Chapter 21
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"So..." Jax breathed as he closed his eyes.
"So..." Keesha pushed her hair back and gave his navel another hard
suck. His abs tightened, and then a shudder went through him as once
again her hair fell, tumbling softly onto the side of his stomach.
Forcing himself to swallow, he pushed her hair back this time. "So."
Jax asked again, regaining control of himself.
"Um..." Keesha looked up at him. "I forgot." her eyes sparkled
mischeviously as her hand pulled back the comfortor, exposing him.
"Keesha..." Jax took her hand quickly before she had a chance to touch
him. "Come on...focus. This is important."
"Fine." she groaned. Keesha sat up in the bed, looking down at Jax's
body once more. She traced the outline of his torso with her
fingertips. "Why does it matter anyway?"
"I need the distraction."
"I'm not a good enough distraction?" Keesha teased with a faux pout.
"You aren't with me all day long. I need something tangent to work on.
So?..."
She sighed. "I was thinking that....maybe Elizabeth is the key....in
fact I would bet on it."
"Why?"
"Why? If you..." she quit speaking and looked to the ground.
"If I?"
"If...if something happened to you..." Keesha knocked on the mahogoney
desk nightstand next to her out of habit. "...knock on wood. And I
thought you were...gone, but you weren't. After getting over the
initial joy of having you back, I would want to know where you were all
this time. Wouldn't you? Take Miranda. You know what happened to
Miranda right?"
Jax didn't answer.
"Did I say something wrong?"
"No." He stated softly. Jax sat up in the bed, swinging his legs over
to his end and placing his feet on the floor. He looked out his side
window, not wanting to look at Keesha. "I didn't want to know what
happened to Miranda."
"Why not?" Keesha knelt in the bed, and came up behind him, resting
her hand against his back.
"Because I didn't want to know what my family had done, why they hid
her from me. At first I did, but...in the end, no. I didn't want to
know. It made life a lot simpler when I was in the dark, even though I
was angry that they put there. That's why, when I couldn't be in the
dark any longer, I was so upset. I was more than angry at them, I was
angry at myself...because I let them." Jax cleared his throat and got
up. "That's one of the reasons anyway."
"What were the other reasons?"
Jax shrugged, walking towards the window. "Trust. I trusted them
fully, even when I kind of knew I shouldn't. And they shattered that
trust, whatever their reasons...." his voice trailed.
"Jax..."
"But." he turned around with a smile. "All of that is water under the
bridge. " he came back over to the bed, kissing Keesha quickly.
Keesha turned and watched as he walked over to the closet, looking
through his clothes absently. Continuing in his cheerful tone, he
added, "We're fine now, they don't lie to me anymore, not about the
important things at least. And, yes, I know what happened to Miranda.
I know why she hid from me at least, and why my family helped her. As
for why she was...hurt in the first place, why she was where she
shouldn't have been, *that* I don't know. Probably never will. My
family doesn't know...except perhaps Jerry, she may have told him. But
I try not to have serious discussions about Miranda with Jerry. Why
fight over nothing." Jax settled on a green shirt and brown slacks.
"Back to Elizabeth. So you want to what?"
"I don't want to do anything. I just think she's the best way to find
out why Miranda is here now, why she came for Lucky..."
"You think she came for Lucky?"
"I think it's the safest bet."
Jax nodded and waited for her to go on.
"I think the best way, is to see what Elizabeth knows, or finds out.
It will give you something to do while we wait on Alexis to give me
that information...I wonder what's taking that so long."
"I wouldn't count on Alexis for awhile." Jax admitted.
"Why?"
Alexis made a copy of her note to herself for Justus' file. *Pending*
was all it said.
Her mental thoughts were much more elaborate. It wasn't safe to give
Keesha the information as of yet. She hadn't been married to Jax for
one month before she was held hostage at Luke's. Granted, that
probably had nothing to do with Jax, but Justus made her promise, that
Keesha would be protected before she got the information. And right
now, she wasn't so sure Jax could do that.
She'd give it a little more time.
"So you think...."
"I doubt Alexis is in a rush to give you anything since I've taken such
good care of you."
"This is not your fault..."
"I know. It's Sonny's fault. That's why I need the distraction of
Miranda. Because without it, I would focus all my attention on getting
away with his murder."
"Jax, you don't really mean that."
"I don't?" Jax laid his clothes across the chair and walked into his
bathroom to shower.
"Enter..." Katherine Bell looked up from her desk. "Oh, right on time
Keesha...I haven't been able to give my personal congratulations yet."
