Page 402 of Power Play

“You chose Milwaukee so you could run somewhere my fingerprints wouldn’t follow you.”

“I’m warning you.”

“And you came back here alone because signing without me hurt more than you expected.”

I grabbed the counter on either side of her, trapping her between my arms without touching her. “You think you understand tonight?”

“I understand that the biggest dream of your life came true, and you couldn’t stay at the celebration.”

“I needed space.”

“You needed me.”

“I needed you before you fucked everything up.”

“You need me now.”

“I hate you now.”

“You love me more.”

“That’s why I have to hate you!” The words exploded through the lodge.

Charm’s breath caught, but she didn’t retreat. “Then hate me. Hate me without pretending it makes you free.”

“You think this is freedom?”

“I think you’re so afraid of losing another piece of yourself that you would rather tear out everything I touched.”

“That is exactly what I’m doing.”

“You’ll have nothing left.”

“I’ve survived with less.”

Her face crumpled before rage restored it. “That doesn’t make you strong. It makes you alone.”

“I know how to be alone.”

“You shouldn’t have to be.”

“You don’t get to decide that for me anymore.”

“I’m not asking to decide. I’m asking you to stop acting like what we had is replaceable.”

“It isn’t.”

The answer silenced her, and I kept going before either of us could soften around it.

“I will never find this again, and neither will you. I know exactly what I’m walking away from, and I’m doing it anyway.”

“Because your pride is injured?”

“Because you gutted me!”

“You keep calling it pride because admitting you destroyed something irreplaceable would require you to live with it.”

“I already live with it every fucking second.” I struck my chest hard enough to hurt. “All the years you’ve known me, all those months we fucked and slept beside each other and fell in love, and you never thought you would see this version of me.”