Liz slammed the door shut behind her and turned to face Red.

'What the hell was that? I was making headway with your informant; why'd you pull me away?'

Red scowled at Liz and turned away, heading for the mini bar in their hotel room. Tonight had been a total disaster. Liz had been meant to meet with a guy who could lead them to the next Blacklister but once she'd started dancing with him in front of hundreds of people at the charity gala, Red's green-eyed demon had kicked in. He'd approached them and interceded. In Red's defence, he'd seen the bastard's hand slipping down from Liz's back to her ass and he had felt obliged to stop him. But Liz didn't see it that way.

'Why the hell did you ask me to start to seduce him if you were gonna do that? I already said I wasn't comfortable with the whole thing but I agreed. I was just starting to get somewhere, dammit Red'.

Red fetched three bottles of scotch from the mini-bar and poured them into a glass, which he then downed.

'I'm sorry, Lizzy. I didn't mean to ruin it. I just couldn't handle it'.

'Handle what?'

'Seeing him touching you like that'

Liz took a breath before answering, 'Like what?'

Red turned to her abruptly and almost spat out his words, 'With his hands all over you! I couldn't let that go on!'

'Red, that was the whole idea. And I wasn't happy about it but it needed to happen in order to have him trust me. Goddammit, what is your problem?'

Red walked towards Liz in three quick strides, 'I'll tell you the goddam problem, Lizzy, I wanted to kill him. And I thought that would've been worse than simply asking for the next dance'

Liz looked into Red's eyes and saw that they were still blazing with fury. She took a step back and sat down on the couch.

'Could you please get me a drink, Red. I think I need one now more than I did downstairs'.

Red went back over to the mini bar and pulled himself out another three bottles of scotch along with some vodka and orange juice for Liz. Grabbing another glass from the side, he made his way back over to where she was sitting on the couch, her head resting on her hand.

'This okay?'

'That's fine', Liz said as she accepted the drinks from him.

Red made to turn away and walk off again but Liz's hand on his arm stopped him, 'Would you sit with me? I think we need to talk'.

Red swallowed and looked as though he might say something but then just nodded silently at Liz and sat down next to her, where he immediately busied himself with pouring his miniatures into his glass.

Liz poured her drink and she took a large gulp of it, finishing half of it in one.

'Red, I'm gonna need you to explain this to me a little more'

Red sighed and turned his head away, 'Lizzy, I….'

'No, I know what you're going to say so just don't. I need to know what just happened. You told me it would be a simple meeting with this guy, that I'd be able to get some information off him with no trouble at all. Just five grands' worth of diamonds and to flutter my eyelashes. Something like that, wasn't it?'

Red nodded, completely unable to look up to meet Liz's constant stare.

'So what on earth did you think was going to happen? I know his hands were roaming but it wasn't gonna get any worse than that in front of all those people. I was handling the situation, Red'.

Red managed to look up at Liz at last, his brow furrowed, his teeth working away at the inside of his cheek, 'I thought I could let you do it, Lizzy, but I couldn't. It's my own fault. I should've just met with him myself'.

'I didn't realise he swings both ways?'

'Ha, that's not what I meant. But I'm sure if I'd handed over more diamonds I could have gotten the information we needed'.

'I thought you said he barely ever works with men? That he has a reputation for only enjoying doing deals with women he hopes to sleep with?'

'Every man has a price, Lizzy. I should've found out his. This is my fault'.

Red looked down at his lap, swirling the scotch around in his glass briefly before lifting it to his lips and finishing it off.

Liz turned away from Red and stared out the window. She couldn't work out what had gone wrong. Red had known what would happen, he'd have planned for every contingency just like he always did. So why on earth had such a simple thing as the target grabbing her ass flown Red into such a jealous rage…..? As soon as Liz contemplated the word 'jealous', she knew exactly what had happened. Turning to Red, she looked at him carefully.

'Red?'

'Hmmm?'

'Did you cut into that dance to stop him from touching me because you were trying to protect me? Or because you were jealous?'

Red looked up into Liz's eyes, his face paling slightly. Liz could tell at once that she'd hit the nail on the head. Her mouth dropped open and she stood up. Needing some fresh air, she headed for the balcony and went out there to have a few moments to herself to think.

Red looked after her and sighed. He wanted to go after her to say something further but he had no idea whatsoever what that something would be. Instead he headed back over to the mini bar to see if he'd left himself anymore scotch.