Scandal:The Complete Series(10)

I have to clear my throat a little when he lets go of my delicate, electric bones which shimmered under his embrace.

“You came,” he says as if surprised that I kept my promise. In what world has this man ever been stood up by a girl?

“Wasn’t that the whole point?”

“To be honest, I have no idea if there is a point, Ella.”

“How can you say that? We’re about to see naked women,” I say. “Surely the meaning of life can’t be far behind.”

“Funny,” he says, a bit unsure of my sarcastic sense of humor.

Teasing a world-famous sex symbol outside a strip club isn’t exactly my forte, but it’s growing on me. We walk to the door where a beefy bouncer steps aside and holds the door.

Jaxson bangs fists with him. “What’s up, Clyde?”

“Drinks are on the house tonight, Jax.” Clyde says with a sorrowful look. “I’ll let the bartenders know.”

“Thanks, bro,” Jax says with more sincerity than he’s shown all day.

We walk into the dimly lit club slowly as I take in a deep breath, absorbing what I witness for the first time in my life with curiosity and a certain degree of trepidation. Okay, a little excitement, too.

Swing music pulses through the walls and furniture making my hips sway a little to the jazzy beat. The pungent air is rich with cheap booze and the scented candles on the round tables.

There are only two male customers sitting at the bar with drinks in front of them, both past forty and dressed in expensive suits. The empty main stage is on my left with the lights above stuck on a dim green.

As I sit on a stool covered with red velvet, I realize one of the customers’ eyes are on me. I instinctively scoot a bit to the right, getting closer to Jaxson.

“What’s your poison?” Jaxson asks as he sits on the stool next to me.

“Poison?” I say dumbly. “You mean drink? It’s not even six.”

“Well, it’s past six somewhere.”

“Clever, but I’m still on duty.” I don’t even want to stop and think about how lame I must seem every time I open my mouth.

His eyes focus on me with their usual intensity. I let myself linger on his blue-green irises and their almost feline expressiveness.

“How’s your work?” he says finally. “Are you getting somewhere?”

I can’t help but wonder if he’s worried about his place in the story. Lover, betrayer, slayer. I shrug in lieu of an answer. “I don’t know if I will ever get anywhere conclusive. Some mysteries are never solved.”

“You will,” he says. “Madison told me you are brilliant. She was very proud of you.”

Lightning splits my heart until my breathing increases. Pangs of guilt and melancholy overcome me. There were times Maddy reached out and I assumed it was just her guilt at having a great life. I never took her up on her occasional invitations in those first years. I didn’t think she truly wanted me to go hang out with her in Ibiza or Paris or any of those wondrous places.

My guilt hardens into a question. “Why are we here, Jaxson?”

His eyes turn cold. He retreats within himself. My heart gets cold, too. I like Jaxson Cole better when he acts all cheerful and superficial. His sudden somberness alarms me.

“You have to promise you’re not going to share any of this with Esposito.”

“Promise,” I say, studying his new fidgety demeanor. I said the word, but I am not sure yet I mean it. All I know is I need to hear what he has to say.

“No bullshit,” he says. “This is off the record. One hundred million miles off the record.”

I put my hand softly on his big hand. “On my mother’s life,” I say. I mean it a little more this time.

Jaxson stares at me and then waves at the bartender, a dark haired, heavily tanned man in his thirties. “Marco, a gin and tonic,” Jaxson says. “And a fruit punch with ice.”

I’m not sure I’ve ever been more impatient or suspicious.

“You seem quite at home here,” I say as if talking to myself. “And that fruit punch had better be for you.”

Marco returns with the drinks before Jaxson gives me an answer. His cheerful mood has returned for the moment. “You’re working,” he says and slides the fruit punch to me.

“I don’t need anyone ordering my drink for me,” I say but the truth is I loved every second of it. Every move he makes is sudden and decisive. A girl can get used to that in a man.

He takes my fruit punch and drinks it down in one gulp. “Fine, you’re on your own. Just the way you like it.”

“You’re a curious fellow,” I say.

“Not as much as you think,” he says. “This place was one of the places Madison dragged me to whenever she wanted to play in the darkness and shadows. She felt safer with me around.”