Page 15 of Swerve (Boosted Hearts 1)

I shook my head. “I’m good. I’m not here to drink. I just wanna dance.” God, Scott looked more tweaked than usual tonight. I usually avoided him when he was like this, but he’d tagged along with me when I told him I was going out. I was usually pretty good at coming up with excuses to ditch him, but I was seriously off my game at the moment—and I knew exactly who was to blame.

One kiss and my life had changed, just not in the way I’d imagined it would.

Harry, who I occasionally moonlighted for, had been trying to get me to come and work for him for a while. He needed a female agent and we worked well together.

I’d called and accepted the offer ten minutes after Neco walked away, leaving me standing outside my apartment door, lips still tingling. Dazed, confused, and then pissed the hell off.

Hunter and Van hadn’t been happy about my leaving, or the fact my resignation was effective immediately. I’d offered to come in after hours and keep on top of things for them for a few weeks until they found someone else, but they let me off the hook, and I got the feeling they had an idea who was behind me finally taking the leap and going after what I wanted. I hated doing that to them, they were my friends first, but it was time I did something for myself. Went after what I wanted, needed.

I loved Neco, I always would, and I knew he would always be a part of my life in some way, but I had to do this for me.

I had to stop letting him dictate my future, no matter how well meaning he was.

“You sure? A few drinks won’t hurt,” Scott said close to my ear.

“I’m sure,” I said, putting a few steps between us.

Scott nodded, then his eyes were darting around the club again. Paranoid as hell. The guy was acting weirder then usual lately, clingy, too, which I didn’t get. Yeah, he tried it on whenever possible, but I’d made it clear I would never go there with him ever again. One drunk, lonely night had been more than enough. I hoped like hell this wasn’t another attempt to lure me back in the sack.

I inwardly winced.

Neco hated Scott. With a passion. And thank fucking goodness, didn’t know about my alcohol-induced mistake with my roommate. He already thought I was an irresponsible idiot; he didn’t need any more evidence on that front. But despite occasionally using Scott to try and make Neco jealous, which was dumb and immature and had been unsuccessful anyway, I had no idea why he loathed my sleazy roommate as much as he did.

Maybe I’d just answered my own question?

The guy was a sleaze. None of my friends would stop by if Scott were there. Neco thought of me as a little sister . . . well, that’s what I’d thought until last night. Now I didn’t know what he was thinking, and honestly, I was done trying to work out where his head was at, and I was done calling him all the time, relying on him for everything. Playing games. Every time I pulled that shit, not only had I pushed him farther from me, I proved him right, that I was not cut out to be an agent, that I couldn’t take care of myself. I’d been stuck in a self-destructive cycle that I hadn’t known how to stop. There was no rehab or AA meeting for someone stupid in love.

Or maybe just stupid.

That was over now, though. I didn’t know what that kiss was about, but his words—that should never have happened—had echoed through my head all night, making me feel nauseous. One thing I did know for sure, he was protective. If nothing else, I was family. He took care of family.

I looked over at Scott. My roommate wasn’t all bad. He paid the rent on time, hadn’t skipped out on me like my previous roommate. No, I had no idea where he got his money, since he was more often than not “in between jobs,” but I didn’t really care. He never invited his friends over, and the worst thing he did was watch porn. What guy didn’t watch porn? Hell, I watched porn occasionally. I was willing to put up with him for the guarantee of a roof over my head.

“Come on then.” He grabbed my hand and dragged me through the crowd toward the dance floor.

I let him. I didn’t want to dance alone, didn’t want to be alone. Even if the person keeping me company was Scott. The music was good, just what I needed to keep my mind off my latest drama with Neco. I shoved Neco, and the King Agency, out of my head and focused on the music, of letting it wash away the awful feeling in the pit of my stomach. I was supposed to be celebrating. I had a new job, the job of my dreams. I was going after what I wanted and no one was going to hold me back.

I don’t know how long we danced. It had to be hours. I’d relented and had two maybe three shots, so was feeling pretty good, but Scott kept leaving to go to the bathroom and every time he came back he looked more wild-eyed, his behavior more erratic, his paranoia increasing.

Then he started to get too close, tried to touch me.

I gave his chest a shove. “Quit it, Scott.”

“Come on, Rubes, you know you’ve been hanging out for a repeat.”

I gave his chest another shove. “I really haven’t.” I’d been so wasted, I didn’t even remember our night together. Not something I was proud of.

He came at me again, and no matter how many times I shoved him back, he wouldn’t leave me the hell alone. The guy was too fucked up to see how completely uninterested I was, to see any-damn-thing. The expression on his face said it all. Right then, he thought he was all things hot and sexy and I was going to be the lucky lady he slobbered all over.

Still, I tried to get through to him. “We talked about this. That night was a huge mistake.” I gave him a harder shove. “Now back the hell off.”

Scott gave me a lazy, sloppy smile and reached for my face.

I veered out of the way, pushing it aside. I didn’t particularly want to drop him on his ass in the middle of the club and make a whole spectacle. Which meant my night out was over. Why couldn’t he be a normal human being? I wanted a friend, not whatever the hell this was. I was done being nice.

I managed to hold him off until the end of the song, and during his next toilet break, I moved to the other side of the club, ditching him. I was not in the mood for his bullshit, not tonight. Screw that. I needed a cab, more than ready for home.

I had my phone in my hand when I saw Neco walk in. I spotted him easily, mainly because he towered over pretty much everyone else.