THE FIREFIGHTER HUSBAND I DIVORCED IS A QUADRILLIONAIRE

CHAPTER 3, PART 2

Derek crossed the large room in three fast strides. He drove his heavy fist directly into the handsome face of Mike. The forceful impact snapped the head of Mike backward and sent him stumbling hard against the arm of the couch. Mike clutched his jaw, his eyes wide with absolute shock.

"Do not," Derek warned quietly, standing over the younger man with a dark scowl. "Do not you dare."

Mike straightened up clumsily. His face cycled rapidly through pale shades of red and white. "Derek, I just wanted to say..."

"If you really did not want to come between a husband and his wife," Derek interrupted, keeping his voice dangerously low, "you could have started by keeping yourself out of the wife. You absolute prick."

Mike opened his mouth, and then closed it again very quickly. Whatever dramatic performance he had prepared had vanished completely, leaving him entirely speechless and deeply humiliated.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Erin shouted loudly, rushing straight to the side of her lover. "You just assaulted a sick man."

"He is a sick bastard who wants to sleep with my wife," Derek stated with a hard and unforgiving glare.

"You see?" Erin turned firmly on Derek, her eyes blazing with intense anger. "This is exactly what I have been talking about for months. You are violent. You are incredibly toxic. You solve absolutely everything with blind aggression, and then you wonder why I have been so miserable living with you."

Derek let out a dry and humorless laugh.

She had cheated on him. She had brought this wealthy man into their shared home. She had dressed him in Derek own clothes and cooked him a nice dinner. Yet somehow, with just a few carefully chosen words, she had already recast herself as the innocent victim of the situation.

Mike wiped a thin streak of bright red blood from the corner of his mouth. The wounded innocence had vanished entirely from his rich face, replaced by a look of barely contained resentment.

"I think I should go home," Mike mumbled stiffly, looking down at the wooden floor.

"No," Erin insisted gently, catching his arm before he could even move. Her voice softened immediately into a sweet coo. "You are not going anywhere, Mikey. You are my sweetheart. Sit down on the couch. The Wagyu beef will be ready in exactly twenty minutes."

Then she looked back at Derek, and every single trace of that warm tenderness disappeared completely.

"This is my house," Erin declared with a stiff posture and a raised chin. "If anyone is leaving tonight, it is Derek."

Derek looked at the hot pan still resting on the modern stove. Then he looked at Mike standing there in his faded pajamas. Finally, he looked at Erin, noting how her hand rested so comfortably on the arm of her lover.

He really wanted to say something powerful. But he just had no idea what was left to say. Every single sentence that came to his exhausted mind felt completely pointless. The words were either too angry, too incredibly weak, or far too late.

Then, suddenly, a bright wash of orange light flickered across the white wall beside him.

Derek turned toward the light almost instinctively.

The large television screen had cut away from regular programming to breaking news. Aerial footage showed a massive mountainside entirely engulfed in roaring flames. The bright fire surged wildly over the dry ridges beneath a night sky blackened completely by heavy smoke.

A red news ticker crawled rapidly across the bottom of the television screen. It read, massive wildfire in Los Vangees County. Multiple communities under mandatory evacuation orders.

The attention of Derek sharpened instantly.

This was definitely not a standard house fire or a small patch of burning brush. The entire horizon was literally on fire.

The voice of the news anchor was barely audible over the crackling sounds of the footage, but Derek caught small fragments.

"We have multiple casualties reported on the ground," the anchor announced with a grim expression. "Emergency services are completely overwhelmed right now. Mutual aid has been formally requested from all neighboring counties."

Behind him in the kitchen, Erin had already returned to the stove. Mike said something very quietly to her, and she answered him with a soft and musical laugh.

Derek barely heard them at all.

His pocket phone vibrated against his leg. A single second later, it began to ring loudly.

Derek pulled it out. The bright screen displayed the name of Vice Captain Brett Holland.

Derek answered on the second ring, his expression hardening at once.