Jax shook his head. “I haven’t spoken to her since last night. But Morgan over here got a call from her just this afternoon.”
“Morgan, did Stacey sound worried when she talked to you? Did she tell you anything about where she may want to go or is there a place you knew she loved to visit?”
Now Morgan shook her head. She hadn’t been able to get much from the phone conversation since Stacey abruptly hung up. “She was upset because pictures were posted online of her with Jax from years ago. They were saying she was dating a married man. Her boss got a hold of these pictures and blamed her for the office getting involved in the scandal. Or, affiliated at any rate. I think her name ended up on some of the photos and they figured out who she was. All she kept telling me was that she needed to get out of the city. That she wanted to leave everything behind and start a new life. She rarely went on vacation, so I have no clue where she may have gone.”
“Has she ever done anything like this before? Run off without telling anyone?” Nick asked as he took down notes on what Morgan said.
“I’ve known her most of my life. We went to school together all the way until college. She had a troubled past though. Her father cheated on her mother many times, until one day her mother couldn’t take it and she kicked him out. Stacey took it hard and she started to hang around with the wrong crowd. Our friendship never ended, but she didn’t talk to me as much once she got with those kids. One day her mother called me up, frantic because Stacey never came home after school. She was found by the police, who took her into the station to keep her safe. That was the moment she decided she wanted to change her life and become a better person. She wanted to help teens who went through the same thing because she knew how they felt. She was the top social worker’s assistant in her office until she quit today.”
Jax sat with his mouth open, stunned by what Morgan said. He knew Stacey had a tough time growing up. She told him about how her father cheated and that was why she hated being the other woman in the relationship. But he hadn’t known about the rest. “Morgan, I didn’t know it was that bad with her.”
Morgan turned to Jax. “It was. She got involved in things that she was too embarrassed to even talk about again. That’s why she was so good with the teens she talked with. She knew how they felt and she could relate to them.” She turned back to Nick. “Anything else you need to know?”
“Just one more question. When she called you and told you she was taking off, how did she sound? I just want to know, did she sound like she may do something to herself.”
“Stacey would never do anything like that.” A look of slight disgust crossed Morgan’s face at the very idea. “I know that for a fact. She was distraught, but that’s to be expected after what she found out. She kept repeating she needed to start a new life so I don’t think she’d do anything to harm herself.”
Nick looked through the notes he’d taken from talking to Morgan. “Alright, good. That’s good to hear. I’m going to go back to my office to go over everything I’ve written. I’ll get back to you soon, Jax. Morgan, thank you very much for your cooperation.”
“I gave you enough information?” she asked. “I feel like I could’ve given you so much more. Like I could’ve been more help.”
“You gave me more than enough information,” he assured her. “Added to what Jax told me earlier, I feel that within a few days we’ll know where Stacey is and we can go get her.”
Morgan smiled through her rising tears. “Thank you so much, Nick. You don’t know how much this means to me. To us,” she pointed between herself and Jax.
*****
Days passed by and Nick hadn’t called Morgan or Jax with any news on Stacey. Morgan’s honeymoon with Ivan was on hold until Stacey was found. Each day she would call Jax asking if Nick had called him with any news. And every day, Jax had to sadly tell her there wasn’t any update.
Jax was about to give up all hope until a week later when he got a phone call. “Hello?”
“Jax? It’s Nick. Sorry I’m calling you so late but I’ve been on the trail and some places have had very sketchy cellular signal. I found your girlfriend Stacey.”
“You -” Jax nearly dropped the phone from his sudden surge of excitement. He caught it just in time and listened intently, “You did? You really found her?”
“I did and I’m where she is now. I’ll make sure she doesn’t get away. We were able to follow a line on her credit card and now have a static location for her. I saw someone who matched the recent photo you gave me and it is her.”
Jax balanced the phone between his ear and shoulder as he took up a pen and began to write down the details: “Florida? Alright… Be there Tuesday. Meet you at the hotel. Got it. Thanks, Nick.” He hung up and immediately dialed the number to Morgan’s cell.
“Jax, did you hear something?” Morgan’s voice was frantic. “Is something wrong? Please tell me he found something!”
“Pack your bags,” he said. “We have to fly out to Florida.”
Chapter 12
“I’m a little torn,” Morgan said as she and Jax got off the plane. “All of the waiting felt excruciatingly long, and at the same time I can’t believe how quickly he was able to find her.”
“I’ll be honest, I got scared when it had been a week and there was no call from him,” Jax replied. “Usually he finds the person quicker. I don’t know, I was losing hope I guess.”
“’Usually?’ How often does a pharmaceutical company have to trace people’s whereabouts?”
“More often than you’d think,” he said. “Just last month someone decided to try to sell company proprietary secrets we were working on in the lab. Potential million dollar drug that would be worth pennies had someone beat us to clinical trials.”
“Oh.” Morgan looked down and considered this before deciding it wasn’t important at the moment. “Well, I never lost hope. You told me Nick would find Stacey and I believed he would. Now where are we supposed to go?”
Jax listened to the message left by Nick on his phone again. “Alright he’s at the motel right next to the airport. He’ll meet us there and then he’ll help us bring Stacey back home. Morgan, I’m really sorry to have you go through all this instead of going on your honeymoon.”
