‘If I could have done. God, Rose. And I didn’t set James up, I swear. I just arranged the meeting with Kattan’s importer, as James and Kattan requested. That’s all.’ He took a final drag, trying not to burn his fingers. ‘Whatever you might think of me, Rose, I’m not a bad man.’

‘Really?’

‘Really.’ He chucked the roll-up in the gutter. It sizzled in the damp. We are all of us in the gutter, I thought absently. I wished he wasn’t so near me.

‘Like you care what I think,’ I said quietly.

I wished he was nearer.

‘What do you reckon?’

My mind wheeled furiously. ‘And why hasn’t Kattan been picked up then, if he’s the other end of the deal? Or has he?’

‘Of course he hasn’t,’ Danny said wearily. He pulled his zip up to his chin, the gesture I’d come to recognise as a nervous tic.

‘Why of course?’

‘Because he’s done nothing wrong, doll.’

‘For fuck’s sake, Danny. Does your loyalty know no bounds?’

‘And,’ he lowered his lids, until his eyes were slits, ‘because he has diplomatic immunity.’

‘What?’ I whispered.

‘Surely you knew that, Mrs Rose Miller. You, with all your training and your contacts.’

It started to rain, big heavy raindrops plopping onto the dusty pavement.

I opened my mouth to say something but before I could speak he pulled me towards him, unbalancing me so I fell into him. He kissed me so hard and deep that I forgot about everything for a second, burying his fingers in my hair, holding the back of my head so fiercely, as if he could crush it easily if he tried. And without meaning to, I kissed him back. I didn’t care any more; for a moment I lost myself, my insides liquefying, the smell of him, the smell I’d dreamed of, his skin, his hair beneath my own fingers. I held on to him like he was my salvation.

A police car blared past at the end of a road and as quickly as he had grabbed me, Danny let me go.

‘Rose.’ He looked down intently at me.

‘Yes?’ I mumbled and I knew I was crying properly now, my tears mixed with the driving rain.

‘I’ve got to go.’ He wiped my eye with a gentle thumb. My face was soaking with rain, and tears. He muttered something I couldn’t catch.

‘What?’

‘I can’t – I won’t see you again. I think it’s for the best.’ It felt like a skewer through my heart. I clenched my teeth. ‘I see.’

‘But I won’t forget you, I promise. I’ll think of you, Rose.’

‘Thanks,’ I said shakily. ‘But hopefully I’ll forget you.’ I stepped backwards into the street.