CHAPTER 3

By the back door was standing Neal Caffrey with a beautiful woman at his arm.

An hour earlier…

"I wanna play, I wanna go to the casino," Tessa said.

Now things were getting interesting.

"Are you even 21?" Neal asked.

"Yep," she said as she grabbed her ID in her purse.

"Turned 21 last month," she added proudly.

Now, Neal was smiling for real. They could indeed go to the casino and gamble and it was all legal. He was feeling good.

Peter won't be happy, he thought. But then again it's her idea and I can't tell her what to do. After all I'm just here to keep an eye on her, follow her everywhere. I'm just doing my job… His smile grew bigger.

They were back at her place within minutes. She dropped her keys and bags and ran upstairs to get changed.

Neal waited downstairs. He took a look at the place. Some fine arts, he loved it. It was tempting, very tempting. He could make a fortune with some of that stuff. And he wasn't wearing the anklet anymore, not during this mission. But he didn't take a thing, he just looked.

"I'm almost done," Tessa yelled.

"It's okay, take your time," Neal said as he kept looking at everything.

She finally came back downstairs. She was wearing a nice dress. She was a sexy woman. Everyone could see that.

A few minutes later, they were on their way to the casino.

"Don't worry, you can play with me,…" she teased. "I mean my money."

Neal was uncomfortable but tried to hide it.

"Oh no, tell me I'm dreaming!" Peter couldn't help say out loud, forgetting for a second where he was and what he was doing.

Neal was standing there, inside the casino, with a woman.

This time I'm gonna kill him, Peter thought to himself. He was fuming.

"What is it?" one of the guys asked.

It brought Peter back to reality. "Nothing, I thought for a second I saw an old friend but it wasn't him."

He quickly changed the subject and asked for something to eat.

They were playing poker and Peter was doing his best to lose a lot of money. It took about an hour. He couldn't focus on the game as much as he wanted. He couldn't stop thinking about Neal being here with someone. He was furious.

Once he lost a lot of money he stood up, pretending to be ready to go.

"I think it's enough for one night," he said as everyone looked up at him.

"Oh c'mon, Peter, we're having fun, if you need more money, we can arrange that," Tom said.

Mark looked at Peter.

"I don't know, I've lost a lot already, I don't…"

"Don't worry about it, it's under control," Tom said.

"So, do you want to keep playing or not?" John asked.

Peter nodded yes. Someone called after Sam and he quickly came in the room.

"Someone needs some cash?" Sam asked.

John made the introductions and told him it was Peter.

"So, you need more cash?" Sam asked Peter.

Peter nodded. Sam smiled.

"Ok, I can lend you ten thousand," he proposed.

"Thanks," Peter said, expecting a little bit more details.

"You pay me back little by little with a profit. 2,500 a week for five week. It's a total of 12,500," he explained and asked if Peter was interested.

Peter smiled and thanked him again. Now things were finally going somewhere.

Once the deal was done Peter kept playing and of course losing so he owned Sam big time.

He then came back home where Elizabeth was still awake and waiting for him.

"What are you doing up, El, it's 2 a.m?" he asked his wife.

"Waiting for you, honey, how did it go?"

"Well, something unexpected came up," he started to explain.

"Unexpected?"

"Neal showed up and with a woman!" Peter was getting angry again.

"Oh."

"Yes, oh. He's got some nerve showing up there when I told him not to! I guess he couldn't stand not being the inside man for this one," Peter said.

"I'm sure there's a rational explanation, don't jump to conclusion," El said.

"You know we're talking about Neal. He's always got some explanation. But he won't get away with it this time."

"Calm down, you'll see what he has to say tomorrow," El tried to comfort her husband.

"Besides the Neal part how did it go?

"Fine. Lost some money, met the guy and now I'm exhausted," Peter said as he sat down.

"You're not 20 anymore," she teased.

"I'll show you if I'm not 20 anymore," he teased back and kissed her.

The next morning Neal was called in the FBI offices to talk about their respective progress. But it was a pretext to talk to Neal. An excuse for Peter to let his frustration out.

As soon as he saw Neal come in Peter motioned for him to come upstairs, in his office.

"How dared you show up at the casino last night?" Peter asked, angry.

Neal opened up his mouth but Peter didn't give him a chance to explain.

"I hope you had a good time because it's the last time you set foot in that place!" Peter went on.

"Yeah, I made 200 bucks," Neal flashed his charming smile.

It only annoyed Peter more.

"Don't you smile! You're only one foot away from your cell, I hope you know that!"

"Peter, I…"

"How could you show up? And with a date," Peter added, upset.

"This is a 24/7 mission! I thought I was clear enough!" he added.

Peter was mad, really mad and for once Neal had done nothing wrong.

"How am I in trouble now?" Neal asked.

"You were told not to go to the casino and gamble yet you showed up and with a woman!"

"Not a woman," Neal tried to defend himself.

"Oh, I'm sorry, maybe I didn't see well enough, was it a man, then, wearing a dress?" Peter asked, getting angrier by the second.

"You told me my assignment was to protect her. To follow her everywhere," he explained with a smile.

"I don't see how it has anything to do with the mission! That woman…" Peter started to say.

"That woman you saw me with, it was her, Tessa," Neal explained.

Peter's jaw dropped open once again. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. In his head Tessa was a little kid, not a woman.

Neal decided to go on with his explanation.

"Well, she wanted to go gamble, she's 21, she can, so I went with her, simple as that," Neal said with a huge smile on his face.

"Following her every move and protecting her was my assignment, wasn't it?"

Peter was pacing, and fuming.

"Once again, Neal, you've managed to turn the situation around," he said.

"I did no such thing," Neal tried to defend himself, and obviously enjoying the situation.

"Is it my fault she's 21 and not some 10 year-old kid?"

Peter shot him the 'don't you start' look.

Neal sat down and kept his mouth shut. For a few seconds anyway. Inside, he truly was enjoying the situation. For once he really had done nothing wrong.

"Look, Peter, I'm sorry if you're mad for some reason but what have I done wrong this time, just tell me?"

Peter didn't reply right away. He tried to calm down.

"Alright, maybe I'm getting mad for nothing here, but you should have told me about her as soon as you found out," Peter said.

"And miss your face?" Neal joked.

"Neal!"

"Fine, I should have," Neal tried to ease the tension.

"Just go back to that house and keep an eye on her and by eye I really just mean an eye on her, don't charm her or anything," Peter said.

"When's the last time I did that?" Neal asked.

"Oh please!" Peter shrugged.

Neal smiled. "Not my fault if women like me that much," he teased.

Then, he met Peter's gaze again and decided it was best to stop irritating him, for now anyway.

"Oh, and try to keep her away from that casino," Peter said.

"And how do I do that exactly?" Neal wondered. "I can't really tell her what to do, so if she wants to go…"

"C'mon, Neal, you're used to entertaining women, I'm sure you'll figure something out. Take her to a movie or something," Peter suggested.

"And yet I can't charm her," Neal was smiling but Peter really wasn't.

TBC …


Thank you for reading so far, thank you for the reviews and PMs, more chapters soon! :) P.S : please keep in mind that English isn't my language, thank you :)