Jerry slid behind the wheel of his sleek, black BMW Z8 and started the engine, quickly pulling out into the traffic that still cluttered the Village's out-of-the-way side streets, even at this late hour. He'd parked six blocks from Brenda's, in case someone from the Agency was watching the street outside her apartment. He hadn't noticed any street surveillance of her place over the past few days, but he didn't want to take any chances of being spotted anywhere near her place.

And yet he knew he'd been incredibly clumsy once he'd gotten inside her place tonight. He should have noticed immediately that the drapes were open and that any idiot with a simple telephoto lens could easily have been watching her apartment from across the street. But instead he'd been too distracted by the nearness of her once he'd made it inside the apartment. He only hoped that his blunder wouldn't come back to haunt him in any way. Andrew had always promised that surveillance of Brenda was always at a minimum and never invasive - nothing in the apartment itself. Now, if he could only trust that Andrew had told him the truth in the first place…

He couldn't put too much trust in Andrew or his word these days, he decided, so he'd have to hurry to get everything in order and then get back to Brenda. He'd promised her eleven hours to tie things up, but he planned to be back there in less than six. He wasn't leaving her alone any longer than that; he just hoped that even that wasn't too long a time.

He decided that now was as good a time as any to get started on everything he needed to get done in the next few hours, so he pulled out his cell phone and hit redial, waiting impatiently for his called party to answer.

"Yeah…Jax here," Jax's tired voice finally came on.

"Jax, I'm sorry to wake you, but it couldn't be helped," Jerry apologized, shifting easily from his slight New York accent he'd been using all day back into his native Aussie accent the minute he heard his brother's voice.

"Jer? What time is it?" Jax asked sleepily, noticing the connection seemed to be bad again.

"One-fifteen here," Jerry answered, glancing at the fluorescent green numbers of the digital clock on his dash. "What time is it in the time zone you're in?"

"I have no idea, Jer, because I was asleep and I have no idea where the hell we are, at the moment!" Jerry grinned as he heard Jax grumpily mumbling something to someone, then a scratchy reply in return, then Jax came back on: "My pilot tells me we're just east of Denver, so I guess that makes it Mountain Standard Time and 11:15 here… So what's up, Jer?" Jax asked, sounding much more alert - and cordial - than when he first answered the phone.

"How fast can you get the jet back here to Kennedy?" Jerry asked, hastily trying to come up with a cover story to satisfy his brother's curiosity about why he needed the family's corporate jet in the first place, let alone quickly.

"We should be landing at LAX in another couple of hours, but it'll take several more hours - maybe six to eight - to get the jet ready to fly back there. Why? And since when do you feel the need to use the company jet?" Jax asked, fully awake now and curious as to what his brother was up to.

"That long, huh?" Jerry really wasn't all that surprised. He had known it would take several hours turnaround time in the family's private hangar at LAX to get the Lear ready for another long flight, especially since it was the middle of the night. "Well, you remember that I told you I plan to get married, right?"

"How could I forget, Jer? Finding out that my confirmed bachelor brother was willingly going to the altar certainly stuck in my mind!" Jax laughed. "Does this have something to do with you and BiBi getting married?" His voice kept fading in and out as he talked.

"Yeah, it does… She's agreed to marry me, but only if I whisk her away to your private island within the next several hours," Jerry smoothly lied to his brother. "I just thought that the family jet would be the fastest way to do that - and would really impress her, too."

Jax gave a low whistle at that. "Jeez, Jer! You're not asking much here, are you?"

"Jax, forget I asked… I'll just hire a private jet here…" He really didn't want to do that, since it would be harder to hide his and Brenda's final destination that way, but he doubted Jax would let him anyway.

"Hey, Jer - no problem," Jax answered. "We'll get it back to you as soon as possible - and I'll make sure it's stocked with the best champagne and caviar there is!" Momentary fade out again.

"The champagne would be great, but she's not big on caviar - she says it's too slimy and smelly for her taste," Jerry laughed, remembering the first and only time he had tried to get Brenda to eat it. She had nearly gagged just looking at it and couldn't get it past her nose, let alone in her mouth or down her throat.

"BiBi sounds like my kind of girl!" Jax laughed, his voice fading in and out as the low battery indicator flashed wildly on his cell phone. "I've never seen the appeal of eating fish eggs, myself! I'll hold the caviar then, but there will be a magnum of champagne chilling on board for the two of you to enjoy immediately and a case in the hold for later."

"Thanks, Jax - I owe you!" Jerry said, grateful that Jax had come through for him. "And, Jax, you can't let anyone know about this - where we're going or what we're doing."

"I understand the drill, Jer… But what exactly am I supposed to tell Dad if he asks what happened to the jet?" Jax asked, but his battery died before Jerry could answer.

Jerry heard Jax fade out. "Jax? Jax, are you still there?" Jerry shouted into the phone, then he realized that they'd lost the connection. He closed his phone, laying it down on the seat beside him, as he thought about Jax's last question. "Tell Dad that I'm using it to finally carry my beautiful princess off to our happily ever after…" Jerry smiled, as he finally allowed himself to believe in the possibilities that lay ahead.

"Yesss!!!" Rick Jackson erupted as he jumped around the basement darkroom of his small Brooklyn row house. It had been nearly an hour since he'd returned from his nightly surveillance of Brenda Barrett's apartment. He'd just finished developing the film he'd taken earlier, and now he'd just compared the recently developed image of the man in Brenda Barrett's apartment tonight with the picture of the man in her apartment this afternoon and the positive picture of Jerry Jacks that he'd found on file about the Jacks family. Despite the file photo being at least ten years old and the pictures he'd taken tonight and this afternoon being somewhat grainy, the match was still unmistakable - same nose, same eyes, same firm jaw, same athletic build. He had definitely hit the mother lode tonight! This information could pay off in so many ways that he almost wasn't sure which one to pursue first.

At the moment, he was the only one who was aware that Jerry Jacks had inconspicuously slipped in to pay Brenda Barrett a little visit. He could give this information to Buxton, because rightfully it belonged to him and to the Agency; after all, he was on the company payroll when he'd made his little discovery. But that angle didn't appeal to him, since it wouldn't bring him any more money than Buxton had already promised. Besides, he knew Buxton planned to take out the woman immediately if his precious agent got too close to her, and that wouldn't work for Jackson at all in the long run. He needed her very much alive - at least for the moment... No, he needed to play a different angle with this… An angle that could pay a lot now and even more later…

He walked over to his computer and pulled up his photo program, searching the files and finally pulling up one of the more explicit photos he'd snapped of Jax and Brenda. He looked from the steamy photo on his monitor's screen to the picture in his hand of Jerry Jacks, and he grinned. "Just how much would it be worth to you, Mr. Secret Agent Man, to know the identity of the guy your girlfriend's boffin' these days?"

He laughed out loud, and then went to work on the computer photo, with every intention to make it "picture perfect" to use as bait for a little fishing trip that he was sure would land him a whole lot of green in the end…

Brenda quickly sealed the finished pictures and proofs into the pre-addressed envelope for the photo editor at Stay Fit and put it on the table next to her camera bag. She couldn't believe it had taken her less than thirty minutes to do the selections for the layout; normally she'd agonize over such things for hours. Of course, Sam Edwards, Stay Fit's photo editor, would make the actual final selections for the layout, but he had generally gone with her selections in the past. Perhaps she needed to work under such a final deadline all the time, she thought grimly.

Next, she sat down to write a brief note to Ned and Lois to explain her upcoming absence:

Hi!…I just wanted to let you two know that I had to take an unexpected trip out of state for a new client. I'll be gone a couple of weeks, and I didn't want you two to worry. I'll call or send a postcard once I get settled where I'm going, and of course I'll take lots of pictures, and I'll bore you with the details of my trip when I return! I love you guys! Take care… Love, Brenda.

