Page 116 of The Atom Between Us

Almost.

We don’t get twenty meters before Kang slows, glancing over his shoulder like he’s checking for pursuit. There’s nobody—just empty passage and the echo of our own boots. I wonder if he’s changed his mind about the party, but when I look up, his eyes are locked on me.

Not just on me. On the dress. On the line of my shoulder, the curve of my ribs, the exposed seam of thigh where the lace rides high and the bandage cuts white beneath. For the first time since I met him, he looks lost.

He stops. I stop, too.

“Fuck, Dee…” he says, so low it’s almost inaudible.

Heat shoots up my neck. My skin goes two degrees hotter, and I’m suddenly aware of every inch of the dress, every place the fabric brushes bare. I want to make a joke, but my brain stutters. I settle for a shrug and a crooked smile.

“You look like you just saw a ghost,” I say, voice light.

He doesn’t blink. “Didn’t know you had that in your bag.”

“It was a gift from the weird hospitality fairy,” I say. “Either that or they wanted to see if I could be blackmail material.”

He laughs, the sound abrupt and bright, but his eyes never leave me. “It’s effective.”

I force my arms to relax, let them fall to my sides. “You gonna gawk, or are we going to this shindig?”

Kang’s mouth twitches, the barest flash of white teeth. “You’re enjoying this.”

It’s not a question, but I nod anyway.

He steps closer, slow enough that I could move if I wanted. I don’t. His voice, when it comes, is just for me.

“You look…,” he stops, searching for the word, “dangerous.”

I snort. “Good. Maybe they’ll keep their distance tonight.”

He smiles—just a crack, but genuine. Then he glances away, as if ashamed of something. I realize he doesn’t know what to do with himself now that the Authority mask is gone. With the kids, he had a job. Now, he has nothing but me.

“So,” I say, filling the silence. “What was that back there?”

He tilts his head. “The kids?”

“Yeah. You let them treat you like a playground. That’s… new.”

He shrugs, eyes on the floor. “They wouldn’t stop following me. Kept asking if I was really Authority, or if I was going to arrest someone. Then one of them—” he hesitates, almost smiles, “—one of them just stood there, didn’t say a word, and put his hands up. Like he wanted a lift.”

“And you picked him up.”

He nods. “After that, they all wanted turns.”

I picture it. The straight-backed captain, surrounded by feral children, letting them climb him like a tree. It’s so at odds with the man I met in the cell block that I have to laugh.

My laughter bounces off the tunnel walls, ricochets into the air. It’s loud and ugly, but I don’t care.

Kang watches me, his gaze sharp and hungry.

“What?” I say, when I catch my breath.

He shakes his head, voice low. “Nothing. Just haven’t seen you like this.”

“Like what?”

He doesn’t answer. Just keeps looking, like he’s trying to memorize every detail.