Risk

Chapter XXIV

Jax unlocks the door to his hotel room in Caracas. He sniffs as he looks down at himself. No wonder he got nothing but horrified looks from the staff and other guests at the four star hotel. He looks like he just came back from a week out in the bush and probably smelled like it too. Yep. He sniffs again. Rank. Eau de jungle slime. He rubs a hand over his jaw and the growth there. Shower and a shave are definitely in order. Then track down Stavros Cassadine, find Alexis and get her the hell away from that twisted wit psycho. Jax starts stripping. He unlaces his boots and kicks them off looking at them carefully. With a little cleaning, okay a lot, they can probaby be salvaged which is good since he'd just gotten them broken in. Shirt is tossed to the floor. Followed automatically by the camoflauge pants and undergarments. He pads barefoot into the bathroom and turns the water on as hot as it will go. Steam begins to fog the fog-resistent bathroom mirror, Jax steps under the needlesharp stinging hot spray and sighs. Clean. It's a very good thing.

"No!" Alexis demands harshly. "Dictating a contract isn't the same as dictating a damn email. I need the computer. Look I don't care if you take the damn phone out of here or lock me out of whatever on the computer but I need the word processing software and I need to type it myself. This is for Nikolas. You saw the email from Carly. Stavros isn't going to care... unless you don't let me help Nikolas."

"Mrs Corinthos doesn't speak for The Prince, Madam." Andreas counters but he has that knot in his gut that says he's in a no win situation.

"HA! That's what you think! She's up to her ears in his business. Give me a freaking break. You know how my brother feels about me. Do you really think that I would have had email access if he hadn't been influenced by Carly?! I'm playing inside the lines here, Andreas. I'm not telling anyone where we are or what Stavros is doing. It'll be faster if I do this myself. It has to be phrased just right. If we had plenty of time I'd play the game your way, but Nikolas doesn't. I have to protect his interests!"

"Very well, Madam." Andreas sets the internet browser with it's email program to password access only. "But I will have to read the document."

"Fine whatever. Get out of that seat." Alexis half pulls Andreas out of the chair behind the desk and slides in. She finds the word processing program and opens up a page. She composes her thoughts and then begins to type. This she could practically do in her sleep but that doesn't mean it doesn't have to be precisely right. And Carly is correct damn her. Every protection in the contract has to go Nikolas' way. Because Laura had never proven in the past her desire to put Nikolas' interests first.

Zander strides into L&B and is relieved to see Kristina there. "I've been looking all over for you! I thought I was going to have to go over to the Quartermaines."

"Zander, Alexis emailed us!" Kristina tells him excitedly.

"I know she replied to my email too." Zander grins. He waves the copy of her reply.

"Replied?" Nik comes out of the back room. He'd been trying to work while waiting for Alexis' response to his request. "How did you get Alexis' email address?"

"Gia called your father from her place to get it for me. I wanted Alexis phone number but this is what I got instead."

"Where is she?"

"Alexis? I have no idea...."

"No, Gia. Tell me where Gia is." Nikolas interrupts harshly.

Zander takes a mental step back and starts thinking this one thru. He shakes his head in response to Nik's inquiry. "Right now? I have no idea. I think she had plans with her mother. She normally has her cell phone on her though. You can give her a call."

"You said Gia called my father from her new place. Where is it?!" Nik starts getting in Zander's face.

Zander pushes Nikolas back a few steps. "Gia said the only people who needed her address already had it. So either you got it already or you don't. And it's not my business to be giving out unlisted info."

Nik grabs Zander by the jacket. "You will tell me!"

"No, I won't." Zander glares back. "Deal with it, Cassadine! Now you know how it feels!"

"I'll tell you where Emily is." Nik offers Zander his heart's desire.

That gives Zander pause. He really wants that information but he wants it to come from Emily, because she wants to see him. And he wants to live long enough to see her. The way Gia had been so fervent... she'd kill him for revealing her address. "Ask your father. I bet he knows. He and Gia seemed tight on the phone." Zander says reluctantly thru gritted teeth.

