But he’d felt like she’d personally slapped him in the face when she’d accepted all that treasure from Queen Aurora. He’d been certain, and shared it with Frey and Apollo, after their time drinking whiskey, after she’d admitted how she felt guilt about what she’d done to betray her country, she’d decline.
He didn’t feel like the asshole who had lost a bet. That moron who was in the position to take the hit of I told you so.
He’d felt like she’d betrayed him by not being who he was certain she was by doing what he was sure she wouldn’t do.
All of this meant it was probably good she was leaving tomorrow.
First, she needed to get away from folks who didn’t like her and didn’t mind in the slightest sharing that with her. No one needed that.
And second, Noc needed her away from him.
He was going to go to Apollo and Maddie’s wedding.
After that, he was going to sail with Frey and Finnie as they took Cora and Tor back to Bellebryn.
When they’d offered him his own chests of jewels and gold, he’d bartered instead for that. A few months in this world, taking it in, seeing as much of it as he could see.
Before he’d come here, discussing his involvement with Valentine, he’d already put in notice at work.
And then Valentine had assured him she would find him a position in New Orleans and he was all for that. A big adventure where he didn’t have to worry about reporting for duty, any cases he’d left open, nothing.
Then afterward, a new place, new job, new start.
And the good news was, Circe would be there because she lived in New Orleans, so he’d have someone to hang with.
Valentine lived there too but Noc didn’t see that woman hanging with anyone. Though he suspected if they found a place that made good martinis, she might stoop to throw a couple back with them.
Queen Aurora (and Frey, and when Noc kept refusing, the kicker, Cora) had insisted he take a small bag of those ice diamonds and a small chest of gold. And with his adventure in this crazy place, that was all he needed. More than he needed (Circe had taken more but she’d had a seriously fucked-up life, was trying to make a go of it in NOLA as an office manager of a towing company, and after all she’d had done to her, she deserved some cush and the means to spoil herself).
And that was what he was going to get, what he was going to do, what was up next for Noc.
The beautiful, but grieving, Franka Drakkar with her pretty mouth didn’t factor.
“So she’s your type,” Cora said, taking him back into their conversation, “But you’re not gonna go there.”
Noc shook his head. “She’s from here, I’m from home. I’m going home. But it isn’t even about that, babe. Tor got you back. Frey got Finnie back. Won’t go on because you were there, you know. Franka didn’t get her man back.”
“Don’t say that in front of Apollo,” she whispered. “Maddie suggested that and it pisses him off. He thinks she’s incapable of any emotion, much less love.”
“You four couples aren’t the only ones who’ve known love, Cora,” he returned. “Not bein’ a dick, but that’s the way it is. And she’s stone cold on the outside, babe, but inside the woman is in some serious pain. She’s capable of emotion, just like you and me, and I know that because I saw it.”
What he didn’t share was that Franka Drakkar might be capable of more of it, with the pain he saw in her eyes, the guilt that seemed to visibly weigh on her at what she’d done.
She just, for some reason, wouldn’t allow herself to let it show, even maybe fully feel it.
That reason was a mystery and Noc was a cop. Cops were big on mysteries. Solving them, to be precise.
Fuck.
Another reason he had to steer clear of Franka Drakkar.
Cora nodded. “I think your perception of her is right, at least the way she is with you, for whatever reason she gave you that particular Franka. What concerns me, honey, is that it seems to mean so much to you.”
That was what concerned him too.
“Woman’s in pain, she gave me that, she gave me time,” he tried to explain it. “Tomorrow, she’ll be gone and eventually she’ll be just another memory of this place. But you spend hours with a woman drinking whiskey and watching her face light up, the pain she’s trying to hide clearing clean away because she’s never seen a phone before. We’ll just say that’ll be a memory I won’t forget.”
“I’ll bet,” Cora replied, the concern shifting out of her expression, understanding replacing it.
Noc grabbed his knife and started cutting into the tender, moist, perfectly-cooked steak on his plate.
Cora changed the subject.
“I can’t wait to show you my world, Noc. It’s gonna be awesome. You’re gonna love it.”
He looked to her, meat in his mouth and chewing and smiling he said, “Can’t wait either, babe.”
Her face lit up too.
And seeing it, Noc knew that’d be another memory he wouldn’t forget that he’d take home from this crazy world.
There it was.
They were having dinner and Franka wasn’t invited.
Tomorrow morning, she’d be leaving.
So she was a memory of this world.
A mysterious one.
A sad one.
But just a memory.
And Noc had to live with that.
What he wouldn’t admit was that he didn’t like it.
Chapter Three