Page 361 of Power Play

He didn’t avoid it. “She stood in the parking lot until she started turning blue. My coldness only goes so far.”

“You carried her?”

His expression shifted slightly. “You know how soft I get when girls cry. It was a weak moment.”

“You are a dumb fuck.” I knew Briggs, though. Charm’s legs had probably given out, and the giant asshole carried her into the lodge while trying to make her laugh because his anger didn’t erase the fact that she was one of ours.

She’d been mine once, too.

“Good,” I muttered. “Be the hero I refuse to be. I would’ve kept her standing there.”

The words came out uglier than I felt. Briggs studied me until the pressure of his stare made me relent.

“She shouldn’t have been left in the cold,” I said.

“No, she shouldn’t have.”

“But you still followed me.”

“The first chance I got.”

“I know.”

“I told her it was a new day and I could be her friend today.” Briggs accepted the beer Rider handed him. “Then I told her I wouldn’t carry messages to you, and I came here.”

Something in my chest loosened enough to hurt. I’d spent most of my life expecting people to leave as soon as loving me became inconvenient, yet those four assholes had built their entire night around making sure I didn’t disappear into an empty apartment.

“Thank you.”

Briggs nodded, letting the words stand without making me regret saying them.

Cade looked down at his bottle. “Charm asked us to get you back to the lodge.”

“No.”

“She said she would stay in the second cabin.”

“The answer is still no.”

“She said she wouldn’t come into the main one if you were there.”

I drank again and kept my voice level. “Still no.”

“That’s what I told her.”

My gaze shifted toward him. “Then why are you asking me now?”

“I’m not asking you to see her. I said I couldn’t make any promises for you.” He glanced at the others before continuing. “The women are staying in the second cabin tonight.”

I looked between them. “All of them?”

“Aura, Bliss, Charm, Vivi, Gayle, and Skylar,” Easton said. “Nobody’s going near the main lodge.”

“What did that cost you?”

His mouth twisted. “A pretty bad fight.”

“With Aura?”