Heart and Soul by Jackie May (reading list .TXT) 📗

for the spotlight, and I don’t know if you noticed, but Russo’s no wallflower himself.”

“I know, we’re totally in sync. He’s amazing!”

“And he’s probably already drunk on your power. Just keep him on a leash, is all I’m saying.”

A well-spoken vampire host stops Russo at the door. “Sir, it’s obvious you’re VIP, and very much welcomed to Underworld, but I would invite you to consider the others in line. Some of them have been waiting for hours. You understand.”

I clutch Elle’s wrist. “Oh no, it’s an Alfred. Elle, do something. Tell him Terrance approved it.”

Elle laughs. “Shayne, trust me, he’s got this. No help needed.”

Russo turns to the crowd and says, “What, you mean them? But they’re with me, of course.”

The vampire touches a long finger to his chin, perplexed. “Hmm, which ones, exactly?”

“Well, let’s see,” Russo says, and he raises his voice over the crowd. “All right, I want to know, and I want to know now: who in the frozen hell would dare to claim that the greatest city on Earth is Motown-inventing, Tigers-cheering, auto-manufacturing, mother-loving Detroit?” Every single hand shoots proudly into the air, including mine. Russo grins at the vampire. “All of them.”

Cheers erupt. Russo flings the front doors wide open, and the crowd pushes inside, instantly doubling not only the club’s occupancy but the energy and excitement in the main room. The real party has just begun, and Russo is its master. He makes straight for the stage on which a live band has just gone on break, leaving their instruments. Russo taps the microphone. “Can you hear me now?” A raucous cheer answers him.

“Jay. What’s he doing, Jay? We’ve created a monster.”

“It’s Russo, babe. He doesn’t do low profile. Just keep your eyes out for anybody who tries to get close to him.”

“Are you kidding? Everybody here wants a piece of him. He’s a rock star.”

“Look here, my friends,” Russo says. “Since I just doubled the number of possible partners up in this joint, I wonder if y’all could do me a favor. Lot of these folks just came in from the cold, could use a warm body, you feel me? So everybody pair up for a little slooooow dance. A little up close dance.” The crowd goes crazy with whistles and catcalls. “And hey, if your heart just happens to catch a little fire, well…” Russo snaps his fingers, and a spotlight shines on him. “I second that emotion.”

The band instruments raise into the air and launch into the opening notes of the Smokey Robinson Motown classic. “‘If you feel like lovin’ me, if you got the notion,’” Russo sings in a beautiful baritone, “‘I second that emotion.’”

Jay chuckles at my dropped jaw. “That’s not the magic, you know. He does this at weddings.”

Elle pushes me at Jay. “Would you two get out there already? I’ll keep my eye on him.”

I turn with the intention of asking “Are you sure?” but the words catch with my breath when Jay grabs my hand and pulls me through the crowd to the middle of the floor. He assumes a slow-dance posture like you see in old movies, holding my right hand up high, with his other hand at the small of my back. It feels a little ridiculous, but I play along, because it’s just so…Jay. I bet you a trillion dollars I know where he learned to dance like this.

I put my left hand on his shoulder, all proper like. “Haley teach you to dance like this?”

“At a Christmas party for the precinct.” As we turn in place, Jay scans the crowd, looking for anybody suspicious. I try to follow his lead, to maintain my focus on the job, but I keep finding myself looking up at him, my eyes lingering too long. “Russo had brought a blind date for me,” he says. “Haley liked her, wanted to help me impress her.”

“Did it work?”

“No.”

“Why not? You haven’t stepped on my feet yet.”

“It wasn’t that. At the end of the night, I asked her if we could get coffee sometime. She said no.”

“That’s it? Just ‘No?’”

After a pause, he says, “She said I didn’t have room for another woman in my life.”

I stifle a laugh, not knowing if this is an appropriate thing to find absolutely hilarious. “She was jealous of Haley?”

“I think it was her way of telling me to grow up. Wasn’t the first time I heard it. Or the last.”

“What about me? Do you think Haley would have liked me?”

Jay breaks his surveillance to look into my eyes. I’m scared I’ve said something wrong. “Haley liked everybody.”

“Gee, thanks.”

“But you, she would have loved. More than anybody.”

“Really?”

He thinks for a moment, then adds, “Until she met Elle, of course.”

“Oh, of course. That’s a given.”

“I’m not joking.”

“Neither am I.”

We’re both smiling. Jay says, “Haley would have been like Russo, you know. She could have handled this. All this.” He searches my eyes for something—maybe validation.

I squeeze his shoulder. “I know, Jay.”

He gives me an approving nod, as though we’ve just concluded an important piece of business, and he returns to sweeping his gaze over the crowd. Back to the job.

I can’t. I’m lost in the moment. Needing to be even closer to him, I slip both arms around his waist and press my cheek to his chest. Probably getting blood in my hair, but who cares. Jay wraps his arms around my back and places his chin on my head.

I spend the rest of that slow dance lost in deep thought. I think about my conversation with Russo, how Jay’s like a blank page—he spent so much time on the job, being somebody he’s not, letting others do the thinking for him. He never really became his own person. I have to admit that I can’t answer a lot of easy questions about Jay. Does he have any hobbies? What kind of vacation would he enjoy? What’s his favorite food? Favorite movie? I’m sure he could answer all these questions about me.

Shit and a