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Chapter 5
Gia looked at the three people sitting in her living room, their attention
focused on her and she wished Nikolas wasn’t so far away. Liz sat with
arms folded across her chest, head tilted to the side as she leaned back, half
on a sofa pillow and half on Lucky’s shoulder. Her body language
practically screamed, “I don’t care what you say, I don’t trust or like
you”. Gia returned her gaze, keeping her expression blank.
Lucky prompted her again, “You should tell us what you’re thinking, Gia, if
we’re going to help you.” He brought his arm up to drape it
possessively around Elizabeth’s shoulder and waited.
“I don’t think you need to help me,” Gia answered, her anger starting to
bubble. “I didn’t ask for help and the last time you came up with a
plan, it involved freezing a dead body and hauling it around town looking for
some drug-dealer’s car to dump it in. James Bond, you’re not, okay,”
she finished wishing she’d kept that last statement to herself.
Lucky opened his mouth, a reply ready, but Elizabeth beat him to it.
“Nikolas asked us to be here and this is his house so I’d quit the attitude,
if I were you.” Her eyes shone bright with hostility and Gia was taken
aback by the ferocity in her voice. She was ready to respond that
Nikolas didn’t call Liz nor ask her to be there but she persuaded herself not
to be baited and turned her attention to the third member of what she was
beginning to see as her audience/jury.
Emily sat on a chair, hugging her knees as she waited patiently for Gia to
begin. But before she could start, Gia had to know something. “Why did
you come here, tonight, Emily? You knew Nikolas wasn’t here.”
Emily shot Elizabeth a quick glance and seemed to consider her answer for a
moment.
“I felt badly about the way I treated you earlier outside Kelly’s,” Emily
answered. “You wanted to tell me something and I blew you off and that
just wasn’t right. I wanted to tell you that and that I’ve had a lot
on my mind; I don’t treat people like that, normally.”
Gia nodded in understanding meeting the girl’s gaze, and cut swiftly to the
heart of what was on Emily’s mind. “Zander?” She asked and caught
the look that Lucky and Liz exchanged but ignored them. “I know you’ve
been working pretty hard to help him get out of jail.”
Emily said nothing but the sadness in her face revealed the depth of her
feelings for the man they’d all worked so hard to put behind bars. Gia
wondered if Lucky, Liz and Nikolas knew or cared why Emily was so devoted to her
quest to save Zander. The least she owed this girl was an explanation and
though she continued to keep Lucky and Liz in her peripheral vision, when she
spoke it was directly to Emily.
“It’s ironic, actually,” she began. “What I wanted to talk to you
about was my part in this whole fiasco you’re involved in. It takes me a
while, sometimes, to say stuff that I know I have to say. It’s just that
I need to work things out in my own head before I share it with anyone else, you
know?” She hadn’t expected an answer but Emily nodded encouraging her
to continue.
“It’s been a long time coming, but what I wanted to say, finally, is that
I’m sorry,” Gia said. “I’m sorry I blackmailed you, I’m sorry I
ever got involved in this mess and I’m sorry for my part in that train wreck
of a plan your friends cooked up,” she couldn’t resist adding that last bit.
“When I left Columbia, it was mainly because I didn’t want to be there in
the first place and because I wanted to be closer to my brother. My hope
was that I’d be able to live with him and figure out what I wanted to do next.
I’d been thinking of getting away from New York City for a long time, but when
I finally did, it was because I had to.” She stopped to take a sip of
her water and compose her thoughts.
“Last semester was a bad one for me. I won’t give you details about my
courses but I was hating school and started spending time with a girl in my dorm
that ran with kind of a wild crowd. She introduced me to this guy, Matt
and we began dating. By the time I realized he was bad news, I’d already
been seeing him for two months. It turned out he owed some people money
and these people aren’t the type you mess with. They worked him over,
once, in front of me and I called it quits on the spot. That wasn’t for
me, you know. I may have been rebelling a little but I’m not stupid.
