Chapter Nine

"DO NOT SAY I told you so." Brenda warned Sonny as they walked into the jail cell and it was locked behind them.

"I wouldn't dream of it." He nearly jumped out of his skin when the cell door banged shut behind them. "But I did warn you." Sonny didn't understand it, but he was suddenly filled with a feeling like he was suffocating. Like all the air had been sucked out of the room and he couldn't breathe.

"Are you okay?" Brenda suddenly asked worried by how pale he'd suddenly turned.

"I don't know." Sonny sat down on the cot and hugged his knees, rocking back and forth. "I feel strange." He looked around at the walls of the cell. "I feel like the walls are closing in on me."

"Oh, my god!" She suddenly knew what was wrong with him. She ran over to the cell door. "Sheriff, you've got to let us out of here. My husband is claustrophobic."

"Nice try, missy." The Sheriff ignored her. "Now I've heard it all."

"Listen to me, you stupid hayseed!" She screamed. "If you don't let us out of here, my husband will go crazy. He can't stand to be locked up."

"Then you should have thought about that." He spat. "Before you broke the law."

"I'm claustrophobic?" Sonny looked at her in terror.

"When you were a child." She came over to him and sat down next to him on the cot. "Your stepfather used to lock you in a closet for hours on end. Because of that you can't stand to be confined." She pulled him into her arms and held his head to her breast like he was a child she was trying to comfort. "But it'll be all right. You just hang on to me tightly and I'll get you through this."

* * * * *

JAX AND CARLY watched Jason and his men check into a local motel in Hartford for the night. "Looks like the trail has gone cold." Jax sighed. "Why don't we go and get something to eat and plan our strategy for our next move."

"Sounds like a good idea to me." Carly sighed.

It was just dumb luck that they chose the Silver Spoon Diner to stop in to get something to eat. Actually, it was Carly's taste for junk food that had her asking Jax to turn into the parking lot when she saw the place.

As they walked into the diner and took a seat at the same booth Sonny and Brenda had sat in just a few hours ago. "You and your taste for junk food." Jax complained as he picked up a menu. "Don't you ever get a fill of it?"

"You'd better watch out, Jax." She sneered at him. "You're beginning to sound like Sonny."

"Look." He spat. "Don't ever compare me to Corinthos again. If you do, this little partnership of ours that we've formed is over and you can go hitch a ride with Morgan." He added. "Corithos and I are nothing alike."

"More the pity for you." She snarled in response. "You've tried everything you could think of to make Brenda love you and forget about Sonny and it hasn't worked. It seems you could do with being a lot more like Sonny."

"Shut up!" Jax snapped. "Brenda is sick. She can't see Corinthos is no good for her and will only end up destroying her."

"He's not the one who put her in the funny farm for not loving him." She smirked. "Fess up, Jax. Do you really think Brenda is mentally ill or were you secretly punishing her for not loving you and still loving Sonny?"

"You want to find Corinthos?" He suddenly asked.

"You know I do." She told him.

"Then lay off me about Brenda." He warned her. "Or this partnership is over."

"Fine." Carly agreed bad-naturedly. "If that's the way you want it." She added. "So what's our next move. It's obvious Jason has no clue where to look next, or he wouldn't have checked in that hotel."

"I guess we start flashing this picture around." He threw a picture of Sonny and Brenda down on the table top in disgust. "And hoping someone saw them."

Carly sneered down at the photo. "I don't know why the press went so crazy over them." She complained. "The mobster and the model. What was so great about them together."

"You're asking the wrong person." Jax sniped. "It always nauseated me the way the press would go on and on about how beautiful they were together with their dark sensuous looks. The press just couldn't get enough of them. They completely overlooked the fact that Corinthos is a bloody criminal."

The waitress finally came over to their table. "What can I get for you."

"What's the special?" Jax asked.

"Nothing special." She told him. "Just the same old thing day in and day out."

"We'll have two blue plate specials." He told her.

"Hey." Carly complained. "I'd like a chance to order for myself. I'm not that pea-brain Brenda who needs you to make all her decisions for her, down to which color underpants she should wear."

"I told you to lay off, Brenda." Jax warned her again.

While they continued to bicker, the waitress noticed the photo laying on the tabletop and picked it up. "Where'd you two get a picture of them." She put the picture back down on the table. "They sure make a beautiful couple, don't they?"

"You've seen them?" Jax asked eagerly.

"Yeah." The waitress told them. "They were in here early this morning around eleven." She added. "You couldn't miss them. They were something to behold. You couldn't help but look at them they were so beautiful together with their dark hair and dark eyes, not to mention the way they were looking at each other. It's been a long time since a man has looked at me that. And the woman couldn't keep her hands off him. Not that I blame her. I don't think I've ever seen a couple more in love with each other than the two of them."

"That man you're talking about is my husband." Carly spat. "And that woman has stolen him from me."

"Honey." She retorted. "You can't steal something that doesn't want to be stole." She added. "And your husband was right where he wanted to be. With her."

"She's crazy." Carly declared. "She needs to be locked up."

"Crazy about him, maybe." The waitress countered. "Honey, have some pride. You're man don't want you no more. Let him go."

"You don't even know the situation." She snarled, looking like she was about to pop the smart-mouthed waitress in the mouth. "My husband has amnesia and she's convinced him she's his wife. She's tricked him into believing he's in love with her, but I'm the one he loves. We have a life together. We have a child together."

"Whatever you say, honey." The waitress began to wonder which woman was really the crazy one. "Just calm down."

"What Carly says is true." Jax piped in. "Brenda is mentally ill and we need to find her to get her the help she needs." Then he asked. "Did you see them leave? Did you notice in what direction they went?"

"I did." She admitted, not knowing if she should tell the truth or send them off in the wrong direction. That couple seemed so in love and that woman didn't seem crazy at all. Just crazy about that man. But what if these two were telling the truth and that woman was plum loco and that man really had amnesia and she lied to him that she was his wife. What to do? I guess it would come down to who she liked and trusted most. She knew what she had to do. "They went in that direction."