510
Sephie
Before we came to the house, Ivan had the brilliant idea to let Dario get in touch with a few of his underbosses. They all knew Massimo had been killed, but no one ever got confirmation on what had happened to Dario. He gave them the same story he was planning to give Sal – he had gotten away from Trino after Massimo was killed and he was in hiding.
When he talked to his underbosses, he made it seem like he was in contact with Sal. They somewhat knew what was going on, but because Dario had been gone so long, they weren’t entirely sure of the details. Dario told them that Sal had betrayed him and Massimo and was the reason for Massimo’s death. He was trying to come for the city and was planning to take them all out. Niko and Vito were with Sal, but Sal was planning on turning on them too.
It was all fabricated lies, but it was also believable enough that the underbosses knew not to cooperate with Niko and Vito or any of Sal’s men. It meant Dario’s area of the city was mostly safe, for the time being. It also increased the chance that Dario’s guys might take out more of the other bosses’ guys for us.
“Your ability to create chaos within the chaos is one of my favorite things about you, Squish,” I had told Ivan after Dario was taken back to his room.
“It’s one of my best qualities,” he said, winking at me.
Viktor had given the guys that were on Dario instructions to allow him to speak to his underbosses, should they try to contact him. It needed to be believable that he was in hiding, but could also be reached. They called him shortly after we got word of the skirmish in Vito’s area of the city. The guys on Dario called Viktor immediately, informing him of the news Dario had gotten.
When he walked back into the kitchen, he had a small grin on his face. “Vito actually showed up to meet with Dario’s underbosses. They’re holding him for us.”
“Just Vito? Niko is still out there?” I asked.
Viktor nodded. “Dario told his guys he was working with us now, because of Sal’s betrayal. I can send a team to fetch Vito and take him to a safe house until it calms down.”
“You already have it all set up, too, don’t you?” I asked, smiling at his efficiency.
He smiled his sweet smile at me. “I was hoping this might happen, yes. The safe house is ready to go and the team is waiting for me to say the word to go pick him up,” he said.
“You’re so efficient,” I said.
Adrik looked to Misha, asking for confirmation to send the team to go get Vito. His eyes went black as he checked for outcomes.
As Misha was checking, Adrik said quietly, “I feel like extra guys are needed.”
Once Misha came back to the present moment, he said, “you’re right, Boss. Extra guys are needed, but it’ll work out. They’ll get Vito out and take care of his remaining underbosses as well.”
“Send them,” Adrik told Viktor.
All was quiet as we waited for news. I passed the time by starting dinner. Even if we had to abandon it, it gave me something to do to keep my mind busy. Misha and Andrei both seemed happy to have a distraction as both offered to help me.
Both of them had helped me so much in the kitchen, I barely needed to give them instructions any longer. Misha moved into the sous chef role. He found he really enjoyed cooking. He was really quite good at it, too. He’d made suggestions for a few recipes that made them even better.
Andrei was more the taste-tester and clean-up guy. It was still a very important role for any kitchen. He was listening to Misha make suggestions on changes to make to spices for one dish and laughed, saying, “this is how I know Misha is going to be the first to get married. Women love men who can cook.”
“Don’t sell yourself short, Bubba. Women also love men who are willing to wash the dishes for them so they can concentrate on cooking. You’re just looking for two different types of women,” I said.
Misha grabbed a mushroom from the bowl, popping it in his mouth. “I think you’re right. I just have no idea what either of those types of women are,” he said, grinning at me.
“I don’t think you need to overthink it. If I learned anything from my time as Max’s friend, it was that nobody has a clue what they want. Men or women,” I said.
Adrik had walked into the kitchen from his office upstairs as we were talking. He smirked at me as he walked over to give me a kiss. “They always say you find your person when you least expect it. I used to think that was b*llshit. Turns out it was exactly right. Keep working on making you a better version of yourself than you were yesterday and your perfect person will appear.”
“I can’t say I disagree with him,” I said. “But just make sure she’s a tough chick, because I might be planning on giving her hell to make sure she’s good enough for
you.”
Misha chuckled. “Between you and Ivan, they’re going to need some kind of superhuman resolve to date me.”
“That’s the point, my adorable Russian guardian,” I said, grinning at him.
Andrei laughed. “I’m just waiting to see what kind of woman Ivan ends up with. She’s going to have to be a clone of Sephie and that might not work so well.”
“Might not work why?” Adrik asked. I could feel his hackles going up, thinking Andrei was throwing any kind of shade my way. It made me laugh.
“He doesn’t mean it as an insult to me. He means that stubborn women don’t usually get along with each other,” I said. “But I don’t think anyone needs to worry. Whoever can put up with him and can climb his very high walls will earn my respect.”
Viktor walked into the kitchen, inhaling deeply. “Oh, I’m going to be so happy soon,” he said, rubbing his belly. “Vito is at the safe house. Extra guys were a good call, but they got out unharmed. Vito lost another two bosses. I think that might be all his underbosses gone now. We’re still waiting for final counts.”
“And Dario’s men?” Adrik asked.
“They’re good. They said to give them a call if needed, otherwise they were staying out of this fight,” Viktor said.
“What about Massimo’s underbosses? Do we know what they’re doing?” I asked.
Ivan walked into the kitchen, answering my question. “We do know. They’re sitting this one out along with Dario’s men. Massimo’s area of the city pushed back harder than the other areas at first. Without Massimo to tell them otherwise, they feel like this isn’t their fight.”
“Let’s hope they don’t change their minds anytime soon,” I said. “Misha, do you know where Niko is?”
Misha’s eyes switched to black without him blinking as he checked the city, trying to find Niko. We could see his grin slowly appear as he found him. His eyes slowly faded to their normal green as he rejoined us in the present moment. “He knows something happened to Vito. He just doesn’t know what, yet. He’s scared, but he’s still trying to send his underbosses back out. It looks like he’s more scared of Sal.”
“If he sends his underbosses out again, that’s the perfect chance to pick him up too,” Ivan said.
“That’s what I was thinking. Do you have his exact location?” Adrik asked Misha. He nodded. “Can you see if his underbosses are actually going to listen to him and go back out?”
Misha’s eyes went black one more time as he checked on that outcome. His eyes didn’t switch back to their normal green this time. He was fully in boss mode. We could all feel it. “We need to move quickly, but there’s a small window when he’ll be incredibly easy to grab.”
We didn’t say another word. Andrei and I shut everything down in the kitchen until we returned and we were out the door within two minutes, on our way to grab
Niko.
Viktor and Ivan coordinated extra guys to meet us close to Niko’s location. Adrik wanted to stay out of sight as much as possible, but he was also nervous about Niko getting away. We would serve as backup for the extra guys. He wanted it to look like the people of the city had revolted, more than he had stepped in. It was just one more way to give a f*ck you to Sal and Ricardo. If the people of the city rejected them, it was a very big hurdle to them ever coming back. And Sal knew it.
Misha-spent the drive to Niko trying to get as many details of the layout of the building he was in as possible. He shared everything with Andrei and Ivan. They relayed the information to the guys that met us a block away.
We stayed behind while they left to grab Niko. The whole thing was over in under twenty minutes and Niko was on his way to a separate safe house from Vito.