Alexis froze when she saw the camera aiming at her as she and Julian sat in a cramped shed that doubled as some sort of webcast studio. Who would have ever guessed that such technology existed? She surfed the web as much as anyone but she stuck mostly to researching prospective bone marrow donors and okay, every once in a while she checked out the dating sites because with her frenetic schedule, it just was difficult to meet men who weren't insane or on their way to prison.

And maybe if she had used those sites, she never would have wound up with Shawn in the first place. But anyway, she felt so self-conscious in front of the camera right now, it definitely didn't look like a friend.

Julian looked even more ill at ease than she did and he'd been involved in the media business. Still he'd been living a life as someone else a couple of decades before it all blew up along with a few boats in the harbor of PC. Maybe he'd kept a lower profile until he was comfortable with his new identity.

Spinelli just had spent the past hour or so setting them up with lapel mics and had a woman named Chloe who looked like she had dropped out of the Sixties powder their faces up with makeup so their features wouldn't "disappear" in the lighting, she explained. Joey had actually dropped by and they had been surprised to see how different he looked from his days as a video game programmer who'd been on the news a lot lately.

Joey had woven his new found celebrity at stopping the killer computer into a contract with the State Department and on the side, a gig producing a morning talk show in L.A. After catching up on each other's lives, he had barked orders to Spinelli who took them willingly and at Chloe who just smiled at him indulgently.

So now Julian and Alexis sat in front of the camera with spotlights on them feeling very much under the gun so to speak.

Joey put up his hand with all five fingers to do the countdown to air time.

"Five…four…three…two…"

Everyone listened to some female talking head miles away in L.A. give the intro to how the viewing audience would be listening to an exclusive statement from the runaway bride and the man she was hiding out with.

"Kidnapper or partner in crime, you decide…."

Julian and Alexis just looked at each other.

"Okay, now this is where you come in," Joey instructed.

"And in the remote undisclosed location, our two guests are taking some time off from their adventure or…crime if you aren't sure what to call it to provide some insight into exactly what happened at the wedding that wasn't…okay so Julian Jerome… Alexis Davis…are you both there?"

They answered him in the affirmative, not sure what they had just gotten themselves into but it was too late to back out now.

"So what do you think of this runaway bride business, Ms Davis?"

Alexis looked at the camera like a deer caught in headlights.

"What….?"

"Why did you jilt your fiancé at the altar…at the very last possible moment? I mean this appears to have been a pattern with you in the earlier days…"

Meaning Ned Ashton. That dear sweet man who she'd been about to marry before getting cold feet and just taking off.

Something inside Alexis her courtroom persona perhaps took control then.

"It wasn't the last possible minute…It was several hours before and I was preparing to put on my wedding dress…and I found these photos. Well let's just say I had second thoughts about marrying him then."

The talking head they couldn't see appeared to digest that news.

"What photos? Who were they of, were they of other women?"

Alexis just sat there as the talking head jabbered on.

"Were they of his mistresses; was he in them in compromising positions with them?"

She paused, wondering how to put what she had to say in words that dealt with a somewhat delicate topic of what Shawn did for a living.

"They were pictures of men…."

A pin dropping silence greeted her then from some point in L.A.

"Men that are now either missing or dead," Alexis said slowly, "It didn't make any sense at first but it did give me second thoughts about my wedding."

The talking head took a minute to recover from her shock.

"Dead men...What are you trying to tell the viewing audience?"

Alexis bit the bullet.

"My fiancé…Shawn is a hired hit man for Sonny Corinthos and maybe other businessmen as well."

"You mean mafiasosos don't you?"

"Well we don't call them that. We call them businessmen and Shawn was very good at his business."

The silence that met that revelation lasted longer and the connection between the two studios had been broken. But then the talking head apparently recovered to ask more questions.

"Are you serious?"

"I've never been more so," Alexis said, "When Julian…he showed up he told me just as much but I already had seen enough."

"This is just so shocking…we're going to have to get a response from our other two guests on this allegation."

Julian frowned.

"Other two guests…?"

"Shawn Butler and his friend Carly Jax who are sitting her in our studio right now, "was the cheerful answer from the talking head.

Alexis tried to keep herself composed while on the air but her hand went to her chest.

"Oh…"

"And now viewing audience we'll go to our other guests in our local studio for their responses to these allegations."

Alexis and Julian braced themselves.

