By Audra Beberman
Chapter Nine
Bobbie and Jax were laughing softly as they walked off the elevator, headed back to Jerry's room. They were reminiscing about the time that Jerry bought Lucas a pony for his eighth birthday. Bobbie couldn't remember the last time she had laughed. It seemed that every day brought fresh pain and an onslaught of tears she was unused to crying.
"I still don't know when the exact moment was that I fell in love with your brother, but that definitely was not it. I was not ready to have 'Thunder' be a permanent part of our family, nor was I ready for Jerry to install himself in our lives permanently. But for all of his outrageous gifts and stunts, his heart is always in the right place, trying to make us happy."
"Yeah." Jax smiled and thought of some of the outrageous things his older brother had done during their childhood and their business partnership to make him happy, only to later find it wasn't the material things Jax wanted or needed, but love and honesty. Jax' mind wandered as they rounded the nurses' station. A quick glance at the monitors told him Jerry appeared comfortable, and quiet. Seeing his brother so still, after a lifetime of what their mother called perpetual motion, was a difficult thing to take. Jax stopped short when he noticed something odd. He grabbed Bobbie's arm and pointed to the monitors. Jerry flashed by again. Jax said, "Look, there seems to be someone sitting in the chair under the camera."
The next time Bobbie saw Jerry, she focused not on her husband, but at the side of his bed. Clearly there were feet. "Jax, you don't think it's someone here to finish what they started?" Bobbie asked in a panic.
"No. I don't think he'd be sticking around sitting in the chair, waiting to get caught."
Bobbie breathed a sigh of relief, "Well, who is it then?"
"Let's find out." Jax said in a tone that made her feel safe. Thank goodness Jerry has a brother like Jax. They walked down the hall silently, Jax in front of Bobbie, protecting her from the unfamiliar person in Jerry's room. He stuck his head around the wall to see who it was and if the person was armed. Then with a whoop of laughter, he pulled Bobbie in front of him to see for herself.
"Luke!" she cried. "You scared us! How on earth did you manage to find us?"
After recovering from his near heart attack, since he'd been sleeping with his hat over his face when Jax let out his loud holler of delight, he said, "Hey Barbara Jean, you're in trouble. I'm here to help. You know I'll always find you."
Lucas Jones, master of the video game, at least according to his teacher, Jerry, was playing "The Keeper" like he'd never played before. His grandfather said that if he won, he'd be helping Mom and Dad. That meant unlimited time on the computer and unlimited excuses for not eating at the dining room table with every one else. Lucas cruised through the first six levels, all levels he'd played before and won. Now he was at level seven... an underground fortress. As a guard of the royal family, his task was to save his family's prince and princess from the clutches of the Keeper, along with several other members of the royal court. His stepfather had explained the English monarchy to him once, when he taught Lucas to play chess. So Lucas had a head full of information that might help him on his "quest."
He picked up several items along the way: a charm and a spell and a tool. The first item was a charm called "Angel," the spell was for fire and the tool was an odd looking key. Jerry had shown him the real key that he'd scanned into the computer and used in the game, but this is the first time he'd seen it on the screen.
Level seven was difficult and Lucas lost the last of his life-energy at a critical juncture. Then he had to start again. The ten-year old blew his hair out of his eyes and prepared to begin the game anew.
Chloe gaped at the woman who had moved to stand in front of her. She said again, "Hannah?"
"No," said the petite brunette woman. "My name is Brenda."
As Luke and Bobbie had their quiet reunion and Bobbie filled Luke in on all the information that she and Jax and John, Jane and Lucas had come up with, Jax slipped quietly out of Jerry's room to call Chloe.
"When Samir answered Chloe's secure cell phone, Jax immediately knew something was very wrong.
"Samir, what's wrong, where's Chloe?"
"Jax. Hello. Someone kidnapped her." He delivered the dreadful information with no preamble.
"What? How?" Jax ran his hand through his hair impatiently. Samir related the story of the shopping trip and the delivery and the escape.
"Jax, I'm so sorry. My men are tracking her now. They have surmised that she is back in the U.S. We will find her." He emphasized the word will; it was now not only an obligation to a friend, but to his sense of honor and duty as well.
