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I was going to wait to begin posting this until after Worlds On Fire was complete, but while I keep thinking I'm on the downward slope of that story, it's rather like the Energizer Bunny and keeps on going. So, I am going to begin posting of this little nugget that wouldn't go away. With my general dissatisfaction in the show, I need something to vent my frustrations on, and writing is it.

This story begins in March/April of 2009. It's before Claudia gets pregnant, though she's trying, and Jerry Jacks is still around to torment her, and before Michael's surgery.  The timeline of some events may be a little off; I freely admit to not watching the show and tweaking things to fit my own purposes. I had outlined the basic premise of this story in the Spoiler Free thread last year, thinking it would help me *not* write it. Obviously, no such luck. Let me just say that there will be a righting of storylines and characters will die. If you remember this premise and know who the villian is...don't spoil it for the rest of the readers, please. This has been in the works for quite a while - way before Jason and Elizabeth officially hooked up with other characters. Actions since then have just further lit the fire for me to write this.

I have to thank Jules and Jacque for helping me plot out a few things, and making sure I'm on the right track with the characters. And to Jacque for the gorgeous banner.

After all that babble, I hope you'll enjoy and let the story unfold.





Chapter 1

“Jason Morgan must die,” Sonny growled into the phone.

Claudia Zacharra Corinthos paused outside the door to the room and smiled in pleasure and relief. Her husband was finally going to follow her suggestion. Jason would die, and she would be safe.

Her husband’s enforcer was a relentless man and he was absolutely determined to prove that she was responsible for Michael Corinthos’ shooting, and he was especially determined to make her pay for it. While she was the person who had hired Ian Devlin, the hit hadn’t been for the little boy in the warehouse. Sonny was supposed to pay for what he’d done to her brother Johnny. Devlin was a fool for taking the shot while there was a child present, and Sonny was a fool for sending all the guards away. While Claudia had provided the money, she was not completely responsible for what happened to the boy.

She felt awful for Michael’s injuries, but Morgan would never believe that. He was determined to make someone pay and he wasn’t content with the fact that he’d killed Devlin. Of course, he would never blame Sonny for not having guards and for being so stupidly arrogant to believe that just because he declared he was out of the mob that nobody would ever come after him. And of course, Morgan would never admit his culpability in this whole affair, either.

Jason needed a scapegoat, someone to blame for Michael’s coma, and Claudia was his target. She was the daughter of Anthony Zacharra and her father’s sins were hers; at least in Morgan’s eyes. He wanted her to be guilty so he could be justified in hating her. The fact that there was some truth in his beliefs made the whole situation extremely dangerous.

That was why she was pushing for his death. Claudia was all about self-preservation, and in order to stay alive, Jason Morgan could not remain in the same state. The man would never give up pushing for the truth, and if he found out he would be relentless in pushing for her death. He might even just decide to act on his own and not wait for an order from his boss; or perhaps he’d disregard whatever her husband ordered. Sonny would be easier to manipulate if he ever discovered the truth, especially since he would be off-balance with his friend’s death. She could play on his guilt about Michael, distract him, twist him up inside, and if she got pregnant, then she would have an even greater power over him.

But for all of that to even possibly happen, Jason had to die. So she was pleased to hear Sonny had finally decided to stop avoiding the inevitable and realize that his friend wasn’t really his friend. Jason may have given the business back to Sonny, but he wasn’t loyal to her husband anymore. He wasn’t happy about Sonny’s actions, especially in marrying her, and he questioned orders that he should have followed implicitly since Sonny was running things. He was too argumentative, he was too hostile, and Claudia had done her best to make Sonny see that Jason was just biding his time before betraying Sonny again.

It appeared her husband had finally decided to make a pre-emptive strike. He was not going to wait for the next time Jason felt he had the right to take over the business; Sonny was the boss and nobody got away with threatening his power. She was so proud of Sonny for finally seeing that and acting like he should have been all along.

She waited a beat after Sonny hung up the phone and then walked into the room as if she had only just arrived instead of eavesdropping in the doorway. “Hello, Sonny,” she greeted him as she put her bag down and walked to the mini bar to get a bottle of water. “How are you?”

He smiled at her mysteriously. “Just fine; just fine. Would you care to join me for dinner tonight, or do you already have plans?”

Surprised, Claudia looked at him before quickly agreeing. If he was actually asking her to join him for dinner she would definitely agree. She hadn’t made any plans, but she would have immediately canceled them; no way would she slight her husband if he was reaching out to her. His smile increased in response to her acceptance and she smiled as well. Perhaps if he stayed in a good mood and she reached the right balance of seduction she might get him to visit her bed tonight. It would be good timing for her plan…so perhaps she would just prepare a few things.

