Chad Stanton stood on the balcony of his bedroom, adjusting the powerful lens of his high-powered telescope to get a better view of the private bayou that belonged to the Jacks family. No one in that family spoke to anyone in his family anymore, which drove Chad crazier than he would ever confess to a soul, because it limited his ability to get any information about Brenda. And he craved information about her.

     He knew she hated him as much as the rest of her family did now for being in cahoots with her stepmother to end her marriage to Jax, but he was still holding out the hope that the angelic creature would eventually bolt from the Jacks clan for one reason or another. They were such a bizarre brood - those Jackses - that they were bound to do something to drive her away. There had to, one day, crop up something about that family that she would not be able to endure. And he wanted to be there to catch her when she was ready to run from them.

     He would love to know her state of mind - how she was handling being dropped into this world of phenomenal wealth and New Orleans elitism, with its rules of conduct she was not accustomed to and probably uncomfortable adhering to. He wondered how her ego was taking the beating it was surely getting each time she walked out of her home and ran into an ex-girlfriend of Jax’s? New Orleans was littered with women Jax had dated at one time or another, and Chad recalled that Brenda did have quite a jealous streak when it came to her beloved Jasper. The ex-girlfriends must surely be grating on her nerves by now - and it would only get worse.

     Chad had been doing his best to manipulate the ex-girlfriends into Brenda’s path as much as possible, but so far she had been holding up against the onslaught. Still, how long could she do that? There were so very many of the exes, after all.

     “Chadwick, what on earth are you still doing out there?” his mother asked, as she passed his room on her way out and found him where she had seen him since early this afternoon - on the balcony, peering through that telescope across at the Jacks mansion. He was entirely too obsessed with that telescope he had purchased, she decided. And the fact that everyone knew who he was looking at was something Martha Stanton found highly embarrassing. Her son was a handsome, successful - if a bit high-strung - wealthy doctor. And he should hardly be gawking longingly at his neighbor’s 19-year-old wife. He should be out seeking a suitable mate for himself, instead of single-mindedly lusting after Brenda Barrett Jacks. Why, the girl had made a complete ass out of him. How he could still pine over her was beyond his mother’s comprehension.

     “I’m just amusing myself watching that insane family, Mama,” Chad murmured. “They’re having one of their ludicrous paintball battles tonight.”

     “They are the oddest bunch,” Martha Stanton muttered in her soft Southern accent as she inhaled the warm night air. “Hardly reserved and well-behaved, as people of their incredible monetary status and social standing should be. They put me in mind of the Beverly Hillbillies, and yet they’re treated as the toast of New Orleans - as if they were royalty and their estate were the palace itself,” she grumbled with envy.

     Chad knew his mother was just mad that the Jacks did not include their family in anything anymore. And, of course, she was none too happy that Jax, whom she thought should be wed to her own daughter, Amber, was happily married to an outsider of the town and treated Amber like the plague. But he knew if she had been invited to participate in their wild family games, like the paintball war, she would cheerfully don one of those ridiculous combat outfits and be merrily traipsing through the Jacks’ private bayou, shooting paint right and left. She was such a hypocrite, his mother.

     “Well, don’t stay out there all night, Chad. Don’t you have rounds early in the morning, darlin’?” she reminded him.

     “I’ll be fine, Mama. Have fun at your bridge club,” he said, trying to hurry her along. When she was gone, he went back to focusing the lens and swiveling the telescope around in search of a certain Jacks.

     A sneer found its way to Chad’s lip as he thought of how close he had come to having Brenda for himself, and how the sweet girl herself had ingeniously plotted to make sure he could never have her - how she had, in fact, used him in her elaborate scheme to get what she really wanted. Which was Jax. And had always been Jax. And he was still bent out of shape at the fact that Jax had had the nerve not to be infuriated with her and throw her out of his life after learning of her manipulations. He, in fact, had admired her antics and had willingly given her his heart.

     Chad’s sneer faded and his jaw grew slack, his eyes glassy with desire as they finally found what they had been seeking. Brenda…

     “Oh, Brenda, that’s never going to work!” Juliet insisted, as she watched Brenda mussing up her mother’s hair and smearing mud on Lady Jane’s face. All the women were exhausted from all the running they’d been forced to do in order to avoid the weaponry arsenal of the men.

     “It will work,” Brenda said, gazing around to make sure the boys were not nearby. “Where are they? Jo, do you see them?”

     “Not yet. But they’re probably perched up in the treetops, laughing at us,” Joanna said, gazing around with the night-vision binoculars, trying to spot the enemy. “This so-called plan of ours will be totally moot if the guys can see what we’re up to, Brenda. Why on earth are we doing this right here in the open in this clearing? We should go behind the trees or take some kind of cover.”

     “It’s… uhh… too dark behind the trees,” Brenda said, gazing off into the distance as if looking for something.

     “Dark? Brenda, do you see how bright the moon is tonight?” Joanna said, pointing up to the velvet skies. “It’s practically a spotlight on us right now.”

     “And, besides, we have flashlights, Brenda,” Juliet reminded her, confused by Brenda’s logic.

