Chapter 20

"I still can't believe you didn't fix that ticket for me," MJ groaned as he watched Jensyn, who was across the room, scribble some words on the inside of a manila file folder.

Jensyn turned from the file and gave MJ an icy stare. "You paid that ticket 3 days ago, get over it already. I don't owe you anything, besides, I fix tickets for my friends."

Clutching his hands together, he covered his heart in a mock display of hurt. "You wound me. We've come so far since our initial meeting," he said with a playful smile.

She emitted a deep breath out of frustration and irritation at the flutter of her heart from that dazzling smile of his she seemed to have no resistance to. "Look, I didn't ask you over here to listen to you complain about a speeding ticket."

"No," he said, walking the few feet that separated them and stopping in front of her, staring deeply into her chestnut colored orbs. "Why did you ask me to meet you?"

Jensyn closes her eyes for a moment in silent prayer that he couldn't hear how loud her heart was pounding. Handsome men were a dime a dozen, but the effect this guy had on her. She took a few steps back to use the table she had been writing on as a barrier between them. "I have a question for you?" she said, finally finding her voice.

"I'm an open book," he answered, taking notice of her retreat behind the table and feeling quite pleased with himself.

Slipping into her poised, heavily trained agent mode, "That's great," she said. "Then you can tell me just what the hell you were you doing at Sal Mancusi's office today?"

His smug expression disappeared. "So what, do you have a tail on me? If that's the case, why are we meeting at this safe house and not your apartment?"

"About two weeks ago, you come up to me and explained that you have become aware of a major investigation I'm involved in. A case my own parents know absolutely nothing about, one that's also highly dangerous, and you expect me to just let you come and go without knowing about it? You're not a stupid man Harmon, although some of the things you do make me wonder. Now tell me about the visit with Mancusi."

"The man is my grandfather. Are you telling me I have to have your permission to see him?" MJ snidely remarked.

"Don't give me that," she snapped, beginning to lose her patience with him. "You have had absolutely no contact with the man. Your own father hasn't seen, heard from or spoke to him in over twenty-five years, and now all of a sudden you get this urge to visit him? After you've snooped into the case I'm working on involving the mob."

"Unless you've forgotten I was interested in Sal before I knew anything about your case. Besides, for all I know, he's not even a part of your case. Is there something I don't know?"

"There's a lot you don't know, and you're not going to know either. Look, I'm asking the questions here. What were you doing in Philadelphia at Mancusi's office?"

"You're the one with all the contacts and the field men, you tell me."

"Dammit!" Jensyn swore as she slammed her hand against the table. "You think this is a joke? That is a dangerous man. Your 'visiting' him is going to get you killed and jeopardize my case."

"So Sal 'is' involved?" He had figured as much, but it was good to have that idea confirmed.

"I didn't say that," she readily informed him.

"You didn't have to," he returned, a grin forming on his lips. "Look, Jensyn, you don't have to worry. I already told you, I'm not going to blow your cover. I haven't told a soul about this, and I won't. I have confidence in you. You're smart as a whip and you're a professional." Not to mention extremely beautiful, talk about a total package, he thought. "I'm going to let you do your thing. All I want is first dibs when the case is broken. That's all. You putting a tail on me is going to draw suspicion. I thought we were going to keep my knowledge of this case between us."

"You don't think I have? Because I know where you went, doesn't mean I have a tail on you. I don't want to be removed from this case. Telling my superiors some over eager news reporter has blown my cover would not look good for me. I've put too much time into this case, so no, I haven't told anyone about this and I don't have a tail on you."

"So how did you know I was at Sal's office today?" he asked.

Not missing a beat, "You just told me," she answered. "I'm going to tell you this one more time, you need to back off. If you want the glory of being the first reporter to 'break the case' fine, I won't steal your thunder, but you have got to let me do my job. Without your interference."

"Didn't you just hear me? I'm not going to interfere with you doing your job. My business with Sal is not about your case, at least, it wasn't in the beginning."

"Don't make me regret that statement I made about you not being stupid. If you want to keep that face you're so proud of, you'll stay away from Mancusi," she warned.

"No can do. He actually met with me, and I'm still alive to talk about it. That's huge in itself, especially considering the fact that my father would kill me if he knew anything about it. See, we both have things we don't want our parents learning about. My dealings with Sal are personal, but if things go well, I may be able to find something that will help you in your case."

"I don't need anymore help. I have a partner and an international agency backing me up."

"Think of it like this, anything I find that's helpful will just be gravy."

"You will be gravy if you don't stay away from that man," she assured him. "What is wrong with you? Why are you looking for trouble?"

"You know, you sound like my father. I'm not looking for trouble, just answers. I want to know about the other half of my family. I don't think anything is wrong with that."

"That half of your family is a bunch of criminals. What else do you need to know?"

