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My jaw tightens.

This little shit.

For fuck’s sake, what’s with the Petrovs and setting things and people on fire?

Chapter 5

MAKSIM

“I give up,” Lucas says exhaustedly. He shuts his laptop with a defeated sigh, pushes it away, and drops his head onto the table.

His eyes lock onto mine, and a pout appears on his lips. I chuckle softly as I watch him almost melt into the surface.

“You’re giving up already?” I ask teasingly, taking a sip of my soda. “So soon?”

“Fuck you very much, Maksim,” he mutters without any real heat, then groans as he touches his ear. “Ugh. I’m so hungry, and I wanna take off this hearing aid so badly. Everything just feels too loud.”

I shake my head. Lucas has always been driven by two things: food and sleep. They seem to be his sanctuary. Actually, there’s a third—his obsession with my brother Alexander. The mutual fascination between those two is something completely different.

I remember the first time I saw Lucas, really saw him. Last year, in a dark alley, watching Alex beat a man to death. There was something strangely intimate about it, the way Lucas looked at him, calm yet horrified. That night felt unreal, like a movie scene. It stuck with me so much I ended up painting it.

Now, watching him sulk over homework instead of violence, a fond smile slips onto my face.

I don’t like people easily. In fact, most of the time I don’t like them at all. Many people assume Lucas and I are more than friends, but that’s usually a one-sided belief. Lucas is different. I have a genuine fondness for him. Not romantic, never romantic. Just real. He’s the first person I’ve actually wanted to be friends with, the first person I’ve ever felt like opening up to. And he listens. He actually listens.

Tyler’s becoming that for me too in his own foul-mouthed and chaotic way, but he’s oddly steady when he wants to be.

Lucas opens his laptop again, letting out another dramatic sigh.

“I’m getting another piercing soon,” I tell him casually. “You should get one too.”

He stops typing and blinks at me. “I don’t know… I’ve never really thought about it.”

“Where are you getting pierced?” a voice asks from behind us. I don’t even need to turn around to recognize Tyler.

“Your dick?” he asks as he arrives at our table, seating himself between Lucas and me. He tousles Lucas’s hair, earning a half-hearted death glare in response.

“Oh, I already have a dick piercing,” I reply matter-of-factly.

Tyler’s eyes go wide. “Wait seriously? Holy fuck, let me see.”

Lucas chokes on the water he’s about to sip, dissolving into a coughing fit. Tyler pats his back with a dramatic tut.

“Jesus, Ty,” Lucas wheezes, trying to recover. “You can’t just ask someone to show you their dick.”

“It’s okay, Ty,” I say casually. “I’ll show you if you’d like.”

“Oh my gosh, you will?” Tyler gasps, fluttering his long eyelashes at me, his voice taking on a feminine, dreamy tone.

Lucas lets out an exasperated sigh, as if he’s questioning every life choice that led him to this table. He drops his head back onto the table while Tyler and I burst out laughing.

“Poor baby,” Tyler coos, running a hand through Lucas’s hair. “Missing Alex?”

A soft, vulnerable expression briefly crosses Lucas’s face before he bites his lip and nods.

Alex, Anton, Viktor, and a few of my cousins are in Russia for a major family business deal. And Lucas not seeing Alex for a week is clearly doing a number on him.

“He’ll be back tomorrow,” I say with a shrug. “Cheer up, buddy.”