CHAPTER SIXTY THREE
Intuition
"It's not what you think." Jax was quick to say.
"You don't know what I think, Jax." Alexis answered. "Do you think she'll thank you for bringing this to me? Not to mention the fact that I don't need the aggravation."
"It's a good business deal. We have a chance to get in and open up our own club. Do you know how rare an opportunity this is? You know this is just the kind of deal I go for all the time...if Carly weren't my partner, odds are I'd go into this venture myself."
"She's your business partner here in Port Charles, Jax. Since when is she involved in anything anywhere else?"
"Because the truth is, the Chicago location was her idea. These papers were messengered to me this morning, and the first thing I did after recieveing them was to call Carly with the good news. In good conscience, I can't freeze her out of the deal now."
Alexis made a small sound of disgust. "Good conscience. As if she possesses any trace of one."
"I know how you feel about her - and why, Alexis." Jax said. He wisely didn't bring Sonny's name into it. "But there's no proof to what you allege. And I got to thinking, after our phone conversation, about how much my mother loves me. There's nothing like a mother's love, Alexis. When you're a child, it's a constant in your life...even when you grow up, that love never changes. Ever. Can't you see that... do you even remember?" He realized what he'd said and flushed in embarassment."Alexis, I'm sorry."
Jax had spoken without thinking; Alexis knew that. Even so, her eyes dropped away from his for a moment. "I know you didn't mean it the way it sounded. After all, it's a valid question. I lost my mother when I was so young, and then I had the original wicked stepmother to grow up with."
"Alexis... I didn't mean to bring it up. You know I would never ever hurt you on purpose."
Alexis covered his hand with hers. "I know you didn't, Jax. It's an old hurt and I've learned to deal with it. But I'm not letting that color my perceptions of Carly and any aversion I have to working with her. I don't trust her, Jax. It's as plain and simple as that."
"I find it hard to believe that any mother - even Carly with all of her faults, could deliberately hurt her own son that way."
"With Carly, you just never know." Alexis said. "So I take it, that your investigators haven't turned up anything yet?"
"No, not yet." Jax hesitated."There was something though. I didn't know if I should tell you or not. One of the investigators thought that this undertaking included checking on Carly's wherabouts in present time. Sometime last night, after Bobbie had left for an emergency shift at GH, Carly left the brownstone."
"And you don't think anything odd about that?"
"A car came for her, Alexis. Now who do you know who would send a car for Carly? Do I have to spell it out for you?"
He mistook her silence for an admission. But Alexis didn't answer because she knew it hadn't been Sonny, but realized Jax didn't. And she wasn't ready to share what they had shared with anyone - not even her beloved Jax.
"It was Sonny that sent for Carly." Jax answered himself.
"And did your investigator confirm this?"
"They couldn't. The storm got too bad and they were forced to take shelter for themselves. And by the time they could reorganze after the worst of the storm had passed, Carly was back home."
"So you don't know - one - where she went.Or -two - who she was with." Alexis said, ticking the facts off on her fingers. "Look, Jax. I used to find it hard to believe that Carly was capable of any number of things that she's done in the past, Jax. But frankly, I've learned - a lot of people have learned one way or the other - that Carly is capable of anything - if it gets her what she wants. And what she wants is Sonny."
"And maybe that's what she got last night."
"Maybe not." Alexis answered as nonchalantly as she could. She changed the focus of their conversation deliberately. "Are you going to call off your people or keep them on the secret of Carly's whereabouts as well as this newest development?" More than ever, she was sure that Carly had secrets that needed uncoverig. Her intuition was screaming it at her.
"No, I won't call them off. Not yet. Not until we find proof one way or the other of where Carly went or who she was with - in both cases. That shouldn't be too hard to find out." Jax looked at her for a long moment."I just don't want you hurt in the process. Are you sure you don't want to call this off now?"
"Positive, Jax." Wherever Carly had gone and whoever she'd been with, it had not been Sonny. So what had tempted her enough to venture out in the face of a storm? "Like you said, I'm not ready to give up - not until there's proof one way or the other - in both cases."
----
There wasn't much to say after that. Alexis gave in and promised to look over the proposal. They finished their meeting in an amiable enough mood. Jax walked her out to the curb. Overhead, the sky was greying up once more and the wind seemed to be blowing sharper in fitful gusts of air. Not seeing her car, he asked if he should hail her a cab.
"It's not necessary... I actually walked over from my office." Alexis shivered a little. Forestalling Jax, she shook her head. "And I'll walk back. I do my best thinking when I'm walking, and I do have thinking to do, don't I." she teased him, shaking her briefcase at him. "I'm not made of sugar, so even if it begins to rain again, I'll be fine. I even have an umbrella in my briefcase."
"Fine, I know better than to argue with you." Jax said, for once, not fighintg with her. He took her coat from her, lifting it up. "At least let me make sure you're bundled up - I won't argue with you - if you won't argue with me."
Alexis made a small frown at him and laughed as she began to turn around obediently. But before she could, a fierce blast of wind snatched the coat out of Jax's grasp. It spun away from them and landed in the gutter - just as the valet pulled up with Jax's car, running it over. Jax groaned and Alexis laughed.
"See where your chivarly got you?"
"Are you going to let me drive you back to the office?"
Alexis shook her head. "I told you, I have some thinking to do."
Jax sighed dramatically. "Fine, Ms. Davis." To her surprise, he slipped his own coat over her shoulders. "Do whatever it is you need to do. I will take your coat to the cleaners, seeing how I've run it down, so to speak... and you - without argument - will wear my coat back to the office. We'll manage an exchange say, maybe over dinner at your place sometime this week? Deal?"
"Dinner?" Alexis shook her head. "You drive a hard bargain. Or else you're losing your touch. Dinner at my place. Have you suddenly developed a death wish?"
"I said at your place. Nowhere did I suggest that you cook. I'll call Kristina and see what the two of us can come up with."
"For that remark, I should double what I was going to charge you for this."
"You were going to charge me?" Jax smiled at her - all too innocently. "They always said ex-wives were all about the money."
