Page 181 of Forever Relentless

I nodded. “But you do. It’s why you’re here.”

“But I need to leave quietly, right?” Her sarcasm was warranted.

“Or in a police car. I thought on your own terms was better.”

Fury flashed in her eyes. “On my terms? No. This is on your terms.”

“I don’t care whose terms,” I said flatly. “It means he doesn’t get you for false identity. Or sleeping with a student.”

Briar pushed to her feet and went to the fridge to pour herself a glass of wine.

“Anything else?” She asked as she screwed the lid back on. “No more secrets? No more going to someone else for social media, or making deals with bent fucking coaches?”

“No.”

“Get out.”

I’d known she would say that. I came anyway, because she deserved to hear it from me rather than find out some other way. I hesitated, but I’d expected this reaction. I nodded. “This was the only way I knew how to protect you.”

“I didn’t need your protection, Noah.” She took a drink of wine. “I knew what I was risking when I came here.”

I shrugged. “That’s the difference between you and me, B. I wasn’t willing to risk you like that.”

She looked at me for a long moment and then pointed at the door. “Door’s over there.”

I’d expected her to shut down, but it still fucking hurt. “See you, B.”

As I walked down the stairs, I found myself taking another deep breath of the evening air.

I had taken her fury, her purpose, and the justice she’d come here chasing, and traded it for a cleaner exit. I told myself that was protection. For her.

Maybe it was.

Maybe it was control wearing a nicer name.

Either way, I’d done it. And I still knew this was how it actually got resolved. Not with rebellion. Not with shouted defiance. Not with the blaze of glory we’d all been chasing.

But with a quiet agreement between two people who understood exactly what the other was capable of.

Neither of us won.

Neither of us lost.

And we shook hands on it anyway.

Chapter 34

Briar

I drank my glass of wine and didn’t taste a drop.

I poured the next glass and drank it just as quickly.

The glass landed hard against the counter, and I ignored the fact that I had almost smashed it with the force of placing it down.

I paced my apartment. Anger, resentment, and frustration surged through me, with each emotion battling for control, but I only became a mass of tangled feelings.

I thought over everything Noah had said. Everything he had agreed to. Agreed, with no right to agree to any of it.