18. Mikhail

The building is a hollowed-out husk by the time I get there. Flames erupt from what's left of the third-floor windows and crawl upward, taking the floors above out one by one. It's not hard to tell where the fire started.

But why?

"I tried to put it out when I first got here." Raoul coughs into his elbow again. There's soot on his neck and ash in his hair.

I was standing on a balcony yelling at Viviana about how she could have gotten herself and our baby killed—meanwhile, my second was running into actual burning buildings.

Can everyone keep themselves alive for one fucking night without my help?

"You're not a firefighter, Raoul. That's not your job."

He frowns, taking that personally. "My job is to make sure things run smoothly. A fire brigade marching into our office and discovering all of our secrets isn't the kind of smooth sailing we strive for. I thought I could handle it on my own."

"You should have called me," I growl. "We could handle it together."

"It was late," he mutters.

Raoul throwing himself on the, in this case, literal flames is a problem I'll have to handle another day. Right now, my latest investment is a bonfire and I need to know why.

"How did you even know it was on fire?"

He swipes sweat off of his forehead, spreading a layer of gray ashes across his skin. "The security cameras I installed caught movement. I saw them starting the fire."

I don't want to ask—mostly because I already know the answer. But I have to. "Who?"

"The Greeks. Christos Drakos's second and a few of their foot soldiers."

"Fuck," I grumble. "I should have known when I got off the phone with him earlier. He's pissed and?—"

"The Giordanos were there, too," he adds.

I snap my attention to him. "Christos and Agostino?"

"They're working together," he confirms. "At least, as far as I can tell. That or they separately had the great idea to burn down your new business on the same night."

It's so fucking late. Late enough that there aren't even that many bystanders watching the blaze. Raoul and I have the sidewalk mostly to ourselves as another fire truck roars around the corner. Firefighters encircle the building. The spray from the hoses looks like molten gold against the flames.

I haven't slept for days and while I was busy confessing my love to Viviana, balls deep inside of her, my enemies were launching attacks.

I have to fight the deep-seated instinct to think I made a mistake. I walk back my knee-jerk reaction to convince myself that Viviana is a distraction I can't afford.

Not only can I afford her kind of distraction, I need it. I know what it's like when she's not in my life. There was an ache in my bones every second she was gone. It muddled everything in my life. If I go back to that, I won't survive it.

Plus, none of this is Viviana's fault.

It's mine.

"I should have killed Agostino when we found him in his penthouse."

I expect Raoul to agree, but he just shrugs. "If you had, Trofim may have had time to marry Viviana and then immediately gone on the run."

"Or I could have killed Agostino and still made it in time to save Viviana," I counter.

"Then Christos could have heard about Agostino's death and realized even sooner that you were going after Viviana and weren't going to marry Helen. He would have had even more time to launch this attack." Raoul lets loose another round of hacking coughs before he turns to me. "There's no time for regrets, Mikhail. You did what you thought was best in the moment and I supported you every step of the way. If you fucked up, then so did I. We're in this together."

Together. There's been a lot of that tonight. Anatoly helping me win Viviana back. Telling Viviana how I feel. Now, this moment with Raoul.

There's only so much sentimentality my black heart can handle. But I push the limits one last time.

"Funny hearing that from you after you ran into a burning building that you knew could be filled with our enemies, alone." I glare at the man who is my brother in every conceivable way that matters. "If we're in this together, I need you to not be a fucking martyr. Next time, call me before you run directly into the flames."

Raoul smirks. "I'll try to remember that."

We watch the fire for a few minutes. If it wasn't the start of yet another war, it would almost be beautiful.

"We have a big shipment of weapons coming in soon," Raoul mentions regretfully, like he doesn't want to shatter this moment, either. "As much as I'd love to stand here and watch the building burn, we need to figure out how we're going to offload the money from that sale without raising eyebrows. Cerberus was our only plan and now, it's gone."

A few weeks ago, I would have been scrambling. I spent six years crafting this gunrunning plot and putting all the pieces together: securing the weapons shipments, gaining the port access, buying a shell company to launder the money.

Now, it's all gone to hell.

But I'm still here. I have Viviana and Dante. I have my brothers.

None of my plans have worked out the way I thought they would, but they've all worked out the way they should.

"Then we'll make a new plan, Raoul." I clap him on the back, banging another round of coughs out of him. "We'll figure it out."