The Ties that Bind

Chapter 22

"Sonny," Jax said calmly.  "What are you doing here?"

Sonny stormed into the office and stood in front of Jax's desk.  He waited for Jax to return behind it and then he began again.  "I know what you're up to, Jax."

Jax sat down in his chair, motioning for Sonny to sit, too, but he didn't, preferring to stand.  He looked up at the dark-haired man with a look of doubt on his face.  "I don't have any idea what you are talking about."

"Sure, you don't."

"Would you like to tell me what you think I'm trying to get away with?"

Sonny placed his hands on the desk and leaned in closer to Jax.  "I'm talking about my wife."

"What about Brenda?"  He didn't break Sonny's glare and he didn't waver.

Sonny finally sat down in the chair across the desk from Jax.  "I'm not going to give her up."

"What makes you think I want you to?"  There was no way he was going to ruin anything they had going by giving anything away to Sonny's surprise tactics.

"Because I know you, Jax.  You've loved my wife for years.  And we may not have the best marriage, but I am not going to give her up," Sonny repeated.

Jax took a few deep breaths before responding.  "You know what?  It may not be your decision to make."

"Are you saying Brenda is going to leave me?"

"I'm saying," Jax said rationally.  "What Brenda does is Brenda's business.  If she wants out of your so-called marriage, she'll get out of it.  But I don't have anything to do with it."  He stood up and went to the door, opening it.  "Now, if you would please leave, I have work to get done."

Sonny stood up and started to leave the room.  "Don't think I believe you for a minute, Jax," he warned before Jax closed the door on him.

Jax sighed and went back to his desk.  He sat down and ran his hands through his hair.  Now he knew where Sonny stood on allowing a divorce from Brenda.  There would be a fight for it, he was sure.

As the days progressed, Jax was finding that Miranda had fallen for their plan, hook, line, and sinker.  She was making every underhanded move in the book.  She stopped just before she did something illegal on every account yet, so Jax wasn't able to get anything concrete on her.  They continued to raise the stakes and she began to sell off some other companies to gain more capital to use against him.  What she didn't realize was that the companies she was selling were going right into Jax and Ned's hands.  Jax let her play her games without so much as warning her.

Brenda was going through Sonny's office one day while he was out and she found a file on the company Jax and Ned had made up.  As she reported it to Jax, Sonny had just gotten involved a few days before, when Miranda asked him for a way to raise more capital.  Sonny had given it to her and they had them.  Jax had, also just days before, found proof that Sonny had laundered money through other sources.  The money he had given Miranda had to have been laundered money.  It only worked to their advantage since it now made Miranda an accessory, even if unknowingly, to Sonny's illegal dealings.

Jax set up a meeting with Miranda, claiming it was about their divorce, which would be final in a few months.  He gave her the impression he was going to give her some money out of it and she came running.  Addie let him know when she arrived outside his office on the designated day.

"Jax, what's this about?" Miranda asked immediately after the door closed.

"Have a seat," he replied coolly.

"Is this about the divorce?" she asked, impatient to be done with him.

Jax studied her carefully.  She looked a little heavier and he could tell she was most definitely pregnant.  He smiled slightly, but didn't say a word about it to her.  "In a way," he responded to her question.

"Quit playing games, Jax.  Why am I here?"

"Are you aware that Sonny Corinthos is a money-launderer, Miranda?" he asked so that it seemed to her like it was out of the blue.

She didn't answer right away.  "No, why would I know anything about him?  Isn't he your friend's husband?"  She was starting to look a little nervous.

"Yes, he is still Brenda's husband.  For now," Jax added.  "But that's not the point."

"Then what is the point?" she asked, tiring of him.

"It's an interesting thing about laundered money, you know.  Anything it touches is then illegal.  Anything that was bought with it.  Anything that was bought for it.  Anything it touches."  There was a hint of menace in his voice as he spoke.  He wanted her to realize he was onto her without having to tell her.

Miranda licked her lips and her eyes shifted away from his.  She crossed and uncrossed her legs before settling down again.  "Why are you telling me this, Jax?"

"I believe you know the answer to that already.  Now, the way I see it, you have two options.  You can either, continue doing what you're doing the way you're doing it and end up in jail for it.  Or, you can forfeit all rights to everything I own, everything that is mine, everything that will be mine, and I will make it go away."

"You'll make it go away?" she asked incredulously.  "I'm not married to you anymore.  Why do you care what I do?"

