I felt her anger rise quickly at the mention of the conversation with Dario, but she had it under control just as quickly as it appeared. She looked at Ivan.
“Holy sh it, I see it now,” Viktor said. Sephie looked to me quickly, confused. “Blink, love,” I said, kissing her temple. Her eyes were as dark as I’d seen them, but she felt completely calm to me. She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. I got hit with a sudden feeling of panic that I knew wasn’t mine. When she opened her eyes and looked to me for confirmation they were normal again, could see the fear in her eyes.
“What the f**k is happening to me?” she asked quietly. Her feeling of panic was growing. She was an expert at controlling her anger, but her fear was clearly a different story. She was losing control quickly. I wrapped my arms around her, pulling her tight against me. She clung to me like I was her lifeline to reality.
“Princess, you joked that your eyes going dark was your villain origin story, but I think it’s exactly the opposite. I think it’s your hero origin story. We may not know what happened just now, but you’re doing what you always do- making sure that people you care about are taken care of. That’s hero behavior,” Ivan said. She took a deep breath, but didn’t loosen her grip on me. Her face was still buried in my chest.
“Didn’t your dad tell you that you were here to help each one of us with something important?” I asked her, trying to coax her head away from my chest. Not that I minded her body pressed against mine. I just didn’t want her to be scared. She nodded her head.
“He did?” Misha asked. She nodded again, but this time she looked up at me. The look of fear was slowly disappearing. She turned so she could look at Misha, but she kept my arms wrapped tightly around her.
“He told me I was supposed to help you develop your gift, my adorable Russian guardian,” she said, looking at Misha. She then looked at Andrei. “Bubba, we’re apparently here to make each other better. It’s why you’re so good at pushing me and training me to be better and why I’m constantly reminding you of how awesome you are.” Andrei’s wide smile stretched across his face. She looked at Stephen and said, “Yoden, I was supposed to show you how much better life can be when you just decide to be yourself.” Stephen’s cheeks blushed, as he ran his hand through his hair. “And Papa Bear,” she said, looking at Viktor. “I was supposed to help you get your confidence back. You do a very good job of hiding it from everyone else, but I know how debilitating it was becoming for you since you lost your wife.” Viktor looked at her, smiling. She really had helped him feel much more confident since she’d come into our lives. I hadn’t noticed it much before Sephie, but Viktor was back to the way he was when I first met him. He’d lost his light before Sephie, but she was the spark he needed to remember who he was and how great he was at his job. “What about Ivan?” Misha asked. Sephie looked at Ivan. I could tell by the look on his face that she was smiling at him. His face always got softer when she smiled at him. She glanced up at me and held my gaze. She was silently asking my thoughts on whether she should tell them everything. I nodded once.
She sighed, then walked to Ivan. “Ivan and I have a special deal. My dad explained it like this: there are different types of soulmates. Adrik and I are meant to find each other and fall in love over and over again in many lifetimes. I don’t think any of you are surprised by that,” she said, laughing. “I don’t know how many lifetimes I’ve spent with the rest of you, but Ivan gets the role of my protector in each one. He proved he was ready the day Sal’s guys tried to grab me when he used his body to shield me from the impact of the truck that hit us.” She had put her arms around his waist as she was talking, with her head resting on his shoulder. He held her tightly, kissing the top of her head.
“I nominate Stephen to document each future version of us that he meets in his one extremely long lifetime,” Misha said. The smile that Sephie gave him was enough to make the room twice as bright. She squeezed Ivan then ran to Misha, laughing. He picked her up and swung her around. Her squeal was music to my ears.
“I love that you’re as much of a dork as I am, Misha,” she said as he set her down.
“He definitely wasn’t this much of a dork before you came along. You brought it to the surface,” Andrei said, laughing. “Just like you did with the rest of us.”
“I mean, I’ll apologize if you don’t like it, but I happen to love it. You’re all much more entertaining this way,” she said, walking back to me.
