Leo reached his arm out and turned a dial on the wall and the music lowered to a tolerable background beat. Then he settled casually back onto the bench, the glass of whiskey resting on his thigh. His eyes moved to the dancer. “There’s a camera,” Leo said under his breath. He took a sip of whiskey and glanced at the far corner of the ceiling. “They can’t hear us. But they can see us.” His gaze flicked over to Archie. “What’s going on?”

The dancer stepped back and reached for the pole. As soon as her fingers found it, she dropped into a spin, her body moving effortlessly around the pole, legs crossed at the ankles, her feet wedged into five-inch high heels. Her face was blank, her eyes focused on the middle distance. Archie hesitated.

“She’s okay,” Leo said. “She’s a friend.”

“You can’t trust people just because you’ve slept with them,” Archie said.

“I didn’t say I trusted her,” Leo said. He took a sip of whiskey and smiled. “I said she wouldn’t say anything.”

The dancer continued to twirl around the pole, her hair grazing the floor. Her black thong matched the color of her shoes.

“Carl Richmond was killed tonight,” Archie said in a low voice. “Someone shot him in the head in the bathroom at the Gold Dust Meridian. Happened about two hours ago.”

Leo nodded. He didn’t say anything, but Archie saw the corners of his mouth tighten. Carl had recruited Leo. He’d trained him, and mentored him. He had been, for years, Leo’s only lifeline to his alternate identity.

“You okay?” Archie asked.

Leo finished off the remaining whiskey in his glass in one swallow, his eyes on the camera. “They know someone’s inside,” he said. “I don’t know if they think it’s me. But they know enough to be paying attention.”

“So get out of there,” Archie said. “Come with me right now. Walk away.”

“I’ve been doing this for ten years,” Leo said. “It’s not an assignment. It’s my life.”

“They’ll kill you,” Archie said. Leo had always been in danger, but if they were actively onto him, he was in serious jeopardy. And if Leo got himself killed, Archie knew that Susan would never forgive him. “Your father will kill you if he finds out who you are,” Archie said. “You know that, right?”

“I’m close,” Leo said. There was a gravity in his eyes that Archie had never seen before. “Richmond was right. About corruption. But my father isn’t just paying people off. He has partners, Archie. People high up in law enforcement.”