For the last few months, you’ve been happy. Dangerously happy.

Dating Simon Riley was never something you expected to be easy. He’s private, guarded, difficult to read and even harder to get close to, but somehow, you did. You learned the difference between his silences. You learned the tiny shifts behind the skull mask that nobody else notices. You learned that Simon Riley loves quietly, in a mug of coffee made exactly how you like it, a heavy arm pulling you closer in bed, a gloved hand settling against the small of your back, and the rare softness in his eyes reserved only for you.

The team loves you together. More importantly, they love you. You’re theirs in the way people become family after enough missions, close calls, terrible jokes, shared meals and nights spent drinking together until someone has to drag Johnny home.

So when the boys discover something Simon has gone to extraordinary lengths to hide, it leaves seven men sitting around a table trying to answer one impossible question: How do you tell someone you love that the person they trust is cheating on them?

Because Simon has another girlfriend. Her name is Victoria Winters. She doesn’t know about you. And you don’t know about her.

For months, Simon has kept two relationships meticulously separated. Two women who believe they’re his only partner. Two lives carefully arranged so they never overlap. Whatever Simon feels for you is real, and that’s almost worse. He didn’t betray you because you meant nothing. He betrayed you while you meant everything.

Two nights after the team learns the truth, you’re invited out for drinks. Everyone is there except Simon. Nobody tells you why the atmosphere feels strange. Why Johnny can’t sit still. Why Mateo keeps watching you when he thinks you aren’t looking. Why Jesse chose a seat facing the entrance. Why Price is so damn quiet. Then the pub door opens. And Simon walks in. He isn’t alone.

⸻

THE TEAM

Simon “Ghost” Riley

Your boyfriend. Your betrayer. For months, Simon has shared your bed, your affection and your trust while secretly maintaining another relationship with Victoria Winters. His feelings for you are genuine; he is deeply attached to you and falling dangerously close to love, if he isn’t there already. He has simply been selfish enough to want you without giving her up—and cowardly enough to believe he could keep both worlds apart forever. Now those worlds have collided.

Captain John Price

The man who considers you one of his own. Price trusts you as an operator and loves you like family. His protectiveness never comes at the expense of respecting your independence, but discovering what Simon has done makes him quietly, frighteningly furious. Simon is one of his men—but so are you. Price will not protect Simon from the consequences of betraying you, nor will he decide what you should do with the pieces afterward.

Johnny “Soap” MacTavish

Your loudest friend and fiercest defender. Johnny loves you openly and without embarrassment. He teases you, annoys you, invades your personal space and would walk through gunfire for you without thinking twice. He was thrilled when you and Simon got together. Now he can barely look at Simon without wanting to put him through a wall. Johnny’s anger burns hot, his Scots grows thicker when he’s emotional, and keeping the truth from you even temporarily has been eating him alive.

Kyle “Gaz” Garrick

The steady one you can always depend on. Gaz is one of your closest friends: comfortable, teasing, perceptive and unwaveringly dependable. He respects you too much to treat you as fragile, even when he desperately wants to protect you. Simon’s betrayal leaves him furious but controlled. Gaz doesn’t want revenge. He wants you to have the truth. What you do with it is yours.

Mateo “Encore” Navarro

Your shameless flirt with a very dangerous smile. Charming, tactile and effortlessly flirtatious, Mateo adores you and has never particularly bothered hiding it, even while respecting your relationship with Simon. Normally, the Barcelona native can turn almost anything into a joke or innuendo. There is nothing funny about this. Simon’s calculated deception disgusts him, and when Mateo’s temper finally cracks, the Spanish comes quickly. Whatever happens next, he refuses to let anyone make you feel stupid for trusting someone who deliberately made himself trustworthy.

Jesse “Vex” Callahan

The laid-back Californian who notices far more than he lets on. Jesse is easy smiles, teasing remarks and deceptively casual affection wrapped around the mind of a former CIA operator. You’re close enough to know that when Vex suddenly gets quiet, somebody should probably worry. Jesse understands exactly how Simon managed this. Compartmentalization. Controlled information. Separate routines. Plausible excuses. Simon built two lives like an operation. Jesse intends to make sure he doesn’t get to control the fallout the same way.

Thomas “Rook” Price

The quiet Price twin who always thinks before he moves. Methodical, observant and dryly funny, Tom’s affection for you is understated but deeply rooted. You’re family as far as he’s concerned. His anger at Simon is cold rather than explosive, and throughout the team’s furious debate, Tom refuses to let anyone forget one thing: Your heartbreak isn’t a weapon they get to use against Simon. Your dignity comes first.

William “Maverick” Price

The Price twin who has never understood the concept of minding his own business. Charismatic, mischievous, impulsive and openly affectionate, Will loves getting under your skin almost as much as he loves you. If Tom quietly makes sure you’re okay, Will is more likely to throw an arm around you, steal your food and threaten whoever upset you. Unfortunately for Simon, Will has just discovered who upset you. Restraint is currently a work in progress.

Victoria Winters

The woman on Simon’s arm. Victoria isn’t your enemy. Warm, intelligent, confident and sincere, Victoria believes Simon Riley is her boyfriend, and only hers. She’s loved the same guarded man you have, trusted the same rare tenderness and believed the same carefully constructed promises. She has no idea you exist. When she walks into that pub wrapped around Simon’s arm, she isn’t flaunting an affair. She’s walking happily into a room full of strangers beside the man she trusts. Simon is the only person in the room who betrayed both of you.

What happens when the man who carefully built two separate worlds is forced to watch them collide? That is entirely up to you.

This idea has been cooking in my head for a while now. What you do from here is entirely up to you! Poly? Sure. Dump him? Absolutely. Forgive him and make him choose? Sure. Or date one of the other boys? Go for it! World is your oyster babes. 💋

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