POV Leo
The meeting wasn’t scheduled—it was summoned. I didn’t bother with formalities, didn’t care if either of them was busy. When I told Milo and Victor to get to the kitchen, they came. They always did when my voice sounded like this—low, clipped, the kind that meant whatever came next wouldn’t be negotiable.
The bottle of gin was still where we’d left it days ago, catching the dull morning light through the blinds. This time, no glasses. I wanted their eyes sober, no excuses, no haze to hide behind. I leaned on the counter, arms crossed, letting the silence drag out until the weight of it pressed against our chests.
“Which one of you talked?” My voice was quiet, but it sliced through the stillness like a blade.
Milo frowned, confusion tightening his forehead. “Talked about what?”
Victor didn’t answer. He looked away—just for a second—but it was enough.
“You,” I said, pinning him with a stare sharp enough to shatter glass. “It was you.”
His lips curved into a smirk, like he thought charm could dull the blow. “I may or may not have… mentioned a few things to Stacy.”
Milo’s head whipped toward him, disbelief flooding his face. “Stacy? Are you serious?”
I didn’t raise my voice, but the words landed with the force of a hammer. “When the game is on, we don’t see other people. We’ve had that rule since day one. You know that.”
Victor’s jaw clenched. “I had to.”
I pushed off the counter, closing the space between us until we were eye-to-eye. “No. You chose to. Big difference.”
His gaze locked onto mine, defiant, almost daring me to push further. “I had to distract myself from Mira.”
The air thinned instantly, sharp and electric.
“You don’t get to use her name like that,” I said, even though a part of me burned to know exactly what he meant.
Milo’s voice cut in—calm but edged with steel. “What the hell is going on with both of you?”
“What’s going on,” I snapped, “is that our business is now public because he couldn’t keep his mouth shut to an on-and-off fling.”
Victor’s tone sharpened. “You think this is just about the game? That’s your problem, Leo—you act like it’s only strategy. Like she’s only strategy.”
“She is part of the game,” I said, my voice colder than I’d intended.
Milo’s brows furrowed. “That’s your problem. You still think she’s just a move on the board. She’s not.”
I turned to him, heat sparking. “Don’t start acting like you’re different. You wanted her too.”
“Yeah,” Milo said without hesitation. “I do want her. But not like this. She’s… something else. And you know it.”
Victor gave a short, humorless laugh. “We’re pathetic. Three brothers, all circling the same woman like dogs that can’t share a bone.”
“No,” I said, shaking my head. “This isn’t about sharing. It’s about rules. And if we don’t keep them, everything falls apart.”
Victor leaned forward, his eyes darker now. “You don’t want to keep the rules, Leo. You want to keep her. For yourself.”
His words scraped something raw inside me, but I kept my face impassive. “You wouldn’t understand.”
“Oh, I understand,” Victor said, his voice low and deliberate. “Mira walks into the room, and the whole world shifts. I can’t read her. I can’t predict her. And it’s infuriating… but it’s also the only thing that’s made me feel alive in months.”
Milo’s gaze moved between us like he was tracking a live wire about to snap. “You think you’re the only ones? She’s in my head, too. When she’s around, I’m not… me. I’m better. She’s awakened something in me I didn’t even know I had.”
The confession sat heavy between us, unyielding.
No one spoke. The clock ticked. The refrigerator hummed. My pulse was loud in my ears. I looked at my brothers—my allies, my competition, my blood—and knew there was no going back. The pact we’d made was simple once. Now it was tangled in something dangerous, something that could burn down everything we’d built.
Victor’s smirk was gone, replaced by something darker, almost resigned. Milo’s jaw was set like he’d made up his mind about something I wasn’t going to like.
I thought about Mira—her laugh, her fire, the way she could cut you down with a glance and still make you want to stand closer. I thought about the way each of us looked at her when we thought the others weren’t paying attention. We weren’t three men anymore. We were three threats—to her, to each other, to ourselves.
Milo finally stepped back, but his eyes never left ours. “We’re idiots. All of us. And there’s only one way to fix this before we destroy everything.”
Victor tilted his head, wary. “Oh? And what’s that?”
Milo’s voice was steady, final, carrying the weight of an ultimatum none of us wanted to hear. He looked each of us in the eye, letting the silence drag for just a moment longer, before he said it.
“We let Mira choose.”