It had been a long time since Jason Morgan had felt the kind of pure anger that raged through him at the moment and that seemed to overflow when he looked at the silent and sullen young women sitting next to him in the backseat of the limo.

The intensity of his feelings took him by surprise even as he tried to figure out why he felt so strongly. Too many times over the last few years he’d lived his life with a remote casualness, a strange diffidence that characterized how he reacted to almost everything. He’d watched with an almost blatant disinterest as his wife drifted from affair to affair, not even blinking an eye when the latest and most torrid had been with his best friend and business partner, Sonny Corinthos. He’d watched dispassionately as they buried his brother, ignoring the rumors that had flown about how his and Carly’s relationship had driven AJ to drink. He’d stood by calmly and let them commit his sister to the sane asylum which still gave Carly nightmares.

Yet here he sat feeling the urge to murder someone simply because they had hurt a young women he barely knew and didn’t even pretend to understand.

He wasn’t even sure who he most desired to kill. The general who had orchestrated the violent acts which had destroyed a young girl’s innocence. Or the parents who had shifted their responsibility as parents on to the shoulders of a teenage girl, leaving her drowning in a guilt which wasn’t hers.

Damn her parents. Damn them. How could they let her make that decision to stay? If they’d had any guts, any sense of integrity, they’d have dragged Sarah out of that damned village. Whether she wanted to go or not.

But then these were the same parents who had just handed the raising of their teenage daughters over to a relative while they went traipsing around the world.

Jason swore inwardly. He wasn’t being fair, but he knew he wasn’t all wrong.

The bottom line was that the one who was the least to blame was the one who was shouldering all of the blame and all of the guilt.

His fist clenched and his jaw tightened as he he sat in stony silence as the limo approached Harborview Towers.

Just as the limo pulled up to the curb, he reached forward and placed his hand on Sarah’s shoulder, lightly but without a hint of casualness.

“Sarah?”

She turned to look at him, blue eyes filled with a loathing he wasn’t sure was directed inward or at him. “Don’t touch me.” she hissed sharply as she moved to open the back seat door.

He backed slightly off as he followed her to the swinging doors of the lobby.

“Sarah,” he tried again. “We have to talk.”

She whirled on him so fast he found himself backing slightly up. “No...we...don’t.” She carefully emphasized each word, hating the fact that this man, this man she didn’t even like or respect knew her secrets, knew almost everything about her. Why the hell had she felt such a compulsion to tell him, as if telling him could somehow begin to make things okay?

When was she going to learn that for her things would never ever be okay again?

Angry and frustrated, Jason grabbed her arm tightly and forced her to look at him. “We can’t pretend that nothing happened.”

Her eyes were cold and hostile. “Let go of me Morgan or I will kill you. Kosokov or no Kosokov.” She smiled. “And I might even enjoy it.”

Before Jason could reply, the door to the elevator opened and Jagger stepped off, an expression of frustration, anger, and relief crossing his face when he spotted them.

“Where the hell have you been?”

“Shopping,” Sarah said glibly and lightly. Casually, she steered Jagger and Jason back on to the elevator and waited for the doors to close before turning on Jagger. “What the hell are you doing? No contact in public. You have no idea who could have been watching that little seen just now.”

“Oh I have a pretty good idea of who was watching,” Jagger said harshly. “The same guy who’s waiting for you upstairs.”

Sarah paled and found herself clutching the handle of the elevator for support. “He’s here?” Her mind whirled. “He’s early.”

“Somehow I don’t think he cares.” Jagger replied.

Jason leaned over and pressed the stop button on the elevator before turning to Jagger. “Are you saying that Kosokov is here?”

“Oh it’s worse than that,” Jagger said softly. “Not only is the murdering bastard upstairs making himself at home in your living room but guess who is serving him tea and cookies?”

A sinking feeling was starting to develop in the bottom of Jason’s stomach.

“Please tell me my housekeeper is back...”

“No such luck.” Jagger paused. “Guess again?”

“Bloody hell,” Jason shoved his thumb against the button to get the the elevator going again. “I’ll kill her.” He stopped. “After I kill him.”

This time it was Sarah who grabbed Jason. “Don’t be a fool Morgan.”

The blue eyes that turned on Sarah were furious. “Emily is my sister.”

“Nice of you to finally remember that.” Jagger made no attempt to disguise the sarcasm in his voice.

