“Safe might not be the right word,” I say. “Protected, claimed, and watched would be better.”
“That’s not really the same thing.”
“No,” I agree. “But it’s what I’ve got, and it’s as close to safe as I think I’m gonna get.”
I leave it at that. It’s just too hard to explain some things.
But I feel the question she’s not asking, the one on the tip of her tongue. She doesn’t even need to say it out loud.
Do you want to leave? Are you stuck here?
Something about that grates, as if I’m too stupid to see what’s right in front of me. But on the other hand, I’d probably ask the same of someone living in as strange a situation as I am.
In the corner, I hear Rogue’s voice change slightly, not louder, just sharper, his point being made. Armen responds in that low, even register he uses when he’s trying to manage a situation. Sting says nothing, but his tension is clear by the flexing of his fingers, as if he’s bleeding off irritation.
Whatever Rogue said, it looks like Sting doesn’t like it.
Mara watches them the way I watched them in my first days inside the Rot, trying to decode their speech and movements. But, she doesn’t have the time to learn it like I did. She doesn’t have any protection, either. She has me, and right now, I don’t think that’s worth a hell of a lot.
My protection, the protection I get from the guys, does not extend to her, that much is clear. This reunion with my oldest friend is reduced to a cost-benefit analysis happening fifteen feet away in voices I can’t quite hear.
The conversation breaks.
Armen turns first. His expression is settled and whatever argument he made, he’s finished making it. He gives me a look I can’t fully read. It’s not cold or warm, just… resolved. Like some sort of decision has been reached.
Rogue follows. His hands are in his pockets and his posture is loose, but his eyes have that sharp, quality they get when something is about to happen. I search his face and while he catches my gaze, holding it for a moment, he returns no expression.
Then there’s Sting, whose eyes find mine across the room.
And just like with Rogue, I can’t read them.
He looks at Mara. Then at me. Then at Mara again.
Her grip tightens on my hand, sharp enough to hurt, and I realize this reunion isn’t going to be what I thought.
4
STING
This woman, this “friend”of Vi’s, has seen the safe house. She knows its location, its access point, the route we took from the Rot to get here. She’s seen the club. She watched us enter and watched us leave, which means she knows we use it, which means she can place three high-level Rotters at an establishment that depends on discretion like it’s life or death.
That’s currency in our world.
She’s figured out by now that Vi is bound to us guys. She might not call it that, but she knows there’s a commitment, a relationship of sorts, even if it’s not one she understands. I mean hell, she heard as much from the big-mouthed guard outside the Rot and now, she’s sitting in our safehouse room watching the four of us, confirming every detail with her own eyes.
So… we’ve got location, association, and hierarchy at stake. Three categories of information that do not leave this room.
Ever.
I lay it out in the corner with Armen and Rogue standing close enough to hear me without the women catching the words.I keep my voice flat, my comments brief. Everything about our carefully constructed lives, everything we’ve fought so hard for, is at stake.
“She’s a security breach,” I say. “Every minute she’s alive and uncontained, the exposure window widens. She knows where we sleep when we’re outside the Rot. She can identify us. She can describe the club’s location to anyone who asks. One conversation with the wrong person and we lose this safe house, the club is in jeopardy, and we put a target on Vi that we can’t control.”
Armen listens like he always does. That’s the difference between us. I arrive at the conclusion and deliver it. He often arrives at the same conclusion but waits to see if anyone else gets there before he speaks. The man has infinite patience.
“You’re talking about eliminating her,” he says. Not accusatory. Just clarifying.
“I’m identifying the problem. Now, I’d like to talk about solutions.”
