In
The Sight Of God
Book 3 of The Marriage Series
by
Melanie Walker
Kylie James stared at Emily Cassadine in horror. She couldn’t believe the words that had just come out of her mouth, had, well actually come out of her mouth. Maybe she was hearing things again? God knew it wouldn’t be the first time.
“What did you say?” Kylie asked once she finally got her vocal cords working again. Emily was silently laughing at her. She would pay for that. Evil witch, just because she was happily married she believed everyone else should be as well.
“I said,” Emily started again rolling her eyes as she pressed a hand to her protruding stomach, “you and Lucky are double dating with me and Nik on Friday.” She sighed, she was going to have to go shopping again, every day she grew out of more clothes. Only four months pregnant and she already felt bigger than Wyndemere.
Twins, Nikolas was going to pay for this.
“Okay,” Kylie nodded her head closing her eyes, “that’s what I thought you said, I just wanted to make sure before I talked to Nikolas about having you committed.”
“What? I thought you and Lucky were cool?” Emily questioned as she picked up her water glass. No soda for her, nope. The bodyguards that Nikolas had hired when the whole Gia fiasco went down were not only guarding her now they were keeping track of her food intake as well. She hated to think what Nik was going to say when he found out about the big tub of popcorn with extra butter and salt that she’d ate when she and Kylie had gone to the movies earlier. He would probably flip out. Nik was good at flipping out on her.
“We are, but I don’t think we’re cool enough to date. Besides isn’t he still head over heels for Liz?”
“No, he and Liz have agreed on the just friends thing finally. Besides this was his idea.”
“Really?” Kylie asked doubtfully as she stared Emily down.
“Well, okay I might have used you as a bargaining chip to get him to stop picking fights with Jason. But he wouldn’t have agreed if he didn’t like you.”
“Well un-use me as a bargaining chip. I’m not going out with him,” Kylie stated emphatically.
“Kylie,” Emily said exasperated. “Look he apologized for kissing you, he was drunk, he didn’t know what he was doing. He’s really sorry about it and if you’ll let him he’ll make it up to you.”
“Emily, nothing that Lucky Spencer does is going to make up for what he did to me,” Kylie stated firmly.
**************************************************************************************
“Lucky Spencer open this damn door!” Kylie yelled an hour later as she banged loudly and repeatedly. He was not going to do this to her again. Jerk!
“What is your problem today?” Lucky asked as he jerked the door open.
“You are my problem!” Kylie said angrily as she pushed past him into his small apartment.
“Well great, thanks so much,” Lucky said sarcastically. “Do you want to tell me what’s going on now? Or do I have to guess?”
“I can’t believe that you let Emily talk you into trying to set the two of us up. Are you nuts?!”
“Well I have been told that I’m slightly delusional sometimes, but normally that’s by you so it doesn’t count.”
“Lucky I’m not joking here.”
“Neither am I.” Lucky ran his fingers through his short brown hair. “Look… You won’t answer the phone when I call, you refuse to return my messages. You turn and run in the other direction when I try to talk to you. I tried to apologize and you won’t even listen to me.”
Kylie stared at him before shaking her head and walking to the door, opening it she turned back to him. “You told me that you were over her and that you wanted to move on. I let you keep it a secret that we were seeing each other and that went against every instinct that I had. But when you made love to me you called me her name, you called me Elizabeth. I can’t forgive you for that, I can’t forget that. I’m sorry,” she said softly as she walked away.
“Kylie,” Lucky called after her as he moved to the door trying to catch her. But she was already gone.
Damn, and double damn. When had his life become this screwed up? He meets a nice girl, who adores him, who he really likes and then he screws it up.
Maybe he should ask Nikolas for advice? No, Nikolas would tell Emily and Lucky didn’t want anyone knowing how badly he had screwed things up with Kylie. He would fix this by himself.
He had to.
**************************************************************************************
Kylie tapped her foot as she impatiently eyed her watch again. The plane was late. 30 minutes late. If she wasn’t sure that Damon was a passenger on the plane and not flying off to god knew where again she would be even more pissed.
