"Your sister?" Brenda said, gazing at Jax’s cousin in confusion. "You have a sister?"

"Yes," he said, turning back around and beginning his search for the Swiss bank account numbers once again.

"Well, how can that be?" Brenda insisted. "Your own mother told me at Christmas dinner that you’re an only child."

"I suppose I am . . ." he said, "as far as my mother is concerned. But according to my father, that is not the case."

"Oh, so your father says that you have a sister? A sister nobody in the family knows about?"

"Right."

"And you believe him?"

"I know it’s true. I’ve had it verified."

"So this is your father’s child with another woman?"

"Yes."

"What’s her name?"

"The other woman?"

"No, your sister."

"Jenna," Trey said, rifling through a bookshelf.

"Does she know about you?"

"No."

"Jenna," Brenda repeated. "And you said you’re protecting her -- Jenna -- from something, right? From what, Trey?"

"I can’t tell you anything else," he said, crouching down to search a low bookcase.

"No, you don’t understand," Brenda said, getting up and approaching him, standing directly behind him, "you have to tell me. I’m not giving you any choice here," she informed him.

Trey got up from his crouching position and turned around to find the beautiful, petite brunette standing behind him with her arms folded expectantly.

He leaned against the desk behind him. "You were definitely destined for one of us," he said. "Too bad it wasn’t me."

Brenda was not about to be sidetracked by his suspiciously timed flattery or his marvelous gray eyes that nearly rivaled Jax’s in their beauty. "Don’t try to change the subject," she warned him with a stubborn look.

"The subject is closed," he told her, giving her as stubborn a look as she was giving him.

"The subject is not closed. I’m not kidding, Trey. You need to tell me everything or else I’m going to just have to tell Jax who you are and let him take it from there."

Trey gazed at her to assess the seriousness of her threat. He decided it was very real. She would tell Jax.

"Where did you send Jerry?" he asked her.

"To Georgetown," she told him. "I’m the only one here to hear your confession, and I will consider keeping your secret if you give me a good enough reason to. But I need you to tell me everything first, so I can make that decision," she informed him.

Trey once again assessed her to see if she meant what she said. He concluded that she did.

"My firing from the palace body-guard detail was staged," he informed her. "It was a means of making me a prime recruiting target for Bastian Reese."

Brenda felt a wave of hope. "So you work for the British government?" she asked, hopefully. "Undercover?"

"Yes," he confirmed.

Brenda suddenly frowned. "Do they know Bastian Reese is your father?"

Trey shook his head. "No." He paused for a moment. "I didn’t even know. Not until I’d been in his service for a year when he finally decided to let me know. He said the most hateful, derogatory things about my mother," Trey shook his head. "The mother I love more than anything in this world, and I swear to you, I don’t know how I prevented myself form killing him that day. Instead I had to pretend to agree with him so I could keep building up this disgusting bond of trust I was trying to form with the vile man."

Brenda swallowed at the quiet, but intense emotion in her husband’s cousin. "What I don’t understand," Brenda began, " is that you’ve been doing this for three years now. Don’t you have enough on him to have him arrested by now?"

Trey slid his gray-eyed gaze over to her. "Have him arrested? That is the least I want to do to him," he informed her quietly. "I intend to destroy him. So completely he will never recover. And I’m very close," he confided in her. "Only two problems face me: my sister, whom I have to extract from this mess before I can go any further, and those bank account numbers, which I have to find and give to my father to seal the complete trust that idiot has finally placed in me."

Brenda now began to understand the urgency with which Trey wanted to find the bank account numbers. "So Scotland Yard actually pays you a salary to pose as this international master thief?" she asked, suddenly suspicious again. "They allow you to live this life of luxury and go around stealing rare works of art, all in the hope of your being able to bring down your father’s ring?"

"Scotland Yard has nothing to do with this," Trey informed her. "And they know nothing about it. I’m a very wanted man as far as they are concerned. Of course, they don’t have a prayer of ever finding me. They have no idea what I look like for one thing."

"But . . . but you said you worked for the British government . . ."

"I do," he said, and said nothing more about it. "Brenda, you just have to trust me."

"No, I don’t," she said, suddenly filled with doubts about him once more. "I want you to tell Jax, Trey. Tell him everything you’ve just told me."

Trey shook his head. "If I tell him, you’ll regret it, Brenda."

"No, I’ll regret it if Jax is kept in the dark," she said. "I can’t keep a secret of this magnitude from him. I love him."

