Chapter Seventy-Nine
Adrik
It was still early Monday morning when I woke. Sephie had moved off my chest, for once, and was curled up next to me under the covers. She so rarely needed the covers when she was on my chest, but it was getting colder outside. She woke me up when she moved. I was so used to having her laying across me while I slept that not having her there felt weird. I rolled over and pulled her back against me. She was still sleeping, but she hugged my arms tightly.
My mind was replaying the whole weekend. I was grateful for Misha’s order to come here. It was exactly what all of us needed. We had a chance to relax over the weekend, but Sephie actually opened up and talked to all of us throughout the weekend. About everything. Past and present. And, in turn, the guys opened up.
We were close before Sephie came into our lives, but it usually took one of us almost dying before we had a serious conversation with each other. I don’t know why we couldn’t just talk to each other without the threat of imminent death, but we didn’t. We waited. We held it in. I was probably more guilty than the rest of them at holding things in. I’m the boss. Never weak.
As is her way, Sephie shined a light on all our darkest places, showing us that what we’d been protecting from the world for fear of being seen as weak wasn’t a weakness at all. It made us stronger. Sometimes seeing your own traits in someone else makes you realize that what you’ve been silently dealing with for years has made you infinitely stronger. Sephie has done that for all of us, but I think most of all for me.
As I watch her step into her true potential, her true power, I can see the same traits in her that I’ve had for years. She has a mind for my businesses. All of my businesses. Whether legal or not. One of the reasons my father stepped aside and put me in charge when I was still barely twenty years old was because of my business sense. He saw that I was smart enough and mature enough to handle the business side, even though I was still young. I doubled many of his businesses in the first few years and started a few of my own that ultimately became highly successful. It’s what’s allowed him to still live like a king since he put me in charge.
The other bosses have all hesitated to put their sons in charge, despite being many years older than my father. With good reason, for most of them. Their sons are idiots. Or in Salvadori’s case, they’re just plain evil. While everyone needed to have a capacity for evil to make it in the underworld, Anthony took that to the extreme. He made me look forward to his death.
That bothers me now that Sephie is in my life. My bloodlust was never something that I thought much about before her. It was needed. It was necessary. People needed to fear me, especially when I first took over. My bloodlust made that possible. But since Sephie had come into my life, that part of me has taken a back seat. I worried that she would look at me differently once she saw the full extent of that side of me. I worried that it would be too much for her.
Like she was reading my mind, Sephie rolled over to face me. She was still asleep, but she successfully broke me from my worried thoughts. I smiled to myself, watching her sleep. I ran my hand over her back and through her hair, causing her to bury her face in my chest.
I felt the pull in my chest as I thought about just how much I loved her. Every little thing about her made me love her more. Talking about the possibility of Stephen being a vampire and whether that also made him a serial killer in the middle of a thunderstorm made me love her more. The way she tried to stay next to Andrei to make me think she was somewhat angry with me for blaming her for the silly conversation made me love her more. The fact that she couldn’t last longer than five minutes reminded me that she’s the only one for me.
Sephie moved her arm around my waist, pulling me closer to her in her sleep. I still don’t understand how she can read my mind, even when she’s sleeping, but I love it about her. She knows what I need before I do when she’s not even conscious. It makes me try harder to figure out what she needs. I ran my hand down her back to her thigh, pulling her leg over mine so she would be even closer. She inhaled deeply, making her cooing noises. Knowing she was peacefully sleeping after the week she’d just had was one of the best feelings I’d ever experienced. I would give my entire empire, everything I had, to make sure she was safe and happy and knew she was loved. Nothing was worth it without her.
“Are we taking bets on whether Chen is going to piss himself tonight?” Stephen asked as we were preparing to go to Sephie’s old apartment to meet with the dealers in charge.
“I think he’s ruined at least three pairs of pants since he had to talk to Boss the other day,” Ivan said. We all got a little too much enjoyment out of Chen’s fear.
“You guys better be nice to him. He’s helped us out,” Sephie said, trying to make sure they weren’t going to haze him in some way during the meeting.
“We’re always nice, princess,” Ivan said, pretending to be offended.