     Brenda just shook her had. “Don’t worry, you guys. I know exactly what I’m doing. You have to just trust me.”

     “Those boys are awfully quiet,” Jane observed. “Something is up, gals.”

     “They’re waiting to get us all at once so they can wipe us out in one fell swoop with that grenade thingamajig, Mum,” Juliet said. “For all we know, Niles could be on their side, helping them out.”

     “They’re not the ones who need help, we are,” Brenda reminded her. “Anyway, Niles is just an observer videotaping it. He’s not on anybody’s side,” she said.

     “I’m telling you, Brenda, we have to split off into teams of two or maybe even solo so that at least one of us can get to the flag,” Juliet insisted.

     “We’ll never beat them to the flag, Julie; let’s face it. If it’s a matter of gunning our way to it, they’ve got us outgunned. If it’s a matter of sprinting for it, Jax and Justin are by far the fastest out of everyone playing. No, the only way we’re going to get that victory flag is to get some of their weapons away from them, and the only way we’re going to do that is to get one of them as a hostage that we can trade for something big. And the only way we can get a hostage is if your brothers think their poor mom has fallen down and hurt herself,” Brenda concluded logically, as she grabbed some berries from a nearby bush and squished them together in her hands until the red juice ran through her fingers. Lady Jane grimaced as Brenda spread the berry juice on the side of her forehead.

     “If it’s a hostage we need,” Joanna said, “I think Jax would be the perfect choice. He is their lethal weapon, so to speak. He’s the one we need to get.”

     “I agree,” Brenda nodded. “So we have to hope Jax is the one who comes across Lady Jane and stops to help her.”

     “I think he’d be more inclined to stop to help you, Brenda,” Joanna suggested, as Brenda knew she would. “Not that he wouldn’t help his mother,” she grinned at Lady Jane, who was pretending to look insulted. “But he might think it’s a trick if he sees his mom. But if he saw his beloved wife looking hurt, I think his instincts would just be to run to you, and by the time he’d start to think it’s a trick it would be too late. We’d blast him and have ourselves a hostage!”

     “Well, who of us is the clumsiest?” Juliet asked. “That’s the person that the boys would believe took a spill without being overly suspicious.”

     “Well, I don’t think I qualify as the clumsiest,” Jane said.

     “I think that would have to be you, Brenda,” Joanna said.

     “Me?!” Brenda looked extremely cute in her indignation. “I’m hardly clumsy, you guys.”

     “Well, you do tend to sway and tumble in the presence of your husband,” Joanna reminded her, with a teasing smile.

     “I’m not the clumsy one,” Brenda insisted, thinking she’d better put up some sort of protest to make them think she did not want to be the decoy.

     “Oh, yeah? What do you call falling in that quicksand when you and Jax were in the jungle?” Juliet reminded her.

     Brenda glared at her and Juliet laughed.

     “Or stepping on that ornery alligator... twice,” Jane chimed in.

     Brenda groaned. “Oh, all right, all right. I’ll do it, ” she gave in, as she helped her mother-in-law to her feet and lay down in her place, rubbing the berry juice on her own temple. She then took off her cap and messed up her hair. Joanna had to laugh at the fact that, despite Brenda’s efforts to look pitiful and in need of assistance, she looked nothing but alluring.

     “Here, this should add some realism,” Juliet said, as she ripped the sleeve of Brenda’s camouflage jacket.

     Brenda grinned. “Good thinking!” Then Brenda brushed at the dirt beneath her. “I hope there are no biting or creepy crawling things around down here,” she muttered, as she placed her weapon next to her.

     “Okay, that looks good, Brenda. Now grab your ankle, and let’s hear you moan in sheer agony,” Joanna said.

     Brenda gave it a shot.

     Juliet arched a slender blonde eyebrow. “Is that agony, Bren, or a mating call for Jax?”

     Brenda hurled her cap at her sister-in-law, who laughed and ducked out of the way. “You guys better go and hide,” Brenda said. “They could be here any minute, and I have to look abandoned and alone, remember?” As her team was leaving, Brenda called out: “Wait! I just got a better idea! Okay, you guys go around calling my name and acting like you’re looking for me. Then Jax will really think I’m lost or something, and it will give this whole sorry scheme some much needed credibility.”

     Jane cracked up at the way Brenda muttered her last words as if the scheme were hopeless.

     “Good idea, General,” she said, saluting Brenda. And then Brenda was alone in the clearing, surrounded by the huge oaks and cypress tree and the bright moonlight, pretending to be wounded, while being completely unaware that she was being watched by a pair of greedy, lustful, dark eyes stuck to a fancy telescope.

     Justin was peering through his binoculars, focused on his sister-in-law and laughing.

     “I really love that girl,” he said with a grin. “She is a riot.”

     “What are they doing?” Jax asked, as he and Devon locked and loaded the huge amounts of paint into the grenade launcher while Niles videotaped them. “Are they all together? Can we do this?”

     “Not anymore,” Justin said. “Joanna, Julie and Mum just took off behind the trees.”

     Jax stopped what he was doing and swiveled around. “Where’s Brenda?”