I didn’t see him again but I heard from some people that he’d skipped town.
A few weeks later, one of the guys he owed money to tracked me down and wanted
to know where Matt was. It seems there was this matter of ten thousand
dollars to be settled. He was harassing me pretty regularly after that but
I couldn’t do anything about it. At first, I thought, he’d just get
tired of listening to me tell him I knew nothing and he’d go away. I
didn’t want my mom and brother to find out I’d exposed myself to trouble
like that so I gave him whatever money I had hoping he’d leave me alone.
A week later, he was waiting for me outside class. I told him to get lost
but the next morning my roommate found two of her car tires slashed. By
then, I felt things were getting out of control and it got worse when he told me
if he couldn’t find I’d have to settle Matt’s debt myself. There was
no reasoning with him and I felt like everything was out of control, so after
finals, I got up and split. I headed for Port Charles but he found
me almost immediately. That scared me enough to make a bargain with him
and buy myself some time. He agreed to give me a week to get him half what
Matt owed and he promised he’d call it even.
That night at the rave, I didn’t know what I was going to do but I saw Emily
and recognized her from the society pages; that’s all Mrs. Oleary likes to
read and she always told me about the Quartermaines and how rich they are.
When I saw Emily leave with Ted I just followed, I don’t even know why but
sitting there in that parking lot I was feeling pretty scared and well, you know
the rest. I got the money to Brad and he promised we were done.”
Gia stopped and looked at Emily who was looking back at her with eyes wide, her
expression riveted.
“I’m sorry, Emily, but it just came to me as a way to get this guy off my
back and I figured you were so rich you’d probably not even miss the money so
… I did what I did. I was in a bad jam and I know what I did was
wrong but I did it and I’m sorry,” Gia managed to get all that out in one
breath and waited. She brought her hands up to rub her temples; her head
was pounding and she wished she could just make them all disappear so she could
crawl into bed, but Elizabeth’s voice cut through the silence and into her
thoughts like a blade.
“Why should Emily forgive you? You got yourself in a mess and then kept
digging deeper, taking more and more people with you as you went. Now,
you’re dragging Nikolas into more problems by living here; people are breaking
into his home and God knows what else you have up your sleeve.”
“I have nothing up my sleeve, little Miss Perfect,” Gia snapped back,
standing suddenly. She walked to the fireplace and leaned against it,
trying to keep from unleashing her temper on Liz. “You all asked me to
tell you what I knew and that’s exactly what I did. One thing, though, I
still don’t understand why you’re here,” she said turning on Elizabeth.
“Why are you here?” she asked again.
“Because I care about Nikolas, he’s my friend. He also happens to be a
kind person who can easily be taken advantage of by someone who’s as good at
lying as you are.” Elizabeth’s look of satisfaction at having gotten
that off her chest was short-lived as Lucky spoke for the first time since Gia
finished her story.
“I’m not convinced the guy who broke in here tonight has anything to do with
Gia’s past,” he said.
Gia and Elizabeth looked at him questioningly but Emily didn’t seem surprised
by his statement. Elizabeth pouted with dissatisfaction and Gia had the
completely inappropriate thought that it must take Liz hours to get her lipstick
on every day.
Lucky continued. “There may be another suspect, here, and I think
that’s what Nikolas is thinking too. Does Nikolas know about this Brad
guy?”
“No,” she answered. “I haven’t told him yet.”
“You and Emily both said the intruder was probably over thirty years old and
Gia, you said he didn’t look like anyone you’d ever seen before, right?”
“Yes, that’s right. He was wearing dark clothes, a black jacket about
hip length with a belt around his waist and a knit hat. I think he was
wearing gloves too, but I’m not sure about that. He had a really thin
face and heavy eyebrows. His eyes were dark but I couldn’t see the color
of his hair. I think he was wearing gloves but I’m not sure.”
