Page 305 of Power Play

I could barely force the answer through my throat. “Almost six months.”

Aura sat heavily in the armchair while Bliss leaned away from me, disbelief moving across her face.

“Six months?”

“I wanted to tell you.”

“But you didn’t.”

“I couldn’t.”

Briggs stepped closer. “You could. You chose not to.”

“Back off,” Easton said.

“No.” Briggs kept his attention fixed on me. “After six months, you stood there while he defended you, and you didn’t think for one fucking second to save my boy? You couldn’t tell your parents he was your man?”

“You don’t understand.”

“I don’t need to understand.” His voice rose for the first time. “I know what you did to Ryan. Looking at your face, you know what you did too, and that pisses me off even more.”

My lungs seized. Bliss reached toward me again, but I folded forward before she could touch me, my hair falling around my face while I struggled against the panic closing my throat.

“I tried to go after him.”

“After he left.”

“I went to his apartment.”

“After he left.”

“I told him I chose him.”

“After he fucking left,” Briggs said through clenched teeth.

“Enough,” Cade ordered.

Briggs finally looked away from me.

Cade’s voice remained low, but the authority inside it changed the entire room. “This isn’t the time.”

Briggs worked his jaw as he stared at the floor. His hands opened and closed once before he reached for the backpack still hanging from one shoulder.

“Yeah.” He released a hard breath. “I’m getting out of here.”

Cade’s eyes narrowed. “Where are you going?”

“Flint.”

My head lifted.

“You’re going to Ryan?” Cade asked.

“Yes.”

“He told us he wanted to be alone.”

“He also told us he can’t breathe without feeling her beneath his skin.”