ID.
“It’s Ivan. Can I answer it?” I asked.
“Of course, love.”
“Hello, you’ve reached the phone of the man who shall remain nameless. He can’t come to the phone right now. May I give him a message?”
Ivan chuckled. “Princess. It’s so good to hear your voice.”
“Aw, Ivan. I always knew you were squishy inside that tough exterior. You missed me. Don’t lie.”
“Da. Very much. Tell Boss that we have new information we need to discuss.”
Adrik motioned for them to come up. “Well, Ivan the Squishy, why don’t you come up and tell him?”
“Be right there,” he said, ending the call.
In what seemed like two minutes, all five guys were walking in the door. One by one, they all came and hugged me, telling me they had missed me. “How are you feeling, gazelle?” Misha asked.
“Better. I ate earlier and managed to keep it down. I even took a shower. It’s been a big day for me,” I grinned at him.
“Now that you can eat, you’ll feel better much faster,” Stephen said.
Ivan came over and inspected the stitches above my eye. “Bruise looks better. Cut still looks ug ly.”
“Ugh, don’t remind me. I’m probably gonna have yet another scar to add to my extensive collection.”
Ivan surprised me by wrapping his arm around my shoulders. “Be proud of your scars. They’re a visual representation of how fu cking strong you are.” He leaned down and kissed the top of my head as Adrik set my next plate of food in front of me. He winked at me, as I was shocked at Ivan’s response.
Adrik looked at Ivan, “so, what news?”
“We showed the guy that attacked Misha what the guy that attacked Sephie looked like and then threatened to send her in with him. He sang like a fu cking canary,” Viktor said, trying to keep a straight face, They all had to stifle their laughs, as I looked at them wide-eyed. “You guys aren’t serious. Like you’re just messing with me, right?”
Misha leaned on the counter, looking me in the eye. “He was terrified, gazelle.”
“Shut up.”
“Terrified,” Andrei said. “Almost pi ssed himself terrified.”
I felt my cheeks flush. Adrik, who was clearly enjoying this, asked, “what did you find out? Who put him up to it?”
Viktor sighed. “It was a bit of a test run. They’ve been quietly testing a new formulation of brawn around the city, seeing if they can amp up the violence. They feel like they got the right combination and gave it to these two mo rons with Misha and Sephie as the target to see how it would go. I’m sure they were being watched.”
“Who put them up to it?” Adrik asked, his jaw clenching. He crossed his arms across his chest. I could see his anger coming to the surface.
“Salvadori,” Ivan said. “We don’t know his exact plan but given that half the bosses are with you and half are with him, I’d say he’s trying to tip the scales in his favor. I think he’s planning on giving it to his soldiers. He wants a war in the city.”
I dropped my fork and they all looked at me. “Why would he want a war in the city? The people of the city love Adrik. They won’t stand for Salvadori trying to take over. Even if he beat you guys, which he won’t, the people won’t let him take over.”
Andrei sighed. “He’s probably not thinking about that. He just wants power and doesn’t care how he gets it. He’ll try to scare the city into bending to his will after he defeats us.”
“Innocent people are going to get hurt if he tries to start a war,” I said, finishing the last bite of eggs.
“We won’t let that happen,” Ivan said.
Sephie
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.