*Sephie *
I could feel Adrik’s surprise when his father asked him what he needed. We had come to Panama for Trino, nothing more. I knew Adrik wasn’t planning on asking his father for help. In his mind, this was his problem and he was going to deal with it. His father, however, was more than willing to help his son finally realize the plans he could never materialize when he was in charge of the city.
“We might’ve just fucked up part of their plans. We got Sal’s goddaughter out of the picture, so now Martin has no payment for whatever his part in this plan is. That just happened yesterday, so we’re waiting to see how he handles that when he finds out,” Ivan said.
“She was being held at my building. Martin’s plan was to get her away from the building and grab her. I’m taking it as a move against me since it’s my guys that are on her,” Adrik said.
“How do you know this?” Vitaliy asked.
“We have the messages between Martin and Giana to prove it. We’ve also overheard conversations between them,” I said. I caught Misha and Andrei looking at me. Both were clearly surprised I would tell him that. The exchange did not go unnoticed by Vitaliy.
Vitaliy looked at Trino. “What’s his relationship like with the Mexican cartels?”
“Not good. If it weren’t for Sephie, he’d be dead. He went to try and negotiate with them while I was still in the city. I enjoy making personal deliveries,” Trino said, a sly smile creeping across his face.
Vitaliy was quiet for a minute, then he ordered all of his guys but Aleksei to leave. Once they had left, he looked at me, asking, “how?”
I glanced to Misha and Andrei, then looked at Ivan, asking them if they were okay with what I was about to say. They all nodded. Adrik whispered, “you can tell him.”
“It wasn’t actually me. It was Misha. Me and Andrei are just batteries for him,” I said. They weren’t aware yet that we’d already told Vitaliy about what they could do.
“Don’t let her lie to you. She plays a bigger role than she’ll admit to. She keeps the focus on her to protect them,” Ivan said.
Trino looked surprised. “It’s not just you, Miha?” I shook my head no. “You were right to make it appear that it was only you when I was there. My guys couldn’t have handled knowing it was more than just you. They would’ve killed me on the flight home.”
I felt Adrik and Ivan both starting to get angry. “I knew they had a bigger problem with me than you were letting on,” I said. “What about Gus and Oscar though?”
He laughed. “Oh, those two love you as much as I do. Your friend Chen has told them what you did for him and how awesome you are. They have to listen to me tell them how awesome you are. Then they both witness it firsthand. Literally every time they see you. Shit, you’re the reason Oscar got to blow up an extra building. For that reason alone, he’s always going to love you.”
“Good news for Gus and Oscar. They won’t mysteriously drop dead from a random bullet through their head,” Stephen said. He’s definitely still angry about this.
“Wait until they find out what happened with mi madre. You won’t ever have to worry about them,” Trino said.
“Her threat still stands. We’re also happy to add to it at any point,” Stephen said.
Misha had his faraway look. I knew he was checking the accuracy of Trino’s statement. “They won’t be a problem,” he said.
Vitaliy looked to Misha. “How long have you had this?”
“I can’t say for sure, really. It’s changed. It started with a gut instinct. I would know that a plan was going to go horribly wrong. It’s developed into me being able to see things as they happen for other people. But it can change, depending on decisions made or not made. It’s not an absolute,” Misha said.
“And she helped you?” Vitaliy asked. He was clearly curious how everything worked.
Misha nodded his head. “Boss called her the Game Master. She shows you your potential when you’re ready. She also helps make everything clear for me. I can see more when she helps.” Misha looked at Trino. “It happened the night the Mexicans tried to kill you. When you didn’t answer when Boss called, Sephie knew something was wrong. I was checking to see what I could find and she grabbed my hand. That’s when we saw you under attack. We could see the way out, but knew you needed a diversion. That’s when Sephie made the kitchen blow up so you could get out.”
Trino laughed. “I knew there was no logical explanation for that kitchen to blow the way it did. You know the entire house blew once we were out, right?”
“What? I made sure you had plenty of time to get away,” I said. I still had a hard time believing I was the one that made those explosions happen, but now was not the time to argue that point.
Trino cursed in Spanish, which always made me laugh. “Now I understand you telling my guy that you saved his life.”
Vitaliy, now curious, looked to Andrei. “And what of you?”
Andrei, who still wasn’t completely comfortable with his newfound ability looked a bit like a deer in the headlights when Vitaliy wanted to know what he could do. I couldn’t help but laugh. “Bubba’s like me. He can pick up on things people need said, but won’t. He notices more than most people do, too.”
“And how long have you had this?” Vitaliy asked.
“Not very long at all. It just started happening. I’m still not very good at it,” Andrei said.
