Chapter Twenty-Three

THE GUNSHOT WOUND turned out to only be a minor shoulder injury. With Brenda's warnings still ringing in his ears, Sonny had approached the site of the meeting with caution. Then he had saw the sun glinting off the barrel of a high-powered rifle on the rooftop of one of the nearby buildings and had dive for cover. If Brenda hadn't warned him about what he'd be walking into, Sonny knew he'd be dead right now.

"Brenda saved my life." He told Jason. "If she hadn't warned me to be on the lookout, I'd be dead now."

"So," Jason sighed. "You think Brenda is on your side now."

"Brenda loves me." Sonny replied. "And I love her." That's all he could say. That's all he really knew for sure.

"What are you going to do about Carly?" He wanted to know.

"Ask her for a divorce." Sonny answered, as he stared up at the ceiling. "The minute I saw Brenda again our marriage was over. I think deep in my soul I knew it, or I wouldn't have made love to Brenda."

"Is this because Brenda is pregnant with your child?" Jason suggested.

"Brenda's not pregnant." Sonny revealed. "At least she wasn't before I was with her again trying to get her pregnant with my child."

"Sonny." Jason warned him. "If you get back together with Brenda, the men are going to turn on you. You getting shot was the only thing that stopped them from selling you out for Alcazar."

"So." Sonny sighed. "Just what was going on at that meeting before I showed up."

"Alcazar told them about you and Brenda." He revealed. "And when they found out they hit the roof, because when you're around her you don't think and make stupid mistakes."

"What am I supposed to do, Jason." Sonny suddenly asked. "I love Brenda so much I can't think straight. When I'm not with her I only feel half alive. And when I'm with her it feels so right, I know she's the only one I'm meant to be with."

"I don't know, Sonny." Jason replied. "But if you are with her, the men are going to sell you out to Alcazar and they're going to end up kill you because of her."

~ ~ ~

"WHAT HAPPENED TO Sonny?" Brenda demanded to know as soon as Alcazar walked through the door. "Is he all right? Did you kill him."

"Don't worry, my dear." He spat. "Your precious bastard is still alive. All he got was a minor gunshot wound in the shoulder." He went over to the bar and angrily threw a couple of ice cubes into a shot glass. "Corinthos' people were this close," he held his thumb and forefinger close together, "to selling him out and joining forces with me when he showed up and got shot." He narrowed his eyes at her. "Why do I think you had something to do with why he only got a shoulder wound, when he should be dead as we speak." He suddenly grabbed her by the arm. "You told him I had a marksmen waiting to kill him if he showed up, didn't you?"

"I wasn't going to let him walk into a deathtrap." She declared passionately. "I had to warn him what he was walking into."

"You weren't supposed to let him show up, at all." He increased the pressure on her arm. He looked at the rumpled sheets on her bed and had no trouble figuring out what had been going on between. "What's the matter, Brenda. Are you losing your touch?"

"Once Sonny remembered about the meeting." Brenda said in her own defense. "There was nothing I could do to stop him from leaving.

"Except tell him I had a marksmen waiting to shoot him if he showed up." He twisted her arm in her grasp and caused her to cry out in pain.

She yanked her arm away from him and held it to her chest. "You'd better stop manhandling me like this." She spat. "Sonny saw the marks you left on my arm and he was furious. If he sees any new marks on me he'll kill you."

"Really?" Alcazar raised his eyebrow in interest. "So, he doesn't like me putting marks on his lover, does he." Then he remembered. "Oh, yes, I remember reading about that in the dossier I had done on him. As a child he had to watch helplessly as his stepfather beat up on his mother." He began to look her up and down. "I wonder what he'd do if he had to stand by helplessly and watch the same thing happen to his lover."

Brenda got no other warning then that. She started to back away from him, but he was too quick for her. She cried out in pain as his fit connected with her face, knocking her to the floor. Brenda took her hand away from her face and saw it was covered with blood. Then she looked up at him in fear.

"Every day I will add a fresh bruise to your face." Alcazar said in a mild tone. "Until Corinthos can't stand it any longer and he comes after me in a fury to protect you. I, of course, will have no other choice but to kill him in self-defense. And afterwards, Corinthos organization will finally be mine." He added. "This will be so much more fun. I'll be able to make you both suffer before I kill the both of you. Thank you, my dear, for convincing me to let you both live, instead of killing the both of you when I returned to the castle for betraying me with him while I was gone."

~ ~ ~

JASON HAD GIVEN the situation some thought and he thought he'd found a way to get Sonny out of trouble with his associates. Unfortunately, when they found out Sonny wanted to have a life with Brenda, more trouble would only arise.

"I think the first thing we need to do is to prove Alcazar kidnapped you and was behind that scam to make you think it was all a dream." Jason announced. "I've already got our men out looking for the sniper Alcazar hired to kill you if you tried to show up at the meeting. I've got the town sealed off. There's no way he's going to escape."

"That's a good plan." Sonny replied, as he began to get dressed. His doctor told him he wouldn't need to spend the night in the hospital and he could go home. "If we can prove Alcazar's trying to get rid of me so he can take over my operation, it'll stop him dead in his tracks." He added. "And while you're doing that, I'm going to go over and see Brenda." He saw the look on Jason's face. "I know you don't approve of that, but I've got to find out why she drugged me in Spain. I have to know the truth before I decide what I'm going to do next."