Chapter One Hundred Eighty
Adrik
“Oh, this must be good. What did he find out from his dealers?” she asked, now curious,
“He spoke with all of his dealers personally, but none of them know about the plan. You might be right in that they’re planning on replacing the supply without letting the dealers know. I need to find a dealer outside of Trino’s network that I can trust to find out if they know anything.” I said.
Viktor, Ivan, Misha, Andrei, and Stephen walked into my office as I was talking. Sephie smiled at all of them, while saying, “I can talk to Chen. You can trust him. He owes me big time, anyway.”
I raised an eyebrow at her. “Who is Chen and why does he owe you?”
“Chen used to live across from Ms. Jackson. He’s a dealer. He’d sell out of his apartment on the weekends. He made sure all his customers were respectful and because they were only there on the weekends, we never said anything about him dealing out of the apartment. When he first moved there, he was living there full-time. He had a girlfriend that lived with him for a while. At the time. Chen had a real job, so he’d be gone during the day on weekdays. I don’t think she worked at all, or at least not during the day, so she was always there. I caught like six different guys leaving his apartment on various days over the course of a couple of weeks. She was either hooking on the side or she’s just a straight up wh ore. Ms. Jackson said she was always in her underwear when the dudes left, so it wasn’t like she was playing video games with these dudes. Chen used to come to the restaurant occasionally after work because I’d hook him up with cheap food. I told him about his girlfriend’s extra-curricular activities.” She paused, clearly remembering the conversation. “He was devastated. He had been planning on asking her to marry him. He had no clue.” She flinched, still caught up in the memory. “It didn’t end well for that girl. I mean, he didn’t ki ll her, but he made sure she ended up with absolutely nothing and sent her on her way. He caught me on my way home a few days later and told me he was forever in my debt for saving him from making that mistake.”
She still looked somewhat troubled. “You’re sure we can trust him, solnishko? You look troubled.”
She smiled, saying, “I’m sure. I was remembering the fight they had that we all clearly heard. I’m admittedly not a fan of yelling. It stuck with me.” I ran my hands over her thighs, feeling the light shaking, knowing she was once again fighting demons. “I don’t know if Chen belongs to Trino or not, but I can talk to him and find out what he knows. He knows other dealers too, so he might know someone that doesn’t belong to Trino. It’s Friday, he’ll be at the apartment, if he still uses that place, that is.”
I looked to Misha. “Your thoughts on her going to that place again?” He thought for a moment, then nodded his head. I looked to Ivan and Viktor. “I don’t care how many guys you think you need, double it.”
She laughed. “We don’t need him to think we’re coming to ki ll him. That might make him run,”
I looked at her, seriously. “Then we’ll find another dealer. I don’t care. Your safety is more important than anything ”
Ivan spoke up. “Don’t worry, princess. We can keep most of the guys out of sight. He won’t even know they’re there.”
She smiled at me. She’d barely taken her eyes off me since she walked into my office. She leaned down and kissed me gently, whispering, “I love you,” against my lips. She used her legs to push my chair back enough that she could stand up. She turned to face the guys, sitting in my lap, wrapping my arms around her waist. “Now. What happened when Trino talked to Dario and Massimo? I could hear her smiling when she asked the question. By the looks on Viktor and Ivan’s faces, I knew she was clearly anxious to hear. Both Ivan and Viktor started laughing.
“This is gonna be so good,” Ivan said, laughing.
“Trino said he met with Dario and Massimo separately and told them both that he knew they had his nephew killed. He said Darin immediately went on the defense and threw Massimo under the bus. He also said Dario asked for Trino’s protection, like he was terrified of Massimo,” Viktor said.
“Didn’t Trino say Dario might need a psych ward after this is over?” I asked. I felt Sephie’s grip on my arms tighten slightly.
Ivan shook his head. “Yep. He said there’s definitely more there between those two. He said that Massimo tried to blame it all on Dario. He also noticed that Massimo didn’t blink once during the entire conversation.”
“So, I asked him what his plans for Massimo were. He said he didn’t know, at first,” I said, laughing. Viktor and Ivan were both trying to hold back their laughter as well. “Then he added that he might light him on fire and throw him off a cliff.”
“Sh ut up,” Sephie said. We were all laughing at this point. “He didn’t really say that, did he?”
“He really said that,” Ivan said. “Me and Viktor were both here for the conversation. Boss put it on speaker. We all heard him.”
“Sh ut up.”
“You’re a lot psychic, sestrichka,” Viktor said.
“I knew he had a flair for the dramatic,” she said, laughing. I wrapped my arms around her tighter as we all laughed.
“We got a giant wh ite board, too. It’ll be here later today,” Ivan added, grinning at her.
“You guys are kind of the best,” she said, sweetly.
Sephie
When I woke up, I was once again under the covers in bed. I knew Adrik had put me back to bed at some point, although I hadn’t a clue when that happened. I would have to ask him if we slept the rest of the night on the couch or if he moved me back to bed after I fell asleep. I stretched my legs out, my joints popping and my muscles gloriously sore from the night before.
I glanced to the table beside the bed, knowing there would be a note. I grabbed the remote for the blinds to open them so I could see without turning on a light. It was just before noon, but the room was dark enough with the blinds partially closed. that it felt like it was early morning.
I got up and turned the shower on, walking to the closet to grab some clothes for the day. I put my unruly hair up into a bun, not wanting to take the time to wash it. The warm water felt amazing on my sore muscles, helping me to wake up.
Once I was ready, I walked out to find out who got to come up to wait for me to wake up. When I walked down the hallway toward the kitchen, I could smell the floral scent. It reminded me of the gardens at the house. I’d been missing them lately. When I got closer to the living room, I could see six different large bouquets of flowers spread across the kitchen and living room. Misha and Andrei were on the couches, talking quietly.
“You guys got me flowers?” I asked, smiling at them. They both gave me their best, most handsome smiles in return.
