"Hey, Jenny, I... crap," Genie said as her friend opened her apartment door. "You're not up yet?"
It was Sunday morning. Genie had spent a fair bit of Saturday on the train back from Willow Creek and then worked through rest of the day and into the night trying to collect her notes and prepare the outline of her exposé to present to her editor on Monday. Sometime in the night, she'd realized she was stuck and decided she needed to talk things through. After waiting until what she felt was a reasonable 9:00AM, she'd headed over to Jenny's.
"I'm up," Jenny said brightly. "See, this me... standing up."
"In your nightshirt," Genie pointed out.
"Well, I decided opening the door naked makes things too easy for the paparazzi," Jenny said with a teasing smile. Genie couldn't tell if she was joking or not and decided it was better not to ask.
"Anyway, get in here," Jenny continued. "Where have you been? I've been calling you for days, but you didn't pick up."
"Oh, sorry," Genie said. "I was on a kind of research trip, and I turned my ringer off. Interviews and stuff, you know. I guess I forgot to turn it back on."
"That's cool," Jenny smiled. "Big story?"
"Yeah, I actually wanted to talk to you about it," Genie said.
"Cool, I have something I wanted to talk to you about too," Jenny said brightly. "Come on in and..."
She was interrupted by the bathroom door swinging open, revealing a towering form.
Water glistened on rich brown, powerfully muscled arms and dripped down a sculpted chest to slide in a smooth arc down chiseled abs and disappeared into a fluffy white towel that strained across athletic hips and toned thighs.
"Oh," Orange said a little weakly. "Hi Genie."
"Umm... hi, O," Genie stammered. Wow, she thought. She'd forgotten how good he looked mostly naked.
"I... um... yeah," Orange stammered. "I'll just... go... put on clothes. Now."
"Soooo," Genie said as Jenny's bedroom door closed, blocking her view of Orange's retreating... back.
"I said 'yes'," Jenny said with a pleased smile. "A lot. Loudly."
"Right," Genie breathed. "Can we talk about that later?"
"Sure, we can do your thing first," Jenny smiled.
-------------------
"... So, that's what I've got so far," Genie concluded, having laid out the whole situation with Uncle Max, what she'd found out from Morgan and her planned exposé. "Which isn't much, now that I say it out loud."
"Sounds like a lot," Orange said. Having traded his towel for jeans and t-shirt, he seemed more comfortable sitting in Jenny's living room, politely listening while Genie set out her story.
"The problem is it's all old news," Genie said. "Morgan ran with Max's crew almost ten years ago. She doesn't know anything about what he's up to now... and is glad of it."
"I don't blame her," Orange said.
"I know, I know," Genie sighed. "Still... Jenny, what do you think? Hey, are you OK?"
"Oh God," Jenny groaned.
"Jenny, what's wrong?" Orange asked gently, concerned.
"I didn't think... I didn't realize," Jenny practically sobbed. Turning to Genie she added, "We didn't meet until years later and I... I just didn't put it together. I wasn't hiding it. I swear, I wasn't. I just wanted to put it all out of my mind... and I didn't put it together."
"Jenny, what are you talking about?" Genie asked.
"You're a really nice guy, Orange," Jenny said, turning to him. "Really nice... and I haven't dated a lot of nice guys. Genie and I joke about it sometimes. How we've both dated gangsters... like genuine gangsters. Remember."
"Johhny Pretty," Genie rolled her eyes, remembering. "Charming, hot, totally narcissistic asshole who was just using me to spy on Mariah and Miranda."
"Well, mine was Max," Jenny cried. "Max V."
"Max V'Oh my God," Genie gasped.
"We met in Sulani about four years ago," Jenny continued, "while I was filming Pirate Queen. He was so suave, charming and confident and wicked. He actually told me he was a gangster... right off, just told me. God help me, I thought it was hot.
"He was just using me too. He only started dating me as part of a plot to kidnap Miranda... and they used me to do it. Used me to lure her out to a nightclub one night. I didn't know! Honestly, I didn't. Cassie was my mentor. Miranda was my friend! I just thought we'd all get together and go dancing. Then Max and his crew grabbed us both."
"Right, that was about a year after the Mill Lane Incident," Genie said, her brain spinning as she tried to put the facts together despite her shock. "There wasn't much about it in the news at the time, and Miranda doesn't really talk about it. I didn't even realize you were involved."
"Cassie's PR people kept it all pretty quiet," Jenny said. "After... well, I was OK with keep my name out of it in the press. You know when they say 'there is no such thing as bad press' ... this kind of thing is the exception."
"I thought the Landgraab Syndicate was behind the kidnapping," Orange said. "Revenge for Bella Goth taking down Nancy and Malcolm after Mill Lane."
"That's just what Cassie's press people leaked," Jenny sighed. "They didn't want the media looking too closely at things. It was Max. He grabbed her and took me too... to... to... 'silence the witness.' He would have killed me... killed us both. We only escaped because one his crew turned on him and helped us get out."
"That's awful," Orange said softly.
"I know," Jenny said, leaping to her feet and turning away.
"I guess we jumped to the 'talking about our bad exes' phase," Orange said gently, following her. "That's probably more of a tenth date thing for you."
"I put my friend in danger," Jenny sobbed. "I'm weak and stupid and just awful and I totally understand that you never want to see me again... I just..."
"Jenny, you're not weak, or stupid, or awful," Orange said. "You got manipulated by a guy who, by the sounds of it, has been manipulating and using women professionally since he was a teen. That's on him, not you. As for wanting to see you again," he continued gently, "I'll go if you want me to go, but know that I want to stay. I really want to stay."
"Where did you come from?" Jenny whispered. "Where did they make a guy like you?"
"Del Sol Valley," Orange smiled.
"No way," Jenny said, huffing out a little laugh. "I know too many guys from Del Sol."
"Orange is right," Genie said as he drew Jenny back to the couch. "It's on Max, not you. He's the asshole here."
"He is absolutely the asshole," Orange nodded.
"You guys," Jenny gave a shuddering sigh. "OK... I'm OK."
It was a lie, Genie knew, but it was a lie Jenny needed right now. She could guess that the same thought was going through Orange's mind and knew that they would both be there for her when she needed them.
"So, now I'm going to go and work on taking my asshole of an uncle down," Genie said aloud.
"I'm in," Jenny said.
"Wait... I didn't mean..." Genie stammered.
"Of course I'm helping," Jenny said. "That bastard kidnapped me and now he's after my friend again. We're going to stop him."
"I'm in, if you'll have me," Orange said. "Just tell me what you need."
"Alright," Genie said. "Alright. We're doing this."
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