"If I return…" she said sadly as she re-read the letter to the two best friends she'd ever had in her life before putting it into its envelope and laying it on top of her other things on the table. She thought about the blatant lies she'd just written to her friends; she hated lying to them, but she couldn't tell them the truth, for their own sakes. Once she returned, she'd explain everything to them - if she returned. Just how long would she and JD need to be underground - days?… weeks?… months?… years?… forever? The thought of never seeing her friends again was almost worse than her fear of being killed - especially the thought of never seeing Jax again…

"Jax…" she whispered, picking up another piece of stationery, prepared to write another letter filled with pretty lies. But as she sat there she realized that she couldn't say what she needed to say in a letter. She needed to speak with him. She had to hear his voice and let him hear hers, so he could know that she still loved him, no matter how this might look later.

She knew that he was probably still in the air, but she also knew that he never went anywhere without his cell phone. He'd given her his cell number soon after they'd met, and she grabbed her camera bag and pulled out her day-planner, searching it for his number. Most people kept their day-planners in their purses or in their briefcases, but not Brenda. She kept hers in her ever-present camera bag. She often didn't bother to take a purse with her, but she rarely left home without her camera, so the camera bag seemed the logical place to keep important items, like her wallet and her organizer.

She easily found his cell number; grabbing the phone, she punched in his number and waited, but there was only a click and then finally an automated voice came on to inform her that she had reached the voice mail of this customer. She sighed as she hung the phone back up. Either Jax had his phone turned off or his battery was dead, but either way she couldn't reach him. She had so wanted to hear his voice again - to actually talk with him. She hated saying goodbye to him in a voice mail, or in a letter, for that matter - but what choice did she have now?

Then an idea hit her - she would go to LA to see him. She glanced at the clock on the wall in the kitchen area and saw that it was 1:25; that meant she had 10-1/2 hours until JD returned and they were forced to begin their time in hiding. It was at least a five-hour flight to LA from there, and her common sense told her that it was impossible to get there and back in the time frame she had, but she didn't care. She loved Jax, and she couldn't just disappear from his life without a word. She owed him at least a proper goodbye…

Good-bye… How could she tell him good-bye now? She wasn't ready to let go of what she and Jax had just found together, but she also couldn't stay to find out for sure if what she and Jax had was the real thing. She had to leave soon with JD for her own safety; she didn't have a choice at this point on that. But tonight she did still have some choices that were open to her, and one of them was how she chose to say her good-byes to Jax, she thought stubbornly.

"Don't go anywhere!" JD's voice echoed in her head. He would probably kill her when she returned, but she didn't care. She needed to see Jax one last time. She grabbed the phone book and quickly found the number she was looking for, punching in the numbers, then waiting for someone to answer. "Yes… I'd like to book an open-ended round-trip ticket for your next available flight to LAX…"

As she waited for the information she requested, she thought about what she was doing. It felt right. Seeing Jax again could clarify her feelings about both men and help her decide if she'd even want to return to JD. She knew that she still loved JD, but choosing him could mean a lifetime of running and hiding. JD couldn't guarantee that he could extricate himself from his job now any more easily than he'd been able to do it four years before. And if she chose Jax, then going into hiding with JD would be unnecessary: Jax was a rich and powerful man, and he could protect her - couldn't he? Besides, if she chose Jax, JD would have no reason to leave the Agency for her, and then her life would no longer be in danger.

Why hadn't she considered this before, she wondered? Because you still love JD and a part of you would follow him anywhere - even to Hell and back - if it meant you could be together, a little voice within her whispered. And she knew it was right. But there was also something within her that told her that this trip to see Jax was right as well, and that feeling also told her that a lot of things would be clearer for her after this trip.

Jerry put the last of the cash and the fake documents into his duffel bag and zipped it shut, before closing the wall safe and replacing the picture over it. He hadn't bothered securing the safe, since there were no longer any valuables in it. Of course, what he had always truly valued had never been in there in the first place… She was firmly ensconced in a loft apartment in another part of the city for the moment, but soon she would be safely ensconced in his arms once again.

He smiled at that. Despite the danger he knew surrounded them now, he was looking forward to their time together. And once they were safely on the island, he planned to take full advantage of that time alone together - and her time away from the other man in her life.

He felt a twinge of guilt for seeing this time in hiding as an opportunity for romance between them, but just a twinge. After all, he'd been forced from her life when they'd been the happiest, so now it seemed only fair that they have the chance to regain what they'd lost. The fact that he was easily eliminating his competition by removing Brenda from the other man's reach didn't bother him in the least. However, the fact that she seemed so hesitant to leave this other man, despite the fact that they had only been together a few days, did bother him immensely.

Jerry had no doubt that this man had only recently come into her life - within the last couple of weeks at the most. Before that he had known about every contact she'd had. It was only in the past week that the reports on her had become sketchy and then stopped completely. It was then that he had first suspected that Andrew was hiding information from him.

But he couldn't, for the life of him, understand why Andrew had chosen to hide this man's identity from him. After all, when Ned Ashton had first come into Brenda's life and Ashton had relentlessly pursued a romantic relationship with Brenda, Andrew had practically flaunted that information in his face, telling him that Brenda was finally moving on and he should let go of her to allow that. Of course, Brenda had consistently turned down Ashton's attempts at romance, even going so far as to find someone else to divert Ashton's interest from her.

But Jerry had always had the feeling that had Brenda succumbed to Ashton's overtures, that Andrew would have happily waved any and all romantic information about the two of them under his nose, in the hope of breaking his "Brenda obsession," as Andrew called it. But what Andrew couldn't understand was that he wasn't obsessed with Brenda; he was in love with her, and he doubted that even if she did move on in her life past him that he could ever stop loving her.

His mind drifted back to this mystery man, who now held a part of Brenda's heart. Brenda had said very little about the man himself, while leaving no doubt about her deep feelings for the man. Jerry knew he was whisking her away from this man in just a matter of a few hours, but his curiosity and his jealousy increasingly seemed to be demanding to know the man's identity. He understood why Brenda never mentioned the man's name to him. In the time they were together, they had always made it a practice not to talk about other lovers. But that was when the lovers were in the past, he thought bitterly. You never told her the names of the women you've bedded since her, his head argued. But you just used them; you never loved any of them; she loves him, came the painful, answering cry from his heart.

And that was the rub: she loved this other man - she loved this other man as deeply and surely as she loved him. She had admitted that, and that was what hurt so badly. She had managed to move on beyond him - beyond them - with this other man, while he had never been able to allow another woman near his heart. Brenda had been the only woman who had ever broken through to capture his heart, and he couldn't imagine ever loving another woman as he loved her. She was the only one he ever wanted to love, and he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her, making up for the years that they were forced apart. He wanted sole possession of her heart again, and he wanted more than anything to squeeze all thoughts of this new man out of her head and her heart permanently - whoever he was.

Whoever he was…Jerry had told himself that knowing the man's identity wasn't important. After all, Brenda had agreed to go away with him. But he also knew that she hadn't agreed easily, despite the threat on her life, and it was the presence of this other man in her life - this man whom she loved as much as she loved him - that had caused her to hesitate. He wondered what it was about this man that had drawn Brenda to him so quickly and so firmly? Was he like him in any way? Is that why she'd been attracted to him? Or was she attracted to this man because he satisfied the hunger in her - the hunger for companionship and happiness and security and love? All the areas Jerry had once satisfied in her.

He felt that now-familiar surge of jealousy well up in him again as he thought about this other man and the importance he now held in Brenda's life. Before this, he had never felt jealous of anyone - not even when he and Brenda were together in Monaco. He knew then that, although other men desired her, her heart and body belonged to him alone. But that was no longer the case, and he hated feeling like this.

His parents had raised both him and Jax to be self-confident and self-assured - to the point of arrogance, some would say - but they had always known what they wanted and gone after it and rarely failed when it was something they truly wanted. And that included their pursuit of women, for which they had both been widely known as players, who easily got any woman they set their eyes on. Now his brother had landed the woman of his dreams and his future with her was most likely assured, while he suddenly had competition for Brenda's love, and that galled him. And, at this moment, he wanted to know exactly who that competition was so that he could thoroughly and completely eradicate him from the face of the earth!

