Chapter 38
Raze
The dining room filled slowly with sunlight as the shutters lifted automatically, letting the pale warmth spill across the long table. Outside, the pool shimmered in the calm courtyard, water catching the early light like polished glass.
Inside, breakfast had already been laid out.
The maid moved silently between the kitchen and dining room, placing the last of the plates on the table with the kind of efficiency that made it clear she’d been doing this long before any of us woke up.
Coffee. Eggs. Fresh bread. Fruit.
The small rituals of a normal life.
I sat at the head of the table with my coffee and watched the two women who had turned this house into something resembling a home.
Izzy sat by my side, hair still loose from sleep, sunlight catching the soft copper strands that had escaped her braid. She was reading something on her phone with the kind of concentration that meant she’d probably forget to eat unless someone reminded her.
Tone sat beside her, already halfway through a cup of coffee like it was a medical necessity. Which, knowing her, it probably was.
“You’re staring.”
“He tends to do that a lot,” Tone pointed out.
She set her cup down and glanced between us. Then she leaned back in her chair and stretched slightly, rolling tension from her shoulders.
“I actually have news.”
That got my attention. Tone rarely announced things without reason.
“I have a job interview later today.”
Izzy blinked. “Really?”
“For a post in Madrid.”
That got both of us looking at her.
Tone smiled slightly, for once looking uncertain.
The thought of her going to Madrid sat in my head longer than it should have.
Madrid.
Spain wasn’t exactly the end of the world. It wasn’t like she was disappearing into some war zone or vanishing into a country with no way to reach her. A flight, a few hours, a passport stamp—that was all it really was.
But sitting there at the table, listening to her talk about it like it was nothing, it felt a lot farther away than that.
It felt like distance.
I leaned back slightly in my chair, studying her.
“You’re serious about this.”
Tone looked up from her coffee, already sensing the shift in my voice. She’d known me long enough to hear the part I wasn’t saying.
“Yes,” she revealed. “It’s an interview today, not a one-way ticket.”
“You said two weeks.”
“If they hire me.”
“And if they do?”
She shrugged one shoulder. “Then I take the job.”
Like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Izzy glanced between us, recognizing the tension forming in the room before either of us acknowledged it was there.
I ran a hand over my jaw.
“I don’t like it.”
Tone’s eyebrows lifted.
“Spain? You’ve allowed people much farther away than Spain.”
“That’s different.”
“How?”
I opened my mouth, then closed it again.
Because the truth was simple.
“You’re my sister.”
Tone stared at me for a moment, and then she laughed softly.
“Raze.”
“What?”
“It’s two weeks.”
“Two weeks is still two weeks.”
She leaned forward slightly, folding her hands on the table like she was explaining something to a stubborn patient.
“I’m not moving there. I’m not joining the foreign legion. I’m taking a temporary job.”
“It’s still far.”
“You have a private jet.”
“That’s not the point.”
She tilted her head, studying me.
“Then what is?”
“I’m being practical.”
Tone smirked.
“You’re being protective.”
I wasn’t used to her being gone. For most of our lives, Tone had always been somewhere nearby. Maybe not in the same room, but close enough that if something went wrong I could reach her. Close enough that the world couldn’t swallow her without me noticing.
The idea of her being on the other side of Europe—even temporarily—sat badly in my chest.
“Two weeks,” she repeated, softer this time. “And I’ll be working. Not wandering through dark alleys.”
“That doesn’t make me feel better.”
“It should.”
Izzy reached across the table then and placed a hand lightly on my arm.
“She’ll be fine, Raze.”
I glanced at her.
She was smiling, but there was understanding in her eyes too. She knew exactly where this was coming from. Family wasn’t something I took lightly.
“You’re not used to being away from her,” Izzy added.
“No,” I admitted.
Tone softened slightly at that.
It wasn’t often I confessed things like that out loud.
“For long stretches,” I finished.
Tone leaned back again, exhaling.
“Well, you’re going to have to get used to it eventually.”
I frowned.
“Why?”
“Because,” she stated dryly, “I do have a life outside of this house.”
I stared at her.
“That sounds suspicious.”
She rolled her eyes.
“I’m a grown woman.”
“Debatable.”
Izzy laughed softly into her coffee.
Tone pointed a finger at me.
“You survived wars, assassins, and Russian crime families, but a two-week nursing contract is what pushes you over the edge?”
“Guilty.”
She shook her head.
“You’re being ridiculous.”
“Maybe.”
But the knot in my chest hadn’t loosened.
Because even though Spain wasn’t the end of the world—the world had a habit of proving distance meant very little when things went wrong.
Tone studied me for another second, then softened again.
“Raze,” she spoke pointedly.
I looked at her.
“I’ll be back before you even notice I’m gone.”
I doubted that. But I nodded anyway.
Because arguing with her was pointless once she’d made up her mind. And because if there was one thing I’d learned about my sister—it was that she rarely walked away from doing what she wanted.
Even if it meant leaving home for a little while.
Even if it meant forcing me to learn that two weeks could feel a lot longer than it sounded.
“When would you leave?” Izzy prompted, and I knew she was trying to lighten the mood. “Tomorrow. If they like me.”
