CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE

Friends and Foes

Sonny was back in his warehouse offices when there came a knock on the door.

He called out permission to come in. Johnny opened the door and announced Roy

DiLucca's arrival. Sonny nodded. He'd had Roy sent for shortly after leaving

Carly's office. He nodded to a seat. DiLucca shook his head, preferring to

stand.

Sonny shrugged. Whatever. He sat back and regarded the man before him

with a cool eye. The thought that this man had caused his wife to take action

behind his back could easily send him into a rage. He shook his head

slightly, repressing his anger for now. In contrast to how he felt inside,

his voice was cool and almost absent of any emotion at all. Sonny got

straight to the point. "I'd prefer it if you don't see Carly anymore."

"So now you're going to control who has access to her or not?" Sonny felt the

man studying him, trying unsuccessfully to gauge his mood. He gave off

nothing for a moment, taking the time to study Roy as well.

"Against people that might be a danger to her, I'll always protect my wife."

He said.

"I'm no danger to Carly." Roy replied. "And I would never put her into a

position where she would be."

"That's nice to hear, Roy, but you'll forgive me if I don't just take your

word for it."

"Why not, Sonny? In your world, isn't a man's word his honor?"

"That's just it, Roy…you have no honor. Your livelihood is based on you

having no honor."

"That's in the past." Roy snapped.

"Is it? Well, I can't take that chance, DiLucca." Sonny snarled, the menace

in his voice open and unmistakable. He had very little respect for a man who

lived his life selling his word. "My wife is misguided sometimes in her love

for me. Someone could take advantage of that."

"And you think that someone might be me?"

"I won't take that chance either way. Now, I'm asking you nicely, this time,

that you not discuss anything of a nature that might concern my business with

my wife. Don't think that your past association with Carly's mother will save

you if you cause harm to my family."

"I never said I had." Roy said. He tensed. He wasn't afraid of Sonny. Not

really. But cautious. But common sense told him that if Sonny had meant to do

him harm, it would have been done already. "And I don't use or hide behind

women."

"Then we understand each other. If it never happened, then let's make sure

that it never does." Sonny sat back down in his chair. "Meeting's over Roy."

The other man recognized a dismissal when he heard one. He tensed in anger at

the cold way that Sonny treated him but left the office without another word.

***

Jason opened the door to Jake's, the note that had brought him here tucked

safely in his jacket pocket. As he walked in, his eyes swept the room, but he

didn't see the familiar face he was looking for. One of the bartenders saw

him and called him over.

"You've got company upstairs." He said with a grin. "Dark eyes, dark hair and

very very pretty. I don't know her name, but I've seen you in here with her

more than once, so I figured it would be okay to let her into your room."

Jason nodded and headed for the stairs, a small smile on his face. All the

note had had was a time and a place, but it was just like Eliana to come up

with a surprise like this. She'd gotten into the habit of surprising him with

things like this, unplanned picnics on the living room floor, and then there

was the incident with the limo and lunchtime… that memory still had the

ability to make him smile inside. He was finding out for the first time as

Jason Morgan what it was to have someone simply love him, with no other

agenda but that. No scheming, no plans, no manipulations, subtle or otherwise.

Jason opened the door and stared.

She'd tried to set a romantic mood. Scented candles were scattered around the

room, and flowers were every where…including rose petals strewn across the

floor, leading a trail to the bed, where she lay, wrapped seductively in the

sheets; a black negligee contrasting against her pearly skin. Jason found the

room cloying and the perfume of the candles and flowers together,

overpowering. He walked to the window and opened it, trying to get some fresh

air into the room.

He walked back over to the bed to look down on her. "What are you doing,

Elizabeth?"

She reached out for his hand and pulled him down to sit on the edge of the

bed. "Waiting for you, Jason. Didn't you get my note?" she smiled at him.

After all the work she'd gone through, and the way she'd fixed the room and

her hair…she knew he liked her with her hair pinned up. He'd told her that

often enough, how she looked so pretty with her hair piled on top of her head

like some princess in the fairy tales that he read to Michael.