She came from behind her desk, extending her hand.
"Sorry, I kind of hurt my right hand."
"Oh...oh yes. Is it bad?"
"No, just some swelling, internal bruising. It's fine, Tony says the
bandage can come off in a week."
"A week? Can we postpone the photo shoot until then?"
"Photo shoot?"
"Oh come on. I am the proud new owner Jacks Cosmetics...now that Lucy
has been otherwise occupied. It's amazing how much can change in a few
days, isn't it?"
Keesha smiled as she thought of Jax. One day, she was sharing a hotel
room with a virtual stranger durring a blizzard. A mere few days
later, and she felt closer to that stranger then she had ever felt
towards anyone. "It is amazing."
"Keesha..." Katherine sat on the edge of her desk. "You are the
current...I'm sure *permanent* Mrs. Jacks..." Keesha faked a laugh and
rolled her eyes when Katherine wasn't looking. "You would be pefect
for the Spring campaign."
"But isn't Jacks Cosmetics part of Deception now? Technically there is
no Jacks Cosmetics."
"Yes, but the new slogan is *A real woman is a Jacks of all trades,
including a mistress of Deception.* Great isn't it? It was Nikolas'
idea to keep the Jacks Cosmetic users happy, to show our respect." she
gushed.
Katherine and Nikolas Cassadine. On and off for 3 years almost.
Keesha took it they were *on* once more. "It has an interesting ring
to it, but I don't think..."
"We'll give part of the proceeds to your favorite charity."
Keesha sighed. She already knew she was going to do it. She knew
Katherine would ask, because she had pitched it to Jax already. Right
now, Keesha was feigning disinterest because she knew it was expected
of her. One thing Katherine was, was observant. She couldn't afford
to do anything uncharacteristic.
"I don't know..."
"I bet you Jax would love it..." she sung.
Keesha looked up at her. "You think?"
The receptionist tried not to stare as Jax walked around the lobby of
Deception. "Excuse me..."
"Hmmm...I'm sorry, yes sir."
Jax smiled brillantly at her, walking over. "Do you know how long my
wife has been in to see Ms. Bell....we have a dinner date."
"And she's keeping *you* waiting?"
Jax laughed. "You flatter me. I suppose once you slip a ring on
someone's finger, she forgets all about you. I bet you do it to your
husband all the time."
"I'm not married." she blushed.
"Really?" Jax looked down, and after a second noticed that her hand
was free of a wedding band. "That's surprising. Am I bothering you?"
"No...no sir."
"Good. I just have one last question. Where is the restroom?"
"All the way down the end of the hall, past Nikolas Cassadine's office."
"Thank you. If my love comes out, can you please ask her to wait for
me, here. If that's not a problem."
"No sir...that's not a problem at all."
Jax smiled again and then headed down the hall, slowing as he started
past Nikolas' office. He had noticed Nikolas' phone line extension was
lit when he took a survey of the frony area, under the guise of
interest in the receptionist's marriage status. Maybe if he was lucky,
Nikolas was on the phone with Elizabeth, discussing that very person.
"...I can do that...sure....I understand, I'm somewhat curious
myself....okay...goodbye Elizabeth. Tell Lucky I love him." Nikolas
hung up the phone and looked up. He thought someone was around, but no
one was there.
Jax stood in the restroom, looking at his refelction in the mirror.
Just as Keesha thought. Elizabeth was curious about what had happened
to Lucky.
Which meant he would soon find out what had happened to Miranda.
And eventually he would know what in the hell she wanted from Jerry.
If anything.
Jax put down his wine glass and looked across the table at Keesha.
"Are you bothered by this? Becaause there's other ways I can find out."
"I'm not doing anything. I'm just going to ask around while I have
access to Nikolas. It's not like we pushed Elizabeth to have him
look....though perhaps I should have gone into the private investigator
business." Keesha grinned "It seems all I do lately is run around
trying to get information on someone."
Jax laughed. "Fair enough."
Keesha used her fork to swirle her pasta around on her plate. If Jax
was right and Miranda was using Jerry, she had a feeling there wouldn't
be any laughter for awhile. For Jax or his brother. "Babe?"
"Babe? Wow, I've been upgraded..."
"I'm serious."
"You're always serious. But go on."
"I hope you're wrong...about Miranda. I hope that she doesn't want
anything from you, or Jerry."
Jax stared into Keesha's eyes. "Me too." he mouthed. "But I'm not
counting on it." he mumbled out loud, taking another bite of his dinner.
Shani
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