Page 355 of Power Play

“He told me to leave his life, heart, and fucking soul. He said I killed him and asked me to let him rest without my memory.”

“Oh, Cee,” Aura whispered.

“He meant it.”

Bliss wrapped one arm around my shoulders. “He was hurt.”

“He meant it,” I repeated. “I kept waiting for my Ryan to return. I thought if I found the right words, he would remember me. He remembered everything. That was the problem.”

The bruises on Briggs’s face entered my mind.

“What happened between Ryan and Briggs last night?”

The women exchanged a glance.

“What?”

“Cade said they fought,” Bliss told me.

“Fought how?”

“On the ice.”

Aura released a worried breath. “Easton said Briggs drove to Flint because Ryan shouldn’t have been alone. They got into it at the arena.”

“Ryan did that to his face?”

“They did it to each other,” Bliss said. “Ryan has a black eye, bruised ribs, and split knuckles. Briggs’s lip and jaw are messed up.”

My stomach rolled. “Why?”

“We don’t know.”

“What do you mean you don’t know?”

“Cade and Easton won’t tell us.”

“They know?”

“They know something.” Frustration sharpened Aura’s voice. “They became unbelievably tight-lipped the second we asked.”

“Briggs too,” Bliss said. “Whatever happened in the arena belongs to Ryan. That’s all Cade would tell me.”

I pictured Briggs carrying me through the snow, his coldness easing only far enough to call himself my friend before driving back to the man I had broken.

Ryan allowed Briggs to see something none of them would give me. The realization hurt, but I had no right to resent it.

“He should have someone,” I whispered.

“He has all of them,” Bliss said.

The sentence wasn’t intended to wound me. It did anyway.

Aura stared toward the small fireplace. “I hate this.”

“So do I,” Bliss said. “Cade and I never fight like that.”

“You fight.”