*Adrik*
“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 1-2 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.