I sounded like I had the balls to walk away, but he couldn’t hear my heart rattling behind my ribs. I needed this job. I needed the purpose. I needed Gina’s backup and Robin’s no-bullshit rules. The military had fucked me in all ways. If I didn’t have Kempthorne & Co, I was a ghost. I couldn’t go home. An authenticator in the East End? The gangs would’ve been all over me, and I knew me, I wouldn’t be able to resist all that temptation for long. It’d kill me. And probably others.