Kristina gets between the two testosterone overloaded combatants and puts a hand on both of their chests pushing them arms lengths away from each tother. "Enough! Zander, you came over here about Alexis."

"Yeah, she sent me this. I know it's Alexis. She was talking about stuff that only we would have known about." Zander hands the email to Kristina. "She really wants you to stay out of it cause she doesn't want to worry about you."

"Great. Everyone worrying about me. What about Alexis?" Kristina reads the email from Alexis quickly. "And how come you got a better email than I did?"

Jax towels off his hair and then impatiently tosses the towel aside. Dressed only in the linen courtesy robe he grabs his laptop and accesses his email. He winces at the volume. Out of contact and it seems that the world had gone nuts in his absence. There are dozens of emails he recognized from doing business. A couple from Thaao that are fairly recent. One from Jerry and then he sees it and clicks fast to open the email. The rest could wait.

<<< How is my favorite ex husband?

All kidding aside. How are you? Jax, you shouldn't have come after me. This is between me and Stavros. Stay out of it. He's trying to bait you into a fight you can't win. I know you are probably dismissing my concern for you as unwarranted about now. But Jax, this is a no win situation for you. Go HOME. Take care of yourself and those that are dear to us. I can take care of myself.

Alexis.>>>

"I am trying to take care of the one dear to me, favorite ex-wife of mine." Jax mutters. Knowing that Stavros or one of his flunkies is probably reading whatever he sends, Jax settles in to carefully compose his reply.

Alexis yawns and then curses. She'd left her nightgown in the bedroom. She tucks the bathsheet around her. The contract had been like riding a bike. Maybe that's a bad analogy lord knows I hate riding bikes. Andreas would send it off to Nikolas. With the time difference he'd get it with plenty of time before Laura came around seeking the funds. Alexis starts and comes to a stop as she walks into her bedroom. "Andreas, what are you doing here? I thought you were going to send that email to Nikolas."

"And so I shall after I get you settled for the evening, Madam." Andreas folds a towel and places it at the top of the massage table. He tests the temperature of the lotion to make sure that it is neither too cold or too hot.

"I'm settled for the evening." Alexis counters starting to back peddle. "You just go ahead and send that email."

"After your massage, Madam."

"I don't need a massage."

"You are tense after your stint at the computer."

"I'm not tense!" Alexis shouts. Then she takes a quick breath. "Or I wasn't tense until you showed up."

"I will send the email after your massage, Madam." Andreas pats the table significantly.

"You aren't going to send that email until I get the damn massage right?"

"Right."

Clutching her towel around her, Alexis glares at Andreas but moves over to the table. She makes sure that everything is covered as she situates herself on the table. "Then lets get this over with." Alexis lays face down on the table.

"Of course Madam." Andreas pours a little lotion into his hand and then begins to stroke it into Alexis' resistent neck and shoulders. This is indeed a pleasure after dealing with Helena. Alexis' skin is smooth, taunt and supple. He begins to work down her arms using long strong strokes until he feels the tension drain from Alexis' muscles. Her breathing evens. Slowly he pulls down the towel to reveal her back.

After sending off the carefully crafted email, Jax starts checking his voice and email messages. His eyes get increasingly big as he check the content. "Son of a BITCH!" He checks the clock. It's too late to call Europe. Everything over there is closed down for the night. There is only one thing to do. Jax calls up a familiar phone number. Someone he knew didn't sleep until dawn. "Thaao!"

"Jax, where in the hell have you been?!! Things are going crazy around here! I have tried to call you a dozen times! It is unlike you, my friend, to be out of contact with so many irons in the fire!"

"I know. I know. Is it as bad as I think?"

"Worse! The FBI has contacted the Greek Government and is seizing the island. My beautiful island in the hands of those beaurocrats. How could you?! If I had just been forewarned-- I would have bought it from you, cut you for it."

"Ha. Using your own deck." Jax shakes his head knowing his old friend too well. "I guess I'll have to get it back at the next auction. I thought I'd buried my possession of it too far for them to find."

"Perhaps they had help?"