"I know you love him," Trey said. "That is exactly why you can’t tell him anything. There will be consequences to Jax finding out about this too soon. Consequences brought about by the nature of who Jax is and how protective he is of me. Believe me, you don’t want Jax involved in this, Brenda. But I can promise you that if you tell him, he will be. And nothing you say or do will change his mind."

"So you are telling me that you really expect me to just go around pretending that I have no idea who you are and what’s going on with you?" she demanded.

"You don’t think Jax already knows that you knew me before we were introduced on Christmas? Nothing gets past him, Brenda – Jax noticed everything. And you didn’t exactly hide your shock very well," Trey said to her.

Brenda gave him a stunned look. "Wait, you think Jax knows that I already knew you?" she asked in disbelief. "Are you sure about that? Because he hasn’t asked me anything about it."

"He’s trying to figure it out himself. It’s his way," Trey told her.

Brenda was silent for a moment and then said. "Well, if you’re right, and nothing gets past Jax, then he’s bound to figure out that you’re Bastian Reese, isn’t he?"

"He’ll figure it out," Trey agreed with certainty. And he knew Jax would, which was not necessarily a bad thing. Only the timing would make it a bad thing. If Jax figured it out a week from now, it wouldn’t matter. If he figured it out tomorrow, that would be a big problem.

Interior of a Harrier Jet hovering low in the skies of Texas . . .

Jax sat in the low-hovering Harrier Jet, peering out through his binoculars at his team as they quickly went about the task of planting detonators around the munitions warehouse. Dressed in their all-black gear and working so quickly and methodically that they reminded him of mice. Lethal, little, black mice.

Piloting the Harrier was Scott, who kept an eye on the fuel gauge. Jax kept his eye on his men and on his watch, his hand on the detonator control box, a series of eight switches, which when deployed, would blow the munitions warehouse, storing an arsenal of weapons, to kingdom come.

"Eight minutes," Jax said into his headset, reminding his team of the amount of time they had left to get everything in place and get back to the Harrier Jet. Then he glanced over at Scott momentarily. "How do you think Trey and Brenda know each other?" he asked, and then went back to staring out of the binoculars, monitoring his men.

"Well, this is just wild guess" Scott said, " but I think it might have something to do with the fact that you introduced them to each other at your house."

"They knew each other before that," Jax said, keeping his focus on the happenings below.

Scott glanced over at him in surprise. "You’re serious?"

"Yes. There was definitely recognition from Brenda when she saw him."

"What about Trey?"

"I didn’t notice. I was looking at Brenda," Jax said.

"Well, that makes no sense, Jax. Why wouldn’t she just tell you that she knew him already?"

"That’s what I’m trying to figure out," Jax said.

Scott hesitated for a few seconds. "Umm . . . you think maybe they . . ."

"No," Jax said, guessing where Scott’s thoughts were headed. "It’s nothing like that."

"Well, then I think you should just ask them," Scott said. "Ask Trey if he’s ever met Brenda before. You know he won’t lie to you."

No, that was true. He wouldn’t, Jax realized.

"Five minutes," Jax said into the headset.

"Unit 1 clear, Jax," came a voice over the headset back to him. "We’re headed back. Copy?"

"Got it," Jax said, as he waited for the other three two-man units to give the all clear.

"Jax, I have something I need to tell you," Scott said, lowering the Harrier a bit more to the ground in preparation of the men coming back. "It’s about Jenna. You remember her, right?"

"How could I forget her. You’re always talking about her."

"Jax, I want to get her out of Bastian’s crime ring," Scot told him.

"Scott, the Bastian Reese case doesn’t even belong to us anymore, remember? Scorpio made that very clear."

"I don’t care. I’m not talking about the case or even finding the damn guy, who’s starting to be more elusive than smoke. I just want her to be safe and out of harm’s way, and as long as she’s with that guy, she’s not."

"So what are you going to do? You think you can get her to turn him in?"

"No," Scott said. "She ... I don’t know, she’s really loyal to him," he confessed with some frustration.

"Hmm. You think maybe they’re . . . you know . . ."

"No," Scott said with as much certainty as Jax had voiced his own ‘no’ about the idea of Brenda and Trey. "I think he’s just got her really snowed. Either that or he’s really good to her. She won’t turn against him -- I know that. But if I can get her out of that life, I think she’ll leave it. That’s all I care about."

