Page 87 of Reputation
Frustrated anew, he looked around him.He needed help.Again, he told himself it wasn’t cheating.Googling it would be cheating.He was just using the resources available to him.
Spotting who he thought was Molly leaning against the wall down the hallway, Jax immediately headed in her direction.He reached her as she laughed at something the person she was chatting with said.Jax didn’t recognize the guy, but smiled as he approached.
“Sorry to interrupt,” he said, looking first at Molly and then at the guy she was with.“Would you mind if I stole her for a second?”
The guy shook his head as he looked at Molly.She was watching Jax, one eyebrow raised curiously.She flashed the guy a smile and said, “Stay here, I’ll be right back,” before she stood up and grabbed Jax’s arm.She steered him a few steps away before turning to face him.“What can I help you with, Jax Morghan?”
Selecting the single message so everything else blurred in the background, he turned his phone toward her.“Do you know what this is from?”he asked her.
Her caramel eyes dropped to his phone, moving across the screen as she read the quote.Her bright eyes set in her powered face gave her vampire costume a mystical edge.
Molly drew in a full breath, mouth twisting in…disapproval?Shaking her head, she looked back up at him with narrowed eyes.She was silent for a moment, debating something.“Have you ever seen theBlack Swan?”she asked finally.His only answer was a shake of his head.“It’s a movie,” she said, glancing back at the screen.A smirk lifted her lips before she smushed them together to hide it.“Clever,” she added finally.Giving him a look with raised eyebrows, she patted his shoulder as she made to step around him.
“Wait,” he said desperately, eyes pleading with her.“What’s it about?”
Molly rolled her eyes at him.He knew she had seen Eavie already, her comment putting two and two together.He had a feeling she was weighing whether she should help him.
He must have looked pitiful and desperate because she sighed and said, “It’s a movie about a ballerina playing the role of a black swan,” she said.
“Thank you.”
“Mhmm.I hope you understand what’s at stake here,” she murmured as she walked by him and back to the guy waiting patiently for her to return, leaving him to digest her comment.
Swallowing, Jax decided he would think about it later.
A ballerina playing a black swan.Small snippets of conversation with her flew through his mind.He knew she liked the theater and her friend, Joyce, was a ballerina.It left a few options, but at least he had some idea of what he was looking for.
Jax had been to the Savard mansion a few times.The couple loved throwing a good party, and he’d spent enough time there to learn the layout.
Instead of heading back downstairs, he wound down the second-floor landing, which connected to another hallway.At the end, it opened into a room where more people stood around or played games of pool or darts.
Moving past the people, he stepped up to the railing similar to the one at the front, which ran the length of the room and provided an open view of the living room turned dance floor.The vantage point gave Jax a clear view of all the people below.
He waited, patience holding on by a thread.He knew she could be in another room, but he figured she would gravitate in this direction at some point, even if it were just on her way to the bar.
Sipping from his whiskey, he searched the crowd below for someone dressed as a swan or a ballerina.Wings caught his attention a few times, but they were either the wrong style to be swan wings or white in color.He supposed she wasn’t necessarily dressed as a black swan, but when he watched the white-winged woman, he quickly noted her figure was wrong.
Cracking his neck, he leaned his forearms on the railing and waited.About five minutes later, a flash of something shiny caught in the strobe light, drawing his eye.In the middle of the dance floor, a woman stood, arms in the air, moving to the beat of the music.It was dark, and the lights kept flashing, but he thought the hair pulled back on her head was blonde.
Standing quickly, his eyes focused, taking in her figure, the way she moved.A ball of excitement formed low in his belly, beating in time with his increasing heart rate.Jax watched her, taking in the details of her outfit.
From her shoulders sprouted black wings that looked like raven’s feathers.Her outfit was a mix of lace and black shining satin, the top tight, hugging every curve while the bottom fell back from her hips.
Even from a distance, he knew those curves.He’d committed them to memory over the last twenty-four hours as he’d explored every dip and valley of her body.
A slow smile spread across his lips as he noted Eavie’s position.Tossing back the rest of his drink, he whirled, his cape billowing out behind him as he went off in search of his prey.
She had been stalking him the whole time he had searched for her.He thought he was the hunter when he was actually the prey.
Joyce:
Has he found you yet?!?!
She had been texting her for regular updates since she’d left for the party.As Eavie had gotten ready, she’d filled Joyce in on thedevelopmentswith Jax.Joyce had eaten up the story with enthusiasm, bouncing up and down on Eavie’s bed.
Eavie:
Not yet
