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Ms. Jackson sighed. “I might’ve read that poor girl the riot act. I still don’t know exactly what happened, but I gather she accused Sephie of using drugs. Spend any amount of time around that child and it’s obvious she’s got giant demons in her past. Those kinds of demons only show up when there’s drugs involved or abuse and Sephie had both. Giana is a nice enough girl, but if I’m being honest, she’s an idiot. She can’t see past her own nose. I don’t have a way to prove it, but I’d be willing to bet she accused Sephie of doing the exact thing she’s doing.”
We all looked at each other. Ms. Jackson, of course, noticed. “So, I’m right then? She’s the one on drugs?” she asked. Ivan nodded his head. “We got confirmation of it yesterday,” he said.
“There would be a lot less drama in the world if people would just figure out that others will always accuse you of what they’re afraid of you finding out they’re doing,” Ms. Jackson said. She thought for a moment, then looked to me. “I’m guessing there’s more to it than just her killing herself slowly? I can’t imagine you needing to summon me for just that.”
I smiled at her. She really was a very sharp woman. “Has she talked to you much about Armando?”
“Little bits here and there. Their relationship hasn’t been that great lately. She said he’s been arguing with her a lot lately, but I’m guessing it has to do with her needing to apologize to Sephie. Armando, to his credit, has been trying to help her grow up. She did tell me that her father lost a substantial amount of money because of Armando. She said it happened years ago, but Armando still feels bad about it. It’s why she got the job as his assistant. That girl can barely assist herself. She said she didn’t even know how to use a computer when he hired her. He’s taught her everything.”
I looked to Ivan. Stephen was right. She’s likely been a plant all along. Since Ms. Jackson could understand Russian, I couldn’t say anything, so I chose to curse in Italian instead.
“That reminds me, child. Since when do you know Italian?” she asked me.
“It’s not important,” Ivan said abruptly. Maybe Misha isn’t the only one still slightly angry with Ms. Jackson.
“What about her family? Does she talk about them at all?” I asked, trying to steer the conversation away from me.
“She’s mentioned them a few times, but never in a good light. She told me her family was wealthy, but they’re controlling. She said her father still tries to control her life, even though he’s in Italy and she’s here. Not much else that I can remember. She’s been unhappy since she got here. She wants to go back to Italy, but it also sounds like she was unhappy when she was in Italy,” she said.
“She’s going to be unhappy wherever she goes until she learns that she’s the one responsible for her own happiness,” I said. “Are they making any plans to go back to Italy? Has she said?”
Ms. Jackson nodded her head. “She told me at the end of the month, that she would be gone for a few weeks. She said she finally talked him into taking her back to Italy. She apparently hates the cold and wants to go somewhere warmer.” We all exchanged glances. If she was planning on robbing Armando, that must be when she was planning on doing it.
“Do you spend much time with Armando?” I asked.
“I do see him occasionally. We sometimes have dinner together with Mr. Turner,” she said.
“Do you get the impression he knows she’s on drugs?” I asked. I was still trying to figure out if Armando was choosing to ignore it or if he really was that stupid.
“If he doesn’t at least suspect it, then he might be the dumbest man I’ve ever known. Even Mr. Turner picked up on the fact that she was on drugs. The last two times we’ve had dinner, she’s been so high she can either barely function or she won’t shut up the whole time. There’s not a lot of in between with her. Mr. Turner said there’s a kid who’s a dealer that comes to his hotel frequently. He’s seen the kid in the lobby here a few times, but never with Giana, so he can’t say he’s her dealer.”
“He’s her dealer,” Ivan said.
“Ms. Jackson, I want you and Mr. Turner to be careful with Giana. This is much bigger than just a drug problem. I know you both know how to take care of yourselves, but a little distance between both Armando and Giana is probably a good thing right now. She’s been using you as cover to get away from her security guys too,” I said.
“I knew she did it once, but I didn’t know she was still doing that,” she said. She thought for a moment. “The perks of getting older mean I can fake an illness as much as I want and nobody will question it. I feel a cold coming on the next time they want to have dinner,” she said, matter-of-factly.
“If you hear of anything else that seems out of the ordinary when it comes to either one of them, will you tell me right away?” I asked. “I know you default to keeping your mouth shut, but this has the potential to be bad.”
“Of course, child. You know I’ll never turn down a reason to call one of your eye candies.”
Chapter Eighty-Six
Adrik
I found my mind wandering during the afternoon’s meetings. I slept great the night before, thanks to Sephie forcing me to take a bath with her before bed. I still couldn’t get over her reaction to me telling her that I was thinking of getting rid of the other bosses and running things on my own.
It was something my father had tried when I was much younger. It was one of the reasons I had multiple attempts made on my life before the age of ten. My father eventually relented and divided the city between the six bosses that were now trying to usurp me. Relations had been mostly good throughout the years between my father and the other bosses. Then, when I took over, things had been quiet until this year. The city was thriving and the bosses were thriving, so it didn’t make sense that they were trying to grab more power from me. Greed does strange things to people.
My mind kept returning to the thought of running the entire city with Sephie by my side. I would finally realize what my father had tried to do so many years ago. And do it in a way that would save the people of the city, rather than sacrifice them as collateral damage.
My last meeting of the day was over. When Stephen returned to my office, I could tell by the look on his face that I was not going to like what he was about to tell me. “Boss, I just heard from Keith. Armando left early for his house with Giana. Keith said he moved all his meetings there for tomorrow instead of staying here.”
I inhaled deeply. While it didn’t make me happy that he had chosen to not come clean with me, it did mean that we would get a chance to listen to more of his meetings, since Keith would have an easier time recording him at the house.
Viktor walked into the office. “Chen called. I told him Sephie would call him back in five minutes. Do you want to go upstairs or should I have her come down here?”
“I’ll go up. I need a change of scenery. She promised Andrei she would cook his favorite meal tonight since he saved her from having to cook yesterday. She’s likely busy anyway,” I said. My stress from the day already starting to subside at the thought of having her in my arms.