Izzy laughed softly. “They’ll like you.”
“I’m very charming.”
“You’re terrifying,” I told her.
“Same thing.”
I was about to respond when my phone vibrated against the table.
The guard was calling from the front gate. I picked it up.
“Yes.”
“Sir,” the voice came through the security line. “You have a visitor.”
“Who?”
“Archie.”
Across the table, Tone’s eyebrows rose.
Izzy looked at me carefully.
Of course he was here.
I sighed.
“Let him in.”
I ended the call and set the phone back down.
Tone tilted her head slightly.
“Well, that’s rarely boring.”
I took another sip of coffee.
“That depends on how long he stays.”
A few minutes later, footsteps approached down the hall.
The maid appeared first.
“Mr. Cavalho,” she nodded politely, stepping aside. “Your guest.”
Archie stepped into the doorway behind her.
And then he stopped. Not enough that anyone who didn’t know him would’ve noticed. But I noticed. Because Archie was many things—careless, reckless, irritatingly composed—but he was rarely still. Yet there he stood in the doorway like a man who had forgotten the next step in his own entrance.
His eyes had landed on Tone. And stayed there.
It wasn’t obvious. Archie had too much self-discipline for that. His expression stayed neutral, posture relaxed, hands loose at his sides.
But there was a beat—half a second too long—where the rest of the room didn’t exist for him.
I groaned into my coffee. Because the universe apparently wasn’t finished entertaining itself with my life.
Archie blinked once, the moment passing, and his attention turned to me. He must’ve seen the look on my face.
His mouth twitched faintly.
“I see I’ve arrived at a delicate moment,” he announced.
“You have no idea,” I muttered.
He glanced toward Tone again—quicker this time—then back to me.
“I’ll wait in the office.” He was almost apologetic. Contrite. That alone told me he knew exactly what he’d just done.
I sighed.
“Sit down, Archie.”
Archie paused.
“For breakfast,” I added.
He hesitated for half a second longer, then nodded and stepped into the room. He took the empty seat across from Tone, lowering himself carefully into it.
Izzy watched the whole thing unfold with the amusement of someone who knew exactly what was happening and was enjoying every second of it.
“You’re without your cane today,” she noticed after a moment.
Archie glanced down at his empty hand like he’d forgotten about it.
“I left it in the car.”
“Why?” Izzy asked.
He lifted one shoulder slightly.
“It makes people uncomfortable.”
Tone arched a brow.
Izzy tilted her head.
Archie took a sip of coffee before adding, casually, “Because it’s weaponized.”
Tone snorted.
“Well that seems like a perfectly reasonable breakfast accessory.”
Archie inclined his head politely. “Antonella.”
Tone’s eyes narrowed immediately.
“Don’t call me that.”
“Your full name deserves respect.”
“My full name does not roll off your tongue, or I’ll cut it out of your mouth.”
Archie studied her calmly.
“I digress.”
I rubbed a hand over my face.
This was going exactly the way I’d feared.
Tone leaned back slightly in her chair, folding her arms.
“I’m still confused how you manage to be friendly with this family when they’re the ones who destroyed your legs.”
Her tone was pleasant. Too pleasant. Which meant she was testing him.
Archie didn’t miss it. His expression didn’t change, but there was a flicker of amusement in his eyes.
“In fairness, they were trying to kill me at the time.”
“That tends to happen around here,” Izzy remarked, almost to herself.
Tone tilted her head.
“And yet you keep coming back.”
Archie smiled faintly.
“I’m stubborn.”
“Or stupid,” Tone suggested.
“Sometimes both.”
Izzy hid a laugh behind her coffee cup.
Archie glanced down at the plate the maid had placed in front of him.
“You cook?” he asked Izzy.
“She supervises,” Tone cut in.
Tone studied him for another moment.
“You walked again,” she commented.
“Yes.”
“You’re welcome.”
Archie blinked once. Then emitted a laugh I’m not sure even he was expecting.
“I appreciate the medical support.”
“You’re lucky I wasn’t your nurse back then,” Tone said.
“Why?”
“I would’ve made you do the exercises.”
Archie leaned back slightly in his chair.
“I see.”
“You wouldn’t have enjoyed it.”
“That depends.”
Tone raised an eyebrow.
“On what?”
“Whether you were the one ordering them.”
Izzy choked on her coffee.
I stared at the ceiling.
Breakfast carried on like that for a few minutes—conversation sliding between sarcasm and polite hostility in a way that somehow felt almost… normal.
Eventually I pushed my chair back.
“Office.”
Archie stood immediately.
Before I followed him, I leaned down and kissed Izzy softly.
Her fingers brushed my wrist.
“Try not to start another war before lunch,” she murmured.
“No promises.”
Tone watched us with open amusement.
Archie glanced between the two of them once more before turning toward the hallway.
I already knew this conversation in my office wasn’t going to be the complicated part of my day.
The complicated part had just introduced itself at my breakfast table.
Archie had enemies. A price on his head. And a lifelong habit of walking straight into chaos without looking down first.
Tone, on the other hand, had a talent for finding complicated problems and deciding they were worth solving. Which meant this was either the beginning of something interesting… Or the beginning of something catastrophic.
Probably both.