CHAPTER THREE

The front door slammed, reverberating through the entire penthouse.

“Fuck.”

My chest tightened; frustration flared beneath the surface. I hadn’t expected her to leave like that. I was surprised she didn’t go off like a damn bomb. It would have been better if she had. I looked around the room, briefly lingering on my bed where I’d had her pinned beneath me, whispering my name like a chant what felt like only moments ago. I fucking loved that sound. It paled in comparison to how much I needed her.

She’d seen too much.

Misunderstood even more.

She actually thought I’d been fucking other women as if I could touch someone else when every inch of me was hers. Not to mention I fucked her so often that even if I could stomach another’s proximity, I had nothing left to give.

I craved Autumn in a way that bordered on madness—three times a day, minimum, and it still wasn’t enough. It would never be enough. I could drown in her and still want more. Her scent, her taste, the way she looked at me. When she smiled. The sound of her laugh. I was addicted, bound to her in ways I couldn’t even put into words.

I knew what kind of image those texts painted, but this was so far beyond infidelity. If she had any idea what was really happening, she would’ve run screaming and never looked back. Then she would have realized I was right behind her.

How many times had I played through this scenario in my head, preparing for the moment she might find out too much? I had rehearsed every excuse, every line, but when it actually happened—when I saw the hurt in her eyes—not a single one of those words came out. All I could focus on was the pain etched on her beautiful face and chose not to lie to her.

I picked up my phone and unlocked the screen. The group chat was still there, the messages glaring back at me like a mirror to everything I’d screwed up tonight. I always let Autumn have free reign with my phone, never thinking twice about it. She could scroll through playlists, change my background, and send herself photos she liked. 98% of them were of her, the rest were of us. I let her in because I never thought she’d stumble onto the one thing she was never supposed to see.

I should have double-checked everything before she came over. If I had, the phantom program that ran on our phones like a ghost in the system would have scrubbed every trace of those texts well beyond a simple deletion. It made it so they never fucking existed. It was a seamless, flawless system.

Until tonight.

This wasn’t just a mistake; it was a catastrophic fuck-up.

To Autumn, it was proof of betrayal, a confirmation of her worst fears.

I failed somewhere along the way because no fucking way she should have believed I would do that to her. Like an asshole, I told her it was nothing but work. That hadn’t been a lie but there was some major context missing from that revelation.

I’d planned to tell her everything. Eventually. The second she knew the truth; she’d have to be mine in every way. She would be locked in my world, unable to turn back and unable to leave. Timing was crucial, and tonight wasn’t it. I was not telling her shit until there were fail-safes in place that ensured she’d never be able to escape me once everything was laid out for her.

The mentors who oversaw our unit had always drilled into us: “ The shadows keep us safe. You don’t pull someone into the dark unless you know they’ll never leave. ”

My phone buzzed and a new text popped up.

Thorne:

Well, that escalated fast. How long do you think she’ll stay mad?

I could practically see his smirk through the text. Normally, I’d have laughed, and thrown something sarcastic back, but my mind was elsewhere. I knew they got it. They always did. Lucian, Thorne, Hunter, Romeo, and Atlas—were my brothers, not by blood but by choice—and my closest friends.

They knew what it was like to crave control, to thrive on the chaos that came with our line of work, and how twisted our personal relationships would be because of it. They just hadn’t found the right girl yet. We all knew it would happen eventually, and when it did, they’d fall just as hard, just as fast, just as completely. The exception was Lucian.

He understood on a different level. There was one girl he’d never gotten over.

He’d burn the world down for her without hesitation. She was on our agenda for winter. I was looking forward to it. Autumn would need a friend.

I backtracked to the messages I’d sent, my jaw tightening as I scrolled through them. The texts stared back at me like a condemnation. I didn’t want this shit touching my girl, not in this manner. All the women she’d seen, from the group chat to these deleted chats, weren’t anything but quarry.

My words were nothing but a lure to get what was needed from each of them. I paused on the thread with Amber. She alone was enough to destroy what I had built. I’d never told Autumn about my prior arrangement with that serpentine cunt for various reasons.

Amber had been a convenience, something easy before Autumn had ever entered my orbit. She was eager, predictable, and obedient at first. It wasn’t bad sex; it was just empty. Mechanical.

I took what I wanted, and she was more than willing to give it. She liked the power she thought it gave her. It started at one of those insufferable parties her dad threw, the kind where everyone was drowning in champagne and pretending not to notice the underhanded deals happening in the darkened corners.

I happily attended with my parents. They raised me with a golden spoon and then handed off the tools that I used to succeed on my own. It was only right I came with them to galas, charity events, or wherever else.