When Sonny stood and went into the kitchen to work on dinner, she went upstairs. She had some condoms to work on. Sonny would insist on using one as he always did, and she wanted to make sure they weren’t working well as they should.

~*~*~


If he were any other man, Ric would have been more offended by the cool reception he received every time he came to Sonny’s. It was clear that Max and the rest of the guards did not like him and they did not like that Sonny welcomed him in. Many of them were more loyal to Jason than they were to their boss and Ric had pointed that out to his brother several times. The men would look to Jason for clarification on orders or for permission before acting, and Ric had told his brother that was dangerous and shouldn’t be allowed.

Jason had taken the business away from Sonny several times, always claiming he didn’t really want the power, but Sonny had forced him to act. Ric had asked his brother how long until Jason felt that way again? The enforcer didn’t like his boss’ marriage to Claudia, he didn’t like Ric’s presence, and his discontent was clear…to everybody. He may have handed the business back over, but he could easily try to grab it again simply because he didn’t like the arrangement Sonny had made with Anthony. The lieutenants had been taking orders from him very recently; who’s to say they wouldn’t listen to him again if he decided to take the territory back?

“Sonny?” he called out as he walked into the main room. “Sonny?”

“What are you doing here?”

He looked up towards the angry voice on the landing of the stairs and saw Claudia’s most decidedly unpleased glare lasered in on him. He smirked up at her because she was beautiful when she was angry and it would annoy her greatly when he turned a lascivious eye on her. She was happy enough to bed him before, but as soon as Sonny showed an interest in her once again, she kicked Ric out. He knew that Sonny didn’t actually want her, his brother just wanted to claim his territory. Claudia was foolish enough to give into his demands because she thought he would somehow trust her and share his power with her. She just didn’t know Sonny well enough to know he didn’t share any of his toys if he could avoid it.

“I’m here to see Sonny,” Ric answered guilelessly. “I had some things I wanted to discuss with him. Perhaps when we’re done, you might want to talk with me.”

“You need to get out of here,” she growled at him. “And you need to stop.”

“Stop what?” Sonny asked as he stepped out of the kitchen and eyed the pair.

“I am tired of your brother coming in her and leering at me and treating me like gum to scrape off his shoe simply because I am Anthony Zacharra’s daughter,” Claudia said, turning a hurt countenance towards Sonny. She was good at playing the wounded dove to him.

Conjuring up moist eyes she continued, “He’s like his father that way; treating me like I’m trash. I don’t want to fight so I’ll just go to my room.”

Swallowing, she then said softly, “I suppose I’ll need to make other plans for tonight.”

“No,” Sonny shook his head. “No…Ric won’t be here long.”

Claudia gave him a tremulous smile and turned. When her husband could no longer see her she flashed a triumphant smirk at Ric before heading upstairs. She had played him beautifully and left him to face an angry Sonny. Perhaps if his brother ever decided to get rid of Jason, Ric would then have to start on the suggestion that the Zacharras, all of them, should be eliminated as well. Then Ric would be Sonny’s sole advisor and have some of the power. He knew his brother wouldn’t want to share it, but there would be too much for one man wield alone and he would need some help. Ric would be the perfect position to assist.

“What do you want?” Sonny demanded sharply.

“I wanted to talk to you about some shipments through the Zacharra territory,” Ric said, immediately getting down to business and trying to put an amount of deference into his voice. He’d have to work to fix Claudia’s problems before he could push for more. “Anthony set up some contracts and I discovered them after receiving a call; the person was looking for Anthony and I told him to contact you. I found the file and the information so that when they do contact you, you’ll know what Anthony set up.”

He pulled some papers out of his briefcase and placed them on the desk. Sonny regarded him and then slowly nodded. “Thank you. I’ll look over them later. If you have the number of the person who called, leave it with the files.”

Ric had been thanked, and summarily dismissed all in the same breath. He could try to stay, but it would only anger his brother right now. Instead, he merely gave a respectful bow of his head and turned to go. His eyes were drawn to movement at the top of the stairs as he did, but he didn’t point out to his brother that Claudia was standing in the shadows looking down at them. He could just make out her smirk and he wondered at it, but Max was holding open the door and looking at him impatiently and he knew that for this round, he needed to bow out.

After bidding Sonny good-bye, he left the house and climbed in his car. He was upset by the failure of his visit and knew that he would have to be careful; Claudia seemed to be gaining power over her husband. If Ric wasn’t careful, he could find himself on the outside again and Cluadia would be pushing for his death, just as she was pushing for Jason’s. He needed to make sure that didn’t happen.

~*~*~


Sonny sat in the living room, staring into the low flames of the fire. It was not really cold, but he’d felt like a fire tonight. Dinner with Claudia had been pleasant, and their time afterwards…even more so. But now he sat waiting, for he had another task to do tonight.