Emily was sitting next to her in the plastic airport chairs shifting uncomfortably. She should have probably come to the airport alone but it had been almost two months since either of them had seen Damon and Emily had refused to wait at Wyndemere.
“He’ll be here,” Emily said calmly as she crossed her legs, swinging one foot idly. “He wouldn’t do it a second time, not after the tongue lashing he got from us last time.”
“He was supposed to
be here two weeks ago. I swear to god if he got us here only to have gotten off
in
“Relax Kylie, he’ll be here.”
Kylie glanced over at one of her best friends and sighed. Emily was so happy lately, she didn’t want to ruin everything by telling her that she was refusing to go out with Lucky again. Emily couldn’t understand why she didn’t want to and Kylie didn’t want to crush this budding matchmaker vibe she was emitting.
Emily thought that
she and Lucky would be perfect together. Maybe they would have been if Lucky
hadn’t called her
“It’s just he’s pulled this before, got us all the way to the airport and then got off the plane somewhere else and called with some lame excuse,” Kylie said frustrated as she stood. The attendant had just announced that his flight had arrived and was now pulling into the gate.
Emily moved to her feet as well and they hovered near the seats waiting as the attendants went through their motions. When the passengers began disembarking she twisted her fingers together nervously. Kylie was right. Damon had pulled this one time to many, if he wasn’t on this plane she was going to join Kylie in lynching him. Screw her blood pressure.
She had always
thought that Kylie losing Damon in
Literally.
When Kylie had said
that Damon was worse than a child she had not been exaggerating. He had a habit
of wandering off. Sometimes in the middle of conversations. Two weeks prior he
had gotten off the plane during his layover in
Emily had been frantic with worry, Nikolas had been furious because Em was frantic with worry. Kylie had just nonchalantly shrugged it off. She was used to Damon’s squirrelly behavior. She didn’t have to like it but she was used to it.
Even with Emily listing all the things that could have happened to him. The horrible ways that he could have been murdered or kidnapped Kylie had remained calm. Just reiterating over and over… he’ll call with an excuse.
And he had. He had followed some girl he had thought was cute and the next thing he knew he was renting a car and spending two weeks at her parents.
Kylie just shrugged and reminded Damon that he had to be back before classes started so she could kill him.
Emily broke into a huge smile as she caught sight of Damon. Waving enthusiastically at them dodging around his fellow passengers as they disembarked he was certainly a sight for sore eyes. Maybe he could figure out why Kylie was so reluctant to double with her and Nik.
Kylie rushed forward leaping at him as she threw her arms around his neck. He laughed at her as he hugged her tightly. Emily held back waiting patiently as they hugged and kissed. Grinning like a mad woman the entire time. Out of the corner of her she could see her bodyguards shadowing her.
She’d almost
managed to get rid of them after the whole Gia thing ended. But at the time
Zander had still been making a nuisance of himself. By the time the Zander
issue was dealt with they’d decided to stay married and she’d found out she was
pregnant. Then
The only time she was alone was when she was on Wyndemere. And even there she had to put up with Stefan. Stefan who was even more over protective than Nikolas if that was even possible.
She adored Nikolas’ uncle. She really did. Stefan was a wonderful man and a great uncle-in-law. But he really needed to get a life before she killed him.
When he had found out she was pregnant he had started doing research on the proper health and nutrition for pregnant women. The menu at Wyndemere had been changed to reflect it. He continued to leave her little pamphlets and printouts documenting well-known activities for producing healthy and happy babies.
It had only gotten worse since they had found out she was expecting twins.
At least it was only Stefan right now. Nikolas was over protective as usual, but she was used to it from him. It appeared that Alexis was just a snowballs throw from joining in. She had been buzzing around more frequently than usual. A lot of that probably stemming from the fact that her new found sister was spending a lot of time with Ned.
If Alexis joined Stefan and Nikolas in worrying about her health she was going to have to leave. She just couldn’t handle the three of them together as well as be pregnant.
“And how is our lovely mother to be feeling?” Damon asked as they rejoined her. He pulled her into a warm hug before bending to her stomach. “And how is our new one? Don’t forget we have a date for sky diving,” he whispered to her tummy. “Putting a little weight on aren’t we,” he commented.
