“I could go have a conversation with him,” Ivan said, knowing full well that was not going to happen.
“I have an idea,” Sephie told me. “Stephen, how many car lengths between where this idiot is posted up and the entrance to the garage?”
“One, two…five,” he said.
“And what does the car look like that he’s in?” she asked.
“Dark blue sedan, four door,” he said.
“Which side of the exit is he on?”
“South”
“Misha, can I borrow you?” she asked, extending her hand toward Misha, who was in the front seat. He turned to look at her, curious where she was going with this, but also excited to see the end result. “What are you thinking, Seph?” Stephen asked.
“There’s a restaurant in the building next door. I can smell it. I’m looking for a delivery truck,” she said.
Stephen chuckled. “You’re a genius,” he said.
She grabbed Misha’s hand, borrowing his gift as they searched the area for a delivery truck large enough to block our watcher in, allowing us to leave without him following us. Preferably without him seeing us to begin with.
“Got it,” she and Misha said together. “Stephen, there’s a truck a block and a half away to the south. Can you and your guys borrow it?”
“Nothing would make me happier right now,” he said. He quickly gave orders to the team that was with him and they put their plan in motion. Stephen was very capable, but one of his greatest attributes was his speed. Once he knew the objective, he wasted no time in completing his assignment.
It was under ten minutes and he was back, saying, “be ready. The truck will be here in two minutes. Kyle is driving. I want to see if we can provoke your watcher into an argument before you guys leave.” We could hear what was happening through the earpieces. Kyle parked the truck alongside our tail’s car, effectively blocking him in. He then went to the back of the truck, opened it up, and proceeded to act like he was about to make a delivery. Just as we hoped, our watcher got out of his car, trying to get Kyle to move the truck. He pretended to not understand English very well, drawing out the conversation, while giving us instructions in Russian.
“Not yet. He’s pretty pi*sed, but he can still see the entrance. I can bait him to the lack,” Kyle said in Russian, as he pretended to not know what the guy was saying to him.
We waited for his signal, leaving quickly when he said, “now.” We could hear them arguing as we pulled out onto the street and turned down a side street, completely out of view. Stephen was laughing as he said, “this might be making Kyle’s day. He loves a reason to yell at someone. We’re going to return the truck and we’ll meet you at the penthouse.”
We didn’t have to wait long for Stephen to join us. He was still laughing when he waed into the penthouse. Sephie had tried to not be worried after we lost contact with him, but she couldn’t help herself. She was visibly relieved when he walked in, walking quickly to him to give him a hug. It never failed to make me smile when I saw just how tightly he held onto her. He had taken so long to warm up to her in the beginning, for good reason, but now she was an anchor for him, just as she was for everyone else.
“Very good call on the delivery truck, Seph. Kyle said to thank you as well. He said that was the most fun he’s had in a while. He really enjoys making people angry.” he said as he relaxed his tight hold on her. She chuckled. “Please tell me he’s still sitting outside the parking garage waiting for us to leave.”
“He was when we left. I almost wanted to leave someone to see how long he would stay there,” he said.
“You, sir, are a little bit evil,” she said. “I’m totally here for it.”
As strange as it sounded to say, it was kind of the perfect end to our day. Sephie managed to make us laugh through every tough situation we found ourselves in now.
“Would you still call me evil if you knew I ordered Thai for us on my way back here feel like you shouldn’t have to cook dinner if you save the day,” he said, his uncharacteristic smile that was slowly becoming more characteristic for him slowly spreading across his face.
She grinned at him. “Same order as last time?” she asked, clearly hopeful he would say yes.
“Of course,” he said.
“You’re my favorite. Don’t tell the others,” she said, once again hugging Stephen’s neck.
“I wish I would’ve known I could do this when I was a kid. I would’ve been much more rebellious,” Misha said, shaking his head as he thought about the day’s events.
“You would’ve spied on the girl’s locker room all day, don’t kid yourself,” Andrei said, teasing him.
“Shots fired, Bubba,” Sephie said, laughing. She looked at Misha and said, seriously, he’s not wrong though.”
Once again, we found ourselves narrowly escaping trouble, faced with a seemingly insturmountable hurdle ahead of us, but we were all laughing with each other like it was completely normal and not the least bit stressful. Because of her.
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.