Chapter Twenty-Eight

SONNY TURNED AROUND to her. "There was a big turnout." He told her. "Not a dry eye in the house." He added. "The one who shed the most tears, however, was your darling husband."

"God, he never quits, does he?" Brenda sighed. "So he's playing the grieving husband to the hilt?"

"And pointing an accusing finger at me." Sonny informed her. "I'm sorry I had to make you pretend to be dead, but after he tried to kill the both of us, I couldn't let you go back to him."

"Dead has some very nice fringe benefits." She fitted her body to his. "Like living with you and making love with you whenever the mood strikes either one of us." She sighed. "But I tell you I was scared to death when I was laying on that slab in the morgue and could feel Alcazar staring down to me. I was afraid I was going to twitch or something and alert him to the fact I was really alive."

"I'm just glad I regained consciousness in the ambulance." Sonny kissed her forehead. "That gave Jason and me enough time to pull the whole thing together before Alcazar arrived at the hospital."

"I don't know why you couldn't have pretended to be dead, as well." She complained. "No one would have been the least bit suspicious. Then we could have left Port Charles behind forever and we could have gone off somewhere together and lived happily ever after."

"Because if I did." Sonny explained. "Alcazar would win. There'd be nothing to stop him from taking over my operation and I won't have that." He added. "And I don't want to go on the run and change my name and lead a different life. I want us to stay in Port Charles and lead the life we were meant to lead as Mr. and Mrs. Michael Corinthos."

"What you don't want to do." Brenda walked away from him in disappointment. "Is give up the power you have.

"I need the power, Brenda." He admitted. "It gives me the illusion of being in control." He sighed. "I know I'm being selfish. I should either choose you or the business, but I want you both." He held her face in his hands. "You're my heart and soul. You're what makes me happy and makes me feel alive. You're what makes my life worth living. You're the reason I get up in the morning." He added sadly. "But I need the security and sense of power the mob gives me. I grew up feeling powerless and helpless and the mob is the only thing that has ever made that feeling go away for me. When I gave both of you up, I hated it. I felt like I was slowly dying inside. Now I don't want to live without either of you." He paused. "Can you live with that?"

"I love you." She caressed his cheek. "I went through hell to find you, again. I'm not going to let your need for the mob keep us apart. I'll take you any way I can get you. Even if that means the mob comes with you." She sighed. "But will the mob accept us? You've told me you're in trouble with them because of your relationship with me."

"They'll have to accept us." He told her coldly. "I'm not giving them a choice. I won't be without you ever again. So they'd just better get used to it." He went over and sat on the couch.

"How will you make them accept me?" She asked as she sat down next to him on the couch.

"I've ordered Jason to execute one of my people tonight." He confessed. "It's to serve as an example to what I'll do to anyone who questions my authority or decision. If the other two don't back down and stop siding with Alcazar, I've given Jason permission to kill them, as well." He added. "They all think I'm weak because I don't like to kill and only do it when I feel I have no other choice. I have to show them how wrong they are. And when Alcazar's own people execute him, they'll also know that I was behind that, as well." He finally noticed that Brenda was unbuttoning her blouse. She wasn't wearing a bra underneath. "What are you doing? I just told you I've ordered the death of several people, tonight."

"And I can see how much you hate it." She spread her blouse apart, baring her breasts before his hot hungry eyes. "And I'm doing what all good mob wives do in a situation like this. I'm going to give you aid and succor at my breasts." She urged him on. "Come on, baby. You know this will make you feel better."

He leaned his head towards one of her breasts and ran his tongue over one of the pointy hard tips before taking it into his mouth. She held his head to her breast as he sent bolts of pleasure jetting through her body. "That's right, baby." She cooed to him as she ran her fingers through his shiny black waves. "Just let it all out. Make all the pain ebb away and replace it with pleasure." She reached between his thighs and pulled down his fly. "And while you're playing with my guys." She slipped her hand inside his pants. "I'll be playing with yours." Her hand wrapped around his cock. "Come on out, little guy." She coaxed. "Brenda wants to play with you."

"If you keep doing that." He came up for air. "It isn't going to stay little for long." He added as he could feel her petting him. "You know how much it turns me on when you talk to it like it's alive."

"If you'd ever held it inside your mouth." She replied with a wicked smiled as she lowered her lips to his. "You'd know just how alive it truly is."