Jax rang off with Samir frustrated and fearful. Jax had extracted promises of hourly updates and any new information from Samir. There was nothing else he could really do. Going to Egypt would be a colossal waste of time if Chloe was, indeed, back in the states. He felt torn between the urge to run and beg, borrow or steal a plane at the local airport, and the need to stay at his brother's side.
He walked back into Jerry's room, pain etched on his face. Bobbie sat alone by the bed. She looked up from the coffee cup in her hands into Jax' eyes. She knew his face almost as well as she knew Jerry's and Luke's. Her husband's younger brother looked more emotionally worn than he did when he'd left Jerry's room before. She had assumed he went to call Chloe. Something must be wrong. He was frowning as he stared at Jerry. Jax' eyes had a faraway glazed look to them. She waited a moment before she said anything.
"Jax?" He focused on her after a moment, his mind far away.
"Chloe is missing." He said in a flat, unemotional tone.
"Oh, Jax, no!"
"Yes, I just got off of the telephone with her guard. She was taken yesterday afternoon Egypt time. Which would have been yesterday in the hours before dawn here. Samir's people feel that she is back here in the US. They are working on leads, but they have nothing substantial yet. I cannot believe this is happening!" Jax balled up his fist and hit the back of the door hard enough to make a dent. This provided him one moment of release and then the next moment, extreme pain. Bobbie stood quickly and pulled him to the chair where she had been sitting.
"Jax, hitting things isn't going to help Chloe, or you. If you hurt yourself, how will you help her?" She tried to take his hand to examine it. Jax pulled away as she found the painful spot.
"You mean if I get a chance." He grimaced as he flexed the fingers of his right hand.
"Let me get you some ice."
"No. I'm OK."
"No, Jax, you're not. Let me help you." He looked at her, his eyes filled with anguish. This cannot be happening to Jax again, Bobbie thought angrily, because she loved her brother-in-law almost as much as she loved her own brother. After everything he went through with Brenda, now Chloe is missing. The incredible cerulean blue of Jax' eyes was vibrant as the tears magnified the color. Momentarily Bobbie was reminded of the physical differences between this man and her husband, yet how similar, they were where it counted, in their souls. She smiled at him and touched his cheek, and then she left to get him some ice for his hand.
Jax turned to face his brother as the tears began. He named them as they fell: anger, frustration, fear, and pain.
"Jerry," Jax began to speak to his brother, the same way he had since his boyhood. Confiding secrets, private hurts, sharing his great achievements and his triumphs. This was a very big hurt, and he need to tell Jerry, even if Jerry couldn't respond. "It's Chloe, Jerry. She's missing. God, I need you. Right now. I need to know what's in that incredibly complicated mind of yours. What you know. I have a feeling it's all in your head." Jax put his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands. The tears wouldn't stop. This was unusual for Jax, to feel out of control, out of control of his emotions and the situation in which he found himself. After all of the time he'd spent to get to this point with Chloe, getting over losing Brenda, a fake marriage to Alexis, a legal battle for control of Chloe Morgan designs, he was angry and disbelieving. How could all of that amount to another loss?
When Jax had composed himself he looked back into Jerry's face and was startled by what he saw. Jerry's eyes were open and full of inexpressible pain as well. This is my fault, Jerry thought.
"Jerry!" Jax said with excitement, his distress momentarily forgotten. "Can you understand me? Blink once for 'no' and twice for 'yes.'" Jerry blinked twice quickly.
"That's great!" Jax said, "Jerry, I'm going to find Bobbie and the doctor. Just hold on. Hold on." Jax smiled his best smile at his brother and ran from the room, only to rush back moments later with Bobbie and Luke close on his heels. Then Jax dashed from the room to track down the doctor. Jerry was astonished to see how pale and drawn Bobbie looked, but he was incredibly grateful that Luke had gotten here. If Luke had found them here, then maybe he'd be able to help Dad and Jax save Lucky and now Chloe, and the others too.
The only people the Keeper had not located in this latest shift of his plans were the Jacks children, Lucas and Candace. Patience, he thought, patience. Eventually they would come to him, just as the others had. If not willingly, then by force.
