Page 28 of End Game

Good.

Because it’s not a joke.

“A lot of people have been fighting for that for a long time,” Micah eventually says quietly. “I think it’s better than it used to be, but we still have a long way to go.”

We sit in relative silence before cigarettes and cigars are extinguished, and we head inside.

Chapter five

Damage Resistance

Griffin

I expected it to hurt more.

Walking into the kitchen and seeing Ronan standing next to Cami, knowing exactly where they’d been and what they’d done, should have twisted something ugly in my gut.

It didn’t.

All I saw were her swollen eyes.

There seems to be this unspoken way we all move around each other.

No one announces that they’re giving us space.

Micah mentions nicotine, Dex follows him, and Ronan goes with them without argument.

A few seconds later, it’s just Cami and me. And I know Micah did that on purpose.

Eventually, we’re going to have to put words to all of this—who needs what, where everyone fits, what happens when needs collide. But for now, somehow, we all just… move.

“What happened?” I ask quietly after Cami has taken a few bites.

“Dex called me on my bullshit.” She laughs softly. “No, honestly, he just looked at me, but something in the way he looked at me made me realize I wasn’t as okay as I thought I was.”

“About what happened in that garage?”

“Yeah,” she answers. She’s quiet for a moment and then looks up at me. “Griffin, I’m scared it’s something I’ll have to deal with way more often than I want to.” She swallows hard. “And I feel so bad for Ronan. I know Ben wasn’t his favorite sibling anyway, but still.”

My jaw tightens before I can stop it. “If Luke did something like that…” Even imagining it makes my stomach turn. “I’d be heartbroken because it was him. Because my brother could do that to someone. And I’d still be furious that you were the person he did it to.” I take a breath. “So yeah. I get why Ronan’s probably fucked up about it.”

“Exactly,” she agrees quietly before taking another bite of pasta.

My hand finds her thigh. “And you and Ronan…” My thumb moves slowly over her leg. “Everything else is okay?”

Smiling, she puts down her fork and looks at me, giving me her full attention. “It is, Griffin. He needs to talk to everyone about some things, but yeah, it’s okay. It’s good.”

She studies me for a moment. “Are you okay with it?”

I wait for the jealousy I expected earlier. Search for it, almost.

Nothing.

She’s sitting beside me. My hand is on her thigh. She talked to me before she went to him. None of that disappeared because Ronan finally stopped fighting what was already there.

The corner of my mouth lifts.

“Yeah, I’m okay.” I squeeze her thigh gently. “You’re still mine, too. That’s all I need.”