Page 40 of Oathbreaker

I need words.

I need a goddamned plan.

And I need it fast.

So, I only have one choice.

I need to call a meeting of the Gamebreaker Girls—maybe someday I won’t be in a panic and will be able to come up with something cute and pithy that can rival the guys and their Gamebreakers monikers, but I’m functioning on too little sleep and too many emotions and the existential dread that my brothers are going to kill the man I love?—

Loved.

“Fuck,” I whisper, guilt surging to the top of those swirling emotions.

Because I need to talk to West.

I need to sort out my head.

And my heart.

God, do I ever.

So, I do the only thing I can—I stay in that parking lot but lift my head from the steering wheel so I can send a text…and then a bunch more.

And the next thing I know, I’m driving to Banks and Aspen’s house.

And the girls are all going to meet me there.

Thirty minutes later, I’m holding Maisie in my arms, not above soothing myself with the adorable nugget that’s my niece.

Especially since four women I love and respect are staring at me.

Waiting for me to spill my guts.

And I don’t know where to start.

Maisie burrows into the crook of my elbow and my eyes start to burn.

Frankie used to be this little.

And Colt missed it—missed all of it.

“Briar, honey,” Willow says gently, breaking the silence. “You wanted to talk?”

I nod, smoothing my fingers through the peach fuzz on the top of Maisie’s head. “I do,” I agree softly. “I need to. I just…I don’t know where to start.”

“Does it have to do with Colt?” Aspen asks, her tone pitched toward careful.

Extremely careful.

As though, one wrong word is going to set me off.

I frown, start to open my mouth, but Lily beats me to the punch.

“You think?” she says dryly.

“He did reappear from the dead,” Jade says, clearly lightening the mood.

But Lily—as usual—is not to be swayed. “Do you all not have eyes? Of course, this has to do with Colt.”