Chapter 12

 Jax slowly became aware of the light again.  His head was aching, and he went to rub his temples, but couldn’t move his arms.  He shook his head strongly to try to clear the cobwebs.

 “Back with us again in the land of the living, Mr. Jacks?”

 Jax opened one eye cautiously.  He was in a basement room, full of boxes and lit only by ceiling fixtures with bare bulbs.  He was sitting on the floor next to a post, and his hands were handcuffed behind him behind the post.  Suddenly, two giants pulled him up by the arms to a standing position.  He opened the other eye to see the source of the comment.

 The Pompous Ass.

 “Mr. Jacks, the performance was cancelled tonight, remember?” Seaver said sarcastically.  “Oh, but I was speaking about the ballet performance, and we know you were involved in a performance of your own, don’t we?”

 “Seaver, fancy meeting you here,” Jax said, trying to stretch his aching arm muscles.

 “Let’s cut to the chase, shall we, Mr. Jacks?  Where are they?”

 “The ballerinas?  You gave them the night off, remember?” Jax said with sarcasm of his own.

 Seaver nodded to one of the giants, and Jax was rewarded with a slap across the face.  It turned his face to the left, and he flexed his mouth and felt the sting of blood.  {OK, Jerry.  Now would be a good time to respond to that J07 I sent before the lights went out.}

 Seaver’s annoying voice broke through again.  “Mr. Jacks, it would be a lot easier if you just cooperated with us and told us where you put the black shoes.”

 “Black shoes?  Well, I have the pair I have on, but there are several other pair I have at home.  I really can’t imagine what you’re talking about,” Jax bluffed.

 “You know, “ Seaver said with disgust, “I’ll be really glad that this charade is finally over.  All that groveling to you society types for a few lousy bucks.  Tell me, what do you think dear Betsy will think when she finds out the money she’s been giving the ballet company has really been helping to fund anti-government forces in quite a few nations?”

“Ah,” Jax said slowly, “so you’re not only a sleaze-ball traitor, you’re an embezzler, too.”

  Seaver shook his head and came to stand immediately in front of Jax.  “You really didn’t expect us to believe that bull that you had “fallen” for dear little Jenna, did you?  You must have had a good laugh when your dear brother suggested that one, eh?”

 Jax’s blood was slowly coming to a boil.

 “After all,” Seaver continued maliciously, “you can dress them up and put fancy jewels on them and take them out, but a dishrag is still a dishrag when you get right down to it, isn’t it, Mr. Jacks?  Who do you think would believe that an international jet-setter like you would be involved with Miss Milktoast?”  He chuckled to himself as he turned away.

 Jax strained at the handcuffs, anxious to punch Seaver’s lights out.  “Well, considering Miss St. James, I would say you would have to be an expert on dishrags, wouldn’t you, Mr. Seaver?” he spit.

 Seaver spun around and at that moment, the door burst open.  Two more giants came through dragging a furious Jenna.  She was followed by the Spider Woman, who shut the door, looking none too pleased.

 “Well, Hail, Hail, the gang’s all here now!” Seaver said delightedly.  Jax’s heart sank when he saw Jenna.  He quickly took inventory, and she looked scared, but not hurt.

 Jenna, for her part, stopped struggling when she came in the room and saw Jax.  “Jax!”  Her eyes got wide, then filled to the brim with unspilled tears.  “I’m sorry!  The phone rang after you left, and someone said you were in trouble!  I couldn’t take the chance….”

 Mo walked over to Jenna and chucked her under the chin, none too gently.  “No, darling, you couldn’t, could you?  Poor Jenna.  So trusting.  So caring.  So stupid.”  She giggled and walked over to where Seaver was standing.  “Find anything out yet?”

 Jax was ready to kill them both now.  He had to take deep breaths to keep from saying something that might get Jenna hurt or worse.

 Seaver shook his head.  “But I think we might make more progress now that our little party is complete.”  He nodded to indicate Jenna.  Her eyes widened in understanding and she shrank back.

 “Let her go, Seaver,” Jax said coldly.  “She’s not a player.”

 “Let’s see.  Hmmm.  No, I don’t think so,” Seaver said, with an evil grin.  “In fact, I think she’s the missing piece we’ve been needing in our little quest for information.”

 Where was Jerry?  Jax knew he only needed to stall until the cavalry arrived, but Jerry usually didn’t take this long to show up.  He had to do something to buy time.

 “Ok, Seaver, but I need something first,” Jax replied slowly.  Jenna looked like she was going to try to stop him, but Jax nodded to her not to interfere.

 “You … need something?  I really don’t think YOU are the one here to be making demands, Mr. Jacks,” Seaver said incredulously.  Jax motioned to Seaver that he wanted him to come closer so that they could talk with more privacy.  Seaver approached him cautiously.

 “Look, man,” Jax said in a low voice, “you and I both know that after you get what you want from me, we’re not going to exchange addresses so we can send Christmas cards.”  Seaver snorted at Jax’s bravado.  “But she doesn’t,” he nodded at Jenna.  “Let me have 10 minutes alone with her … to say goodbye and explain things.”

 Seaver looked over at Jenna, and then back at Jax warily.  After a moment’s thought, he said, “OK.  I’ll even give you 15 minutes.”  {Pompous Ass syndrome strikes again.}  “But alone – no.  You’ll have someone here to keep you company, and you have to stay in your present …um… condition.”

 Seaver turned with a smirk and motioned the guards to let Jenna go.  She immediately ran to Jax and embraced him, laying her head on his chest.  “Touching.  Very touching.  Come, my dear,” Seaver said to Mo, “let’s let them have their time to do whatever dishrags do together.”  They both laughed, and left the room, along with all the guards except for the burliest one.  He seated himself at the door, a good 25 feet away from Jax and Jenna.