"Perhaps. Who the hell found it.... Carly" Jax says ruefully as he remembers Carly sitting in the corner of the stateroom with the laptop in front of her. Even with one hand out of commission she's been too comfortable working those keys. "And my companies?"

"Yours is such a relative term." Thaao hedges.

"Just spit it out."

"When there are many share holders and you hold a 30% block of stock... you control the company...." Thaao begins.

"Yeah, yeah, believe me I get the concept. Get to the point."

"When you own a large block of stock but someone else, one other person, owns the other seventy percent..."

"I don't have dick."

"You don't have dick." Thaao's accent on the colloquialism would be rather humorous if Jax wasn't so ticked.

"I've only been out of it for... " Jax checks his watch "...what three days?"

"Someone extremely motivate who believes that money is no object. I told you the Cassadine name means something in Europe! One call from his representatives and the stock holders fled like sheep with a wolf in their midst-- but not before offering up their shares at bargain prices. You control nothing in Greece anymore. And depending on Cassadine's mood what little you have in your shares will be worthless. He can drive them into the dirt and it won't touch his fortune."

"This guy is really starting to tick me off."

"Your meeting... it did not go well."

"Understatement. Thaao, I need to get in a room with the guy."

"That is ill advised, my friend."

"Have you heard anything? Last I heard he was in Puerto Rico but that was days ago. I need a clue here."

"You aren't taking the clues I'm giving you!" Thaao sighs. "My father is having a house party next week. Our chalet in Gstaad. I've heard rumblings that perhaps Cassadine will be in country. My father wants to renew/forge an alliance with the new player in town. If Cassadine is in town, then he will surely be invited."

"I'll be there." Jax hangs up the phone before Thaao can protest.

Hours later alone in the cottage on the outskirts of town, Nikolas paces. It was like his skin didn't fit anymore. He had tried focusing on the contract Alexis had sent him in her reply. All those years of reading contracts overseen by Stefan had made the exercise less than titilating however. He knew the contract was tight. Alexis wrote nothing but the best. He'd called Lucky over at Kelly's. The machine had picked up and the voice message had said it all. Lucky and Elizabeth were on their way to Italy. Had probably already arrived. Nik reaches for the phone to call Stefan... but then hesitates.
He'd interrupted earlier no matter what Stefan said. If he ruined Lucas' chances to get Bobbie and Stefan some alone time again... Lucas would surely try to lose him down in the tunnels below Wyndemere. And he'd deserve it. Having Bobbie back in the family was something he couldn't jinx. Nik picks up the phone and speeddials a number. "Gia..." voice mail. "...Gia. Please. I must speak to you." Nikolas tries to interject some humor. "I grovel much better in person. Anytime, Anyplace. You set the terms. Please call me." Nik hangs up the phone reluctantly. The bitch of the cell phone was it was a computer generated voice on the other end... not even Gia's voice.
Nik fights off the urge to call Stavros. His father would assist him. But at what price? Getting out his personal address book he finds an out of state phone number. "Emily? It's Nikolas. I hope I'm not calling you too late."

"Nik? No, it's fine. What's going on? Are you okay?"

"So many things have happened..."

"That boy is so in trouble." Bobbie says aloud as she enters Stefan's study. "Stefan, are you listening to me?"

"Of course, Barbara." Stefan looks up and removes his half glasses setting them neatly in the middle of his desk next to his laptop. "What were you saying?"

Bobbie laughs and shakes her head. Of course he hadn't been listening. "Lucas. I can't believe he did that to your sister. What in the heck is getting into my son?"

"I do not regret the privacy he gave us." Stefan quirks a brow. "I rather... enjoyed it."

"That's not the point!"

"Kristina came to no harm." Stefan can't resist looking back over at the laptop screen.

"Is something going on?"

"I have received an email from Alexis."

"Really? And you think it's from her?"

"She says thank you for convincing Stavros."

"What did you tell him?"

"No, I mean she says thank you for convincing Stavros."

"I didn't do anything."

"Your discussion with Carly must have born fruit." Stefan shakes his head. "Your daughter is definitely a... wild card."