"Lies…all lies…how can someone like that (beep) make up such (beeping) lies about my friend and what he does for a living? Shawn's a well-respected businessman not a remorseless killer…to say otherwise is just (beeping) ridiculous and it's slanderous but what can you expect from a (beeping) (beep)…(beep)…"

That sounded an awful lot like Carly, Alexis guessed and she sounded rather irate.

"And what about you Shawn," the talking head said, moving on.

"I believe it's like I told you earlier, my fiancée is very overwrought and emotionally disturbed by the lies that this kidnapper, this ruthless mobster capo has fed to her in an attempt to brainwash her and turn her against me…she knows not what she says…"

"Okay…that's pretty straight to the point," the talking head said, "Would you like to comment to that Mr. Jerome?"

Julian nodded.

"Yes I would…these aren't just allegations about the real Shawn, there's photographs in our possession that prove that they are true."

Alexis looked at Julian suddenly and arched a brow at him, and then she realized what he was doing.

"Yes…he's telling the truth…there are several photos which are in a very safe place."

The talking head digested that.

"Okay…could we get copies of them?"

Julian nodded.

"Of course, when the time is right," he said, "We'll send you instructions on how to receive them," he said, "You will find that everything that is said about Shawn being a professional assassin is true and so will everyone else."

Julian and Alexis thought they heard gasps from the other studio back in L.A.

"This interview is over," Julian said, and Spinelli nodded, cutting off the connection.

Spinelli smiled broadly at the two of them.

"Boy, you two haven't changed a bit," he said, "You do know that you've just gotten a very dangerous man angry with you."

Julian knew that but it had been a calculated risk and he knew he could keep the two of them safe. Alexis knew that too but of course she had worried more about him. Yeah he might be a jackass for what he did but he was still family…to her daughter and grandson.

"Julian…I don't want anything to happen to you."

He stroked her hair off her face.

"Nothing's going to happen…We might not have the goods on Shawn and his crimes yet but we will…Coleman can help us with information we got from the five families."

She nodded and then impulsively, she leaned towards him and kissed him softly on the mouth. Not longer than a couple of seconds but it didn't take even that long for the tingling sensation to fill either one of them.

Joey just chuckled, folding his arms at him.

"So when did this development take place?"

Julian and Alexis drove back in the car to the beach house and she let him drive this time content to gaze at the scenery as it flew on by. They always checked to make sure they weren't being tailed by Shawn's men or anyone else for that matter. She looked over at him as he appeared to be lost in thought while looking out onto the road.

"I thought that went well didn't you," she said, "even Joey bought it."

He smiled.

"You take sealing it with a kiss to a whole new level not that I'm complaining."

She gave him a sharp look.

"Well we were playing a role."

He kept it tongue and cheek.

"Of course."

They parked the Ferrari and headed into the house to change to head on down to the beach. She put on another suit that she had picked up at the boutique and a wrap over it then her towel, before heading into the kitchen to get some snacks to take with her.
It hadn't taken Julian long to decide to do the same thing.

"I'm thinking of taking a swim today," he said, "I might be getting out of shape."

She suppressed a chuckle at that while looking at his gorgeous physique.

"I don't think you'll ever have that problem," she said, "but it's a nice day for it."

"What about you," he said, "Would you like to join me?"

She appeared to think about it.

"No, I might go on a light jog," she said, "and then I'm kicking back with a good book."

He sighed as he grabbed them both some sodas from the frig.

"We're going to have to be really careful now," he said, "Shawn's got no reason to sue for slander but every reason to come after us."

She nodded.

"I think the trail we left will hold up for a while," she said, "but we're going to have to make some definite plans of what to do next."

"I put in a call to Coleman to look some stuff up for us," Julian said, "I think we'll hear from him later this afternoon."

"Okay that sounds like a plan," she said, grabbing her things and they left to go down to the beach.

Julian did what he said he would do and went into the ocean to take a swim. She knew at this time of year it was about as warm as it would ever get but still quite cool but Julian moved through the waves with sure, swift strokes while she left their towels to go off on a run. Her muscles tightened a bit at first because it had been a while but once she started breaking out into a light sweat, she felt better. She ran on the densely packed sand with dunes blocking her view of some of the other houses that lined their same street. She could easily see why people lived here, or retreated to these homes to escape busier lives in the city. Doing that, made so much sense and she thought that maybe when they returned to PC…she would seriously consider doing the same.

So much awaited her back there including figuring out what to do about Julian, because she knew what he wanted but it just all appeared so complicated. She didn't know if she trusted him certainly with her feelings…or if she trusted herself for that matter.

She focused on the path through the sand dunes ahead not aware that someone had followed her.