff but being out and about with someone she wasn't sure of, left her feeling very exposed.
"I'm sorry." Enzo said.
"Trust me, I don't hold this against you, I just don't…know you. If the doc wouldn't have called, we wouldn't be out here. Or…well, I don't really know, it is rather weird, I was scheduled to go in the day after tomorrow, but the doc just wouldn't listen, saying it was 'oh so important' to come in today." Elizabeth said with a frown marring her features.
"Is there anything you want to know, that might help put you at ease?" Enzo asked. Remembering to keep at least two feet of distance and keeping his rather boisterous voice soft.
Elizabeth thought about it for a while, keeping her pace slow. Her hip felt oddly sore this morning and she didn't want to do anything to aggravate it. "How long have you worked for Sonny?"
"I've been in the employ of Corinthos/Morgan for five years. Actually it was Jason who found me, I was down at this dive bar called Jakes and getting myself into more than a little trouble and just before this big – I mean Hulk big – biker could flatten me into an unfortunate pancake, in walks Jason, catching this ginormous fist coming straight towards my face, like…I swear, it looked like Jason was merely swatting a fly." Enzo said, a little of his hero worship bleeding into his voice. "One minute I am thinking I didn't go to nearly enough Sunday services, nor confessed enough of my sins and the next, Hulk is laid out like the pancake I was going to be, honestly, it was a thing of beauty. Of course, my lack of prowess somehow inspired this sprite of a woman to strike up a conversation, saying until that moment, she didn't think I had a softer side, in her words, I finally showed myself as a man…within six weeks, I was married and four weeks later, I was expecting my first child." It still confused the hell out of him but he wasn't dumb enough to question one of the best things to happen to him.
"You know, you big strong men…you all have this marshmallow side, it is rather endearing. If I hadn't seen how you guys act when not on the job, since I've never seen you work, I'd never believe it. You know pop culture and this day and age…" Elizabeth said with a quirk of her eyebrow, showing she was mocking herself. "It just shows that you made men are supposed to be tough as nails, like to gargle glass with you beer and like your women easy…Honestly, I owe all of you a huge apology for stereotyping you before even knowing you."
Enzo's laugh was deep and genuine. "Listen here girly, you aren't the only one who succumbs to stereotyping. You look like a soft wind could blow you over but here you are, standing strong after all the shit life has thrown at you. Strength and integrity are not something someone just has, it is cultivated. And honestly, more often than not, people who have had a hard life rarely rise above it, instead, most decided to dwell in the refuse, whining that life isn't fair, instead of realizing anything worth having, needs to be worked for. Without all the sorrow in your life, do you honestly think you would have seen the goodness in a bunch of 'thugs'?"
"You may have a point." Elizabeth said solemnly, "But I would have much preferred to learn that goodness isn't a given and evil people can be anyone. I guess…I just wish I didn't have to discover so much bad before finding the good…" Elizabeth was cut off when Enzo stepped right into her space, trying to shove her behind his body as two men walked towards them. A scream was building in the back of her throat but before she had a chance to let loose, someone behind her slammed the hard corner of a gun she briefly thought into the soft part of her temple. She wilted like a marionette with cut strings.
The last thing she saw was a vibrant red blooming on Enzo's grey t-shirt.
XxXxXxX
Sonny had flipped through the photos after Elizabeth had dropped them off, wanting to not be caught off guard if he could help it. With his issues, being caught off guard was never a good thing.
He had arranged the photos in a haphazard way, no one but Jason would probably figure out why but he wasn't a shrewd businessman because he always thought within the box, thinking outside of it, had saved his ass too many times to count, so he wouldn't be changing now.
As his office began to fill, Sonny prayed that some, if not all of their questions had answers. He was a man of action, sitting back and waiting for shit to happen, just didn't sit right with him.
Realizing Jason was trying to talk to him; Sonny closed the file and turned his attention to the enforcer. "Sorry about that…everything okay?"
"Yes…well, no but I don't…fuck…it's like…you know." Jason said disjointedly.
Sonny almost smiled, it was nice seeing his unflappable enforcer…flappable. "No, not really but I think you are of the mind that no one could take better care of her than you because no one could possible care about her as much, so being stuck looking at sketches, which you can't even really see thanks to your accident, I am sure you'd much prefer to be with Elizabeth, perhaps wooing her a little more, especially while her father isn't around."
