She let Jay lead her to the photographer, a man in a cheap suit with a greasy comb-over-style hairdo. They had their picture taken in front of a backdrop of draped tulle in shades of pink and red, and flanked by freestanding white-probably Styrofoam-pillars that were meant to look Greek and tragically romantic. Instead, they looked tragically shabby, as if they might crumble at any moment from years of overuse. But Violet didn’t care about any of it; she could hardly breathe whenever she glanced sideways at her arrestingly handsome date.

When they were finished they saw Chelsea and Claire. Actually, the two overly wound-up girls came running right at Violet, screaming with excitement to see her. As if they didn’t see her every single day.

“Oh…my… God, Violet! You look amazing!” Claire gushed at her, and Violet tried not to be insulted by the insinuation that it was so far-fetched for her to look good.

And then Jules walked up with her date, a senior from another high school, and Violet almost didn’t recognize the tall, leggy bombshell towering over her. Jules wore an almost sinful black dress with a bustier top that left little to the imagination and no room for a bra of any kind. Before this moment, Violet hadn’t even realized that Jules had boobs, let alone full-on cleavage.

“Wow!” Claire breathed, unable to say anything beyond that single word. And suddenly Violet wasn’t so insulted, because Jules’s transformation had actually left Claire, the girl who always had something to say, completely speechless.

The music was loud, and the bass was up way too high, making everything from floor to ceiling vibrate. They had to raise their voices just to hear one another.

“Yeah, Jules!” Chelsea said in a voice thick with envy. “Go away, you’re making the rest of us look bad.” She winked at Jules’s date wickedly. “I bet you just want to eat her up, don’t ya?”

He stared at Chelsea with bewilderment and glanced back at Jules for help.

“Just ignore her,” Jules explained over the noise from the sound system. “She doesn’t get out much.”

Chelsea tried to look hurt by Jules’s words, but she couldn’t quite pull it off. “I’m just sayin’, Jules, he’d better watch his back tonight, or I might be trying to take you away from him.” Chelsea loved to play the potentially bi-curious card, even though everyone knew she liked boys far too much to go to bat for the other team.

“Gross!” cried Claire, who wasn’t pretending at all. Claire hated it when the conversation deviated too far off her straight and narrow path. The operative word being straight.

“Don’t worry, Claire-bear,” Chelsea soothed condescendingly. “I’m not going to hook up with Jules.” She wrapped her arm around Claire’s waist and then said suggestively in her ear, “I’m much more likely to make a move on you.”

“Eww!” Claire shrieked, shoving Chelsea away. “Get away from me!”

“Leave her alone, Chels,” Jules interrupted. “Or you’re gonna make her start her ‘It’s Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve’ speech. And, sorry, Claire, but none of us really want to hear that.”

Jay pulled Violet close to him as they listened to the familiar, playful bantering. He slid his arm around her waist from behind, and let his lips gently tease her earlobe while no one was paying attention to the two of them. Violet wanted to turn around right there, in his arms, and forget this whole dance thing altogether.

“Hey!” Chelsea’s voice interrupted them, and Violet jumped a little, realizing that everyone was staring at them. “Did you hear me?”

Violet leaned forward on her crutches and away from Jay, still feeling bemused by the close and intimate contact. “What?” she asked, trying to focus on what had been said.

“I said, ‘I gotta pee.’ Let’s go to the bathroom,” Chelsea repeated as if Violet were some sort of imbecile, incapable of understanding normal human speech.

“Keep it up, Chels, and none of us is gonna want to hook up with you tonight,” Violet promised jokingly.

Chelsea grinned at Violet. “I like the way you think, Violet Ambrose. Maybe you’ll be the lucky girl I choose.” And then she turned to Jay. “Don’t worry, I’ve got her from here,” Chelsea announced. Jules and Claire followed.

Violet laughed and glanced back at him. “I’ll only be a few.”

Jay gave her a skeptical look that no one else would have even noticed, as he assessed the three girls who would be escorting Violet. And then he finally nodded. “Okay, I’m gonna show these guys my car.” He was beaming again. “I’ll be right outside, but I won’t be long.”

Violet did her best to keep up with the trio ahead of her, but it was hard on one high heel and two crutches. Finally she yelled at them exasperatedly, “If you guys don’t wait, I’m not going!”

They all three stopped and turned around.

Chelsea tapped her lovely silver shoe impatiently. “Hurry up, Violet, or I swear I’ll take you off my list.”

IN PLAIN SIGHT

SHE WAS EASY TO SPOT, THE GIRL, CHIEF AMBROSE’S niece. She was the only girl at the dance on crutches.

She was pretty. Beautiful even, he thought longingly as he studied her. She had the air of a girl who had no idea how seductively appealing she was to the men of this world. He liked that…her innocence.

He’d been watching her since she’d arrived, keeping his distance in case she somehow managed to recognize him from that day in the woods, when he’d chased her. He still couldn’t figure out how she’d known he was there. He’d been so careful, creeping stealthily behind her, and then somehow, some way, she’d known, and she’d run. But even then, he almost had her.

At least until her boyfriend showed up.

He knew, of course, that she hadn’t seen his face out there. He knew that there was no way she could identify him. If she could have, she would have done it already. But there was no point in taking chances…not when he was so close.

It had been hard to wait, frustrating. He’d been forced to bide his time until those watching her slipped, letting down their guard just enough to give him a chance to move in quietly.

And here he was. At last.

The dance was turning out to be more fun than he’d anticipated. He felt like a kid in a candy store, as lovely young ladies floated past him in colorful shades of chiffon and taffeta. They looked like mouth-watering little confections. Only, he couldn’t have any of them.

He could only have one of them. He just needed to be patient…to wait until he could get her alone.

None of them even seemed to notice him there, at their dance, barely affording him a first glance, let alone a second. He blended into the background, an everyday fixture that hardly deserved notice.

It was the perfect disguise. All dressed up as himself.

He kept a close eye on her, on Violet, on his Violet, trying not to have his attention sidetracked by the other blossoming girls all dressed up in women’s bodies. He could smell their youthful essence, and it was distracting.

He observed his girl interacting with her friends, playful and carefree. He watched her boyfriend pulling her close, kissing her on the neck.

And then he saw her leaving. Not all alone, but not with her hovering date either.

He felt a blistering flash of energy course through him, and he lifted himself away from the wall.

He followed in their general direction but was careful to keep a good length of space between them.

Mentally he prepared for what he was about to do.