“Twins,” Emily sighed as Damon straightened.
“Twins?” he asked in amazement.
“Twins… they’re going to be the death of me.”
“You’re not having fun?” Damon grinned at her.
“It’s been horrible,” she complained miserably.
“Ohhh,” Damon lopped an arm around her shoulder, his other going over Kylie’s as they began walking. Emily’s bodyguards walking along beside them. “Why don’t I buy you a shake and you can tell me all about it."
“Only if it’s low fat vanilla,” Scott piped in from his position beside Kylie.
“Low fat vanilla?” Damon blanched. “What’s the point of having it?”
“Exactly what I’ve been saying,” Emily muttered.
“Ky what are you doing?” Damon asked with mock disapproval. “You’re supposed to be helping Em out over here, how did you let Nik get so much control over her diet?”
“Like I have any influence over what Nikolas Cassadine does,” Kylie laughed. “Besides it wasn’t Nikolas that put Em on the new diet, at least not directly.”
“It wasn’t?” Damon glanced over at Emily who was shaking her head frowning. “Than who…”
“Stefan,” Emily grumbled. “He’s taken over my food… I can’t eat anything good anymore,” she whined pathetically.
“How ‘bout this,” Damon whispered conspiratorially into her ear. “I’ll share my burger and fries with you if you tell me the real reason you’re trying to set up Kylie and Lucky.”
“I heard that,” Kylie muttered.
**************************************************************************************
Emily leaned against the table heavily, one hand cupping her face she stared with avid fascination down at the burger and fries lining Damon’s plate. Her fingers were itching to hook onto one of those French-Fries but with the commando squad sitting directly behind her she was unable to.
If she so much as licked the salt off one of them they would probably helicopter Stefan in to yell at her.
“So tell us about this girl you thought was more important than us,” Kylie murmured laying her head against his shoulder as she watched Emily’s eyes follow Damon’s hand from his plate to his mouth.
“I did not think she was more important than you guys… it’s just I could get lucky with her and well…” he waved between them. “I’ve got pictures.”
“You’ve got pictures of you getting lucky with this girl?” Scott asked with interest from the next table over.
“No… I’ve got a video of that,” Damon grinned widely at both Kylie and Emily’s frowns winking at the bodyguards. “I’ve got pictures of the girl though… she’s okay I guess.”
Emily jumped when she felt Damon’s hand tap her knee under the table, with a conspiratorial grin he slipped her a French fry under the table and Emily flushed as she saw Kylie watching with a bemused expression.
“Hey,” Emily turned in her seat. “Could one of you get me a glass of water after all?” she asked brightly. David and Scott frowned at her suspiciously, but not seeing anything sitting on the table in front of her they as one to flag down a waitress totally missing Emily popping the French fry into her mouth. Closing her eyes she savored the salt on it, when she opened them again both Kylie and Damon were smirking at her. “What?”
“Nothing,” Damon laughed. “So who’s bright idea was it to set up Kylie with Lucky?” he asked changing the subject. He felt Kylie stiffen next to him and he patted her knee in what he hoped was a reassuring manner.
“It was Nikolas’ actually. But Lucky didn’t seem to think it was a bad idea, plus he’s really sorry about the whole kissing incident.”
“I bet,” Damon said with raised eyebrows, he cast a quick glance at Kylie who was sitting stone faced, her posture rigid.
“I need a bathroom break again,” Emily sighed tossing the napkin that she had been shredding on the table. “I can’t wait to give birth,” she muttered as she waddled away.
“I can’t believe that you haven’t told her yet,” Damon hissed at his best friend glaring down at her as she slunk down in her seat.
“I think Em’s got enough stuff to worry about, besides what was I supposed to say… Oh by the way the guy that you’re trying to set me up with, I’ve been secretly dating him and we just broke up because he called out his ex-girlfriends name while we were making love… Yeah that would have gone over well,” Kyle snorted.
“Well you don’t have to be that harsh. But you need to tell her something, she’s supposed to be your friend. Lucky is supposed to be her best friend…” Damon stared down at her. “Why were you keeping the fact that you were dating a secret anyway? Emily and Nikolas would have been thrilled to find out you two were seeing each other.”
