Chapter Two Hundred Forty 

Sephie 

Just as his late meeting walked into the office, he looked at Andrei and Misha and said, in Russian, “take her upstairs. Stay with her. I’ll be up after this meeting is over. Get Ivan on your way up.” He pulled me to him for a quick kiss. “I love you, solnishko. I’ll be up as fast as I can,” he said, nodding to Andrei, who was standing behind me now. I felt Andrei put his hand on my back, guiding me toward the door. Once we were outside his office and out of sight of the meeting, Andrei stopped me. He stepped in front of me and turned away from me. He squatted down, opening his arms for me to jump on his back. I giggled, hopping on 

his back. 

“You’re my favorite, Bubba,” I said. I hugged his neck tightly as we walked to the elevator. When the doors opened, Ivan was in the elevator. Misha had texted him from the office. 

“You guys want to tell me what happened? I’m guessing something happened if you’re back this early from Ms. Jackson’s apartment,” Ivan said. 

I sighed, trying to make sure I didn’t get angry again. I didn’t want to interrupt Adrik’s meeting and have him rush up to the penthouse because he was worried about me. Thankfully, Misha answered for me. “Giana was waiting for her when she got to Ms. Jackson’s apartment.” 

I could see Ivan’s anger rise as he cursed in Russian. “Does she not know she’s an adult now?” 

“Clearly she does not,” Andrei said. I could still hear the edge to his voice. I hugged his neck a little tighter. He squeezed my legs in response. 

“We do have to be careful with how much we talk about this or Adrik is going to come rushing upstairs because he knows I’m mad,” I said, trying to keep my smile under control. Ivan’s mo uth fell open, which caused Andrei and Misha to laugh. 

“He came to Ms. Jackson’s apartment. He knew she was angry from his office. I’m honestly proud of him for not breaking the door down, but he walked in, basically grabbed Sephie and walked out. You should’ve seen the look on Giana’s face when he showed up,” Misha said, now completely amused by the situation. 

As we walked into the penthouse, Ivan asked, “so he can now feel when you’re angry even when you’re not in the same room just like you can feel he’s angry?” 

“Yeah. And what’s weird this time is that I didn’t know I was that angry when I was talking to Giana. I mean, I certainly wasn’t happy with her, but he said my eyes went dark, which they only do when I’m like nuclear level angry. Except I didn’t feel like I was that angry.” I looked sideways at Andrei as he placed me on the kitchen counter. “That’s also why he told you to close your eyes in the elevator. That makes it go away for both of us. I’m really sorry for that, by the way. Nobody wants to watch us make 

out.” 

“Spider monkey, don’t apologize for that. I was teasing you this morning. It’s clear as day you two can’t keep your hands off each other. I’m not standing in the way of that,” Andrei said, laughing. 

“Your eyes go dark?” Ivan asked, clearly curious. 

“I saw it this time, but I thought it was the lighting in Ms. Jackson’s apartment,” Misha said. “They go from three colors to just 

One.” 

“Which one?” Ivan asked. 

“Brown, I think. But not the normal golden brown that’s there all the time. Like really dark brown,” Misha sald. 

Ivan looked to me, clearly curious about this bit of information. I just shrugged my shoulders. “I clearly don’t know anything about it. Not like I can see them. Adrik said he noticed it that day with Mike. He’s seen it a couple times since then. That night in his office when Andy told us Mike was working for Anthony. It happened a few times that night, actually. He tells me to blink and I can usually make it go away.” I looked at Ivan, not able to hide my smile. “Maybe my demons are taking over now. This is my villain origin story.” Ivan grinned at me, shaking his head as he laughed. 

Ivan looked to Andrei. “You’ve never noticed it when you’ve sparred with her?” 

“No. We can all see the switch flip when she gets angry, but if her eyes have changed, I haven’t noticed them. But I usually don’t have a lot of chances to gaze thoughtfully into her eyes,” he said, grinning at me. 

“I’ve never noticed her eyes changing when we’ve been training either,” Misha said. 

