*Adrik*
It took a little over an hour before Ivan and the other guys came back to Sephie’s room. He had a few sets of stitches in various places, but nothing major. I raised an eyebrow, curious how it went. Misha looked proud of himself. “The recording was enough that the doctor could check him over thoroughly. He didn’t break anything. Just some stitches,” he said.
They had put Sephie in a double room, with strict orders that no one else was to be placed in that room. The doctor was trying to give us an extra bed, since he knew we were all going to stay with her. I appreciated it. Ivan stretched out on the other bed. He looked exhausted. We all looked exhausted. We were quiet for a few minutes, then curiosity got the better of us.
“We know Armando was a part of it, but did you find out about anyone else?” Viktor asked.
“Sal was there the first night. Or first morning. To be honest, I have no idea what day it is. They took my watch, so time was meaningless while we were in that room. How long did it take you guys to find us?” Ivan asked. He had a bit of a grin on his face when he asked, like there was a joke we weren’t privy to that he was thinking about.
“From the time they grabbed you until the time we got to you, it was right around 30 hours,” Viktor said.
Ivan chuckled. “She’s gonna be so mad and so impressed at the same time.” We all looked to him for further explanation. “That was one of her first questions. How long it would take you guys to find us. I said no longer than a day and half. She said three days. She was worried when they found her tracker and pitched it. She didn’t know you’d be able to track us with the earpieces. I may have neglected to tell her that,” he said, his devious grin on his face.
Andrei snapped his fingers and pointed at Ivan. “Rude.”
“You guys heard her at the last. That’s how she was the entire time. Hell, she shot the guy that grabbed her off the bike in the face. She had them all worried anytime they talked to her.” He looked at me. “Did you see her eyes this time?”
I nodded. When Stephen and I got to her, her eyes were as dark as I’d ever seen them. “They were almost black when we got to her. Were they that dark the whole time?”
“Yeah, but she kept her cool the entire time. She had one conversation in Italian that I couldn’t understand, but everything else I heard. She was incredible. She was messing with their heads the entire time,” Ivan said. You could hear the pride in his voice when he talked about her.
“What happened when they grabbed you?” Misha asked. I knew he was likely wanting to see how accurate his visions were. I had to admit, I was curious as well.
“They had to be waiting on us. They came out of nowhere and caught me slowing down to turn onto a street. They blocked us in, but I made a move to drive down the sidewalk. The vehicle in front cut me off. The guys in the vehicles behind us got out and grabbed her off the bike. I didn’t see how she got away, but that’s when she shot the guy in the face. She was on the way to help me when two more guys rushed her and slammed her into a parked car. One of them held a gun to her head, so I stopped. I’d killed two guys that were on me, but I froze when I saw the gun on her. They took everything off us there and threw us in a vehicle, then stopped along the way to drop the helmets and tracker. I’m sure you guys found everything though,” Ivan said.
“She headbutted the guy that grabbed her before she shot him in the face,” Misha said. “We went to the scene and I was able to see what happened. It was like it was when she and I saw Trino. I’ve never been able to see something happen in the past before.”
Ivan raised his eyebrow. “She really did unlock a new level for you, then.”
“What happened when Sal was there?” Viktor asked.
Ivan laughed. “Oh, dear God, she’s just so funny without even meaning to be sometimes. She asked what Sal wanted with her. He told her he was originally just going to use her as bait to draw out Boss so he could kill him, but since she’d killed so many of Sal’s men, she was now in his debt. He said there was also the matter of his son and her making him look like a fool. He kept trying to touch her, but she kept moving away from him, even though we were tied to the chairs. He unzipped her shirt and just stared at her boobs for a minute. She asked if it was his first time seeing boobs. He slapped her and told her she had a smart mouth and that she’d learn to keep it shut. She told him she didn’t care for school and she likely wasn’t going to learn it anytime soon. She said she told Anthony the same thing. Oh, I should mention that she called Anthony his ‘idiot son.’ Sal punched her so hard that her chair tipped over backward. The two guys that grabbed us had to set her back upright. When she could look at him again, she told Sal he punched like a weak old man.” Ivan started laughing, but continued. “She said something like she bet he couldn’t even get it up and then asked him how many dick pills he needed to even have sex.” We all laughed.
“What happened then? I’m sure that didn’t go over well with Sal,” Viktor asked.
“Mando stepped in. He told Sal that they wouldn’t get as much for her if he kept hitting her. So, Sephie was able to get their plan out of them with her dick joke,” Ivan said. “She’s like a bloodhound when it comes to information. But that’s when Armando looked at her for the first time and saw her eyes. He was visibly frightened when he saw her. She took advantage of it, too. She told them both they were going to die slowly and painfully. It shook them both enough that they left the room immediately. She did the same to the guys that grabbed us. Apparently, they were discussing whether they could get away with stopping along the way and taking turns raping her. It was in Italian, so I didn’t understand it. She didn’t say anything to me at the time, but later, she let them know she understood. She told them she was going to enjoy sending them to meet their dead friends.”
We all sat in stunned silence. We knew she was incredible, but she just kept impressing us with her ability to withstand whatever was thrown at her.
“Did Sal come back after that?” Andrei asked.
“No. I was expecting him to. I was surprised when it was just Armando. I’m still not entirely sure which one of them is in charge. From what Sephie pulled out of Armando at the end there, I don’t think he’s ever been in charge. We need to confirm with her when she wakes up, but I’m guessing it’s either Ricardo or Giana’s father that have been pulling the strings all along for Armando,” Ivan said.
“I need to do more digging on Ricardo to see if I can find out more about him,” Viktor said. “Armando is still alive. They took him to a room. Keith and Chris are making sure he stays there.”
I felt Sephie’s hand start to jerk. She started to mumble in her sleep, which likely meant she was having a nightmare. I put my hand on her stomach and felt her body shaking. I started talking to her, trying to coax her out of her nightmare. She was still mumbling, but I couldn’t understand what she was saying as she was still having trouble speaking. I leaned down, talking softly in her ear, but it didn’t stop. The shaking started to get worse.
“Get in bed with her, Boss,” Stephen said. “She’s probably freezing on top of everything else.” He and Andrei stood up to help move her over so I had room to lay beside her. We moved all the tubes coming out of her as carefully as possible and I laid down on her right side, which had the least amount of damage. Andrei raised her shoulders up so I could slide my arm under her. When he eased her back toward the bed, she tried to turn toward me. Andrei and Stephen both saw it and tried to help her roll on her side so she could lay on me as much as possible. Her head rested partially on my shoulder, partially in her usual spot on my chest. Her left arm was in a sling that was secured to her waist to keep her shoulder immobile, so she couldn’t lay across my chest like she normally did. Her body started to relax as soon as her head was on my shoulder and my hand was running up and down her back. I felt my body relax being able to hold her once again.
“Fucking adorable,” they all said at once.
Stephen said, “You guys should get some sleep. I’m still very much on a caffeine high, so I’ll take the first shift. I don’t like that Sal is still at large.”
“Once he finds out about Anthony and Lorenzo, he’s going to be unpredictable. Let’s hope she doesn’t sleep for three days. We may not have that long,” Viktor said.
“I can buy us a day or two with that,” I said, wiggling my phone out of my pocket. I nodded to Stephen to watch the door to make sure no one came in, then dialed Trino’s number.