“Don’t you dare apologize for it,” I said, pulling her to me forcefully causing her to giggle as she wrapped her arms around my neck. She pressed her lips to mine, still laughing against my lips. “Come on, I’ll get started on dinner,” she said, pulling me back toward the kitchen.
“We can order takeout, sestrichka. It’s been a long day for everyone.” Viktor said.
“Papa Bear, if you haven’t figured out by now, feeding you is how I show all of you just how much I love you,” she said, her swert smile on her face.
Andrei pushed his stomach out to give himself a belly. “So Much Love,” he said, as he rubbed his pretend belly.
Adrik
The next morning, the guys were back in the penthouse early. We had agreed the night before that we didn’t trust anyone else. so all conversations between us were to be had in Russian and in the penthouse when possible. Sephie struggled to wake up this morning. She was so exhausted last night that she was sound asleep almost immediately after laying across my chest. I can’t take the blame for her tiredness this morning. Whatever happened between her and Misha completely zapped her energy. Not to mention dealing with the stress of everything Dario told us. When I came out of the bedroom without her, the guys were noticeably concerned. I smiled at their concern for her. “She’s awake. She’s still getting ready. She was exhausted last night and struggled to wake up this morning,” I said.
“Same,” Misha said as he walked to the coffee maker. “I’m starting to understand why you both needed extra coffee the day after whatever happened between you two that zapped you both. I fee like I could sleep for three days right now,”
“It only lasted a day for me. Hopefully, you’ll be the same,” I said, laughing at his exhausted expression. He looked like he could barely keep his eyes open.
Viktor pulled his phone from his pocket, typed a short message, then put his phone back in his pocket. “Breakfast will be here shortly,” he said. “Although I can tell you right now that I’m not going to enjoy it as much.” We all laughed at his crankiness over not getting Sephie’s cooking.
Sephie walked into the kitchen just as Misha was pouring her a cup of coffee. “Perfect timing, gazelle. You’re going to need this,” he said as he handed her the coffee mug. “I might’ve made it a little strong. Apologies if it’s too strong.”
“Are you as exhausted as you look and I feel, my adorable Russian guardian?” she asked. He nodded. “What the f**k happened yesterday,” she whispered as she sipped the coffee.
“I can’t answer that yet, but I did get more recordings from Keith last night. Armando is back from his house as of late last night. Keith sent over what he had from this weekend. He said Armando met with Ricardo, but didn’t close the door this time. Keith thinks Armando wasn’t aware that he was there. After what Dario told us, I’m not sure I believe the bumbling id iot persona of Armando anymore, so it might’ve been intentional. It’s possible he’s caught on to Keith recording his meetings somehow and now he’s feeding us false information, but we won’t know until we get them translated,” Stephen said.
Sephie sighed. “I’ll get started after I finish breakfast,” she said.
“Breakfast is on its way, spider monkey. Viktor already took care of it. You need a break this morning, Game Master,” Andrei said, grinning at her.
She looked at Viktor, her sweet smile that made him melt on her face. “Papa Bear, you’re my favorite. Don’t tell the others.”
Sephie listened to everything Keith had sent over from Armando’s meetings over the weekend after breakfast. She had a serious look on her face listening to one of the recordings. She kept replaying it over and over again like she was trying to hear something else on the recording. Stephen had given her headphones again to help her hear more clearly. She finally looked at Stephen, then looked to Viktor. “There’s not much that’s useful from Armando’s meetings, but in this one recording, I can hear Giana talking in the background for just a minute, like she’s walking by on the phone or something. It sounds like she asks when she can go back to Italy, then it sounds like she says it wasn’t her fault. She must walk too far away because I lose her voice for a few minutes, but she comes back through. She’s still talking, but it’s too jumbled for me to be able to hear what she says clearly when she comes back through.”
“There’s a way to separate the voices on the recording.” Viktor said, “I’ll be right back,” he said, walking quickly toward the door.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.