Page 363 of Power Play

“I called all of you dumb fucks.”

“It’s an imbalance,” Briggs said solemnly.

“Exactly.”

“What did you tell them?” I asked.

Rider took a long drink before answering. “The guys calm you down, and the women calm Charm down. We try to get you back to the lodge so everyone can have their men, women, emotional-support pillows, or whatever else they require.”

“That was your voice of reason?”

“No one else had one.”

“He also told Charm she stays away if you come back,” Cade said. “That was the hard limit.”

I looked at Rider, and he held my stare without backing down.

“She understood,” he said. “I told her if she heard you losing it, she stayed away because she was the reason you needed someone there.”

My fingers tightened around the beer bottle. “How did she take that?”

“How do you think?”

I looked away before he could see the answer in my face.

Rider’s voice softened without losing its firmness. “She agreed.”

The parking-lot light above us flickered before settling into a weak orange glow. Cold worked through my sweat-damp hair and the thin team jacket I’d thrown on after practice.

I didn’t want to return to the lodge, and I wanted the master suite even less. The closed closet held every gift I’d bought for Charm, while the rest of the place held the memories I’d intended to make with her. My apartment was smaller and empty enough that I could see the walls instead of staring at a future that would never happen.

Cade nudged my shoe with his. “The main lodge is safe tonight.”

I lifted an eyebrow, and he continued before I could tell him to fuck off.

“No girls and no Charm. Nobody is going to corner you or ask you to listen. You don’t go near the second cabin, and they don’t come near us.”

“You made a custody arrangement for a vacation?”

“Rider did.”

“Temporary restraining order,” Rider said. “Very official.”

“You drew the dividing line on a napkin,” Easton told him.

“It was the paper available.”

Briggs took another drink. “He used ketchup.”

“I needed visual impact.”

A laugh slipped out before I could stop it. Pain caught beneath my ribs, but the sound survived, and Cade watched me as though it mattered more than he wanted me to know.

“Come back with us,” he said.

“I’m staying at the apartment.”

“You can leave whenever you want.”