Jax glanced away from the munitions warehouse momentarily to quirk a blonde eyebrow at his best friend. "Is there something you’re not telling me?"

"Unit 2 clear," sounded over Jax’s headset.

"Copy," Jax responded, then he glanced back at Scott again.

"I like her," Scott said.

"No, you really like her," Jax corrected. "You maybe even . . ."

"I like her, all right?" Scott said, cutting Jax off. "I just want to get her out of this, Jax, and I need your help, okay?"

"Scott," Jax said realistically, "you don’t even know if you’re ever going to see her again. You have no way to judge if you can possibly trust her or not."

"What about my feelings? Should I not trust those, Jax? Because they tell me that I can trust her. And I know I’ll see her again."

Christ, he was in love with her, Jax realized. Even if he didn’t know it, he was. What a bloody mess.

"All right," Jax agreed. "I’ll help you. Let’s just talk about this when we get home."

"Unit 3 clear."

"Unit 4 clear."

Moments later the entire squad was back on board the Harrier jet, and Jax was flipping the detonator switches as they watched the munitions warehouse explode in flames while the jet climbed vertically into the sky and then shot out of sight like a rocket.

New Year’s Eve 1 p.m., Great Falls, Virginia . . .

"Jax!" Brenda gleefully exclaimed with joy as Jax came through the front door. Trey, who had been on the phone unsuccessfully trying to get a hold of Jenna, watched as Brenda flew into Jax’s arms, kissing him madly. And Trey had to smile at their excitement at being together again.

"Well, you don’t look any worse for the wear," Trey commented to Jax. "Mission accomplished, I take it?"

Jax grinned over at him. "Smooth as ice," he said, kissing Brenda again.

"What? No mishaps?" Jerry chimed in. "Donnelly’s going to have heart failure over that."

"Was everything okay here?’ Jax asked, letting Brenda go momentarily so he could take off his jacket and dump his equipment.

"No problems," Trey said.

"Yeah, not a Bastian Reese in sight," Jerry reported. "You know, I’m starting to doubt this phantom menace jewel thief even exists," Jerry teased Jax.

Brenda suddenly got very fidgety and announced she had to go to the bathroom, and she raced upstairs.

"She’s been acting like that for the past two days," Jerry said with a scratch of his head. "One minute I’ll be talking to her and then the next minute she’s suddenly cross for no reason, or says she’s got to go to the loo. Why, this morning when I made her breakfast, she was just fine, enjoying every bite of my fantastic culinary skills, and when I get to serving up the eggs benedict and start in on my Benedict Arnold jokes, she suddenly declares she’s gonna be sick and takes off from the table like a speedin’ bullet, the dark hair flying as she books up the stairs. The only thing is, she heads for the bedroom, not the bathroom. Now if you’re gonna be sick, wouldn’t you go to the bloody loo and not toss your cookies all over your nice, clean bed sheets? I love her to death, little brother, but I think she’s bloody nuts."

Jax glanced at Trey. "Has she been like that with you, too?" he asked curiously.

Trey shook his head. "Nope." Then he amended that, thinking that if she were having mood swings with Jerry, it would look odd that she wasn’t having them with Trey as well. "Well, actually, she has been a little moody, now that I think about it. But she just missed you, Jax. That’s why."

"Maybe that’s not why," Jax said.

Trey let out a nearly inaudible sigh and waited expectantly for Jax’s next words. Maybe Jax had figured it out already. As Trey’s mind raced for a way to deal with this latest problem, he watched in surprise as Jax put his jacket back on.

Then Jax’s eyes lit up. "Maybe she’s pregnant,” he said, retrieving the keys to his jeep from the entryway table he’d just placed them on.

"What?" Trey murmured, so not expecting this.

Brenda came back down the stairs and Jax grabbed her hand. "So hey, sweetie, how’ve you been feeling these past couple of days I’ve been gone?" Jax asked her.

Brenda’s eyes shot to Trey’s and then to Jerry’s. "How have I been feeling?" she repeated, confused.

"Well, my family here seems to think you’ve been having some mood swings," Jax told her.

"Oh," Brenda said. "Umm . . . yeah I have. I don’t know why." Oh she was such a liar, she thought miserably. Of course, she knew why! It was because keeping this humongous secret from Jax was making her insane!

"I think I may know why," Jax said, getting her coat out of the closet and putting it on her.