“You’re very good at it, Bubba. You just don’t trust yourself and you have a bad habit of comparing yourself to me, who’s been doing it much longer,” I said.
“Andrei has a really good track record so far. He’s also my backup for when Sephie doesn’t want to tell me things because she thinks she’s bothering me,” Adrik said, holding me a little tighter.
“That’s a very good skill to have. Women can be…complicated,” Vitaliy said, giving me a sly smirk as I squinted my eyes at him. Adrik laughed quietly at our exchange. “You have a unique advantage that I never had when I was in charge of the city. Your mother was right. You’re going to realize everything I couldn’t,” he said, looking at Adrik.
“I still haven’t figured out how it’s all going to work. I just know that with Sephie and these five, it’s definitely possible. I’m not going to stop until all the bosses are dead,” Adrik said.
“Save Dario,” I said.
“Why him?” Vitaliy asked.
“His brain is completely broken. He wants out. He wants to disappear. He’s given us very useful information. I told him I’d let him go once this is over and the other bosses are taken care of,” Adrik said.
“And what’s your opinion of that plan?” Vitaliy asked me.
“I agree. Dario has been mentally tortured by Massimo and Sal for his entire life. He’s completely lost his entire family because of them. He has nothing. He wants nothing, except to be left alone. There’s an overwhelming sadness to that man because of everything he’s been through,” I said.
“I always suspected that Massimo was really the one in control between those two. They always made it seem like Dario was in charge, but no one could ever prove it was Massimo,” Vitaliy said.
“Sephie did,” Ivan said.
Vitaliy looked surprised, yet again. “How?”
“She speaks Italian, too, but the bosses never caught on that she could understand their conversations. She said when the bosses would meet at the restaurant she used to work at, occasionally Massimo and Dario would stay after to have their own meeting after everyone else left. She would hang around and listen because they never considered her anything above a servant. Since they were speaking Italian in front of her, they also spoke very freely. Sephie knows where Massimo buried all the bodies, literally and figuratively,” Ivan said.
“You speak Italian?” Vitaliy asked.
I responded, in Italian, telling him that I did understand it better than I spoke it, but he likely wouldn’t know the difference. It was his turn to surprise me when he responded in Italian, telling me that I spoke it just fine and that he could, in fact, tell the difference. I felt my cheeks blush as he caught me being a shit. He laughed loudly.
“One reason I handed everything over to my son when I did was so that I wouldn’t need to learn Spanish as well. The Colombians and the Mexicans were not big players yet when I was running the city. Now, they are. It’s beneficial to know what your associates are saying about you,” Vitaliy said in English.
“Guess I’m learning Spanish now, too,” I said, laughing.
Trino laughed, “I know a guy.”
“And what of the dealers in the city? Where do their allegiances lie?” Vitaliy asked.
“All my dealers are loyal to Jefe and will remain so if they wish to keep existing,” Trino said.
“The rest of the dealers are also loyal to him. They helped us stop the brawn operation. They were ready to revolt against the bosses before we stepped in and told them our plan to stop it,” Ivan said.
“This drug. It seems ridiculous. Why would you want to kill your customers so easily?” Vitaliy asked.
“That’s a solid question. The story has always been that the dealers are the ones that created the drug and the bosses are the ones that stopped them from selling it. In reality, the opposite is true,” Viktor said.
“It’s another black mark against Sal,” I said. “He employed that son of a bitch doctor to make it and he’s the one that tried to force his dealers to keep selling it. It almost caused a war between the dealers and bosses when it was around the first time. The dealers were a big reason the second edition didn’t go anywhere.”
“They made another version?” Aleksei asked.
“They revamped it, trying to increase the aggression. That was the original plan to get Anthony and Lorenzo back to the city. Create extreme chaos and they’d be able to slip in unnoticed,” Ivan said.
“Unfortunately for them, we found out about it and were able to stop it,” Stephen said.
“Jefe likes to stay one step ahead of the other bosses,” Trino said, nodding toward Adrik.
Vitaliy was quiet for a few moments, clearly contemplating everything we’d just told him. He sighed, then looked to Adrik. “You still don’t have very many contacts in Italy, do you?”
Adrik chuckled, but shook his head no. “To be fair, I haven’t needed them until now.”
“You will use mine, then,” Vitaliy said, matter-of-factly. “It will be easier now that you have sladkaya. None of them speak very good English and they’re too stubborn to learn Russian.”
“I mean, no pressure,” I said.
Aleksei laughed. “Italian men are suckers for beautiful women. You’ll be fine.”
Vitaliy also couldn’t help but laugh. “Alyosha is right. You need not worry, sladkaya.”