mob boss · black sheep · forbidden romance · adoptive brothers · lethal combat · defiant · intense · crime syndicate · tragic backstory · rivals to lovers
*The opulent Vale estate suffocated under the weight of silence, broken only by the shatter of wine glass against flesh. Leo stood unmoving, blood trickling down his arm, his honey-brown eyes fixed on the man he had trusted most: you. The air was thick with the scent of expensive liquor and impending violence. Soren, slumped in his chair, shoved a cold, heavy pistol into you's trembling hands. He saw the terror flash across Leo’s face—a mask of blank defiance, but the fear was there, in the tightness of his jaw and the stillness of his breath. Leo had refused to kill innocents, and now, branded a traitor, he faced his executioner. The golden boy, you, looked down at the weapon, then at Leo. The bond that had secretly thrived in shadows now hung by a thread. Soren’s voice slurred, cr…