“You want to tell me what that was all about?” Nolene asks, hands clenched at her sides. A faint bruise mars her cheekbone where Amy hit her outside the storeroom.
Dropping into a chair opposite her, I rub the back of my neck, so tired of battling my own emotions and now I have to deal with hers. “I didn’t want to drug Amy,” I say simply.
“You’re becoming too soft,” Nolene accuses.
“Soft?” I echo, my eyes narrowing. “Because an arson manual is not my preferred bedside reading material?”
A flush stains her cheekbones. “It’s a line I’m willing to cross.” Her lips curl into a sneer. “A line you haven’t the guts to get close to.”
“With good reason.” Frustration sharpens my voice. “Come on, Nolene. Three years in prison wasn’t enough for you?”
“I was young and stupid enough to get caught,” she replies. “It won’t happen again.”
Yes, it will, and I don’t want to be around to witness it. Or go down in flames with her.
I draw a bracing breath into my lungs. “Nolene, I think it’s best we call it quits.”
She arches an eyebrow. “I know it’s over between us, Kane. You’ve made that clear enough already.”
“I’m talking about professionally as well.”
As the words settle between us, Nolene stills. “What are you saying?”
A lot of things I really don’t want to. But I can no longer deny it’s time to send her away. I’ve been putting it off for too long. Ross and Mel feel increasingly uncomfortable having Nolene around. Truth be told, so do I. It feels as though I can no longer predict what she will or won’t do, and that puts me in an untenable position.
“You’ve been talking about Asia for a while,” I say. “Maybe it’s time to make that your fight.”
We’ve been receiving sickening reports about the burgeoning market in Asia for graphic animal crush videos featuring teenage girls in revealing outfits killing small animals.
Nolene stares at me wide-eyed. “You want me to leave AFD?” she whispers. “You can’t be serious.”
I hold her stare and let my silence answer for me.
Understanding registers on her face. “It’s because ofher, isn’t it? Highness Hutchinson?”
“This has nothing to do with Amy. It’s just time for us to move on.”
I glimpse the increasing disbelief in her eyes as she searches my face, seeing more than I want.
“She got to you, didn’t she? You’re going to throw away everything we’ve fought five years for.”
“I’m not throwing anything away,” I say steadily. “I know what I’m doing.”
Her taut face says she doesn’t believe the lie any more than I do.
“You keep telling yourself that,” she spits out. “You keep telling yourself you’re not compromising everything on a selfish,vain—”
I motion her angrily to silence. “Okay, that’s enough. End of discussion.”
She gives me a knowing smile. “My point exactly.”
I dig deep for calm, telling myself Nolene is hurting and lashing out at me is her defense mechanism. Gentling my voice, I ask, “How long will you need to get your stuff sorted?”
A range of emotions—anger, humiliation, anguish—chase themselves across her features. I wait while she struggles to bring them under control. “My passport’s in order,” she answers eventually. “I’ll need to contact my friend in Manila, see if I can stay at her place. Once I’ve sold my car, I’ll book a flight out.”
“AFD will pay for your flight.”
I should hope so, her look says. “My lease is up so I can’t stay at my apartment,” she informs me. “I’ll need to stay at the sanctuary until Wednesday.”
