Prologue
~Metal warehouse on thirty-first street, Brooklyn NY~
She looked up at the madman who hovered over her, with his gun pointed at her head and a crazed look in his eyes. Her whole life was flashing before her eyes as she stared at the barrel of the gun in her face.
Her thoughts should be of her mother who wasn’t even aware that her only daughter was in danger at this very moment, or her brother Marcus who was currently bound and gagged, sitting on a chair behind her. But her thoughts were solely of someone that she thought she had forgotten about a long time ago.
A week ago she would never have thought that her last thoughts on earth would be of a man she had considered to once have been in puppy love with. But here she was, wanting more than anything to be in his arms again and to feel his touch that she had so recently experienced again.
When she closed her eyes and lowered her head, she could almost feel the sensation of having him inside of her like the night before, that heavenly feeling that she couldn’t describe if she tried. Gia kept her eyes clamped tightly shut as she held her breath, prayed to be in Nikolas’s arms and prepared to die.
“I will always love you Nikolas.” She doubted her words were even heard they were so quiet. Gia was vaguely aware that her brother was whimpering at the sight before him, his sister about to be blown away.
“I said five hundred thousand Gia!” Vincent screamed, pulling her out of her thoughts.
“The deal was two hundred thousand! You keep changing your goddamn mind Vincent! I don’t have that kind of money and you know it. Stop fucking with me!!” As she said this, she could almost hear Nikolas chewing her out over her vulgar attitude she had towards the man who held her life in his hands.
“That’s it I can’t take this any more. If I can’t have you no one can. It’s time for you to die you little bitch!” he pointed his gun at her and this time her thoughts weren’t of anything, her hand instinctively flung up to shield her face as she heard the safety of his gun release with a click and then the gun fired.
Part one
~Three days earlier~
Gia paced back and forth with her breathing labored, nervously fidgeting with her fingers as she considered her current situation. She just got off the phone with a man named Vincent Malone and her heart nearly stopped beating when he said the words he had said to her.
“I have your brother, and if you ever want to see him again you will pay me two hundred thousand dollars. You have two days.” She remembered it vividly.
“I don’t have that kind of money Vincent. Please, just bring Marcus back.” She had pleaded with him.
“Give me the money and I will.”
“That’s it I’m calling the police.”
“You do it and I’ll kill him and your mother. This is personal Gia! Your brother killed my brother, now if you don’t give me the money I asked for, I will kill yours. No police. Meet me in Brooklyn for the transfer, leave your cell phone on for further instructions.” He hung up on her after that.
Gia had no idea what to do; she had no one to turn to now, aside from Zander, but she knew that he didn’t have that kind of money. Her mother didn’t have it either, even if Gia told her about Marcus, but she had no intentions of doing that. There was no reason to get her mother all upset over this. She would have to handle this on her own. The problem was the money. Where would she get that kind of money? There was only one person she knew that had more than enough money to help her, someone she dreaded thinking about going to but deep down knew was her only answer. She would have to go to Nikolas.
* * *
Nikolas sat at his desk at Wyndemere, rubbing his temples trying to get rid of his throbbing headache. The women in his life were driving him crazy. His love for Emily seemed to consume his entire being, and his loathing for his wife was even more severe at the moment. It was killing him to see Emily with Zander while he was stuck fighting off the many seduction attempts by Lydia.
“Sir you have a visitor.” One of his employees came up and informed him. He sighed heavily before nodding his head.
“Send them in.”
Two seconds later, Nikolas was looking up at a woman who used to drive him crazy. Normally he would have been happy to see her since it had been so long. However, Gia Campbell was the last person he wanted to deal with right now.
“Gia I don’t have time for another lecture on the way I treat Zander.” His voice sounded irritated immediately. He only glanced at her for a moment before looking down at his work again.
“What?” Gia said absentmindedly as she paced a little, struggling to remain calm.
“I’m tired Gia. Can you please lecture me about Zander some other time?”
Nikolas looked up again, and this time he really looked at her and his heart skipped a beat at her worried appearance.
Gia looked down sadly, fighting back tears. “Yeah I knew this was a bad idea. I’m sorry.” She said in a soft whisper, and then turned around and started to walk out.
Nikolas quickly walked over to her and turned her to face him. “Hey.” He looked at her closely. “What’s wrong Gia?” Gia’s chin quivered and Nikolas’ heart started to pound.