“Shut up Cates.” Sarah and Jason’s voice sounded in unison before Sarah continued. “None of us wanted Emily involved in this, but if Kosokov has already met her and you run in there half cocked and make him suspicious, Emily’s isn’t going to be the only dead body tomorrow morning.”

“What do you suggest? That I let my baby sister play hostess to a madman?”

“Look, I don’t like it any better than you do. But Emily can handle herself. You and Kosokov are supposed to be partners. You go in there and treat him like an enemy and this whole thing blows up on all of us. I’ve waited too long for Kosokov to be this close to have you screw it up now.”

“What are you suggesting? That Emily be the bait in your little trap?”

“No way Sarah.” Jagger protested.

“Both of you calm down.” Sarah shook her head. “Jesus, the testosterone level in here is almost suffocating. Emily is in there. We go in. You play nice. Thank Emily for welcoming Kosokov. We engage in some meaningless chit chat for a little while. Emily goes home. The plan goes on exactly as we talked about.”

“I don’t like it.” Jason said flatly.

“I don’t care.” Sarah’s voice was equally flat. “One way or the other I’m going to kill the bastard. The question is are you going to see your son again?”

Jason looked at her long and hard then nodded. “But if anything goes wrong and that bastard gets the chance to...if Emily gets hurt...”

“Don’t sweat it.” Sarah was far more composed outwardly than inwardly as she stopped of the elevator and headed toward Jason’s penthouse. “In the next 24 hours either Kosokov dies or...”

She didn’t need to finish the sentence as she turned and headed towards the penthouse door.

Her hand stilled on the door as a wave of nausea overtook her. She didn’t want to go in there. She didn’t want to open the door. Hell at this moment all she wanted was to be anywhere doing anything other than this.

Okay almost anything.

Come on Sarah, she whispered to herself as she literally forced her hand to turn the knob. This is the moment you’ve been waiting for. This is why you joined the Consortium. This is why you haven’t killed yourself a dozen times over in the last four years.

The chance to kill the bastard who had destroyed her soul.

She took a deep breath. She wouldn’t be afraid. She wasn’t afraid. She wasn’t the same naive teenager whose biggest problems revolved around cute guys and stupid crushes. The ring on her finger gleamed in the light, it’s golden lion symbol staring back at her. She’d earned that ring. She’d earned her place in the Consortium. They’d taken her in, helped patch together her broken body, and then had reshaped that body into an agent who could kill as easily as other agents blinked. She’d sold whatever remnants of her soul remained for the information and the training the Consortium had given her. All of it, all of the danger, the intrigue, and the death had been building like a crescendo towards this moment.

So why the hesitation? Because once she opened that door she’d be looking into the eyes of the man who had haunted her every waking moment and tortured her each night.

The man she was going to kill.

“Sarah?” She heard Morgan whisper and felt his hand almost tender on her lower arm. In another lifetime she could even convince herself she heard concern in his voice.

Another lifetime. Not this one.

Steeling herself, Sarah brushed aside her doubts and using one hand to embrace Morgan with the familiarity of a lover she opened the door and stepped through.

Inside the penthouse

During her stint in Ferncliff, Emily Quartermaine had learned a lot about herself, most of it not very good.

She’d acknowledged that she could be very stupid, her never ending cheerleading of Jason when she was in high school had been proof positive of that. She’d also learned that she was a survivor, of course the fact that she’d manage to survive losing her mother and then being adopted by the Quartermaines with her sanity intact proved that, if you were willing to overlook the fact that she’d spent most of her formative years as a drug addict and had attempted suicide twice by the time she was 21, the second almost successfully. But what she had really learned was that she was good at camouflage, good at being whatever people expected her to be. She could adopt personas as easily as some people adopted stray dogs from the pound. Someone actually looking at her. Someone who could see the real her. And that was what Emily avoided like the plague. Emily wouldn’t, couldn’t let that happen. If someone knew you, knew the real you, then your relationship with that person would be real too. And when that person left you as Emily had learned long ago always happened, the pain would be real.

So Emily had spent her life putting on an act. Pretending. Playing at her life. Rebellious teenager one moment, sugary sweet girlfriend the next. Whatever the occasion demanded. Whatever role the other person wanted her to play. Gawky teen. High flying model. Naive and trusting girlfriend.

None of them had been the real Emily. Hell most of the time she wasn’t even sure there was a real Emily underneath all of those personas.

Still, the years of practice made it possible for Emily to play the role she was playing at the moment. Brainless twit.