A soft knock sounded on the interior door, and Jason walked into the room, answering his summons. Sonny took a sip of his scotch to hide his smirk. The other man came running whenever Sonny called, even if he didn’t like it. Jason really could be so blindly loyal; except when he had those moments of treachery and betrayal. It was for those times that the younger man would pay. But Sonny would have a little sport with him first.

“You came,” Sonny stated.

“You said you needed to see me,” Jason answered with a slight shrug. “Why are you surprised I showed up?”

“I figured late at night…you might be busy,” he shrugged nonchalantly. “I know Sam’s been around lately.”

The other man grimaced, and then made his face blank. “Spinelli and Sam opened a private investigation firm; she’s meeting with him.”

“I thought the two of you worked together during the hospital crisis,” he said innocently.

“She helped me because there was nobody else,” Jason shook his head. “You weren’t there, I couldn’t use the guards…she was there.”

“Oh,” the older man tilted his head to the side. “I thought perhaps there was more. I haven’t seen you near Elizabeth lately…not since Sam helped you find Jake. When you were working with Sam…I thought maybe it was bringing back memories and you were thinking of getting back together with her.”

The other man’s jaw clenched and Sonny kept pushing. “Elizabeth obviously got scared because of what happened and ran…I thought maybe you decided to be with someone who can handle things. Maybe…maybe you could even one day think about having a family of your own.”

Jason looked ready to rage, but once again he swallowed it down and asked through clenched teeth. “What did you call me about? I thought you wanted me to do something; not talk about my personal life.”

“Hey,” Sonny said gently, acting innocent in the face of the younger man’s anger. “I didn’t mean to upset you. I care about you, Jason, and I know that you care about your son. I thought you cared about Elizabeth, but when you stopped seeing her, I didn’t know. I guess I was wrong about you and Sam.”

His enforcer licked his lips and shook his head. “Don’t worry about it. There’s nothing between me and Sam…or me and anyone. Now…what do you need me to do?”

“Ric got a call about some shipment Anthony arranged back when he was running things. He found the files,” he gestured to his desk. “I want you to look through them…see what they’re really about. I don’t trust Ric to tell me what’s really going on…he’s upset Claudia and I think he’d cause problems with business just to be around more.”

The other man’s jaw clenched at the mention of Claudia, but Sonny decided to overlook it. He’d already angered Jason enough for tonight. Plus, the younger man hated Ric and would focus on him more than Claudia. He would go after the chance to prove Ric was lying before he’d go after this vendetta he insisted on against Claudia.

“I’ll check it out,” Jason vowed, moving over to the desk to look at the files. “Let you know what I find.”

He nodded. “Great. Let me know, and then I may have you handle the shipment if we decide to go through with it. Carly wants to talk about this surgery for Michael and I’m gonna have to keep her and Claudia apart and you know that’s not going to be easy.”

Jason’s jaw clenched again and he said, “I’ll look into this.”

“Okay,” Sonny said and watched the other man leave. After the door was closed he let a pleased smirk cross his lips. Jason had been so easy to play; Sonny wondered why he’d never done this before. With Jason working on the shipment, he would know where the other man was almost all the time; that would be helpful when the time came.

Standing, he turned off the fire and the lamp before moving toward the stairs. He was almost there when his cell phone buzzed with a message. He picked up the device and looked at the screen. It was from a blocked number, but since very few people could get this number Sonny hoped that this was what he was waiting for.

Will help with your problem. Highly skilled in extermination.

Sonny smiled and texted back. Another text soon followed with a price and an account number. It took a little longer to make the transfer than Bernie would have done, but Sonny wasn’t going to have anyone in the organization know what he was doing. Someone might decide to be more loyal to Jason than to him. Sonny used an account he’d inherited from Zacharra, so Bernie wouldn’t be monitoring that one as closely.

He made one more text and offered a bonus if the problem was handled soon. Then he turned off the lights once again and headed upstairs. As he neared Claudia’s room he paused and looked in. She was barely covered by the sheet and Sonny felt a stirring as he watched her. She was dangerous and untrustworthy, but he couldn’t deny that she was a pleasurable pastime.

Closing the door, he crossed to her bed and grabbed the end of the sheet. She woke as the silk was pulled down her body; at first frightened, her eyes then glowed with pleasure when she saw him. She purred as she stretched out, giving him an unabashed view of all she was offering him. He quickly shed his clothes and crawled on the bed until he was hovering over her. She readily welcomed him and he was wild and frantic, heady with the knowledge that if all went well, Jason would no longer be a problem by the end of the week.

Edited 1 time by gemblue89 02/24/10 7:26 PM.