LOGINMIGUEL'S POV I was going to combust.Straight up set the fucking couch on fire from how hard I was gripping the throw pillow like it had personally wronged me. My leg bounced like I was jacked up on coke, and my thumb kept dragging down my phone screen, refreshing the damn tracking app I swore I wasn’t going to check. Again.Still at Byron’s.Still.That same fucking house on that same quiet street where Seth used to go just for “training.” Now he was probably curled up under some too-expensive throw blanket with that clean-cut fucker, giggling like some Disney Channel couple while I sat here dry-mouthed and losing my fucking mind.I knew I shouldn't have left that tracker in his car.I knew it. But what the hell else was I supposed to do? Sit back like a chump and hope he'd pick me when Byron's already two years ahead in the whole good-boy, stable life race?"You're gonna blow a gasket, papi," Jeremy muttered from the corner of the couch, legs slung over the armrest like he l
SETH’S POVI should’ve known the second the door shut that it wasn’t gonna be a clean goodbye.Zenya hadn’t even been out of the house for more than a minute and already my heart was scraping itself raw in my chest, thudding like it was trying to rip out of my ribs and beat itself to death on the floor. The silence that followed after he left wasn’t peaceful, wasn’t gentle—it was screaming. It was that kind of silence that made everything feel louder.I ran a hand down my face, fingers trembling against my cheek. I hadn’t even turned fully before I heard Miguel shift behind me.That bastard had been waiting.Leaning against the wall like a fucking magazine ad, arms folded, expression unreadable, but his mouth already twitching into something bitter and knowing.I didn’t want to start a fight. Not today. Not when my whole body already felt like it had been gutted and hollowed out.But of course Miguel opened his mouth.“So,” he said, voice too casual to be real. “What now, Mallory? Gon
SETHS POV I woke up to heat. That was the first thing. That slow, smothering warmth pressed into my side, bleeding into me, clinging.Then the weight.Heavy.Miguel.His arm slung low around my waist, his face buried into my neck like he belonged there, like we hadn’t built an entire fucking pillow wall to keep shit like this from happening. The wall was on the floor now, just tossed, forgotten, like every rule we kept trying to follow had finally crumbled under the weight of everything we were too scared to say.I didn’t move. Not at first.Just lay there, heart crawling up my throat, watching the way the morning bled soft yellow into the cracks of the curtains. Watching his lashes twitch in his sleep, his mouth barely parted, breath steady. Peaceful. Beautiful.God, he was beautiful.And for a second—for one fucking selfish second—I let myself have it.I let my fingers ghost up, trembling, brushing slowly along his jaw, the soft stubble of it, the curve of his cheekbone, the bri
ZENYAS POV.Jeremy stormed in ahead of me like a hurricane barely contained in skin, his fists clenched at his sides, his footsteps pounding into the floorboards like he was trying to shake the foundation itself. He didn’t look at me. Not once. Not since we got into the car, not since we left the mess I’d made behind. That silence—it had teeth. Sharp ones. And I let it sink them into me the whole ride home.The door slammed behind us, echoing down the hall like a final verdict.I paused at the threshold, fingers still wrapped tight around the keys like I hadn’t decided if I was staying or turning right the fuck back around. Seth’s usual slouch on the couch wasn’t there. No half-empty bottle tilted between his fingers, no glazed-over sarcasm pouring out of his throat. The TV was on, but muted. Even the walls felt like they were waiting for something to crack open.Maybe it already has.Maybe I was too late.I ran a hand down my face, dragging the day off my skin, but it stuck there, li
JEREMY'S POVI was driving like hell had a vendetta and my foot was the trigger. The city lights smeared past my windshield in streaks of angry yellow and red, but I didn’t blink. Didn’t fucking breathe. My jaw was locked so tight it hurt, but I needed it to hurt. The ache grounded me, kept me from turning the steering wheel straight into a fucking wall.Because I was pissed.Because I was jealous.Because I was a fucking idiot.I wasn’t the jealous friend. I wasn’t the clingy little bitch begging for crumbs of affection. But I was burning from the inside out and all I saw in my head was Zenya’s goddamn face. That cool, stoic expression when I left him. When I told him he didn’t get to call me malishka anymore. Like he didn’t just own my entire fucking spine every time he said it.I swerved left and slammed the brakes in front of some shitty club but barely gave it a glance. The neon sign blinked like a dying heart monitor, and some girl in heels was puking on the sidewalk while a g
ZENYA'S POVThe front door slammed like a fucking gunshot.I didn’t even flinch. Just stared at the laptop screen a second longer before sighing and slamming it shut. The sound echoed louder than it should have in the quiet house. I tossed it onto the bed without care, dragged my hand up my face and through my hair, and stood there for a moment, dead still, like if I moved too fast something inside me might rupture.Jeremy was spiraling. Seth was spiraling. Miguel was a goddamn wreck upstairs pretending to sleep but probably chewing his cheek raw with guilt. And me? I was somewhere between a saint and a fucking devil, caught in the purgatory of loving people who broke everything they touched—myself included.Benito was getting better.That should have been good news. Should have made me feel lighter. But it didn’t. Because if he got better and then something else happened, if he slipped again, if he started coughing blood again or couldn’t walk or collapsed in the garden—it meant one
SETHS POV“No! You would tell me what’s going on, here and right bloody now!” Jeremy’s voice called after me as we both headed up the stairs. I’d kept a frown on and ignored all his questions throughout our drive here — and bloody fuck me for ducking and agreeing to have my car repainted today, whi
SETH'S POVI didn’t recall when my legs had failed me, only how I suddenly found myself sitting on the floor, my knees banging sharply against the frame of the bed, my elbows digging into my legs to the point where I could have sworn I was going to bruise right through my bone. My palms scraped dow
SETH'S POVI woke up with a fucking headache splitting through my skull and the sickest knot tightening in my gut. Groaning, I rolled off the bed, my hands raking through my hair as I squeezed my eyes shut. Bloody hell… last night was a mess, and now it was catching up to me like a brick wall to th
MIGUEL'S POVI'd parted my lips to argue, chills lined down my skin as I listened to his words. He'd shoved his cock straight against my lips, thrusting his hips forward, using my awestruck state as an opportunity.I gagged, my eyes bulging almost out of their sockets, feeling his already hard cock