She could almost swear she had played this role in a movie during her heroin period. Wasn’t it one of those slasher movies? The kind where some incredibly unbelievable killer takes out the entire teenage population of a town before some idiot catches on that axes embedded in heads is not a normal cause of death.

Not for the first time since she had left Ferncliff, Emily wished she was high again. Smiling a fake smile and trying to make small talk with a cold blooded killer would be a lot easier, not to mention less nerve wracking, if one was flying as high as a kite.

As it was, stone cold sober Emily could feel the nerves standing on end as she faked a giggle at Kosokov’s lame jokes.

The man was probably a whole lot better at killing people than he was at telling jokes that were old when Jerry Lewis first told them 50 years ago.

Come on Jagger. You should have found Jason by now.

“You seem nervous, my dear?” Emily swore inwardly as Kosokov turned to the door with a suspicious glare. “Is something wrong?”

Placate him Em. The last thing you need is for him to think anything is out of the ordinary. She smiled widely. “No, not at all. I’m just running a little late for a dinner engagement.”

Kosokov smile was more like a leer as he leaned closer to her, his eyes raking her up and down. Undressing her. Making her feel dirty. She tried to hide the shiver but she wasn’t quite successful and she could see the gleam in his eyes turn to lust. “A beautiful young women like yourself must have quite a full social calendar.”

Emily inched backwards. “Not really,” she laughed trying to sound casual. “I’m taking a few classes at the university this term and that keeps me busy.”

“Smart and enchanting.” Before she could withdraw it, he picked up her hand and brought it to his lips. “We must spend some time getting to know each other before I leave.”

The sound of the door opening interrupted them and Emily breathed a sigh of relief as she saw Jason standing there, Sarah wrapped around him and Jagger standing a few feet behind. Emily ignored the look of fury in Jagger’s eyes as her eyes met Jason’s, her nervousness and her rising fear easily read by her brother.

Playing his role carefully, Jason disengaged himself from Sarah’s embrace and strode forward to greet Kosokov. Mentally, he pictured himself smashing the general’s face in even as he held out his hand to the former Soviet military officer.

“Jason Morgan,” He said in his usual cool and detached manner. “I apologize for not being here but my partner and I were not expecting you for another day or so.”

“I like to surprise people,” Kosokov studied Jason intently. “Where is your partner?”

“He had some...shall we say business to deal with in Puerto Rico.” Jason lied glibly even as he walked over to the bar and poured himself a drink. “I can assure you that Sonny and I are full partners. I have his full authority to make any decisions and oversee any details.” He sipped the double martini. “Shall we discuss the details of the transfer?” He turned to Emily. “Emily, I’m sure you understand our need to talk business in private.”

Emily was about to pounce on the excuse to leave when Kosokov interrupted.

“We have plenty of time to discuss business Morgan. Right now your sister was about to give us the pleasure of her company for dinner.”

“She can’t do that,” Jason’s automatic response drew a sharp glance from Kosokov. “I mean,” Jason paused thinking furiously. “Don’t you have to meet your fiancée? Something about wedding plans I think.” Jason turned to Jagger. “Stone will drive you home in the limo.”

It took Emily a moment to catch on. “Right.” Emily grabbed her purse and turned to the general. “It was nice meeting you and...”

“Wait!” The command startled the room into silence. “After all of your hospitality in entertaining us while we awaited your brother’s return, I cannot let you just leave.” He paused and then grinned twistedly. “I know. To thank you, you and your fiancée shall be my guests at dinner tonight. We shall go to the finest place in town.” He turned to Jason and Sarah almost in an afterthought. “You are invited also of course.” Then he turned back to Emily who was desperately trying to think of ways to get out of this.... “All you need to do is to call your fiancée...I’m sorry what was his name?”

Afterwards Emily would admit that only she could make a complicated situation even more complicated.

“What?” She asked the general, her mind still trying to figure out how to avoid the dinner.

“Your fiancée. What was his name?”

Emily stared at him aghast. A name? Who? “Nikolas. Nikolas Cassadine.” She blurted out the name before she could think.

“Excellent. You and this Nikolas shall be our guests of honor at dinner tonight.” He turned to his assistant and whispered something. “We will leave now and check into our hotel. But we will be back later to pick all of you up.” His eyes locked with Emily’s like a mouse bird staring at a cobra. “I especially look forward to getting to know you better.” He paused. “And your fiancée of course.”

And after he had left, there only a stunned silence echoed