Risk

Chapter LXXX

Emily leans over and grabs the pint of pasta salad that Lucky had picked up from Eli's along with the side of ribs, potato salad, baked beans, cole slaw, cornbread with a little container of honey whipped butter. She'd already had firsts of everything and was now working on seconds and from the looks of things and the studious way that Lucky was avoiding the pasta salad... it was going to be all hers.

A snick of the lock lets them know that there is someone at the door with a key. "What the hell?" Lucky jumps up from the couch next to Em and grabs the door open before the person on the other side can open it.

"Gees are you trying to give me a heart attack?!" Gia protests from the other side of the door. She grabs one of the bags at her feet and shoves it toward Lucky.

"What the hell are you doing here? Aren't you suppose to be in Minneapolis?" Lucky automatically takes the bag.

"Someone gave Nikolas some news about the company. And since a) he wasn't going to leave me alone in Minnesota and b) we had a so called free day..."

Lucky winces. "Sorry." He goes to shut the door but Nik gets his foot in the door. "Whoa. Sorry man didn't see you there."

"I got the last of them here. I tried to tell Gia we should just leave them in the car since hopefully we'll be flying out tomorrow." Nik comes into the apartment that he'd been inside maybe twice before. But he knows which room is Gia's and carries the bags to her room Lucky follows with the one that Gia had shoved in his direction.

"It's that bad?" Lucky winces. "That missing audit?"

"Just please tell me it's still missing." Nik says grimly, keeping his voice low so that the conversation is just between the brothers.

"Elton was hot on it when I left the office." Lucky shrugs. "You'd have to ask him. "What is the deal?"

Gia comes into her bedroom in time to hear the last. "Your mother um... borrowed 30 grand from the company. While Carly was still partners in the company and genius here found out about it and buried the report."

"Gia!" Nik protests.

"She's kidding right?" Lucky shakes his head in disbelief.

"We're back, aren't we?" Gia gives a one shoulder shrug. "Draw your own conclusions. I'm hungry. Carly's right you can never eat on a plane." Gia turns around and goes back out to the living room where Em is about to get up to find out what the deal is. "Don't bother. It's a brother thing."

"Ah." Em eases back on the couch and reaches for her plate. "Go get a plate. Lucky bought."

"So there is enough for everyone. You want anything to drink while I'm in here?" Gia calls from the kitchen.

"Whatever." Em calls back. "Your mail is on the breakfast bar."

"Got it!" Gia comes back to the coffee table with a plate, her mail and two sodas. Dishing up first, She starts sorting the mail into three piles: trash, shred, read. "So you been staying here most of the time I've been gone?" The apartment doesn't feel as if it had been closed up for nearly two weeks.

Em nods. "Yeah, I'm not used to the drama out at the Q's since being away. They're up to something though. I can always tell by the way they start being super sweet to Grandmother."

"No offense but saying that is like saying Carly is up to something." The mail sorted for later, Gia starts digging into the feast that Lucky had provided and wonders about the silence coming from her bedroom.

"Whatever it is... it isn't good."

Gia looks at Em consideringly. "No, it's not. And in the wrong hands, especially Quartermaine hands, it could be used to wreck a lot of relationships.... specifically Carly and Stavros but there would be a lot of other fall out."

"And you're wondering what I'm going to do."

"Do you blame me? I've seen the way you've treated Carly in the past."

"She's no saint." Em understates wryly.

"Either are we and I think we've already had that discussion."

"Michael is my nephew... who my brother, Michael's father, never gets to see."

Gia leans in over the table. "Carly blows up with Stavros she is going to go running straight to Jason. You know it. I know it. Stavros will kill him. I think we both have a vested interest in making sure that everything stays just like it is."

"So you're already planning to make my mother the fall guy here." Lucky says bitterly. "Why doesn't that surprise me?! You and Carly come out of this smelling like roses."

"Lucky, back off." Nik warns grimly. "Laura knows the result of the audit. I warned her. I also told her if she put the money back that there would be no reprisals and Carly would never have to know. She decided to go looking for Sonny Corinthos instead."

"You're just still pissed cause Mom sent Gia off to Atlantic City!" Lucky pops back at Nik and then looks guiltily over at Gia who is ignoring him and just concentrating on the dinner that is increasingly taking on the texture of shredded cardboard.

"No!" Nik counters. "I'm... pissed that I didn't give Carly the results of the audit the day I got them! She was in the office it would have been so easy to just drop them on her desk. Maybe she would have read it maybe not but I wouldn't be on the hook right next to Laura!" Nik starts pacing. "I'm pissed that nobody told me that Laura split town. I'm pissed that you went thru my files and handed them over to Carly."

"Well I'm not exactly happy to be finding out about this now either. If I would have known back when it happened you can bet I wouldn't have handed that file over to Carly!" Lucky protests.

Gia does a quick whistle to bring everyone to a silence. "So I guess the question is, Em, what are you planning on doing with this info? Take it to Ned? To AJ?"

Nik blanches and swears under his breath. Another thing to be ticked about. He'd been so furious at Lucky's accusation against Gia that he'd forgotten that Em was a Quartermaine too.

"Since big mouth and his brother here have basically dumped it in your lap. Just know it isn't just AJ, it isn't just Michael. It's Carly and Stavros. It's Jason. It's Carly's mother and Stefan. It's Lucky's parents. Do you really want the Quartermaines in the middle of this mess too?"

"Laura embezzled from Deception? You mean Carly right? Not Lucky's mother." Em tries to get it clear.

"I'm sure it's just a misunderstanding." Lucky interjects.