“I think it’s different. You guys can make me angry, but it’s still you and I know it’s still you. We train, yes, but I don’t really want to hurt either one of you. Like, you guys pick at surface level stuff to get me angry. When I’ve gotten so angry that my eyes changed, it’s much deeper wounds those people are poking at, I said, looking at the floor. I could feel myself getting upset again, so I tried to distract myself by staring at my feet dangling over the side of the kitchen counter. 

“Princess…” Ivan said as he moved next to me. 

“Yep, still here. Just trying to not be upset right now,” I said, trying to smile through the pain. Ivan didn’t say anything further, but he hopped onto the counter next to me. I felt his substantial arm slide gently around my shoulders and pull me toward him. I leaned my head on his shoulder. I took a deep breath and exhaled loudly. “Like, it’s not just me, right? I’m not being unreasonable here? Please tell me if I am. I’ll admit I was an as shole right now just to make this st upidity stop.” 

“I think you nailed it with everything you said to her, spider monkey. I’m proud of you,” Andrei said. 

I smiled at him. “Um, can we talk about how ri diculously cute you were when you threatened her life though? Because that’s a thing.” Ivan laughed, causing me to look at him. “It happened.” I pointed at Andrei. “Adorable.” 

We were still laughing and trying to find more things to laugh at to keep me from getting upset when Adrik, Viktor, and Stephen walked in. Adrik still had a worried look on his face, but relaxed slightly when he saw us laughing. Ivan jumped off the counter so Adrik could have access to me. “I’m okay,” I said, as he stepped between my legs, his hands on my thighs. 

He searched my eyes for a minute, then clicked his tongue. “Li ar.” 

I chuckled. “I’m mostly okay,” I said, smiling at him. 

“Tell me what happened,” he said. He was looking at Misha and Andrei when he said it. 

“Giana was waiting for us when we got to Ms. Jackson’s apartment. I don’t know how much Ms. Jackson knows about what happened, but Giana definitely put her up to calling us down there. I told Sephie we didn’t have to stay, but I got reprimanded by Ms. Jackson,” Misha said, sheepishly. 

“Giana tried to get rid of me and Misha too. Sephie just laughed at her. Why does everyone want to get rid of us, spider monkey? It hurts my feelings,” Andrei said, his handsome smile stretching across his face. 

“What did she say to you when she was speaking Italian?” Misha asked. 

I scoffed. “She said she owed me an apology, that because I knew so much about brawn, she just assumed I was an addict, then she told me I didn’t understand and that in her family, addicts are the sc um of the earth and she assumed I was one before finding out the truth.” 

They all looked at me, somewhat stunned. “I’m even more impressed with the restraint you showed when you responded to her, then,” Andrei said. 

“That’s quite possibly the weakest apology I’ve ever heard,” Viktor said. 

“Was it her first time? Feels like her first time,” Stephen said. 

“This explains why she wanted everyone else to apologize for her. She su cks at it,” Ivan said. 

I couldn’t help but laugh at their responses. “Are you guys saying this just because it’s me and you all love me and want to protect me? You can tell me if I’m being the bi tch here.” 

“Noooo, Seph. That’s a terrible apology. She’s deflecting all responsibility on to her family, who has nothing to do with this. She’s old enough that she should be able to think for herself at this point in her life and make her own decisions about people. Blaming them is la zy. Quite frankly, I’m offended by her lack of imagination,” Stephen said. 

“What was your response?” Ivan asked, looking at me. I took a deep breath again, trying not to get upset by having to retell it. 

Misha answered for me. “In normal Sephie fashion, she verbally annihilated her. She asked if Giana was asking for the truth now. She even made Giana say yes twice before she told her about her uncle and how he was the reason she had so much. knowledge about brawn. It went downhill for Giana from there.” 

I could feel Adrik’s anger starting to rise, which wasn’t helping mine stay quiet. I put my hands on his chest. “It’s okay. Andrei threatened her life after I got done. That’s when you showed up and rescued me,” I said, grinning at him.