Chapter 9
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"Sleep well?" Jax looked up from his newspaper as Keesha came in from
the bedroom.
"Yes. And you?"
"Like a baby. I went ahead and ordered something, I hope you don't
mind." Jax watched as Keesha sat down at the table.
"I'm not really hungry, but thanks anyway." she smiled at him and then
reached over the table to pour herself a cup of coffee. Jax watched
her, wondering if he should say something about what happened last
night. And as he thought, he realized he wasn't really sure of what
happened last night.
Whatever it was, it was nothing....technically. Nothing happened...but
yet something had. He sighed deeply and went back to reading the paper.
He didn't know what had happened. How do you talk about something if
you don't have any idea of what you're talking about.
Keesha looked up at Jax's sigh. His head was buried in the newspaper,
must be something he read. In any event, she knew that whatever had
transpired between them last night, was, as she thought about
constantly from the safety of her bedroom, a figment of her
imagination. She had to make sure not to take Jax's niceness and
stretch it to make it more.
Keesha excused herself and went over to the table to answer her ringing
phone. "Hello?"
"I haven't had one drink all day. So how's the weather."
Keesha glanced over at Jax who was still engrossed in the day's
business section. "Fine."
"Will you listen now?" AJ sat down at the bench. "You have that block
on your phone I see. Where are you?"
"If I wanted you to know, then there wouldn't be a block on my phone."
"I haven't seen Jax around lately. Is he with you."
Jax watched as Keesha went into the bedroom.
"Why should I answer that?"
"How serious are you?"
"Again, why should I answer that."
Jax finished his breakfast and went to Keesha's door, sitting on the
floor and listening.
"I have something to tell you."
"Make it good AJ. Because my patience with this conversation is just
about worn."
Jax shook his head.
AJ decided to just say it as quickly as possible. "Ned says that Jax
has taken an interest in you since you've come back. If that's the
case, then it's because he knew about the ELQ transfer."
"How would he know that?" Keesha sat down on the bed and listened
carefully, hoping that she would be able to pick up something from this
otherwise pointless conversation.
AJ smiled. She was asking questions. That was good. It meant she was
listening. "Because it was common knowledge in the circle-the business
circle."
"Since when were you part of the business circle?"
"I'm not...and even I knew it, you've got to know that if I knew it
than Jax knew it."
Jax eased up from the floor. AJ knew something...what was it that he
knew?
"I have to go..." AJ said softly as Jerry came downstairs to the dock.
"Will you think about what I said."
"Yes, I will give it serious thought." Keesha hung up the phone and
left the bedroom. "Jax?" she called. But there was no answer.
"Make this fast AJ." Jerry waited.
"Fine. Ned is a pain in my...side. What would it take for you to get
rid of him?"
"What would I get out of it. ELQ stock perhaps?"
"No. But name another price."
"There is no other price. I want into ELQ."
"Isn't Jax currently working on a plan to get you inside of ELQ?"
"What makes you think that...oh Keesha. For your information, although
it's none of your business...Jax has been in contact, shall we say,
with the lovely Ms. Ward since she has been in town, long before the
will reading..."
"Don't give me that. Jax knew what Justus left her."
"How. That wasn't open to the public."
"This isn't why we're here."
"True, but you brought it up. Now let's say I was to get rid of Ned,
with what will I do it with?"
"That's your job."
"No, my job is the actual getting rid of. The people I work with have
to give me some tools."
"Use the tools that you have."
"What tools?"
AJ stared at Jerry. "I'm sure you have something...get rid of Ned, and
I will get you onto the Deception board. Deception has done very well
since Katherine and Nikolas have worked together...Nikolas
*Cassadine*." he emphasized.
"We tried the Cassadine takeover attempt already."
"Yes, one of your few failures. And just think, Stefan probably won't
be looking towards you again so soon."
"I'll consider it, I'll give you an answer by..." Jax and Keesha would
be back on..."Monday."
"Fair enough." AJ started to leave.
"Junior."
AJ glared as he turned to look at Jerry.
"Just how sure are you that we have *something*."
AJ smirked. "Now what are you talking about?" AJ shrugged and walked
off.
Keesha went back to her car. She went all of the places she could
think of, and no sign of Jax. She had tried calling him, but couldn't
get through and didn't want to leave her thoughts on his voice mail.
She started the car, looking at the time.
