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“Not just you, Misha. I told her all of us were angry with her,” I said.
“He told her that if she hurts Sephie, she deals with us,” Viktor said.
Misha threw his fists in the air, “YES! Please tell me she was scared.”
“Serves her right,” Ivan said. “Sometimes you have to learn lessons the hard way. This is definitely one of those times for her.”
“I think Sephie was right about her leading a sheltered life up until recently. Armando made a comment about her parents fixing everything for her but teaching her nothing or something like that after Boss ripped her a new one,” Viktor said.
“So, her parents have been covering for her?” Sephie asked.
“That’s what he made it seem like, but I don’t know anything else about it,” Viktor said. “This kind of has spoiled rich kid vibes, don’t you think?”
Sephie was quiet for a moment. I could tell she was thinking about things; she chewed on her bottom lip, lost in thought. “Okay, so who here thinks she’s going to want to go back to Italy in the next week?” she asked, a devilish grin on her face.
Four of us raised our hands. Stephen, one of the ones that didn’t raise his hand, said, “I think she’ll try, but I think this is the pivotal moment where Armando forces her to grow up. I don’t think he’ll let her go back to Italy right now. Not without him and I don’t think he’s dumb enough to think it’s a good idea to leave the city right now.”
“We’re adding this to the white board in the morning,” Andrei said.
Sephie was still lost in thought as we cleaned the kitchen up from dinner. We’d settled into a routine where she would cook, with the help of whoever was around to help her, but we all pitched in to clean up after, so she didn’t have to. The guys would happily wash dishes if it meant she cooked more. Viktor still hadn’t even advertised that we needed a chef. At this point, I was convinced he wasn’t going to until Sephie told him she was tired of cooking.
We would order takeout regularly, just to give her a break. I didn’t want her to feel like she had to cook. Only when she wanted to. We were just incredibly lucky that she wanted to cook more often than not.
She was still sitting at the island in the kitchen, lost in thought, as we cleaned up and kept chatting about everything going on. Ivan noticed her blank expression before I did. He called her name to try to get her attention, but she didn’t respond. The other guys noticed she didn’t respond right away too, so we all stopped. Ivan walked to her, placing his large hand on her shoulder.
“Princess?” he asked. As soon as she felt his hand on her, she looked up at him. She was almost surprised that he was standing next to her.
“Shit. I did it again,” she said. He chuckled at her as he slid his arm around her shoulders.
“Tell me what’s going on, princess,” he said quietly. I stood and watched this giant bear of a man that could strike fear into any person he chose to be gentle and soft with her. I had never seen him be this way until Sephie. I didn’t know it was possible. He generally never liked being touched and, from what little I know about his past, with good reason. She knew he needed it the most, I think. Ivan had very thick walls, but they were no match for Sephie. She knocked them down faster than I thought possible.
He pulled a chair up next to her, his hand still on her shoulder. He was trying to keep her here. The rest of the guys quietly went back to what they were doing, trying to give them as much privacy as they could, but I was sure they were all eavesdropping as much as possible. She sighed, looking up at him. She glanced at me as well, then back to Ivan. “I was thinking about everything that’s happened the last week or so. Mostly about the Giana thing. I feel like it’s my fault, somehow. Like I should’ve been nicer to her and this wouldn’t have happened. Then I started to think about Chucky and my mind went blank and you were standing next to me,” she said.
While the guys had tried to appear busy when she started talking, they were now blatantly listening to what she was telling Ivan. It made me smile that they were all so concerned about her.
“Your mind is going blank, Seph?” Stephen asked her.
She nodded her head. “I didn’t know I was doing it until Adrik pointed it out.”
“Does it happen often?” Andrei asked. He gave Stephen a knowing look, which surprised me.
“She’s done it a few times since Mike. It’s been a few days since it happened last, I think. It didn’t happen at all when we were at the house, did it?” Ivan asked, looking at me.
“No, I didn’t catch her doing it at all when we were there,” I said. I looked at Stephen, asking, “Do you have more insight into why she’s doing it or what we can do to help her? It seems that talking about things helps her not do it for a while.”
In his usual calm, serious manner, he thought for a few minutes. While he was thinking, Andrei said, “It’s happened to me before. After a bad concussion. Sephie’s had at least two bad concussions fairly recently. It eventually went away for me, but it took a while. I think her brain is still healing. It doesn’t help that she has to deal with everything else on top of it.”
Ivan looked at me, then back at Sephie. “Maybe the acupuncture will help again. It helped before. You might need it again.”
Sephie looked at me, silently asking my thoughts. She still wasn’t used to believing that she could do whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted. She still felt like she needed permission. I found it amusing, but very endearing. I smiled at her, trying to tell her that she didn’t need my permission. She looked back to Ivan. “I think I still have her card somewhere. It did help me feel better last time.”
“I’ve got her number. I’ve been going to her for years,” Ivan said, a smirk on his face. She raised an eyebrow at him. “What? It’s not like I can feel when something is screwed up. Sometimes I need an outside opinion,” he said. Sephie laughed, leaning over, and resting her head on his shoulder.
“Did this ever happen before to you, Seph?” Stephen asked.
“I think so. I would lose time after that night in the basement with my uncle for a while after I got away from him. It mostly happened when I was alone, so I’m not sure if it’s the same thing. I’m not exactly aware when it’s happening, but I would realize that the movie was over and I had no recollection of anything that happened. Things like that,” she said.
“Any idea how long it lasted after you got away from him?” Andrei asked.
