…0...

Spinner was just getting out of the gym shower when his cell phone rang from inside his duffel bag. He dug around and saw that the ID was flashing 'Club.' His thoughts were still on his earlier conversation with Sam so he shook his head to clear away all the lingering thoughts about Ellie before flipping the phone open.

"Jim."

"The boss needs to see you," a gruff voice, one of Antonelli's bodyguards, said. "How soon can you be here?"

"I'm at the gym across town, so…half hour?" he estimated.

"I'll let him know." Those were the last words he heard before the dial tone sounded in his ear.

With a deep sigh, Spinner dropped the phone back into the bag and began getting dressed. The plan had been to find Ellie after he finished working out and somehow convince her to back out of the case. It was going to be a difficult task, of that he was sure, and the sooner he got to her the better. Sam's little pep talk had helped to put things into perspective-in his own way. He was now more convinced than ever that there was something major brewing between him and Ellie-which only made the situation as a whole all the more dangerous. Worrying about the safety of Ellie his friend was tough enough in itself. She had come to be a really good friend over the past few years, especially after he moved in with her and Marco, and there was very little he wouldn't do for her. But being concerned about Ellie as the girl he was potentially in serious like with, well that could get distracting. And a distraction was something he couldn't afford at the moment. It could get them both hurt. Or worse.

And then there was that thought that if he insisted she stay out of the case, was he risking perhaps ruining his chance with her? If he even had a chance to begin with.

As if his thoughts had been transmitted, his phone rang again, blinking 'Ellie' in bright letters. He inhaled quickly, releasing it much slower, to try and calm the little thud of his heart against his ribcage at the sight of her name. "Hey, El. What's up?"

"Hey." Her voice sounded uncertain and he frowned.

"You okay?"

"Yeah," she answered. She still sounded a little odd-like she was forcing the words out, but she barreled on so quickly that he didn't get a chance to ask her. "I just really need to talk to you about…the case. Where are you? Can you get home?"

"Sorry," he told her. "I have to go see Antonelli."

"Oh." The line was quiet for a second before Ellie's voice came back, a touch more anxious than before. "I'll meet you there I guess."

Spinner began shaking his head even though she couldn't see him. "Ellie, no."

"It can't wait!" she insisted, and for a second she sounded like the Ellie Nash he remembered. His friend Ellie. The one that used to nag him about leaving dirty magazines in the living room. "Please, Spinner?"

"Fine," he muttered. "But don't come inside. Meet me in the parking lot." He hung up before she could argue with him, no doubt about blowing their cover. In his minds eye, he could almost see her expression; open mouth, wide eyes narrowing into tiny slits, cheeks flaming the same color as her hair.

'Maybe she'll cool down before she gets there.'

…0...

Ellie waited for Spinner nervously in the parking lot of Club Haze, twisting her keys around in her hand and tapping her foot against the blacktop in impatience. One of the other cops assigned to the case, Simmons, had shown up at the house not long after Spinner left to give her the wire she was supposed to wear when she made her deal with Antonelli and showed her how to turn it on. It was laying in her purse, unused, so she could give it to Spinner to take back down to the station after they talked. Somehow she didn't think it would be that big a problem.

Officer Simmons, a tall blonde with huge green eyes, had made sure to tell her more than once that she was only there because the Lieutenant had ordered her and that her opinion of Ellie getting involved in undercover work was tantamount to idiotic. After all, she was merely a 'writer' Simmons kept saying, as if being a writer was a step below a bug.

And it didn't help that Ellie suspected the officer had a bit of a crush on Spinner. She'd figured as much ever since they'd had her over for dinner.

Ellie could only imagine the satisfaction she'd get when she found out Ellie dropped out of the case.

She spied Spinner's car pulling into the parking lot, her pulse speeding up a little bit. Her keys slid from her grasp onto the ground. She bent to pick them up and it took her three tries to pick them up since her palms had begun to sweat. The employee parking spaces were at the other end of the lot from where her car was. He ambled towards her, his ever present black duffel clutched in one hand. "Hey."

"Hey," she replied slowly. Her mouth had suddenly gone dry and her heart was pounding distractedly in her chest. "Thanks for meeting me."

"Yeah, well, I had to come down here anyway." Spinner's eyes darted around the lot, checking the building to see if anyone was watching them. It also helped that if he could keep from looking at her he might be able to stop the urges he was feeling to press her up against her car. "So what's up?"

"Well," she began. This was harder than she had anticipated it would be. It had been easy to dismiss her feelings as side effects of the case, nothing more than residual nerves and whatnot, but talking to Marco forced her to realize that they hadn't been born from the case-it had only served to shed light on them. "Spin, I get the feeling that my being involved in this isn't going over well down at the station."

She watched as his eyebrows scrunched together in confusion. "Why would you say that?"

Ellie slouched back against her car door and pinched the bridge of her nose to ward off the headache she felt forming between her eyes. "Officer Simmons brought the wire over this morning, and let's just say she's not exactly subtle." Her expression twisted into a grimace.

"No, she's not," Spinner agreed. He leaned in closer to Ellie, lowering his voice so she would be able to grasp how serious he was. She gulped, reminding him of the night before when they had played their little game just to see who would back down first. "But to be honest, she's not the only one who has a problem with a…civilian getting mixed up with this. They think it's a liability."