Stephen left first, with two other guys, to set up across the street from the apartment building. They had good vantage points and could see everyone coming and going. I did not like surprises, especially when Sephie was involved. It helped to ease my worry to see Stephen growing closer to Sephie. I knew he would do whatever was necessary to make sure she was protected. She’d helped him come out of his shell over the past few months. Like Ivan, he was so much funnier after having been around Sephie. I was convinced we’d all laughed more since Sephie showed up than we had our entire lives. I never wanted it to end.
On the elevator down to the parking garage, I pulled Sephie closer. She looked up at me, her eyes smiling at me. “You stay close to either me or Ivan the entire time, got it?” She smiled her sweet smile up at me, causing my heart to skip in my chest.
“I promise,” she said. She’d told us all over the weekend, a couple of times even, that she was eternally grateful to all of us for making her feel safe. It was a feeling she’d been missing in her life since her mom had died. She said she never realized how much she had missed it until she had us to make her feel safe once again. I could see it plainly on every guy’s face that they would do whatever it took to make sure she always felt safe with us, in any situation.
She stood on her toes, her lips finding mine. It was these little moments, the ones that seemed insignificant, that I found myself enjoying more and more. These moments made me think I’d never get enough of her, never get tired of her, never want to be without her.
We pulled into the parking lot of Sephie’s old apartment building. We were early, but Chen was already there. Sephie giggled. “Stephen, you might be right. He might piss himself tonight,” she said. She knew that even though he wasn’t physically with us, he could hear us through his earpiece.
“Stephen said he was here even before they got here. He’s worried. He’s been checking outside constantly,” Ivan said. “If he’s only worried about Boss, that’s one thing. But if he’s worried about something else, I don’t like it.”
“I’ll talk to him. If he’s checking outside, he’s probably looking for us,” Sephie said.
I extended my hand to her to get out of the vehicle. She put her hand in mine, climbing out. I pulled her to me, looking at her seriously, “With Ivan. Then bring him up. I’d like to speak to him before everyone else gets here.” I leaned down and kissed her gently.
“Consider it done,” she said, grinning at me.
Ivan walked around the vehicle, his game face on. He put his hand on the small of her back, directing her toward Chen’s apartment. I caught Misha’s eye, “Go with them,” I said, nodding toward Ivan and Sephie. He couldn’t keep the smile from his face as he jogged to catch up to them.
Viktor walked up the stairs first, with Andrei behind me. Sephie’s old apartment was just how she left it, just without her clothes and mementos. All her furniture was still there. I kept the apartment in the beginning, just in case she ever decided she didn’t want to be with me and wanted to go back. I knew now that was highly unlikely, but I still kept the apartment and kept it cleaned regularly. It was proving to be useful tonight.
We could hear Sephie’s conversation with Chen through the earpieces. Poor guy was terrified to meet me. Sephie was trying to calm his nerves before they came upstairs. She eventually got him calm enough to come up. His eyes went wide when he walked into the apartment to see me standing with Viktor and Andrei.
“Is there like a height and weight requirement to be a part of this? Because I feel inadequate,” Chen said to Sephie. He tried to say it quietly, but we all heard him. Sephie had her own earpiece.
Before she could answer him, I stepped forward, extending my hand to Chen. I was trying to put him at ease. He had done us a huge favor by gathering information and I wanted to make sure he knew I was appreciative. “Chen, it’s nice to meet you in person. Thank you for everything you’ve done so far,” I said.
He looked scared, but he shook my hand firmly, looking me in the eye. That was a good sign. He was trying to be bold.
“Yes, sir. Uh, happy to help, sir,” he said.
“What can you tell me about the other dealers? I’m not worried about Trino’s guy. He’ll take care of him should his loyalties waver. But what of the other two? Three?” I asked.
Chen looked shocked about my statement about Trino. He looked at Sephie. “You told me the Colombian was a nice guy,” he said.
“He is. Super nice guy. Has a flair for the dramatic, which I greatly appreciate. Just don’t cross him or he’ll use that dramatic flair in ways you don’t want to see,” Sephie said.
