Page 53 of Rookie Rules

Rowan looked less composed away from the ballroom lights. Not uncertain exactly. More like certainty had cost him something on the drive over.

Luca leaned against the frame. "Did I violate a rule we haven't invented yet?"

"Can I come in?"

No correction. No order.

Luca could have made him work harder. Part of him wanted to. The part that had spent four days being professionally erased wanted Rowan to name every inch of the distance between the hotel and this hallway.

Instead Luca stepped aside.

Rowan entered and waited while the door closed. The apartment looked suddenly more temporary around him: rented couch, blank walls, one suitcase still serving as a laundry basket.

His gaze caught on the unopened boxes.

"Settling in," he said.

"Aggressively."

"You need furniture?"

"I have furniture. None of it knows my name."

Rowan looked at the schedule on the refrigerator, then at Luca. He had come here with a purpose and was searching the room for safer ones.

Luca folded his arms. "You were very committed to ignoring me."

"I was working."

"Naturally."

"So were you."

"I managed to speak to people while doing it. Advanced technique."

The line struck. Rowan did not retreat from it.

"Practice was unacceptable," he said.

Luca laughed once. "You drove here at eleven to review the weak-side entry?"

"No."

The answer changed the room.

Rowan looked at him. No donors, teammates, or cameras to absorb the silence. Luca's confidence sharpened because the alternative was letting hope show.

"Why are you here?"

"I shouldn't be."

"That wasn't the question."

"I know."

Rowan moved closer.

Luca stayed where he was.