It took a moment for what he said to sink in, but I knew he was correct. I was as out of control as I had ever been.

“I’m sorry,” I exclaimed. “But there was no call for what she did. It was a power play, and you know it.”

“Yeah, it was,” he admitted as he pulled the gearshift down into drive and pounded his fist twice on the horn before letting off the brake. “I told ya’ how she was…” He took a moment to direct an exclamation toward the windshield. “Get outta my way you friggin’ asshole, or you’re gonna get run over! Jeezus!”

My friend twisted the steering wheel and nudged the vehicle slowly forward through the group of reporters and camera operators as they began parting. As he brought the van around and rotated the wheel back toward center, he shot me a quick glance.

“Listen, Kemosabe, I had no idea that was what she had planned, but it doesn’t surprise me. I told you what she thought of ya’.”

“But that whole exercise was done for no other reason than to get under my skin.” I asserted.

“Uh-huh,” my friend grunted. “That’s how she plays the game.”

“Well, her rules suck.”

“Aye, but that doesn’t matter,” Felicity said from behind me. “She succeeded in exactly what she set out to do. Look at yourself, then. I’ve never seen you lose your temper like this.”

“Yes you have,” I shot back as I turned in my seat to face her. “You just don’t remember it because a sick sonofabitch had you drugged up on Rophynol.”

“Aye,” she answered with an uncharacteristic hardness in her voice. “He did at that, but I remember more than you know, Rowan Linden Gant. More than you know.”

As she slumped back in her seat, she continued to stare at me with a cold fire in her jade green eyes. I knew at that moment that I had flipped the wrong switch.

I hoped my chosen deities were listening.