“I need… I need your help.” The tears she fought to gain control over gushed out of her eyes and she began to fall apart. “Hey… come here.” Nikolas quickly took her in his arms.
“What the hell is going on here?” They both turned to see Lydia walking in; her arms were crossed tightly over her chest.
“Lydia I don’t need to explain myself to you.” Nikolas was immediately defensive towards her.
“I think you do. Isn’t this the ex model you almost married? What is she doing here?” Lydia questioned.
Gia slowly backed away. “I was just leaving.” She wiped her face as she turned around. “Gia you don’t have to go.” Nik called after her.
“No forget it.” Gia yelled over her shoulder.
“Gia wait!” Nik yelled, but it was too late, she was gone.
***
Gia closed the door behind her after stepping inside the darkly lit room of her rather modest penthouse suite, that no one ever visited. Overwhelmed with fear, she ran to the bathroom and emptied her stomach, then sat on the floor of her bathroom. She was again lost as to what to do about getting Marcus back. Not many people knew this, but the money she made with Deception did not last very long after she stopped working there. She needed to pay for law school, and for her home. She never wanted to go to her mother for help because she was far from poor, but she simply didn’t have the kind of money she used to have, surely not as much as Vincent was asking for.
Not only was Gia feeling scared and helpless, but also she felt an enormous amount of guilt about this. Since Marcus left Port Charles, she really hadn’t spoken to him very much. The first couple of weeks they had made it a point to call each other often, but Gia soon became distracted with other things and before she knew it, months had gone by and she hadn’t heard from him. If Vincent hadn’t called with the threat, she wouldn’t have had any idea that her brother was even missing.
There was a knock on her door, a startling knock that made her jump slightly. Not only was it loud but also people rarely ever came over, so it made her fear who was behind her door. With her heart hammering against her chest, she slowly approached her door, her fear increasing with each loud thumping.
“Who’s there?” her voice was soft and quivery.
“Gia it’s me, open up.”
She let out a sigh of relief and quickly opened the door.
“Zander.” She whispered.
Zander immediately knew something was wrong with her as soon as he took one look at her.
“What’s going on Gia? Why didn’t you come to the door?”
“I’m sorry I was.. getting changed.”
Zander looked at her closely, taking in her tattered appearance, she looked like she was about to fall apart.
“What’s going on?” he demanded, touching her arm lightly. “I can’t tell you.” Gia looked down at the ground.
Zander reached up and touched her cheek softly. “You can tell me.” He looked into her eyes and said gently. Gia stepped away from him and started up with her pacing again.
“Okay fine, you want to know what’s up? While I was busy running around trying to help you with Emily for the last couple of months, a madman who is blackmailing me now abducted my brother. Incase you haven’t noticed Zander; I’m not exactly rolling in cash right now. I have no one to go to anymore, the one person I thought could help me is too busy being in love with your girlfriend so now I will probably lose my brother and it’s all your fault!” she was in tears now, she needed someone to blame to relieve some of the guilt that was gnawing her.
She stopped to gasp for air and turned to see Zander staring at her. Something snapped inside of her when she looked at him. The fact that he had pain in his eyes made her furious, because she knew that it was because of what she said about Emily and Nikolas and not because of the fact that she was in pain right now.
“Get the hell out of here Zander! I can’t believe I have wasted so much of my time on you. You don’t even like me. You’re just using me because no one else in your life gives a shit about you! Stupid me for fooling myself into thinking that you were a friend! Why don’t you go be with Emily huh? Oh that’s right because she’s in love with my ex!” she spit out her words with fierce venom.
Zander snapped too, he clamped his hand over her mouth and shoved her up against the wall. “Shut the hell up Gia! Shut up!” he screamed. She gave up; let her tears poor down her cheeks and let her knees give out. He let go of her and she slid down to the floor, sobbing as she hugged herself.
“Don’t ever talk to me like that again.” Zander pointed at her.
“Get out.” Gia’s voice was low and gravelly.
“Fine.” He turned and walked out, slamming the door behind him. Gia slumped over to her side and closed her eyes, and a sudden wave of exhaustion hit her and she drifted into sleep.
***
Zander jerked open his door, shocked to see who was behind it, but stepped back to allow his visitor access into his apartment.