He shook his head, trying to clear all these unsettling thoughts about the other man from it, realizing that he was tired and that things would look less disturbing after a few hours of sleep. He glanced at the clock beside his bed to see that it was 2:35. If all went well, in less than twelve hours, he and Brenda would be winging their way to San Beliz and their future together, away from this other man. He had no desire to spend the next few hours imagining a man that would be history soon enough anyway. As far as Jerry was concerned, as of this moment the other man was a nonentity for both him and Brenda, and he wouldn't waste any more of his time or energy worrying about him.

He planned to be back at Brenda's no later than 7:00 a.m., and since the seriousness of the events of the day to come would require his full attention and strength, he needed to get a couple of hours sleep at least - especially in order to fly the jet later that afternoon. He needed to get to bed now if he was going to make it through the next 24 hours. He was used to functioning on just a few hours of sleep, but he couldn't function at his best without any sleep at all. And he had to be at his best today - both his and Brenda's lives depended upon it.

Andrew Buxton hung up the phone and lay back down on his bed, relaxing for the first time in days. Things were finally coming together. Three thousand miles now safely separated Jasper Jacks and Brenda Barrett, and, if things went as Andrew had planned, even more distance than that would soon be separating them - this time, permanently.

His contact in LA had just informed him that Jasper Jacks's jet had landed safely at LAX at precisely 12:05 Pacific time, and a limo had whisked him immediately to Cedars-Sinai, where, despite the lateness of the hour, he had talked to the surgeon who had worked on Addie Walsh and then he visited with the woman herself. Then he'd been taken to his palatial Malibu estate, where he was safely tucked inside just minutes ago.

Andrew's contact also told him that things had been set in motion at J&J Jacks International that would likely hold CEO Jax's attention for days to come - nothing major, but a series of minor setbacks that would appear major with his right-hand person unable to step in to sort things out for him and set order to the chaos. For the next few days Jax would have little time to do anything but watch as things slowly spun off-kilter in his corporate life, and certainly no time to even think about Brenda Barrett, let alone try to re-ignite his failed love affair with her. One Jacks brother down; one to go…

Now Andrew had to make sure that JD kept his distance from Brenda as well. Not that JD had made any moves to see her as yet, but his instincts told him that it wouldn't be long before JD grew restless enough to seek her out. He had seen it in his eyes, if only momentarily, days before when JD had been in his office. JD had tried to hide his interest, but Andrew knew him well enough by now to know JD's moods. He had no doubt that JD's pull toward Brenda was as strong now as it was four years ago, when he had first tried to leave the Agency. He just had to make sure he beat JD to the punch, where Brenda was concerned.

Things were beginning to come together on that front as well. His initial plan to separate Jax and Brenda had succeeded, but he had decided, even before he'd had confirmation that it was working, to lay the groundwork for his backup plan for Brenda. The decision to kill Brenda hadn't been an easy one for him to make, as he'd grown quite fond of her over the years, but it was a necessary one nonetheless - just as his decision to eliminate the baby years before had been necessary. The good of the Agency had to override everything else, no matter what. Now he just needed another day or so to finalize those plans, assuring that there was no way that he could be seen by JD as anything other than a helpless victim in the scenario. Then he'd lure Brenda into a seemingly harmless situation that was actually an inescapable death trap. But in the meantime, he needed to make sure that JD kept his distance from the woman.

That evening he had ordered Jackson to begin watching her more intensely for the next few days, and he had told Jackson to call him if anyone new seemed to be paying any interest in her. And he was sure that that sycophant Jackson would come running to him the minute anything at all happened in Ms. Barrett's life. The man was so in awe of the Agency and afraid of Andrew since he had threatened to kill him if he stepped out of line that Andrew was sure Jackson would be calling if any man so much as gave Brenda a lingering look.

Andrew smiled malignantly as he thought about Rick Jackson and the fate that awaited him. He had promised Jackson a major role in helping him in this plan with Brenda, and Jackson had handily jumped at the chance. He knew of Jackson's near obsession with Brenda, and he planned to use that to his full advantage in disposing of the little weasel once he had accomplished everything Andrew needed him to do for him. Jackson knew far too much about Andrew's activities concerning Brenda to be allowed to live. Besides, he was nothing more than vermin anyway, and the world had enough of those as it was! And, if all went according to plans, Andrew wouldn't even need to lift a finger in killing the man - JD would do that for him. All Andrew would need to do was play the victim and point the way, and JD would easily handle the rest.

"Yes," he murmured, his voice echoing in the emptiness of his bedroom as he turned the light back off, "things are coming together nicely, for the first time in a long time…" He closed his eyes, hoping to sleep soundly until the alarm rang in another ninety minutes, at precisely 7:00 a.m. It had been a long time since he'd had a sound night's sleep, and he knew that, despite his fatigue, sleep would not come easily for him tonight either. Seeing Jackson dead would be pleasurable enough, but knowing that Brenda would have to die along the way still weighed heavily on him. But he knew that he would eventually accept that decision because, in this line of work, logic always needed to outweigh emotion and sentiment. He had learned that a long time ago, and JD would learn it soon enough…

Brenda shifted in her seat, hoping to find a more comfortable position to get some rest, but it was useless. No matter what she did, she couldn't seem to get comfortable, and she knew it had more to do with her anxiety about the situation than it did with her present accommodations, which happened to be seat 32B on Continental's nonstop flight 352 to LAX.

She knew she shouldn't have left the apartment at all, let alone hopped the 3 a.m. flight to LA to see Jax. JD had warned her not to let anyone in or to go anywhere until he returned, but she had to see Jax one last time. Had Jax's cell phone been working when she'd called, she might not have felt the need for this face-to-face good-bye, but she knew that a mere note or a message on his voicemail wasn't sufficient for the news that she had to give him.

Not that she planned to tell him the whole truth: about JD and why he had left her and why he'd returned now and what that meant to her future safety. She planned to give Jax basically the same story that she'd given Ned and Lois in the letter she'd written them. No matter how much she hated the thought of lying to Jax, she knew that she had to. As JD had pointed out, the less her friends knew of the truth of the matter, the safer that they would be.

But she wanted and needed Jax to hear her voice and see her face so that he could understand that she did still love him, no matter what happened down the line. She had to let him know that she wasn't running from him; she just had a lot of decisions to make about her life. And that really was the truth of the matter. She did have a lot of decisions to make. She just hoped that, in the end, she was making the right one by running with JD, just as she hoped that her decision to see Jax now - perhaps for the last time - was the right one.

Her mind drifted back to the tumultuous events of the evening… Jax's appearance at Luigi's as the anonymous donor to the Homeless Coalition; her anger at feeling manipulated into the dinner, then Ned's urgent call from the gallery, serendipitously leaving her and Jax alone; her sudden need to open herself fully to Jax about JD and the baby; and then her realization that she loved Jax. The evening seemed to be going perfectly and she and Jax were on their way to celebrate their newfound mutual love, when Jax had gotten that call from his father about his assistant's accident, and he'd had to return immediately to LA.

Even that hadn't marred the wonderful feelings that were coursing through her because Jax had promised that it would only be a few days and they'd be together again. He had wanted her to go with him then, but her sense of obligation had prevented her from just running off with him. She had told him that an upcoming work deadline was holding her back, but the truth had been that she had needed to finally lay to rest her memories of JD and their love and the baby they'd lost, so she could open herself more fully to Jax and his love. And she thought she had done that. She had said her good-byes to both JD and JJ, and she was ready to move on to whatever lay ahead for her and Jax, but then JD returned…

JD's sudden reappearance in her life had completely turned her world upside down. The fact that he was back after four years was enough to upset things, but add to that his declaration of love and the marriage proposal, topped off by the disclosure that her life was now in imminent danger simply because he had chosen to see her again, and she wondered how things in her life could possibly get more complex?