     “Laying in wait for you, I’d wager,” Justin said, handing him the night-vision binoculars.

     Jax focused in the direction his younger brother was indicating and he saw Brenda, easily spotted in the moonlight, there lying on the ground, her ankles crossed, gazing up at the night sky and occasionally glancing around.

     “What’s that on her head?” Jax asked.

     “I believe it is supposed to be blood,” Justin said. “But before you have an attack, I did see her reaching for some berries and smashing them against her pretty little skull to give the desired effect.”

     “Man, she’s smart,” Devon said. “I’d have fallen for that if we hadn’t seen her setting it up.”

     “They really left her there alone though?” Jax asked, not especially liking that. Brenda was not very familiar with the private bayou. And it was a lot of land to cover. And it was dark.

     “I’m sure it was for effect, sir. For you to find her alone and rush to her aid,” Niles said, continuing his videotaping duty of the night’s festivities. “However, in all honesty, sir, I do find it odd that they would leave her alone in the bayou when we all know that Brenda rarely ever ventures out here and therefore is quite unfamiliar with the territory and could easily get lost should she decide to walk about on her own. And it’s disconcerting that she should be alone there right now lit so brightly by the moon when we all know that a certain someone across the street surely has her in his sights, even as we speak, and is having lewd and perverse fantasies about taking her in the bayou.”

     Jax shot Niles a glare, not at all liking the subject matter, even though he knew Niles was right.

     “She’s not going to get lost because she’s not going to move,” Jerry said. “I think they’re expecting us to show up there any moment, so perhaps we’d better do that and ‘rescue’ the little wounded goddess, not so much from her fake injuries, as from her entire cockamamie plan and the lurid stares of that deranged doctor across the street.”

     “Oh, come on, you guys,” Justin protested, gazing at Brenda through the binoculars again and once again grinning at how damned funny she was. “It’s obvious that this is a trap. All four of us can’t go to her, they’ll spring out from behind the trees and annihilate us,” he pointed out, dropping the binoculars onto his backpack.

     “I’ll go,” Jax said, just as Niles began to tap the camcorder in consternation, flipping his flashlight wildly back and forth on the glassy surface for no apparent reason, which caused a bright glare to reflect off of it.

     “Excuse me, but what the hell are you doing?” Justin asked, squinting to avoid the glare.

     “Are you trying to bloody well blind us, Niles?” Jerry asked, snatching the flashlight from him in annoyance. “What’s the matter with you?”

     “Oops. Out of tape,” the butler informed them. “I’m terribly sorry. I was certain this was a blank tape. I shall just pop back over to the house and reload,” he said, darting off before they could say anything.

     Sitting on the ground, Brenda absently drew stick figures in the dirt for a while, glancing at her watch every few seconds. Then she gazed up, saw the bright glare flash way off in the distance, grabbed her weapon, crawled on her belly until she reached the cover of the trees, and, with a grin, she sprang up to her feet and disappeared into the bayou for a rendezvous with her co-conspirator.

     Having come back to the spot where they’d left Brenda faking her injury and finding her gone, Jane, Joanne and Juliet deduced that the boys had found her and gotten her.

     “I knew we shouldn’t have gone as far as we did,” Joanna said. “Now, instead of us getting a hostage, we gave them our general,” she sighed, twirling her gun.

     “As if they even need any more leverage,” Juliet said, and could not help laughing at how overpowering the boys’ advantage was. It was getting comical now. Joanna was laughing, too.

     “Yes, dears, it appears our plan has backfired,” Jane said. “Let’s go find the boys, and see if we can’t barter to get our general back.”

     Just then Jax emerged from the trees into the clearing, having heard their conversation. “Where’s Brenda?” he asked.

     “Jax, we know you’ve got her. What do you want in exchange for her?” Juliet asked, poking his arm.

     “I don’t have her,” he said. “Where is she, Julie? I’m not kidding.”

     “Nice try, but we know she’s with you. Although, honestly, Jax, we have zip to trade,” Joanna said, parting the bushes where Jax had emerged from, expecting to find Brenda there. But she wasn’t. “Wait, Jax, you really don’t have her?”

     “I do not have her. I just got here,” Jax said, looking around.

     “What about the rest of your team? Maybe they’ve absconded with our general,” Lady Jane suggested.

     “No. I left them behind, and I came alone. Where is she?”

     “Well, this is where we left her,” Joanna murmured. “Maybe she went back to the house for some reason?”

     “She wouldn’t have done that without mentioning it to one of you,” Jax said. “And Brenda is totally unfamiliar with the bayou. I’m not sure she could even find her way back to the house - not in the darkness.”

     “I agree with Jax,” Lady Jane said, beginning to get concerned. “Why on earth would she have gotten up?” Jane wondered. “The plan was for her to stay right here and have you find her, Jax.”

     “Jax, are you sure no one else on your team has her?” Juliet accused.

     “I am sure, all right? And this is not funny, okay? Where is she?” Jax demanded, stalking back and forth through the trees and parting bushes, seeking out his wife. He was annoyed by the disturbance of his cellular phone ringing. He snapped it open. “What?!”

