Chapter Ninety-Eight

Chapter Ninety-Eight

Adrik

Armando's eye was slightly less swollen tonight than it had been last night, so he could open it farther than he'd been able to previously. Good. He'll be able to see the video more clearly. I walked into the room with Viktor, Ivan, and Stephen. Armando stayed quiet, partly because the gag was still in his mouth, partly because he was waiting to see what I said first this time. He had decidedly less bravado tonight than last night.

"I have something you need to see," I said. Armando looked at me, trying to remain calm and not let on that he was nervous. I took my phone out of my pocket and held it for Armando to watch the video. You could clearly hear Trino's voice in the video, warning anyone that tried to betray him in the future. What happened to Anthony and Lorenzo was a message to anyone who considered going against him in the future. The message was loud and clear when the video panned down to show their heads in the boxes.

Armando was stunned when he saw the video. We could see his brain trying to come up with alternatives. He really was still convinced that Lorenzo was coming to save him. His brain was struggling to process the information that he might not be getting out of here now.

I let him try to think his way out of his situation for quite a while. It was probably close to twenty minutes that I let him stew before saying anything. I couldn't deny that I got extreme satisfaction from watching him try to think of a way to save himself now. The guys were also enjoying watching him. It was obvious what was happening. Finally, I got up and stood in front of him. "I bet you're really wishing you'd taken Sephie's advice and jumped off the roof when she told you to, aren't you?"

He looked at me, with the look of a man that knows he's going to die. I'd seen the look plenty of times in my life. He was slowly giving up. He was slowly accepting his fate and coming to the realization that he was going to have to pay for what he did to Sephie.

I was standing in front of him, enjoying the silence, as it was tormenting him more than I thought it would. I suddenly got hit with panic. I knew it wasn't mine. I knew it had to be Sephie. I waited to see if it passed, as I didn't want to run upstairs if she'd fallen asleep and forgotten she couldn't move. But it was growing stronger. I felt the pull in my chest so strongly that it was hard to ignore. I needed to go to her. I looked at Armando, then to the guys. I nodded my head toward the door, indicating we were going to leave. We walked out without another word.

Once outside, Ivan asked, "Something happened upstairs, didn't it?"

"She's panicked, but I don't know why. It's getting stronger, which is why I wanted to leave," I said as I walked quickly to the elevator.

"Armando will torture himself if we leave him in silence. This actually works out perfectly," Stephen said.

"How did you know something happened with Sephie?" I asked Ivan once we were on the elevator.

"Apparently, I can feel her panic now too. It came on suddenly but strong. I saw you glance away from Armando right after I felt it, then to the door, like you were deciding if you wanted to leave. The feeling didn't go away, which is why I assume we're on our way upstairs," Ivan said as the doors to the elevator opened.

We rushed into the penthouse to find Andrei and Misha with her on the couch. They all looked panicked, quite frankly.

"What happened?" I said, rushing to Sephie. "Are you okay? Why are you panicked?"

"Oh shit, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to pull you from downstairs," Sephie said as I knelt down in front of her. Andrei still had his arm around her, trying to keep her calm, but he looked just as nervous as she felt.

"We both felt it this time," Ivan said. "What's going on? What happened?"

"I asked Misha if he could see just anybody in his visions. I haven't been able to get Tori off my mind the last day or two. Like something doesn't feel right, but I don't know what. They were able to see her talking to one of Sal's underbosses, but we don't know which one. Then Sephie was curious about Max, so they tried it with him. He was at work, like usual, then they said it fast-forwarded and he was leaving work, not paying attention to his surroundings, like usual, and the underboss that Tori was talking to walked up behind him and shot him in the head," Andrei said. "That's when she panicked."

I looked to Misha. "Do you know when this is happening? Has it already happened?"

"I don't know. This is all so new to me. When we saw him at work, I think that's where he is now. I don't know if the underboss is planning on doing it tonight or if it's another night we saw. I don't know how much his life got fast-forwarded," Misha said.

I looked at my watch, then back to Sephie, who was fighting back tears now. "What time did you usually get done with work? It was always well after midnight, right?" I asked.

She nodded. "Usually between 1:00 a.m. and 2:00 a.m. on busy nights, by the time we got all our chores done for the next shift."

