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I turned to look at everyone else. “Holy shit, spider monkey, they’re black now.”
“It’s her warning system,” Adrik said, laughing.
“No shit,” Misha said. “What were they saying, gazelle?”
“Wait, she can understand Spanish now?” Stephen asked, completely confused. “That’s impressive for a mere human brain.”
Andrei laughed. “Martin apparently knows Italian. I assumed he was using a translator for her texts, but he was speaking Italian almost the whole time we saw him.”
“Unexpected from the dumbest Colombian to ever walk the earth,” Ivan said.
“He’s still vacillating between semi-smart and dumb as fuck. His plan for Giana is actually pretty solid. I did not expect such strategy from him,” I said.
Ivan was thinking over what I’d just said, running his hand over his goatee the whole time. He looked at me and I could see him figure out his plan. I grinned at him, knowing he’d nailed it. “He’s going to have Giana fake an illness to get her out of the building. He can get to her away from the building,” he said.
“Winner winner chicken dinner,” I said. “She’s supposed to fake being in so much pain that they have to take her to the ER. He’s either going to grab her en route or at the hospital.”
“What about his last conversation?” Misha asked.
I looked at Misha, somewhat amused that he didn’t want to be the one to say it. “Coward,” I said. His wide smile stretched across his face and he eagerly agreed with me.
“Who was he talking to?” Viktor asked.
“Sal,” Andrei and I said at the same time.
“WHAT?!” Adrik asked, his level of anger now completely overtaking mine, but also feeding into mine. I was secretly happy I wouldn’t need to worry about my eyes for the foreseeable future. I turned to him, putting my hands on his chest, helping to keep him calm.
“This was actually quite helpful, if you think about it. It was the missing piece. Everything is now connected nicely,” I said, smiling up at him and loving the fire that was building in both of us. We were about to unleash chaos.
Chapter One Hundred Seven
Adrik
When Andrei and Sephie both said that Martin had been speaking to Sal on the phone, my anger hit levels I’d never experienced before. It was so sudden that it almost surprised me. Sephie felt it, of course, immediately putting her hands on my chest, which quieted the rage building inside me enough that I could at least think.
This meant that every single person, save Trino, had betrayed me. While I trusted Trino, at this point, it would not surprise me if he betrayed me as well. It appeared that we could trust no one. My mind was racing, trying to connect all the pieces to this ever-growing puzzle.
“…Everything is now connected nicely,” Sephie said. I knew her mind could sometimes connect pieces faster than mine could. She was also able to keep her wits about her when she was angry, where that was something I still struggled with. My anger overtook everything, but I could feel her helping me with it. I could feel her cool, calming presence keeping my fire from becoming an inferno. But just barely. I knew she was also enjoying feeling my anger, as it was feeding hers. She still had plenty of unresolved emotions from being taken, so the fact that Sal was now once again front and center in this little drama made her look forward to watching his demise just as much as I was.
She was rarely scared by my anger. Only once or twice had it caught her off guard. She knew it was never directed at her, so she was usually able to handle it without being intimidated by it. But it was surprising to feel just how much she enjoyed feeling it sometimes. She almost craved it in certain situations. When we got to her in that room with Armando, I knew she was in pain. There was no mistaking she was in pain, given how terrible she looked. She was a bloody bruised mess. I couldn’t feel her pain yet, but I could feel her relief that I was there, followed closely by her hunger for my anger. She knew I was ready to kill Armando, but I could clearly feel that she craved it just as much as I did in that moment.
Sephie was so pure and so innocent that it was almost unexpected from her. I didn’t think much of it at the time because I didn’t think much about anything except ending Armando at the time. But looking back, I was surprised to feel just how much she enjoyed seeing my bloodlust completely out of control. How much she wanted it unleashed.
I’d spent so much time worrying that she would look at me differently once she saw that side of me. I was so worried that she would be scared by it and would leave me that I’d spent so much energy trying to control that side of me. When I walked to her to put my jacket around her, she looked at me with every ounce of love she possessed in her body and soul. I knew, without a doubt, that had she not been in excruciating pain, I would’ve been able to feel her warmth spread to me as she watched me walk to her. She saw my demon on full display in that moment and she loved him with everything she had. What’s more, she was able to control it with just a touch.
I knew she was almost tired of hearing me tell her how amazing she is, but it’s the truth. Just when I think I can’t love her any more than I already do, she finds a new way to make my heart grow larger for her. Stephen had told me after we got her back that he was thinking about her when setting up to provide cover to all of us when we were at the brawn warehouse. He said, “If ever there was unconditional love, Sephie was it.” He was right. She loved all of us, no matter what. But she loved me with her entire soul. She had lifetimes of love built up. It was the only explanation for how she could still see so much good in the world given all the evil she’d witnessed firsthand. She was love.
“What were they talking about?” Viktor asked, snapping me back to the present moment.
“I could only hear Martin’s side of the conversation. He spoke to Giana on speaker phone, but he was in a different location when he talked to Sal. The fast-forward button got hit, so I don’t think this conversation has actually taken place yet,” Sephie said. She paused. I could feel her trying to get control of her emotions once more. I could feel the fear from a few days ago returning.
It never seemed to matter what level my anger was at, as soon as I felt her losing any bit of control of her emotions, my anger disappeared and there was only her. The pull in my chest was so strong that I couldn’t ignore it. I pulled her tight against me, turning her to face me. “Talk to me, solnishko. What are you feeling?” I asked, my lips next to her ear. She looked up at me. Her eyes were changing again as I watched, going from the almost black that meant she was angry to the light blue, almost white that meant she was afraid. She held my gaze as she said, “Sal is using Giana as payment to Martin for help in overthrowing Trino. Martin wants in on the human trafficking side of Sal’s business as well.”
I heard everyone cursing, but I couldn’t take my eyes off Sephie. I could feel her fear, but it wasn’t at the level when her eyes had first changed to a completely new color. It seemed like she could make them dark at will now, which likely meant she would be able to figure out how to turn them white at will soon. I caught myself thinking about how impressed I constantly found myself with her. She was always so hard on herself and constantly joked about how out of control her emotions are, but I could feel exactly what she felt now. She wasn’t out of control at all. She just feels everything at a magnified level from everyone else. She was always in complete control of the turbulent ocean inside her.
She clicked her tongue at me. “I know what you’re thinking, but it looks like you’re smiling at the thought of Giana being passed around like the prize at Bingo.” I couldn’t help the laugh that escaped at being caught. I glanced at the guys, who were admittedly confused. Sephie didn’t take her eyes off me, she just said, “Totally accountable for that,” as she raised her hand. I watched as her eyes changed from the almost white to all green.
“Does Giana know she’s basically just a trophy to her godfather?” Stephen asked.
