Jett’s words were like icy cold water to the face, and Rico reared back in surprise. For a moment, he thought Jett meant to tell Rico that as a way of leading up to say the last Jett that Rico had slept with hadn’t been Jett at all, but his double. The idea was dismissed immediately, as the same hazy, magenta still clung to Jett’s body. There was only one soulmate per person at a time, Rico knew that. There was no way the double could have the same aura.

“Excuse me?” Rico said, pulling away from Jett as he continued to try to process his words.

Jett hissed in protest when Rico pulled out of him too quickly. “Hey! Careful!”

Rico looked down, wincing. “Sorry, but you can’t go dropping a bombshell on someone and not expect them to react.”

Jett shifted uncomfortably, hand falling to rub his ass. “Remind me not to give someone big news when they’re still deep inside of me. Holy hell that was weird.”

“Didn’t mean to hurt you,” Rico told him guiltily, hurrying off to the bathroom to get a warm washcloth.

Jett called after him. “It didn’t hurt but someone your size pulling out that fast is uh—well, weird.”

Rico came back with the cloth, sitting on the bed beside Jett and beginning to wipe his chest and stomach clean. “Again, sorry, but for a performer, you have really lousy timing. Now what the hell did you mean by ‘a double?’ Like a twin?”

Jett was watching Rico’s hand as it wiped him clean of the evidence of his orgasm. “No, not a twin, not in the sense you’re thinking. Just someone who looks almost exactly like me unless you really know what to look for.”

Rico snorted. “Okay, so how the hell do you find someone who looks just like you? There are millions of people in the country.”

“Well, remember how I said I got to know Dutch pretty well since I’ve been here?” Jett asked with what looked like a guilty wince to Rico.

Rico raised a brow. “I do. I take it he helped in this?”

“Well, he kind of…sort of…has this software which really did all the work. It’s not strictly legal, though I don’t think it’s totally illegal either,” Jett began, sounding nervous for the first time.

Rico sighed in annoyance. “Just tell me what you need to tell me. I’m not going to dig through a load of laws over some software on the off chance it might be illegal. Not my job.”

Jett nodded. “It goes through a list of people in a database. I don’t know where it gets all the pictures and stuff, but it apparently collects from all sorts of different places. He probably had some other use for it, probably for the casino, since it’s his baby and all.”

“Jett, you’re rambling,” Rico pointed out.

“Right, well I had him use it to find someone who looked like me. Whatever it’s original use was, it worked out great with finding me my double. Next thing I knew, Dutch had a name for me and all I had to do was contact the guy. Afterward, it was just a case of finding someone who could do the last bits of work to make my double look like me. After some quiet searching, I found a plastic surgeon out in Kansas City who was willing to do the work. After a bit of snipping and whatever it is the guy did, I had my double.”

Rico frowned. “Why the hell would you need a double?”

Jett laughed. “Think about it, Rico, it’s absolutely perfect. I’ve got someone out there who looks exactly like me, how could it not be helpful? I can look like I’m in two different places at one time.”

“Such as when you disappear through a hole in the floor and somehow magically appear at the back of a theater only moments later,” Rico said, the puzzle pieces clicking into place.

Jett grinned wide. “Exactly. The only people who know about him are Dutch and Nick, the surgeon.”

“Riley doesn’t know?” Rico asked in surprise.

“Look, a good magician doesn’t give away all of his secrets to everyone. She knows more than anyone else, but I didn’t want to spoil the surprise for her. Hell, one day, she might want to go out on her own, and it’s a good exercise for her to try to figure out some of my tricks,” Jett said with a snort.

Rico flashed back to the time he had tried to find Jett, only to find Jett without the aura around him. It explained why it looked like the aura seemed to be there sometimes, while it had been absent the one time. The double had been the one Rico had met backstage, and it explained why the man had seemed so odd about interacting with Rico. A laugh threatened to bubble up out of his throat as he looked down at Jett’s pleased expression. Sure, it would probably require someone who knew Jett for quite some time to spot the minute differences between him and his double. Rico didn’t need anything of the sort, considering his ability, yet ironically, he hadn’t known what he was seeing until it had been too late.

The threat of laughter died as another thought settled into his head, sinking into his stomach. “Jett, there’s a small problem with your clever little trick.”

Jett moved to sit up, pausing to look at Rico in confusion. “What do you mean? You’re only one of a very select few people who know about it. Why, are you planning on blabbing my secret to everyone now?”

Rico shook his head. “Not what I meant Jett. You’ve got someone who looks exactly like you except for probably the smallest details if you’re telling the truth of it. Your alibis aren’t going to stand up to scrutiny now.”

Jett sat up straighter, twisting so he was no longer near Rico. “So you’re telling me you still haven’t let go of putting me on your suspect list?”

Rico leaned back, surprised at the sudden vehemence in Jett’s voice. “You just told me the one major reason your alibi wouldn’t work. Why wouldn’t it put you right back on the list?”

“Maybe because I keep telling you I didn’t do it. I would have hoped it would be enough for you by now,” Jett huffed, scooting to the edge of the bed and beginning to gather his clothes.

Rico shouldn’t have been surprised by the man’s reaction, but he was all the same. Rico wasn’t trying to accuse Jett of anything, only trying to openly acknowledge there was the possibility Jett would still be seen in a suspicious light. Admittedly, Rico still wasn’t totally sold on Jett’s innocence, and the news about his double certainly wasn’t helping to convince him of Jett’s lack of guilt.

“You’re being a little unreasonable,” Rico told him through gritted teeth.

Jett snorted, yanking his underwear out of his pants to pull them on. “I’m being unreasonable? You’re sitting there, telling me I’m still on your suspect list. For murder! What, I’m somehow not supposed to be bothered?”

“And you’re suddenly going to act like you care about it? This whole time you’ve been nothing but flippant every time I brought up the murder and your possible part in the whole thing. When the hell did you decide to do a one-eighty and start giving a shit?” Rico demanded.

Jett shook his head with a disgusted snort. “Jesus, Rico, I’ve hated it from the moment the whole stupid thing started. You really think I heard, ‘Oh hey Jett, you’re totally high on the list for people who could have killed that asshole Oliver,’ and wasn’t bothered?”

“You sure as hell haven’t acted like it bothered you before now, and for the record, calling the victim an asshole isn’t helping your case any,” Rico pointed out.

Jett hopped up angrily, jerking his pants up to his waist. “Fun fact, someone doesn’t have to tell you everything about what they’re feeling off the bat. My entire life is on the line right now, and I would have thought you’d have been smart enough to realize that would bother anyone. And I don’t really give a crap if calling Oliver names makes me look bad. The guy was a dick, and it’s not like you don’t already think I did it, so what’s it matter?”

“I never said you did it,” Rico ground out, finally grabbing his own pants to put on.

Jett gave another ugly snort as he searched for the rest of his clothes. “Right, no, you just think I should be perfectly okay with being at the top of the suspect list. The same list you’ve been in charge of from the very beginning.”

“It’s called keeping my options open, Jett. I would have thought out of anyone, you would understand it wasn’t personal,” Rico shot back as he tied the lounge pants with jerky motions.

“What, including the option of banging me whenever you felt like it?” Jett snarled at him.