"Are we both totally soulless?" He asked as she continued to caress his face. "To be doing this and feeling so much pleasure after what I just told you I'd done."

"No." She told him as she straddled his lap. "We're just two people who've learned that the ends justifies the means. And the end is this." She began to unbutton his shirt. "Us. Whatever we have to do to be together is worth any price we have to pay to make it happen." She spread his shirt open so she could have access to his chest. "I've done and seen things to get to here that I never intend to tell you about." She confessed. "But knowing it would all lead me to this moment, I'd do them all over again. This is all that matters. This is all that will ever matter."

~ ~ ~

SONNY'S PEOPLE WERE gathered in the abandoned warehouse on the docks. Dembrowsky, Kelsey and Schnieder had gathered them together to hear what Alcazar had to say. Jason stood in the back of the room waiting for the right moment to make his move.

Dembrowsky introduced everyone there to Alcazar. "Senor Santiago has something he wants to say to us." He began. "I think you should all listen. I think it would be beneficial to everyone in this room.
"Thank you, my friend." Alcazar replied as he stepped up to the podium. "You all know what has happened to my beautiful wife. Because of Senor Corinthos' carelessness and stupidity, my beautiful Brenda is dead. Senor Corinthos is a weak man who is driven completely by his lust. He missed an important meeting recently because he was too busy taking my wife in our marriage bed. He's weak in other ways, too. He's depriving you of all the profits you could make in areas he won't let you get into. I speak of drugs and prostitution. If you merge your territories with mine and rid yourself of the Boy Scout Mobster, you will be making the profits your weak leader is keeping you from making."

"That is what we call him in Spain." Alcazar went on to explain the moniker he had pinned on Sonny. "The Boy Scout Mobster. He doesn't believe in killing, he doesn't believe in drugs and prostitution, he believes the mob should be operated like a business." He added. "But that's not how the mob should be run if you want to rake in the most profits possible."

A shot suddenly rang out and Dembrowsky fell to the ground. Jason stepped up to the stage, while everyone went for their gun to protect themselves from the threat that was amidst them. "Sonny doesn't like to kill." Jason agreed. "But he will if he has to. Sonny has given me permission to kill anyone in this room who wants to betray him by selling him out for this man here." He motioned to Alcazar.

"Let me tell you a little about this man." Jason went on. "He has kidnapped your boss, he has hired people to try and make Sonny believe he imagined being kidnapped by him and he has tried to kill Sonny not once but twice. This wife he talks about so lovingly he has used as his private whore and sent her to seduce Sonny so he would miss that mob meeting. Then he had a hired gun waiting to kill Sonny if he didn't completely succumb to his wife's charms."

"Lies!" Alcazar exploded. "All lies. He's Corinthos' mouthpiece. He will say anything to make his boss look good."

"The only reason Sonny hasn't dealt with him as he should." Jason declared. "Is because of you. To deal with Alcazar Santiago as he should, it would mean a full-scale mob war would erupt putting each and everyone of your lives in danger, and Sonny doesn't want that. So he's continued to put up with this man's attempts on his life to protect you." He added. "He almost died in that steam room because Alcazar Santiago locked him and Santiago's wife in that steam room and turned up the heat to cook them both alive."

"That's a lie." Alcazar spat. "There is no proof of that." He dared Jason. "Show me the proof. Show them the proof of your lies."

"I don't need to." Jason looked out at the crowd surrounding him. "If Sonny says it's true that should be enough for everyone." Then he asked. "So what will it be? Will you remain true to a man who will risk his own life to protect you from danger, or will you align yourself with a man who is so greedy he's risks the life of all his people by risking an full-scale mob war breaking out by trying to take over the operation of a rival mob boss."

Several shouts from the audience came. "We're with Sonny." "He's our man." "We only came here because Dembrowsky, Kelsey and Schnieder insisted we come." "We never had any intention of selling out Sonny for some foreigner."

Jason turned to Kelsey and Schnieder. "What about you two?" Jason asked in a deadly tone. "Are you with Sonny or against him?"

"We're with him." They said in unison.

"Looks like you lose, Alcazar." Jason smiled at him. "If I were you, I'd go back to where you came from as soon as you can manage it."

"This isn't over." Alcazar spat. "This isn't over by a longshot. If I have to use force to get control of this operation, then that's what I'll do." With that he stormed out of the room.