Chen cursed under his breath. “All right then. Gus is Trino’s guy. He’s the one that the other dealers defer to, so he’s kind of in charge of everything. The other three guys are DJ, Smith, and Chucky.”
Ivan and Sephie looked at each other. They both said, “Shit” at the same time. I could see Ivan bristle. Chen was about to piss himself.
“Tell me about Chucky. Is he an older guy? Is he a dealer or a pimp?” Ivan asked. His voice had an edge to it, but I could tell he was trying to rein in his intimidation as much as possible.
I glanced at Sephie, who was clearly worried, her entire body tense. I waited for Chen’s answer before I asked more questions.
“He’s both. He works for Niko. Been working for him for a long time too. I’m not sure about that guy. The other two dealers are good, as far as I can tell, but I think Chucky might be a little off, if I’m being honest,” Chen said.
“He’s more than a little off,” Sephie said. She looked at me, her anger now clearly visible on her face. She said, in Russian, “He’s the one my uncle called the night of my forced procedure. He was a pimp back then, but he could’ve been my uncle’s dealer and I just didn’t know it. I never stayed around when he came to the house. He looked at me like he wanted me to be one of his girls. He could’ve changed his ways, but I doubt very seriously he has. I wouldn’t trust him. He’s the one who took me and my uncle to the doctor.” She said the last sentence quietly, her gaze dropping to the floor. I was immediately angry. It seemed like she couldn’t escape having to relive her past lately.
“Oh, shit. You can speak Russian too? Shit just got so real,” Chen said quietly.
Ivan was also clearly angry. Chucky might not make it out of the apartment tonight. Stephen asked, “What does he look like, Seph? I can happily take care of him before he ever sees you.”
She looked to me, almost like she was asking permission. I nodded my head. Not only did I not want him to even see Sephie but I would also never be able to trust him. She looked at Chen. “Does he still keep his hair longer? Like the doll he took his name from?”
“No shit? He for real named himself after a murderous doll?” Chen asked. “I can’t believe I never pieced that one together, but he totally has the same hair as that fucked-up doll.”
She asked, in Russian, “Do you know what doll I’m talking about, Stephen?”
“Yep. Is his hair red too?” he asked.
“Net. It was black the last time I saw him,” she said. She looked to Chen, asking in English, “Is it still black?”
“Yeah, but he’s going gray too. Still same haircut though. Can’t believe I never caught that reference,” Chen said, shaking his head.
Stephen said, “I’ll take care of him.”
I looked to Chen. “Chucky will not be joining us tonight, but tell me about the other two.”
His eyes went wide. “I mean, I just said he’s a little off. I didn’t mean anything by it.”
“No, Chen. I know Chucky. I’ve known Chucky since I was sixteen. He was friends with my uncle. Chucky is not to be trusted,” Sephie said.
Chen looked at Sephie like he suddenly understood a little more. I didn’t know how much Chen knew about Sephie, but her explanation was all he needed to hear. “If you say he’s not to be trusted, then he’s not to be trusted,” he said. Chen looked at me, saying, “DJ works for Armando. He’s got a girl and two kids. He’s worried about keeping them safe should the entire city get a hold of brawn. He’s kind of like me. The dealing helps fill in the gaps. He’s got a regular job, but dealing helps him make ends meet. Smith works for Massimo. I think he’s okay, but he’s really quiet. Like serial killer quiet, so I can’t get a good read on him.”
We heard Stephen say, “Someone is here.” Ivan stayed with Sephie while Andrei and Viktor moved to the door.
I looked at Chen, confirming, “You told them to come alone?” He nodded his head. “I told them multiple times to come alone. It’s not my fault if they’re too stupid to listen.”
We waited for Stephen to give us more information. “One male, alone. Not Chucky,” he said. Viktor and Andrei stepped outside, closing the door behind them. Misha moved to the door as backup should they need it. We heard them talking outside the door, then one knock on the door. Misha opened it, revealing one nervous man with Andrei and Viktor.
