*Adrik*
I woke to Sephie’s fingers playing on my chest. I ran my fingers through her hair, causing her to snuggle closer to me. I held her close for a moment. Unfortunately, we didn’t have ample time this morning. I ran my fingers over the naked skin of her back, feeling every scar that marked her. I was lost in my own thoughts about what she’d been through when I felt her head lift off my chest. She rested her chin on my chest, looking at me with still sleepy eyes. I smiled at her. She was adorable in the mornings, especially when she didn’t want to wake up just yet. I felt a pang of guilt as I might have kept her awake too long last night, but I couldn’t help myself. I was addicted.
“Good morning. Mostly,” she said as she moved to hide her face in my chest.
I laughed, feeling her pain. I think we would both be sleeping on the plane. My hands still roaming on her back, trying to coax her awake.
“We have to get up so we can go back and get you all the sandwiches you can eat, solnishko,” I whispered to her, kissing the top of her head.
She sat up immediately, climbing over me to get off the bed. She grabbed my pants from the night before and threw them at my head. As I pulled them off my head, she was pulling up her panties. She walked back to the bed, climbing back on top of me, her smile wide across her face. I grabbed her and rolled over, so I was on top of her, loving her playful side.
“I think I might be jealous of Vinny,” I said, my fingers lightly running over her neck down to her breasts.
“You should be. You definitely should be. I would offer to marry him too, but I feel like Andrei might try to hurt him. Vinny makes phenomenal sandwiches, but he’s no fighter.”
“I’ll have to make sure I marry you first, then.” I leaned down and kissed her lips, enjoying the surprise in her eyes. “For the sake of keeping the peace,” I added, winking at her. She looked at me for a moment, surprised, but there was a flash of something darker that I caught before she could hide it. She closed her eyes briefly, but when she opened them, it was gone and she was smiling, the colors in her unique eyes dancing in the early morning light.
She pulled me to her, kissing me passionately. As much as I wanted to rip those panties off her, we were on a time schedule this morning. I groaned into her mouth. “Sephie, we must go. It’s a long flight back. We should get there as early as possible,” I said as I kissed her one more time. “Or you’re going to have to wait until tomorrow for your sandwich.”
I felt her hands on my chest, pushing me off her as she giggled. “I can be ready in ten minutes. Fucking hurry up already!” She jumped off the bed again, grabbing clothes on her way to the bathroom.
I shook my head, laughing at her as I got up. I heard the shower come on. I waited until I heard the shower door open and I walked in the bathroom, enjoying the view. I had meant to let her shower by herself, but as soon as I saw her, I couldn’t help myself. I joined her.
She turned toward me when she felt my hands on her hips. “You’re wasting a lot of time ogling me,” she said handing me the soap with an impish grin.
“That is not my fault, my love. That is entirely your fault for being so beautiful and worthy of being ogled.”
She laughed, standing on her toes to kiss me. “I love you.”
I grabbed her hips, pulling her to me, stepping back under the water. She gasped, trying to get free. “I can’t get my bandage super wet or we’ll have to change it!” I kept my grip on her, turning her so her bad hip was out of the water. She laughed, putting her hands on either side of my face, kissing me once more before she jumped out of the shower.
There might be something to Ivan’s honey trick. Or else I really should be jealous of Vinny.
Armando had decided to not come back with us just yet. He wanted to find out as much information about his office building as he could before he left Italy. He would come to the city in a day or two after he had handled things. I was secretly relieved to have a break from him. I enjoyed Armando, but he didn’t appreciate silence as much as the rest of us. It was exhausting after a while.
On the plane, we discussed possibilities of what Anthony and Lorenzo were planning. The question remained why Salvadori had gone along with their plan. He was a wealthy man now. Wealthier than he had ever been when my father was running the organization. Why would he want to go back to that? It didn’t make sense.
“Before the night we met, how involved were you in the organization?” Sephie asked me. “I mean, they had been coming every month for over a couple of years before I ever saw you, or even heard you existed. I thought the other 6 bosses were the only ones in the city and I have to say I was privy to more knowledge about your organization than most people.”
