But I don’t want to forget it. I can’t forget it when there’s a vein bulging in his neck.

I pause when I see him stepping back into his pants. His shirt goes over his head and then he’s working on his laces.

I take a breath and fight to keep my voice level. “It’s Taylor’s fault that I didn’t get that job at Van Doren and that I got fired. This is the least she and her friends can do to make it up to me.” He doesn’t respond. “Where are you going?”

“Need some air,” he says, pushing the bedroom door open.

I stand there still in a little shock until I hear the front door open, close. I grab my purse from the bed and follow him out to the elevators. “Will you slow down? I haven’t broken in these heels yet.”

He slips an arm between the doors and waits for me to step in first, but keeps his eyes straight ahead after hitting the Ground button. “B, you need to check yourself. These guys aren’t your friends. You don’t even know these people.”

He’s right. I don’t know them. My mind flips back to what Nate said before. About how the things Taylor and her friends used to do in high school were worse than anything I’ve ever done. I wonder what kind of trouble they got in back then, the laws they broke.

“I don’t want friends,” I say, my words fierce. “They’re the ones who need something from me. They offered to pay for my silence, not the other way around.”

He sighs and stares at the floor for a moment. “Look, I’m not gonna tell you what to do.”

“Sounds like you just did.”

The elevator dings.

“I’m just looking out for you. Damn, Brandi.” Nate slips through the doors and takes off, stepping through the automatic glass doors at the entrance.

He’s walking so fast that they shut in my face by the time I get to them.

That sparks something in me—a kind of anger that I didn’t even know existed. I slip through the doors and do my best to keep up with him.

“I grew up in the streets. I had no one but myself. You think I don’t know how to look out for myself?”

“These guys are different,” Nate says, not slowing down. “In the streets, you have your guard up. You know what to look out for, what to pay attention to. This world is different. Everyone is beautiful. The vultures are hard to see. Trust me, Taylor fucked me over, and I never saw it coming.”

That shocks me into silence. We’re almost at the corner before I speak again and when I do, my voice has an edge. “Thought she was just someone you used to know?”