She was in love with two men. She had known and accepted that earlier in the evening, but at that time, one of those two men was merely a memory who would always hold a place in her heart, but who would no longer control it. But now the flesh-and-blood JD had returned and he wanted her back, and a part of her wanted him just as much.

She had told JD about loving Jax, and, although he hadn't been happy hearing that she was in love with another man, he had understood the reality of the situation. Now she wondered how Jax might react to the news that JD had returned? She had been open with Jax about JD and what his memory meant to her, and he had been understanding and had accepted her love of JD with no qualms, but that was when JD was merely a memory. Could Jax accept JD's actual physical presence in her life once again?

She supposed she could just not tell him that JD had returned, but somehow that didn't seem fair to him. She owed him at least that much truth about the situation, she decided. She knew that she could only give Jax the barest details of it all, and she couldn't elaborate on where JD had been or why he'd gone in the first place. And she certainly couldn't tell him that it was JD's idea to take her into hiding with him. If Jax even suspected that that JD had anything to do with her sudden trip, she knew that he would try to stop her or, worse yet, try to find them. So she needed to be very convincing in her lie to Jax about her sudden trip. She just hoped that the situation with his assistant would have him so distracted that he wouldn't notice she was lying…

Her mind shifted to JD and what he would do when he discovered she hadn't followed his instructions. She knew that she didn't have enough time to make it out to LA and back within the time frame that he had given her for when they needed to leave, so she had left him a note explaining that she had a last minute errand to run and that she'd return as soon as it was completed. She had left it on the dining room table in plain sight, right next to her packed carryon, so that he could easily find it. She would have called him to let him know she was okay and not to worry, but she still didn't know his real name and he hadn't given her a number at which to reach him. So she had left the note for him. She hadn't given him a key to her apartment, but given his chosen profession, she had no doubt that he could find some way into it and wouldn't let a little thing like a locked door stop him.

She leaned back in her seat and thought about JD's startling revelation about his work. So many things about him made sense to her now: his hesitancy to talk about his past or his work; his desire to live each moment to the fullest; his supreme self-confidence; and the sad, faraway look he would sometimes get when he thought she wasn't watching. She understood now why he had never talked about forever for them. Despite the fact that he had planned for a future for them all along, a part of him was afraid to hope that it could ever happen because of what he did. And he had been right about that, and she wondered how he could be so sure they could safely escape this time?

JD had been sure that no one knew yet that he had visited her, but what if he was wrong? What if the Agency already knew and they'd already sent someone to kill her? A cold fear suddenly ran through her: It could be anyone and it could happen at any time… She glanced at the blue-haired, elderly woman who was snoring lightly in the window seat beside her, and then at the twenty-something, boldly tattooed and pierced, punk-looking man, with the brightest, hot pink hair she'd ever seen, who was sleeping on the other side of her, and suddenly she wondered who they were and what they were doing here? Were they who they appeared to be: simple, harmless travelers, such as herself, trapped on this LA-bound, red-eye flight - or something more sinister, such as paid assassins, out to kill her in order keep JD in line?

The thought of this frail, little grandmother packing an Uzi in her handbag nearly sent Brenda into a fit of giggles, and she realized that her fatigue was contributing to the escalating paranoia she was suddenly experiencing. She also doubted that the ornately decorated man on the other side of her was capable of anything more taxing than changing the CD in his Discman that, despite being attached to a set of earphones that were firmly implanted in his ears, was still playing loud enough to be heard by her above the quiet of the plane's cabin. But just in case they were feigning sleep, she bent closer, first to one seatmate and then the other, and found them both soundly asleep, despite the less-than-ideal sleeping conditions surrounding them.

She relaxed then, settling herself back in her own seat, once again trying to find a comfortable position to get some rest. She glanced at her watch: 5:50 a.m. The plane was scheduled to land at LAX at 8:15 Eastern time, so she had a couple more hours to try to sleep and decide exactly what she would say to Jax once she saw him.

Once she saw him… Where would she find him? She remembered he had mentioned that his father was meeting him at his place in Malibu at 8:00 a.m., but she suddenly realized she had no idea where exactly in Malibu that he lived and she doubted that his address would be listed in the phone book. She'd try his cell phone once again after she'd landed; perhaps by then she'd be able to get through to him. If not, she'd look up the address of J&J Jacks International and wait for him there.

She knew that this situation with his assistant being hurt was major, so he'd most likely be into his office sooner or later. She just hoped it would be sooner than later because she had to see him in person before she flew back to New York and then off to who-knows-where with JD, and her window of opportunity was becoming narrower with each passing minute. But she didn't care how long it took; she hadn't flown 3000 miles in the middle of the night just to talk to his voice mail again or an answering machine or even a secretary at his office. She had to see him one last time to let him know that she loved him, no matter what. He deserved to know that at least, even if she couldn't tell him more, she decided, as she finally gave into her fatigue and drifted off to sleep, hoping that rest would help her find the courage and the clarity to do what she needed to do.

Jerry thought he heard the faint ringing of his doorbell as he stepped out of the shower, but he couldn't imagine whom Matthew would allow up at this hour. It was barely 6:00 a.m., and the building's night doorman was usually very good at keeping out unexpected visitors - especially those who showed up at such an unusual hour. And both Matthew and Abe, the daytime doorman, had strict orders never to allow anyone, other than family, up without calling first for clearance. Perhaps Matthew had tried calling, but since you were in the shower, you couldn't hear the phone, he told himself. That was most likely the case, but even so, would he just allow them on up without getting his okay first?

Then, as he grabbed for a towel to wrap around himself, a sick thought occurred to him: What if Matthew couldn't call ahead because he had been knocked out? What if someone from the Agency had found out about his visit to Brenda and was here to warn him away from her? Or worse yet, what if they'd already taken out Brenda…?

He grabbed his gun as he cautiously made his way toward the front door of his penthouse apartment. Looking through the small peephole in the door, he was relieved to see the ruddy face of Matthew there. Despite seeing Matthew, Jerry still opened the door cautiously, and then only a crack, keeping his 9mm hidden behind the door just in case there was someone hidden behind Matthew in the hallway.

"I'm sorry to bother you so early, Mr. Jacks," Matthew said, as he shifted his weight from one foot to the other and cleared his throat. He felt uncomfortable for disturbing this reclusive tenant at this hour, and he hoped he hadn't made a mistake in doing so. "But this was just delivered by a bike messenger, and he said it was urgent. He said I should bring it up to you immediately because he said you needed to see it right away," he added as he handed Jerry a large, manila envelope through the crack in the door.

Jerry watched as Matthew moved slightly to the side as he slipped the envelope into his hand, and he could see that the hallway behind the man was empty, which allowed Jerry to relax slightly. "Thanks, Matthew," he said finally, as he turned his attention to the envelope Matthew had just handed him, which was addressed simply to "Mr. Jeremy Jacks" and marked "URGENT." There was no return address and nothing to signify from whom it had come. He tore open the package and pulled out the lone photo that was inside and was immediately angered by what he saw.

Who could have done this, and how did they know that he and Brenda were once involved? He looked up to see Matthew turning to leave. "Who delivered this?" he yelled after him angrily, throwing the door completely open at that point, momentarily forgetting he was dressed only in a towel and carrying a loaded 9mm weapon.

"Just some messenger on a bike," Matthew answered, visibly shaken by both Jerry's sudden anger and the gun he could now see that Jerry held in his right hand.

"What did he look like?" Jerry asked more calmly, as he realized his outburst and the sight of the gun had frightened Matthew considerably. He discreetly shifted the gun to his other hand and hid it beneath the large envelope.

"Ummm… nothing special about him. He looked like every other bike messenger out there," Matthew answered; his eyes still wide and his voice still shaking. "Is there anything wrong, Mr. Jacks? I mean is that a threat against you, or something? Do you want me to call the police for you?"

"Thanks, Matthew, but that isn't necessary," Jerry answered smoothly, his voice softening. "This is just a practical joke, that's all," he said, plastering on a smile as he nodded his head toward the envelope, "and this isn't real," he added, indicating the gun. "It's one of those novelty lighters - a gag gift from my brother from a couple of years ago," he lied easily, hoping to assuage the older man's fears.

