*Misha*
I felt my cheeks blush. “I honestly didn’t mean for it to come out like that,” I said, somewhat sheepishly.
She laughed again. “Don’t worry, my adorable Russian guardian, he thought it was funny. He appreciated your frankness because he knew it was ultimately for my benefit.” We walked a few more steps, then she stopped again. “I want you to pinky swear that you will always be that frank when you get that reaction,” she said, holding her pinky up to me.
“What does that mean?” I asked, completely confused.
“Jesus, what do you people do in Russia as children? Not pinky swear, I know that.” She sighed. “Okay, so the pinky swear is the holiest of holy swears. Like so holy that legend has it Jesus only used it once then promptly had his pinkies removed so he could never use it again. It’s that serious,” she said. She was trying not to laugh at her own explanation, but she ended up giggling through most of it.
“Okay, so how do I do the holiest of holy swears?” I asked, clearly amused at her. This felt like a secret that only she and I had, even though I’d heard her and Adrik talking about it before. That was one of the things we all loved about Sephie. She had little things that she did with all of us that clearly meant something to her, not even caring a little bit that it was silly and childish.
She lifted her hand, with her pinky out. “Give me your pinky,” she said. I held my hand in front of me, matching hers. She grabbed my pinky with hers and said, “you pinky swear you will always be frank when you get the goosebumps reaction.” She looked at me like she was waiting for me to say it too, so I repeated it back to her. She grinned at me, completely satisfied in our holiest of holy swears.
Strangely enough, I felt compelled to always honor it. It might’ve been silly and childish, but when it comes to Sephie, all bets are off.
*Sephie*
Misha and I walked the rest of the way to the house, laughing, but he kept his arm around my shoulders and I kept mine around his waist. I loved that they all humored me and my silliness. I hoped they never stopped.
As we got to the doors of the house, Viktor met us with his phone in hand. “Chen,” he said, motioning us to follow him. He walked quickly back to the kitchen, everyone else waiting for us. I glanced at Misha, trying not to laugh at feeling like we were somehow in trouble.
Viktor put his phone on speaker and handed it to me.
“What’s up, Chen? Sorry to keep you waiting,” I said.
“No worries, my girl. I know how you are when you go for a run. I was expecting to wait for another hour, minimum, so technically you’re back early,” he said, laughing.
I couldn’t help but laugh. Apparently, I’m slightly more predictable than I thought. “What did you find out?”
“I talked to Trino’s guy. Gus is his name. He said he wanted to meet with you and your giant security people and then he said Trino called him and told him he had to, so that’s happening. Gus also talked to the couple other guys that are kind of running things with him. They want in as well. And, uh, when were you going to tell me that you datin’ Ghost? Like THE Ghost? Like THE man that runs the whole damn city?” he said. He sounded like he was trying to be mad, but he was likely scared as he just now realized how big this really was.
I glanced to Adrik, who just smirked at me as he walked the few steps to me and the phone. He asked Chen, “that’s not a problem, is it?”
“Oh, fuck me that’s him, isn’t it? No, sir. No problem at all, sir,” Chen said. I could hear the nervousness in his voice now. I couldn’t help but laugh. Adrik was clearly enjoying this as well.
“Chen, relax. You’ve done nothing but help us in all of this. You have nothing to worry about,” I said, trying to help calm him down. He was quiet for a moment. I thought he had hung up. “Chen? You okay, man?”
“I’m okay, but holy shit this is way bigger than I thought,” he said. We could all hear the fear in his voice now.
Adrik took the phone from me with one hand and wrapped his other arm around my waist. “Chen, you can get out now and no harm done. Sephie was right. You’ve done us a massive favor. You’ll be safe as long as you’re in the city, you have my word. You can always call us if you’re in trouble, too. This is big. Really big. No harm if you want out now.”
Chen was quiet for a moment again. He was struggling with what to do. “I appreciate your offer, sir. But I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night knowing this was going on and I didn’t try to help stop it. I’m still in. I’ll do whatever I can to help.”
Adrik said, “I’m glad to hear that, Chen. Are you up for being the liaison between us and the dealers for now? I prefer to stay as anonymous as I can, but Sephie trusts you, which means I can trust you.”
“Yes, sir. I can do that.”
“Good, Chen. We’ll get back to you with a place to meet on Monday and a time. Can you make sure Gus and the other guys that have taken charge are there?” Adrik asked.
“Absolutely, sir.”
“We’ll be in touch,” Adrik said, ending the call. I couldn’t help but laugh a little at how scared poor Chen was. I think his reaction surprised me, honestly. Adrik could be intimidating, for sure, but I just didn’t think of him that way. It was a new experience to see the fear firsthand.
“I had no idea that your reputation was so ominous,” I said, grinning up at him. He just smirked down at me.
“Who do you want meeting with them and where?” Viktor asked.
Adrik was quiet for a moment. He looked at Misha as he said, “all of us.” I didn’t need to look at Misha to know that he was checking outcomes. Adrik’s face softened slightly, so I knew he’d gotten approval.
Misha said, “it needs to be all of us.” His voice was serious enough to know that he was honoring his pinky swear. I turned around to look at him, smiling. He was standing with his hands on his hips. He winked at me, tapping his pinky finger against his hip.
“Good. I need Sephie to be there to make sure we can trust the other dealers,” Adrik said. He pulled me closer to him.
“Where do you want this to happen? I’m not sure your office is the right place. It’s not being watched, but it would be obvious should anyone see them there,” Viktor said.
“Agreed. I don’t necessarily want them at the building until we know we can trust them.” Adrik said.
“What about my old apartment? Chen said it was basically no man’s land there. Like that part of the city doesn’t really belong to any one boss. They’re likely not watching it. And it was easy enough to secure when I went to talk to Chen, right?” I asked, looking between Viktor and Stephen.
Stephen agreed. “Yeah, it’s got a couple great vantage points where we can see everyone coming and going.”
Adrik looked to Misha, who had that faraway look in his eyes as he was checking outcomes. “It’s good,” he said.
“Let Chen know. Monday night. I prefer to do this well after dark, if possible,” Adrik said. He leaned down, pressing his lips to mine. He smiled against my lips, saying, “it helps perpetuate my ominous reputation.”