"Never to fear, the Jackal is here." Jason had called Spinelli and asked him to meet them at the warehouse because he was looking into some things for them. He hadn't told Sonny and could see the annoyance on his face.
"What the hell are you doing here, Spinelli?" Sonny growled.
"Stone Cold has requested that the Jackal obtain some information on the Mysterious One, and The Jackal was more than happy to oblige. The Mysterious One has been nothing but nice to the Jackal, but there is something amiss with her explanation of backgrounds. There are a considerable amount of—"
"Spinelli," Sonny stopped him. "Shut up. I don't want to hear whatever it is you think until you have answers. And stop with the nicknames."
"The Jackal apologizes for his overzealous explanation of his duties here. It's just with someone targeting The Valkyrie and the Divine One, The Jackal will stop at nothing to bring those goons to their knees."
"I appreciate the need to protect the girls, but I need you to just stop talking." Sonny placed a hand on Spinelli's shoulder. "I'm going to be in a very bad mood once I see this smug son of a bitch's lying face, and I don't want to accidentally throw one of the hits meant for him in your direction, you got me?"
"The Jackal understands." Spinelli nodded. "He will be the sole of discretion. You won't even know I'm in the room."
"I find that very hard to believe," Sonny said quietly before turning back toward the building.
"Sonny, let me do the talking," Jason requested as they walked into the warehouse doors. Sonny didn't agree or disagree, and that gave a Jason pause. He wasn't sure what to think, and when he saw Sonny's jacket hit a nearby chair, he knew his instinct should have been to jump in front of them. Sonny was clutching a gun and slammed it against Jax's skull.
"You got one time to tell me why you've been stalking my wife!" Sonny moved the gun and smacked him again. "Answer me!"
"She was never going to be safe with you!" Jax was sputtering as Sonny prepared to hit him again. It was Jason who stepped in and saved Jax from what would probably be the hardest hit he had ever taken.
"And you think putting your nose where it doesn't belong will keep her safe? You like killing little kids and endangering women?"
"Killing... Killing who?"
"Enough of this," Jason bellowed, snatching the gun from Sonny's hand. "I want to know why you're after Brenda and why you've been helping that psycho brother of yours."
Jax looked genuinely surprised, and Jason caught it instantly. He always felt like something was off with this whole thing. Even with Jax being the complete ass he was, he would never send a man with a gun after Brenda or a person with a heroin filled syringe after Josslyn.
While Sonny was still a hot, fuming mess, Jason took a step back to evaluate the chain of events. Carly said she saw Jax in Rome, and that he had people watching Brenda, but she also said she was the one to tell him about Sonny being in Rome. Men came after Josslyn and shot Oscar up with pure grade heroin, Jax wouldn't mess with it, and he surely wouldn't have it around his daughter because of all their history. Lastly, no matter how much Jax wanted to hurt Sonny, he would never harm one hair on Brenda's head. He was a jerk, he had hurt her emotionally, his conquest of her seemed like a game, but physically he was soft.
Jason was running all his suspicions through his head when he saw Sonny lunge. Jason couldn't grab him fast enough to stop his fist from colliding with Jax's face. Jax spit out a mouth full of blood and Sonny yelled at him.
"Tell us why you sent that man after my family!"
"You tricked her into marrying you, and then you did whatever you did to hold up the divorce. You don't care about her. You just want to win."
"Win?" Sonny sneered. "She was never something I had to win. She was the first woman I ever loved; I was the first she loved as well. She has been mine in every way since the moment I laid eyes on her. I know you will never understand this, but anything I did, any hurtful thing I said was because I love her so much I can't even see straight. Me hurting her to protect her is one thing; she could forgive that. What you did, leaving her at the altar in front of a packed church, she will never forgive. She gave you a chance because as strong as she is, she needs love. She needs someone who looks at her like she's his world, not his prize."
Jason just watched as Sonny talked about Brenda, and for the first time in a long time, he believed in what they had. It was a tumultuous road, but maybe Sonny had found the way to be what she needed. He was secretly happy about that, he wanted the best for her, but that would have to wait. Now, they had other issues at hand.
"What do you know about Jerry and his whereabouts right now?" Jason asked.
"Speak up," Sonny, slapped Jax and Jason just sat watching with his arms crossed. It was never his intention to roll up on anyone this way, again, but with the way things went down over the past few months, they needed answers. Sonny's thirst for revenge was great, and he was out for blood. "Answer me! Where is he?"
"It can't be Jerry messing with her. It just can't be."
Slapping him again, Sonny drew blood from his lip and balled his fist to throw the next hit. "Wait... wait," Jax cried out. "It can't be Jerry because he knows I love Brenda."
"Stop lying," Sonny snapped, punching him across the jaw so hard Jason heard his teeth rattle. Watching all this, Jason felt something. Normally he would be all for teaching Jax a lesson, especially after the way things went down with both Carly and Brenda, but this time, it felt hollow. They weren't getting any real answers.
Seeing Sonny hit him a few more times, Jason tried to get into the "spirit" of things but just couldn't. The truth was that he had his suspicions about someone else. This beating was probably unwarranted.
"Stop." Jason held his hand out and impeded Sonny's next hit. Pulling his hand down to his side, Jason pulled Sonny away from Jax's bloody face.
