*Adrik*
Viktor walked in my office, looking quite serious, even for him. “Boss, the DA just called. He’s ready to prosecute Dr. Moretti. They went through the files we gave them from Sal in much more detail than we did. Eric can bring charges against Sal as well.”
I thought for a moment. “I’m not sure I want that happening. If Sal has made his own deal, his fate might already be sealed. I want to talk to Battista to see what he knows about Sal’s deal first.” I inhaled, tapping my fingers on my desk as I thought about how everything needed to happen almost simultaneously and we still didn’t have a solid plan. “Tell Eric he can have Dr. Moretti, but I want to wait on Sal for now.”
Ivan had walked in, shortly after Viktor. “Giving him the doctor will buy us just a little bit of time. The information we get on everyone else could look like it came from him, if we play it right,” he said.
“That’s what I was thinking, too. I think we can link Henry to Sal and make it look like the doctor is the one that exposed that connection,” I said. “I’d like to meet with Eric and Doug one more time before we actually hand over the doctor. Are they still being followed by Henry’s people?”
Ivan nodded his head. “I say that loosely. His people are not very good, but they’re still watching both Eric and Doug. There’s several places that we can easily get you to where you can meet with them without anyone seeing.”
“Let’s see what Battista has for us, then set something up to meet with those two in person. If I hand that sack of shit over to them, I want to know he’s going away for the rest of his life. I don’t want to have to find him again and tie up their loose ends. That’s just going to piss me off.”
Sephie walked in right as I said that last sentence. “Nobody wants that. Especially not now that you’re all murdery and shit on a regular basis,” she said, smiling widely as she walked to me. “Andrei can kill people with his thumbs, you can now kill people with one look.”
I pushed my chair back, opening my arm for her. She was still grinning at me as she leaned down and kissed me sweetly. It never failed to surprise me how much her simple gestures helped me relax and melted the stress away. I pulled her into my lap, wrapping my arms around her, suddenly not caring one bit about anything but her.
“I’ll let Eric know. Battista should be here in a few minutes,” Viktor said, looking at his watch. “Stephen is already downstairs waiting for him.”
“Thank you, Viktor,” I said, pulling Sephie closer to me. She leaned back against me, hugging my arms around her waist. “What have you gotten into this morning?” I asked, my mouth against her ear.
“Not much. Just making plans for world domination with the Wonder Twins. I really feel like this plan might be the one,” she said as seriously as she could manage.
Ivan chuckled. “If it’s you and Misha planning it together, at least we know it’ll be entertaining.”
She pointed at him, saying, “right? Thank you!”
I laughed at her antics, loving the short breaks she always managed to provide to my day that made everything a little brighter. “Do you still have a weird feeling about Battista coming today?” I asked her, brushing her hair away from her shoulder. I let my fingertips brush her neck lightly, loving the sparks I could clearly feel from her as I did.
“I do. I don’t think it’s necessarily bad. I might just be nervous from the last time he requested our services,” she said.
“Did Andrei, Misha, or Stephen get anything else about it?” Ivan asked.
“No, not that I know of. The Wonder Twins are wary, much like me, but it’s nothing specific.” We all heard the elevator doors ding. “That’s Stephen,” she said.
“You need to teach me how to do that,” Ivan said.
She giggled. “I will gladly teach you how to do that if you agree to spar with me at least once a week for the foreseeable future.”
Ivan had smiled more than I’d ever seen him smile since I met Sephie, but the smile that stretched across his face when she asked him to spar with her more was maybe the largest smile I’d ever seen on that man’s face. I could feel how happy it made him. “Deal,” he said. I could also feel how happy it made her when he agreed.
“Not gonna lie, I love the fact that my fiancée is giddy over being trained to be a better fighter right now,” I said right before Stephen walked into the office with Battista. Shortly after, the Wonder Twins and Viktor walked in, closing the door behind them.
The mood turned slightly more serious once Battista was in the office. Once he had greeted everyone, we got straight to business. “Battista, how did you find out about Ricardo and Martin’s deals?” I asked.
He sighed. “It’s a complicated answer, but the very basics are that we have a psychic that gets notified by whatever communicates with her when another deal is made.”
“You don’t know what communicates with her?” Sephie asked.
“No, she refuses to reveal how she gets the information,” Battista said.
“How long between when deals are made and when she finds out usually?” I asked.
“I’m not entirely sure. I don’t think I’ve ever asked that question. Why are you asking?”
“Because Sal made a deal. We don’t know specifics, but it wasn’t that long ago that he did it. I don’t know if he made a deal with a lower-level demon and that’s why it hasn’t come up on your radar or if it’s so new that your psychic hasn’t been alerted yet,” I said.
“Actually, I was going to bring that information to you today. I thought I was going to tell you something you didn’t know. I should’ve known you’d all know already. How did you find out?” he asked.
“Dario said Sal told him about it after it happened, which is somewhat surprising. I don’t know how much these guys are talking about these things among each other, but it seems like something you’d keep to yourself,” I said.
Battista thought for a moment, then said, “maybe this is all coming from Ricardo. Maybe he knows he needs more help than he’s found.”
“Can your psychic find out what kind of demon Sal made his deal with? Ricardo and Martin are going to need to be dealt with differently than everyone else, because of their deals,” I said.
“Differently how?” Battista asked. I knew he was going to want to know the details. I wasn’t sure I was ready to tell him about my level-up yet.
Thankfully, Stephen is quick on his feet. “Because the demons they made deals with are so powerful, we have to change tactics with them to be effective. It’s going to be much nicer for us to know beforehand if we need to change tactics with Sal as well.”
“We need to take precautions in order to protect ourselves. Knowing beforehand gives us the upper hand, if you will. Which is why we would appreciate notice if you ever need our services for one of your associates again. That was not a fun day for any of us,” Sephie said. Battista could tell by her tone that she was not joking around.
“My apologies, Sephie. I didn’t know the extent of his crimes beforehand. There were plenty of us that had our suspicions, but no one knew for sure until you guys exposed him,” he said.
“I understand. Just let us in on the suspicions next time,” she said. I saw Ivan wink at her, knowing she was trying not to get too irritated thinking about that day and everything she’d seen.
“You have my word that you will know what I know from now on. It never occurred to me that you guys would need to take precautions, but now that I do know, I will make sure you know everything that I do,” he said, apologetically.
I knew we greatly benefited Battista, especially in matters of business, but I also got the impression that he genuinely liked us. He seemed to like my father as well. As much as anyone could like that man. They’d been friends for years, but I never realized the extent of their relationship until recently. My father had been helping out behind the scenes for much longer than I was aware of. It was an intriguing side to Vitaliy that I never would’ve known about, were it not for Sephie.
“What are your plans for taking care of Ricardo and Martin?” Battista asked.
“Honestly? We don’t have any yet,” I said, chuckling at Battista’s shocked expression.