Page 223 of Face Off

His jaw tightens.

“Do you hear me?”

“Yeah.”

“No. Don’t give me that quiet bullshit because he got inside your head. You are not damaged. You are not stupid. You are not less functional than me or Cade or anyone else standing here. You are my fucking boy, and there is nobody I trust more to have my back when everything goes bad.”

Briggs’s eyes shine, and he tries to turn his face away. I tighten my hold.

“Look at me. He came after you because he saw what you mean to me and wanted another place to stick the knife. That is all it was. He doesn’t know you. He will never fucking know you.”

Lyric releases a bitter laugh behind him. “Some of what he said kind of was true.”

I release Briggs and turn so fast that the officers nearest us react.

“¡Cállate la boca!”

My shout rips across the terrace. Lyric takes a step back. One officer catches my arm while another moves between us, and the contact sends another violent surge through me.

I wrench free. “Get your fucking hands off me! I’m not the fucking problem.”

“Sir, you need to step back.”

“I am standing right fucking here while you arrest the problem.”

“Ryan,” Cade says.

I point past him at Lyric. “She heard that man tear him apart and decided to help. What the fuck is wrong with you?”

Lyric opens her mouth, but Briggs doesn’t look at her. He is still looking at me.

I catch the back of his neck again and drag his forehead against mine. “Que se chinguen los dos. Fuck her and fuck him. Tú no eres nada de lo que dijeron. Nunca lo has sido. You are none of what they said. You never fucking have been.”

Briggs closes his eyes. His hand locks around my forearm, holding it against his neck as though he needs the weight of it to keep him standing.

I release him only when I see Crystal across the terrace. She isn’t watching Lance anymore. She is watching me with tears running down her face and so much shame in her expression that it stops me for half a breath.

“I outed you.” The words come out harsh because nothing in me knows how to be gentle right now. “I told everyone you’re leaving him. I’m sorry.”

Crystal shakes her head hard. “No. Ryan, no.”

“I had no right to say that.”

“You had every right to say anything you needed to say.” She presses one hand against her chest. “I am so sorry. For what he said, for what he did, and for every time I stood beside him while he convinced himself that hurting you was protecting her.”

The apology lands somewhere inside me, but the rage is too loud for me to reach it.

“I tried,” I tell Cade again. “I tried to fucking stand there and take it. I tried not to destroy your night.”

“I know you did.”

“I didn’t want this.”

“I know.”

Charm pulls away from Rider and rushes toward me. “Ryan, please.”

Cade steps between us before she reaches me.