*Viktor*
We were still laughing and joking, throwing out possible horrific outcomes for Massimo when Armando came back with Giana and his men. He had a much larger file in his hands than what Giana had come upstairs with earlier.
“Any problems?” I asked Mike as they all walked to the kitchen.
He shook his head no. “We didn’t notice anyone following, even. Either they stayed very discreet, or they have no idea we’re the ones that took Andy tonight.”
Armando walked to Ivan and handed him the substantial file he had on Brian. Ivan immediately got to work looking through the pages. One of Ivan’s greatest strengths was finding a person’s weakness. He almost had a sixth sense about it. It was partly why most of Adrik’s former girlfriends always hated him. We knew they wouldn’t last long if Ivan could make them mad. He had a way of uncovering a person’s true nature.
It was one more reason we all knew Sephie was special. She never once changed around him. Misha said she was initially scared of him when she first saw him in her kitchen, but she was initially scared of Misha too. She was expecting me and Andrei when she woke up, not Ivan and Misha. That fear was completely gone when he came back and she noticed he was hurt. She was determined to help him, even though he didn’t make it easy for her.
Sephie, always curious, walked to Ivan. She stood behind him, reading over his shoulder as he flipped through the file. If anybody could find how they got to him, those two could.
We were all quietly waiting for them to find the answer we needed. I watched as they both came to the same conclusion, at the same time. She looked at him while he said to her, in Russian, “that has to be it.” She nodded her head in agreement. Ivan looked up, finally noticing all of us watching him. “Brian has a sister. Single mom, struggling financially. Her kid was just diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. I would bet good money that Sal is offering to pay for the kid’s medical treatments in exchange for access to the water system. It looks like Brian has been supporting her financially for a while.”
As he talked, Sephie continued to look through the pages over his shoulder. She was leaned over his back, reaching over his shoulder flipping the pages like that’s exactly where she was supposed to be.
“So, do I fire the guy? I can’t fire the guy if he’s supporting his sick nephew,” Armando said, clearly worried about this situation.
I looked to Misha, who had that faraway look in his eye that meant he was running through scenarios in his head. His gut instinct was unparalleled. He was right about our plan at the ball. He was the only one that was right about that plan. He also saved all of us by keeping us from going to Armando’s office when we were in Italy. We were reliant on his gut instinct now. Just as he made a face that I knew meant something was off, I heard Sephie say, “shit” under her breath.
We all looked to her, as she looked to Misha, looking for confirmation of what she’d just discovered. She saw the look on his face. “Double shit,” she said. We all knew this was not good, but Armando’s guys were a little clueless.
“Care to expand on what ‘shit’ and ‘double shit’ actually mean?” Mike asked.
Ivan glanced at him, a serious expression on his face, that caused Mike to add a “please” to his question. Sephie didn’t see Ivan’s expression, but she knew it had happened. She just wrapped one arm around his shoulders, as she answered Mike. “The father of Brian’s nephew is none other than Anthony.”
None of us were expecting that answer. She looked to Adrik, a puzzled look on her face. “Didn’t you tell me Sal had given you some bracelet with a tracker in it when you banished Anthony? Andy told you it was for a former girlfriend, right? One that Anthony was suspecting of cheating?”
Adrik nodded. We were all putting the pieces together. “I think we found the cheating girlfriend,” he said.
“In her defense. I’d cheat on that, too. I’m honestly impressed she even got pregnant,” Sephie said. It was a funny statement, but we all recognized that edge to her voice. She was getting angry.
Mike, still not completely connecting the dots, asked, “what does that mean?”
We’d all heard about her revelation about Anthony when they were talking to Trino and Martin, so we were all trying not to laugh. We all looked to Sephie, who stared at all of us, clearly not amused with us forcing her to say it one more time.
“You’re all going to pay for making me say this out loud yet again,” she said, glaring at all of us. She sighed, then looked to Mike. “Anthony has a tiny dick, which he felt the need to press against me when he was choking me in the hallway of the restaurant I used to work at.” Ivan reached up and held onto her arm that was still wrapped around his shoulders, trying to comfort her.
Mike looked surprised. “Okay, I’m going to need to hear that story at some point. But why is she financially struggling if she’s got his kid? Cheater or not, that’s still his kid, right?”
Adrik said, seriously, “you don’t know Anthony.” Sephie kissed Ivan’s cheek, then walked back to Adrik, tucking herself into his side as he wrapped his arm around her.
“He’s right. Anthony is…. Well, he’s a bit of a psycho. He gets off on inflicting pain on others. One of the things he said to me as he was choking me was that he loves it when they fight back. It’s likely why he got into the flesh trade, as well. It gives him a sense of power to determine someone else’s fate. The change in finances for the mother of his child is likely from Sal, not Anthony. And is only happening so they can have access to the water in Armando’s part of town,” she said.
“Or Lorenzo. Sal seems to make excuses for Anthony. He might even be scared of his own son,” I said, remembering the meeting that Adrik had with Sal when he banished Anthony.
“Would Andy have more insight into that dynamic?” Sephie asked.
I nodded my head. “Likely. We’ll keep him at the safe house through tomorrow for sure. If there’s no one lurking around the building, it might be safe to move him here sooner than we originally thought.”
Adrik looked at me, seriously. “Sephie meets him when he moves here. We need to know we can trust him.”
“Agreed,” I said.
Mike looked surprised. “Why does that matter? I mean no disrespect, of course. You’re obviously a smart girl. Are you a human lie detector or something?”
She smiled at him, but it was a tight smile, shrugging her shoulders. “More or less.”
Armando interjected, “Sephie’s observation skills are next level. I’m going…”
She cut him off, “he knows, Mando. He’s observant in his own right. He’s just confused as to why I have so much input when I’m just the girlfriend.” She crossed her arms across her chest, almost daring him to argue with her.
He stammered for a moment, trying to find the words to say. She saw that she essentially had him on the ropes, so she went in for the kill, taking a few steps toward him. “You thought when I said to let me know when you have problems with Giana at the airport that I meant she was going to be the problem, didn’t you?” She chuckled. “It’s because you have a hard time with women in any kind of an authority position. We can discuss what happened to make you this way at a later time, but I told you to let me know when you had problems with her so I could tell her how to handle it, not you. You see, Mike, I can read people like a book, so yes, as a matter of fact, I am the deciding factor on whether Andy is trustworthy or not. Anymore questions?”
We were all trying to hold in our laughter, as we watched Mike’s face turn even more red than Sephie’s hair. He wasn’t going to live this one down for a while. I glanced at Giana, who was completely shocked at this revelation. Given Mike’s reaction, we all knew that she was right. She had called him out and he wasn’t sure how to handle it.
Adrik walked behind Sephie and put his hand on her waist. He looked at Mike, with every ounce of intimidation he had in him. “That’s the first and last time you will question either my decisions or Sephie. Understood?”
Mike nodded his head, “yes, sir.”
Ivan laughed and said to us, in Russian, “make that two for our team, zero for their team.” We couldn’t help but laugh as Armando and his guys looked at us, confused.
We were definitely getting that white board set up. Sephie might have to learn how to read Russian before this was all over with.