Chapter Eleven

IT HAD BEEN the perfect end to the perfect day. Sonny had made all her favorite dishes for dinner and they had lingered over dinner as they had fed each other, nibbling on each other's fingers as they had poked food in each other's mouth. Afterwards they had gone out on the patio and danced under the moonlight for hours. It had been like making love with all your clothes on. Their bodies had been pressed so closely together it was like they were one person. One heart, one mind, one body and one soul. They'd touched each other and kissed each other incessantly and when they could stand to be apart for no longer they shed their clothes and made love in the pool.

Now they were back in Brenda's bedroom in bed sipping a glass of hundred year old red wine that Sonny had filched from Alcazar's private wine cellar. "Happy." She asked him as she ran her hand down his chest. She couldn't stop touching him. They had so little time left.

"More than you could know." He leaned over and they shared a hungry openmouthed kiss that left them both breathless and wanting more. "More than I ever thought I could be."

Being with Sonny had made Brenda greedy. After all the years they had been apart, this wasn't enough for her. They deserved to be together for as long as they'd been apart. In her desperation to buy them some more time together, Brenda had come up with a wild plan. One, that if it worked, might eventually give them a lifetime together. One, however, if it didn't work, would end up costing both of them their lives. But since Alcazar was already planning to kill Sonny and would kill her for taking Sonny into her bed and into her body, that didn't seem that big of a risk to take.

Brenda had a feeling instead of waiting until tomorrow, Alcazar would be arriving home sometime tonight. She'd gotten to know him pretty well in the time she'd been with him, and she knew it was just his style to want to catch them in the act. To catch them making love, to rip them apart and then to kill them both with his bare hands. So she was sure he'd be arriving home at any moment, not even giving her and Sonny the rest of the night together.

She watched as the drugs she had slipped into Sonny's wine finally began to take effect and he had to fight to keep his eyes open. "Getting tired, baby?" She ran her fingers through his hair.

"I don't want to go to sleep." He suddenly yawned. "I don't want to waste a moment of the time we have left together."

"You won't" She assured him. "Sleeping with you wrapped in your arms always gave me as much pleasure as making love with you did." She laughed. "Well, almost as much pleasure. Nothing is as good as making love to you." He finally fell asleep. "I'm sorry, baby." She kissed his unresponsive lips, as she took his half-empty wineglass out of his limp hand. "But I'm doing this for us. If it works, we'll have a chance to finally be together. And if it doesn't, you won't feel any pain when death comes. It'll be a peaceful death."

She climbed out of bed and began to get dressed. Then she picked her and Sonny's wedding bands off the floor and slipped hers back on her finger. She knew she should have slid Sonny's back on his finger, as well, but some perversity had her slipping Sonny's wedding ring in her pocket, instead. She wanted to hang on to something of Sonny's that she could clutch to give her strength to carry out her plan. Even if it was the ring another woman had given him. She also didn't want him wearing a ring that declared him the property of another woman when he belonged to her now and forever. Then she sat down and waited.

An hour later Alcazar came storming into their bedroom expecting to find them in flagrante delicto. His eyes zeroed in on Sonny laying in their bed nude, not noticing that Sonny was passed out cold. "You bitch!" He spat, as he barreled towards where Brenda sat and backhanded her across the face, sending her flying out of her chair to the floor. "You lied to me. You made a fool of me. You never wanted revenge on him. You just wanted him, you lying slut. And like a fool I fell into your trap and left you alone here with him so you could have him." He grabbed her by the throat and began to strangle her. "You will die for this, you lying whore. First you, then your lover."

"Alcazar, wait!" She gasped. "Please," she begged. "Give me a chance to explain. It's not what it seems."

"Explain." He shoved her away from him, and motioned to Sonny. "You think you can explain this? When I see the evidence of your perfidy before my very eyes?" He slapped her again.

"I did it for you, darling." She declared, holding a hand to her stinging cheek. "If you'd only calm down and let me explain, you would see that. Everything I did with Sonny, I did for you."

He took a threatening step towards her and she cowered in fear. "You slept with another man, for me." He spat. "Do you take me for a fool?"

"You promised me revenge on Sonny." She threw back at him in an attempt to turn the tables on him. "Then you said I only had a week to have it. It wasn't enough time. I needed more time." She added. "So I had to come up with a plan to get it." She motioned to Sonny. "This."

