*Sephie*
Trino stopped by the building a few hours later, with Gus and Oscar. I was surprised to see Chen with them as well. Instead of bringing all those people to the penthouse, I assured Adrik I’d be okay in his office for a while.
“Chen, I’m surprised you’re here too,” I said as they walked into the office. I hadn’t sat down yet, as I didn’t want to be rude when everyone walked in. Chen clearly looked relieved to see me and walked toward me. Of course, Adrik was by my side, with Ivan and the rest of the guys close by as well. Chen glanced at Adrik, who tried to put him at ease right away. “It’s good to see you again, Chen,” he said, extending his hand to him. Trino walked in soon after Chen, so Adrik kissed my temple gently and walked to him. Chen took the opportunity to hug me, but not before Adrik warned him. “Gently,” he said sternly, as he walked away.
“How are you, my girl?” Chen asked quietly.
“I mean, I’ve been better, but I’m here, so that counts,” I said, smiling at him. “I see you’ve met Trino finally.”
“Yeah, you were right. Good dude. They told me they were coming to see you, so I wanted to tag along. I almost called your giant secretary to check on you, but I didn’t want to be a bother,” he said.
Viktor was close enough that he heard Chen. “It wouldn’t be a bother, Chen. You can call anytime,” Viktor said. He winked at me when I turned to smile at him, which caused Chen to relax a little more.
Adrik walked back to me, with Trino beside him. Chen took a few steps away to give them room. The look on Trino’s face was one of slight horror. Here I thought I was starting to look better. I grabbed my ribs so I could laugh slightly. “You’re not good for my self-esteem when you look at me like that, Trino. I thought I was starting to look better,” I said, smiling at him. Once he saw me smile, his face softened and he relaxed.
“Miha, forgive me. I was not expecting…”
“The colors? I know. They’re impressive when you first see them. You should see my stomach. It’s like a unicorn beat me up, really,” I said. Adrik clicked his tongue at me, but he was smirking at me, nonetheless.
Trino looked to Ivan. Pointing at him, he said, “he doesn’t look much better, but you’re more colorful.”
“She likes to live life in technicolor, Trino,” Ivan said, grinning at me. I grabbed my ribs to laugh again. It was getting the slightest bit easier to do normal things like laugh, but there was still tremendous pain involved. I wasn’t sure if it was actually getting better or if I was just getting used to the pain.
“Trino, please sit. You can tell me why you decided to come to the city and tried to avoid seeing us,” I said, smiling at him. Misha and Andrei moved to help me, as Adrik sat on one of the couches first so they could put me in his lap. I leaned back against him, crossing my legs in between his.
Trino laughed again, once again asking for my forgiveness. “Miha, I meant no disrespect. I just knew that if they had managed to put you in the hospital, it likely wasn’t good. I didn’t want to cause you more pain by having to see me. I came to the city to personally deliver Anthony and Lorenzo to Sal, so he couldn’t mistake the message. I want to see the look on his face,” he said.
“When he opens the boxes and sees their heads?” I asked. Trino’s expression quickly went to one of complete shock.
“How, Miha? I haven’t…”
“It’s the most dramatic way I could think of. Turns out I was right,” I said. All the guys, including Adrik, laughed since they knew the real truth. Misha caught my eye and smiled his handsome, wide smile at me. “I enjoy your flair for the dramatic. It’s one of my favorite things about you, Trino.”
Trino laughed. Oscar, who had been quiet to this point, said, “mine’s better.” Gus smacked his shoulder, but laughed at him.
“Yours is quite good as well, Oscar. I never got a chance to thank you for helping them get me and Ivan out. I know it was you and Andrei that created the distraction so they could ask nicely for us back,” I said. “And thank you Gus and Chen for helping to find us. You’re all the best.”
“Word has gotten out about what happened, Sephie. The people in the city aren’t happy with Sal or the other bosses, for that matter. It might’ve been Sal and Armando that took you, but the people know the other bosses were involved somehow. Or at least complicit. They’re thankful to Ghost for stopping the plan for the brawn, but they heard about you being taken and they’re pissed. The people love you,” Gus said.