He walked into the apartment. I looked to Chen, hoping he would address this person. He caught on quickly. “DJ, good to see you, man,” he said, walking up to him. They shook hands, then Chen stepped back. Ivan and I were on either side of Sephie, standing just in front of her, mostly shielding her from view. DJ looked at us, nervously. I took a step toward him. “DJ, thank you for coming,” I said. I stepped back even with Ivan, partially in front of Sephie once more. I felt her hand in mine. I knew she was struggling with the revelation that someone else from her past was involved in this. I laced her fingers through mine, holding her hand firmly. I heard her sigh quietly behind me.
“Next,” Stephen said. We waited to hear more details. “Two, actually,” he said. “Neither is Chucky. Promptness is not his strong suit,” he said.
Viktor and Andrei stepped out once more. Chen looked past me and Ivan to Sephie, “How do they do that? Do they have bionic hearing and can hear when people get here?” he asked.
Sephie laughed. “Something like that,” she said.
Smith and Gus walked into the apartment moments later. I greeted both the same as DJ. Gus looked at Sephie, a small smile on his face. He looked to me, then said, “I mean no disrespect, sir, but Trino has talked very highly of her. I can now see why.”
“Tell Trino I love him, but he still has no chance,” Sephie said, smiling shyly.
Gus laughed loudly. “If you don’t mind, I’ll skip telling him that. But he thinks very highly of you, Sephie.”
She had put her hand in mine once again after I shook hands with Gus and Smith. I squeezed her hand, my thumb tracing circles on hers.
“He’s here. I’ve got a clean shot,” Stephen said. Both Ivan and I looked down at Sephie. She looked up at both of us, the fear was evident on her face.
Ivan said, “Take the shot,” in Russian. Silence for a moment, then “Done. Guys are moving in to get him out of the way. All clear.”
Sephie quietly said, “Thank you.” I looked to Ivan, who understood immediately. He put his arm around her shoulders, pulling her to him as I looked to the three dealers. “Gentlemen, let’s begin,” I said.
“There’s still one other guy, sir. He should be here soon,” Smith said.
“He will not be joining us,” I said firmly. The dealers all looked at Chen, like he had something to do with it. “It was my decision. Chen had nothing to do with it. Chucky was not to be trusted,” I stated flatly. I did not like to be questioned, but I entertained this one. I needed them to trust me.
“How did you know he couldn’t be trusted? You didn’t even meet him,” Smith said. He was nervous, but he struck me as the type to not back down from a fight, no matter how outgunned he was. His type was useful, given he could control his temper. It was evident that he was not happy with this situation, even without knowing what happened to Chucky yet. His tone was short. A little too short.
I felt Sephie step beside me. Just like she had told me that she could feel my anger before, I could now feel hers even before she was beside me. I didn’t need to look at her to know that she was seething at Smith’s tone. “He didn’t need to meet him. I’ve known Chucky for years. I’m the one that decides who we trust and who we don’t, so if you’re smart, you’ll watch your tone when addressing Ghost because I do not care for it and I’d hate to see you meet the same fate as your pal Chucky.” She had crossed her arms across her chest as she began talking to him. She had taken a few steps closer to him as she noticed him shrink back slightly, which meant that every single one of us had also taken steps closer to him as she did. It didn’t matter what she did, she knew we were always standing behind her. It gave her confidence. I was proud to see her stand up and fully realize her power. She’d faced demons much worse than this punk and she was becoming aware of just how strong she really was. She knew we would always be with her.
Just to get her point across with an extra exclamation point behind it, I stood directly behind her and stared down Smith until he dropped his gaze. As soon as he did, she simply said, “Smart man,” and walked back to stand next to Ivan. She glanced at me as she turned, her eyes were dark again. Like they were the day she fought Mike. I was thankful for just a brief glimpse of them. It was an unexpected turn on the last time I saw her eyes go dark. I didn’t need to deal with that on top of everything else right now.
We all heard Stephen say quietly, “If I wasn’t gay, that probably would’ve been super hot.”
I had to clear my throat to keep from laughing at him. I don’t know how the other guys and Sephie managed to not laugh, but I didn’t hear a peep out of them.