 Jenna was still trying to apologize to Jax for disobeying his order to stay at the penthouse.  She looked at him with tear-filled violet eyes, caressing his swollen lip, and he felt his heart melt.  “I’m so sorry, Jax.  I just couldn’t…”

 “Shhhh…” he tried to calm her.  “Don’t talk, just listen to me.  Do you trust me?” he said in a low voice.

 She looked at him with those eyes that could turn stone to liquid.  “Do you even have to ask?”

 He smiled at her and bent down to put his lips near her ear.  “Now remember, luv, we’re supposed to be lovers.  Seaver gave us this time to say good-bye.  What do you think we would be doing?”

 She inhaled sharply at the word “good-bye,” but was quickly distracted when Jax took a sharp love bite out of her neck and brought his lips to within a centimeter of hers.  “Don’t worry, just kiss me and play along.”

 Before she could react, his lips descended on hers in a blistering kiss that drove all other thoughts out of her mind.  When Jax pulled back, he checked the guard quickly out of the corner of his eye.  The guy looked half asleep.  Good.

 Jenna looked at him with confusion as he broke off the kiss so quickly.  He leaned down again near her ear and appeared to be nuzzling her neck.  “Don’t say anything, just pretend to be in ecstacy.”

 Pretend.  Now there’s a stretch.  The woman was close to losing her mind as it was.

 “I called Jerry before they bushwacked me, so the cavalry should be arriving any minute.  We just have to stall for some time, and it would help if I could get out of these cuffs.  Kiss me again, and unbutton my shirt and pull it out so that it covers your hands.”

 Jenna found herself locked again in a delicious kiss, and this time she took some of the initiative herself.  She teased Jax’s lips with her tongue, and shyly investigated his mouth when he opened them.  His tongue met hers and they played a distracting game.  Jenna found opening his loose-fitting shirt a natural extension of their loveplay.  She pulled it free, and opened her eyes to find herself nuzzling his bare chest.  She looked up at him again, her lifeline.

 Jax was finding concentrating on “the plan” a bit more difficult than he imagined it would be.  She really was a GREAT kisser!  The next part, though, would be a little more delicate.  “Now, Jenna, he whispered as he nuzzled the other ear, “I need you to reach down to my belt buckle.  Try to keep your hands hidden between us.  There’s a removable metal probe that I can use to pick the lock on the cuffs.  Get it out of the buckle and put your hands under my shirt and behind my back and pass it to me.”

 As soon as the words “belt buckle” came out of his mouth, she looked up at him with the embarrassment he knew he would see.  She reached up to kiss his neck and whispered, “YOUR BELT BUCKLE?  …THAT’S… I MIGHT….I CAN’T DO THAT!!!”

 She looked up at him with wide-eyes – like a doe caught in the headlights of an oncoming Mack truck.  “You can, luv.  Don’t be shy.  I need you to do this.  Believe me, before they took me out, I planned for you to be touching a lot more than that before the evening was over!”

 He swallowed her gasp and gave her the most passionate kiss ever.  His tongue claimed her mouth, and she whimpered as she melted into him.  He smiled in the kiss as he felt her graceful hands slide down his chest towards his belt.  In the end, he wasn’t sure he was the one in control of the situation after all.  But seconds after that, he felt her hands at the small of his back, and felt the probe passed surely into his hands.

 She kept her arms around him, and he smiled as he pulled back once more.  Her eyes were glazed with passion, and he kissed each one and then the tip of her nose.  “Now kiss me once more.”

 “Why?” she asked quietly.

 “Just for the pleasure of it, luv.  Just for the pure pleasure.”

 As they locked in one more furious kiss, Seaver and Mo returned to the room.  Jenna didn’t care as she slid her arms up to Jax’s shoulders and wound around his neck.  She threaded her fingers up through his hair, and he moaned softly into her mouth.

 Seaver looked at them with disgust, and motioned for the guards to take Jenna back into custody.  They came over and pulled her away, and she sobbed, “No, Jax, don’t let them hurt you!”

 Mo sauntered over past Jenna and trailed her index finger down the center of Jax’s bare chest.  “Awww, she cares for him, isn’t that cute?” she purred.  She rubbed up against him and oozed, “Call me if you want to find out how really flexible a dancer can be.”

 It took all of Jax’s strength not to spit in her face.  He just about had the lock on the cuffs open.

 “OK, time’s up, Mr. Jacks.  Where are the shoes?” Seaver said briskly.

 “Maybe you’re asking the wrong person, Gar,” Monica drawled.  She walked over to Jenna.  “Maybe little Jenna here can tell us where lover boy put the black shoes.”

 “Monica, why don’t you go do Swan Lake with a real lake?” Jenna said between gritted teeth.  To Jax’s horror, Mo drew back and slapped Jenna hard across the cheek.  He almost had the cuffs open, but in the urge to slap her himself, he nearly dropped the probe.  “Ooo,” Jenna crooned, regaining her composure, I bet that one took you all day to think of.”

 “This isn’t getting us anywhere.  Mo,” Seaver called, “we need to use some different tactics.”  Monica, who walked back over to where Seaver stood, reached inside her jacket, drew out a small handgun, and handed it to him.

 “Mr. Jacks, do you want to reconsider?” Seaver asked, as he raised the gun and aimed.

 At that moment, Jerry burst through the door, there was a woman’s scream, and the sound of a gunshot was heard.
 
 

To be continued…..