*Sephie*
Once inside, with the door closed, I said to all of them, “I know what happened to Trino’s nephew, but I’m scared to tell him. I don’t want to bring even more attention to me, but it could also keep Trino in debt to Adrik, which could be quite useful, so I don’t know what to do.”
I noticed Adrik raised an eyebrow when I mentioned keeping Trino in debt to him, but he waited for the guys to think it over before speaking. It was one of the many things I admired about him. He always took their thoughts, opinions, and suggestions into consideration before making decisions. Especially if those decisions affected all of us. He was, after all, the King of the Underworld. He didn’t need to take anyone’s opinion into consideration, but it was clear that he trusted the guys and sought out their opinions regularly.
Viktor asked, “what are your thoughts on Trino after spending time with him?”
“I think he’s trustworthy. I don’t think he’s holding anything back from us, except maybe the extent of his hatred for Massimo. He’s trying to be respectful of Adrik, so it’s understandable. From what I’ve seen of Martin, he’s also trustworthy, but he’s slightly more difficult to gauge because he rarely talks. They both respect Adrik and Armando, although not as much. I’m not sure if it’s because they know Armando doesn’t have as much power or if they just don’t know him as well. I didn’t get the feeling it was anything bad. It felt like they were awkward because they didn’t know each other well. There’s clearly no love lost between Trino and the other bosses, however,” I said, smiling.
They were all silent for a few more minutes. I could see Misha running through scenarios in his head, checking out each possibility. I think the others were waiting for him to speak first, honestly.
Ivan spoke up, “you’re positive you know what happened to him?”
“Well, as positive as I can be. I overheard Massimo and Dario talking after one of the meetings. Massimo told Dario that he had ‘that nuisance Mateo’ taken care of and dumped in his usual spot. I’d never heard the name Mateo before, so it piqued my interest. I found a reason to stay in the room. It was one of the only times I saw Dario get angry with Massimo. He wasn’t only angry though, he was scared. I just don’t know who he was scared of. I didn’t know about Trino or Adrik at the time.”
Ivan thought for a few moments. “This might prove to be useful. It might be a way to turn Dario and Massimo against each other. Create more chaos,” he said, looking to Adrik.
Misha had finished running through possibilities in his head. “I don’t see a problem with you telling Trino what you know. If you feel like we can trust him, I think it’s a good move. I agree with you and Ivan that it might be useful to keep him in debt to us, so to speak, and can possibly create more chaos.”
Adrik looked to Viktor, who nodded, then Andrei and Stephen, who also nodded their heads. He pulled me to him, holding me close. “You ultimately get the final say, solnishko. If you’re too worried about telling him what you know, then we’ll keep it between us right now.”
“I’m happy to tell Trino what I know, if you give him permission to take care of Massimo. That’s one less we have to worry about,” I said.
Adrik was massaging my shoulders as he lightly kissed my neck while the water from the shower ran over my already sore muscles. He spun me around, so I was facing him, holding me against him. He had a small smile on his face, as he looked at me. “If I haven’t told you lately, I think you’re the most incredible woman I’ve ever met. Everything about you is perfect for me. If I would have made a list of everything I wanted in a woman, it would’ve still fallen short of how perfect you are.”
I couldn’t help but smile at his words. I knew exactly how he felt, because I felt the same way about him. I wrapped my arms around his neck, just wanting to hold him close to me. He held me even tighter, as we stood in silence for a few moments, just the two of us.
As we were getting dressed, he said, “you look like you’re doing a better job of getting control of your anger. Misha looked more tired than you did by the end this morning.”
I smiled. “I had to pull a few punches because I misjudged how slow he was getting. I’ll never hear the end of it if I wreck his pretty face.”
Adrik laughed. “No. No, you won’t. But I think watching you with Misha this morning somehow gained me brownie points with Trino. He was quite impressed.” He walked to me, pulling me into his arms again. “I mean, we all know you’re impressive, but I have to admit to secretly loving it when I see other people realize it for the first time.”
I hid my face in his shoulder. I still struggled with him telling me I was impressive in any way. He chuckled and kissed the top of my head. “Come, we should go find Trino. You can tell him the story about how you ‘verbally annihilated,’ as Viktor put it, Vanessa in my office.” He saw the shock on my face and added, “She’s with Massimo. Martin said one of his guys called to complain that she was stinking up the place this morning while we were on the beach.”
I laughed loudly. “If Trino takes care of her too, do you think the perfume maker that makes that particularly hellish scent will go out of business after losing their best customer? I mean, we could be doing the entire world a favor here.”