“Yes.”
“And without Vi’s.”
“Armen. I know.”
He looks at me. Steady. Not judging. Measuring. “When this comes out, and it will come out, Vi is going to see this as exactly the thing she accused you of. Making decisions around her. Treating her like she’s not in the room.”
He’s not wrong. Vi stood in this room and told me to treat her like a person with a brain. Now, I’m sitting in the same room, planning an operation that involves her best friend without telling either of them.
“I know what it looks like,” I say. “But if I tell Vi, she goes at Tommy. She confronts him today and he’s gone tonight. We lose him and lose whatever he knows about Renner, about the corruption, about the six-week gap between his last note and disappearance. I’m not willing to trade that for the sake of keeping Vi happy.”
“It’s not about keeping her happy,” Armen says. “It’s about keeping her trust.”
“I’ll earn it back.”
“You sure about that?”
No. I’m not sure. But I don’t have a better option, and the clock is ticking.
“When does Rogue plant it?” Armen asks.
“Today. This afternoon if the opening comes. I want all eyes on Tommy. If he’s Fischer, his first move will be to verify. He’ll try to find out if it’s true, if Vi is really asking about city employees. He might approach someone, he might try to talk to Vi directly. Whatever he does, it’ll be different from his routine. That’s what we’re looking for.”
“And if nothing changes?” Rogue asks.
“Then maybe I’m wrong about him. Maybe he’s just a guy who does office work and counts boxes and makes nice with the new girl. Maybe the handwriting is a coincidence.”
“You don’t believe that,” Armen says.
“No. I don’t.”
Armen stands. “Then let’s do it. Rogue plants it today. I’ll take first watch on Tommy.”
Rogue hops off the couch arm. “So I’m lying to Mara. Great. She’s going to love me when this is over.”
“She’ll understand,” I say.
“You keep saying that about people. Vi will understand. Mara will understand. At some point, someone’s not going to understand, and it’s going to be ugly.”
He’s right. I push it aside. There’ll be time for ugly later. Right now, I’ve got a trap to set.
We leave the Skylight Room. Three men with a plan. It feels good, the way it always does when we’re working together, moving in the same direction, each handling our piece. This is what I was built for. Not the feelings. Not the words. This.
The feelings are going to catch up with me eventually. I know that. Rogue’s not wrong. But right now, I’ve got a man to catch.
59
STING
I standoutside Vi’s door for three minutes before I knock.
Three minutes. One hundred and eighty seconds. I count them because counting is what I do when my brain is short-circuiting. Operational habit. When everything else fails, count something.
I don’t have a speech. I tried to write one in my head on the walk over but couldn’t get past the first sentence. Every version sounded wrong, too formal, too rehearsed. Too much like a man performing an apology rather than meaning one.
So I’m going in empty with no plan. Just me and whatever comes out of my mouth when I open it.
Terrifying.