     “She’s right behind you, sweetheart,” Brenda’s voice said over the phone, as Jax felt the poke of a gun in his back and the kiss of soft, warm lips against the back of his neck. “Now kindly drop your weapon please.”

     “I’ll take that, thank you very much,” Juliet gloated happily, relieving Jax of his gun and paint ammo.

     “Now move it, baby. You are so captured! Hoo-ya!!!” Brenda said, uttering the Marine-cry that the boys always used. And that was immediately followed by that giggle that always made Jax want to chase her around the bedroom.

     He was so relieved that she was okay that he didn’t even care that she’d scared the bloody daylights out of him with her trickery. Then he realized how brilliant she was, setting this whole thing up. Even setting up her own team so that they had no clue what was going on, which made their concern over her disappearance very real, which in turn had further fueled Jax’s own concern and worry over her, making him easily careless. He had never suspected that the Brenda missing part was a set-up.

     He could hardly hear himself think over the whoops and cheers of the Lady Jacks team, as high-fives were exchanged all around, while a grinning Brenda kept her paint gun steady on her rival general, even while fondling the blonde curls at the back of his hair, lit silvery gold in the shimmering moonlight.

     Jax was wondering how the heck Brenda had known they were watching her set up the fake injury? And far more baffling was how on earth she had known the precise moment they had stopped watching her, so that she could make her get away into the bayou without being seen.

     It took him only five seconds to figure it out.

     he butler did it.

     With a shake of his head and a smile he could not hide, Jax recalled Niles’ wild antics with the flashlight when he claimed the tape had run out on the camcorder. That whole flashlight business must have been some kind of a signal for Brenda to move, he realized. Also Nile’s harping on the fact that Chad was gawking at Brenda from his balcony had definitely been a way to manipulate Jax into going to get Brenda from that clearing.

     Gazing at Jax, Brenda realized that he had already figured everything out - just like that. Typical Jax. He had a brilliant deductive mind. She smiled at him, and he returned the smile. He laughed as he saw the crushed berries on her forehead, the sweetness of which was attracting pesky night insects to Brenda as she swatted at them in frustration.

     “Nice touch,” he said, brushing his fingertips across her “injury.”

     “Thanks,” she responded with a flash of dimples.

     “So,” Jax said, as Brenda tied his hands with the scrunchie from her hair, “what are you going to do with me?”

     “I am going to trade you in for one fully fueled grenade launcher,” Brenda said with a triumphant smile as she, Joanna and Julie exchanged a three-way high-five.

     Jax shook his head and gave her a sigh of pity. “You don’t know my team very well, do you, my most gorgeous and clever adversary? They won’t trade you anything for me. They have been instructed by me, you see, not to negotiate with you all under any circumstances. And that includes my capture.”

     Brenda’s mouth fell open in disbelief and then fell into a disappointed pout. “You can’t be serious, Jax.”

     “Yeah, I’m serious. Sorry,” he said with a shrug.

     “You mean I did that whole elaborate set up for nothing?!” she asked, kicking the dirt and swatting at some more insects.

     Suddenly Brenda was blinded by the glare of a flashlight shone directly in her face and she heard Justin’s laughter, although she could not see him.

     “Oh Bren-da,” Justin sang from somewhere off in the darkness of the trees, “Jax has told us not to negotiate with you under any circumstances, this is true. But what would you say to a trade, General Goddess? Our general for say… the safe return of one inept British spy,” Justin said, shining the flashlight on Niles, who stood between Jerry and Devon, bound comically with strips of ivy vines and gagged with a bandana, while Justin emerged from the darkness, video camera in hand, getting good shots of the captured Niles.

     Brenda bit her lip, trying not to laugh at how absurd poor Niles looked wearing his neat little butler’s outfit, all bound up in ivy while Jerry, whistling a merry tune, loaded up some large fuchsia-colored, giant-sized paint pellets and removed the gag from Niles.

     “Dear god, not the fuchsia, sir!” Niles pleaded, as the thought of that hideous color on his neat uniform made him want to swoon in horror. He detested the color and everyone in the household knew it.

     “So what do you say, Brenda?” Justin asked her. “Hand over the cute blonde or the butler gets fuchsinated.”

     Jax grinned at his younger brother, thinking they were so much alike it was scary.

     “No, no, no. Brenda, we cannot give up a hostage as valuable as Jax,” Joanna insisted. “Niles just has to be sacrificed.”

     “Yeah, Bren, Niles is just going to have to be a casualty of war,” Juliet chimed in, knowing if they gave up Jax they were dead. “No offense, of course, Niles,” she added quickly in response to his haughty, insulted stare at how dispensable they were making him out to be.

     Brenda glanced at Justin. “Okay, you can get Jax if you give us Niles and the grenade launcher,” she said.

     Justin just leaned against the mighty oak behind him and shook his head. “Not a chance, luv.”

     “Well, that’s just totally unfair,” Brenda said in exasperation. “You guys know perfectly well that we don’t stand a chance since you have the launcher.”

     “True,” Justin said with a nod. “I’ll tell you what. We won’t use it.”