“I am,” Emily spoke up. “He was definitely wearing gloves. No
fingerprints, right?” She looked at Lucky as she said this. “I mean,
that’s what you were thinking?”
Lucky nodded.
Gia came back to her chair and sat down. She ignored Liz completely and
asked Lucky, “Who do you suspect?”
“Helena,” was the reply. Lucky paused. He ran one hand through his
blonde hair making it stand up in more directions than usual and disengaged
himself from Elizabeth. He leaned forward resting his elbows on his knees
and when he spoke to Gia his eyes were focused on something far away that no one
else in the room could see.
“I’m not discounting what Gia’s saying, but I have a feeling Helena is
behind this. She’s been maneuvering against Nikolas for a long time and
she’s gotten a lot worse lately. We have to wait until Nikolas gets here
before we can decide what to do.” He turned to look at Elizabeth and
Emily. “Both of you have to get home. Emily, can you get Reginald
to pick you up and drop Elizabeth off at Kelly’s?”
“I’ll call him,” she said and picked up the phone from the coffee table.
“What are you going to do, Lucky?” Elizabeth whined.
Gia winced at Elizabeth’s voice and wondered if Lucky’s hearing was impaired
in some way that protected him from that high-pitched meowling
“I’m going to wait for Nikolas,” Lucky said “I told him I’d stay
until he got here.”
He got up and gently pulled Elizabeth away from the group, speaking to her in a
whisper by the front door while she stood with her hands on her hips.
Gia waited for Emily to hang up and decided to try once more. “I’m
really sorry, Emily. I realize you probably wouldn’t have gotten mixed
up with Zander if it hadn’t been for me. There’s nothing I can say
right now that would make things better but…” she trailed off, uncertain of
how to continue. She resumed her study of the beads on her sweater.
“I appreciate that you finally told us what led up to your blackmailing,”
the younger girl said, measuring her words carefully. Gia looked up and
waited. Emily’s voice was soft and sad, “I’ve made mistakes too,
stuff I’m not at all proud of. One of them was losing control the way I
did that night at the rave; I should’ve just gone home but then I wouldn’t
have…I don’t know. Who knows what would’ve happened? That
night was jinxed from the start, I think. We’ll leave it at that,
okay?”
“Okay,” Gia said. “Thank you.”
Lucky and Elizabeth were still standing by the door talking when Reginald pulled
up the driveway. Lucky opened the door quickly and called to George who
had come to stand on the porch.
“It’s okay, George,” Lucky told him. “Emily and Liz are going
home. I’m going to stay until Nikolas arrives. Can you continue to
keep watch outside?”
“Yes, sir,” the man replied. “I just spoke to Mr. Cassadine.
He’s out of the city and on 287 now. He expects he’ll be home within
the next three hours.”
“Thank you, George,” Lucky said and ushered the two girls out the door and
to the car. Kissing Elizabeth good-night, he spoke softly to her and
brushed her hair from her face. Watching from the doorway, Gia felt
fatigue come over her so suddenly she thought she might black out. She
turned and went back inside. Lucky closed the door and joined her in the
living room.
“Are you all right?” He asked.
“I think so. I’m just beat that’s all and worried. Do you
really think Helena would go so far as to hurt me just because she doesn’t
like Nikolas disobeying her?”
“She’s done worse for a lot less,” was his response. “I think
Nikolas will have to be the one to explain Helena to you.” Lucky yawned
and stretched his arms over his head. “I’m going to get something to
drink and wait here for him. You should get some rest,” he told her.
“Yeah. I’m going upstairs,” she agreed. “Lucky, thank you.
I appreciate you not coming down on me the way Liz did. I really believed
this guy was out of my hair forever; it wasn’t my intent to involve your
brother in any danger.”
With that she made her way upstairs and into her bedroom. Once inside, the
fatigue and stress from the evening came at her so hard and fast she barely made
it to the bed. She fell on it, exhausted and pulled the covers over her
and was asleep almost immediately.
Chapter 6
Rubber
Ducky Main
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