Jay held my face in his hands. I’d always seen him as dangerous, seen those hands as weapons. And they were—but he’d used them to save me. The world wasn’t as black and white as I’d imagined it. I didn’t want to fight it anymore.

“I will make it okay,” he said. “I promise you.”

He couldn’t make that promise, no one could, but I loved him for it anyway.

I loved him.

Or I was starting to. There was so much I didn’t know about him, about his childhood, his family, what had led him to Simon, what he liked to do when he wasn’t fighting or teaching. But I wanted to know those things, all of them. The simple things, the normal things, the extraordinary things. I wanted badly to know everything about him.

I stared at Jay Thornton. His eyes were lighter up close, but no less intense.

He let go of my face. I grabbed his hand, entwining mine with his, like they were meant to be that way, only I hadn’t seen it. I lifted his hand to my lips, pressed my mouth against his cracked knuckles.

His lips parted and so did mine. This time, when our mouths met, it wasn’t unwelcome. It was real.

His lips were as soft and sure as I remembered. He tasted of blood and I probably tasted of tears, but that didn’t stop us from coming together. It didn’t break us apart. I felt sure nothing would.

The door slammed open and we wrenched apart.

“Police!” someone shouted. “Put your hands where we can see them.”

Jay and I looked at each other.

“Now they come,” he said.

It was Lieutenant Hopkins. He’d known Officer Ting was dirty and Jay had been working with him to find enough evidence to put him away. My statement was a good start, enough to get him arrested. Alfonso too, when he came around. Alfonso pitched a fit, ratting out Jay, telling the police he was involved, that he worked for Ting. Hopkins had to take him in too after we both got fixed up at the hospital.

Ting said nothing. I’d watched enough Law & Order to know he’d lawyer up and be out of jail in no time. And then I’d be back to where I started.

Except it didn’t happen that way. Officer Ting was dirty, they all knew it now. The kidnapping and illegal money-lending was just the beginning. The police had recorded my call, and even though I’d dropped the phone when Simon appeared, the dispatcher had still been on the line, and recorded everything.

To lighten his own sentence, Alfonso told the cops he’d witnessed Alonso’s murder, and where the body was buried, out in the Nevada desert. Jay told me Hopkins and the other police would be uncovering Ting’s shady dealings for months, but the murder charge alone would hold him.

Jay was charged with illegal money-lending and grievous bodily harm and went to jail. It took a week but Hopkins finally came through and got the charges on Jay dropped.

I waited outside the station with my hands in my pockets. The weather had turned warm lately, too warm for March, but a light breeze blew the ends of my hair into my face.

The door swung open and there he was. He still walked with a slight limp. His face was still peppered with bruises. I had bruises too, but I’d been marked in other ways.

Jay paused when he saw me. I hadn’t visited him in jail. I needed time to work through what happened. To sort out my feelings and make sure they were real. But I’d left him a note telling him I’d be there when he got out.

We closed the distance between each other, stopping at arm’s length.

“Hi,” I said. I wanted to grab onto him and not let go. I wanted him to hold me. He’d always been so confident around me, as if he knew just what to do to get under my skin. Right then, he didn’t seem so sure.

“You came.”

“I said I would.”

“I wouldn’t have blamed you if you packed it all in and went back home.”

“I’m sorry,” I blurted. An apology that was long overdue.

Jay stepped closer. So close. His mouth gave the barest of smiles. “For what?”

“For being such a jerk. I never gave you a chance. I didn’t even try to get to know who you really are.”

He grabbed my hips and pulled me in until my body was pressed against his. Heat enveloped us, from inside and out. I braced my hands on his arms.

“I’m the one who’s sorry. For Simon, for letting it all get that far.” He bowed his head. “For taking so long to take a stand.”

“That wasn’t your fault.”

“But it was. I should’ve seen what Simon had become. I should’ve stopped him the moment he got you involved. But I didn’t.”

“Life’s never that simple,” I said. “We just like to believe it is. You taught me that.”

“So, where does that leave us?” Jay asked.

“I don’t know. But I know where I’d like it to go.”

“Where’s that?”

“Where we should have started in the first place. Getting to know each other.”

“You’re giving me a chance?”

I slid my hands up his arms. Relished in the feeling of him. “As long as you’re giving me one, too.”

His fingers curled around the waist of my jeans. “You’re not a chance, Maggie. You’re a sure thing. The only sure thing in Vegas.”

My lips, my heart, everything I was opened to him.