Chapter 29

Liz pulled out two small backpacks and packed some cloths for both her and Lucky.

“What are you doing?”  Lucky asked coming into the bedroom.

“I’m packing what we are going to need.  Don’t worry I remember what you taught me about how to pack if your on the move.”  Liz continued to pack.

Lucky looked at her in awe.  He took her hands and sat her down on the bed next to him.  “Liz you know I love you, and that’s why I don’t want you to come.  This could be dangerous and I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“No way.”  Lucky opened his mouth to say something but Liz silenced him by placing a finger to his lips.  “Last year when you went to the warehouse to fine Erin, I was so worried I didn’t know if I would ever see you again. And I made a promise to my self that I wouldn’t let myself go though that again.  So no matter what you say I’m going and there is nothing you can do about it.  So just stop arguing and check to see if I packed these right.”  Liz said sternly pointing him towards the backpacks.

“Have I ever told you that you are the most stubborn person I know?”  Lucky asked shaking his head defeated.  He stood up and went over to the backpacks to make sure she had everything.

Liz snuk up behind him, rapped her arms around his waist and rested her chin on his shoulder.  “That’s what you love about me.”  Liz whispered into his ear.  “So?”  Liz asked sitting down on the bed next to the backpacks, and looked up with a playful smile.

“So what?”  Lucky asked distracted, the feeling of her breath still lingered in his ear.

“How did I do?”

“Do with what?”

“With the packing silly.”  Liz gave him a little shove.

“Oh that, you packed like a pro.  But then again, you learned form the master.”  Lucky joked. 

Liz lightly punched him in the side.  “Do you have all your computer stuff packed?”

“Yep, I’ve got everything.  We should be getting over to Jason’s.”  Lucky zipped up the bags, pulling his over his shoulder and giving Liz her’s.

“Before we go I have to do something.”  Liz headed over to the phone.

“What?”  Lucky asked.

“I have to make a few calls so Gram and Ruby don’t get worried.”  Liz dialed her grandmother’s number first.  “Hey Gram…yah…listen Lucky and I are going out of town for a few days…I don’t even know, he said it’s a surprise, but I’ll give you a call…okay we will…love you too.”  Liz then dialed Ruby’s number.  “Hey Rube…no everything is fine.  I just wanted to tell you that Lucky and I are going out of town for a few days, I didn’t want you to get worried if you didn’t see me or Lucky around…yes I will…see you when we get back…bye.”  Liz hung up the phone and looked up at Lucky smiling.  “Ruby wanted me to tell you to behave and to bring me back in one piece.”

Lucky couldn’t help but give a little chuckle.  “Okay, come on, we don’t want to keep Sonny weighting.”

 

Everyone arrived at the pent house and were ready to go with five minuets to spair.  Sonny had called Luke and he even called Jax (against his own better judgement).  Jax offered to fly then wherever they needed to go.  Luke convinced Sonny that the easiest way to travel would be to use a noncommercial plane, that way there would be no records of passenger names.  Jax could just say he was on business and no one would think twice.  Sonny just kept his mouth shut.  They were in the air and on their way within an hour.

Everyone was silent on the plane.  Lucky kept his nose in his computer trying o dig up anything he could on Michel Delgoto.  He couldn’t find anything on Michel before he entered Charlie’s organization five years ago.

Nikolas spent his time brushing up on Italian.  Jax and Jerry were in the cockpit flying the plane.

Purato

Erin was wondering around the mansion aimlessly.  She had made her way into the basement, and was walking around looking at old paintings and things that were stored down there.  The basement was not what she had expected, the walls and floors were stone, in some arias there was moss growing on the cold damp stones.  There was only one bare light bulb in each of the small musty rooms.  She was surprised that Mickey was giving her run of the house, she hadn’t seen him sense he had arranged for them to have lunch together.  In the far back of one of the dark musty rooms Erin found another pile of portraits covered by a tarp.  These were more recent then all the rest she had seen, these were only about twenty years old wile many of the others seemed to be from the civil war or before.  The first picture was of a woman that looked familiar, she had graying blond hair and steel blue eyes; eyes that Erin knew.  Erin picked up the picture and turned it around hopping to find a name, but what she found was a hand written note:

My dear, I hope these will make your new home feel more like ours.

