I looked down, my hands starting to fidget in my lap. I thought for a moment, then looked back up at his concerned face. “I can do it if it means finding this guy. There’s no telling what else he’s done to other people.” I paused, then added, “but you guys are gonna have to go with me. I might not be able to avoid screwing up Adrik’s schedule that day.”
“His schedule is the least of his worries when it comes to you, princess. He’s going to be mad at us for not bringing you to his office today once he finds out. He’s told us all before, nothing else matters without you.”
“Shut up.”
He thought for a moment. “I think the first time he told us that was when we were at the ranch house in Italy. When you were passed out and he couldn’t leave you or you’d get su cked back into your nightmare. I went into the room the morning we were supposed to leave and told him we’d all decided we couldn’t leave. He agreed and said nothing was more important than you. His empire is replaceable, princess. You are not.”
I sat, somewhat stunned, for a moment. I didn’t know how to respond. Luckily, Misha came into the penthouse and saved me from having to.
“Gazelle, are you hungry yet? Because I’m starving and we can’t decide what to get for lunch, so you’re the deciding vote,” Misha said, his broad smile stretched across his face. He sat down next to me, his arm around my shoulders.
“What are the choices? Do any of them involve a burrito the size of my head? Because if they do, that’s what gets my vote,” I said.
He leaned over, kissing my cheek, “this is why you’re the best, Sephie. Be back shortly with a burrito the size of your head.” My stomach growled loud enough for them to hear. They both looked at me, pretending to be shocked.
“What? Sometimes my stomach feels neglected and needs to be included in the conversation. She has a mind of her own,” 1 said, laughing.
Sephie
Everyone came to the penthouse for lunch, including Adrik. I wasn’t expecting him to have a break in his day. He clearly enjoyed my excitement to see him, holding me in front of him long enough to calm down so the guys wouldn’t also see how much he enjoyed my excitement.
He looked down at me, concern plainly in his eyes, “what’s this about you going to the police, salnishko? Are you sure you want to do that?”
I chewed on my bottom lip, but nodded. “Ivan thinks it would be helpful to get the information the police have on that guy. It might help find him. Apparently, nobody else can remember what he looks like, but I can clearly remember his face.” I shuddered again, seeing his face flash in my memory. Adrik pulled me closer, feeling it.
“I’ll call the commissioner this afternoon and find out what he knows about this police unit that’s trying to find the doctor. We can have them come here. I don’t like the idea of you going to a police station,” he said, kissing my forehead.
I heard Viktor’s deep voice behind us. “That’s a better idea. You’re going to need to be there with her, Boss. We had to rush out of the hospital before her shaking got too bad.” Adrik clicked his tongue. “Why didn’t you come to me when you got back?” I looked up at him. He looked almost angry,
“I was okay. Viktor helped keep it from getting worse when we were at the hospital. I screwed up your day yesterday. I didn’t want to do it two days in a row,” I said, apologetically. His eyes softened. “My schedule doesn’t take priority over you, solnishko.”
Ivan said, “told you.” I didn’t even look in his direction, I just snapped my fingers and pointed in his direction. I could hear him laughing.
He looked over my head to Viktor. “You really helped?”
Viktor shrugged his shoulders, a somewhat worried look on his face. “I don’t think it was the same as you, but it kept it from getting worse, which is what we were worried about.” Adrik took a deep breath and visibly relaxed. Viktor looked at him, puzzled. “You’re not mad?”
Adrik laughed. He looked down at me as he answered Viktor. “No, the opposite, really. It makes me worry less to know that she has someone else who can help if needed.” I smiled up at him, watching as he tried to hide his heart skipping a beat.
We were in Adrik’s office at the end of the day, waiting for someone from the police department to show up so I could give them a description of what the doctor looked like. Adrik had called the commissioner after lunch. He knew about the doctor and said they’d been trying to catch the guy for a decade. He said the same thing as Dr. Williams; no one could remember what he looked like. Adrik told him that I could remember and the commissioner said he would send someone out that night. He also told Adrik that they could have all the information the police had on the guy. “He told me that we had free rein to find this guy. He said his people have been looking for him for a decade and they’d only run into dead ends. He was still operating in the city, as they met new victims regularly. Apparently, he’s gotten worse as the years have progressed. He’s moved on to even darker things,” Adrik said as we were waiting Misha asked.
“He’s into organ harvesting row. The hospitals are reporting people showing up with missing organs, with no memory of how it happened,” Adrik said. “For real? I thought that was just an urban legend,” I said.
“According to the police commissioner, it’s real. He hasn’t released that info to the public yet, but he said it’s been happening more frequently lately,” he said. “Just when I thought things couldn’t possibly get any worse,” I said, mostly to myself.
Viktor’s phone rang. He got up, walking out of the office. He returned a moment later with one uniformed police officer, one plain clothes officer, and a third with a sketch pad in his hands. Adrik stood, walking toward them. He extended his hand to all three. “Thank you for coming on such short notice,” he said. He motioned for them to sit.
“We should be thanking you, sir. We’ve been chasing this guy for years and never found anyone that can remember what he looks like. We still haven’t been able to figure out what drugs he uses to wipe memories. They’re out of the victims’ systems quickly, which makes it impossible for us to test them,” the plain clothes officer said, taking a seat across from the couch I was
I.
When Adrik got up to greet them, I moved closer to Andrei, who was on the other side of me on the couch. I was scared. He wrapped his arm around my shoulders while I curled up next to him, wanting to hide. He held me against him tightly. “You’ll be okay, spider monkey. We’ll protect you,” he whispered to me.
The plain clothes officer looked at me. “You must be Sephie,” he said. I nodded. Adrik sat back down on the couch, but sat closer to me so I wouldn’t have to move from Andrei. The officer glanced at Andrei and at Adrik, then back to me. “I’m Jason,” he said. He looked at the uniformed officer. “That’s Ryan. And that’s Will,” he said pointing to the guy with the sketch pad. “We’re really grateful to have found you, you know. You seem to be the only one that can remember what this guy looks like. Can you tell us what happened?”
I looked up at Andrei, who gave my shoulders one last squeeze before I moved so I was sitting between him and Adrik. I had my hands pulled inside my sleeves so the officers couldn’t see my bruised knuckles. I didn’t need them asking questions about anything else today. Adrik stretched his arm across my lap as I started to recount the story of my uncle and what had happened the night he took me to this doctor.
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.