"Because we’re not divorced yet and I want to make sure everything I have remains mine.  Those are your two choices, Miranda.  Choose one."

"How could you possibly make whatever problems you think I have go away?"

"I know things you don't.  I control things you don't know I control.  Trust me, I can do it."

"Why should I trust you?"  The doubt crept into her voice, but so did nervousness.  He could tell she was slowly realizing she was up against a wall and his help was the only thing that was going to get her out.

"Because you don't have another choice.  Unless you think you'll enjoy jail.  And something tells me that in a few months, you really won't enjoy it."  He gave her a pointed look and then held her gaze.

Miranda was silent for a long time after he said that.  She looked as if she was going to say something a few times, but then changed her mind and didn't.  Jax could see her trying to fight with her conscious to figure out what to do.  "You figured me out, didn't you, Jax?" she asked after awhile.  Her voice was soft and resigned.  There was even a hint of fear in it.

"If you mean, did I figure out that you were stealing companies from me?  Yes, I did, Miranda."

"Did you set me up?"

"Would I do that?" he asked with a small sarcastic smile on his face, but was otherwise emotionless.

She shook her head as if she didn't believe he would really do that to her.  She never did know him too well.  "Okay, Jax."

"Okay what?"

"Okay, I will take your help, but on one condition."

"You're offering conditions?  What makes you think you're in the position to offer conditions?"

"Please, just listen to me?  Hear me out?"  She knew now that Jax was the only person who would be able to help her get out of the situation she'd gotten herself into.  And he was the only one who could help anyone else out of it with her.

"All right, what?"

Miranda took a deep breath and got up from the chair.  She started to pace the room in front of him.  "If you know about what I've been doing, then you know who I've been doing it with."  When Jax didn't say anything, she continued.  "I swear, Jax, it wasn't meant to hurt you, just to damage you or possibly your reputation."

"And that doesn't hurt me?  You know what, Miranda?  Don't try to explain it, just tell me what you want."

"Okay, okay.  Look, I love him, Jax."  She knew better than to bring up his name.  "He's the reason I gave you the divorce."

"The only reason?"

She was caught again and she knew it.  "No, but that's not the point.  The point is, we can't go to jail.  We can't afford to get caught.  I promise you, Jax.  If you help us out of this, we will leave your company alone."

"You will anyway."

"I know."  She was desperately trying to think of a reason why he should help her.  "And I won't ask you for anything in the divorce.  We can still amend it, not even alimony."

Jax smiled for the first time since she had started babbling her excuses.  "If you sign the papers that state those exact things, I will help you."

"Will you help him?" she pleaded with him.

"Yes, I will help him, too," he conceded.

They worked out the rest of the details in which case, Miranda would drop all attempts at the new company.  She would return the other companies to Jax and Ned and she would stay away from her version of raiding for a very long time.  She would not get a penny from him in the divorce, either.  She wasn't happy, but she accepted it as a fact of life, signing the contract Jax had had drawn up.  When she finally left, Jax was grinning privately.  He closed the door and leaned against it.

Now, he only had one more problem to deal with.  Sonny Corinthos.

Brenda threw down her pen and sighed in frustration behind her closed office door.  She couldn't concentrate.  She was dying to know what was going on with Jax and Miranda.  She knew they had a meeting today and she didn't think it would take all that long.  Sitting at work, she found it very difficult to think about anything else.

They'd worked so hard to get Miranda to stop her playing with Jax.  Now they were finding out if it had all worked.  Brenda was waiting for Jax to call and she knew she couldn't call him first.  They couldn't risk getting caught this late in the game.  She just wished he'd call already.

She was sure most of her frustration was due to the fact that she hadn't seen Jax in almost a week now.  They'd had to be more careful and it seemed Sonny was monitoring her even more closely for some reason.  He was watching her every move and had even put his bodyguards on her a couple of times, claiming it was for her protection.  She knew he was just trying to spy on her.  The only contact she'd had with Jax, as a result, was over the telephone and even that hadn't been frequent.  At least not as frequent as she would have liked.

The phone rang on her desk and she snatched it up immediately.  "Brenda Barrett," she said hurriedly, hoping it was Jax.

"Are you busy?  I can call back?" came Robin's voice on the line.

"Oh, Robin, no, it's okay."  Brenda relaxed a little and collapsed back in her chair.  "I just thought you would be someone else."