“I’m not sure,” Kylie sighed, resting her head in her hands she closed her eyes. “It’s just… well it wasn’t dating when it started. We were both just lonely while they were on their honeymoon and started doing stuff and it kind of segued into dating. Then Nik and Em came back and Em kept trying to set us up and Nik kept making comments about how we weren’t each other’s types or some crap. How we couldn’t possibly be interested in each other because we’re such different personality types so we decided not to say anything. Then he said Liz’s name and in actuality it all probably turned out for the best.”
“Except for the fact that Em and Nik have decided that you’re perfect for each other and are now trying to set you up with each other…”
“Yeah well except for that…”
“You need to tell her before Lucky breaks down and tells Nikolas.”
“Lucky won’t say a word to Nikolas,” Kylie glared over the cup she had raised to her lips.
“I beg to differ. He’s working with them to try and get you on a real date, if he thinks it’ll help his cause he’ll tell Nikolas.”
“Who’s going to tell Nikolas what?” Emily asked walking back up to the table. Sliding back into the booth she looked expectantly at Damon.
“Your bodyguards are probably going to tell Nikolas that you slipped off your diet.”
“Not if they don’t find out they won’t,” Emily snickered. “So are we done?” she glanced down at Damon and Kylie’s empty plates.
“I guess,” Damon shrugged. “Why?”
“Because I want to
take a quick jaunt to the mall before we head back out to Wyndemere and I
promised Nikolas I’d be home by
“The mall? I don’t want to go to the mall,” Damon said with wide eyes. “We have Kylie with us, we’ll be there forever.”
“No we won’t,” Emily assured him. “Kylie doesn’t need anything and I know what I want, we’ll be in and out in less then 20 minutes.”
“Can we leave Kylie in the car?” he asked hopefully, ignoring the scowl that Kylie shot at him.
“No, I promise we’ll be right in and out.”
“Yeah right,” Damon muttered. “Not if we take Kylie in with us we won’t.”
Kylie smacked him in the arm as Emily laughed. Twisting in her seat she tapped David on the shoulder. He turned to face her his expression causing her to laugh. She had not forgotten how much her guards hated this restaurant. Not only because it was difficult to protect her in but because of the food they served.
“Please tell me we’re done?” he asked pleadingly.
“Where’s your sense of adventure?” Emily grinned playfully.
“I think it died a quick death when the smell of the grease from the kitchen clogged my arteries.”
“Poor baby,” Emily patted him on the back. “You can have my salad when we get back to Wyndemere.”
**************************************************************************************
Nikolas gawked at the young man fidgeting in the doorway to his office. Clearing his throat he smiled as his eyebrows raised.
“Lucky.”
“Hey… Em around?” Lucky glanced around the room not focusing his attention on Nikolas yet.
“No… she went to the airport with Kylie to meet Damon’s plane.”
“Oh is he coming in today? I thought he…” Lucky glanced up at Nikolas in surprise flushing when he saw the questioning expression on his brothers face. Running a hand through his hair he sighed.
“He promised that he would be on the plane. I haven’t got any calls from Emily telling me to call out the guards yet so I’m assuming that he arrived as scheduled… What do I owe the pleasure of your visit?” Nikolas leaned back in his chair studying Lucky as he moved into the room.
“I actually kind of wanted to talk to both you and Emily together.”
“Well they should be here soon, Damon and Kylie are staying over so you’ll have a chance to attempt to make a good impression on her… Unless you want us to stop trying to set the two of you up. Kylie doesn’t seem too thrilled with the notion.”
“Yeah I know,” Lucky muttered as he sank down in one of the chairs situated in front of the desk Nikolas was sitting behind. Sprawling out in it he tapped his fingers against the arms before looking at his brothers interested face. “I made a mistake.”
“What kind of mistake? I mean we already know about you kissing her when you were drunk… we caught you.”
“This is something else,” Lucky murmured. “If I tell you this, you have to promise not to say anything.”
Nikolas leaned forward, propping his elbows on the desk his studied his brother. “I can’t promise not to tell Emily I tell her everything.”
“Everything?”