It was still early. I looked at Viktor. "Go downstairs and get the files for the underbosses for Sal, so we know which one we're looking for." He nodded and walked toward the door. I turned and looked at Stephen. "The back parking lot of the restaurant was easy to cover, if I remember correctly? You had a good vantage point?"

"Yeah, super easy. Open. I could see everything," Stephen said. "I'll be able to get the underboss before he gets Max, if that's where your mind is going."

Sephie's eyes got even wider as she realized what I was planning. "But you hate Max…"

"Doesn't mean he deserves to die like this, love," I said. "Tori might be a different story, but Max is innocent in this one." She made a slight move toward me, but winced in pain. Andrei helped her sit up and I pulled her toward me. She wrapped her right arm around my shoulders, burying her face in my neck. I could feel the panic subside slowly.

Viktor walked back in with the files, showing them to Misha. He looked through a couple, then found the guy. "That's him. That's the guy we saw Tori with and the guy that was in the parking lot with Max," he said.

"We stop this, we stop her next. She can't get away with this," Andrei said, his anger clearly visible. He looked to Misha, asking, "Can you find her again once this is over?"

Misha shrugged his shoulders. "I'm not sure. I might need Sephie's help again, but if we found her tonight, I'd assume I can find her again."

"Good. She and I are going to have a very difficult conversation," Andrei said.

"Go. Stop this if you can. Do what you want to her," I said. "Ivan stays. The rest of you can go." Andrei and Misha stood up from the couch, following Viktor and Stephen out of the penthouse. Sephie took as deep a breath as she could once they left, still trying to relax. She lifted her head from my neck, looking at me. The tears in her eyes making the colors in her eyes dance in the light.

"Thank you. I'm sorry I pulled you from downstairs," she said, looking between me and Ivan.

"I think it actually worked out perfectly, princess. Armando is going to do all the work for us tonight," Ivan said, his devious grin across his face.

I kissed her gently, then moved to the couch with her, pulling her back against me. "How so?" she asked.

"He saw the video that Trino sent. It did not go well for him," Ivan said.

"He really was still thinking that Lorenzo was coming to save him. His brain was trying to come up with alternative theories on how to get himself out of this situation. It was clearly difficult for him. I was letting him stew in the silence when I felt your panic. When it grew stronger, I made the decision to leave him. Stephen pointed out on the way up here that it would likely serve to torture him even more that we left without a word," I said.

"He's not a fan of silence," Sephie said, a small smile on her face. She looked to Ivan. "You said you felt me panic this time too?"

"Yeah, same time as Boss. I saw him look away from Armando, like he was considering his options. He never loses focus in that kind of a situation, so I knew he had to be feeling the same thing I was and I knew you were the only thing that could pull his focus away from the situation at hand," Ivan said.

She took another deep breath. I could feel her body starting to tense again. "I didn't mean to pull you guys away. I don't want to constantly be interrupting your schedule," she said.

"You seem to think you're pulling us away for insignificant reasons. Not once have you interrupted my schedule because you broke a nail, Sephie. It's always for very important reasons. You are the most important reason," I said, pulling her closer against me. She leaned her head onto my shoulder, still lost in thought.

"Have you been able to feel anything else from me, Super Squish?" she asked Ivan.

"No, this is the first one. It makes sense though. You don't panic easily. If you're panicked, it's likely because you're in danger. It seems reasonable to me that I'd be able to feel that before anything else," he said.

"You're so logical," she said. I could hear her smiling when she said it. One look at Ivan told me she was likely grinning at him.

Sephie wasn't able to sleep until the guys got back. She did relax slightly when Viktor let Ivan know they were on their way back and they had managed to stop the underboss from killing Max. She completely relaxed when they finally walked back into the penthouse.

I looked to Viktor, wanting to know how it went. "We did get lucky that it was tonight that he was planning on killing Max."

"It was just as we saw it, gazelle," Misha said. He still looked mostly surprised at what had transpired.

"Except I stopped him before he had a chance to pull the trigger. Max almost pissed himself though. That was satisfying to watch," Stephen said, an uncharacteristic smile on his face.

"Better to be soiled and alive than the alternative," I said quietly. Sephie heard me, laughing as she pulled my arms tighter around her with her one good arm.

"What about Tori?" Ivan asked.

"That's where it gets fun," Viktor said.

"Misha was able to find her, so we paid her a little visit," Stephen said.

"Where was she?" Sephie asked.