"Anyone I know?" she teased.  Robin was taking the inevitable breakup with Sonny really well.  She actually seemed to think it was for the best most of the time.  It was quickly becoming clear who Brenda was happiest with.

Brenda smiled.  "Yes, of course.  So what's up?" she asked, wondering why Robin was calling her at the office instead of waiting until she got home in a few hours.

"I'm actually calling to relay a message to you.  Lois called here earlier today in kind of a hurry and she wanted me to tell you to call her as soon as you could.  She didn't have the time right then to make another call to your office to get you."

"Did she tell you why?"

"No, she just told me to tell you to call her.  And I just did, so there you go."

"Did she say if it was important at least?"

"Nope, I told you all she told me."

"All right, well, thanks, Robin.  I'll give her a call here in a few minutes.  Was there anything else?"

"Just one thing.  Did you want to have dinner with me tonight?  We haven't seen much of each other lately."

Brenda smiled again.  "Sure, I'll tell you what.  If I don't have to make plans in the next few hours, we'll definitely have dinner together tonight.  Okay?"

"Okay.  I'll talk to you later then."

"Bye, Robin," Brenda said as she hung up the phone.  She wondered what Lois was calling about.  Picking up the phone again to call her and find out, she was told by the operator that Lois's cell phone was out of reach right now and to try back later.  Whatever it was would just have to wait.

Jax looked at the file on his desk and sighed.  Within that folder was the proof that Sonny was a criminal.  With the papers that were in there, he could send Sonny to jail for a long time.  And they would help bring more charges on him, he was sure.  He just didn't know if he should do anything about them.  He wasn't sure how Brenda felt about it and he wasn't sure how to ask.

It didn't help that he hadn't seen her in almost a week.  That was making him feel more desperate than ever to get her out of her marriage.  He wanted to be with her, to have the freedom to be with her.  But without Sonny's signature on divorce papers, which Brenda hadn't asked for yet, neither of them could have that luxury.

A few more minutes passed as he contemplated his options and he finally picked up the phone.  Brenda answered in one ring.

"Jax!  I've been waiting for you to call," she said immediately after hearing his voice.

"I hope not long," he said softly.

"No, not too long.  So, what happened?" Brenda asked eagerly.

Jax explained to her exactly what had happened between him and Miranda an hour earlier.  He didn't leave anything out since he knew Brenda would continue to ask if she suspected he had.

"It's over then?" she asked him, hopefully.

Jax breathed a sigh and smiled slightly.  "Yeah, it's over," he confirmed.  But it wasn't, not really.  He still had this folder on his desk.  "Listen, Brenda, I need to see you."

She heard the note of desperation in his voice an she felt it, too.  There was no doubt he was missing her as much as she was missing him.  "Now?"

"No, not now, but tonight.  Please?"  He needed to talk to her in person about this and find out her reaction to the possibility of sending Sonny to jail.

"Jax, I don't know if I can, sweetie.  Sonny's got those damn bodyguards on me all the time now.  I think he suspects something."

"I know he does," Jax said.  He recalled his earlier conversation with Sonny.

"What do you mean?  How do you know he does?" Brenda asked.

"He was here today, accusing me of loving you and wanting you to divorce him.  All of which is true, but right now, he doesn't know that."

"You're sure?"

"No, I'm not sure of anything he does, you know that.  But I didn't give anything away to him.  Look, Brenda, regardless of all of that, I do need to see you tonight.  It's really important."

"What's it about?"  She was detecting the urgency in his voice, but also the hesitation he showed by not telling her right away.

"It's about us, our future.  I need to see you," he pleaded one last time.

"Okay, Jax," she said softly.  "Don't worry.  I'll do what I can.  I will try to meet you at your house tonight.  I think I've got a way."  Granted, her plan meant using Robin as a shield a little bit, but she was sure Robin would understand.  She may even help her out.

"Thank you," Jax replied.  "I'll see you then."  Just as he was about to hang up the phone after saying goodbye, he heard Brenda call out to him.

"Jax?"

"I'm here."

"I love you."

He smiled slightly and relaxed a little bit more.  "I love you, too, Bren."  He hung up the phone then and sat back in his chair.  Now, he only had to figure out how to tell her he was going to send her husband to jail.

The hours of the rest of the day dragged by for Jax.  He'd given up trying to concentrate on work and left the office, telling Addie he was going home to do some more work that he had left there.  It wasn't completely true, but he knew he had to tell her something or she would wonder too much.  He asked her to hold his calls unless it was an emergency and made sure she knew he'd return the next day.