It worked.

"Well, you sure fooled me with that thing," Matthew laughed nervously. "Glad to know it's not real though. Something that looks like that could probably do a lot of damage if it were the real thing."

"Yeah…" Jerry replied quietly. Yeah, it can be quite lethal, he thought, his eyes drifting downward toward the photo clenched in his hand.

"Well, I need to get back to the door now - unless there's something else you need, Mr. Jacks?" Matthew hesitated before heading back toward the elevator.

"Not really, Matthew - But if you see that bike messenger making deliveries here again, don't let him leave the premises until you've contacted me," Jerry answered, trying to appear as calm as possible.

"Certainly, Mr. Jacks," Matthew nodded, as he turned and walked the length of the hallway to take the elevator back downstairs, all the while wondering what had been in that envelope that had gotten the normally cool and reserved Mr. Jacks so upset?

Jerry slowly closed the door behind him and then leaned back against it, the anger once again building in him as he looked at the photo that had been anonymously sent to him. It was an 8x10 black-and-white photo of a man and a woman making love. It was a side shot, taken with a very powerful telephoto lens. The woman was on top of the man and she was completely naked. Her head was bent back slightly; her eyes closed, passion clearly written on her beautiful face. Brenda was very definitely the woman, but the man's face and body had been erased from the photo to hide his identity. Across the bottom of the photo was a neatly printed message: "If you want to know who he is, it will cost you… Call 555-3645 if you're interested…I have lots of things I think could interest you…"

Jerry crumpled the photo and tossed it across the room and then pounded his fist angrily against the wall, knocking askew one of the newly hung photos from Brenda's latest collection he'd just received from the Ashton Gallery.

She hadn't lied to him; she had been truthful with him. She had told him she loved someone else, but hearing it and seeing it were two different things entirely. He had thought the pain of hearing her tell him she loved another was bad enough, but seeing this picture - seeing the look of ecstasy on her face as she made love to this other man … the same look that was once his and his alone - he felt as if his heart had been ripped out.

He had told himself since the moment she had told him about this other man that the man's identity wasn't important. After all, Brenda was leaving with him today and it was doubtful she'd ever see the man again in their lifetime. But now that he'd seen part of the picture, he was afraid he'd never rest again until he saw the rest of it. He had to know who this man was who filled her as completely as he once had.

He could feel the anger boiling within him as he grabbed the phone and punched in the numbers. First, he needed to get himself under control, and then he needed to know who his competition was and who it was who knew enough about him and Brenda to send him this picture. He slowly raised the gun and sited it across the room as he waited for his called party to answer. Soon he'd know everything he needed to know to do what he needed to do…

Jerry pounded loudly on Brenda's door. He had tried repeatedly to call her since he'd received the photo, over thirty minutes ago. She wasn't answering, so he had raced over to her place to check on her. At first he'd thought she'd just turned off her phone so she could sleep, but now that she also wasn't answering the door, he was worried that something had happened to her.

As he quickly picked the lock to get into her apartment, he berated himself for allowing her to stay here for another few hours. His instincts had told him to drag her out with him last night so he could assure her safety, but his emotions had allowed her to persuade him that she needed those hours to get things in order. He just hoped that she was safely inside, either in bed or in the shower, and unable to hear either the phone or the door.

"Brenda!" he called as he opened the door and raced inside. The drapes were still drawn from the night before, and the dining room table held her packed carryon. She's just not up yet, he thought, relieved that she was still here. He walked back to her bedroom, expecting to find her there, but her bed looked as if it hadn't been slept in, and her silk dress, which he had replaced on the bedside table, was still there.

He ran to the closed bathroom door and knocked lightly, as he called her name once again; still no answer. He tore open the door and turned on the light, but she wasn't there, and the dry shower curtain signaled the shower hadn't been used for hours. He ran through her studio, but there was no sign of her there either. He ran back to the main part of the loft, looking for evidence of a struggle, but there was none.

That was when he saw the note propped against the side of her carryon, in the center of the table:

JD, I know you told me not to go anywhere, but I had to take care of this one errand in person. Please understand that I couldn't just disappear out of his life. He deserves better than that. I promise not to tell him any details or even why I'm going. I just need to say goodbye to him in person, even if I can't tell him it may be forever… I'll try to be back as quickly as possible, but I WILL be back… Please don't worry… Love, Brenda

"She went to him," he muttered angrily, clenching and unclenching his fists as he paced across the wide expanse of the living area of the loft. The anger and jealousy that he had managed to rein in after the photo arrived was once again welling up in him, and he hated feeling so out of control again. Brenda's life depended on him being able to maintain control. He was an agent, for god's sake! His life was about control, so he had to let go of the pain and the jealousy he was feeling now and find her for her own sake.

He had refrained from his urge to call the number on the picture he'd received earlier, but now it seemed the logical thing to do, given the circumstances. Brenda had obviously gone to see this other man, despite the fact that she could have put both herself and that man in danger. He needed to locate Brenda immediately and get her to safety, but Jerry had no idea who the man was, let alone where to find him and her. Despite the fact that he hated to pay a blackmailer for this information, Brenda's very life could depend on it.

He pulled out his phone and punched in the numbers he remembered from the picture. Every square inch of that picture and the writing on it was indelibly etched into his brain, and he doubted he would ever forget it, especially once he knew the face of the man in the picture.

He closed his eyes and breathed deeply, as he waited for someone to answer. It was picked up on the second ring.

"You finally decided to call, Agent Jacks. I was beginning to wonder if I'd have to find another buyer for my pretty pictures…" a voice rivaling Darth Vader's rasped. Jerry immediately realized that, whoever this was, they were using a voice modulator, making it impossible for him to recognize an accent or even the sex of the speaker. The fact that they knew it was him calling without his saying a word and they knew he was an agent sent chills down his spine: whoever this was had access to Agency equipment and files, which explained how they knew so much about him and Brenda. But why would someone in the Agency want to sell him information like this? And who could it be?

"Who is this?!" Jerry demanded, despite knowing his question was futile.

"Now, now… My identity isn't important here… What you really want to know is the identity of the man in the picture, isn't that right?" the voice teased.

"How much?" Jerry growled. He was tired of this call and this caller already, and he was in no mood to play games.

"Always one to go straight to the point, aren't you?" the voice chuckled, enjoying toying with Jerry. "For the rest of the picture? $10,000 in unmarked, non-sequential bills… For anything more… well, that'll cost you quite a bit more."

"I want more than just his picture for that $10,000! I want his name and address, too!" Jerry ordered. The man's face alone wouldn't be enough for him to go on to find Brenda in such a short time span.

There was another chuckle on the other end of the line. "Oh, you'll know who he is and where to find him, I guarantee that…"

"How soon can I get this?" Jerry asked impatiently.

"As soon as I get what I want, I'll make sure you get what you want… Do we have a deal?"

"Yes…" Jerry sighed wearily. He hated this with every fiber of his being, but he couldn't see any other way.

"Good… Now listen carefully because I won't repeat this: Place the money in a plain duffel bag and take the bag to Wyatt's gym on West 57th… Ask for Marco… He'll give you a key to a locker there… Put the bag in the locker, and then give the key back to Marco and leave…Go to Brothers' Café on West 51st and wait for my call… I'll tell you where to find what you want then."

"Listen - I need this information now!" Jerry demanded. Every minute that passed without knowing where Brenda was meant another minute she could be closer to danger.

"Then I suggest you get moving…" came the curt reply, followed by the dial tone, as they hung up.

