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Valik tapped his fingers on the table, and I glanced over just in time to see Milliani wink at him. His cheeks reddened, and I thought Juliet’s head might explode. She huffed and crossed her arms over her chest. I couldn’t help but chuckle. Juliet was just being a momma bear, trying to protect her poor little cub Valik from the beautiful woman. I elbowed Juliet, which only made her glare even harder at Milliani as she walked out of the conference room with Valik trailing behind her. Juliet just needed time to get to know Milliani like I had. In time she would see that Milliani wasn’t like her crazy family. Well, so I hoped.
I wanted to see him happy. See him have a girlfriend. He’d never really opened up about the women in his life. Sure, I had seen him with different women from time to time, but never the same one more than twice. He was very private about that part of his life, and it wasn’t my place to pry, although I had tried to get him to come out for a girls’ night with me, Juliet and Thora on plenty of occasions.
“Can you believe her?” Juliet whispered. “She just winked at him.”
I put my hand over my heart and scoffed. “Wow, what a whore.” Juliet poked me in the side, and I chuckled. “It’s OK, Jules. I told you already, she’s perfectly fine. Just give her a break.” I patted Juliet’s hand, and she seemed to think about it for a second before shaking her head.
“No, something’s not right with her.”
I sighed and noticed Sophie still sitting in her seat even though everyone else had left the conference room. She was chewing on her bottom lip and looked worn out.
“Hey, Soph,” I called out, and she glanced up, blinking in surprise. “Come down here.” God, I hope I hadn’t freaked her out with our meeting. She was so shy and timid already; I didn’t want her to feel like she couldn’t tell us if she was worried. I patted the chair next to me. “You all right? You look worried.” She plopped down in the seat and exhaled slowly. “You know we really appreciate all your hard work, Sophie. And I know this is a scary situation to be in. So please, if you want to take some time off while we get a better grasp on this situation, please do. I promise.” I looked at Juliet and she nodded. “We promise that it’s totally fine.” I squeezed Sophie’s hand, and her eyes welled up with tears.
She let a tear slip out and Juliet got up and sat on the other side of her. “What’s wrong, Sophie?” Juliet handed her a tissue, and she wiped her eyes. “It’s OK, you can tell us.”
“I’m sorry,” Sophie whispered. “I didn’t get a lot of sleep. My sister was missing for the last two days.” She mumbled and blew her nose.
“Oh, my God.” My heart slammed against my chest. The first thought I had was of Ryzen, which made my blood run cold.
“No, it’s OK. She’s back now.” Sophie shook her head, her fist clenched. “I was frantic, and she wouldn’t answer her phone, and I went to the police and they wouldn’t help me. And then she just showed up at three in the morning like nothing was wrong.” She stared up at the ceiling, her eyes glistening. “We got into a huge argument, and she said I was being stupid. But I saw the bruises on her legs and her arms. Something wasn’t right. And I haven’t slept and I’m just exhausted.” She let her tears fall.
Juliet and I looked at each other, our faces mirroring each other. How terrible for her. She must have been so freaked out to think something had happened to her twin. We squeezed her between us, letting her cry. “It’s OK, Sophie.” I patted her back. “She’s back, so it’s OK.” We sat like that for a moment and let her go when her breathing evened out.
“I’m sorry, I guess it’s just the lack of sleep got to me. It’s not about the meeting. You know I’ll kick Ryzen’s ass too if I see him around here.” Sophie smiled, her eyes twinkling.
We all chuckled at the idea. Sweet little Sophie couldn’t raise her voice to speak over a crowd of people, but had just threatened to kick the ass of the man who had kidnapped me. I laughed until my stomach hurt.
“Whew,” Sophie giggled. “I needed that really bad.”
“You know if something is ever wrong, you can talk to us.” Juliet pointed between us.
“She’s right. Don’t feel like you can’t come to us.” I rubbed her arm. “Besides, Cian has friends in all the right places. So, if there’s an emergency, he’ll get an answer for you and fast.”
“Really?” Sophie scrunched up her nose.
“Yeah, really.” I smiled at her. She was so sweet, and I hated that she might feel alone or that she didn’t have any support around her. “Now, I want you to go home and get some rest.” I held up my hand to stop her objection. “You’ll feel better after some actual sleep.”
She grinned and wiped her eyes. “OK, thanks, Nova.” I hadn’t been expecting her to squeeze me so hard, and I grinned at her strength. She did the same to Juliet, who gave me a thumbs-up behind Sophie’s back.
“Guys, come check this out,” Valik hollered from the other room.
We found him peeking through the window at the street down below. Thora was there with a man in a suit, who looked extremely nervous and kept wiping his forehead. “They’ve been like this for like four minutes,” Valik whispered. “He wants to kiss her, you can tell. C’mon, do it, big guy.”
That must have been Felix, the “vanilla accountant” she had been on a few dates with. He was cute, definitely not the type of man I could see Thora with, but what the hell did I know? Opposites did attract. Thora finally reached over and dragged his head down to hers, giving him a deep kiss. When he pulled back, he looked stunned. Valik opened the window, and we all clapped and whistled. The guy’s face turned tomato red, and Thora rolled her eyes, flipping us off.
It felt good to laugh, just like Sophie had said. You didn’t realize how much you needed that when you were stressed to the max.
Car tires peeled down the street, making me jump. A black SUV raced past Thora and her guy friend, and I got a sinking feeling in my stomach. I’d seen that car many times in the past, more than I would have liked.
No, it wasn’t one of Ryzen’s.
It was one of Kaviathin’s.
Chapter Nine
Nova
“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” I wrapped a dish towel around the pan handle and threw the flaming steak into the sink.
