Dane was completely unaware of just how high he'd allowed his hopes to get. That is, until he felt them start to lose altitude. Two completely different scenarios played out in his head. Both equally devastating. The first was that Lucian wanted to find a place of ill repute to find someone better. More suited to his tastes. Not the scrawny thing in an ill fitting suit. The other was that he returned to the Red Rat, found a job, and Dane would be forced to repeat what he'd tried to do over 20 years before.

He tried to not let it show. He tried to keep his face just the same. But his smile became strained and uneasy. It was hard to hold back the questions he really wanted to ask. "There's a few," he admitted reluctantly. "But they're not that great."