I didn’t relax, though, until I was home. Drawing the attention of the cops was a bad thing, even if that one had seemed to show respect for me. Or respect for tough women, or something.

A bad thing, but I was almost more worried about what pinkhair would try. Her orders said to watch me. I had a feeling she might be tempted to go beyond them now, but I couldn’t let her kill that guy.

As much to protect her as him. Maybe. I wasn’t even entirely sure of all of my own motivations. I just knew I couldn’t let her kill him.

Once home, I locked the door and flopped on my bed fully dressed. Wouldn’t be the first time I hadn’t managed to get changed before sleeping, but I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be sleeping tonight. Fortunately, it was the weekend.

The incident went round and round in my head. Protecting mortals now. That led towards them not being my enemies, except I thought they were.

Or maybe they hoped to not be my enemies, or maybe it was more complicated than that. “I hate politics,” I murmured.

Politics. Was that what it was all about? Divine politics and feuds and arguments. I wanted rid of all of it, but clearly that wasn’t going to happen.

Clearly even losing my memory and, likely, at least some supernatural powers hadn’t allowed me to escape.

So I was back to the question of ‘Who did pinkhair work for.’ Loki had denied all responsibility, but he was known to lie.

Not to me.

That thought came out of nowhere and I shoved it to the side. Him liking me wasn’t relevant right now.

But no. Loki was watching me himself, not delegating his dirty work. And I still felt threatened.

My thoughts were interrupted by a crash from downstairs. I slammed into the door, momentarily forgetting that I’d locked it, and almost knocking it off its hinges. Wrestled with the lock. That just hadn’t sounded good.
And as I made it downstairs, I saw that what had crashed was another of the leather guys, into the bottom of the stairs. What had caused him to crash? A smug looking Kanesha.

“Kanesha…”

“He called me something nasty and then tried to shove me out of the way.”

“He’s been following me around, along with some of his friends.” I made it down the stairs. “I really suggest not insulting Kanesha.”

He picked himself up. “She hits hard. Where did you find her?”

I ignored the question. “What are you doing in here? Actually, scratch that. Just get out. I’m done with you.”

I made it sound like he was somebody who’d been trying to get me to go out with him.

“I was trying to warn you, actually. Believe it or not, we’re not the worst threat to you.”