Page 43 of Rogue’s Mark

She grins. "Smooth."

"Don't push it."

I reach across the table and take her hand. She looks down at it.

"You keep doing that," she says.

"Doing what?"

"Holding my hand. In public. Like you like me or something."

Ballbuster.

"Is it a problem?"

"No," she says. "Just noting it. What if people see?"

"I don't know. Maybe we'd better stop."

I try to pull my hand back. She tightens her grip.

I leave cash on the table. Vi slides out of the booth and I follow, placing my hand on the small of her back on the way past the counter. Briefly but enough.

Outside the diner, the afternoon is standing still, only interrupted by a delivery truck crawling past and two women chatting outside a closed hardware store. A kid on a bike cuts through the intersection without stopping, which is fine because there’s no reason to stop.

Sting is half a block up, walking toward us.

He doesn't say anything when he reaches us. We fall into step together, the three of us, Vi between us on the pavement. Her shoulder brushes mine on the left and Sting's on the right. She doesn't adjust. Doesn't widen the gap.

Just keeps walking.

Sting glances at me over Vi's head. One look. I know what he’s thinking, same thing I am, that Fischer's still missing, Armen's back at the Rot, and when we get through that gate, we're going to have to deal with whatever comes next.

But that's when we get there.

Right now, Vi's shoulder is against mine and her hand is still warm from where I held it.

I can work with that.

25

ROGUE

Armen is in the operations room when we get back.

He's at the whiteboard, jacket off, which means he's been here awhile. Fischer's name is on the board with a question mark beside it. Sting drops into a chair. Vi leans against the doorframe. I stay standing because I like standing.

"Fischer?" I ask.

"Found him," Armen says. One of the south utility rooms. He'd moved his things. Made himself a smaller space, harder to find."

"Scared," I say.

"Very. He knows something is going on. He won't say what."

"He'll say it eventually," Sting says.

Armen nods and puts down the marker, and Vi pushes off the doorframe. "There's something else."