120 Blind Dates... And Other Short Stories

Partners in Crime (Dallas/Dynasty Crossover)

June 1, 1992.

Alexis Morell Carrington Colby Dexter Rowan knew how to make a grand entrance. It was close to 100 degrees when her private plane landed in Dallas, but she wore a fur coat nonetheless as her steward helped her out of the plane, which the gentleman probably felt he had to do, considering that his boss wore 4-inch high heels.

A curious J.R. Ewing was waiting for her, the English businesswoman from Denver he had heard so much about over the years, at a small private airport outside town. When he saw her, he had to admit that she was devastatingly beautiful, and he would have made an immediate pass at her if he hadn't suspected that he wasn't exactly a man in the age group she usually dated. Everyone in the oil business knew that Alexis Colby had a thing for toyboys.

"You must be the famous Mr Ewing," she said with a peculiar, upper-class accent that could cut glass when she came to a stop in front of him. She was far tinier than he had thought she would be. In fact, she reminded him of a pretty doll. 

"Please, you can call me J.R."

"Mr Ewing," Alexis insisted as she was fully aware of the man's bad reputation as a philanderer who had cheated on his two wives with countless women. "How thoughtful of you to come out all the way to greet me!"

"Honey, we're about to discuss a multi-million dollar pipeline deal between Ewing Oil and Colbyco. So I'd be a fool if I didn't see to it that you're as comfortable here in Dallas as you can be," J.R. said and led her to his Mercedes. Of course, he had noticed that she was already snubbing him by insisting on calling him "Mr Ewing," but he had already decided to let it go. She was too old for him, too, and he needed her to put the pipeline deal together. 

"I figure it's your chauffeur's day off," Alexis remarked when J.R. got into the driver's seat himself.

"Not really. We Ewings from Dallas like to drive our cars ourselves."

"Obviously," Alexis replied and J.R. didn't like the slightly bitchy tone of her voice at all. "So, you said on the phone that you wanted to sabotage Denver-Carrington's pipeline deal, the one my ex-husband needs to get on his feet again after his time in prison, in order to get it yourself. And you want to let me into the deal."

"That's what you and I will do in a nutshell. I suppose you are connected to a lot of very fine workers who can build that pipeline through your other ex-husband Dex Dexter?" J.R. asked and was glad when Alexis nodded. "And I heard there are still a lot of hard feelings between you, your ex-husband and his new wife?" J.R. was actually counting on that.

Alexis nodded. "That man threw me out of his house and separated me from two of my children for years! So if you have a plan to sabotage his business, I'm all ears."

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned! Just thinking of this popular saying made J.R. grin like the devil, whom he had even met once in person when he had been blind drunk. Blake Carrington had made one grave mistake when he had crossed this modern Medea. "Let's just say that I have friends here in the Texas government who could object the plan to built the pipeline. As you know, those environmentalists are a real pain. Imagine what would happen if we'd spread the rumour that some kind of a rare insect lived in the area and that the Denver Carrington pipeline was threatening its natural habitat."

"Some kind of an insect?" Alexis asked with a raised eyebrow.

"We can also make that a bird, but it's more difficult to place birds in the right places in the area because birds can fly away. I heard your ex-husband's current wife has just founded a charity, 'Save Nature,' or something like that."

"Krystle likes to play the saint," Alexis stated condescendingly. 

"Let's just say we spread the word that Blake Carrington's pipeline is a threat to the environment... I guess that might cause a few marital tensions as well?" 

Breaking up her ex-husband's new marriage had been something Alexis had worked on for the past ten years, but she had never gotten very far despite the fact that she had once even proven that Krystle and her first husband, a former tennis pro, had never been properly divorced. "Probably not enough to break them up, but yes, that might cause a bit of trouble and divert Blake from the pipeline project long enough for us to take it over."

"Let's go ahead and do it then," J.R. said and laughed like a giddy child, which was something he was prone to do when he had come up with a devious plan. "Since nobody would suspect that you and I even knew each other."

"Well, it seems as if you've worked out a perfect plan, Mr Ewing," Alexis agreed even though she privately thought that the scheme J.R. was suggesting was so obvious that everyone, even Blake, would see through it.

On the other hand, she might be wrong about that.