Page 372 of Power Play

Rider flipped an egg at the stove. “She drew blood.”

“Thank you,” Cade said.

“That doesn’t mean I’m on your side.”

“I don’t care whose side you’re on.”

“You will when you eat these eggs.”

Cade disappeared upstairs, and Bliss turned back toward me. I walked past her and headed for the coffee before she could begin her interrogation.

Easton sat with both forearms braced on the table, staring into a mug as though it had personally disappointed him.

“No Aura?” I asked.

He groaned without lifting his head. “She told me to fuck off.”

“What did you do?”

“Tried to apologize.”

“How did that make it worse?”

“I told her I forbade her from being mad at me.”

I stared at him until Easton finally looked up.

“I heard it after I said it,” he admitted.

A laugh pulled painfully at my ribs. “How’d that go?”

“She asked whether I wanted to keep all my internal organs.”

“Reasonable.”

“I told her she was being dramatic.”

“Less reasonable.”

“She threw me back onto the porch.”

Briggs looked at me from across the kitchen. “You are almost chipper this morning.”

I filled a mug and raised it toward him. “Dreamed about killing Minnesota.”

He lifted his coffee in return. “You know it.”

Rider set a plate of eggs on the island in front of me. “Eat before you die.”

“I’m not hungry.”

“Coach said to hydrate and eat.”

“You weren’t in that conversation.”

“I was standing six feet away.”

“Eavesdropping.”