Chapter Twenty




Jason was still waiting for a call from Stan when Sonny and Carly arrived at the pier. He quickly explained what had happened.

“Are you sure it was Jessica?” asked Carly hopefully. She was worried about her friend.

Jason nodded his head. “I would know her voice anywhere Carly, it was her.” He was also worried. Jessica’s voice had sounded faint and small on the phone and he was afraid that she was hurt and it was killing him that he did not know where she was.

A couple of minutes later, his phone rang. It was Stan. “Were you able to trace the number?” he asked before the other man could speak.

“I got it,” said Stan, looking at the number he had written down and the name that the number belonged to. “But I’m not sure if this is right.”

“Whose phone did Jessica call me from?” Jason asked, hearing the hesitation in Stan’s voice.

“Ric Lansing’s,” came the reply. Jason was stunned a moment. Ric Lansing? That couldn’t be right. Would Ric really stop this low again? “What’s his location?”

“According to my sources, no one has seen him all evening. Not since the shooting on the docks.”

“Alright. I happen to know some of the property that he owns. Get some guys together to check two of his houses that are just outside of town. The addresses are in the file that we put together on him when he had Carly. I’ll check out the docks, he also had a couple of abandoned warehouses.” Jason hung up the phone and looked at Sonny and Carly, who were waiting expectantly to hear what Jason had to say.

“The number Jessica called me from belongs to Ric Lansing,” he said and watched as Carly’s eyes opened wide in surprise and Sonny’s darkened. “No one has seen him since earlier tonight on the docks. I have Stan gathering some men together to check the houses he has. I am going to check the warehouses.”

“Wait a minute. I know Lansing is a sick creep, but do you think he would have done this again?” Carly asked, remembering her own recent experience with Ric.

“I think that at this point, Lansing could be capable of anything,” Jason said, silently vowing to take Lansing out himself if he did anything to hurt Jessica.


*~*~*~*~*


Pain tore through his body as Ric slowly opened his eyes. It took him a moment to remember what had happened, but then it all came back to him. Ignoring the pain, Ric sat up and looked around, trying to see where Jessica was. He knew that she couldn’t have gotten too far.


*~*~*~*~*


No matter how much Jason and Sonny tried to persuade Carly to wait for them back at the penthouse, she would not leave. Not even threats of calling Max to carry her home worked and they finally gave in, making Carly promise that she would not get in the way.

The three friends made their way to the first warehouse that Ric owned. It was run down and never used, but they had to check anyway. As they walked in through the front door, they could tell that no one was there, but did a quick check anyway, just to make sure. They then headed out to the second warehouse and when Jason tried to open the doors, he found that they were locked.

“This has to be the one,” he said as he pulled his gun out. He saw Sonny do the same and saw him hand Carly an extra one. He knew Carly could handle herself with a gun and was not worried. Jason tried the door again, but it would not budge. The three moved back slightly as Jason then shot at the lock, but the door still didn’t open.

Carly stepped forward and looked through the hole in the door, made by the bullet. “It looks like there’s a chain looped through the handles,” he said. “We’re going to have to find another way in.”

The bastard probably wanted to make sure Jessica couldn’t get out, Jason thought as his blood boiled at the thought of Jessica being trapped in there.

Being familiar with the layout of a warehouse, Sonny and Jason headed around to the back, Carly close behind. When they reached the back door, Jason found it was easy to open and assumed this was the door Ric used to get in and out. He quietly opened the door and stepped inside, his gun in front of him.


*~*~*~*~*


It had taken a while, but Ric finally made it to the top of the stair. When he turned the knob, he found that it was locked and had to laugh out loud. He had discovered that his phone and keys were missing and knew that Jessica had taken them and tried to escape. But he had seen the damage he had done to her arm and knew she was probably losing a large amount of blood, so there was no way she could have gotten out of the warehouse before passing out.

Taking a deep breath, Ric rammed his shoulder into the door, biting his lip to keep from crying out at the pain that coursed through his body. He hit the door again and again, until it burst open and he fell onto a pile of boxes and crates that Jessica had obviously pushed there to keep him in the basement.

Pulling himself up, he saw her lying not that far away, unmoving, his phone lying on the ground beside her. He made his way over to her and picked up the phone. He quickly checked the last calls made list and cursed when he recognized the number on the screen: Jason Morgan.