"Surprisingly, still at the underboss's house. Apparently, she's been living there for a bit," Misha said.

"She will no longer be a problem," Andrei said. His anger from earlier was still evident on his face. Andrei had the same look every time he killed someone, but this time was different. Usually, he would struggle with it for days. We never gave him shit for it. You should struggle with it. It's not something to be taken lightly. This time, however, he looked like he was at peace with what happened already. Like he wasn't going to be struggling with it.

"Bubba…" Sephie said, trying to see how he was handling it. Andrei looked straight at her. "She learned a hard lesson of karma tonight. You wish death on someone else, it comes back on you even harder. Maybe in her next life, she'll learn to be nicer to people," he said.

Sephie leaned back and whispered to me, "Can you help me up, please?" I helped her stand up, so she could go to Andrei, even though he was handling this better than I'd ever seen him handle a situation like this before. He was still standing, so she wrapped her arm around his waist while he put his arm gently around her shoulders. "This is why she popped into your mind the last couple of days. You were meant to stop this," she said.

"It almost didn't happen. I almost didn't bring it up to you and Misha earlier," he said, looking down at her. He had a serious look on his face as he was thinking about the night's events.

"It was a lesson for you too, Bubba. That gut instinct that tells you to do something? You should always listen to it. Always. It could mean the difference between life and death," she said. "The more you listen to it, the stronger it will get. Just like your observation skills. The more you use them, the stronger they'll get," she said, smiling sweetly up at him.

He grinned at her. "Of course, you noticed,' he said.

"Have you met me?" she asked, trying not to laugh. "You've been spot-on. My guess is you've always been more observant than you think you are. You're just not willing to trust yourself. You've got so much more going on than just your pretty face, Bubba," she said.

We could all see Andrei's cheeks flush when she complimented him. Misha, never one to turn down a chance to tease anyone, said, "I honestly never would've thought to try to see Tori or Max if you hadn't brought it up, Andrei. Clearly, I don't have the voyeuristic tendencies you do. But you know, no judgment here."

"Don't listen to Judgey MacJudgerpants over there, Bubba," she said, laughing at Misha who was smiling broadly at both of them. She hugged Andrei tighter, resting her head on his shoulder.

"Did Max know it was you guys that saved his life?" I asked.

"Nope. He never saw us. He heard the guy drop behind him and turned around to see him dead on the ground, gun in hand. That's when he almost pissed himself. I have to say, I don't have a lot of hope that he's going to make it to his golden years though. His survival instincts are shit. He just stood there in the parking lot for, like, five minutes before he finally ran to his car and left," Stephen said. "We thought he was never going to leave."

"Sounds about right," I said. Sephie grinned at me. She knew I thought he was an idiot before tonight. This only proved my point even further.

"He might put it together one day, but I doubt it," she said. "What about Sal? Now he's lost another guy."

"It's going to take him much longer to figure out we were behind this one. We might've made it look like a murder-suicide. They'll find both of them together at his house," Viktor said.

"Anyone who knows Tori isn't going to question that story," Ivan said, unable to contain his laughter.

"I checked the kitchen. There was no broccoli. I was going to leave some between them," Misha said, causing everyone to laugh. Poor Sephie had a tight hold of her ribs to try to help ease the pain, but she couldn't not laugh at that.

I stood up to get her next dose of superprofen. Thankfully it was time, so it would help ease the pain from laughing. She had walked from Andrei to Stephen, sliding her arm around his waist. "Thank you for saving him, even though I know you hate him just as much as everyone else," she said.

He put his arm around her and hugged her gently. "Boss was right. Just because we don't like him doesn't mean he deserved that kind of ending." She rested her head on his shoulder while he held onto her for a few moments. I watched her take as deep of a breath as she could before she turned around looking at all of us, tears once again in her eyes.

"I don't ever want to hear any of you even considering that you might be evil or in any way not good. You just saved a man's life that you all clearly hate tonight, for no other reason than he used to mean something to me. And you did it without a second's hesitation. Evil men would've let him die and not felt bad about it," she said. She walked slowly to the kitchen where I was standing, wiping away the stray tear that had managed to fall down her cheek.

She was right. I didn't hesitate to save Max. Regardless of whether it was simply to end her panic, he was still alive tonight because of us. We jumped to action to save the life of an innocent, mostly innocent, he was still an idiot, person. Sephie tucked herself into my side as best she could, leaning her head on my shoulder. She was still looking at all the guys, who were quietly contemplating what she'd just said. "I love you all. More than anything," she said.