     “Promise?” Brenda asked warily.

     “You can’t trust him, Brenda!” Juliet warned and got a blob of silver paint shot at her leg for her comments, courtesy of the brother that she said was not to be trusted.

     Juliet gasped. “You - shot - my - leg!”

     Justin grinned. “Why, yes, I did. And now you can’t use it. War rules, remember. Whatever is shot is useless. That would now be your leg, sister dearest.”

     Juliet shook her fist at him. “You outback snake! Well, I’m not going to be the only one hopping all around the bloody bayou on one leg, Justin Jacks!” she said, shooting off rounds at him, as everyone tried to duck out of the way, but Justin disappeared into the darkness of the trees like a phantom and Juliet missed every shot.

     “Shoot Jax!” Juliet said with an evil little grin, looking at Brenda.

     “No,” Brenda said, standing in front of Jax. “We need Jax.” And with that she aimed her gun at Jerry instead.

     Jerry laughed, knowing of Brenda’s atrocious aim and was stunned speechless when she got off four shots of neon blue paint hitting both of his legs and both of his arms.

     “That makes you pretty useless, Jer,” she said, blowing on the tip of her gun like a gunslinger.

     Devon’s eyes were as wide with shock as Jerry’s were.

     “Bloody hell! Did you see that?!” Jerry demanded, looking at his paint blotched uniform in disbelief, and then over at Jax, who was the only one unfazed by his wife’s incredible accuracy.

     Jax just nodded. Devon backed up, using the ivy-bound Niles as a shield. “We have been had, you guys,” Devon said. He was about to disappear behind the trees for cover when Brenda got his left leg.

     “Awww, Devon,” Juliet said, “now we can hop around the bayou together.”

     Devon gave her a dashing smile and then shot a spiral of purple paint at her other leg. “You won’t be hopping at all, Julie. Crawling is more like it,” Devon said, answering her glare by blowing her a kiss.

     Justin’s laughter could be heard from the trees.

     Lady Jane was having a ball watching this. “Justin, darling,” she called out, “why not come out and have a little accuracy duel with your sister-in-law?” Jane suggested. “You may fare better than Devon and Jerry.”

     “I await my general’s commands,” Justin’s voice said, coming from another direction now, as Brenda circled carefully, trying to spot him and evading a blast from Devon, who hopped behind a tree and was trying to take out the best shooter - Brenda. One thing Brenda was, besides a damn good shot now, was fast. And Devon kept missing her by a hair’s breath, as he also had to avoid her retaliatory shots as well as some very accurate ones from Joanna, who was intent on taking him out so that Brenda could go after Justin.

     “Brenda, you can use me as a shield, you know,” Jax offered. “I am your hostage, after all, and I would be honored to shield each and every part of you.”

     Brenda slid out from behind the cover of a tree and yanked his arm, pulling him behind it with her.

     “This is a trick, isn’t it?” she laughed, pinning him against the tree with her gun.

     “No,” he said, thinking that her hair in the moonlight was so much like the dazzle of black diamonds.

     “Don’t you think I’m doing okay without needing to use you as a shield?” she asked next, mesmerized by the way he was looking at her.

     “Yes, I do. Okay, I confess, the shield business was just an excuse to be close to you.”

     Brenda laughed. “Down on your knees, soldier,” she said, jamming the gun gently against his ribs.

     Jax sank to his knees, gazing up at her with mild curiosity as to what she was up to now.

     Meanwhile, back in the clearing, Devon had downed a now paint-splattered Lady Jane, while Joanna had managed to wing Devon in the right arm, forcing him to have to shoot with his left arm, while still hopping on one leg. Justin remained the phantom of the trees, untouched and undetectable until Joanna felt the wet globs of paint soak both her arms. She gazed down to see the paint was silver, so it was Justin who’d gotten her, although she still could not see him.

     “Damn!” Joanna laughed, dropping her gun and Jax’s gun, both of which she was using, but now she could use nothing since her arms were useless.

     Sitting on the ground, with both legs useless, Julie was laughing, too, as her wild aim was plastering poor Niles with red paint and missing Devon, who found ample protection from the tree. In fact, poor Niles had almost every color of paint, except fuchsia, staining his butler’s uniform now. With a sigh of exasperation, Niles sat down on a log alongside Jerry and said, “Would you mind un-vining me, sir?”

     “Sorry, Niles, can’t use my hands,” Jerry reminded him with a hearty laugh.

     Brenda circled the kneeling Jax. She removed his cap, her hands reaching out and caressing his hair and his face as she walked around him.

     “It appears your men have taken out my team, General,” she said, stopping to kiss his ear. “And all I have is my one gun, twenty rounds of paint ammunition, and my one gorgeous hostage.” She raked her hands slowly through his hair and kissed his forehead. She paused as she heard a sound, grinned, popped back into the clearing, where she saw Devon trying to quietly hop his way over to where she had taken Jax. Brenda waved at him, laughing at the surprised look on his face and then she shot his other leg and his arm, rendering him as useless as all the others who were now out of contention for the flag.

     Checking around warily for Justin, the phantom, Brenda slid back to her hiding place where she had left Jax and resumed her circling of him.