Damn it! He checked the time stamp of the call and saw that it was about an hour ago. Morgan must be on his way now if he had figured out what was going on, and even though Ric despised Jason, he knew Jason was a smart man; he would have to be to have survived in the business this long.

Checking Jessica’s pulse, Ric found a weak one. He didn’t know how much time he had, but he knew it would be risky to finish the job here. He had to take her and mover her to another location. He had to make her death look like accident, one that Morgan and Corinthos can be blamed for. He picked her up and headed toward the front doors, but stopped when he saw the holes in the door. Someone had tried to shoot out the lock to get in.


*~*~*~*~*


Jason, Sonny and Carly made their way into the small office of the warehouse and stopped short as they looked around. Every inch of wall space was covered with pictures. There were pictures of Jessica working at The Cellar, of her walked in the park or on the docks. There were pictures of her with Jason, Carly and Alcazar, all candid shots that were taken without any one’s knowledge.


*~*~*~*~*


Ric quickly unlocked the padlock that held the chains together with the key that he had found clasped in Jessica’s hand. He had thrown her over his shoulder as he opened the lock and pulled the chain free. Dropping them to the floor, Ric hauled open the door and headed out to the car that he had waiting for him. Once inside, he drove out to the cliffs. Getting out of the car, Ric made sure that all the doors were locked and that Jessica was still unconscious before climbing out of the car and pulling out his cell phone.

“If you ever want to see your daughter alive, I suggested you get out to the bluff just outside of town. You have ten minutes.” Disconnecting the call, Ric dialed another number. “Meet me at the bluff outside of town in ten minutes or she dies.”


*~*~*~*~*


Jessica stirred and pried her eyes open. She looked around her and saw that she was in a car. Sitting forward, she could see that the car was parked in a clearing at the top of a cliff. Looking around, she could see Ric standing outside of the car, the phone to his ear. She had no idea what he was planning, but she did know that she was not going to wait around to find out. Very slowly, Jessica lifted the lock on her door and gently eased the door open. She climbed out of the car, staying low so that Ric would not see her and gently closed the door again. She was beginning to feel dizzy again from the blood loss, but she was determined to get out of this alive, no matter what.

There was a cluster of trees and underbrush nearby, and Jessica made her way over to them, hoping to find something to use as a weapon. Looking on the ground, she found a large tree branch. Picking it up, she hefted it in her good hand and turned back to the clearing.


*~*~*~*~*


Ric looked at his watch, it was almost time. He wanted to make sure that both Morgan and Alcazar were there to witness the death of the woman they both loved. If his planned worked, both men would be so overcome with anger and grief that they would kill each other.


*~*~*~*~*


“This is probably a trap Jason,” said Carly quietly as she, Sonny and Jason watched Ric in the clearing. They had arrived before Ric called them, having found his location through Stan, who had been tracing the satellite feed on the phone.

As they watched, Jason saw one of the car doors slowly open and say Jessica crawl out. He pointed this out to Carly and Sonny, all of them realizing that Ric did not see her. From where they were hiding, Jason could see that she was hurt and covered in blood and it took all of his will power not to kill Ric right then and there.

“She’s heading toward the tree,” said Sonny as he watched Jessica. She didn’t look to good and swayed a couple of times. Then he looked back at Ric and smiled at the disheveled and bruised sight of him. Obviously this girl was tougher than she seemed.

Jason saw a car approaching and saw that it was Alcazar. “It’s time,” he said and nodded to Carly, who rolled her eyes and nodded back, the signal to stay put while Sonny and Jason went out into the clearing.


*~*~*~*~*


Alcazar saw both Jason and Sonny coming from out of nowhere and wondered what the hell was going on. He had received a call to come to the bluff if he wanted to see his daughter alive. When he got there, he had seen no one, just a car sitting at the edge of the bluff.

“What are you two doing here?” he asked.

“It seems we got the same message as you,” Jason said, eyes hard and cold as he glared at Alcazar.

“Then where is she?” Alcazar asked, getting more and more suspicious of what was going on. “Who called us?”


*~*~*~*~*


Jessica saw her father, Sonny and Jason standing in the clearing talking, but she did not see Ric anywhere. This had to be a trap. He was going to do something to them and she had to stop it.


*~*~*~*~*


Ric watched the men in the clearing, a smile coming over his face at the thought of eliminating all of them at once. He held the remote detonator in his hand, ready to push the button when he heard a click behind him.

“Don’t even think about it,” said a hard, cold, female voice.














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