Looking at him sideways, Sonny stepped back and pulled Jason to the side. Jason had never called off a beat down before. It was completely uncharacteristic. "What, Jason?" He ran a hand over his swelling knuckles. "I'm almost done teaching this bastard a lesson, and then you can get home to Carly."
"Leave him alone; he's not who we're looking for. Something isn't right, here." Jason looked around him and saw the sobbing man pleading with his eyes. "He has had enough, and I know he is a bastard, but he wouldn't hurt them. Do you really believe he would hurt Brenda or Josslyn?"
Narrowing his eyes in on him, Sonny was looking right at Jax when he snapped his head over to look at them. Hearing that Josslyn had possibly been hurt seemed to get his attention. At that point, Jason knew he was right.
"I'm here because I haven't spoken to my daughter in weeks. I call Carly, and she doesn't answer, and Joss isn't answering her phone. I sent her a text and left a voicemail today hoping she would meet me for lunch. What the hell have you been telling my daughter about me, Corinthos?"
"Josslyn was almost kidnapped, and someone broke into Sonny's house and shot him," Jason volunteered. "There have been a string of murders just like back in 96. Do you know anything about this? Kim said—"
"Murders? What did you do to my daughter?" Jax yelled. "And who the hell is Kim?"
"You don't know Kim?" Jason questioned.
"I don't know any Kim," Jax ridiculed. "Now where is Josslyn? Is she okay? I told Carly I didn't want my daughter around you thugs. I don't want what happened to Morgan happening to her."
"Don't ever talk about him again." Sonny was steps away from knocking Jax's lights out when Jason threw him back.
Jason pulled out his phone and placed it in Jax's line of sight. He had pulled up a picture of Kim. "You don't know this woman?"
Jax studied the picture and looked as if he had seen a ghost. He closed his eyes tightly, and Jason swore he could see tears forming in his eyes. "Get that away from me."
"What, Candy Boy? You have another wife you didn't mention to us? Was your marriage to Carly even legal?"
"My brother would not hurt my daughter! He knows I love Brenda, and he would never hurt her either. I wanted her away from you; that's no secret. I'm not going to play these games, and you're going to untie me now! I see the police are still shitty here letting you two run free, grabbing innocent people off the street and fabricating stories to make you feel like you're not the murdering thugs you are. I would never hurt anyone! I'm not like you two."
Jason was thrown off with how Jax thought him sending people to grab Brenda and Josslyn was okay, and his reaction to the picture of Kim was surprising. Jax was off his rocker. "What happened to this girl when you knew her?"
"She was in a building that blew up. Her family and mine held a small ceremony in Australia. You can't blame any of this on her."
"As usual, you don't know anything about anything," Sonny sniped. "We have proof that Jerry was in Russia at the same place Jason was held." Sonny pulled his phone out and showed Jax the picture of Jerry, with who they assumed was Alec.
"It's not what you think."
"That's funny. Brenda also buried Alec, but here he is, alive and well with your psychotic brother. Now," Sonny balled his fist again. "Tell me where they are."
"I don't know! This is all ridiculous! I would never hurt them. Anything I did was out of love. I love both Brenda and my daughter enough to know when they need to be saved. You three are barking up the wrong tree."
"What is her name?" Jason focused back in on the picture of Kim and snatched Jax by the collar. His patience was shot. Now, he was ready to rip the man apart. He felt as if Jax was stalling, and time wasn't something they had a lot of. "You tell me who this woman is and why she's here!"
"My little sister, well sister-in-law, was in the explosion I thought killed my ex-wife, Miranda, all those years ago. They were sisters. My father wouldn't lie to me about her. She's been dead for over twenty years. This girl looks like her, with a different hair and eye color, but there is no way Hailey survived."
"Hailey," Jason said loudly for Spinelli to hear. "Hailey what?"
"Hailey Bernard. Oh, uh oh," Spinelli shrieked, and all three men turned to face him.
"What?" Sonny walked over and snatched Spinelli's laptop. "Hailey Bernard killed in an explosion in Australia." Sonny read the headline and studied the face. It was her; he knew that woman anywhere. He'd spent the last year sleeping with her. He wanted to call and tell the guards on Brenda and Carly to make sure to kept an eye open but realized his phone had died shortly after he threw it in Jax's face.
"Why would your sister care about any of us?" Jason gripped Jax tighter, snatching him from his restraints. "Why the hell—"
"Sam, Danny." Jason dropped Jax and ran out of the warehouse. Spinelli and Sonny were still there when he started his car up and drove off. He could see Sonny getting into the car with Spinelli as he sped off and reached for his cell. He was surprised Sonny was leaving Jax, but they both knew he seemed to be out of the loop of whatever the bigger picture was. He'd put guys on him to watch his movements. He was sure Jax would lead them to Jerry and quite possibly Alec.
The supposedly dead sister.
The teenage son that latched on to Josslyn when he came to town.
Kim was Jax's sister-in-law, but she had a child with Drew. What did that make him to her? Once he connected the dots, all he could think about was the safety of his son. Kim and Drew knew each other before coming to town. He could be a danger to everyone Jason loved.
What the hell were they up to, and what the hell did they want with him and Sonny? He would have to figure that out because his son was in the house with the woman who betrayed him with a possible psychopath. Sam had let Drew hang around his son on multiple accounts. He would never forgive her if something happened to Danny.