     “So now it’s just you and me and Justin,” she said. “And no one knows Justin better than you, so… I need you to tell me what you think he’s going to do next,” she said, stopping in front of him and running her hand slowly along his throat.

     “I think seducing the information out of me is against the rules, sweetheart,” he said in a hoarse voice, his eyes burning an incredibly beautiful shade of aqua.

     “Is it?” she asked innocently, kneeling down in front of him and sliding her arms around his neck. “I thought all was fair in love and war?”

     She felt his tremors as her tongue slid along his lips. She deliberately avoided kissing his lips as she kissed the corners of his mouth, his cheeks, the pulse throbbing in his throat.

     “I’m only asking you to tell me what he’s going to do next,” Brenda said, her fingers sliding into the back of his hair. “Will he try to rescue you? Or will he just go for the flag?”

     “I don’t know what he’ll do,” Jax said. “I know what I told him to do, but who’s to say he’ll do it?”

     “What did you tell him to do?” she asked, kissing his ear and then all over his face, and then once again teasingly close to his lips, but not touching them.

     “That information will cost you,” he told her, going crazy from her seduction.

     “Cost me what?” she asked.

     “Untie my hands,” he said.

     She laughed. “I don’t think so,” she whispered, tracing her fingers over his lips and shivering herself as he kissed them.

     “Okay, well, then I guess I should tell you that I have managed to ingeniously cut through your ropes of steel,” he said, clasping his arms around her as she gasped in surprise and peered over his shoulder to see her scrunchie discarded on the ground behind him.

     “And now,” he said, “since you weren’t going to let me go of your own volition, I’m going to have to punish you for that.”

     Brenda made a face of playful trepidation. “Are you going to toss me to the bayou sharks?” she asked with a giggle, enjoying the close intimacy of his embrace, her arms still around his neck, her fingers toying with the curls at the back of his head.

     “Just one shark,” he murmured, doing to her what she had done to him. He kissed her softly. Warm, light kisses everywhere but her yearning lips. And when she tried to be the aggressor and kiss his lips, he eluded her. “A land shark,” he continued. “A blonde land shark. Who happens to be starving,” he murmured, running warm lips tantalizingly along her neck.

     They both laughed softly. “Jaaaxxxx,” she said, grabbing the collar of his combat outfit. “Kiss me,” she demanded.

     “You don’t want me to do that,” he warned her.

     “Why not?”

     “Because then you’ll never get to that flag.”

     Brenda realized that Jax was telling her, without saying so, that Justin was on his way to it right now, as per Jax’s instructions.

     “Oh, no, he doesn’t!” she said, springing up to her feet and grabbing her gun. She was stopped by Jax’s hand gripping hers.

     “You’re going to have to allow me to tag along with you, general, as I’ll be damned if I’m really going to allow you to get lost in this bayou.”

     Brenda smiled at him. “Honey, I know this bayou inside out. Where do you think Niles and I have been practicing? I was never in any danger of being lost,” she said, laughing.

     Jax’s eyes narrowed. “Hmmm… I see. Well, in that case,” he lunged to relieve her of her weapon, but with a squeal of laughter and triumph, Brenda darted out of his reach and raced across the bayou on the way to the victory flag. She knew Justin had gotten a head start on her since she had been so preoccupied with Jax, but she was as fast as Justin was. The only problem was Jax. He was faster than she was. But he was unarmed. So all he could do was beat her to the flag with sheer speed. Unfortunately, he was quite capable of doing that.

     She raced faster, feeling the evening breeze rushing through her hair. As she got to the area where the flag was, she spotted Justin, practically strolling there. It suddenly occurred to her that maybe he and Jax had planned that Jax would distract her and allow Justin time to take a leisurely stroll and still claim the victory.

     “That rat!” she whispered, but louder than she’d intended and Justin heard her and whirled around.

     Brenda was out in the open with no trees to hide behind, and he was too far away for her to get off a good shot. He saw her hesitation, and she saw the flash of his attractive smile.

     “You’re not going to even try?” he baited her, wondering with amusement what she’d done with Jax.

     Brenda knew she was not experienced enough to hit him from this distance with the gun she had. Now if she had his gun…

     She was distracted by a sound and was not at all shocked to see Jax in front of Justin. She knew Jax was so fast that he could beat both her and his brother to the flag.

     Jax waved at her and she rolled her eyes at him and then glared as the brothers exchanged a high-five, a “hoo-ya!”, and headed leisurely towards the flag, knowing she did not have the range to hit them from her position.

     “Wait!” she called out, having an idea.

     Jax and Justin turned around.

     “Knowing how this family loves to bet on everything from the time the sun will rise to the time it will set,” she said, “how about if we make a bet right now?”

     “What kind of bet?” Justin asked, lazily swinging his long-range machine gun back and forth under his arm, but not aiming it at Brenda.

     “Okay, obviously you guys realize I can’t possibly hit either of you from the distance you are from me with this gun I have. You guys won all the best weapons in the coin toss.”

     Jax grinned. “That’s right, we did.”