It was my turn to be shocked. “The people don’t know me. How can they love me?”
“They know enough. They’ve seen you around town. You’re always smiling and nice to everyone. You’re like the fairytale princess for them,” Gus said.
Ivan snapped his fingers and pointed to me, “called it.” I laughed before I could grab my ribs, so I ended up cursing while still laughing.
“You have to like give me warning before you make my laugh now,” I said.
We talked for a while, before Gus brought up Armando. “Is he still alive?” he asked.
I felt Adrik nod his head, tightening his hold around me just slightly. “We got some unexpected information about him last night. I might be enjoying breaking his mind completely before he dies,” he said.
Trino laughed. “This is why I like you so much, Jefe.”
Trino stayed until well after the sun went down, making it the perfect time to deliver his surprise to Sal. He really was like a kid that was waiting to pull a prank on someone. It was just how Misha and I saw it earlier. The excitement on his face was unmistakable.
As everyone left, I looked at the guys saying, “I think we should come up with possible theories on what Sal’s going to do when he opens his early Christmas gifts. I think there’s a good chance he’ll get scared and run, but I also think I underestimated his psychosis. He might go full monster and go after Trino, then us.”
“I say run,” Ivan said. “I think a lot of his bravado was backed by Lorenzo. I think it’s pretty clear he’s the smarter of those two.”
“I think Ricardo is the wild card in this situation, too. I’m wondering if he’s going to step into Lorenzo’s role and start pulling the strings for Sal now that his brother is dead,” Stephen said.
“It does make me wonder how he’s stayed out of the spotlight for so many years, but had so much control over Armando,” Viktor said.
“Was he connected to the boss that Armando replaced?” I asked. We hadn’t given much thought to that boss. I saw a lightbulb moment for Viktor and Stephen when I asked my question. I smiled at them, motioning for Andrei to help me up. “We clearly need to go back upstairs,” I said.
It didn’t take Viktor long to find a link between Ricardo and Giovanni, the boss before Armando took over. “That explains why Armando picked the surname he’s been using all these years, too. It’s what connects Ricardo and Giovanni. That’s why it looked like Ricardo and Armando were distantly related. It looks like he’s distantly related to Giovanni too, if you believe his fake last name,” Viktor said.
“Ricardo had to have told him to use that name then. Probably before he ever became an underboss for Giovanni,” I said. “It was just distant enough that nobody would really think it was a lie, but just believable enough that no one would question it.”
It was only a short time later that Adrik’s phone beeped. He looked at it, finding a video of Sal finding the boxes with Anthony’s and Lorenzo’s heads in them. Trino was thoughtful enough to show us what was in the boxes before they were left on Sal’s doorstep, just for Armando. When Adrik showed me the video, he covered my eyes for that part. “You don’t need to see that, solnishko,” he said. It was only a few seconds and he pulled his hand from my eyes. I wasn’t going to argue. It wasn’t something I was desperate to see.
It wasn’t something that Sal wanted to see, either. He was clearly distraught. Trino timed it so that Sal found the boxes as he was coming home. He’d apparently been having him watched so he knew when to time it just right so that it was indeed Sal to open the boxes and not one of his men. Sal was shocked, angry, distraught, and inconsolable in the span of a few minutes. He immediately got on his phone, but the audio wasn’t close enough that we could understand what he was saying. Whoever he was calling, didn’t pick up. He tried another call. Once again, no answer.
It suddenly hit me. “He just called them,” I said. “He just called Anthony and Lorenzo. He doesn’t believe it’s them in the boxes.”
Stephen said out loud what I was thinking. “If it wasn’t Sal, this would be heartbreaking.”
“I’m going to enjoy watching Armando see this,” Ivan said. “He might be so crushed that we don’t even need to kill him. He’ll suffer the rest of his life as a poor man.”
“You might be on to something, Super Squish. If I had two functioning arms, I’d be able to hug you. But alas, here I lie. Completely useless,” I said, grinning at him.
“Not completely useless, sestrichka. Your brain still works,” Viktor said, laughing his deep belly laugh that always made everyone around him happier for hearing it.