Jax panted as he ran the deserted stretch of beach that connected his Malibu estate and that of his neighbors to the Pacific Ocean. Despite the fact that it was barely 6:00 a.m. and the sun was just beginning to show itself behind the mountains to the east, it was already 76 degrees. He was hot and tired and already drenched with sweat, even though he'd barely run half of his customary four-mile morning course. As he spotted the faint outline of his house against the horizon, he breathed a sigh of relief, glad that he'd soon be finished with this run and could step into the shower to both cool off and wake up. Normally, he would still be heading in the other direction, away from his house, but this morning he'd decided to cut his run short because of both the oppressive heat and the fatigue he felt from lack of sleep the night before.

It had been nearly 2:00 a.m. by the time he'd literally fallen into bed that morning, and it had been difficult to tear himself from the sheets when his alarm had rung at 5:20, but he had dutifully pulled himself out of bed anyway. He had gotten a little sleep on the jet, but not much. And on top of that he had been up the previous morning at 5:00 a.m. Eastern time, which meant he had gone nearly 24 hours without much sleep. He was used to functioning on very little sleep, but now he wished he'd had another hour or so because today was going to be a tough one.

When the limo had picked him up at the airport, the driver had given him a message from his father, informing Jax that he should meet him at his office at J&J Jacks International at 7:30 a.m., rather than his father coming here to Malibu at 8:00, as they had originally planned. Apparently his father thought it best that they make an early and strong appearance in the offices of J&J Jacks International to let everyone know that, despite Addie's unfortunate accident, it would be business as usual. He only wished he shared his father's optimism about the business as usual.

Addie Walsh had worked for the family business so long and was so attuned to both him and his father both personally and professionally that they had their own system of communication that often didn't require words - the woman just seemed to "know" instinctively what was needed in any given situation. She anticipated things and was always ready for anything. She was a true treasure and the heart of the smooth-running operation that J&J Jacks International had become. Not that he and his father and the hundreds of others who comprised the company didn't contribute mightily - they all did. It was just that Addie seemed to be the glue that held everything together - or perhaps more accurately, the lubricant that allowed their well-oiled machine to continue running so smoothly. Addie knew everything about every department, and without her Jax anticipated some long and bumpy days ahead, with little time to deal with anything other than business.

Jax sighed at that. Addie's accident was unfortunate at any time, but for him personally this was the worst time. Just a few hours ago Brenda had finally admitted her love for him, and they had been on their way back to her place to celebrate their love when his father had called with the news about Addie. They should have spent the night in each other's arms, making love until exhaustion finally overwhelmed them and then awakened this morning to start all over again, sharing their mutual love. But instead, he'd spent a long, lonely night flying across the country and she'd spent it alone in her apartment. He wondered if she'd missed him as much as he'd missed her, and he also wondered what she was doing now?

He glanced at his watch - it was after 6, which meant that it was after 9 in New York. He imagined that she was already up and going strong this morning, since she usually was jogging no later than 6:30 each morning. He smiled as he remembered seeing her for the first time just a little more than a week ago, running ahead of him in the early morning hours in Central Park. She was so beautiful that she easily attracted his attention, but the fact that she also seemed to be checking him out had intrigued him. Of course, a couple of days later when they finally met, he had learned that she'd been checking him out solely for professional reasons and not personal ones. But that changed quickly enough, he thought, smiling as he vividly remembered their first lunch together - and what had immediately followed.

That had been a week ago today that they'd fallen into bed together and he'd fallen in love with her. He was sure that she'd fallen in love with him then, too, but she had been too afraid to recognize that until last night. Last night she had finally opened herself fully to him and now he understood her earlier hesitance to allow herself to love and be loved again. Once she had given herself completely to another man - Jarrod Davis - loving him without hesitation, surrendering herself fully to him, only to have him abandon her suddenly and without warning, leaving her alone and devastated and pregnant.

It had taken her four, long years to recover from the pain of losing him and the heartbreaking and senseless loss of their baby shortly thereafter. Brenda had carried the guilt and the pain of those losses with her, using that to justify her self-imposed isolation from the outside world, insulating herself against the hope of another great love and the possibility of another great loss. But now she had taken off her armor of pain and loss and opened herself to him, finally allowing him access to her heart and her soul, and he planned to protect them with his life. He'd never again let anything or anyone hurt her as Jarrod Davis had done, whether intentionally or through circumstance. And if it was the last thing he ever did, he'd find out what had happened to this Jarrod Davis, and if he was still alive, make him pay for hurting Brenda as he had.

He had hoped Jerry could help him on that front, but his call early this morning indicated that he would be otherwise occupied for the next couple of weeks, at least until after his honeymoon. The thought of his brother married and happily settling down made Jax smile, despite the heat and fatigue. This BiBi had to be quite a woman to make Jerry want to give up his playboy ways.

That reminded him: he needed to call the hangar to check on the progress of the crew that was getting the jet ready for its flight back to New York. It would have been smarter for Jerry and BiBi to fly commercially here and then take the Lear jet from here, but it seemed that Jerry had promised BiBi a private flight on the family jet all the way to San Beliz, and he'd hate for anything to interfere with his brother's carefully laid plans to whisk his mysterious bride-to-be off to paradise in style. He'd also have to make sure that the jet's cabin was filled with flowers and champagne, as well as an assortment of white and dark chocolate truffles. If BiBi were anything like Brenda, then the chocolates alone would be enough to send her right off passion's Richter scale, Jax thought, remembering a few nights ago when he had surprised Brenda with an assortment of the decadent treats and she, in turn, had gone on to surprise him with an unforgettable night of non-stop lovemaking. The memory of that night suddenly made Jax feel even hotter than he was, and he was glad to see that his house and that much-needed cold shower were both just yards away now.

He slowed his pace as he neared his house and then stopped completely as he reached his own beachfront property, stretching his weary muscles as he gazed out at the great expanse of the Pacific Ocean. It was so beautiful and peaceful here at this time of the morning, and he wished that he'd been able to convince Brenda to come with him last night so they could be sharing this magnificent view together now. Of course, had she come with him he doubted they would have made it down to the beach this morning to run, most likely opting to stay in bed to get their cardiovascular exercise in a far more mutually enjoyable way.

That thought sent an ache through his body that made him completely forget about the stifling heat and his overall fatigue and his weary muscles from the morning's run. He turned and ran up the steps that led from the beach up the hill to his house, heading for a very long, very cold shower, and then he was calling Brenda immediately thereafter. He missed her more than he thought was humanly possible, and at this point, he surmised, phone sex was better than no sex at all.

Brenda yawned as she leaned back in her chair at the corner table of the airport coffee shop and watched as weary travelers scurried past from one point to the next on their disparate journeys. Despite the fact that it was just 6:30 a.m. here in California, LAX was already brimming with activity, which somehow surprised her. She knew that both La Guardia and Kennedy were always bustling places, day or night, but that was New York - it was the city that never slept. LA, on the other hand, had the reputation as being more laid-back and relaxed, so she had assumed its airport would be quiet - at least at this hour of the morning. But she supposed harried travelers were harried travelers no matter what their location, and these days everyone seemed to be in a hurry to get from Point A to Point B as quickly as possible, no matter where in the world those two points were. She knew that she should be doing the same, since she was on a definite time restriction, but she needed this brief time of quiet to gather her strength and her courage.

Besides, she had tried calling Jax's cell phone several times since she'd landed a little over an hour ago, and each time she had gotten his voice mail. Since her plan was to see him in person and not merely leave a message for him, it seemed pointless to say anything, so she'd just hung up each time. And although she'd been able to find the address of J&J Jacks International easily in the phone book, she still had no idea what his home address was - and she doubted even with the current crisis of his assistant's accident and absence from the office that he would be in his office at this hour. So she decided it was pointless to move from here until she knew exactly where he was so she knew where to go. Anyway, she needed to energize herself before she went anywhere.

"Here's your double expresso and croissant," the eager, young waitress said as she set the order down in front of Brenda. "That will be $7.31, please," she added with a cheerful smile.

"Thank you," Brenda answered, returning the girl's bright smile with one of her own, as she handed the girl a ten and added, "Keep the change."

"Thanks!" the girl bubbled, bobbing her head happily, her blonde ponytail bouncing dizzily up and down, as she headed back to the counter to tend to the only other patron, besides Brenda, in the place.