"Are we going somewhere?" she asked, confused.

"To the doctor," Jax told her, grinning.

"Are you okay?" Brenda asked, alarmed, and suddenly unzipping his jacket and checking his body for any blood or bullet wounds.

"It’s not for me, sweetheart," Jax said, capturing her frantic hands and stopping the body search she was performing on him, although it had been quite pleasant. "It’s for you," Jax told her.

"Me? Why?" Brenda asked, now more confused than ever.

"Brenda, maybe these mood swings and your feeling sick and everything means that you’re pregnant?" Jax suggested.

"Pregnant?!" Brenda said in shock. "Oh, no, no Jax, I’m not," she said, not wanting to get his hopes up. It was this damned secret that was making her moody and always wanting to run off to the bathroom whenever the subject of Bastian Reese came up, and poor Jax now actually thought she might be pregnant! Oh, she wanted to MURDER Trey!

"How do you know you’re not? Did you take a test?" he asked.

"Well, no ... but I know I’m not. Honey, listen . . ."

"Let’s just go find out, shall we?" Jax said, leading her out the door. And Brenda didn’t argue, deciding it was better to let him think this than to know the real reason for her strange behavior. With a glare at Trey, who gave her an apologetic glance, she walked outside next to Jax.

The minute Jax pulled out of the driveway, Trey hauled out his things, which were already packed up, and grabbed his parka. "Jer, tell Jax I had to go," he said. "Can you give me a lift to the airport?"

"You’re leavin’? Now? Bloody hell, Trey, Jax just got back. And you know he’s gonna kill you for not sayin’ good-bye," Jerry warned him. "Just wait until they get back form the doc’s."

"I can’t. I have to go now," Trey said, thinking that his inability to get in touch with Jenna, who was supposed to be at his home in the Cayman Islands, was a very bad thing, and he had to see what was going on. "I left Jax a note," he added to appease Jerry.

"All right, let’s go then," Jerry said.

An embarrassed, guilt-ridden Brenda sat in the doctor’s office, waiting for the test results with Jax next to her, tossing out possible baby names for her consideration.

"Or what do you think about Trey if it’s a boy? I did promise to name my firstborn son after him," Jax said to her.

Brenda turned to him, taking his hands in hers. "Jax . . . we don’t need to be doing this," she said, feeling awful that he was getting so excited over nothing. "Baby names, I mean. We don’t need to. . ." she sighed and once again felt murderous intentions towards Jax’s cousin. "I’m not pregnant, Jax. I know that already. The doctor is only going to confirm this."

"I’m afraid I can’t do that, Mrs. Jacks," Dr. Jeter said as she walked into the office holding the test results and smiling at the newlyweds. "Your husband is right. You are approximately one week pregnant, which means this little one was in all likelihood conceived on Christmas Eve. Congratulations," she said to the completely stunned Brenda and the grinning Jax.

"I’m . . . I’m . . . going to have a . . .baby?" Brenda asked in whispered astonishment.

"Remember that wish I told you about?" he whispered to Brenda, and that was all he had to say.

Jax had wished for a baby? For their baby? She thought in absolute wonder, as tears formed in her eyes at the realization that what Jax had wished for was their child.

"You’re not . . . unhappy about this, are you?" Jax whispered, suddenly remembering their baby-conversation once, and Brenda’s five-year plan about when she wanted to start motherhood. She was five whole years ahead of schedule. He might be ecstatic about this, but she could be upset, he realized. And unhappy, and nothing was worth making her unhappy. Nothing.

"Unhappy? No!" Brenda said, looking at him as if he were crazy. "Jax, no. Why would you ever think that? I’m not unhappy at all!"

"I know the timing is all wrong for you, Brenda," he said, not wanting her to pretend to be happy about this just for him. "I know you had plans for when you wanted to have kids." He swallowed, struggling to say what he would say next. "And so I will understand if you . . . if you . . ."

"To heck with plans!" she laughed happily, hugging him. "Ever since I met you, I much prefer spontaneity!" she kissed him to let him know she meant what she said. "And as for the timing -- well, that’s perfect, because this baby is yours. A part of you is growing inside of me," she marveled, "and nothing could be more perfect than that," she said with a smile that was so beautiful and so full of happiness that he knew his fears were unfounded.

"Well mommy-and-daddy-to-be, I’d like to discuss pre-natal care with you both now," Dr. Jeter said, taking a seat opposite them, as the eager, happy parents-to-be listened to her every word intently.

