After Liam had left him, Jax began to wander around and mingle. There were a few other business owners and even a couple of members of the ministry, but no one Jax would have voluntarily spent time with before this—but then, he supposed that was a good thing. No one that he associated with would want to be here. And then that was when he ran into her.
Although he didn't know this woman, he knew he had seen her somewhere before—he just couldn't place where. Brown hair and brown eyes offset her tan skin, and she was tall—not extremely so but taller than most women. Her robes were purple, set off by purple heels. Who wore purple shoes?
Jax approached her. "Excuse me, Miss, but do I know you?"
The woman turned to focus on Jax. "No," she said with a smile, "we haven't officially met, but we ran into each other on an expedition down in South America once. We just weren't introduced."
"That's right," said Jax, remembering. "You were on the Olmec excavation...while I was looking into the Mayans."
The woman grinned. "That's right. "I'm Valentina." She offered her hand to shake.
"It's nice to meet you." Jax shook her hand. "So, what did you think of the presentation?" That was a normal question to ask in this situation, wasn't it?
"Honestly, I didn't care for it," Valentina admitted. "I have to admit, I was intrigued by the owl I received from them, but what they did to that house-elf was deplorable."
Jax let out a breath he didn't realize he had been holding. "I felt the same way," he admitted. "But don't tell Liam that." It probably wasn't smart to confide in her—it could easily blow his cover—but he couldn't help it. He couldn't stand what Liam was doing, and he hated having to pretend he supported that git.
"Oh, you don't have to worry about that," said Valentina. "My lips are sealed." She brushed her fingers over her lips as if she was zipping them. "I trust that you'll keep my opinions to yourself as well?"
"Of course," said Jax, though now, he was attempting, non-verbally, to cast legilimency on her—something was off, but her thoughts were consistent with what she was saying. That meant she was either telling the truth, or she was an occlumens—and she didn't have to be a particularly skilled one either in order to block him from reading her true thoughts. While Thea was a skilled legilimens, due in part because of her natural ability to read thoughts, Jax possessed only a small amount of skill that he had gained through helping Thea practise.
"Valentina."
Jax turned to see Liam standing behind him. "You are a vision tonight. I didn't know that you and Jax knew each other."
"That's because we only knew each other distantly," said Jax. "We were on similar expeditions in South America."
"That's right-I forgot you were a treasure hunter," said Liam, his gaze on Valentina. "Orrin did tell me, but with everything else going on, it slipped my mind. How are you finding the expo so far?"
"It's very intriguing," said Valentina. "Can you really do as you claim?" she asked. "Can you really bring someone back from the dead?"
"All in good time," said Liam with a cheeky grin. "All in good time. Now then, I've got to mingle. Let me know if you need anything. Any friend of Orrin's is a friend of mine." And he headed away from them.
"Who's Orrin?" Jax asked her as soon as Liam was out of earshot.
"A friend of a friend," said Valentina airily. "He's a major benefactor for the experiments the Unspeakables are doing-that's really all I know. My friend, Orrin's friend, he's the one who asked me to be here. He wants to know what Orrin is up to."
"Is that so?" Jax asked. Things were finally starting to get interesting.