The guys were all waiting on us when we walked out of the bedroom the next morning. It wasn't that they woke up that much earlier than we did, they were just faster in the shower than I would ever be when Sephie was involved. A fact that I wasn't planning on changing anytime soon.

"Who wants to be my other arm for breakfast this morning?" Sephie asked as she walked into the kitchen. She was feeling slightly better this morning. She'd managed to do a few things on her own, laughing about it the whole time. "I feel like a child learning to do this for the first time again," she'd told me as she managed to put her pants on by herself.

"Spider monkey, you don't have to cook breakfast. You still need time to heal. It won't take very long to send someone to get food," Andrei said.

"I know I don't have to. I want to. I practically dressed myself this morning. I'm on a roll here. Don't kill my vibe, Bubba," she said, smiling broadly at him.

Misha literally jumped out of his chair to stand next to her. "If you're cooking, I'm helping. I'll do everything, even. You just have to tell me how you do it," he said. We all laughed at his enthusiasm, but nobody protested her cooking further.

As she instructed Misha on how to cook, she worked on translating a few more things that Viktor and Stephen had found on Ricardo. Viktor had heard back from the journalist that supposedly had so much information on Ricardo and Lorenzo while Sephie and Misha were still cooking. Viktor got up and took his computer to her. "The journalist finally replied from your last email, sestrichka."

Sephie gave instructions to Misha, then turned to read the journalist's response. As she read, her smile got wider. She glanced at Ivan, "Your method really pissed him off. He spent the first half of this email bitching about how we don't believe him. He says, ‘I put my entire life in danger to expose these men and now you accuse me of not knowing anything of significance.' Well played, Squish," she said.

"Told you. Journalists have delicate egos," Ivan said.

"Oh, this is interesting. Now he wants to meet to show you everything. He says it's not safe to send to you," she said, looking up at Viktor.

Viktor thought for a minute, then looked to Ivan. "What do you think? Have him come here or meet him elsewhere?"

"Elsewhere. We really don't know who this guy is. It could be some kind of trap," Ivan said.

"He has to come to the city though. There's no way we're leaving right now, for any reason," I said.

"He might be too scared to do that," Sephie said. "He seems nervous about someone finding out he's still alive."

"Then we don't meet with him. Simple as that. I'm not taking you anywhere else until you're healed completely, solnishko," I said, looking at her sternly enough that she wouldn't try to argue. She grinned at me, then glanced to see where the guys were looking. When she was satisfied they were all looking away, she closed her eyes briefly, making them go dark, then looked to me once more. When she looked at me, I could feel her push her warmth to me as she was looking at me with her dark eyes, a smile on her face. It was so unexpected that I cursed quietly under my breath. She blinked again, making her eyes return to normal and acted like nothing had happened, continuing on with the conversation, while I was left trying to control myself. I'm in so much trouble.

"Once we're done eating, I'll take an hour out of my day to respond to him and tell him he has to come here if he wants to meet with you," she said, grinning at Viktor.

We were all surprised that the journalist responded quickly to the demand that he come to the city to meet. He basically told Viktor to name the time and place and he'd be there.

"I expected some pushback on that one," Ivan said.

"I did too. I wonder if he's already here then?" Sephie said, thinking aloud. She was sitting at the kitchen island with Misha while the rest of us cleaned up the kitchen.

"Do we know what he looks like?" Misha asked. Sephie nodded, then pulled a picture up from an article on his supposed death that Viktor had found previously.

Misha extended his hand to her, saying, "Let's see if we can find him." She grinned at him, taking his hand. The rest of us stopped what we were doing to watch them, waiting to see what they would be able to see.

The process took longer than normal. Usually, Misha would see something right away, but he also usually checked in on people he already knew. It would make sense that it would take longer to find this guy, given that neither Sephie nor Misha knew him.

"Got him," Misha said quietly.

"I know that area. It's close to where my uncle used to live," Sephie said as she squeezed Misha's hand tighter. They watched the movie that only they could see for a few moments longer, before they looked at each other, then to the rest of us.

"He's already in the city. I can't tell how long he's lived here, but he's living here now. I can show you on the map the area of the city he's in," Misha said.

