She felt Darling tensing at their whispered insults. So much for his telling her that those comments didn’t bother him.

She started for the gossipers, but he tightened his hand on hers.

“Let it go.”

“But—”

“It’s fine, Z. Really.”

She ground her teeth as anger burned deep inside. “It’s not to me.”

“You know the difference between the governor and the Aris, don’t you?” This time, she suspected the gerent talking wanted her to overhear him. Yet his question made no sense. The Aris was a League station that had malfunctioned and crashed into a base on Nera V when she and Darling were children. It’d been one of the worst tragedies in League history.

“What?” another gerent asked.

“The Aris went down on only two thousand men.”

She headed for Hauk.

He arched a brow at her approach.

“Give me your weapon. Now.” She held her hand out for it.

He laughed. “I would love to, but Darling would kick my ass if I did.”

“I’m going to kick it if you don’t.”

Darling pulled her back against him. “It’s okay, Z. They always do this. I really am used to it.”

“You’re their governor. They should respect you.”

He gave her a teasing grin. “This from the leader of the Resistance?”

Guilt over that gnawed at her. How could she have ever sanctioned anyone to fight against him? She wanted to beat her own butt for that.

Meanwhile the jokes echoed around them until she wanted to scream.

“C’mon,” Darling said quietly. “Let’s go. We’re done here.”

Still, it infuriated her.

But in the end, she knew he was right. Attacking them over those insults would be a bad mistake. If Darling went crazy on them, they could petition the League to have him removed from power. Even jailed.

Or institutionalized.

Most likely, that was why they were doing it. They wanted to goad him into attacking.

Unwilling to give them any kind of satisfaction, she followed Darling and tried to ignore them, too.

With his friends and family in tow, he led her down the hallway to where they’d checked her wrap on her arrival.

Darling had just put it on her when another gerent laughed at them.

“Yes, but you have to envy him that ass. You know, she’d have to be one hell of a lay to get him hard for her. I bet that whore can suck the glaze off porcelain.”

Even though Darling wore those dark glasses, she saw the flash of unmitigated fury in his eyes. Now, she finally understood where his strength came from. She could take insults against her. They didn’t matter. It was only the ones against him that made her livid.

Zarya cupped his face with her hands and forced him to look at her and not the man who’d insulted her. “Let it go, Darling. He’s not worth it.”

Darling forced himself to listen to her and to calm down. She was right. He needed to walk away. He couldn’t afford to attack them.