Mother

Erin flipped through the other pictures and found another one that looked familiar.  She pulled out the two pictures and placed them side by side.  Erin couldn’t place the two so she continued to look at the other pictures, on the very bottom of the pile she found a portrait of a family.  There were five people in the picture the man and woman she recognized were in it along with two other men and one of them was holding a toddler.  The woman along with whom Erin guessed was her husband were standing behind the two other men sitting on old style chairs.  Erin looked at the chairs; “They look like something out of Wyndemere”.  Erin’s smile faded when she realized what she had just said.  The chairs in the picture were from Wyndemere, she remembered that Nikolas had pointed out the dinning room set on the main floor, he had told her that it had been in the family for generations and that they had been hand made for the family; it was a one of the kind.  Then the faces clicked, Erin looked back at the portrait of the woman.  Erin’s breath caught in her throat and for a moment it felt like her heart would stop beating.  The woman was Helena.  And the other man was a young Stefan.  But how could that be, the note on the back of the painting was signed ‘Mother’, and Helena had only two sons.  Erin quickly put the portraits back and hurried back up the stairs.

Erin slipped back out into the yard.  It was dark out and clouds were beginning to cover the sky.  Erin looked at her watch, it was near 11 at night, she had spent most of the day and a good part of the night in the basement.  She sat down under a sad willow tree and closed her eyes leaning her head against its rough surface she wished she could fall asleep and just never wake up.  The noise of footsteps caused Erin to stand up and search the darkness with her eyes.  A moment later she saw the shape of a man standing about 100 feet in front of her; he seemed to be looking for something, or someone.  Erin slid father into the safe darkness under the tree to keep from being seen.  She knew the person was most likely a guard sent out to locate her and take her back inside.  The sound of heavy security-guard boots hitting the ground came toward her hiding place, she held her breath and sat like a statue, afraid to move for fear she might some noise and be found.  The guard turned around. Apparently deciding that she wasn’t there.

When she could see nor hear him anymore, Erin stood up and sighted in relief.  Just then a hand clasped securely over her mouth, Erin froze, if it was a guard then there would be no use in trying to fight, but if it wasn’t then she might have a chance at defending herself.  Right when she was getting ready to take the chance that this was a stranger a formialer voice hit her ears.

“It’s okay Erin.  It’s just me.”  The hand let go allowing Erin to turn around to see Robin behind her.  Robin was dressed head to toe in black, even down to black gloves, she was carrying a small black bag with her.  She was virtually invisible in the night.

“What are you doing here?”  Erin asked in a hushed voice.

“No time to explain.  Put this on and follow me.”  Robin opened up the bag and pulled out a black jumper.

Erin pulled it on and followed Robin as she slipped silently through the trees.  They seemed to be going forever along a winding trail until they got to a high stone wall.  Erin was about to start climbing when Robin gave her the no signal.  She then pointed to a tree growing near the wall, it’s long limbs extended up and over the wall.  Robin started up it first and Erin followed.  They got to the top of the wall and edged their way along the branches over the wall.  Once they had cleared the wall Robin signaled for Erin to stop again.  She opened up her bag and pulled out a rope, the ground was too far down to jump.  She tied one end of the rope to the branch and lowered herself down it, once she as halfway to the ground she signaled for Erin to do the same.  The rope ended about four feet from the ground and they had to jump the rest of the way.  When they were safely back on the ground Erin looked to Robin with a confused expression.

“Why didn’t we just clime the wall?  It would have been quicker.”

“Because, the wall is wired to detect weight changes.  They would have know what was going on before we reached the top.”  Robin explained in a whisper.

