Chapter Thirteen

SONNY WENT THROUGH the copies of the police and paramedics reports that Jason had brought him. "I still don't believe it." Sonny declared. "I know what happened wasn't a dream."

"The police claim they've also got your car in their impound lot at some small county police precinct." Jason replied. "Supposedly, your accident took place out on some deserted country road, but you were transported to Mercy Hospital for treatment."

"And yet." Sonny pointed out. "The hospital didn't know who I was because I didn't have any I.D. on me when I was admitted, but if I smashed up my car then police would have run a check on my plates through the DMV and figured out who I was and alerted the hospital to who I am. Which would have lead to Carly being contacted about my accident, and Taggart would have jumped on this like a dog on a bone, trying to prove my accident had been mob-related." He added. "But none of that happened. Supposedly, I've been in this hospital for the past week and no one has known about it. And everything I thought I experienced was all just a dream."

"I wish I had started searching for you the minute you disappeared." Jason sighed. "But Carly didn't tell me you were missing until this morning. She said she thought you'd just gone off somewhere to cool off and would come back when you'd cooled down. Said you'd done the same thing when she sold you out to the feds. And was sure that's what you were doing again."

"That's my lovely wife, isn't it?" Sonny said in disgust. "Not only is every word out of her mouth to me a lie, when I go missing she doesn't even alert anyone that I'm gone."

"I launched an immediate search for you." Jason continued. "Within hours I found you were here."

"But there's no way you can prove that I wasn't here the entire time." He finished for Jason. "Thank you, Carly."

"If this is all a setup to convince you it was all just a dream." Jason replied. "They've done a damn good job of it. Right down to smashing up your car and depositing it into the police impound lot. Not to mention all these falsified documents they came up with."

"What if it isn't a scam?" Sonny suddenly asked. "What if all these documents haven't been falsified and I really dreamed the entire thing. Is it possible I could have imagined the whole thing?"

"What do you think?" Jason asked, trusting Sonny's instincts on this.

"I don't know." Sonny confessed. "What happened to me feels real, but at the same time it doesn't feel real. There's no solid proof to prove that it wasn't all a dream, while I've got a doctor telling me it was just a dream with the paper work and hospital staff to back it up. The mark from the syringe that was jabbed in my neck, the drugs, any physical evidence on my body to prove it wasn't a dream is gone." He sighed. "Maybe it is possible I just dreamed the entire thing. Maybe the police in that country precinct were just so incompetent they just didn't think to run my plates through the DMV."

"What do you want to do?" Jason asked.

"Check this out." He answered. "As soon as I'm released I want to go to this country police precinct and look at my car. I want to meet the cop in charge of my case so I can get a bead on me to see if he's really so stupid he wouldn't run my plates through the DMV." Sonny added. "I have to know if Brenda is really alive and if she is I have to find her."

~ ~ ~

BRENDA PACED THE floor of the dungeon Sonny had been kept in like a caged animal. Alcazar had had his guards drag her down her after his men had taken Sonny away and now she was a virtual prisoner. She knew the only reason Alcazar was keeping her alive was because he could use her as a weapon against Sonny. But she didn't care. All that mattered was they were both still alive. As long as they were alive, they still had a chance to be together.

She wrapped herself in the blanket Sonny had wrapped around his body to keep himself warm in his pit. She remembered sneaking down here to cover him up with it. She inhaled deeply and could still smell his scent on it. That and clutching on to his wedding ring for dear life made her feel close to him. "Soon, baby, soon." She sighed. "We'll be together again. And this time we'll never be apart, again."

She closed her eyes and remembered all the things they had done together in the short time they had had together. Then she finally managed to fall asleep with a smile on her lips, dreaming of the day not too soon in the future when they'd be together again.

~ ~ ~

THE SHERIFF IN charge of the police precinct where Sonny's car had been taken was an idiot. If anyone would be dumb enough, Sonny thought, not to run his plates through the DMV, it would have been this Barney Fife wannabe. Then he and Jason went down to the impound lot to look at his car. The whole front end was smashed in and the car door on the driver's side had been cut out, like he'd been trapped inside and they'd had to cut him out of the car to get him out. Seeing the car with his own eyes made Sonny begin to doubt that this was all just a scam.

"Does this bring back any memories?" Jason asked.

"No." Sonny shook his head. "Not a one."

Sonny crawled inside the car to examine it and saw dried blood on the steering wheel, where he'd no doubt banged his head when the car crashed. He noticed something shiny laying on the floor. It was the watch he had dreamed had been taken away off of him when he was kidnapped. He picked it up. The face was smashed. The time frozen on the exact time of the impact.

So, it must be true. It must have all been just a dream. He hadn't been kidnapped by some man named Alcazar Santiago. He hadn't been thrown into some medieval dungeon. Brenda wasn't alive and married to Santiago. She was dead. And he had dreamed the entire thing.

"Sonny." Jason leaned his head in the car. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah." He smiled sadly. "It was all just a dream."