“Oh, I don’t. If there’s one thing I won’t ever have to worry about, it’s you.” With a smile, she turned for the car and climbed in.

I watched that last SUV drive away, taking a moment to collect myself, to let the sense of understanding—and I couldn’t call it forgiveness, but acceptance, maybe?—sink in. It was emotional distance, as if observing them from behind a glass wall. A moment of objectivity. It was easier to think of Natasha as a wild honey badger, hissing at me with a threat she couldn’t act on. Because there was nothing she could do to me that hadn’t already been done, other than get me fired. But so long as I didn’t take the bait and open her cage, everything would be fine.

With the draw of a long, heavy breath, I turned for the doors to check on vendor load-out before heading to the club. Walking the plush hallways of the Plaza, Brock was on my mind.

Natasha I could accept. But Brock I could not. Considering he was in his mid-thirties, I figured it could be a midlife crisis. Or maybe some Peter Pan complex. He was vain, and on that merit alone, I could see the appeal of someone like Natasha. And he was arrogant, which he’d found a likeness with in her. Really, they had so much more in common than he and I did. She offered him youth, power, and the combined pride that made them nearly bulletproof.

I wondered if either of them had feelings, real, honest feelings. Natasha definitely felt rage and jealousy. Brock felt entitlement. But beyond that, what did they care for other than themselves?

And how had I gone on so long with someone so deeply selfish?

As much as I hated seeing him, he just kept making it easy for me to walk away. Oh, how much harder it would have been had he told me all the things I’d once wanted to hear, professed his love, begged me for forever. Don’t get me wrong, I still would have walked away. It just would have been harder, that was all.

I had to admit my satisfaction when Brock had seen Kash and me together. When Kash snarked at him with that easy smile on his face, defended me when he didn’t need to, saved me when I could have saved myself, just because he could. Just because he wanted to.

A hot ache bloomed in my chest. Kash was my safe place, my refuge. He was the best part of my life, which at present was dominated by the pack of starving hyenas known as the Felix Femmes and the fact that I was on the rebound and homeless. He gave me respite. But what had started off as a distraction had turned into something more. Something deeper.