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Her whole face tenses, and I hear her gulp. “Oh myGod.It’syou,” she whispers back.“Are you okay?”

Planting a sensual kiss on her cheek for appearances turns on my regular. He’s definitely digging out more green rain for me. “Meet me after my dance. Act casualplease,” I beg her.

Jacky nods and leans back to,“Woos!”from Gil and the others.

“I never imagined you and… her together, but now I can see it,” Gil jokes, then grows a little solemn. “I miss her.”

“Duh, that’s why we’re here,” Charlie says.

My heart falls into my belly as I hear the words. It’s nice to be remembered. There were times I thought of myself as nothing but a surface level pastime. But apparently, I meant something more to them. That’s nice.

As the third song ends and the announcer tells everyone to ‘give it up for Misty and Pink,’ I gather the cash on the stage. The feeling of eyes on me makes the hair stand on the back ofmy neck. I was hoping they would act casual, but I can’t blame them, really. If I found Jacky secretly stripping at Star Dust, I’d be shell-shocked too.

On my way down beside Pink, we talk about her potential private dance targets while splitting the tip. I tell her to go for it. She’s kind of new, but she’s making a killing with that fuchsia lipstick and bleached blonde hair. And she’s nice. But that’s neither here nor there. I need to get my friendsthe hell outta here, stat.

They scurry to the corner to meet me.

“Not suspicious at all, guys.” I flick my hair and look around to make sure no one’s watching.

“I knew it was you!” Gil says a little too loud. “God you’re gorgeous. Who would’ve thought you had this in you.”

His eyes scanning me up and down make me blush a bit. It’s easy when I’m playing make-believe as Misty. But it’s as if he uncovered that fake mask and is now oglingCapri, the lawyer.

I snap my fingers. “Eyes up here. Just pretend I’m in a bathing suit, drowning with scuba gear on. You were respectful then.”

Now he’s blushing.

“That’s our girl, alright,” Charlie says.

Jacky can’t help herself. She throws her arms around me and rests her head on my shoulder. “I missed you so much. We’ve all been worried sick since that big,hotlooking bastard came to whisk you away.”

“We toyed with calling the cops,” Charlie admits. “But the partners explained to us that you sent in a letter of leave.”

“It’s better you didn’t.” I smile sadly at him. “Miss you guys.”

They come in for a hug.

“Missed you too,”Charlie and Gil say.

“It’s not safe that we’re all here together, though. I’m undercover, and in a lot of danger. So after these few minutes, I hope you guys will forget you saw me twisting myself into a pretzel up there.”

“Impossible.” Gil looks to the floor, likely recalling that very image.

I scoff. “Have any other shady characters shown up since that horrible Sunday?”

“The building has been on high alert since,” Gil says. “One of those spindly guys on the Far-seek account said there was an unauthorized thug in the building – which Jerry denied for some reason—”

Oh, I know why. Cause Trino threatened that poor guy’s family.

“—But it was enough to put our building on high alert. No one’s come since.”

“Tell her about the weird cars at night,” Charlie says.

“Oh yeah! Shady characters in full blown tints and no plates. Decked out SUVs. We wondered if they were part of security, but didn’t pry too much on account of more potential thugs. So we reported them and moved on. It’s been pretty quiet since.”

I shiver at the idea of rival mobstersstilltrying to scope me out. Really hope Trino finds NickyFritssoon and sorts this misunderstanding.

“Sweetie, if you’re here in this shady place, you must be in real danger.” Jacky holds my arms. “Please let us help you.”