"Oh." Her voice was small and her eyes downcast. "That's sort of what I wanted to talk to you about anyway."

"Yeah?" Spinner took a step towards her without thinking and he caught a whiff of her perfume. The night before, when she'd been on his lap all tangled around him, came into his mind and his blood started to hum under his skin. He caught himself leaning into her at the memory, but pulled back before he embarrassed himself. "Ellie, if um, if you have doubts about all this-"

"Jim!"

Both of their heads whipped in the direction of the voice coming towards them. One of Antonelli's burly bodyguards, the one who'd called Spinner and told him to come, strode their way with a grim look on his face. "You're late. The boss doesn't like to be kept waiting."

"Sorry, man," Spinner picked his bag off the ground, casting a look at Ellie as he passed her. "Just got a little sidetracked."

"Understandable," the guy gave Ellie a lecherous once over that made her want to shudder, but she restrained herself. "But it's what we figured."

Spinner stopped and tossed another look back at Ellie over his shoulder. Jaw working in anger, his voice took on a gritty tone that made Ellie shiver when he spoke. "What's that supposed to mean?"

A smug grin spread over the larger man's face. "Just that I was instructed to invite, Miss Kerwin, is it?" Ellie nodded rapidly. "inside if she were out here."

He ushered Ellie and Spinner inside, instructing Spinner to sit at the bar until after Ellie's 'meeting' was over. She glanced at Spinner, her heart in her throat, as the guard shut the door behind her.

The office was large, but dark, and expensively furnished with ornate and ostentatious artwork littered about. Antonelli sat in a throne like leather chair behind a mahogany desk bigger than Ellie's car. Above the collar of his impeccably tailored black shirt, his tan skin stood out vividly, his teeth almost blindingly white as he smiled at her the way she imagined jackals would at their prey. A shudder raced along Ellie's spine that she barely managed to suppress when his eyes blatantly raked up her body.

"Miss Kerwin," he said in a slow, heavily accented drawl, and gestured to the chair across from his desk. "Please have a seat."

She sat hastily, like a kid who had just been sent to the principle's office, with her purse clutched in her hands on her lap to control the shaking in her arms. "How…" Her voice quavered, so she cleared her throat. Maybe she wouldn't sound as terrified then. "How do you know my name?"

He smirked. It was the look of someone who knew they possessed all the power and was merely placating someone not really worth their time. "Well after the little show you put on with one of my dancers last night," Ellie blushed heatedly at knowing this sleazy man had seen her dancing with Spinner. "And then finding you in his dressing room, I checked the name that had been placed on the list and saw that Jim reserved a seat for you."

She nodded.

"So," he went on, "would I be wrong in assuming that you have more than a passing interest in my dancer?"

Shaking her head, Ellie replied, "No, you wouldn't be wrong."

"What's interesting," Antonelli continued, "is that you two seemed so familiar with one another so quickly. I had an employee of mine do some checking and it turns out that two people with your names went to the same high school right here in Toronto."

A lump formed in Ellie's throat. If he had gotten photos of Jimmy and Ash…

"Would that happen to be you?"

It took several seconds for his words to seep in through Ellie's panic. When it did, she blinked at him several times in surprise before she could speak. He…he didn't' know. Her mind went back to when Spinner said that a hacker had replaced images of Jimmy with his photos. Had they done the same with her? Was it possible that this fabulous hacker had gone back, all the way through high school, and replaced photos of Ash-yearbook, school paper, her class president shots from grade eight even-with pictures of her? She hadn't even gone to Degrassi then. "Yes."

Antonelli leaned forward, elbows on his desk and hands clasped together under his chin. He was digging, she could see it. He was trying to slip her up, get any little thing out of her that he could use to his advantage. "So, where you two…close back then?" The way he said 'close' dripped with innuendo and a grimace threatened to come to her lips. Just being in this guy's presence was enough to make her want to take a shower.

"We knew each other, she said. "But we were never very good friends if that's what you mean."

"It's not," he told her. Reaching into his top desk drawer, he pulled out an envelope and slid it across the desk to her. "But I think that's all I'm going to get out of you."

She picked the envelope up, hearing the sound of something small sliding inside of it. Most definitely not a bribe to keep her away from Spinner. "What is this?"

"Open it."

Sliding the flap open, Ellie saw there was a car inside. She pulled it out and saw that it was actually a key card to a hotel room. "What's this for?"

"Now now, Miss Kerwin, let's not be coy. Anyone with eyes can see that you have a very strong attraction for Jim. Unfortunately, none of my dancers are allowed to date the cliental. You wouldn't want him to lose his job, would you?"

"No," she whispered. Something told her that she knew where this was going. She hadn't worn the wire she'd been given purely because she'd come to the club with the intentions of having a personal conversation with Spinner and didn't want the rest of the police force to hear it. And now here she was, about to get the very thing that they needed to arrest this creep.

He smirked at her, his teeth so white they hurt her eyes. "I thought not. However, in some situations, a compromise can be reached."

"What sort of compromise?" Ellie tried her best to infuse her words with more confidence and less nerves than she actually had.

"If you want to spend some time with Jim, then we'll approach it as a business deal."

"Meaning I pay for him," she said bluntly.

"Exactly."