Page 84 of Shelter from the Storm

She shook her head, hating the way he always talked to her like she was a recalcitrant child. “No.”

His lips were pursed, his jaw clenched. He didn’t take the word no well. Ever. “I can see you’re going to be difficult about this, but you have to give me a chance to?—”

“I don’t have to give you a damn thing.”

Briggs’s brows furrowed as she cut him off once again. She had to hand it to him, he was holding on to his temper better than she thought he could. He leaned toward her, his voice little more than a whisper. “I understand that you’re angry, and I know Brenda convinced you that I’m the villain in all of this.”

She laughed. “No one had to tell me what your role was. I figured it out after the first black eye.”

Briggs glanced around the brewery, then rubbed the back of his neck. None of this was going the way he’d expected. He bowed his head, murmuring the next words so low, she wasn’t sure she’d heard him right. “I’ve been seeing a therapist.”

“You?” she said loudly. “In therapy?”

Briggs’s eyes went black with anger, but once again, he managed to beat the demon down. “For you. I want to get better for you.”

It took everything she had not to roll her eyes. “I’m glad you’re getting help, but if you’re going for me, then you’re wasting your time and money. Therapy only works if you’re doing it for yourself.”

“Fine,” he conceded. “Then it’s for me. I wanted you to know that I’m working on myself, trying to be better for you.”

Gretchen sighed. “Briggs. There is no amount of therapy in the world that would make me come back to you.”

He frowned, and for a second, she got the sense he was struggling to understand her words. “I can make this right.”

“No,” she said. “You can’t.”

The utter confusion on his face told her how confident he’d been that he could sweep in here, tell her what he thought she wanted to hear, and she’d fall right back into his arms.

“I mean it, Gretchen. I’m getting better. I swear.” He’d lowered his voice again, almost to a whisper, too aware of their audience. He was arrogant enough that he’d never let anyone hear him beg. “I’ll never hurt you again.”

This was getting tedious. “It’s over, Briggs. I don’t know how to say that any more clearly to you.”

He blinked several times, shaking his head slowly, her words finally starting to sink in. “You can’t be serious. You’re the only thing that’s ever belonged to me.”

“You’re wrong. Because you can’t own a person, and you definitely don’t own me.”

He swallowed heavily. “But I love you. And you love me.”

“Briggs. If I ever loved you, I can assure you, you beat every drop of it out of me long ago.”

“If?” he asked, shocked.

“I was eighteen when you swooped in to claim me. I was lonely and facing an uncertain future. When I look back on that time, I don’t think my decision to go with you was based on love at all. I simply saw you as the best of my very limited options. Boy, was I wrong about that.”

“Limited options,” Briggs repeated. “Why are you saying this stuff?” His gaze finally traveled to Theo, and this time, he let some of his rage escape. “Are you fucking this guy? Letting him feed you all these poisonous thoughts? He’s using you for sex, Gretchen, and because you’re so desperate for love, you spread those whore legs of yours, didn’t you?”

Theo growled, stepping forward.

Briggs straightened, all but flexing his muscles, which was ridiculous considering Theo had a good five inches on him and was fucking built.

“You’ve always been too gullible and easily swayed,” Briggs continued. “You’re too young and stupid to know what’s best for you. That’s why you need me.”

“Say one more fucking word to her,” Theo said through gritted teeth. “I dare you.”

Briggs shot Theo a dirty look, one that he returned with interest. If Gretchen didn’t get Briggs out of here soon, this wasn’t going to end with just exchanged words. Theo looked ready to pummel Briggs into dust.

“For the first time in my life, I’m thinking clearly,” she said to Briggs, shifting to take Theo’s hand in hers. “I left you because that’s what was best for me, and you have to respect that.”

“Haven’t I always been there for you? When your mom and stepdad abandoned you. When your brother left you to go live his own life. I gave you a home, found you a job, took care of you.” Briggs swallowed hard, something akin to desperation on his face. She’d never seen him backed into a corner, that cramped space always reserved for her. “You need to come back with me, Gretchen! I…I can’t live without you.”

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