Chapter Nine

Sonny returned the bombshell’s cold stare. She really knows how to use those eyes, he thought. “Can you give us some time to discuss it?” he requested, silently praying that she would. He wasn’t sure if this was a decision he could make right now, and even if he could, he wouldn’t want to. This was too big to rush into.

Courtney thought about his request for a moment. “Yes, I’ll give you forty-eight hours to go over it and make your decision. But, after those forty-eight hours, if I haven’t heard anything from either of you, I will pull the leases until I get a real response, so don’t even try that delay tactic.”

Sonny nodded his head. Damn, this woman thought of almost everything and he could tell that she wasn’t afraid to do what she threatened. Might as well go along with it, for now. “How about this, we’ll meet with you n person at 10am on Thursday and let you know, you know, what we decided?”

The young woman took out her appointment book and looked at it, checking to see if she could fit Corinthos and Morgan into her schedule that Thursday. She saw that the 10am slot was already filled; she had a meeting with a Sam McCall, who wanted use of a dock for her boat. Checking the rest of the day, her crystal eyes fell on the 2pm, where she had an opening for them. “I don’t have an opening until 2 in the afternoon on Thursday. Is that okay?”

“Do I have a choice?” Sonny asked, lightly, trying to relieve the tension in the room. It was starting to stress him out and just being in the office was getting to him, this place where the control had completely turned and was in Ms. Matthew’s hands.

“Actually, no, you don’t.” Courtney shut the appointment book after writing in the meeting and got up from her desk just as the phone rang. “Excuse me,” she said before picking up the receiver. “Courtney Matthews speaking.”

Jason turned from the window he was looking out of at the sound of her saying her first name when she answered the call. So, her first name is Courtney, he wondered to himself, looking at her for the first time in almost ten minutes. She wore beige pants and a while button down shirt, with her hair down and hardly any make-up. The way she held herself made her look angelic, sweet, but still confident and strong. Okay, Jason, business first, personal life later. Why did he have to keep reminding himself of that? This needs to stop, now.

“Yeah, okay, can you send them in the mail?”

“Sure, as soon as you can, because I want that here.”

“Okay, I’ll talk to you later. Love you, too. Tell Mandy ‘hi’ for me and I’ll call her sometime this week.”

Courtney hung up with Perry and then turned to Mr. Corinthos. “Sorry about that, it seems I left some things at my home in California and I have to have them sent to me. Now, I think we’re finished and I’ll see you on Thursday.”

Courtney eyes found Morgan, who was looking at her, and saw a splash of sadness and hurt in his eyes and then watched it disappear. What was that about? she asked silently.

Jason had a hard time keeping his emotions under wraps after overhearing part of her phone conversation. She’d told the person on the other end that she loved them. Sure, that could be anyone, but Jason’s intuition told him that the person was male. But, remember, she doesn’t have a ring on her finger, he told himself. What does that prove? Just that she’s not married but that doesn’t mean that she’s available. And, who’s Mandy? Jason’s heart wanted to go ahead and keeping going on and discover what was happening and who these two people were, but he knew he couldn’t. Not now. But he would find out.

“Okay, we’ll see you then.” Sonny was saying as he stood up and shook Courtney’s hand and Jason returned from the window to join them.

“Nice to meet you, Mr. Morgan,” she said to him as he did so, and smiled. The enforcer did everything he could not to look in her eyes as the two of them shook hands, doing their best to ignore the electricity between them, because he knew if he did, he wouldn’t be able to leave. Sonny made his way to the door and Jason followed as Courtney watched him walk away, the muscles in his back tense, even as he walked.

Morgan hadn’t looked into her eyes as they shook hands, but she had looked into his. Something was wrong and she couldn’t help but want to know what it was, so she could make it better for the man she loved. Someday…I will.

Courtney sighed and took the stipulation papers off the desk and started to rip them into minuscule pieces. She had to get rid of that, just in case, because people couldn’t find out that Sonny Corinthos and Jason Morgan were dealing with something that was certainly not coffee. And, even if they did find out, it would not be on her head. There was too much at stake here.

The pieces of paper tossed in the garbage can, the blonde took out her laptop and sat on the couch to check her email. That was her only meeting for today, and she was relieved for that. It had been enough to last awhile.

~*~

Jason and Sonny made their way into the penthouse after the meeting, after asking Marco if Carly was home. She wasn’t, the guard had told them and neither with the boys. Bobbie had taken them to the park to play with Lesley Lu, since it was a rare occasion that the little cousins got to play together.

Sonny took his suit jacket off and laid it on the couch before turning back around and facing his best friend. “What do you think we should do? Trust her?”

Jason knew they could, his instincts told him that they could trust her to keep their secret. She didn’t want to turn them into the police, it wouldn’t benefit her in anyway, and the dark blond told his boss so. “It just wouldn’t make sense. It wouldn’t benefit her. We’re the biggest tenant the company has and if we’re in prison, she’s not in a very good position, either.”

“Yeah, I get that, Jase, but still. Why would she have to know what it is and why is it serious enough to be put into the contracts. Huh?”

“Maybe she’s telling us why, it’s her property and she thinks she has a right to know. I can’t think of any ulterior motive for this, Sonny.” Jason told him, Sure, he thought it was somewhat suspicious that she would create that condition and implant it into the contracts, especially after she said that she’d done some research on them. But, when he thought about it, she’d been in town no more than two days and had no motive besides wanting to continue to run a successful company. There wouldn’t be anything in it for her if either of the men, or both, were locked up.

Sonny walked over to his desk and picked up the receiver of the phone that sat on it and began dialing a number familiar to him. “Yeah, Benny, I need you and Meyer to do a background check and put together a dossier on a Courtney Matthews, formerly from San Francisco. Get everything you can find on her and I want it in my hands tomorrow morning.” Sonny wanted all the information on the woman that they could get before they made any decisions on whether or not they would agree to the stipulations and sign the new contracts. They needed to make sure that she was okay to trust with such information or if she was trying to trap them. One mistake and everything would crumble beneath them and they’d never recover, if they lived.

“Jason, call Stan and tell him I want all the phones in the office of Phillips-Matthews bugged and the phone at Ms. Matthews’ house, too. If she’s working with the cops or not, we’ll be able to find out before the meeting on Thursday.”

Jason grabbed his leather jacket off Sonny’s desk chair and headed towards the door. “Okay, I’ll get him on it. But, you know, I think we can trust her.”

Jason walked out the door, cell phone already out of his pocket, dialing their favorite phone guy’s number.