Page 155 of The ARC Unit: Breach

Wolf unfolded the gray blanket on the floor and put the pillow at one end. He removed his socks and set them beside the wall, then took his watch off and placed it carefully beside the phone on the desk. I watched him longer than I meant to.

Without boots or tactical gear, he moved differently. Quieter. The plain black mask looked almost stranger with sleep clothes than it did with a rifle across his chest, as if that piece of Wolf had followed him somewhere the rest of the uniform had not.

He caught me looking.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“You’re staring.”

“You say that like you don’t.”

His eyes dropped briefly to the blanket over my legs.

“Go to sleep.”

I rolled onto my side and rested my head against his pillow. “Do you actually sleep?”

“Yes.”

“I’ve never seen evidence.”

“You aren’t usually in my room at night.”

I tucked one hand beneath the pillow. “Fair.”

Wolf reached for the lamp. I looked at the covering still hiding the lower half of his face.

“Wait.”

His fingers paused against the switch.

“You sleep in that?”

His eyes held mine.

“The mask,” I clarified, since precision had become the only way to make the question worse. “You don’t actually sleep in it, do you?”

“No.”

Neither of us said anything for a beat. Neither of us seemed interested in acknowledging the obvious next problem.

“Right,” I said.

He switched off the lamp.

Darkness filled the room.

The blinds let in only a narrow strip of security light from outside, enough to separate the desk from the wall and leave Wolf’s body as a dark shape beside the bed. I heard him lower himself onto the blanket.

Then fabric shifted softly.

It was a small sound, nothing dramatic, but my entire body noticed anyway. He had taken the mask off.

Wolf was lying less than six feet from me with his face completely uncovered and I could not see him. The darkness suddenly felt far more deliberate than it had a minute earlier.

I lay on my back staring toward the ceiling I could barely make out. My phone sat on his desk, within reach if I leaned far enough. One touch would light the room for a second. Enough to see him. Enough to finally know where the scar began and how far it traveled, what his entire face did when he wasn’t hiding most of it.