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“You left quite abruptly back then.”
“At your insistence. I didn’t want to go.”
“You had to. I didn’t want you to be locked up forever. The Shadow Syndicate… do you even know why you had to kill that guy?”
He slowly shakes his head.
I sigh. “That’s terrible.”
“It meant if I got caught and tortured, I couldn’t give anything up,” he explains.
I shudder.
“That’s when you knew you would one day break free, isn’t it?” he asks.
I slowly nod. “How did you…”
“You never wanted any credit. Always let others be propped up. You wanted to be overlooked.”
“That murder, you leaving… it was a mess.”
He sighs. “And yet, here we are, tangled up in it all over again.”
“It’s a complicated dance we’re in, Jesse.” I lean forward and scrutinize him. “You’ve always had a penchant for the dangerous, haven’t you?”
He shrugs and winks at me. “Danger keeps life interesting.”
“And now, with Detective Foster back in the picture, things are getting even more interesting.”
“The detective complicates things. He’s not someone you want sniffing around too much.”
“I owe him a favor, Jesse.”
“Police always call in on those,” he mutters.
“He’s useful in his own way,” I protest. “A corrupt cop can be a valuable ally or a dangerous enemy.”
He raises an eyebrow. “And where do we stand with him now?”
I return his wink. “He wants to dance in the shadows, and I’m orchestrating the music.” I laugh.
“What’s so funny?” he asks.
“Oh, I was just remembering how sore my toes were that one time we danced,” I tell him. “Your two left feet.”
“Oh, I can prove to you right now that I have one left foot and one right.”
“Is that so?”
He winks. “I might surprise you.”
Jesse takes me by the hand, leading me out of the alcove and over to an empty area on the casino floor. The atmosphere shifts, the subtle melody of a distant jazz tune becoming the backdrop to our impromptu dance. In the dimly lit room, where shadows play on the walls, Jesse’s confident movements contrast with the controlled chaos of our criminal world. He’s dancing all right, and this dance is sorely tempting and tantalizing just what I would expect from this grown-up version of Jesse that I love every bit as I did Jesse the teen.
“Smooth moves, Jesse. Maybe there’s hope for those feet after all,” I tease.
He grins. “Never underestimate a man with a few tricks up his sleeve.”
In Jesse’s arms, I find a temporary reprieve from the weight of my responsibilities. The line between duty and desire blurs, reminding me that even in the darkest corners, there’s room for unexpected twists and turns.