As he walked in the front door of his house, he breathed a sigh of frustration and leaned against the door heavily.  He put his hand to his forehead and closed his eyes briefly.  He knew that Brenda trusted him and wanted to be with him.  But he also knew that she didn't hate Sonny, she just wasn't in love with him anymore, if she ever had been.  Jax wasn't sure she would want him to send Sonny to jail and he wasn't sure how she would react to knowing he could.  But on the other hand, Sonny was going to refuse to give her a divorce when she asked.  The jail sentence might end up being the only way to get him to back off.  Maybe it would be possible to use it against him to get him to agree to the divorce and not send him to jail.

But that was what Jax had a problem with.  All his life, he'd had a problem with letting criminals walk free.  If someone was doing something wrong or illegal, he thought they deserved to pay for it.  Never in his business career had he ever participated in anything that was against business ethics or against the law.  He wouldn't stand for it and everyone who worked for him knew it.  It was a main reason Brian Dolway didn't work for him anymore.  He didn't know if he could let Sonny walk away from it all with just a threat.

For the better half of an hour, Jax wandered restlessly through the house.  For the first time in almost two years, he went over into Miranda's part of the house.  He hadn't been there since she'd miscarried their child and he hadn't wanted to be.  But now that she was gone, he was curious.  Most of the rooms were virtually empty now.  She had taken some furniture, but some it remained.  Her bedroom was clear of anything that reminded him of her.  As he looked around in the various rooms, he tried to think what he might be able to do with it.  There was a huge spacious room brightly lit with the winter sun from windows that covered three of the four walls in the corner of the house.  It would be a perfect studio, if he knew anyone who was an artist, he thought.  Brenda would know what to do with these rooms, he thought suddenly.  It was the first time he had truly thought that she would belong in the house with him when it came to that.  He wanted her there with him and he wanted her touch in the decorating of it.  What had once seemed like a ridiculous spending of money on a house he didn't want to live in with Miranda now seemed like the perfect home for him, with Brenda.

The sun was beginning to set as he stood in the corner room.  There was some furniture still in it, making it seem like a living room.  He sat in one of the overstuffed chairs that faced the walls of windows and watched as the sun set in the perfectly clear sky.  The snow sparkled with the colors of the sky and the shadows the trees threw across the yard seemed mystical.  The scene before him made him want to think of everything he wanted with Brenda, in their life.  The children they would have one day, the time they would spend together, it all seemed within reach again for the first time in years.  Few things stood in the way of that now.

Brenda opened the front door shortly past eight o'clock in the evening.  She had knocked for a few minutes, even ringing the doorbell, but no one had answered.  She knew Jax's help had disappeared with Miranda, but if he was waiting for her, she didn't know why he wasn't there to answer the door.  She tried the doorknob after waiting for so long and found it still unlocked, indicating Jax was there, but she didn't know where.

"Jax?" she called out as she pushed open the door slowly.  "Jax!"  She went to his downstairs office, doubting she'd find him there, but she took the chance anyway.  When he wasn't there, she went to his bedroom, thinking maybe he had fallen asleep waiting for her.  She was a little later than she'd thought she would be after all.  He was nowhere to be found as she searched his home.  She even looked into the kitchen for him, laughing a little as she thought how funny it would be to find him there. 

Finally, she ventured into the side of the house she had never even seen in the years Jax had lived there.  She marveled at the almost pure white decorating, crinkling her nose in distaste at most of it.  She would definitely not have chosen the things she was sure Miranda had, she thought.  The thoughts made her pause in her step.  She was actually thinking about what she would do to decorate the house as if she was living there.  She realized then that that was what she wanted more than anything else.  She wanted to live there with Jax.  She continued on her search for him.  Ready to give up, she called his name repeatedly with no answer to her voice.  The last room she had to look in was in the corner of the house and she was ready to believe he wasn't there, even though his car was in the driveway.

"Jax?" she said quietly as she opened the door.  She was surprised to find yet another room decorated in white, but this one with three walls of windows.  She hadn't known there was even a room like this in the house.  It offered a beautiful nighttime view onto the backyard as she glanced out the windows.  The lights were off and as soon as her eyes adjusted, she was able to recognize the figure sitting in the chair by the windows.  "Jax?" she questioned again and when no response came, she went to stand in front of him.  She looked down to find his eyes closed and his chest rising and falling in an even rhythm.  He was asleep.

