*Adrik*
We spent several hours talking things through with Battista. There were so many different players involved that it was going to be difficult to formulate a solid plan for all of them at once. We hadn’t even brought Martin into the picture yet. Or the Mexican cartels.
“I have it on good authority that Niko and Vito are planning on returning to the city in the next two weeks. We don’t have a specific date yet, but the money supply is drying up, so they’re coming back to find out what’s going on with the underbosses and their inability to collect taxes,” Battista said.
Ivan was running his hand over his goatee, as he usually did when he was thinking through a problem. “What if we let them come back to the city to try and collect taxes? The people won’t stand for it. What if we let the people take care of Niko and Vito for us? They’re a big reason that the underbosses stopped collecting taxes in the first place. Even with knowing what happened to Massimo and Lorenzo, they still likely would’ve kept trying to collect taxes if the people hadn’t fought back.”
“I happen to be very good friends with a very talented arms dealer. He can make sure the people are protected against whatever Niko and Vito decide to try,” Battista said.
I felt Sephie starting to make the connections at the same time I did. “If the people of the city take care of Niko, Vito, and whatever underbosses object, then the mayor will need to appear like he’s being tough on crime to keep the favor of the people,” she said.
“Which will be the perfect opportunity to arrest Dr. Moretti. He can be the reason we connect Sal and Henry,” I said.
“Henry connects the switch-hitting representative,” Ivan said.
“The mayor and the DA look like they’re being very tough on crime and easily get re-elected,” Stephen said.
“Not to mention the new wing on the hospital that’s happening out of all this,” Andrei said.
“Okay, so that takes care of everything here quite nicely. What about Ricardo and Sal?” Sephie asked.
Misha’s eyes went wide. “I know why there were two scenarios for taking care of the bosses. Because we’re using both of them. Niko and Vito are coming here, which is why I could see that outcome. But we go after Ricardo and Sal and take care of them before they have a chance to return to the city.”
Ivan chuckled, pointing to Sephie. “The princess agrees,” he said. They all looked at her, smiling. She looked to me, silently asking what color her eyes had decided on.
“Purple,” I said, kissing her cheek.
“Oh. Well, then. Italy is once again in my future, apparently,” she said. She looked back at the rest of the guys, asking, “okay, so that takes care of them. Now, what about Martin?”
“I admittedly don’t have as much information on Martin as I do on Ricardo and Sal. What about Trino? Does he still have people that are loyal to him down there?” Battista asked.
“He does. He’s been keeping an eye on him since he’s been here. He said Martin has cut ties with the Mexican cartels, as well as Sal and Ricardo. Because he never got Giana as payment for whatever was supposed to happen when he came for her, he’s cut them off,” I said.
“How much does Trino know about what else is going on with all of this?” Battista asked.
“Everything,” we all said at once. Battista was surprised by our answer.
“How did he take that?” he asked.
“Quite well, actually. He’d already seen a few things. He’d seen my eyes go black, he knew I was able to somehow see things I shouldn’t be able to see. He just didn’t know it wasn’t just me until he got out of Colombia,” Sephie said.
“We’d decided already that one stipulation for his new security team was that they were going to have to be okay with everything weird that is happening, since his last security team had a very big problem with Sephie,” I said.
“We took two of Armando’s guys, the ones that helped us find Sephie and Ivan when they were taken, and gave them to Trino. They know everything now too,” Stephen said.
“How did they take it?” Battista asked.
“They’re mostly okay with it. I think more shocked than anything,” I said. I glanced at Andrei, Misha, and Stephen, before looking back at Battista. “It doesn’t hurt that we all control our demons now,” I said. I knew right away that my eyes had switched to black, without needing to see anyone else. I could feel it switch now. I could feel Sephie’s switch now. I knew if ours did, theirs would too.
Battista looked around the room, somewhat shocked to see so many pairs of black eyes staring back at him. He completely missed that Viktor’s eyes were still normal, which saved us from having that conversation with him. “When did this happen?” Battista asked.
“Recently. It didn’t happen all at once. They’ve all figured it out in their own time,” Sephie said.
“I was impressed when I first saw it on you, Sephie. I never would’ve thought I would see it on so many others. You know this is virtually unheard of, right?” he said.
She nodded her head. “You were right in that it’s a warning to other demons, but what you don’t know is that our demons are helping us. We’re basically using their powers for good now.”
Battista looked at her for a few moments. “You’re actually using your demon’s powers?”
She nodded once more. “Each of our demons compliment us. Mine is very similar to me, for example. It’s like an added boost for our gifts, basically.”
“Completely unheard of,” he said.
“That’s because you’re looking at things in only black and white. Good and evil aren’t black and white. There’s a very large grey area that is more accurate,” Sephie said. “It’s hard to imagine that a demon would want to help, but you have to remember they haven’t always been demons. They were souls like us at one time. They just made bad choices and paid more attention to the evil than good. You can’t have one over the other all the time. Even only focusing on the good will get you in trouble. You can’t ignore that evil exists and expect it not to affect you or those around you,” Sephie said.
Battista was quiet for a few moments. He finally looked at her and said, “light cannot exist without darkness, nor can darkness exist without light. The existence of one implies the existence of the other. This is something that people have known for centuries, but it has been altered and perverted by different religions to the point that people don’t understand the synergistic relationship between the two any longer.”