“Well not everything, but almost everything,” Nikolas admitted. “Does this have anything to do with why Kylie refuses to go out with you?”
“Yeah… you see…” Lucky sighed. “We were kind of dating.”
“What? How can you be kind of dating? You guys aren’t even that good of friends.”
“Do you want to let me tell you this or are you going to jump to conclusions?” Lucky glared at him, Nikolas made a motion for him to continue and leaned back in his chair, his expression unreadable. “We were dating, secretly. We didn’t tell anyone. And it was all going good and then I went and did something stupid.”
“What did you do?” Nikolas asked quietly, he had an inkling of what was coming. “It can’t have been that bad,” he said trying to give his brother the benefit of the doubt.
“Well we kind of slept together and I…” Lucky stared down at the floor his face flushing even hotter. “I kind of called Kylie by Liz’s name,” he mumbled quickly.
Nikolas stared at him in disbelief. Well of all the things he had expected his younger brother to say he hadn’t been expecting that. With a loud sigh he ran his hand over his face. Now everything made a little more sense. “That’s why Kylie’s refusing to go out with you… isn’t it? It’s not because of the whole kiss episode it’s because she thinks you’re still hung up on Liz.”
“Yeah… I tried to tell her that I’m not, you know explain what happened but she won’t listen to me.”
“And you came to me for… what?”
“I want you and Emily to help me prove to her that I’m over Liz and ready to move on.”
“You do know Em is going to be pissed at you right? She thinks of Kylie like family and you just did something to really hurt that family.”
“I know… I really like Kylie, I know I screwed this up bad and I’m trying to make it right.”
“I’ll try to help,” Nikolas shook his head. “But I really don’t know what you expect me to do.”
“I don’t either… but hey I feel better knowing that someone else knows what’s going on.”
“Right… until Em gets home and I tell her and then she kills you.”
**************************************************************************************
“Mrs. Cassadine?” Andreas hovered at the door, hands clenched together he waited for her to acknowledge his presence. She had her back to him, staring out at the sunset.
“Is everything set?” Helena Cassadine turned in her chair. Facing him she clasped her hands together on the desk.
“Yes ma’am.”
“Good,”
She smiled as she stared at the sunset that was illuminating the sky. It was pinks and reds tonight. A very pretty one indeed if she cared about that type of thing.
At this moment she had only one thought on her mind. Nikolas had taken a wife several months earlier and her contacts in Port Charles indicated that the young woman was finally with child. She vaguely remembered Emily Quartermaine. Hadn’t spent that much time getting to know the girl when she had been just friends with her grandson. She had been unimportant at that time.
But now that she was his wife. Now that she was a Cassadine and with child…
It was high past time that she met her new granddaughter. High past time to welcome her to their family.
**************************************************************************************
“So what do you think?” Emily held the two shirts that she was still deciding on in front of her. Kylie cocked her head, pursing her lips as she studied them.
“The blue I think,” she said as she turned back to the rack she had been rifling through. “You do realize that we’ve been here for more than 10 minutes right?”
Emily glanced down at her watch, wincing as she folded the shirt she was buying over her arm and moved towards the register. “I know… but Damon always makes us wait around for crap we don’t want.”
“Is this payback
Em?” Kylie grinned walking alongside her to the front of the store.
“What do you think?”
Kylie laughed as she crossed her arms over her chest. “You’re bad.”
“I know,” Emily sighed as she handed over her charge card. “But how many times did we end up getting dragged to the airport only to find out that he was staying wherever he was?”
“Too many times,” Kylie muttered.
“Exactly,” Emily grabbed her bag, walking out of the store with Scott trailing behind them “So turnabout is fair play.”
“I don’t think he’ll see it that way.”
“He’s not supposed to.”
Kylie shook her head, scuffing her feet as they walked.
“Do you think I’m stupid?” Emily said suddenly. Kylie looked over at her in surprise.
“What? Em if this is about that Accounting final…”
“No… it’s just I have to wonder it sometimes. You either think I’m stupid, or you think I’m blind or something.”
“I don’t think you’re any of that. You’re a highly intelligent young woman…”
“You don’t have to stroke my ego, I’m not feeling insecure,” Emily grinned.
