“Don’t tell me you’re jealous.”

Evangeline eyed John across the room, her eyes dancing as she watched him. John sighed heavily, his eyes shifting from her dark eyes, to her lips and back to her eyes again. He could feel it, the same feeling that threatened to take him over every time he was with her, but right now all that was clouded by the darkness of his anger.

“That’s not the point. I asked you to stay away from RJ for a reason.”

He held her gaze, somehow willing her to see all the dark thoughts that threatened to drive him insane. Thoughts of her and him, thoughts of her and RJ, thoughts of the Santi’s, Caitlin and finally of Evangeline’s lifeless body lying alone, lifeless in the dark somewhere.

“John, I promise I’ll be careful, but you know I have to do this, it’s our only chance of figuring out what’s going on?”

“She’s right…”

They both looked up in time to see Antonio Vega walked into John’s office.

“RJ trusts you, it could help us figure out his connection to the Santi’s and El Tiburon, and finally put an end to all this mess…”

Antonio had recounted the plan a million times. He hated putting Evangeline in the middle of this but right now he was desperate. They knew they needed someone close enough to RJ, who could get them the information they needed. She had volunteered, wanting to assist the investigation as much as possible. But John knew her better than that, he knew out of the goodness of her heart she wanted to prove them wrong. That RJ wasn’t a criminal, that he couldn’t possibly be connected to the Santi’s and most of all prove to herself that she could never have loved a murderer.

The plan had been to make RJ believe that she had somehow seen the error of her ways, and in the meantime gather up whatever she could on the Santi organization .It had been two weeks and so far nothing, tonight would be her final attempt, if nothing panned out she would call it quits, that was their deal.

“Don’t do anything you don’t feel comfortable with,” Antonio placed a hand on her shoulder. Evangeline managed a weak smile.

“I won’t.”

She sounded confident but John knew her better, she was afraid, and he was afraid for her. Even after hey had been over everything, the police escort, the guards, they had outlined her line of questioning, what she was suppose to be looking for. John would have felt better knowing she had a wire on her, but Evangeline had declined, all she was getting was information, nothing more, it would be way too risky to wire her, just in case…

As Antonio and Evangeline talked all John could think of was her, he drowned out their voices, as his eyes held hers, making a last minute plea to drop this ridiculous plan.

“Ok…” She turned away and flashed he other two men a killer smile. “I better go, RJ’s expecting me.”

Tonight Augustico Santi was hosting a charity gala at the Palace; everyone was invited to this black tie affair. At least John could keep an eye on her this way, even if she was going with another man.

The room was silent as she closed the door behind her. John’s eyes followed her as she left the room.

“I have a bad feeling about this.” he finally voiced to his friend.

“We’ll be right there with her.”

Antonio would be damned if he let the Santi’s hurt any of the people her cared about.

“I won’t let anything happen.”

John wished he could believe him. But men like Gannon never changed, it made his skin crawl at the thought of him being anywhere near Evangeline.

“Evangeline’s strong, and smart, she wouldn’t give up that easily.”

He patted his friend on the back, hoping to ease some of the tension. Antonio was right, Evangeline never did give up, and right now that was what scared him the most.