“Don’t worry about that,” she waved it off. “Ivan understands that getting Stacey back home is more important than us going away to some island. We can go on a honeymoon anytime.”
Jax felt relief that he had Morgan as a friend. At least, he considered her a friend. It was possible she wouldn’t feel the same way for some time but he was alright with that. “Morgan, I think this is the place.”
The motel in question looked run down and much less than comforting. Morgan made a face. “Would he stay in a place like this?”
“This is what he usually does when he has to travel out of state for an investigation,” Jaz explained. “Just a little dive, cheap and easy.” Morgan followed Jax to room 304 to meet Nick.
“Does he think it will make him less conspicuous or something?”
“Maybe. And it’s certainly the cheaper route when he doesn’t know how long he’ll be staying in one place.” Jax knocked and it soon opened.
“Come in,” Nick greeted them. “Glad you could make it over here on such short notice.”
“One of the perks of having a private jet. One call to the pilot and we were on our way.” Jax’s face immediately became serious. So tell us, what did you find out about Stacey?”
Nick offered them a seat on the couch and went to grab his folder with the information on Stacey. “As I told you on the phone, I tracked her here. It was tricky at first because she wasn’t making any calls. In fact, the last call we have on record is the one she made to Morgan shortly before she left. But I had one of my computer people track any activity on her credit card and that’s where he saw she bought a ticket to the next plane to Florida.”
“So she’s been here the whole time?” Morgan asked. “Where is she now?”<
br />
“She’s at the Baumburg, a low end motel that’s along the beach. It seems that she used what was left of her savings to get a room there for at least the next month.”
“Motel? Why would she…” Jax started.
“Wait, The Baumburg,” Morgan said thoughtfully. “That’s right next to where we stayed when I got married. My husband, Ivan, he got a room for Stacey and me until the day of the ceremony. Is she still there?”
“As of last night, she was still staying in the motel,” Nick said. “I saw her sitting on the beach until it got dark.”
Jax was confused, he had no idea why Stacey would go back to be so close to the place where they had reconnected. If she was blaming him for the tabloids, wouldn’t she go where there was no memory of him? “Well, let’s get over to the motel!”
“Calm down, Jax. There’s more we have to discuss. Don’t you want to know more of what I discovered?”
Jax knew deep down that Nick was right, that rushing to get Stacey wasn’t the way to go about getting her home, but he felt much too anxious.
“How about I just get a cab and go to the motel right now? I can go get Stacey and bring her back here. Then we can all go home together. I want to get her back! I lost her once already and I can’t just stand here when she’s so close now. I can hear the rest once she’s back in my arms.”
“Jax,” Morgan said, “maybe we should listen to Nick. He knows what he’s doing. Maybe Stacey doesn’t want to come back.” Morgan hated the thought, but if her best friend wanted to live here, she wasn’t going to force her to come home.
“Morgan, don’t you give up on me now. You and I both want Stacey in New York with us.”
“I’m not giving up, Jax. I want Morgan to be back where she belongs just as much as you do. But I also know my best friend, and she never lets anyone tell her what to do. If she needs time away then so be it. You heard what Nick said, she hasn’t made any calls since she told me she was leaving. She obviously didn’t want to talk to anyone.”
Jax looked over at Nick. “Then what do you propose we do?”
“Alright, well first thing’s first,” Nick said. “We have to find out why she came out here. Morgan is right about one thing, she may not want to go back home. Hence she hasn’t used her phone to contact anyone. One of you is going to have to go and talk to her, calmly. Find out what exactly is going on in her mind. We have to make a plan to go to the motel and choose which one will go to talk to her.”
“I’ve known Stacey since we were kids. If anyone would be able to get through to her, it’s me. I should be the one to talk to her,” Morgan volunteered.
Jax shook his head. “No. I think she may talk to me. After all, we are in love. At least I hope she still loves me. Maybe if she sees how much I need her in my life, she’ll come home.”
Morgan turned to him. “We don’t want to do anything that will make her think we’re forcing her to come home. I know how to talk to her, but I’m willing to have you come with me. Maybe if she sees us both.”
“You know Jax, Morgan has a point there,” Nick said. “It may be better if you both go and talk to her.”
“That’s absolutely fine, so long as we come to a decision! The longer we sit here without a plan, the longer it will be before I see her again.”
Nick turned more directly to Jax and cocked his head. “What’s going on, Jax? I’ve seen you angry before but I can’t recall a single time I’ve ever seen you this impatient. You’re much more composed than this.”
“Well maybe now I’m not,” Jax said, a bit hastily.
Nick narrowed his eyes. “Why is that?”
“Because the woman I love is all alone when I could be there helping her feel better.”
“We’re having this discussion to be sure that seeing you will make her feel better,” Nick said calmly. “She’s safe in a motel, Jax. We know where she is, she’s not in any danger.”
“That’s not the point,” Jax snapped.
“What is the -”
“The point is you keep wasting more time with these superfluous questions instead of coming to a decision. Maybe I’m being rash. But how could I be anything else? I’ve never felt this way about anyone before, Nick.” He turned to Morgan and added, “Never.”