“What do you want Nikolas?” he raked a hand through his hair. The scene with Gia had left him feeling nervous. If the stuff she was spewing about her brother was true, he knew that she needed help, but at this point he knew that she wouldn’t trust him.
“Have you seen Gia?” Nikolas asked. Zander stared at him for a long time, studying the face of the man he loathed so deeply.
“What do you care about Gia? Why don’t you do her a favor and just forget you ever knew her? You don’t even care about her so leave her alone.”
Nikolas pushed him up against the wall of his apartment, with anger flashing in his dark eyes.
“You have no idea what you’re talking about so stay out of it! You know nothing about my relationship with Gia so don’t go there if you know what’s good for you. Tell me where she is Zander!” Nik was slamming him against the wall now, and Zander pushed him away. Zander was panting as his eyes fixed intensely onto Nikolas’s dark brown orbs, and his jaw clenched with anger.
“You can’t have Emily and Gia Nikolas! They’re two of the most amazing women I have ever met and they deserve so much better than you. You think that you can have everything you want because you’re a prince but you can’t! Whatever trouble Gia’s in right now I’m sure she’s better off without your help. She’s so much stronger than you give her credit for. She doesn’t belong to you anymore Nikolas so just let her go.”
Nikolas laughed harshly as he shook his head, and then slammed his fist across Zander’s face. “Her address, now.” He demanded.
***
Someone was knocking again and it woke her up, this time it was slightly less urgent, but equally as loud, almost familiar sounding. Gia got up, fixed her hair a little as she sniffled, and walked to the door to see who was there.
“Nikolas.” She mumbled. He smiled at her, a gentle, warm smile that she hadn’t seen in so long.
“Can I come in?” She nodded her head and let him in, and looked up at him when he turned to face her, they stared into each other’s eyes for quite a while until Nikolas looked away for a moment.
“I’m sorry I was such a jerk to you today. I’m just really stressed out right now and I’m sorry about Lydia, she’s quite atrocious.” He stopped and she nodded softly, the troubled look remained in her eyes and it reminded Nikolas of why he had come here, because he had been worried about her ever since she left that morning.
“You said that you need my help, what’s wrong?”
Gia looked down, she was suddenly overwhelmed by many emotions, nervousness from being around him, terrified for her brother. But mostly she was scared he would refuse her cruelly and she was suddenly wondering if she should even tell him about this, but she had no choice.
“I need to borrow some money from you.”
Nikolas was confused, a little disappointed that it was only money she wanted, and then concerned. He looked around her place for the first time since stepping in. It was odd to him that she could have a life that he knew nothing about. This was her home. It wasn’t a cottage or a castle, it was a simple penthouse suite, and it was even a little lonely looking. It suddenly made him very depressed that he knew nothing about her anymore and he felt a lump forming in his throat. He shook his head to clear his mind, coughed to clear his throat and he got a hold of himself.
“How much do you need?”
Gia’s lips parted a little, she was shocked that he would say yes so quickly. “Two hundred thousand.”
His eyes widened in shock. “Are you in some kind of trouble Gia?”
“What do you care?” she quickly replied.
Nikolas smirked. “That sounds familiar.”
Gia glared at him, she sighed as she rested her hand on her hip. “I’m fine Nikolas. Can you give me the money or not?”
“Of course I’ll give you the money Gia.” He moved closer to her and her heart began to pound in a way it hadn’t in so long. “But there’s something you’re not telling me.” Gia closed her eyes briefly at his intense staring.
“I can take care of myself Nikolas, you know that.”
“I know. But you have a tendency to take on more than you can handle.” Gia smiled softly, it felt odd to smile when inside she felt terrified.
“Yeah I do sometimes. But really, you’re life is crazy right now and the last thing you need is to be worrying about me. I’m fine; I just really need this money. Please Nikolas.” There was desperation in her eyes when she looked at him.
He looked down, to avoid the mixtures of feelings that were creeping up inside of him. He pulled out his checkbook, wrote her a check and handed it to her. Gia let out a heavy sigh and wrapped her arms around him, hugging him tightly. Nikolas pulled back, socked at how good it felt to have her in his arms again.
“Thank you so much.” Gia breathed.
He nodded his head and slowly walked over to the door, he turned around and looked at her. “Be careful Gia.” He didn’t know why but he felt like he needed to tell her that.