Page 324 of Power Play

Briggs looked back.

“I meant what I said to Cade.”

“I know.”

“I’m done with her.”

“I know.”

“I don’t need you showing up tomorrow with some speech about how she was scared or how six months should count for something.”

“I won’t.”

“I don’t need you helping her get to me.”

“I won’t.”

“If she calls you—”

“I won’t tell her anything you don’t want her to know.”

The answer came without hesitation, and my throat tightened.

Briggs shifted the strap of his duffel higher onto his shoulder. “You don’t have to convince me, Ry. Love isn’t a contract requiring you to stay until somebody finishes destroying you.”

I looked away before he could see what the words did to me.

“She was my soul.”

Briggs went completely still.

The confession slipped out so quietly that I almost pretended it hadn’t. “I told her to leave my fucking soul, but she was it.” My hand tightened around the strap of my gear bag. “She was my soul.”

His eyes shone, but his face remained steady for me. “I know, brother.”

The first tear fell before I could turn away.

Briggs didn’t pretend to miss it. He stepped close enough that our shoulders touched and waited.

I leaned into him only slightly. It was the most I could give without collapsing again, and he took the weight as though it were nothing.

We stood inside the empty tunnel with our gear hanging from exhausted bodies. Neither of us offered the lies people used when grief became too uncomfortable.

Briggs didn’t tell me I would find someone else. He didn’t promise time would fix it or tell me Charm and I belonged together.

He stood beside me while I tried to accept that the woman I loved was still alive, less than two hours away, and lost to me because I had no idea how I could ever trust her again.

Then he carried half my gear to the truck because my hands wouldn’t stop shaking.

24

Ryan

Briggs woke me by opening every cabinet in my kitchen.

I knew it was every cabinet because the first three slams dragged me out of sleep, and the next four convinced me murder was probably still frowned upon by the Frost organization.

“What the fuck are you doing?” My voice came out rough from the bedroom.