Viktor chuckled. “That was mostly my fault, sestrichka. He was in Turkey trying to get me out of a Syrian prison for much of that time.”
“I’m sorry, what? You were in a Syrian prison? What did you do to land yourself in a Syrian prison?” she asked, completely surprised.
“Vengeance is not always as worth it as you think it will be. You end up making mistakes that can get you thrown into Syrian prisons,” he said, almost embarrassed.
“What kind of mistakes? Like oops I burnt the darn muffins? Or more like oh fuck I didn’t mean to kill that guy?”
He laughed, hanging his head. “Eh, more like I did mean to kill that guy. I just didn’t mean to get caught.”
“Viktor. How many times have I told you, we don’t murder people in broad daylight? We wait for the darkness to conceal us.”
Ivan laughed. “I think that’s a lesson he has for sure learned now.”
“How did you guys get him out of the Syrian prison? I’m guessing you don’t just ask nicely for him to be released,” she asked, now even more curious.
Misha said, “that depends on your definition of ‘nice,’ gazelle. I think we asked very nicely.”
She looked to each of them as they laughed, then turned to me, hoping I would fill in the details. I couldn’t help but smile at her enthusiasm for this story. “We might’ve blown a hole in the wall of the prison to get him out. You’d be surprised at how fast he can run when he needs to,” I said, nodding to Viktor. Viktor’s deep laugh echoed in the plane.
“I think I would pay to see that,” Sephie said, laughing along with all of us. I watched each of the guys enjoying her interest in our “adventures” as well as the visible relief on their faces that she wasn’t disturbed by our actions. None of us were used to being able to be so open about these things with anyone, really, much less a love interest. She was the first to know many things about us, which meant we all trusted her completely.
“So, you blew up a Syrian prison and Viktor set the new land speed record, then what did you do? Go to Disney World? Euro Disney?”
Andrei pointed to me, exclaiming, “I TOLD YOU IT WAS A GOOD IDEA!”
That caused another round of laughter from all of us. We ended up laughing so hard we were crying.
Finally, Ivan got control of himself enough to answer Sephie’s question. “We laid low for a few months. Viktor was in a bad spot from his months in that fine institution. He needed time to recover. We spent time in Eastern Europe in various places. We had just returned to the city a few days before we came to the meeting at the restaurant and met you.”
She laughed. “You recover well, Viktor. I still remember being shocked when you and Andrei walked in the front door of the restaurant.”
“We remember too. You made it very difficult to not laugh,” Andrei said, grinning at her.
“I have that effect on people,” she said, flipping her braid over her shoulder. She leaned back against me, pulling her knees up on the couch, leaning them against my legs. I put my arm around her, pulling her close. “I’m glad you guys know how to ask nicely and got him out,” she said, smiling thoughtfully.
“We’re a family, solnishko. We don’t leave family behind,” I said kissing her temple.
Andrei, looking serious, asked, “you don’t think we’re monsters after hearing these things?” The other guys looked at her, curious as to her answer as well. I knew what they were thinking. It was tough to share this part of our lives with anyone.
She smiled at him, in her perfect way. “Bubba. You think because you can freely walk in the dark that it makes you a monster?” He shrugged his shoulders. “No, Bubba. You’re the opposite of a monster, simply because you don’t give in to the darkness. It makes you dangerous, sure. Because you’ve conquered your darkness. Tamed it, even. You each have such a strong light in you, despite the darkness coming for you more times than you can remember, most likely. Never forget, that the darkness can be a place where greatness is created too.”
I felt the tears welling up in my eyes and I didn’t have to look at the rest of them to know they were in the same state as me. I pulled her closer to me, wrapping my other arm around her. I rested my head on hers, because I couldn’t believe how much I loved her in that moment, and I didn’t want the guys to see the tears threatening to fall from my eyes. My breath caught as I inhaled, thinking about everything that had happened and how lucky I was to have her in my arms right now.