The Rebel
Chapter 24

“Good morning, Lilly,” Brenda greeted brightly on Monday morning. She’d risen
early to beat the traffic and because Jax had already been out of bed. He had to
leave to go home to get a change of clothes...not that clothes had been a problem
for the weekend.

“You’re early,” Lilly answered from where she was reading the morning paper at
her desk.

“So are you, and you look like you, too.”

Lilly smiled. The frumpy clothes were gone, and the sleek secretary was back.
She was dressed in her usual way. Blazer, short skirt, her long hair carefully
styled and no glasses. “It feels so good to be me again.”

Brenda looked up and down the hall. “Any Sonny sightings lately?”

“No,” Lilly said with a barely suppressed smile. “But he left the office early on
Thursday, just like you and Jax. Rumor has it that he went to get his teeth
checked.”

Brenda smothered a smile. “And on Friday?”

“Stayed in his office all day.” Lilly’s lip twitched, too. “He had a big fat, swollen
lip. But what about your Friday? Your father stopped by to say you were taking
the day off because of the fires.”

Brenda sighed. “We came very close to losing the construction site out at Malibu.
My car was scorched.”

“Oh, no.”

Brenda shook her head, remembering going with Jax on Sunday to pick it up.
The only time they’d left the beach house. The rest of the weekend they’d spent
inside. Alone. Together. “I’ll need a new paint job, but otherwise it seems okay.”

“Thank goodness. Jax was with you.”

Brenda felt her heart jump just at the mention of his name, but it was hard to
regret the feeling. More, she enjoyed it. “To take cover, we dove into the ocean
together.” She nodded towards his empty desk. “He should be in any minute.”
Her mouth curled into a smile. “You can reintroduce yourself.”

But Jax was late. He had some calls to make. The first one was to Jerry. The
second was to the arson division of the fire department.

When he’d gone with Brenda to collect her car from the construction site, they’d
ran into some inspectors. The team had been investigating the Malibu blaze that
had suddenly come out of nowhere, and had been hoping to discover why it had
started. And they’d been successful. The cause was arson. A person or persons
unknown had purposely lit a match for no understandable reason and set the
countryside on fire.

Jax mouth thinned as he maneuvered his car through traffic and up the parking
ramp. He’d hoped by this morning some clue might have been found to lead the
arson squad to whoever was responsible for torching the beach front property, but not enough evidence had been recovered to point definitively to any individual. All
the inspectors had to go on were the discard remains of a fire-darkened gas
can...the type that could be purchased in any store anywhere...and Jax’s
description of the black pickup truck that had come flying out of the smoke.

Guiding his car into a parking space near Brenda’s car, Jax frowned. The truck
might not have been involved with the fire. The driver could have just been in
the wrong place at the wrong time and probably had floored his vehicle to get
through the smoke and out of harm’s way, but for some reason Jax didn’t think
that was true.

Jax got out of his car and walked around Brenda’s car one more time. It wasn’t
bad. The paint was blistered on one side from the heat, but otherwise, the
damage was minimal. A body shop would be able to redo the paint, and once that
was accomplished, no one would ever know how close she’d come to the fire. Or
to dying.

Cold fury exploded again as Jax thought once more of the arson. She could have
been killed because some maniac had the urge to play with a box of matches, and
that maniac may never be caught. Probably wouldn’t.

Returning to his car to get his jacket, Jax pushed the black thoughts aside. He
put the jacket on, straightened his tie and headed for the elevator. Brenda was
waiting, and the idea of seeing her again had his steps quickening. But out of the
corner of his eye, Jax saw black.

Stopping, he turned and found himself staring at a black pickup truck. It wasn’t
the big variety farmers used. It was the sporting type owned by city dwellers and
suburbanites, and it was identical to the truck that had come roaring out of the
smoke and driven him off the road.

Frowning and knowing the odds were against that in a city the size of Los Angeles
he could find the one red truck that had been in Malibu at the moment the fire
started, Jax nevertheless went to look the vehicle over.

The body was in good shape. The truck had seen some wear, but the owner
obviously took care of it. The dents were few, the tires were in good shape and no
rust could be seen.

Jax circled to the back of the truck. Nothing was stored there. It and the cab was
empty of cargo, but the truck’s bed did have some dirt in it. Dirt and ash.

Reaching for and picking up a fragile piece of blackened debris that immediately
crumbled in his hand, Jax frowned and wondered, With all the fires surrounding
the city, how many trucks driving into Los Angeles were actually carrying ash?

Grabbing a pen from his pocket, he returned to the windshield to jot down the
vehicle identification number and to the bumper to copy down the license plate.
It was a long shot, but he was going to check.

Abruptly turning and heading for the stairs, in no time he was striding into the
office and past Lilly’s desk.

“Hey, beautiful.”

She stopped typing and looked over her computer monitor at him. “Watch it. I
know this guy who’s got a mean right hook.”

Jax stopped at his desk and shot her a grin before grabbing the phone. “I want to
know about the guy with a sore jaw.”

“I already told the boss about him. He had to go see the dentist.” Lilly smirked.
“He left right after you hit him and never came back that day.” Her grin widened.
“He hid in his office all day on Friday, too.” She pointed at Brenda’s door. “By
the way, she waiting to see you.”

His finger hesitated as he dialed his number, and his gaze strayed towards
Brenda’s office. He wanted to see her, too.

Hopefully behind locked closed doors, but the phone started to ring in his ear
and was quickly answered. Jax was forced to give the person he called his
attention. “Jerry? Jax here. Do me a favor. I need you to find out who owns a
black pickup truck.” He rattled off the make, model and license and VIN
numbers. “I’ll call you in an hour for any results.”

Hanging up, he swung toward the office door and Brenda, but Lilly stopped him.

“Jax, I’m sorry, but I couldn’t help but overhear. You want to know about the
black pickup?”

He nodded. “It’s parked down in the garage.”

“And the license plate is LDYSMAN?”

Jax reluctantly turned away from Brenda’s door to walk over to Lilly’s desk. “You
know who owns it”

“Who doesn’t” she said with a shrug. “It belongs to Sonny Corinthos.”

Shock hit Jax hard.

“He made a big deal in the office about buying it and an even bigger deal when he
got the license plates.” She grimaced. “He claimed it was his personal
advertisement to let the lady’s know he was “hot” property.

But Jax barely heard her. His mind was whirling with possibilities and disbelief.
Competitive, yes. Obnoxious, yes. But a murderer? An arsonist? But the fire had
started in Malibu. Precisely on the land being developed by Kevin Carmichael.

Jax didn’t want to believe it. Business could be deadly in the figurative sense of
the word. Executives were often cutthroat in their dealings, merciless in their
attempts to get ahead, but few would literally trying to burn out an opponent.

“Jax, are you all right?” Lilly asked, rising as his jaw clenched and Brenda
appeared in the office door, drawn by his voice.

“Is Sonny in today?” Jax demanded, answering her question with one of his own,
but he was already turning toward the hall.

“I think so, but...”

He didn’t hear her, and he didn’t see Brenda. The only person he cared about at
the moment was Sonny Corinthos.

Watching Jax go, Brenda felt a shiver come down her spine. She’d seen him
angry before. She recognized the posture, the look, the walk. “No, not again.”
She ran after him, but she was too late. Ahead of her he brushed past Sonny’s
fluttering secretary and threw open the office door.

“Sonny, I want to talk to you. Now!”


To be continued...