Brenda smiled, grateful for the girl's cheerfulness, which seemed to lift her own spirits, despite her continued jet lag and underlying anxiety about her mission here in LA. She picked up the cup of the steaming hot liquid the girl had brought, blowing gently across its surface in an effort to cool it somewhat, then grimaced as she took a slow sip of it. It was extremely hot and amazingly strong, and despite the bitter aftertaste, exactly what she needed to get her moving this morning. She had managed to grab an hour or so of sleep on the plane, but it had done little to alleviate the sleep deficit she'd racked up this past week, so she was counting on lots and lots of caffeine to carry her through this day.

She set down the expresso and reached eagerly for the warm croissant; its tantalizing smell teasing her nose and her taste buds, making her suddenly aware of how hungry she was. She had barely taken three bites of her salad last night at dinner, and she'd eaten next to nothing yesterday before going to Luigi's. She realized that since then she had only had one of Mrs. Shapiro's lemon tea cookies back at the apartment while she was selecting shots for the Stay Fit assignment. Up until this point, she had been too rattled by everything - Jax and then JD - to worry about food, and hunger had been a low priority on her list of things to handle.

She tore off a piece of the flaky croissant and stuffed it eagerly into her mouth, savoring the rich, buttery flavor of the taste treat. Brenda really only had two food passions: one was her love of croissants, which she had developed while growing up in Europe, and the other was her love of anything chocolate, which she was sure she was born with, since even as a little girl she had craved chocolate. In fact, she had craved chocolate as a child almost as much as she had always craved love.

She thought back to her childhood and those lonely days and nights when she would have given anything to have anyone at all love her… She had grown up with her half-sister, Julia, who was ten years older, and their father, Harlan, on an estate near London. Although she had been born in the States - here in LA, in fact - they had moved to Europe when Brenda was just a toddler. She had grown up motherless and virtually fatherless, as well; her father had paid her little attention - except to criticize her - while doting on Julia, and Brenda had basically been raised by servants and teachers, who cared more for their next paycheck than they did about her.

When she was a child, she had often wondered what it was about her that made her so unlovable, but as she grew older, she just grew to accept that love was not guaranteed in life and she learned to insulate herself. That insulation had served her well until JD had come into her life and broken through it. And then she had wrapped herself away again after he disappeared, until Jax had broken through to her. Now they were both in her life - loving her, wanting her. What a stark contrast to her childhood, she thought ruefully.

She had been the unwanted product of a failed marriage between her father, millionaire industrialist Harlan Barrett, and Veronica Wilding, a beautiful, but headstrong and free-spirited artist, who was fifteen years his junior and who hated the confines of marriage and motherhood. In fact, she was so unhappy that she was driven to the point of madness, eventually committing suicide to escape her loveless existence with Harlan - and to escape her daughter as well, Brenda supposed.

She had no real memories of her mother, as she was only two when her mother had filled her expensive jade bathtub to the rim with the hottest water she could stand and the most expensive bath oils she could find, and then had drunk herself into oblivion with Harlan's finest Scotch. The coroner had ruled it an accidental death, opining that Veronica had simply been overcome by the combined relaxant effects of the hot water, the scented bath oils, and the alcohol, but the whispered comments of the house servants as she was growing up gave Brenda a far different picture of what had really happened. None of them doubted that, in the midst of madness, her mother had willingly taken her own life.

As a teen she had eavesdropped on a conversation between Anna, their longtime housekeeper both in the States and in England, and a new hire, Sara. Sara had been curious as to the history of the family and Anna had been quite willing to fill her in on it. Anna told Sara that Veronica and Harlan had been happy at first, despite their differences, both in age and in social status. Harlan had been raised in wealth, and Veronica had been orphaned as a teen and had lived on her own from the time she was 16 until her marriage to Harlan when she was 22 and he was 37.

This was Harlan's second marriage. His first - to her half-sister Julia's mother, Elizabeth Chase Carruthers, the beautiful socialite daughter and sole heir of the late David Carruthers, legendary oil baron and philanthropist - ended tragically when she was killed in a private plane crash. Harlan had loved Elizabeth beyond reason, and when Julia was born, they had both been ecstatic, excited that their love lived on in their beautiful daughter.

When Julia was eight, Harlan had been stranded in New York on business, and he had insisted that Elizabeth fly from their home in the exclusive Brentwood section of LA to spend the weekend with him there in New York City. Julia couldn't go because she was just recovering from a bout of chicken pox. Elizabeth had been reluctant to leave Julia, despite the fact that she was nearly well again, but Harlan had been insistent, finally hiring a private jet to fly her there to be with him. Unfortunately, the plane never made it there, crashing in a sudden snowstorm over the Rockies, and Harlan nearly went crazy with grief after her death, developing an almost unnatural attachment to Julia - all that he had left of his beloved Elizabeth.

He met Veronica at an art exhibit a little more than a year after Elizabeth's death, and both her bohemian spirit and her dark beauty immediately intrigued him. She was completely unlike Elizabeth. Elizabeth had been fair and blonde and refined, always proper in her speech and manners; whereas Veronica was exotic looking and completely spontaneous, never caring what society or convention thought of her. Harlan and Veronica married less than a month after they'd met, and Brenda came along less than a year later. Unfortunately, neither Harlan nor Veronica was happy that she had been born.

Anna had told Sara that Harlan and Veronica had grown distant with one another soon after Veronica had found out she was pregnant, and by the time Brenda was born, they were no longer even sharing the same bedroom. By then, their communication with one another consisted of the occasional, sarcastic barb that invariably ended in an all-out shouting match, sending Harlan out the door with Julia in tow and Veronica to her room, where she would climb into a bottle for hours and then into bed for days thereafter. Veronica withdrew further and further from everyone, including Brenda, relegating her care and upbringing completely to a nanny before Brenda was even three months old. The entire staff of the Barrett household was sure that Veronica was crazy and should have been hospitalized, but Harlan ignored the signs of Veronica's deteriorating mental state, instead allowing her to isolate herself completely from the outside world and eventually take her own life.

She overheard Anna tell Sara that just weeks after Veronica's funeral, Harlan had simply packed up the household and moved to England, leaving everything of Veronica's behind to be sold with the Brentwood estate, including all of her pictures and her personal effects. Anna had even revealed that Harlan had entertained the thought of sending the two-year-old Brenda away then, but he had decided it would appear improper and had merely hired a new nanny when they'd arrived in England to take charge of her until she was old enough to enroll in school.

Soon after her fifth birthday, he shipped her off to the first in a long series of exclusive, European boarding schools. Anna had said that Harlan always referred to Brenda as the demon child because of her high-spiritedness and her physical similarities to Veronica. He was certain that she had inherited her mother's madness, and following Brenda's expulsion from a succession of schools for misbehavior, ranging from merely the mischievous to those considered immoral, he was certain of it. And after Brenda was expelled from the elite Ballanchine School near Paris at age fifteen, when it was discovered that she had broken curfew and slipped off the grounds and into town, losing her virginity to a twenty-something racecar driver whom she'd just met, he added 'slut' to the ever-growing list of names, such as 'crazy' and 'ingrate,' by which he referred to her. But he never referred to her as 'daughter,' and from her earliest memories of him until the day he died, he never once told her he loved her.

Brenda could feel the tears stinging her eyes, as the bitter memories of those years still stung her as painfully now as an adult as they had when she was a child. Her father never understood why she acted as she had - acting out and being outrageous. She had only ever wanted his love and his attention, but he had never wanted her and wasn't capable of loving her. He had only had enough love in him for Julia, and Brenda had finally come to accept that.