With Eliana out of the way, she could talk to Jason. Everything between them

was just one great big misunderstanding. Without her there to cloud his

judgment, Jason would see the truth about her.

She waited to see the desire in his eyes, but her smile faltered as nothing

changed in them as he looked at her.

Elizabeth let her hand leave his, to curl around the back of his neck and she

tried to bring his lips to hers. But she was surprised when he grabbed her

wrist with one hand and moved it away from him.

"Your note?" Jason's eyes went colder than she had ever seen them when he

looked at her. "Get dressed, Elizabeth. Nothing is going to happen." Before

she could say a single word, he turned and walked out the room.

Alone in the room, Elizabeth jerked her clothes back on in a blur of unshed

tears and hot-faced embarrassment. She hadn't counted on this. The last thing

she had expected was for Jason to turn away from her without a even a second

glance. It seemed to take forever to get her clothes situated right. She

kept seeing Jason's icy expression as he looked at her. She stumbled out of

the room and somehow made it down the stairs.

At the bottom of the stairs, she looked out into the crowded bar. Jason was

at the bar counter, a bottle of beer at his elbow. She'd embarrassed herself

enough. All she wanted to do was get out now, before he saw her. She kept her

head down and tried making her way through the noisy crowd. She made it out

to the parking lot before Jason caught up to her.

He pulled her around to face her. "You shouldn't be out here by yourself.

What are you doing here anyway?"

Elizabeth had a moment's hope when he came after her, but it quickly died as

she looked up into his face. But something in her made her try. "I just

wanted to - show you how much I care to you. I wanted to show you how I feel

about you." She tried another tack, one that had always worked in the past.

She let the tears come up to shine in her eyes, and allowed the tiniest

tremble to shake her voice. "I'm sorry, Jason. Can you forgive me?"

He looked at her for a long moment. "You didn't do anything to hurt me,

Elizabeth. There's nothing for me to forgive you for."

Elizabeth let a small smile curve the corners of her mouth. "I'm glad,

Jason." She said. So much for him being finished with her, no matter what

Eliana had said. She reached out and took his hand and lifted it to cradle

her cheek against it. "Are we still friends?"

"I'll always be your friend." Jason said. "But…" And Elizabeth was dismayed

when he took his hand from her face and took a small step back from her.

"Elizabeth, you have got to understand. As far as anything else goes, I'm

finished with that. Nothing is ever going to happen between us." He shook his

head.

"I always thought that …someday…I wanted so much more for us…" she said

brokenly.

"I don't feel that way about you. Not anymore."

"Tha-that way?" Elizabeth stammered. Her heart was beating so hard she felt

it was about to leap out of her chest. "Not anymore?"

Jason put both hands on her shoulders. "You knew that I felt more than just

friendship for you. You let me think that I...that we had a chance to be

something more."

She opened her mouth to speak, to say anything to stop him. It couldn't be

over, it hadn't even begun. But Jason kept on talking. "You didn't think that

you could have us both? Me and Lucky?"

That sounded too much like what Eliana had said to her. He had it all wrong.

Elizabeth struggled to explain. It wasn't his fault, or hers. But Jason

didn't want to listen. "I'll take you home." he told her, motioning to his

motorcycle. "This isn't the safest neighborhood for you to be in. You should

have never come down here. There's no need for you to keep coming down here.

You can't keep running to me every time you and your boyfriend hit a bump in

the road."

When they arrived back to her building, Liz got off the bike, then tried to

talk to Jason one more time, but he cut her off. "Don't make me say something

that will hurt you. I don't want to do that. But you have to understand, I'd

like for us to stay friends, but we can't if you're going to play these kind

of games." Jason looked at her, mentally shaking his head. It was true

enough, he didn't want to hurt her. But she had to be made to understand that

whatever it is they might have had a chance at, it was over and gone now. A

single tear trailed it's way down her cheek.

Jason reached out and wiped it gently away. "Don't be sad, Elizabeth. Be

happy. I want you to be happy." He smiled at her one last time, then revved

up his engine and sped away without looking back, leaving Elizabeth standing

alone on the sidewalk.