Page 272 of Face Off

“Yeah. Hate me if you need to but hear me.”

“I heard her!”

“No. You heard what she trained you to hear. You heard that you’re too loud, too needy, and too fucking much. You heard that if you had been easier to love, she wouldn’t have climbed into other men’s beds.”

Briggs shoves me.

Cade and Easton move immediately, but I raise one hand without taking my eyes off Briggs. I don’t shove him back.

“She cheated because she wanted to,” I tell him. “She lied because the truth would’ve cost her access to you. None of that happened because you text too much or show up when the person you love says she’s hurting.”

“You don’t know anything about our relationship.”

“I know you spend every day trying to become smaller so she’ll stop punishing you for taking up space.”

Lyric laughs bitterly. “This is rich coming from you. Charm destroyed you, and you spent the entire weekend following her around like a dog.”

My attention moves toward her so slowly that the laughter dies in her throat. “You’ve already used Charm once tonight,” I say. “Do it again.”

The warning is quiet, but Lyric understands it anyway. I would never hurt her with my hands, but words have always been my sharpest weapon, and I have two languages capable of cutting her to nothing if she presses me further.

Bliss attempts to move forward, but Cade tightens both arms around her waist.

“I’m calm,” she tells him.

“You’re vibrating.”

“I’m cold.”

“You threatened to slap the other side of her face.”

“It looked lonely.”

Briggs closes his eyes, and I see the smallest break in his expression before the pain takes him again.

Lyric steps toward him. “Briggs, come on. Let’s go somewhere private and talk.”

He opens his eyes and her voice softens. “Baby.”

His face breaks at the endearment.

I recognize exactly what she’s doing. She sees him pulling away, so she gives him the smallest piece of affection capable of dragging him back.

“Don’t,” I warn him.

Lyric looks at me with open hatred. “Shut the fuck up.”

I use Spanish just to piss her off more. “Tú cállate la puta boca, puta manipuladora. You don’t get to cut him open and call him baby when he starts bleeding where people can see it. Ya estuvo. Ya escuché suficientes pendejadas tuyas.”

Briggs knows what I said and he looks at Lyric. “Did you ever love me?”

“I still love you.”

“That wasn’t the question.”

Lyric’s lips part.

“Did you love me,” he asks, “or did you love knowing I would always take care of you and take your shit?”