"Whatever there is to. There's good in that family, somewhere. I mean look at my father. That tells me something. Sal could have killed me today, if he wanted to, he didn't. As a matter of fact, once the shock of seeing the biracial son of the son he despises was over, he was almost pleasant. I didn't hear the "N" word once," he chuckled, then shrugged it off when she didn't share in his amusement. "Who knows, maybe time and old age have mellowed him out."

"Men like Sal Mancusi don't mellow out," she strongly expressed to him. "The fact he didn't hurl a racial slur to your face means nothing."

"Well, I guess I'll find out for sure."

"And just how do you plan to do that?" she inquired, her expression warning him once again to stay away from Sal.

MJ shrugged without answering.

Raking her fingers through her hair, Jensyn starts muttering Australian slang as her irritation with young Mr. Harmon met its breaking point.

This habit of hers that once drove MJ crazy had now become engaging to him. He couldn't help smiling. "Do you have any idea how gorgeous you are when you get like that?"

"What are you talking about?" she frowned.

"You," he said, coming to within a few inches of her, his eyes lingering on her full pouty lips. "I know how important this case is to you, and your concern for me is quite touching, but you need to have something else on your mind for a while."

Her palms were feeling extremely sweaty all of a sudden, but her throat was very dry. His cologne filled her nostrils and his eyes held her captive, she couldn't move…not that she wanted to. "Like what?" Jensyn managed to say.

Closing the small distance that separated them, MJ reached out to stroke her cheek. "Like this," he murmured before closing his lips over hers.

Her lips were as soft and sweet as he thought they would be, even more so. For a split second he thought he felt hesitation from her, but when she wrapped her arms around him and brought her body even closer to his, that notion went away. His warm hands held her face to his as the kiss increased in its intensity. The feel of her tongue raking against his as her curvaceous body remained firmly pressed to his muscular frame caused MJ to offer up a guttural moan of pleasure as he felt himself becoming aroused.

Jensyn wasn't sure if the moan was his or hers, but that sound was enough to bring her back to reality as she pushed herself away from him. Staring at him for several seconds as she attempted to catch her breath, then did the first thing that came to her mind…she slapped him.

MJ grinned as he rubbed his burning cheek. "Talk about a delayed reaction," he smirked. "I think that kiss should keep your mind occupied for a while. My job here is done, now I have to get to my other job. You can catch me on the eleven o'clock news. Have a good night." Wearing his confidence like the second skin that it was to him, he gave her a wink and left the room.

Once outside, MJ leaned his back against the door as the feel of Jensyn's kiss on his lips and her slap on his cheek lingered with him. He had kissed his share of women, but no kiss had ever been like that, and no one had ever slapped him afterward. Jensyn Scorpio had been haunting his dreams and after that kiss they shared, he knew she would be haunting his waking moments as well.

As MJ rehashed the scene outside, inside, Jensyn was admonishing herself for falling into the arms of what she perceived to be the world's biggest most egotistical scoundrel and then slapping 'him' after doing so, when in fact, who she really wanted to slap was herself. How could she let that kiss happen? She knew how…she wanted it to, and damn him for being such a great kisser and saying the words she knew were true. MJ Harmon and that kiss they shared would be on her mind for quite a while, as if he didn't occupy her thoughts enough as it was.

~~*~~

"So Sal, what's the deal with the kid that was here before?" Ernesto, Sal's trusted right hand asked. "It might sound funny, but he seemed kinda familiar."

Rolling an unlit cigar between his thumb and forefinger, "He looks a lot like his father, 'mixed' with some unfortunate traits of his mother. Remember I mentioned getting in touch with some people from my past?" Sal replied.

"Yeah, about a couple weeks back," Ernesto answered.

"The people I was thinking of getting reacquainted with was Eric and his woman. The kid that was here today is theirs."

"What, that was Eric's kid?"

"Oh yeah, you said he looked familiar didn't you. I gotta say he's got balls to come here to Philly to see me," laughing derisively, "it must be the untainted Mancusi blood in him. I swear I could have put a bullet right between his eyes when he first walked in, all I saw was that gutless father of his who took my Bobby away." Bobby. After he found a moment to calm down, Sal saw a flash of something more in MJ than just Eric's mongrel son, he saw Bobby.

"Why didn't you? The boys could have disposed of him, it would have been like he disappeared off the face of the earth."

"I thought of that, but it's too easy." Sal sat back in his rose-colored Italian leather executive chair and placed his feet upon his desk. "I want Eric to suffer; both him and that mulignan bitch of his. I would have never expected to see that kid, especially not here, but his showing up couldn't have happened at a better time."

Vengeance was burning strong in Sal's eyes, and as smart and shrewd as he was, now was not a good time for him to be single-minded with revenge for Bobby's death, and Ernesto knew that. "You sure about this, with everything about to go down?"

