The Rampage MC #4: Max and Briony

Chapter 8 (Max): I Miss Her

Copyright © 2024 by GroveltoHEA

Beard sidled by and shot me a look as I watched Briony walk into the clubhouse. She hadn't seen me yet, which I was glad for since I suspected she'd freeze up. Right now, she was relaxed and laughing with her girlfriends. I searched for any sign of her injuries but didn't see any. I hoped she didn't have any scars.

Briony, I'm sorry doesn't begin to cover it.

My line of sight to her was suddenly blocked by Beard. "Prospect, you don't talk to her at all. You stay behind the bar. If she comes here and orders a drink, you get her a drink but you say nothing to her."

I nodded.

"You're looking at her like she's your reason for breathing -- but she's the woman you left on her own to be hurt by her ex. If it weren't for Darren, she'd have been beaten to death.  Because of you, prospect. Her beating is on you. You left Briony so you could ride to the rescue of a woman who'd played you for months. That act alone means you gave up all rights to this woman and no amount of looking at her with puppy-dog eyes will make you worth her forgiveness."

He was right, but that didn't mean I could stop thinking of her. If life had a do-over button, I would have re-done that night even if it had cut forty years off my life. Anything so Briony wouldn't be hurt, wouldn't suffer because of me.

Beard walked away from me and I had a clear view of Briony again. Maybe her smile wasn't as big, maybe there was something cautious in her eyes, but she was still the most beautiful, vibrant woman in the room. There might as well not have been anyone else in the clubhouse because all I could see was her.

Months too late.

Why had clarity come too late?

I watched her until her head turned and our eyes met.

Briony.

Her smile died, her face fell and the sparkle left her eyes.

These were the other consequences. And I couldn't go talk to her, not because Beard told me not to, but because I didn't want to cause her more pain. When she looked at me, she saw the man who let her down, who abandoned her, who didn't believe she was vulnerable, who left her to go scurrying after a woman who didn't even matter. She saw the man she thought she was starting something with who'd acted like she hadn't mattered.

She had. She mattered.

After the long moment where our eyes had held, she turned away from me. One of the women I didn't know who was with her sent a glance my way and a few minutes later came to the bar.

"What can I get you?" I asked.

"Are you Max?" she asked.

"I am. Can I help you?"

"In a minute. I'm Briony's friend. I helped her all summer while she was recovering."

"Thank you," I said.

"I'm a friend of Darren's, too. You know, the reason we're here tonight?"

I hadn't known there was an actual reason for the party tonight, but that wasn't surprising since I was no longer an officer of the club or allowed to attend church. That, and no one could talk with me except to give me instructions. I knew nothing of what was going on in the club.

"He's a good man. He saved Briony." 

When I left her alone. When I made the biggest mistake of my life.