Perhaps she was the luckier of the two sisters, after all. True - Julia had gotten all of their father's love and attention, and after he died four years ago, she'd inherited his entire fortune, considerable by its own right, but made even more substantial by the holdings from the estate of Julia's late grandfather, making Julia a very rich woman now. But she was also a very lonely woman now, from what Brenda understood, spending most of her time tending to her investments and running Barrett Industries in a way that certainly would have made Harlan proud, but leaving herself little time for a social life and unwilling to look for love because she feared that she'd never find a man who could measure up to Harlan Barrett in her life. While she, Brenda Barrett, who had grown up without love, had somehow learned to love and was fortunate enough to be loved not only by one incredible man, but by two; in the end making her by far both the luckier, as well as the wealthier, of the two sisters.

She smiled wanly at that, as she realized that her childhood ordeals had actually strengthened her. She had been forced to be independent at an early age because she had had no one but herself on which she could ultimately rely. That strength had helped to carry her through her college years and then the time after she lost both JD and JJ, and it would help carry her through this ordeal as well. No matter what happened today or in the days ahead, she realized that she would survive, no matter what.

Her musings were interrupted by the shrill of her cell phone, which she quickly pulled from its berth in the side pocket of her camera bag. "Hello?"

"I love you, and I miss you like crazy! Have you missed me as much as I've missed you?" a now familiar Aussie voice crooned.

"Jax! I've been trying to reach you!" Brenda answered excitedly; her tears of a few moments ago quickly forgotten and now replaced by excitement at once again hearing his voice.

"You have?" he asked, his tone teasing.

She could feel Jax's satisfied smile through the phone.

"I take it that you did miss me then…" he chuckled softly, leaving the sentence dangling.

She felt the heat course through her body at his sexy laugh. "You know it…" she answered softly, losing herself in the warm caress of his voice.

"Have you missed me enough to want to join me?" he asked hopefully.

She just laughed softly at that. "Where are you now, Jax?" she asked, changing the subject quickly.

"Do you mean, am I in bed or in the shower - something like that?" he asked, his voice taking on a decidedly sensual tone.

She was sure the man was trying to torture her to death here. "Are you?" she asked quietly, suddenly picturing the two of them together in both of those places.

"No, it's impossible for me to sleep without you in my arms, and showering isn't the same without you either," he replied, his voice still teasing, but Brenda detected a note of truth there also, because she knew exactly how he felt. "Besides, it looks like I won't be getting much time for either sleep or showers over the next few days… It's not even 7:00 here yet and I'm headed for the office already, and I'll probably be practically living there for the next several days."

"Then it's probably just as well I couldn't go you with you last night," Brenda answered, her voice falling, as she wondered if this trip to LA to say good-bye had been a bad idea after all?

"I would give anything to see you right now… I love you so much, Brenda," he said, his voice wistful, and she knew that seeing him now and saying good-bye to him was going to be one of the hardest things she would ever do in her life. There was a few seconds of silence between them, and then Jax continued, "Brenda, there looks like there's some sort of traffic tie-up up ahead, so I'd better hang up now and give the road my full attention… I'll call you when I get to the office - if I finally get there, that is… I'm going to be picturing your beautiful face all day and wishing you were here with me," he added, which made her smile. "I love you, Brenda…"

"I love you, Jax," she answered softly, and then the connection went dead.

She closed her phone and tucked it back into its pocket on the side of her camera bag, then stood to leave. As she headed out to find a cab to take her to J&J Jacks International, she felt both excitement and dread at the prospect of seeing Jax one last time, and she finally understood how hard it must have been for JD to endure those last few bittersweet hours that they had spent together just before he'd left her. She only hoped that she could be as convincing an actor with Jax as JD had been with her four years ago. If not, she could be placing his life in danger right along with hers and JD's…

Jerry watched as the long, thin, red hand on the large clock on the wall just beyond the counter of the Brothers' Café slowly swept around the clock face, methodically ticking off the passing seconds of the day. It was 9:37 a.m., and he'd been sitting here in this corner booth for nearly ninety minutes, drinking cup after cup of coffee, while watching the clock and waiting to hear something - anything - from the person to whom he'd just blindly handed over $10,000 in cash. Stupid move, he chastised himself; you just threw away good money on bad faith; whoever he is, he's never calling, and you've just wasted a whole lot of time that could have been better spent tracking Brenda down.

He had followed to the letter the instructions he'd been given: taking the cash in a plain duffel bag to the gym, putting it in the locker he was assigned, giving the key to some gorilla named Marco, and then coming here to this little diner to wait. He had expected to have to wait a little while - perhaps as long as thirty minutes, while the money was counted - but this amount of time was ridiculous and most likely indicated that he had indeed been had!

He was about to leave when the waitress approached him, carrying an envelope. "Some kid just handed me this and told me you'd be expecting it," she said as she set the envelope down on the table. She noticed Jerry's empty coffee cup. "Would you like another cup of coffee?"

"No, thanks," he answered, never tearing his eyes from the envelope that looked identical to the one that had been delivered to his apartment building hours before. "I need to be going now," he said, as he stood and pressed a fifty into the waitress's hand. "I hope this will sufficiently cover the cost of the coffee and your time." He grabbed the envelope and hurried out of the diner, not waiting for her answer and never catching the waitress's surprised look at the generous tip he'd just given her or the smug smirk on the face of the swarthy-looking little man, who was seated at the far-end of the counter, just below the large clock on the wall that continued to tick off the passing seconds.

Jerry ran the distance to his car, quickly unlocking the driver's side door and hopping in, unaware of the heavy flow of traffic that he'd just interrupted as he opened the door to get into his car. A chorus of blaring horns sounded from the angry drivers who had been forced to stop suddenly because of his inattention and brought Jerry back to the here and now. He had been so intent on getting to the privacy of his car to open the envelope that he had been momentarily oblivious to everything else, including the dangerous move he had just made by opening his door into the heavy morning traffic of the city. That was totally unlike him, and he needed to get himself under control quickly if he was going to find Brenda and get her safely away from danger.

Quickly closing the door behind him, he settled himself against the cool, black leather of the driver's seat and placed the unopened envelope on the steering wheel, staring at it briefly. That envelope contained all the answers he needed to find Brenda; he knew that. But he also knew that once he opened it and saw the face of the other man, it could never be undone. He would never be able to forget what he was about to see: the face of his rival for Brenda's heart. It would be like Pandora opening the forbidden box, and all the evils would be released on the world, never to be contained again...

He picked the envelope back up, tearing open one end. It was then that he realized that he was shaking. Very little had ever frightened him before; he had nerves of steel and could be calm in the face of any situation, which is one reason that the Agency found him so valuable. Then why did this scare him so much? But he knew the answer to that before he even asked it: because this was a situation over which he had no real control. Brenda was the one in control here. He could find her and even whisk her away from this other man, but he could never make her stop loving this other man. That was Brenda's choice, and he knew it and he knew that he had to accept it, but he still hated it.

You need to know, he told himself; you need to know for her sake as well as your own. He held his breath as he slowly slid the contents into his hand, both anticipating and dreading what he would find inside. He slowly exhaled as he saw that the photo was face down, and there was writing across the back of it. In the same neat hand that had been printed on the previous photo, there was written: "This is just one of many photos for your enjoyment. And, if you're interested, I have some important information about Ms. Barrett's terrible 'accident' a few years ago…Of course, it will cost you, but then doesn't anything worth having, cost? … You know my number…" The message was signed simply with a smiley face, and Jerry felt a real hatred for this person who was behind this, whoever he was. He was toying with him, and he was enjoying it immensely. And worse still, he had been playing with Brenda's life all along, invading her privacy, and now using that information in order to make a profit.

Slowly he turned the photo over, and once again he realized he was holding his breath in anticipation of what he would see. But even his worst fears had not prepared him for the actual shock of the complete picture before him. Suddenly he felt as if someone had hit him in the chest with a sledgehammer and he couldn't breathe… This couldn't be true, he told himself; this picture had to be doctored! But there was something deep inside of him that told him that this picture was the genuine article. There were no lies here; only the cold, hard truth in black-and-white.

He thought he had prepared himself for this moment - steeled himself for any possibility - but nothing could have prepared him for this: there, staring lovingly up at his Brenda, making love with his Brenda, was his brother, Jax…