She'd see him tonight anyway, it could wait. Right now, she was going
to take some time for herself.
Jax listened to Jerry as he repeated the earlier conversation he had
with AJ. "He knows something we know about Ned."
"That's a lot of different things, Jer. He called Keesha today."
"Really, what did he say?"
"I don't know. But by the end of the conversation I realized he knew
something as well."
"Didn't she tell you?"
"No, I haven't seen her since. I tried calling but couldn't get
through. I even went to town, where we were yesterday-no sign."
"Do you think she's avoiding you?"
"Why?"
"So she won't have to incriminate AJ...wait how do you even know about
the conversation?"
"I listened to her side."
"You eavesdropped?"
"I *listened*." Jax tapped his fingers on the couch as he tried to
think of the most incriminating thing he knew about Ned that AJ would
know. "How long did you give yourself before promising him an answer?"
"Monday. You'll be back by then won't you?"
"Sunday night."
"Tomorrow is the day."
"Yes, tomorrow night...don't do anything until I come back, okay? I
want AJ as uninvolved as possible I think."
"Why?"
"Because if we did something to hurt him, it would hurt Keesha."
"And you care?"
"Of course I care. I'm going to married to her for awhile you know. I
need for her to trust me."
"Is that all?"
Jax was quiet. Then he said. "We talked about him yesterday, you
should have seen her. She was really upset Jerry...I have to go..."
Jax looked up as Keesha walked in the door. He hung up.
"Hi."
"Where have you been?"
"Let's try this again..."
Jax sighed. "Sorry. Hi. Where have you been?"
"Out and about. I bought you some of that cheese..."
"Thank you. I tried calling."
"That must be why I couldn't get through."
"*You* couldn't get through?"
"I had wanted to talk to you but I couldn't get through your line."
"All day?"
"No not all day. I looked for a couple of hours and then I gave up..."
she placed her bags on the table and sat down on the couch. Jax
continued to stare at her as all of these thoughts ran through his
head-the main one Jerry's question of why he cared that hurting AJ
would hurt her.
He didn't have time for this. Stick to business and what was
important, and what was important was "What did AJ want this morning?"
"To tell me why you were interested in me."
"So what does he know?"
"What do you mean what does he know?"
"You said he wasn't in the business loop for something, so I gathered
he knew something you don't think he should have known..."
Keesha sat down across from Jax. "AJ said that you knew about the ELQ
proxy before it was announced-he said even he knew about it even though
he's not in the so called business loop." she stopped and waited.
When he didn't say anything she asked "So now what?"
"Don't worry, I'm not going to do anything."
"I'm not worried, if I was worried I wouldn't have planned to tell you
as soon as possible."
"Keesha, I need for you to be honest-if not with me then with yourself.
You care about him..."
She shook her head. He had to understand, for some reason it was
important to her. "I don't care about AJ...no I don't want harm to
come to him, but I don't even want harm to come to Ned. But I wouldn't
go out of my way to protect him...if you need to do something, then do
it. Just tell me, so that I know..." she stopped speaking as someone
knocked on the door.
"I ordered us room service, to come as soon as you came back."
"Okay." Keesha got up and opened the door. She spoke to the attendant
in French, thanking him for the food and telling him to set it on the
dining room table as she handed him his tip. She walked past Jax and
he took her hand.
Keesha looked at him with a smile. She sat down on sideways his lap
and he rested his head against her chest.
The hotel attendant glanced at them. He hurried to finish, feeling
like an intruder, watching.
Keesha caught the attendant looking and glanced down at Jax. His eyes
were closed and he was running his fingers lightly up and down her leg.
This came too easy to her she thought as she rested her head on top of
his while she used her fingers to stroke the back of his hair. If she
had to pretend to love someone, pretending to love Jax really wasn't
hard, she smiled. She could do a lot worse.
She *had* done a lot worse.
"He's still watching." she whispered into his ear. "I think we're
rather convincing if I do say so myself."
"Good." he mumbled. She felt so good...Jax wrapped his arm around her
tightly as he continued to be comforted by her soft touch. Finding
himself hoping that the attendant would be awhile, so he had a reason
for her to stay.
Keesha waited until the door closed. "Okay." she reluctantly got off
Jax's lap. "What did you get?"
Jax opened his eyes and looked at her as she walked over to the table
and uncovered a dish.
He took a deep breath and tried to reclaim his thoughts. "Let's see...
that's..."
Shani
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