     “So, here’s the bet,” Brenda said. “Justin, you give Jax your gun and then, Jax, you bring it over here to me. Then you go back to where Justin is, and I get eight shots. If I get both of you down with those eight shots, then you both can’t move and guess who gets to walk up there, right past you fallen soldier boys and take that flag?” she bragged, hoping to goad them into agreeing to this. She had no clue if she could possibly do what she claimed, but at least she wanted to try.

     “I think she deserves that last desperate attempt,” Justin said.

     Jax nodded. “Okay. Give me your gun.”

     Justin slid off the machine gun, loaded it with just eight rounds of paint and handed it to Jax. Jax crossed the distance to Brenda, handed her the gun, and took hers from her.

     “Good luck, sweetie,” he whispered, kissing her lips at last.

     He made his way back to where Justin stood and stood beside him.

     “You think she can do it?” Justin asked.

     “I don’t know,” Jax said. “I hope so.”

     Justin grinned. “Yeah, I hope so, too.”

     “Whenever you’re ready over there, Quick Draw McGraw,” Justin called out.

     “Shush!” Brenda said, as she brought the scope of the gun up to her eye and tried to concentrate.

     “I hope that kiss didn’t leave you a bit woozy,” Jax said.

     It did, but she was not about to tell him that.

     “Come on, Annie Oakley, today would be nice,” Justin said with a yawn.

     “You guys, if you don’t leave me alone, I’m going to walk over there and crack you both over the head with this thing!” she threatened.

     By now the other team members who were out of the game had gathered to the victory site to see who had captured the flag, and they anxiously waited to see if Brenda could down her two enemy soldiers in eight shots.

     From his position on the balcony, Chad watched Brenda, too. He watched how alluring her body looked even in the baggy olive-and-tan camouflage outfit. He watched how the top of the camouflage outfit was open enough to show off a bit of the tight black bodysuit she wore beneath it. He watched how the moonlight played in her hair, covering it with midnight sparkles that bewitched the eye. He watched and watched and wanted and wanted. He would never stop wanting her, he realized. And if she were his, he would not be making her play idiotic games in the bayou in the dead of night like this. No, he would be making love to her several times by day and showing her off at fancy galas by night. She was meant to be a society wife, not to be the wife of an adventure-seeking pirate, like Jax, and be forced to endure his family of madmen and women.

     Chad longed to rescue her from them and to enfold her into his world. He longed to shower her with jewels and furs and have her on his arm at medical conventions and elegant parties and have all the men, including Jax, burning with envy. Most of all, he longed to bed her. He longed to enjoy hours and hours of ceaseless passion with her. He longed for it until it was a dull ache inside of him. He wasn’t sure why he was so hooked on her. Lord knew she never gave him the slightest encouragement. He had never so much as kissed her cheek, and anytime she saw him she greeted him with gazes as frosty as those he got from the rest of her family. Yet his longing for her never diminished. He was a patient man. He believed that Jax could not possibly hold onto something so perfect as Brenda. Jax would lose her, Chad was sure of it. And then he would have his chance.

     Brenda was still “preparing” for her shooting attempt, trying to fight off the surge of pleasant wooziness Jax’s kiss had imparted within her.

     Justin was seated Indian-style next to Jax, who was doing pushups to pass the time.

     “It takes her ten minutes to get ready to shoot?” Justin commented, trying not to bust out laughing.

     “Well,” Jax said, “she only gets eight shots, she’s got to make them all, she’s far away from us, she’s only been practicing for a week, my kisses always do make her kind of dizzy, and the only light she’s got to shoot by is the light of the moon. She can take all the time she needs,” he said firmly.

     Justin chuckled. “Yes, sir,” he murmured, giving Jax a salute. “Hey, guess what’s going to be up for grabs next week?”

     Jax stopped his push-ups and sat next to Justin. “What?”

     “Bennington Memorial Hospital,” Justin responded.

     Jax looked at him curiously. “How do you know that?”

     “I got a tip. They’re in financial trouble and need to be bailed out. I figured this would interest you since Dr. Demento works there. If we own it, it could be very advantageous to us in dealing with him if he ever gets out of hand. Interested?

     “Yeah,” Jax said with a smile. “Who else is interested?”

     “Well, the good doctor himself, I hear. He’s willing to pool the family fortune to be able to own the hospital. I hear he wants to rename it Stanton Memorial Hospital. Plus a couple of big pharmaceutical companies are interested, and four big HMO units. Also ELQ’s interested.”

     “We need to do this,” Jax said. “I need you to pull together everything you know about this, and we can go over it inch by inch when we’re at Aunt Violet’s next week.”

     Justin nodded. “The sharks are in the water,” he said, exchanging a high-five with his brother.

     “Okay, you guys can stand up now, I’m ready,” Brenda decided.

     “You sure?” Jax asked.

     She nodded.

     Jax and Justin stood up, the victory flag silhouetted behind them in the moonlight.

     “A hundred bucks says she can’t do it,” Justin said, whipping out a hundred-dollar bill and placing it next to the flag.

     “She can do it, Justin.”

     Put your money where your mouth is, bro.”

