Page 97 of Dream a Little Dream

“Pissing about isn’t accurate.”

“What is, then? Because there is more to what I saw than a standard student teacher relationship. Don’t play me for a fool onthisone, at least.”

Kenny sighed. He owed it to Jack to be honest, because he’d hurt him too many times. Kept too much from him, and it wasn’t right. He had to make thingsright.

“It happened before he was my student.”

Jack fluttered his eyes closed, bowing his head, and Kenny could feel the physical blow he’d just landed on him. But he had to keep going.

“In a club.”

“Jesus…”

“I don’t know why I even went there—”

“Yes, you fucking do,” Jack snapped. “You always know. The same way you know why everyone else does the things they do. You also know whyyoudo!”

“All right. Yes. Yes, I know. I’d just come from a training workshop with the Met. I needed a drink. It was the ten-year anniversary of us catching the Howells. I couldn’t stop thinking about Jessica. How I’d failed her. I went to switch off. To just go…get something.” Kenny removed his glasses, wiping his brow with his sleeve, then pushed them back up his nose. “I didn’t know who he was. He was justthere. He could have been anybody.”

“That’s not true, is it, Kenny?”

“Which part?”

“It’s never just anybody. You have a particular type. And he hitsallyour buttons.” Jack counted off his fingers. “Antagonistic. Feisty. Seductive. With adon’t touch mevibe thatyouwant to be the one to break through.”

That was all surprisingly accurate, and Kenny swallowed the unease. “It was a one off. Nothing more. To let off steam.”

“You gravitate toward the broken ones. You know you do. Because you’re desperate to be the one to fix them.”

“I didn’t expect to see him again. Certainly not for him to turn up in my class. Nor for any of this to happen. I didn’t know who he was!”

“Did he know who you were?”

“He says not.”

“Do you believe him?”

“It doesn’t matter if I do or not. What matters is, he’s in my life now. There’s more to all this. There’s more to him. Everything I feared, it’s true. He needs help. How can I walk away from that?”

“Because this could ruin you. Everything you’ve built up. This could shatter you.”

“I know what’s at stake. Understand it more than you know. And I’m fucking dealing with it.”

“Are you?”

“I’m trying.”

“He’s manipulating you.”

Kenny said nothing.

“You can’t see it. You think he’s innocent.”

“Heisinnocent. At least in this. Anything else, I don’t know yet.”

“Because you’re compromised.”

The truth of Jack’s words hit Kenny like a punch. But he held his ground, clinging to the belief that there was somethingredeemable in Aaron, something that wasn’t tainted by his parents’ legacy. “I’m not compromised,” he lied through gritted teeth and years of experience.

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