She looked back at him, clearly not knowing what to say.
Jax stood up, impatient that they were all sitting and talking rather than taking action. “Look, I don’t care what you two decide on doing. Just pick a plan and let’s get over to that motel. I don’t want to waste any more time!” He walked out of the room, slamming the door.
Morgan was about to run after him when Nick stopped her. “Let him cool down. I’ve worked with him for many years. When he gets riled up, he just needs some time to himself. Can’t say I really blame him. I can tell he really loves Stacey. I’ve never seen him act this way with any other girl before. Not even when he was married.”
“You’re right.” She said. “Let’s discuss the plan and then we can let Jax in on what we’re going to do.”
*****
Jax left the motel, frustrated. Nothing was going to get done if he kept arguing with Morgan over who should be the one to talk to Stacey. He didn’t know where he was going, his mind was all a fog. Before he knew it, he felt sand beneath his shoes. He’d wandered onto the beach, where the waves rolled carelessly along the shore’s edge. No doubt as fearlessly as he ought to be at the moment. Jax slowed down a bit, listening to the waves as he looked up at the earliest stars.
He remembered the last time he was here. It was a much happier time than this. Having Stacey in his arms as they took a moonlight stroll near this very beach. The night when she told him she wanted to be a couple again. How could everything that was going so good, turn into a nightmare? It hadn’t been that long ago at all, and suddenly everything had become a mess in the blink of an eye. He sighed a looked back along the shore - that’s when he saw, in the corner of his eye, someone sitting alone by the water. He squinted a little, trying to see across the darkening beach. Were his eyes playing some kind of cruel joke on him? He made his way closer. The person didn’t move, and as he got closer he realized it was Stacey!
Chapter 13
“Stacey? Stacey!”
Stacey kept staring out to the ocean, her mind somewhere else. Through the mingled maze of her thoughts, she could almost hear someone saying her name.
“Stacey!” She heard again. The voice was getting louder and she could swear it was Jax’s voice.
No Stacey. You’ve been able to move on from him the past week, don’t start going back now. It’s not him you’re hearing. She meant to prove it to herself by looking out at the vacant shore – only to see Jax walking towards her.
“Jax?” She called in surprise. He immediately broke into a run upon hearing her voice. “What are you doing here?”
“Stacey! Do you know how worried I’ve been about you?” Jax insisted.
“But how did you even know I was here?” Stacey asked, torn between shock and annoyance and… something else. Part of her loved having him next to her and the other part wanted to lay into him for everything bad that happened in her life.
“That’s not important. What’s important is that you know how much I love you and need you in my life.” He wrapped his arms around her, tears falling from his eyes. “Stacey, I am so sorry for everything. I know now who leaked those photos to the tabloids, and I got it taken care of. This is all going to be cleared up, the truth is going to get out there. Everything!”
Stacey’s mouth stammered without words as her brain tried to catch up to what was happening.
“That it was years ago,” Jax went on, “That I only was married on paper, that it was all to get her treatment. I never meant for you to run away like this. Stacey, I love you. I never stopped. I never thought I’d feel you in my arms again.”
“Stop. Stop!” Stacey pushed Jax away, crying. This felt just like the last time they’d confronted each other on the b
each and she couldn’t stand it. “Get away from me! I want you to leave and never come back into my life again!”
“Stacey, please! Listen to your feelings.”
“What do you know about my feelings?!” She yelled. “If you hadn’t lied to me in the beginning, then we never would’ve had the tabloids follow us. And my life wouldn’t be over! Do you know it reached my job? I got blamed for bringing a scandal to the office. I had to quit the one job I was good at.”
“Then let me fix this!” Jax said, doing his best to sound convincing. “Let me get the truth out there to all those people. I’ll even get you your job back, if that’s what you want. I’ll take full blame on everything because it is my fault.”
Stacey scoffed. “That’s the first time I’ve ever heard you take responsibility for your actions. But how do you even know I want my job back? After how my boss treated me, I don’t want to work for those people again. They didn’t even want to hear my side. No Jax, I’m here to start my new life. And it doesn’t include you!”
“Stacey, I know somewhere inside you, you still love me and you can’t deny those feelings. I love you more than my own life! That’s why I did all that I could to find you.”
“That’s another thing. How on earth did you even know I was here in Florida? I didn’t even tell Morgan where I was.”
Jax was silent. He didn’t know how to break the news to Stacey about hiring a private investigator to track down her whereabouts.
“Stacey,” he said carefully, “Let’s just put everything behind us.”
“I want an answer, Jax! How did you know I was in Florida? Also how did you know where I was staying? I cut off communication from everyone I know!” She stared at Jax, waiting for an answer.
Jax sighed, he had to tell the truth. Stacey wasn’t going to like what he had done. “I hired a private investigator to search for you. He’s been searching for the past week and he called me to let me know he found you. I flew out here as soon as I could to bring you back home.”
“Jax, this is going to be my home now,” Stacey said. “I came out here to get away from everything back in New York. I wanted to start a new life and so far I’m loving it!”
CEO in the Sand Page 8
