“Charlie is exactly the kind of person that pact was meant to protect,” Marcus says, his voice rough. “Someone broken and desperate and trying to do better. Someone who needs us.”
“Someone we need,” Elijah adds quietly.
I close my eyes, feeling the weight of this decision settle over me.
My possessive nature rebels against the idea of sharing her.
I want to claim her completely, mark her as mine alone. But the alternative is tearing apart the brotherhood we’ve built and destroying the family we’ve become.
And losing her entirely.
“If we do this,” I say, opening my eyes, “we do it right. We tell her everything. We give her the choice. And if she chooses us—” My voice cracks slightly. “We don’t abandon her. Ever.”
“Agreed.” Marcus’s hand finds my shoulder, solid and warm.
“Agreed.” Elijah’s hand joins his.
I place my hand over both of theirs, and we stand like that in the ancient crypt, three men of God making a pact that would damn us in the eyes of the Church but might save us in the eyes of each other.
The decision feels both damning and inevitable. Sacred and profane. Right and wrong in equal measure.
But as I look at Marcus and Elijah, see the same desperate hope in their eyes that I feel burning in my chest, I know we’ve already crossed the line.
The only question now is whether Charlie will cross it with us.
12
CHARLIE
I stand in the center of Adrian’s quarters, my heart hammering so hard I’m sure they can all hear it. The three of them watch me with an intensity that makes my skin burn.
Adrian by the window, his gray eyes dark with hunger he’s stopped trying to hide.
Marcus leaning against the door he just locked behind us, tattooed arms crossed over his chest.
Elijah perched on the edge of Adrian’s desk, his angel face wearing an expression that’s anything but innocent.
“We need to talk,” Adrian says, his voice rough. “About what’s been happening between all of us.”
My throat goes dry. I’ve been with each of them separately, stolen moments in shadows, desperate touches when no one was watching. But this—all three of them, together, acknowledging what we’ve become—this is different. This is real.
“I know,” I whisper.
Marcus pushes off the door, moving closer. “Do you? Do you understand what you’ve done to us,querida?”
The Spanish endearment sends heat straight through me. I watch his hands flex at his sides, see the barely restrained need in his dark eyes as they trace the curve of my body beneath my sundress.
“You’ve destroyed us,” Elijah adds softly, standing and crossing to me with that fluid grace that makes everything look like choreography. “Completely. Beautifully.”
Adrian moves from the window, and suddenly I’m surrounded by all three of them, their bodies radiating heat and want. My breath comesfaster as Adrian’s hand finds my face, tilting my head back so I have to meet his storm-cloud eyes.
“Tell us you want this,” he commands. “All of us. Together.”
“Yes.” The word escapes before I can think. “God, yes.”
Something breaks in all three of them simultaneously.
Adrian’s mouth crashes against mine, desperate and possessive, his rosary beads pressing into my hip as he pulls me close.