"So you took him into my bed and shared your body with him to have revenge on him?" He snarled. "You used to lie much better than this, Brenda. This one isn't even the slightest bit believable." He added in disgust. "You did it for me! Oh, please! You did it because you're obsessed with him just like Jasper Jacks said you were. Because he's in your blood and you still want him even after everything he did to you."

"You're not seeing the big picture, Alcazar." She explained, still hoping there was some way to pull both her and Sonny's fat out of the fire and to con Alcazar into believing the line of bull she was trying to sell him. "You were worried if you gave me more time to have proper revenge on Sonny, someone might link you to his disappearance. So I started thinking how we could both have what we want without anyone finding out we'd kidnapped Sonny. Then it suddenly came to me. I thought of the perfect way I can have my revenge on him, while you take over his organization in a bloodless coup, without anyone ever learning we kidnapped him."

"Go on." He didn't believe a word she said, but he was curious just how far she'd go to try and save her own skin, as well as her lover's. "I'm listening."

"Sonny still wants me." She motioned to him. "As you can see. But when he's around me it messes with his head. He doesn't think about business. All he can think about is me." She revealed. "It's gotten him in trouble with associates on more than one occasion. If they thought he was getting involved with me again, they'd blow the roof."

"So," He asked calmly. "Just what are you suggesting, my dear? That I let my associates think you're making a cuckold out of me with Corinthos. Is that your big plan."

"No." She assured him. "My plan is to play with Sonny's head and make him think about nothing but me. Then instead of taking care of business like he should be, all he'll be thinking of is having me. That's where you come in. While he's neglecting his business, you can move in for the kill. Each time he makes the least little mistake, you'll be there whispering in his associates ears and turning them against Sonny. That way we both get what we want. Isn't it brilliant."

"Yes, we both get what we want, don't we?" He retorted. "I get Corinthos' business and you get Corinthos. Isn't that right, my dear?" He snarled at her. "You really do take me for a fool, don't you? I see exactly what you're doing. You think I'll just stand by while you continue to bed your lover thinking you're only doing it to help me take over his business and it's pure torture for you to have sex with him, but you're doing it all for me." He looked at her in disgust. "You're out of your mind if you think I would ever agree to that."

"I wouldn't need to make love with Sonny again for this to work, Alcazar." She assured him. "I've whetted his appetite for me, and it's more effective if I don't let him have me again. It'll play with his head more if he wants me, but I won't let him have me." She added. "And that's how I'll finally have my revenge on him. When he gets to the point he's so desperate to have me there isn't anything he won't do to have me, I'll reject him the way he rejected me."

"You're very good, my dear." He applauded her. "I might even believe you if I hadn't seen the look on your face when I told you I planned to kill Corinthos. It was the look of a woman in love hearing the man she loves was about to die. But you are very good." He added. "So, what plan did you come up with to deal with the fact we kidnapped him, so he won't send his men after me and order them to kill me. Or, were you hoping I'd believe your lies, set him free, then he'd send someone to kill me so you'd be free of me?"

"We would make him think everything that happened here was all a dream." She replied, tasting the bitter taste of failure in her mouth. It was a stupid idea to begin with, but she had been desperate. Well, at least she tried. "That's why I drugged him. I though if you transported him back to Port Charles the same way you transported him here, and paid off some doctors in the hospital to tell him he's been unconscious for days, he'd think he dreamed the entire thing. That none of it had really happened. Then when we showed up in town, he would know the truth"

"Buck up, my dear." Alcazar told her with a pleasant smile on his face. "I've decided to go with your plan."

"You what?" She gasped in shock.

"Yes, my dear." He continued to smile. "You've bought both you and your lover some time. You've shown me the lengths you'll go to save his life, and you've revealed to me that you are Corinthos' greatest weakness. I can use that to my advantage. So I will go along with your hair-brained scheme. The idea of a bloodless coup appeals to me. I will instruct the guards to dress Mr. Corinthos and return him to Port Charles and arrange things so he believes that last few days have been nothing but a dream." He wrapped his hands around her throat again, but this time he didn't try to choke her. "But know this, my dear, if you don't do exactly what I say when I say it your lover will die. And if you ever try to touch him again in any way, I will kill you both where you stand. Do I make myself clear?"