"She's been called worse." Bobbie comes around to Stefan's side of the desk. "Does Alexis say where she is? What is going on?"

"Alexis very studiously avoids all mention of those topics. I believe she's been given this access with conditions." Bobbie's form distracts Stefan from his thought of Alexis and her whereabouts. He runs a slow hand up her back. A little shiver goes thru Bobbie and her eyes close as she savors the touch. "Where is Lucas now?"

"Sleeping over at Betty's. That's normally what I do when I have to work a swing shift. I came here right after work. I didn't want to reward his sucky behavior by bringing him with me."

"So we are alone." Stefan's gaze grows hot.

"As alone as we ever are here." Bobbie's smile is slow and sultry.

Stefan runs a hand across Bobbie's hip and then pulls her to him so that she falls across his lap. "Do you tire of this pretense as much as I do?" Stefan growls.

"It's just the adults now. And it's not like it's the first time for either of us." Bobbie agrees as she reaches up and starts undoing the buttons to Stefan's shirt. She presses kisses to his chest.

A slow chuckle rumbles thru Stefan's chest. "Since our marriage or our divorce?"

"Either? Both! I swear this is just something about you on an island that gets me." Bobbie bites her lower lip and taking Stefan's hand presses it to her.

Stefan slides his hand between her thighs watching Bobbie's reaction to his touch. Pulling her close he ravages her mouth finally muttering. "You are wearing too many clothes."

"It was a cold trip over."

"But it is warm here. Or should I stoke the fire?" Stefan rubs against her again delighting in her moan. "There is a fire already laid upstairs." He suggests in a whisper against her ear.

"Start a fire here or lay a fire upstairs. Oh the choices." Bobbie mutters trying to hold a thought in her head with what Stefan's clever fingers are doing to her even thru her clothes.

Shifting Bobbie around so that she is half sitting on his desk, Stefan rises to his feet and extends a hand to her. "Come."

Bobbie laughs and takes his hand. "I think I will."

On the other side of the world the sun has already risen. There is a sharp rap on the door and then Andreas enters carrying a breakfast tray. "Your breakfast, Madam."

Alexis yawns and starts to sit up in bed when she realizes she isn't wearing any clothes. NONE She makes an undignified squeek and pulls the covers up over her head. "Just set it on the table." Alexis muffled voice calls out.

"Shall I draw Madame a bath?"

Alexis can hear the humor at her expense in Andreas voice. "NO! Just put the tray down and get out!"

"Of course, Madame." Alexis hears the sound of the door shutting and peeks her head out from under the covers. She looks around for her robe and doesn't see it. She wrenches on the sheet to free it from the bottom of the mattress and rises to her feet clutching the sheet to her. Just then the door opens. "I left your correspondence with your tray, Madam."

"GET OUT!!" Andreas bows and then steps back out the door shutting it softly. "Ohmygod what have I done?" Alexis races to the bathroom before Andreas finds another excuse to come in grabbing her clothes from the dresser as runs by it. Once in the bathroom with the door shut and locked she drops the sheet and hurriedly dresses. Even as she slides on the halter top sundress she realizes the difference. She rubs her hand down her arm and then all the way up her leg. Every inch of her body is silky smooth. The last thing she remembered was Andreas massaging her shoulders. Evidently the perv hadn't stopped there. There are laws against what he'd done! Alexis stalks out of the bathroom and to the bedroom door. She wrenches it open. "Andreas!"

"Yes, Madam?" Andreas is dressed in a light colored polo shirt that exposes his powerful tanned arms and his white slacks are a fraction too tight showing off his tight body.

"What you did last night is against the law! I was asleep damnit and you put your hands, it had better been just your hands, all over my..." Alexis sputters to a grinding halt.

"In what country, Madam?" Andreas replies with mock bewilderment. "I gave you a massage and then put you in your bed when I realized you had fallen asleep."

"No more massages."

"Unless Madam is tense. And then I will of course see to your needs. Coffee?" Andreas holds up the silver coffee urn that he'd been returning with.

"Fine." Alexis realizes what she just said. "Coffee.. that's fine. Coffee's fine."