Jason's blush was instantaneous; he could feel the heat of the blush even though he normally didn't feel temperature changes unless they were drastic…Oh what that woman did to him, for him… "Sonny…" Jason said, trying to inject his lethal tone into it and realizing he sounded like a pouting three year old more than anything.
Before either man could continue, thankfully, Francis, Johnny and Marco didn't offer any comments; instead, Jason thought bitterly, they were probably stockpiling those little nuggets for the most inopportune time, Mac and Epiphany walked into the room.
"Thank you for coming so quickly." Sonny said. "If Elizabeth wouldn't have finished these so fast, we wouldn't be here but I didn't want to take any chances with her life. I have thirteen sketches, for those of you unaware, I'll have to explain them to Jason but this should be a fairly quick process and perhaps, we will finally know who is after her. Does anyone need something to drink?"
After a chorus of no's and no thank you's Sonny grabbed the first sketch. "I looked through the photos, I don't know all the people but I hope you will be able to help me out if you can. Elizabeth jotted down what she could remember at the time of her last sight of these people or if she saw them more than once, whatever she could recall.
"Wait a minute…that's Jasper Jacks…" Mac said, worry evident in his voice.
"I am aware and honestly, I can't think of a single logical reason why that man had any contact with Elizabeth. He and the Webber's don't run in the same circles, so it makes me wonder Mac, if your thoughts about this having to do with your past, aren't in fact true." Sonny said.
"It is looking more and more like that, isn't it?" Mac said angrily.
The next three pictures were shown and described but no one had any clue.
"The one woman looks vaguely familiar but I have treated so many people, I could just be juxtaposing that person with this one." Epiphany said.
On the next sketch Mac rocked to his feet, his hands clenched tightly into fists. "It's not possible!" Mac shouted.
"What isn't?" Sonny asked in a poorly faked calm voice.
"That's Dominique but she's older, by a couple years at least. It isn't possible…" Mac trailed off, the anger and fear that had gripped him, quickly ebbing as he fell back into his seat. "This is all my fault."
"We don't know that. All we know is that Elizabeth drew her, it could be some latent memory or she saw a picture or something and just drew her…" Sonny offered, realizing how lame his reasoning was but trying nonetheless.
Mac wanted to roll his eyes but he couldn't fight that little glimmer of hope. He'd made a lot of mistakes in his past but he wasn't sure that this would be something either of them could come back from.
As the thirteenth sketch was revealed, the deeper the anger and fear had seeped into them all.
"So…we have Jasper Jacks, Jerry Jacks, possibly Dominique Sutton and then we have two men who seem familiar but we can't know for sure and two women who look familiar…" Sonny's voice trailed off when not one but five phones began to ring.
"That's never a good sign…" Epiphany said while grasping tighter to Francis' hand.
Varying looks of dread settled quickly over the group.
"Enzo…" "Elizabeth…" "Missing…" "Hospital…" "Gunmen…" Were said in wavering tones of anger and increasing fear.
"FUCK!" Jason screamed before launching himself out of his chair and the room almost simultaneously.
The others were a little slower on the uptake but they all shuddered as the penthouse door slammed with such force, they all heard the crack reverberate throughout.
XxXxXxX
"Wakey wakey little lamb!" Jerry said in a singsong voice.
When that didn't work, he snapped the smelling salt and roughly shoved it beneath her nose. Her hands shoved at the offending smell before she dizzily sat up, blearily looking around.
"Well…isn't this just a wonderful meeting." Jasper said, his voice inflicted with so much vehemence Elizabeth could do nothing but try to push herself further into the wall.
"What…what do you want…who are you?" Elizabeth squeaked out.
"You of course!" Jerry offered, running his index finger down over her face and into the top of her shirt.
"You won't get away with…" Elizabeth started to say but fell quickly back into unconsciousness when Jasper's tightly closed fist struck her in the same spot the gun had.
"Now…why would you go and do something like that? I just got her up." Jerry said, the pout standing stark on his face.
"Because, she needs to die!" Jasper shouted.
XxXxXxX
