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She was quiet for a few minutes, then said, “Ivan was right. He didn’t like it that I told him we already knew what he knew.” She started opening the attachments that he sent with the email. “He proved it too.” She starting scanning the documents he sent over. Some of them we did know about. Some of them were new to us, but they all solidified the business relationship between Lorenzo and Ricardo.
“Wait, go back to that one,” I said, reading over her shoulder. She clicked back to the document, opening it again. “That’s for an apartment complex in Naples, isn’t it?” I asked her.
She read through it again. “Yes, why?”
“Armando talked to me about this project. He wanted me to go in on it with him, but I wasn’t interested at the time. It was a smaller project than I was looking for when he came to me with it,” I said.
“Looks like he replaced you then,” she said. “Ricardo and Lorenzo are both listed as owners of the project, but I haven’t seen Armando’s name.”
“What if he was trying to get you on the project so you’d be tied to Lorenzo and Ricardo?” Stephen asked. Ivan walked back into the penthouse after escorting the acupuncturist back to the lobby.
“Who did what now?” he asked, taking his place back on the couch with his computer.
“The journalist responded already. You were right. He didn’t like it that we said we knew everything he knew and he proved it. He sent over several documents, one of which is a project that Armando pitched to Adrik previously but Adrik turned down. But Armando’s name isn’t on this project, according to this guy’s records,” Sephie said.
“That’s shady,” Ivan said. “What else does that guy know about?”
“So far, just that Ricardo and Lorenzo have been in business for quite some time,” I said. “I’m starting to wonder why my father banished him instead of just having him killed.”
“It does make you wonder, as Lorenzo didn’t seem like he ever went away after he was banished,” Sephie said. “He just rebuilt his empire elsewhere. Without supervision.”
Sephie ended up sleeping on me for a few hours that afternoon. I could tell she was sleeping better here than she was at the hospital. There was a definite peaceful feeling to her when she fell asleep at the penthouse versus when she was still at the hospital. She was constantly on guard at the hospital.
We continued looking for information while she slept. So far, we’d found that Armando wasn’t at all who he’d always said he was. We’d also found proof that Ricardo and Lorenzo had been in business together for many years and had brought Armando in on quite a few deals over the years along with Giana’s father. Sephie replied to the journalist, telling him that we knew everything except for one deal and he was going to have to do better if he wanted to impress us. I think having to type that out one-handed is what wore her out, to be honest. It was painstaking for her.
The guys started to get hungry, so Viktor ordered food before we went downstairs to have a talk with Armando. I know Sephie was curious about Dario too, but I was planning on letting that one wait a day or two. At least until she felt a little better. I didn’t need her for Armando. I did for Dario.
Frankly, I didn’t want her to ever have to see Armando’s face again. I would make sure she never saw him in person. But I wanted to see what information I could get from him first.
When Viktor went down to grab the food, I tried to gently wake Sephie up. This time I held on to her as I woke her up, so she wouldn’t try to turn toward me as she was fighting waking up. She started to stir and I felt her hand slide over my arms, finding one of my hands. “Thank you for saving me from myself,” she said, leaning her head all the way back so she could look up at me.
Andrei and Misha stood up to help her get up. “Come on, spider monkey. It’s been hours since you ate last. You were just starting to be less cranky. Let’s not mess that up,” Andrei said, offering her his arm so she could pull herself up.
As we ate, Sephie asked, “Are you going to talk to Armando?” I nodded. “What about Dario?”
“He can wait a day or two until you’re feeling better. I don’t want you to ever have to see Armando again, but I need you for Dario,” I said. “You got him to talk more than he would have if you hadn’t been there. I think he feels more comfortable around you.”
“It’s because I don’t look like I want to kill him right out of the gate,” she said, grinning at me.
“Maybe, but you’ve got the demon eyes now. He had to have noticed when we talked to him last. It was obvious,” Stephen said.
“He might’ve noticed, but he probably doesn’t believe his own eyes. People will talk themselves out of quite a bit if they can’t explain it. Just ask the nurse that thinks Sephie is a witch now,” I said.
Sephie grabbed her ribs, but she let herself laugh. The guys all looked at her, waiting for an explanation. She looked at Ivan, her beautiful smile still making the room brighter. “Apparently we’re local celebrities at the hospital,” she said.
“How so?” Ivan asked, his eyebrow raised.
“One of the nurses that came in the middle of the night asked me if I was the girl that stopped the man from killing everyone in the ER. She said the entire hospital had heard about it and there’s rumors going around as to how I stopped you, but nobody can prove anything. They think the most likely explanation is that you were on some new drug that they didn’t know about yet,” she said. Ivan just chuckled and shook his head.
“What did you tell her, gazelle? It’s not like it’s easy to explain to anyone outside this room,” Misha said.
Sephie took as deep a breath as she could manage. It was slightly better since she’d had the acupuncture. “I told her that I didn’t have any special powers and that he wasn’t a monster, nor was he on drugs. He’s one of my favorite people.” She stopped like she wasn’t going to continue her explanation. I knew she didn’t want to embarrass Ivan, but he needed to hear what she said.
“That’s not all you said, love,” I said, trying to get her to finish. Her cheeks flushed, but she continued, “I told the nurse that everybody has demons, but he has more than most, for good reason. He’s been through more than anyone should have to endure, but I love him for it. I love all his broken parts and pieces because they make up the man that would readily give up his life for mine. Then I told her that I was an anchor for him in the storms of his own psyche and that it wasn’t something that science would be able to explain.”
“She also told her that science is the death of magic and some things are only explainable by magic,” I said. “That’s when I knew that nurse now thinks Sephie is a witch because she just stood there and stared at Sephie for, like, two minutes, then left without a word.”
“I should’ve given her the demon eyes,” Sephie said under her breath. Ivan was quiet, like he was still struggling with coming to terms with what the acupuncturist told us earlier and what Sephie had just said. Under normal circumstances, Sephie would’ve already gone to him, but given that moving hurt her so much right now, she was forced to watch him from across the kitchen. “Super Squish…” she said to try and get him to look at her. “I meant every word. And whatever happened when they grabbed us I would gladly do again if it means you’re still here. This,” she said, motioning to her cast and ribs, “is a small price to pay. I would gladly pay it a thousand times for you.” I could see Ivan about to crack. I got up to help her up so she could go to him. She stood up, taking a few steps toward him, but he met her halfway. I still was impressed with how gentle he could be given his massive size. She rested her head against his chest, holding him as tightly as she could with one arm. He whispered something to her, which made her laugh quietly, then kissed the top of her head. He walked her back to where she was sitting and helped her sit back down.