     “You’re on,” Jax said, putting down a hundred next to his brother’s.

     “Hey - could you please stop moving around?” Brenda requested.

     “Sorry,” Jax said.

     She lowered the gun for a moment to smile at him. She let out a little sigh. She loved that guy so much.

     “Come on, Brenda, fire away,” Justin said.

     She nodded and raised the scope of the gun to eye level again. She pointed at Justin first and slowly, carefully pulled off her eight rounds. Silver paint flew across the bayou hitting Justin in the leg, Jax in the arm, Justin in the arm, Jax in the other arm, Jax in the leg, Jax in the other leg and finally Justin in the leg.

     And then she was jumping up and down holding the gun over her head, calling out a bunch of “hoo-ya’s!” and laughing.

     An astonished Justin fell to the ground next to Jax. “She didn’t miss,” he said in disbelief. “Not even once. I expected her to at least miss once.”

     The family was cheering wildly at Brenda’s great aim and good luck, and John came to watch her take the victory as she, laughing with glee and still leaping about in the air, raced towards the flag.

     Just before Brenda reached for it, Jax grabbed her leg tripping her. She fell on top of him with a soft thud.

     “Hey!” she complained. “You’re immobilized. You can’t do that.”

     “You’ve never heard of zombies? Their limbs regenerate,” he told her.

     “Everybody knows our squad is a zombie squad, Brenda,” Justin informed her.

     Brenda stared at her husband and his brother and then her eyes went to her father-in-law.

     “Dad, zombies are allowed?” she asked incredulously.

     Everyone was set off into laughter then, as a laughing John assured Brenda that zombies were not allowed, although that might be an interesting twist for next year, and then he handed Brenda the flag and proclaimed her the victor and handed her the deed to the Tuscany property.

     The family, including the unbound but still paint-splotched Niles, all started to go back to the house to clean up and recuperate from the war, while Jax and Brenda stayed behind, showered magically in the moonlight, sharing a long, celebratory kiss. Brenda stopped abruptly, though, when she realized they were being watched.

     “Ugh! That guy is unreal!” she said, as Jax followed her eyes to the balcony of the Stanton house, where a figure could be seen silhouetted in the moonlight, peering out of a telescope.

     “Don’t worry about him,” Jax said. “Jerry and I have something set in motion to block his view. We’re getting a fountain installed - a huge fountain with reflector lights on the bottom. The angle will be specified to insure that anytime he looks over here, he will basically be blinded and see nothing but the fountain reflection. And Justin and I have other plans for him as well,” he said enigmatically.

     “Why is he always staring at me?” she said, a little frustrated. “Even when we pass him on the street, he just stands there, staring at me,” she said with a frown.

     “Well, I can hardly blame him for that,” Jax said, stroking her hair and getting her to smile. “And we can’t do anything about it if we run into him on the street or something. But I can stop him from having his little telescope show of you, and I will. I promise.” He kissed her. “Come on, let’s go inside.”

     Brenda laughed and ran behind him and pulled herself up onto his back, her arms encircling his neck.

     “Sorry, all that running around has gotten to me,” she said, leaning her head against his back and relaxing against him, as his arms slid under her knees to hold her.

     “You were amazing today,” he said quietly, as he headed back to the house carrying her on his back.

     “I didn’t think I could do it,” she confessed softly. “It was so dark and you guys were so far away, and these bugs were buzzing around my head.”

     “I knew you could do it,” Jax told her. “I won $100 dollars for knowing that.”

     “One of these days your little brother will learn not to bet against me,” Brenda said.

     As they exited the bayou and headed across the family boat dock to the house, Chad finally stepped away from the telescope as the object of his desire disappeared from his view. She was inside the house now and undoubtedly on her way upstairs with Jax. They would probably take a shower together, laugh about the night’s fun and then celebrate Brenda’s victory by tossing off their towels, getting horizontal in the bed, and making slow, languid love all night. Chad capped the telescope and left the balcony, going inside of his bedroom, where he would have nothing to satisfy him but empty fantasies.

     Patience, he told himself. Jax will lose her. He will mess up, as all men do eventually. Or that family of his will mess it up for him. She won’t love him forever. Be patient.

     Back at the Jacks mansion, Chad had been fairly accurate in assessing what Jax and Brenda were doing. The shower water was hot and soothing as it poured over their bodies, but it wasn’t nearly as hot as the deeply arousing kisses they were sharing. Brenda wrapped her wet body around Jax’s and felt the coolness of the expensive tiles against her back as he maneuvered her against the wall, their eyes both afire with passion and recklessness. She tipped her head back and sighed with pleasure. Chad was wrong about one thing, however; they didn’t wait until hitting the bed to engage in their celebratory lovemaking. And they were certainly not horizontal.

     Meanwhile, at a large cabin in Denver, Colorado, Aunt Violet was humming as she began her baking. She could not wait for Jax’s visit! She had such a wonderful surprise in store for him! She knew her niece Jane had hinted that Jax had a surprise in store for her, too, but she was sure her surprise would even outdo his. Ah, yes, this was going to be an unforgettable holiday season.