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“I think I should walk for a minute first. If it doesn’t go away, I’ll take you up on it,” I said, smiling at him. Sometimes I felt guilty at how they all liked to spoil me in their own ways. “But give me your arm in the meantime. That helps.” Misha was immediately next to me, offering me his arm to lean on as we walked slowly back to the house.
I made it to the edge of the forest and then relented. “Okay, Misha, I’m taking you up on the offer. It’s not getting any better.”
He grinned down at me, stepping in front of me. He squatted down to make it easier for me to get on his back. I looked over my shoulder at Andrei. “Would you mind, Bubba?” He picked me up and I wrapped my legs around Misha’s waist, my arms around his neck. He bounced me higher to the right spot and set off toward the house.
We were laughing at dumb jokes as we walked into the kitchen. Tori had her back to us, getting something out of the refrigerator. We all stopped and waited for her to turn around. When she did, she gasped. Apparently, she hadn’t heard us come inside. She stood, stunned, for a moment. Andrei spoke first. I’m so proud of him.
“Hi,” he said. He was unsure whether he should go to her or not. I couldn’t blame him. I couldn’t tell if she wanted him to come to her or not. Misha still had a hold of my legs and squeezed them both, holding onto me in sympathy for the awkwardness of the situation. I was trying so hard not to laugh. I knew it was going to piss her off if I did. I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing.
She smiled tightly at all of us. “I see you’re all still alive,” she said, slamming the vegetables in her hand down on the counter. I flinched. Misha squeezed my legs again, whispering, “I’ll protect you, gazelle.” I hugged his neck a little tighter.
Andrei walked closer to her, clearly nervous. “I wanted to tell you, Tori, but I couldn’t. We had to go no contact. It was as much for your safety as it was for ours.”
Tori picked up a knife to cut up the vegetables she had just abused on the counter. Well, this isn’t going to end well. She chopped a few pieces of broccoli like that particular head of broccoli had killed her entire family. She stopped and looked at him, “I’m sure you stayed in contact with her though, right? I mean, she’s the special one.” I felt Misha tense at her words. This was unexpected.
Andrei, trying to diffuse the situation, said, “She was with us, yes, but it’s not what you think.”
Tori was back to chopping the broccoli as savagely as she could. I was starting to worry about the safety of her fingers at this point. “I think I understand the situation perfectly, given that you’re all still carting her around like a goddamn princess that can’t be bothered to walk on her own.” Misha tapped my legs as he squatted down, to indicate that he was going to put me down. I stood up as he walked closer to Tori. Andrei moved closer to me, pushing me partially behind him.
“You need to check your fucking attitude, lady. You have no idea what happened when we were gone. Andrei might not want to make you angry, but I don’t give a fuck. You can’t see the wounds on Sephie because she’s wearing long sleeves and pants, but it was not a fucking vacation while we were gone. She almost died. But even if we were on fucking vacation, you don’t get to ever refer to her like that again. She’s Boss’s girlfriend and you will treat her with respect, or you will leave this house. And aside from that, she’s our little sister, and don’t think for one minute we will allow you to speak about her in that way. I don’t care how angry you are with us, with Andrei, you have no right to talk about Sephie like that. Do it again and I’ll gladly drag you to the front gates, so you can leave.”
Ugh. Why are girls so complicated, especially when it comes to me? I was mostly hiding behind Andrei at this point. I’d been in similar situations with Max so many times that I knew what was coming next. She was going to force an ultimatum on Andrei. With Max, it usually meant that he would disappear for a few weeks, and I would only see him at work. He would always break up with them and come back to hang out with me. He never apologized for it, but honestly, I just expected it to happen each time, so I didn’t see the need for an apology.
She looked stunned at Misha’s words, but she kept violently chopping the broccoli. Misha turned his back to her, walking back to me. His face was red with his anger, but he smiled at me hiding behind Andrei. “Come, let’s go find Boss,” he said, offering his arm to me. I glanced at Tori. She glanced up, her gaze throwing daggers my way. I held her gaze until she looked down. I glanced up at Andrei.
“You okay, Bubba?”
“Yeah, I’m good. Let’s go find Boss,” he said, turning to walk out of the kitchen. We heard her still trying to murder the broccoli as we left the kitchen.
As we walked up the stairs, I said, “That was SO much worse than I thought it was going to be.”
“No shit,” they both said at the same time, causing us to giggle.
“Wait, shh…You can still hear her murdering the broccoli. That’s crimes against cruciferous vegetables right there,” I said. We all laughed, probably louder than we should have, but we needed a stress relief after that hot mess.
As we walked into Adrik’s office, he was smirking. “What trouble have you three gotten into now?” He opened his arms for me to come to him. I saw him frown as he noticed my limp was back. Misha tried to smooth it over. “We sat by the lake for too long. Her hip doesn’t like it when she sits for too long.”
Adrik’s eyebrows furrowed, but he said nothing. He pulled me onto his lap, sliding his hands over my legs. “Now, what were you all laughing about? Have you seen Tori yet?”
Andrei sighed. “Oh yeah,” he looked at Adrik, his eyes wide. “It went even worse than what we were thinking. She’s not only mad at me, she’s mad at Sephie for being with us. Boss, you need to know what she said.”
I interrupted him, “Bubba, it’s fine. She’s just mad. She’ll eventually get over it and it’ll be fine.” I felt Adrik tense.
Misha argued, “No, Sephie. I agree with Andrei. He needs to know what she said.”
I groaned, pinching the bridge of my nose. Andrei proceeded to tell Adrik what had happened, what Tori said, and then what Misha said to Tori. I knew he was mad, but he looked at Misha with a smile on his face. “Well done, kid. I couldn’t have said it better.” He was quiet for a moment, his hand running up and down my back. Normally I would’ve loved this, but I knew he was trying to keep himself calm.
He looked to Andrei. “After this, are you still interested in pursuing a relationship with her?”
Andrei didn’t have to think about his answer. He emphatically shook his head no. “Not in the slightest, Boss. This is going to happen again, and I won’t allow it.”
Adrik nodded, inhaling deeply. He stood up, me in his arms. He kissed my cheek before gently setting me down. “I want you to lie down for a while. I think you overdid it with your hip. I’ll be back in a few minutes. Andrei, with me. Misha, stay here.” They walked quickly out of his office.
I couldn’t help but smile at the situation. “I love how he’s so calm with us in here, like he’s not feeling all murdery and shit on the inside right now.”
Misha laughed. “I want to sneak down to the kitchen, so I can hear what’s going on.”
“Whatever it is, you know it won’t be pretty. I just hope they take her knife away from her first.” I limped over to the couch, lying down. I exhaled, mumbling, “Ahh, sometimes I hate it when he’s right about literally everything.” It felt good to lie down. Maybe I did overdo it with the long walk, but it was worth it. Maybe it was needed to fully show us the extent of Tori’s anger.
