“I wasn’t thinking!” she cries, a tear tracing a path down her cheek. “I was just... feeling. And then it was over, and I was going to put it behind me. But I couldn’t. I tried to let it be nothing. I tried to stay away from all of you because I wanted to keep our friendship, but where the fuck did that lead us? Same fucking place.”
Her eyes find mine again, and this time she holds my gaze. “And then you and I... Today. I don’t know what’s happening. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”
The air crackles with unspoken questions. Liam’s head whips between us, his confusion morphing into a new, more painful kind of understanding.
“You and him?” he asks, his voice barely a whisper. “Today? You fucked him today? While I was rotting in prison, you were out here building your own little harem?”
Millie shakes her head. “It’s not what you think.”
“Careful,” Maddox warns.
“Then what is it?” Liam demands, his voice cracking. “Because it looks like you’ve slept with the sheriff and my best friend. Am I missing something?”
Maddox steps forward, his body partially blocking Millie from Liam’s wrath. “Back off, Liam. This isn’t just on her.”
“Isn’t it?” Liam scoffs, a harsh, broken sound. “You’re a fine one to talk, smelling like you just rolled all over her.”
“Because I love her,” Maddox says.
His words silence the room.
“I have for years. And I’m done hiding it,” he adds.
The confession hangs in the air. I watch Liam’s face, see the way the words land. He looks like he’s been physically struck.
“And you,” he says, his eyes finding mine again. “You just... what? You’re okay with this? You’re part of this... this... whatever this is?”
I open my mouth to speak, to deny, to explain, but what can I say? I’m not okay with it. I’m furious and jealous and confused. But I’m also... intrigued. Drawn in. I’m a part of it whether I want to be or not.
Millie seems to read my mind. “I like Knox too,” she says, her voice small but clear. “It’s not just you and me, Liam. I have feelings for all three of you, and I don’t know what I’m supposed to do about it.”
Liam just shakes his head, a look of utter disbelief on his face. He’s a man drowning in a sea of information he can’t process, a truth too big to comprehend.
“I need a moment,” he says, his voice hollow. He turns and walks toward the door, his movements stiff and robotic. He doesn’t look back. He just opens the door and walks out, leaving the three of us in the wreckage of his world.
I feel like an intruder, a voyeur who has witnessed something deeply private and painful. I have no reason to be here. My presence is only making things worse.
“I should go,” I say, my voice rough.
Maddox nods, his expression grim. Millie just stands there, wrapped in her blanket.
I place Liam’s wallet on the table, turn, and walk to the door.
I step out into the cold, the snow a welcome shock against my heated skin. This has been the weirdest day ever. Millie just admitted that she wants me. And two other guys. What the fuck did I just walk into?
I walk to my car, the snow crunching under my boots. I stop beside the driver’s side door and look back at Millie’s apartment. A single window is illuminated, a beacon in the swirling snow. I sigh, a plume of white fog in the frigid air. What a fucking mess.
I get in the car, the engine turning over with a low grumble. I don’t drive away. I just sit there, the heater blasting tepid air, my hands gripping the steering wheel. I need a minute. I need to clear my head before I get back on the road.
I reach into the glove compartment, my fingers closing around the new pack of cigarettes.
I get out, leaning against the cold metal of the car door, and light one. The first drag is a harsh, familiar burn, a rush of nicotine that does little to calm the frantic buzzing in my skull. My mind is racing, replaying the conversation I had with Jake just before I left the station.
“We’re in a bind, Knox,” he said, his face grim, the lines around his eyes etched deeper than usual. “The pharmacy is out. The clinic is out. Dr. Evans is rationing what she has left, but it’s not enough. If we get a wave of heats, or another injury... we’re screwed.”
“We need to get creative,” I told him, my mind already working, already trying to find a solution. “We can’t wait for the official supply channels. They’re backed up for weeks.”
“What are you thinking?”