“Oh,” was all Erin could say before they were blinded with floodlights.

“Well done.   But I would have thought that you would check for cameras before you started.”  A group of men stood around them aiming riffles at the two women.  “You look formiliar my dear.” The speaker of the group walked over to Robin.  When he got into the light they could see that it was Michel Delgoto.

“Ever heard the name Lavery?”  Robin thought it was a better idea to use her stepfather’s name.  It was widely known in the underworld.

Delgoto’s eyes grew large with recognition.  “Yes.” He answered carefully.

“That used to be my name.”  Robin informed him.  That wasn’t really true, she had never adopted her stepfather’s last name.

Delgoto’s eyes grew even larger at this statement.  He looked at the woman standing before him.  Could it be?  Right eye color, right hair, same spunk, and she carried the sense of a woman who knew how to deal with people like him.  But he couldn’t believe it; she had died years ago in a boat explosion, but some how he had to believe her.  This was Anna Devane, the once wife of Duke Lavery, and twice the wife of Robert Scorpio.  Delgoto stood staring at her, she looked amazing, but then again, she had always been beautiful but this was unreal, she looked like she was in her early twenties, when if fact she sould be some where in her late to mid forties.  “This is indeed a pleasure to have the world famous Anna Devane.  But I must say you are getting a bit forgetful with age.”

“Well you know when one is out of circulation one tends to get a little rusty.  Now if you don’t mind we will be leaving.”  Robin took hold of Erin’s hand and began to lead her away from the group of men.

“You don’t think that I would let you leave that easily do you?  Come, I don’t wish to make this unpleasant.  If you would, follow me.”  Delgoto led them back into the house.  Erin wanted to protest but Robin looked at her in a way that told her to follow Robin’s lead.  Delgoto called one of his servants to him.  “See to it that Miss Devane gets a room set up for her.”

Robin figured if she was going to use her mother’s name then she might as well act like her.  “Set me up in the room next to Miss Brown’s.  I don’t want to have to walk halfway across the moon just to get to her.”  Robin addressed the young woman that Delgoto had been talking to. 

She looked confused, like she didn’t know weather to do as Robin had asked her.  She looked to Delgoto for conformation.  “Anything that Miss Devane wants, make sure that she gets it.  Including the room next to Miss Brown.”  Delgoto turned to Robin after the servant left.  “I wouldn’t want you to say that I wasn’t hospitable to my guests.  Now if you wouldn’t mind Miss Devane, I would like to ask you a few questions.”

“Go ahead, and call me Anna.”  Robin said giving Erin’s hand a reassuring squeeze.

“Yes of course, Anna.  Fist why is it that you wanted Erin?  What good is she to you?”  Delgoto asked coldly.

“Old friends.”  Was all Robin would answer.

“How do you know her?”  Delgoto was getting tired of being sociable.

“All you need to know is that we are old friends.”  Robin looked at him as to say no more questions.  Delgoto was clearly unnerved when he realized that ‘Anna’ was not afraid of him and that she wasn’t afraid of anything.

“Okay then, we’ll finish this tomorrow, it’s late and both of you need your sleep for tomorrow.”  The servant girl had returned and was standing patiently off to the side.  “Ally, show Miss Devane to her room.”

The girl obediently let the two women up the stares.  Once out of earshot of Delgoto Robin turned to the girl.  “Ally, right?”

“Yes ma’m.”  Ally answered quietly.

“Do you mind if I ask you a question?”  Ally didn’t say anything; she just nodded her head.  “Why do you work for such a tyrant?  I’m sure there are better things you can do.”

Ally looked around to make sure that no one else was present.  “Mr. Delgoto has my father working for him, he said he would have him killed unless I worked for him too.  There is nothing else I can do.”

“Yes there is, if you will help us.”  Ally looked into her eyes not sure if she could be trusted.  “You can trust me.”