Brenda smiled to herself and kneeled next to the chair.  She leaned in slowly and touched her lips lightly to his.  He didn't respond, and she began to increase the pressure to his lips, waking him as gently as she could.  A few seconds later, she felt him begin to react to her.  She broke the kiss and placed her palm against the side of his face as he opened his eyes fully.

Jax couldn't remember a time when he was so content to wake up.  He opened his eyes to find Brenda next to him, smiling at him.  He sat up in the chair and looked around.  "I'm sorry.  I didn't realize I had fallen asleep," he apologized.  He took her hand and pulled her to sit on his lap with him in the chair.

Brenda threaded her fingers into his hair and nodded.  "It's okay, but it took me forever to find you up here.  What are you doing in here?"

He smiled.  "I was just looking around and I sat down to look at the view.  Next thing I knew, you were here with me."  He looked at his watch in the darkness.  "I didn't realize it was so late either," he said.

"Yeah, I'm the one who's sorry about that.  I thought I would be here sooner, but I got here as soon as I could."

"What'd you have to do?"

She laughed a softly.  "I had dinner with Robin and convinced Sonny's bodyguards to leave us alone, that we weren't going anywhere for the duration of the dinner.  I told Robin what was going on and she agreed to cover for me when they came back to pick us up later on.  Since we were at the Grille, I just left through the back door instead of the lobby and came here."

"Robin agreed to help you?  I thought she didn't approve."

"I think her opinion is changing the more she really see what is going on.  Ever since I told her that I was going to divorce Sonny, she's been pretty open to my relationship with you.  Besides, she likes you, too, you know," Brenda teased.

Jax made a move to stand up and when Brenda had moved, he did, taking her hand and leading her downstairs.  He took her into his downstairs office where he had left his briefcase earlier when he'd come home.  As they walked, his expression grew progressively more grim.

It didn't go unnoticed by Brenda.  "Jax, what's wrong?  You look upset."  He didn't respond right away and she sensed his hesitation again.  "What is it?  Is it why you called me here?  What's going on?"

Jax didn't like hearing all the doubt in her voice and he knew he couldn't keep her guessing much longer.  He sighed and walked over to his desk, opening his briefcase and withdrawing the folder on Sonny.  "This is the problem," he said gravely, his voice so soft Brenda had to strain to hear him.

"What?  What's in that folder?"  She walked over to him and stood close, questions filling her mind.

He nodded slowly.  He gave her the file to look at and read the contents.  He watched her reaction carefully and he knew when she got to the incriminating parts.  Her gasp would have been audible in the next room.  "Brenda," he said softly.

Her eyes were wide when she looked up at him.  He couldn't tell if what he saw in them was fear or anger.  "Jax, this says…" she trailed off.

Jax nodded again.  "I know.  It says that Sonny is a criminal."

"But he can't be," she whispered before changing her tone.  "But he is," she said, more to herself than anyone else.  She read the file again.  The longer she looked at it, the harder her eyes grew and the more her jaw clenched in anger.  "We can't let him get away with this, Jax."

It was the answer he had been hoping she would give.  "What do you want to do, Brenda?" he asked cautiously.

She was furious with Sonny.  Everything in their life was a fraud now that she knew what he'd really been doing.  His 'coffee' business that he'd been running had all been a cover or at least something to hide the illegal activities he had going on.  Their years of marriage, loveless as it was, had always been somewhat based on the fact that they were honest people.  They didn't pretend to love each other when they didn't.  They didn't put on much of a show to convince anyone else.  But Brenda had always been the honest one, she was realizing now.  He never had been.  Now, more than ever before, she wanted out, and she wanted out as soon as she could get out.

After several long minutes, Brenda turned to Jax with a steely glint in her eyes.  "I want to turn him in," she said, a hard edge to her voice.  "And I want out of this complete sham of a marriage," she said with conviction.

In a moment of total inappropriateness, Jax almost burst out laughing.  She was telling him everything he wanted to hear.  He allowed a small smile to come to his lips as he looked at Brenda.

"What's funny?" she asked.

He took the file from her and drew her into his arms.  "Nothing, nothing's funny.  I was just thinking about what this all means now."

"And what does it mean?" Brenda asked, knowing full-well what he was talking about.

"It means we will finally be completely and totally free, sweetheart," Jax said before he kissed her.  His last thoughts before he carried her upstairs and into his bedroom were those that thanked the higher beings that had allowed it all to be possible.

 

Chapter 23