Gia talks over him. "Nobody knows Stavros better than Carly no matter what Lucky's mother thinks. But even I know that he's a big believer in blame. Carly knows it to. She explained it to me when I was breaking up with Nikolas. Stavros will never blame Nikolas."

"He didn't blame you for our breakup." Nik half changes the subject but in so doing defends both Gia and his father.

"No, he found someone else to blame." Gia agrees but she maintains eye contact with Em. "And listen to what you just said. Of course it couldn't be Laura. It had to be Carly. That's the reason why this situation is going to blow all to hell."

"Not if I can help it." Nik says grimly.

"What are you going to do?" Lucky asks.

"Get to Carly before she gets that audit and do what I should have done all along. I'm sorry, Em."

"Sorry about what?" Em asks.

"Sparky, make sure she doesn't leave until after I call you and no phone calls either." Nik orders his former fiance. Gia's eyes go wide but she nods.

"You just wait a freaking minute!" Lucky protests. "You can't do that. Em hasn't done anything wrong! You can't just think you can order her to do a f'ing thing!"

"Em, I am sorry. But I think that nobody understands family the way we do. I'm just asking for a little bit of time. I'm asking you to keep your family out of this for your own protection. And it's like Gia said... my father will find someone to blame.. The Quartermaines have nothing to do with this, it's better it remain so."

"You owe him." Gia says flatly. "For all of the times when he's pulled your cookies from the fire. All he is asking for is time and he's willing to take the blame for you again. It's all his fault you didn't tell your family."

"How long do you need?" Em asks Nik with a sigh.

"Just tonight."

"I'm going with you." Lucky demands. Nik and Lucky leave.

Em looks over at Gia. "You might as well forgive him."

"Excuse me?"

"I heard you dumped him because he never supported you. That's not what I saw tonight." Em starts clearing the empty plates and serving containers from the coffee table leaving Gia to contemplate that thought.

The first movie is long over. Zander stayed long enough for Jax to get home not wanting Alexis to be alone with Andreas but then took off. Alexis suspects he didn't really have a place to be just wanted to be gone to give her and Jax some alone time.

"She reminds me of you." Jax murmurs as he runs a hand absently underneath the tails of the flannel shirt Alexis is wearing. The jeans and undergarments had already ended up on the floor at the foot of the couch. They hadn't lasted the first scene in Desk Set.

"Who?"

"Katherine Hepburn. Strong, smart, feisty."

"Thanks." Alexis smiles up at her hubby. "She's one of my favorites."

"Let me guess... Woman of the Year."

Alexis nods. She half climbs off of Jax so she can look at the present exposed on the coffee table. "I think Zander got it for me. I'm worried about him. He seems so lonely." Alexis holds up the DVD of Woman of the Year. "I don't think that things are working out with Emily. Everything Zander did he did for Emily; he just doesn't know how to get by without her."

"Doesn't sound too healthy." I know it's not healthy. I went thru that with Miranda and then again with Brenda. Living my whole life through them.

"Sounds young." Alexis counters. Jax pulls her back to him and settles her against him. "Most days I don't even remember being that young. I feel like I was never that young." Thanks to Helena

"What were you doing when you were Zander's age?"

"Harvard Law review I think." Alexis shrugs. "I had no life whatsoever but was totally focused on repaying Stefan's faith in me by become the best attorney I could be."

"Best one I've ever met." Jax concurs with a nod and a kiss on the tip of his wife's nose.

"I think Zander should come live here. There is an apartment over the garage right? It would be so much better than where he is staying living over that bar. Especially if he goes back to college."

"Has Zander shown any interest in going to college?"

Alexis shrugs. "Jason said the warehouse would pay for whatever courses he takes since Zander's doing so well there. I've been trying to get him to go ever since he was living with me. And it would be nice to have someone we can trust living here."

Jax nods. "Do you want me to talk to him?"

Alexis considers that while toying with the buttons on Jax's mostly unbuttoned dress shirt. "That might be best. If it was coming from me then he'd think it was some kind of charity thing and he'd probably turn us down. If you talked to him..."

Jax nods.

Jason looks out over the city below the penthouse. The lights are a smear against the falling rain that beats against the bullet proof glass. He looks toward the direction of the house that Stavros bought overlooking the city on the other side. It's a little late. Michael is probably already in bed and surely not out on the balcony with his telescope. All in all things are going well. Zander is keeping a good eye on the Warehouse. Max is keeping an eye on things down on Courtland St since his running buddy is out of town on some perfume trip. Johnny had been doing some serious sucking up since delivering Sonny to Puerto Rico wondering if even though he'd been following orders if he was going to be nailed to the wall for being the goat that lead Sonny to exile. Benny had just gotten a clean bill of health from his doctor and had been bragging on how his blood pressure had gone down in the last few months.
Jason sighs. Things are running smooth. Boringly smooth. So smooth that the potential for trouble from the City had dried up. He'd almost hoped that the new guys would try something. Just 'cause. It would feel good to pound someone into the ground. Someone that deserved it. If anything he was more ticked now than when he'd returned to find Sonny despondant, and Carly with Michael gone. Because the passage of time had only proven how far apart things had fallen before his return. He is distracted from his thoughts by a knock on the door. He goes over to the door and opens it expecting to see Johnny.

"Jason, you have to help me." Carly pushes her soaking wet hair back from her face trying to dry her face on her sleeve but her coat is just as soaked as she is.

Jason shakes his head ruefully. "I should have known. Just tell me you aren't pregnant."

Sorry it's short but it was getting late and I wanted to post something before my subscription ran out. I was totally late in getting my check to Jeff and um... service may be disrupted. So do make sure that if you reply here that you leave me a valid Email address for me to reply back. And you know you can get hold of me at dswanson97123@yahoo.com

Deb

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