Gus caught my eye, then glanced quickly to Smith and then back to me. He shook his head discreetly. Sephie caught it too. She said quietly, in Russian, “Let it play out. I want to know why he doesn’t trust him.”
“Sir, if I may, on behalf of all the dealers we’ve talked with, we want you to know that we’re not down with this plan to replace the city’s supply with brawn. Most of us remember the last time brawn was in the city. I know that the bosses took the credit for stopping it the last time, but it was us. We all refused to sell it, so the bosses had no choice but to stop pushing it. We’re not down with selling it again and we’ll do whatever it takes to make sure it doesn’t happen,” DJ said.
“Tell me what you know of the plot and what you’ve found so far,” I said, looking between all three of them.
Smith was quick to object. “We’ll tell you what we know after you tell us what you know.”
We heard Stephen chuckle. “Ivan, Sephie, take one step to your left. Boss, take one step to your right.” We immediately did as he said. As soon as we were out of the way, a very obvious red dot appeared on Smith’s forehead.
Ivan said, “You talk a big game for someone who’s squarely in the crosshairs.”
Smith looked to Ivan, somewhat confused. Stephen moved the red dot to Smith’s chest so he could see it. Ivan pointed to Smith’s chest. “You got a little something there …”
Smith looked down, then immediately back up. He was speechless. I knew Stephen would keep his sight on him for the rest of the meeting, just to prove a point.
Gus laughed quietly. “You dumbass,” he said, shaking his head. “Sir, we’ve been scouring the city trying to find where they’re making the brawn. I’m sure you know it takes a specific setup to produce, so they can’t produce it just anywhere. To get enough to replace the whole city’s supply of regular drugs, they’re going to need a massive operation. We’ve found two smaller operations. One in Vito’s area of the city, one in Niko’s. Neither of those is large enough, in my opinion, to produce enough to fully replace the supply, but they’ve been running nonstop since we found them. It’s possible, I guess, if they’ve been working at this for a while.”
“The one place we’re having difficulty getting near is the docks. It’s in Sal’s area of the city and it’s crawling with his men. My guess is they have a larger operation there, but we can’t get close enough to confirm that,” DJ said.
“You have the exact location of the smaller operations?” I asked.
“Yeah. We’ve got guys watching it all the time, since we don’t know when they’re going to try and replace the supply. We’re not depending on Sal to give his dealers the heads-up. If they start moving their supply, we want to know,” Gus said.
“We’re going to need the location of those two. The third is at the docks. We’ve confirmed that one. It is large enough to replace the whole city’s supply. The other two are likely backups,” I said. “How many dealers do you guys know for sure will help us?”
“There’s a couple hundred in the city, at least. I’ve only talked to like fifty, DJ talked to another like forty or fifty. Chen? How many have you talked to?” Gus asked.
“At least forty, maybe more. I did not realize there would be a test on that later, so I wasn’t keeping track. But I’ve talked to at least forty,” Chen said.
“That’s most of the city’s dealers. You’re sure the ones that work for Sal, Niko, and Vito are with you and against selling brawn?” Ivan asked.
“Yeah, no question. Sal’s dealers are actually the angriest about this. There’s a couple that are happy at the thought of getting paid for a weekend of not selling, but most of them are pissed off that he would try to bring it back. It almost started a war between the dealers and Sal the last time. We might sell drugs, but we’re not tryin’ to kill nobody. We’ll facilitate bad habits, but we have standards on what we sell. Most dealers know the really bad addicts and we purposely rip them off, so they don’t overdose. The dealers talk between each other in most areas of the city too. We know who buys from who and I’m not selling to someone who’s already bought from another dealer to keep them from overdosing. It’s all about making money, but we’re also not in the habit of killing our customers. Addicts are mostly misguided people, man,” Gus said.
Smith scoffed. “Speak for yourself,” he said, under his breath. We all looked to him, expecting an explanation. “Some of us don’t have a choice to sell,” he said.
“You work for Massimo, right?” Sephie asked. Smith nodded his head. “Does he have something he’s holding over you to make you sell for him or does he just force you to sell?” she asked.
“The first. Other dealers that work for him are just forced to sell,” Smith said.