"That makes it even better. Everything is still happening as scheduled, but in the end the payback is going to be even sweeter." Sal lit the cigar and after taking a drag from it, exhaled the thick billowy smoke. "I have plans for that boy…big plans."
~~*~~

It was just past eleven o'clock, and Ally was having an extremely hard time falling asleep. Tomorrow was her graduation, and it was also her wedding day. She had said goodnight to Jack hours before. Considering tomorrow was graduation the whole 'bride and groom not seeing each other before the wedding' tradition was going to be a bust. They decided they wouldn't see each other from 6 o'clock that evening until right after the graduation ceremony was over the next morning, at which time they would drive over to the Justice of the Peace that would marry them. The blood tests they needed were done at Mercy Hospital and the marriage license was applied for the previous Friday afternoon. The only thing left for them was to say 'I do' and make it official. Kelsey was constantly asking her if she was sure about this, and Ally's answer was always the same, yes. Marrying Jack was something she had no doubts about, telling her parents about it, however, was. After tossing and turning a few minutes more, Ally got out of her bed and knocked on her parents' door.

"Come in," Ellen invited her, after the knocks ended.

"Hi," Ally said, sticking her head in the door. "I'm not interrupting anything am I?"

"No," Matt answered, removing his arm from around Ellen's shoulder and lowering the TV volume with the remote. "We're watching MJ do the news. He's usually not on this late, but he is tonight. What's going on with you? Did you and Jack have a fight or something?" Matt couldn't help being a little hopeful about that last question, especially since he left the house so early.

Why did he have to ask a question like that? "No Daddy, Jack and I did not have a fight. I was having a little trouble sleeping," she confessed as she entered the room.

"Oh," Matt grumbled disappointedly, before turning the volume back up.

"Tomorrow is a very big day," Ellen said, motioning for her to take a seat on the bed. "You're graduating high school and giving the valedictory speech. I guess you're feeling a bit nervous huh?"

Ally sat at the edge of the bed, when what she really wanted to do was crawl underneath the covers and lie between her parents like she did when she was little. Nothing beat the feeling she felt when she was safely tucked between them. "Well, I can't say that I'm feeling nervous about the speech or even graduating, it's more of what tomorrow means. Everything is going to change."

"But a wonderful change. It's going to be the beginning of a new life for you."

More than you know. "Yeah it is. I guess that's what's scary."

"I think you're worried about nothing," Matt told her. "You're a very bright young woman. The world is going to seem even bigger to you now, but you've been a success at everything you've done. Things will no doubt be more challenging for you, but I know you'll handle it. And when the challenges of life get a little overwhelming, remember, you'll always have your mom and me to turn to."

"Thanks Daddy, I think that's what I needed to hear," she said wrapping her arms around him, before turning to Ellen and giving her a hug. "I love both of you very much."

"We love you, too," they replied.

"Are you okay, Allison?" Ellen asked, noting her daughter's extremely pensive emotional state. "There seems to be something else on your mind."

Ally's thoughts immediately went back to her father's assumption for her inability to sleep. He had come a long way in accepting her relationship with Jack, but clearly not far enough. She couldn't tell them, not now.

"There's nothing else, Mom, everything's okay. I guess I'm feeling a little nostalgic, that's all." Rising from the bed, she walked over to the door. "Thanks for everything. Goodnight."

"Goodnight," Matt and Ellen returned.

"Are all girls like that the night before they graduate high school?" Matt asked Ellen, once Ally had left the room.

"Somewhat, but not quite like that," Ellen answered, trying to make sense of Ally's unusual demeanor. "I guess it's like she said. She's feeling nostalgic, a bit sentimental. She's graduating high school tomorrow and in a few months she'll be leaving home to a start a new life away from us. Things are changing, it's a bit daunting for her." That has to be it, Ellen thought.

"I guess you're right," Matt remarked, but it still seemed like something more.

They were still mulling over Ally's behavior when MJ announcing a breaking news story grabbed their attention.

MJ begins. "WLPC is reporting that convicted crime bosses Sonny Corinthos, Joseph Sorel, and Anthony Moreno, as well as Corinthos lieutenant, Jason Morgan, have all been released from Wendale Prison after their convictions were overturned. The gentlemen had all served over 20 years of what were multiple consecutive life sentences for various crimes including racketeering and conspiracy to murder. To repeat our late breaking news, mob kings Sonny Corinthos and his lieutenant Jason Morgan, Joseph Sorel, and Anthony Moreno have been released from prison after their convictions were overturned. Stay tuned to WLPC for more details as they become available."

"Did he just say what I think he said?" Matt remarked to Ellen, his eyes still glued to the television.

"If you mean that a gang of mobsters were just set free, yes, he did say that," Ellen softly returned as she too stared at the set in total disbelief.

At the Scorpio home…

"How…how could this happen?" Dara wondered, still in total shock from the news report. "Our case was airtight. It's been over 20 years." Her shock making way to anger. "How could they just be set free without our knowing?!"

"I don't know, but I'm sure as hell going to find out," Mac said grabbing the telephone and pounding in the seven digits to Taggert's private line.

"It's happening isn't it? Tanganeva's warning?"

Mac cupped her face with his right hand. "Don't you worry sweetheart. I'm not going to let them hurt our family. I'll kill that scum myself before I let that happen," he solemnly vowed.