MasukMarcus’s POVThe alert came at 2:47 AM.I was already awake — I was always already awake, sitting in my truck across from the hotel with cold coffee and my laptop open, running a passive scan on the building’s entry points. Not because I expected something. Just because not watching felt wrong.The motion sensor I’d clipped to the hotel’s side entrance pinged first. Then the lobby camera feed I’d tapped through a contact at the security company showed two men walking in. Unhurried. Heads down. Dressed like they belonged.They didn’t belong.I knew it the way you know things after years of reading people in places where being wrong gets people killed. The way they moved — measured, deliberate, checking angles without looking like they were checking angles. One of them had his right hand loose at his side, just slightly away from his body. Ready.I was already out of the truck.I hit the g
Chloe’s POVShe picked up on the second ring, which meant she’d been near her phone. She was always near her phone when she was worried, and she’d been worried about me for months.“Chloe? Baby, it’s late.”“I know. Sorry. I just—” I pulled a pillow into my lap. “I needed to hear your voice.”A small pause. The kind that meant she was setting something down, giving me her full attention. “What’s wrong?”“Nothing’s wrong. I’m okay. I’m safe.” That part was true, at least. “I just have something on my mind.”“Tell me.”I leaned back against the headboard and stared at the water stain on the ceiling tiles. Funny how hotel rooms always had one.“I’ve been seeing someone,” I started.Her whole energy changed in an instant. I could feel it through the phone — the warm
Chloe’s POVThe hotel room smelled like lemon cleaner and recycled air. The bed had too many pillows, the TV remote was bolted to the nightstand, and the heating system made a faint ticking sound every few minutes.I’d been lying on top of the covers for forty minutes trying to logic my way through the most illogical situation of my life.I had a notepad. Real, physical paper, because something about this problem felt too big for a phone screen. I’d drawn a line down the middle — Pros on one side, Cons on the other — and I’d been staring at it long enough that the words had started to blur.The cons were easy to write. Society. Judgment. Logistics. The fact that I’d once told Alina this exact situation was crazy, and now the universe had apparently filed that under things to prove wrong. The fear that it would implode and I’d lose all three of them. The fear that I’d lose myself trying to be enough for
Chloe’s POVWhen I opened Lucian’s door and found all three of them standing in the hallway, my first instinct was to close it again.I didn’t. But I thought about it.“Is someone dead?” I asked.“No one’s dead,” Lucian said. He was the calmest, which tracked. “Can we come in?”I stepped back and let them in. They filed into the living room and arranged themselves — Lucian on the armchair, Marcus near the window, Dominic leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. Like they’d choreographed it. Which, knowing Lucian, they probably had.I sat on the couch, tucked my feet under me, and waited.“We talked,” Lucian began.“I can see that.”“Without fighting,” Marcus added.I looked at Dominic. He raised one shoulder. “Mostly.”“We think the way things are going isn’t working,&rd
Lucian’s POVThe coffee shop was Marcus’s idea — neutral ground, he’d said. Which I found ironic given that Marcus had never once been neutral about anything in his life since I've known him.Still, I showed up. Because someone had to be the adult, and it clearly wasn’t going to be either of them.I arrived first and ordered a black coffee and a table in the corner. Marcus came in two minutes later, already scanning the room like he expected an ambush. And Dominic rolled up five minutes after that, looking like he’d rather be anywhere else on the planet.They acknowledged each other the way two dogs acknowledge each other in a small yard — tense, measuring, not quite growling.This was going to be fantastic.I waited until they both had drinks in front of them before I started. “I’m going to say something, and I need both of you to hear it before anyone responds.”“Good
Dominic’s POVI pulled up outside her office building at five-thirty, engine idling, sunglasses on, telling myself I wasn’t nervous.I wasn’t nervous. I was just early.Okay, I was nervous.The plan was simple. Pick Chloe up from her last in-person day before her new leave started, grab food, go back to my loft. Easy. Normal. No reason for my stomach to be doing whatever it was currently doing.Then I saw her.She came through the glass doors laughing. Head thrown back, hand on her chest, the way she laughed when something actually got her. And beside her was some guy in a fitted button-down and neat slacks, grinning like he’d said the funniest thing in the world. Young. Good-looking in a clean, harmless kind of way. He was leaning slightly toward her — not inappropriately, not obviously, just close enough to make my jaw tighten.I stepped out of the truck.Chloe spotted me and her smile shifted slightly. Not guilty. Just surprised. “Dominic. You’re early.”“Traffic was light.” I look
Later that afternoon I found Chloe in the library, surrounded by boxes and packing materials. She was leaving for Seattle tomorrow, starting her new job, beginning her fresh start away from all this chaos.“So you’re really staying,” she said when I entered. It wasn't a q
Alina’s POV - The Next MorningI woke up in my old room at the compound, sunlight streaming through familiar windows, the distant sound of motorcycles and conversation drifting up from below. For the first time in weeks, I’d slept deeply, dreamlessly, without the constant low-level anxiety that had
Alina’s POV - Two Weeks LaterThe apartment was perfect—modern, secure, not too far from the compound but far enough to feel separate. Two bedrooms, one for me and one for Chloe, at least until she left for Seattle. The floors were hardwood, the windows were big and sturdy, and the security system
Alina’s POVTwo weeks after the guilty verdict, the courtroom was packed once more for the sentencing. This was the moment—the end of Marcus Hart's journey, from a respected Police Commissioner to a convicted criminal.I took my usual seat, with Jaxon on my right, Maddox on my left, and Ronan sitti