Cayman Islands

"I suspect he will be back at any moment now," Austin Fielding said to the giant of a man, Rolf Ganzenmuller who stood to his left chewing hungrily on a turkey drumstick. "The weakness in my son is his sentiment. He has gotten that from his mother’s side of the family," he sneered. His eyes shifted to the beautiful, young, auburn-haired girl, bound and gagged and tied to the chair, her dazzling, green eyes flashing with anger. "His inability to reach you will alarm him, no doubt, and bring him here with all speed."

The girl mumbled something incoherent beneath the silver duct tape covering her mouth, but the tone of her words made it obvious that she was not saying ‘have a nice day.’

"Are you wondering perhaps, who I am, Gelina?" he asked, and she was startled at the fact that he knew her real name. "Who is this man who was here waiting for me when I entered the house? Who is this man who tied me up and gagged me? Who is this man who brought along Rolf, that man who is constantly proposing to me!" he mimicked in a high pitched voice. "And our dear friend Rolf is someone I’m sure you never wanted to see again. Well, who I am, dear child, is the boss of your boss, so to speak. You didn’t really think that young Bastian was actually running the show, now did you? Why, he’s just a pup. Barely 25 years old. Ah yes, he’s good. Very good. Brilliant, I dare say. But be that as it may, I would never entrust my legacy to him, even if he is my son.

Even beneath the duct tape her gasp was audible.

"Oh, I suppose he didn’t tell you about me, did he? That I am the original Bastian Reese? Born Austin Fielding, at your service," he said with a dark laugh. "And my boy, his name is Trey Fielding." He saw her lack of surprise at that bit of news. "Ah, so he did tell you his real name then, did he? I don’t suppose he bothered to mention the fact that he has a sister? A younger sister. And that her talents nearly rival his as far as the art of high-class thievery goes. No, I don’t suppose he mentioned that to you. Let me see if perhaps I can tell you something about her. She would be 20 years old now; auburn hair, like his; quite attractive, like him. And just like him, she inherited her mother’s eyes, not mine. My son’s mother. A pathetic woman to be sure. Her eyes are gray, you see. A most remarkable shade of the color, I do confess. My son’s eyes are that color. As for his sister -- the daughter I sired with a very much-married Greek whore -- well, she has her mother’s eyes. Green. Like the emeralds I snatched from the safe of the Greek harlot’s husband when I robbed her blind. Ah, but I did leave her with something," he said touching Jenna’s hair. "And I see my talents have passed on to my children." he laughed as Jenna recoiled in horror at what he was saying. This cruel man was her father. And he was Trey’s father, too. Trey was her brother! Which explained so much! Why, it explained everything, actually. Everything about the way he had always treated her.

"My son, however, is starting to disappoint me in his inability to take orders," Austin said coldly. "You, for instance. Yes, I told him to recruit you, which he did. But I also told him I wanted you wed to Rolf so that our two rings could form an alliance. And my boy, unbeknownst to me, sabotaged that at every turn. I suppose he sought to protect you from a forced marriage to this barbarian," he said, nodding his head in the direction of Rolf, who just snorted and laughed at the insult. "It all comes down to that bloody sentiment again," Austin said wearily. "The weakness of my son. His love for his family. It’s the reason I still don’t have my bank account numbers yet, you know, my child. Through the twists of fate they landed in the hands of a family member. My son’s cousin. Now, instead of simply eliminating the problem and getting back the numbers, my son just tiptoes all around it. Because he would never harm Jax, you see. Oh, no, never that," Austin sneered. "He would rather be caught and arrested than do that. He’d probably sooner be killed than harm Jax. The bloody fool! The weak little fool!" he shouted. "I will beat that sentiment out of him if I have to," Austin vowed, his silky voice making the hairs rise on the back of Jenna’s neck. "It is his one weakness inherited from his sniveling mother, and I will rid him of it one way or another," he promised her.

She was so scared for Trey that she wanted to burst out crying like a baby, but she would rather die than cry in front of this vile man and the disgusting Rolf, whose lecherous gazes, combined with his slovenly manner of chewing on that hunk of turkey leg, was beyond revolting. Instead, Jenna put her fears aside and began to desperately think of a way to signal Trey -- oh god, her brother -- before he entered this trap.

Her eyes widened with panic, and Austin smiled arrogantly as they heard keys jingling in the door...