“Then why would you…?” she asked suspiciously.
“Well I’m just wondering when exactly you’re planning on telling me about you and Lucky… I mean I know that Damon knows everything that happened and I’ve managed to piece some stuff together from the clues and stuff but I’m getting tired of pretending that there’s no friction between the two of you…”
“Its not a big deal,” Kylie muttered as she looked down at her moving feet. Damn, damn, damn.
“It has to be… the way I figure it the two of you must have split up…even though you really can’t have been together for very long. Lucky probably did something stupid, most likely something to do with Liz but it could actually be anything. You took exception to it and the two of you broke up. Now Lucky’s decided that he wants you back or together or something and you’re holding a grudge… How close am I?” Emily turned to watch one of her closest friends’ scowl at the ground.
“Pretty damn close.”
“So do you want to fill in the blanks? Or do I continue to use my imagination?”
“You’ve pretty much got it all already,” Kylie sighed. “Well except for why we broke up… that was sort of because of Liz.”
“What did she do?”
“Liz? She didn’t do anything. It was Lucky… he… uh… well…”
“Just spit it out… I mean I already figured that you guys were sleeping together.”
“Christ you’re like a pit bull…” Kylie dragged a hand through her black hair. “Yeah we were sleeping together, he… well he… he called out Liz’s name… you know during….” She flushed linking her arms together over her stomach.
“He didn’t.”
“Yeah he did… I got pissed,” she glanced over at Emily meeting her sympathetic eyes with her own pain filled ones. “I cared about him, you know. Not just because he was one of your best friends and Nikolas’ brother but because he was a nice guy… or so I thought,” she muttered as an afterthought.
“Did you guys talk about it?” Emily placed her hand on Kylie’s shoulder squeezing lightly.
“No… I haven’t really talked to him since that day… you know unless you guys force the issue. Or he does.”
“So that’s why you won’t go out with him.”
“Yeah… pretty much.”
“Do you love him?”
“Em!”
“Well I think it’s a valid question,” Emily said defensively waving her arm.
“I don’t know… I thought I might, but…”
“But what?”
“But then he said Liz’s name and kind of ruined everything… maybe it’s all for the best,” Kylie shrugged.
“I think you should talk to him,” Emily said quietly glancing out of the corner of her eye at one of her closest friends. “Maybe he has an explanation for what happened…”
“What? Like he saw Liz outside his window when we were having sex? Or he suddenly remembered something he needed to tell her right in the middle?”
“Okay so maybe he won’t have a good explanation… but I still think you need to talk to him.”
“Maybe,” Kylie sighed. “It’s probably about time I put some closure on that relationship.”
“That’s the spirit,” Emily grinned, the grin fading into a frown as she was stopped by a man standing in front of her. “Excuse me…” she said politely attempting to inch past him.
“Mrs. Cassadine?” the young man, smiled at her as her frown deepened.
“How…?” Emily glanced nervously around for Scott, spotting him clearing a path in front of them he was unaware that they had been stopped.
“I need you to come with me please,” he said quietly holding his hand out to her.
“I’m sorry but I’ve already got bodyguards,” Emily stated backing away, Kylie had one hand on her arm attempting to grab Scott’s attention from where he was in front of them.
“I’m sorry but I’m afraid I simply must insist,” the young mans smile faded as he drew a small pistol from his pocket. “You know orders and everything.”
“I…” Emily’s eyes widened as she placed a hand protectively over her stomach, eyes flickering between the gun and the stoic face of the man holding it pointed at them. “Why?” she whispered as her other hand reached out to grip Kylie’s hand.
“Mrs. Cassadine would like to have the opportunity to talk with the young woman who will be giving birth to the next line of Cassadine heirs,” he motioned for them to turn and pressed his gun into the small of Emily’s back as they walked away from Scott. Kylie cast a desperate glance back and saw him looking around with frantic eyes for them. His eyes widened when he saw them being led away and he began following at a discrete distance.
“Why doesn’t she just pick up a phone?” Kylie asked snidely.
“Kylie,” Emily muttered under her breath as she squeezed her arm.