Amber caught my eye because she wouldn’t stop staring. She had nothing I wanted beyond the obvious, and she knew that, too. We weren’t friends. We didn’t talk about anything that mattered. It was purely physical, which she quickly began to hate. Amber had a mouth on her, and not the kind that made her useful.

I remember the first time she mentioned Autumn’s name.

She’d been throwing around spiteful comments about some sophomore she’d had a run-in with. It didn’t mean anything to me then. I was two years ahead of her in school. I barely registered it, brushing her off with some noncommittal grunt. It wasn’t until two months later that I finally saw the face that went with the name. Some childish asshole, that I’d since taken care of, had purposely body-checked one of her friends and knocked the girl to the ground.

Autumn helped the girl up and then went after the guy, slamming him into the lockers before anyone knew what was happening. It took two people to pull her off him. Her anger burned hot, but it wasn’t just rage—there was a fierce protectiveness in her that grabbed my attention right then and there. It didn’t hurt that she was fucking beautiful, either.

Absolutely drop-dead gorgeous.

Her long, dark hair had a way of catching the light, making it impossible not to notice her.

It cascaded straight down her back, framing her face perfectly.

And her eyes.

Those deep, brown eyes always seemed to say more than she ever did. Her skin had a natural glow, like she’d soaked up the last rays of the summer sun and kept it with her. She had a naturally toned body that reflected her active lifestyle, but with enough curves to drive me crazy.

It didn’t take long for me to learn every guy in the whole damn school had noticed her. I’d somehow missed that fucking memo. Even Hunter was aware of who she was. The relief I felt when I discovered she paid no attention to any of them was the first sign I had been hooked. From the moment I laid eyes on her, I knew I had to have her.

It was easy to see why Amber had a problem with her, and it was nothing but cliché jealousy.

Autumn was everything Amber wasn’t, with a sharp wit and a smile that could stop me in my tracks.

She owned me.

I wasn’t ashamed to admit that.

I’d scream it from the rooftops, put that shit on a billboard.

I crossed to the window, staring out at the city below. Lights flickered in the distance, the streets calm and quiet, but the restlessness inside me refused to settle. I wouldn’t be getting any sleep that night. Sleeping without her wasn’t natural. It never had been. The first night she’d stayed over, tangled in my sheets, I’d known that was how it was supposed to be.

Without her, the bed was too big, the silence too loud, and everything felt wrong. There was no reason for us to be apart, and yet there I was, staring out at the city like a man exiled from his own life and it was my own damn fault.

I unlocked my phone again and sent a basic text, knowing full well it wasn’t going to be enough. Not even close. Two words— Come home . That barely scratched the surface of what I needed to say, but doing nothing was worse.

I glanced at the empty doorway, still hanging slightly ajar, a reminder of her departure. She had thrown it open so hard that I was fairly sure the doorknob had left a dent in the drywall. The thought almost made me smile, if not for the situation.

A soft rasp on the doorframe broke the silence as Lucian shuffled in, his steps silent despite his size. He was dressed similarly to me, in a black tank top and sweats, his usual casual look that only highlighted the sharp edges of his frame. His dark eyes scanned the room, looking for the aftermath of the argument. He seemed just as surprised as I was that there wasn’t one.

"We’re going to make this right," he said quietly as he stepped further into the room.

His tone wasn’t a question, it was a statement of fact. I glanced at him, meeting his dark-eyed stare. "I know we will.”

His expression didn’t shift, but there was a flicker of understanding that didn’t require words. It was the kind of silent exchange we’d perfected over the years.

Lucian wasn’t just someone to watch out for, he was someone you couldn’t afford to look away from. Tall and solidly built, with a sharp angular jaw and jet-black hair that always gave him an effortlessly commanding air, he didn’t have to assert his authority. He simply was. He was ice-cold and calculating, the embodiment of control. Beneath that icy surface was an absolute loyalty.

His unwavering dedication to our inner circle wasn’t something anyone else would dare to question. He didn’t say much, but when he did, every word mattered. I knew we weren’t just going to make it right.

We were going to make it how things should have been and needed to be.

“How do you want to play this?”

I turned back toward the window, my gaze fixed on the city lights below as they blurred into an indistinct haze, offering no clarity. “I’m not sure yet.”

Lucian didn’t press, didn’t push for answers. He just stood there, his presence steady, grounding me in a way I didn’t acknowledge aloud. My chest tightened as my thoughts drifted back to Autumn, to the way she’d looked at me before she left. The pain in her eyes had gutted me.

I had to do this just right.

She was mine, and nothing, not even her own doubts was going to change that. She fit into my life so seamlessly, it felt like she’d always been meant to be there. My family adored her, and my friends did too. What she didn’t realize yet was the lengths I’d go to, to keep her by my side.

It was time she understood.

Long past time

.