Lisa awoke a few hours later, her entire body but mostly her head and wrists aching.

My head...because I was knocked out, she realized. But why my...

She opened her eyes, realizing with a jolt that she was handcuffed to a wooden headboard. Jackson sat in a chair at the other end of the room.

"No..." Lisa cried, having a pretty clear idea of what was likely to happen. But she also harbored another worry. "Mel...no..."

"Relax, Leese," Jackson said, coolly rising from his chair and standing to tower over her. She cringed. "She's fine. For now. But she's in the hands of one of my employees who is much less sympathetic than me. You've a lesson to learn."

Lisa knew what he was talking about, but didn't care...for now. "Listen, that was me, not her, just leave her alone, please..."

Jackson swooped down, putting his hands on either side of her. He looked into her eyes. Fear was an emotion he thoroughly thrived on. "I told you if you didn't cooperate she'd suffer. Same as you."

Lisa struggled at her bondings. She wanted desperately to die, to be out of this hellish nightmare...she knew, deeply inside, what he would do to her...something she'd prayed wouldn't happen again.

It was like Jackson read her mind. "Relax, Lisa. I've never been one for that sort of thing. Especially not since jail."

Lisa tried to hide her sigh of relief, but Jackson caught it.

"I wouldn't be that happy, Leese. What I'm going to do to you is much worse," he threatened. "Oh, yeah, and there's Tanya, too..."

Lisa's face paled. "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO HER?"

"I haven't done anything So far my associates have done fairly well in scaring her, however."

"Let her go, please," Lisa begged.

"Oh, rest assured, Leese, she's not in my associate's hands. Yet. He's just done a few, what one might call elaborate...pranks. Blood on the sidewalk, murdered dog, that sort of thing." Lisa felt her stomach lurch horribly and tears came in torrents. Jackson leaned even closer, his face inches from hers.

"But then..." he whispered, his breath hot in her ear. "Fear can be the worst of emotions."

Lisa awoke an hour later after Jackson left her with his threats. She reached up to rub her painful wrists and realized the cuffs were gone. She pulled herself warily from bed and left the room.

The house was old, but beautiful, as is the colonial style. The floorboards creaked under her bare feet as she made her way downstairs, wondering what was going on. She heard music.

Suddenly a hand on her shoulder startled her. Lisa whirled around. Jackson held out a hand.

"I see your up," he acknowledged. Lisa nodded shakily. "Good." He took her hand and Lisa forced herself not to yank it away. Jackson led her into another room.

A radio sat on a coffeetable, but other than that the room was completely void of furniture. Lisa frowned in confusion as Jack moved to it and clicked it on. Heavy rap filled the room and Lisa wrinkled her nose instinctively. She detested rap and obviously Jackson did too as he changed it quickly to a classic rock station. She smiled, pleased despite the circumstances. Music had always had that effect on her. Jackson turned and saw her smile and she tried to hide it with a fake sneeze. He chuckled and held out a hand.

"Dance with me."

Lisa stared at his hand in disbelief. "No."

"Please?" he made a puppy-dog face.

"How exactly does this tie into making me behave?" she raised her eyebrows.

"Um," Jackson thought. "It doesn't. It's just because I'm bored."

"Dance by yourself," Lisa replied in disgust, turning to leave the room. He clamped a hand on her wrist and spun her around to face him.

"It wasn't an offer, Leese, it was an order," he said coldly. She glared at him but let him lead her to the middle of the floor.

The music, some song Lisa recognized fairly well, I'll Be, filled the room. Jackson put a hand on her waist and Lisa instantly tensed. Jackson laughed.

"I don't know how to dance," she pointed out.

"As long as there's a strong male lead anyone can dance," Jackson told her. Lisa rolled her eyes.

"Male shovanist."

They waltzed slowly around the room and Lisa marveled at how she was in this situation. Dancing with her kidnapper.

As the song finally ended Jackson spun her around and pressed her back tightly to his chest. Her brown skirt wrapped around her knees as she tilted her neck to look up at him.

Something read in his face, a look of something purely uncharacteristic for him.

Lisa stared at him, wanting to break away but unable to due to the strong hands on hers. She was just forced to stare up at him, a mesmerizing trance that was suddenly broken by a bout of clapping in the doorway. They sprang apart and turned to stare up at the elderly couple in the doorway.

"Sorry, we just let ourselves in after knocking a few times," the man beamed. "We're your neighbors. Heard you're new in this neighborhood, so we brought over some Jell-O."

"Ah, thank-you," Jackson finally spoke. He pulled Lisa to his side and she fought the urge to throw up. "I'm Jack, this is my wife, Lisa, here."

The old woman nodded. "I'm Betty, and this is my hubby Harry. You two make a great couple, you know, dancing, and everything."

Jackson smiled a fake, gracious smile. "Thank you so much." He glanced at Lisa. "Would you folks care to stay for supper?"

Lisa shot him a look.

"Why, sure, if you're sure we won't be putting you out," the man agreed. Jackson just chatted politely for a few more minutes, until they left to change.

"What the hell was up with that, Jack?" Lisa cried as soon as they'd left.

"Less suspicion will be aroused if we appear to be innocent newlyweds instead of hermits," he shrugged, retreating to the kitchen. Lisa followed.

"I'm not going to play your whore, Jack," she spat. He grinned at her.

"I didn't ask you to. I asked you to be my wife," he corrected.

"Well, for you it's probably the same thing," she snapped. He laughed.

"Leese, you are really judging me by your one little encounter on the flight. You don't know me that well at all."

At this Lisa just rolled her eyes.

"Go change," he told her. Lisa shot him a glare.

"In what?"