“You know you don’t need to be here for this,” the young man smiled thinly. “Mrs. Cassadine didn’t say anything about bring friends along.”
“If you think I’m
going to meet
“Excuse me I think those are my charges,” Scott tapped the young man on the shoulder, falling into a defensive stance as he swung around.
“You’ve been relieved of duty,” the man smiled, a single discharge of his weapon propelled Scott backwards. Hands flew to his stomach, coming away stained with blood his horrified eyes locked on Emily’s equally horrified ones.
“Emily…” he murmured before he crumpled to the ground.
“Oh my god,” Emily gasped backing up slowly shaking her head. Kylie stood in shock staring down at Scott’s fallen body, eyes wide with in her dismay.
“Move!” he ordered swinging back around.
“You killed him,” Kylie said softly her eyes filling with tears, when she attempted to move forward her arm was grabbed and she was shoved back next to Emily. “Hey!”
“I said move,” the man said coldly. Emily’s eyes flickered over to where Scott lay unmoving before her hand latched back onto Kylie’s arm the two girls backing away.
Nikolas’ name was the last thought on her mind as they were led away.
**************************************************************************************
Nikolas glanced at his watch before seemingly relaxing back in his chair. He was trying to emit an image of a calm and peace.
It wasn’t working.
In front of the desk Lucky paced a path, glancing at his own watch and grimacing.
“Maybe Em decided to let Kylie do some shopping?” he offered trying to interject a note of light humor into his voice.
They were all well aware of Kylie’s shopping habits.
“No, not with Damon with them,” Nikolas replied.
They were also all well aware of Damon’s responses to Kylie’s shopping habits.
“Anything?” Stefan entered the room slowly. He had gotten tired of waiting in his office waiting for news that hadn’t come yet.
None of them wanted to voice worse case suspicions.
But it was getting
to the point where they would need to be investigated. The Emily, Kylie, Damon
and the bodyguards were over an hour late arriving on the
“Have you called the mall where Emily was going?” Stefan asked perching on the corner of Nikolas’ desk. Linking his fingers together across his legs he was pleased that it stopped the shaking.
“No answer,” Nikolas muttered running his fingers through his hair. “This is ridiculous,” he snorted as he reached for the phone. All three men jumped when it rang loudly disturbing the silence of the room.
Nikolas reached for it with a heavy heart. His eyes meeting first Lucky’s then his uncles. “Hello?” he said quietly, unable to keep the faint trembling quality from it.
“Nikolas? It’s Damon,” came the almost frantically quiet voice from the other end.
“Damon,” Nikolas breathed a sigh of relief as both Lucky and Stefan visibly relaxed. “Emily didn’t let Kylie…”
“We’ve got a problem,” Damon cut him off sharply.
“What kind of problem?” Nikolas asked even as his face whitened and his grip on the phone tightened. He rose to his feet as his eyes locked on Stefan’s. When no answer came from the other end panic filled every bone in his body. “Damon where the hell is my wife?!”
“We don’t know,” Damon said softly. “Scott’s on his way to the hospital and Emily and Ky are missing.”
“Wh-aaat?” Nikolas managed to utter even as his vision blurred. He leaned heavily on the desk one hand gripping the edge. He barely acknowledged Stefan and Lucky moving around the desk to his side. Lucky pulling him away pushing him down into his chair even as Stefan took the phone from his unresponsive hand.
“Damon? This is Stefan Cassadine… what’s happened?”
“Nikolas?” Lucky murmured as he knelt before his brother. “Nik?!”
“They’re gone,” Nikolas said absently. “They’re both gone,” his voice broke as his hands came up to cover his face. “Emily’s gone.”
“They’re not… dead?” Lucky asked in horror his eyes meeting Stefan’s over Nikolas’ shoulder.
“No,” Stefan said softly when Nikolas didn’t respond. “They were taken by force from the mall. Scott’s on his way to GH they don’t expect him to survive or wake to tell us who took them.”
“I can tell you who took them,” Nikolas murmured harshly.
“Nikolas you have no proof of that,” Stefan laid his hand on Nikolas’ shoulder. A staying influence as Nikolas ceased his moved to rise.
“
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TBS…