"From what we saw, he keeps to himself mostly. He only goes out for necessities, doesn't talk to many people, tries to not be seen," Sephie said.

"He'll be easy to watch for a few days before we meet with him, then," Stephen said. "I love a recluse. They're the easiest ones to watch. They almost always keep to the exact same routine."

"I'll go grab a map," Viktor said.

"Should he meet with one of you though? He might put it together who you are and who you work for," Sephie said. "He also appears to prefer to speak Italian, which is going to be problematic."

"Ask him if he speaks English when you respond. Tell him you've been using translator software to respond to him," Ivan said.

"Even still, your Russian accents are going to give you away," Sephie said.

Misha turned to look at her. "You're not meeting with him either, gazelle," he said, sternly. "If the people of the city heard about you being kidnapped, he'll just as easily put it together who you are as he will one of us."

"Dammit, I got scolded twice in one morning," she said, mostly under her breath.

Viktor returned with the map to see us laughing at the exchange. "I always miss the good stuff," he said, laying out the map in front of Misha.

"Sephie brought up a good point that if one of us meet with this guy, he's going to piece together who we work for. But then she said he might only speak Italian, which is going to be problematic, implying that she should be the one to meet with him. Misha shut her down," Andrei said, still laughing.

"That's not happening, sestrichka. Not when you're like this," Viktor said, looking at her sternly.

"Dammit. Three times," she said.

"What about Chen? We give him an earpiece. We tell him exactly what to say to this guy. Sephie can still translate if needed. Everybody's happy," Stephen said.

"Except Chen. He won't be happy. He'll be trying not to have a heart attack that whole time," Sephie said.

"We can coach him through it," Andrei said. "He'll be fine. He can totally do this."

"We'll be watching him the whole time. He saw what I did to Smith. He'll know if this guy makes one wrong move, I'll take him out," Stephen said.

Sephie thought about it for a minute. She looked to me to see my opinion on it. It was a reasonable plan. It would keep us anonymous. He would have a hard time tracing Chen back to me and it would still get us whatever information this guy supposedly had.

Sephie sighed, then looked to Viktor. "Can I borrow your phone, Papa Bear? I'll ask him and see what he says."

Viktor dialed Chen's number, put it on speaker, then handed the phone to her. I walked to her, so she wouldn't have to get up. She leaned against me while she talked to Chen. He was understandably apprehensive when she first laid out the situation.

"You can say no, Chen. No harm. We're just exploring our options," I said. I might've known he would be less likely to say to no to me.

Chen thought for a few moments, then sighed. "As long as you guys are there to make sure nothing happens, I'll do it. And as long as Sephie can translate whatever this guy says to me in another language. She can tell you. I'm from a French family and my French is horrendous. Foreign languages are not my forte."

"We'll all be there, Chen. You have my word," I said.

After the call ended, Viktor and Misha went over the map where they saw this guy. "We should ask to meet with him somewhere close to where he lives. I want to fuck with his head just a little," Misha said, a mischievous grin on his face.

They found a small café near the guy's apartment. Stephen looked it over, coming up with a few possibilities on where he could be to cover Chen. "This has potential," he said. "I need to check it out, but it could work."

"We can be here," Viktor said, pointing down the street to another apartment building. "We can park on the street and not be obvious, but still close enough to hear and see everything."

"Go check it out," I said. "Andrei stays, the rest can go." I had a short conversation with Sephie the night before about how Andrei was handling the Tori situation. I knew she wanted a chance to talk to him without the other guys around to make sure he was okay. This would give her that chance. This would also give Ivan time to go to the jewelers to pick up her ring.

Once the four guys left, I walked to Sephie. "I just have a couple phone calls to make downstairs, then I'll be back up," I said, leaning down to kiss her temple. "Are you warm enough for now?" I asked.

She smiled sweetly at me. "I'm okay for now," she said. It took her at least three times as long as normal to stand up on her own, but she managed to do it. Her face beamed when she stood in front of me.

Andrei said, "That was so painful to watch, but I'm so proud of you, spider monkey."

"This is a big day for me," she said, her gorgeous smile across her face. I leaned down and kissed her quickly but passionately, not trusting myself to be able to stop.

"I'll be back soon," I said, winking at her. I knew she was completely aware that I'd asked Andrei to stay just so she could have a chance to talk to him. I was also looking forward to her thanking me later for it. I'll take anything I can get until she's healed fully again.