Page 294 of Power Play

“Briggs,” Cade warned.

The car fell quiet because they knew his tone as well as they knew mine when I had reached the end of somebody’s shit.

I locked the apartment behind me and stared at the door. The deadbolt slid smoothly into place, indifferent to the fact that I had just removed the only other person who possessed a key.

Cade waited until I reached the stairs. “Did Charm come to your apartment?”

My grip tightened around the phone. “You know she did.”

“Is she still there?”

“Hell fucking no.”

“What happened?”

“I ended it.”

The silence on the line changed. Bliss drew a sharp breath, but she didn’t speak. Tires hummed beneath them, confirming they were already on the road.

Cade kept his voice steady. “Where is she now?”

“I don’t know, and I don’t care.”

“Ryan.”

“What the fuck do you want from me? I told her to leave, and she left. I didn’t put a tracker on her car before I ripped my key off her ring.”

Briggs cursed beneath his breath.

I took the stairs too quickly and struck the landing hard enough to send pain through my knees. Cold air cut through my open collar when I shoved through the outer door.

“You took your key back?” Cade asked.

I looked both ways before crossing the lot. “Sure as fuck did.”

His next pause told me he understood.

A fight left room for tomorrow. Taking back the key told Charm she no longer had a tomorrow inside my home.

“How bad was it?” Cade asked.

“Bad enough.”

“That isn’t an answer.”

I threw my duffel behind the seat in my truck. “I made sure she understood.”

“Understood what?”

“That there’s nothing left of us.”

My voice sounded normal. Low and controlled. Maybe a little irritated, but nothing close to the wreckage tearing through my chest.

I had moved through foster homes with my belongings in garbage bags and learned how to keep my face empty while strangers decided whether I was worth the trouble. I knew how to speak while something inside me was dying.

I slid behind the wheel and started the truck.

Cade heard something anyway. “What did you say to her?”