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I could feel Sephie’s fear coming on strongly again, although I couldn’t figure out why. I reached for her, just as she looked up at me revealing her almost white eyes again. Ivan was standing next to me. He moved closer to her, almost like he wanted to protect her, and caught a glimpse, but she quickly looked at him and shook her head no discreetly. He looked away immediately as she buried her face in my shoulder. I suspected that Ivan was beginning to be able to feel her fear, even at lower levels as well, as she didn’t give any outward signs of anything being wrong, but I could feel she was inwardly in complete turmoil. She kept her face hidden against my shoulder, but said, “What if she finds out and refuses to go to Martin? What if they sell her to teach her a lesson?”
It was that moment that I understood her fear.
“We won’t let that happen, princess. I don’t know what to do with her, but it’s clear she doesn’t need to go back to Italy and she doesn’t need to go to South America either. I think we’re going to have to tell her what’s going on,” Ivan said, his voice had the soft tone that I only ever heard him use with her.
“We may not like her, but that’s fucked up,” Stephen said. “Surely, we can come up with an option to give her a fresh start on life. Away from her family. They give new meaning to dysfunctional.”
Viktor’s phone beeped. Sephie just held it out for someone to grab, without moving her face from my shoulder and neck. Viktor took it, looking at the message. “She’s telling Martin. They’re all going to think Armando is dead by tonight,” he said, somewhat amused.
“I mean, is it a lie though?” Andrei asked. “He’s not dead yet.”
We waited for Martin to respond to her text, but there was nothing. I saw Andrei’s eyes glaze over, which meant he was getting more information than the rest of us. I waited for him to snap back to reality, my arms still holding Sephie tightly. She kept her face hidden against my neck and shoulder, so they couldn’t see her eyes as she worked to calm down. The guys noticed Andrei’s look, so they all turned to look at him expectantly. Ivan glanced back at me, a questioning look on his face with a slight nod toward Sephie, silently asking about her while everyone else was distracted. I mouthed “talk later” to him, which satisfied his curiosity for the time being.
Andrei joined us in the present once again, surprised to see us all staring at him, waiting for news. “I still have to work on being subtle. Clearly,” he said.
“What do you know now that none of us know yet?” Viktor asked.
“They know Trino is gone. That’s why he’s not responding to Giana’s text yet. They’re searching for Trino. She’s not going to be happy that he ignores her. She’s liable to explode on him when he does finally respond,” he said.
Stephen looked at Misha, asking, “You’re sure that Trino made it out safely though? They’re not going to find him? He had a good head start, but there’s no telling who is working with Martin at this point.” He was obviously worried about Trino being on his own.
Misha nodded his head. “He took one of his vehicles when he left, but the vehicle at his parents’ house was not the same one. He’s changing vehicles along the way to lose them. Trino is smart. He’ll make it.”
Viktor’s phone beeped again. “She’s worried now that he’s not answering. She wants to know when he can come to Italy to get her, so she knows when to tell us to send her there.”
I felt Sephie sigh as she thought about the possibilities of Giana going back to Italy. “These people are fucking evil,” she said quietly.
“How long until Trino makes it to his parents’ house?” Ivan asked.
I pulled my phone from my pocket, showing him the location that Trino sent me. He studied it for a few minutes, calculating the time it would take to make it there, best case. “We still have a couple hours to wait,” he finally said.
Andrei walked to the kitchen, saying, “I’ll make the coffee.”
Sephie sighed, but finally looked up at me, silently asking if it was okay to look at everyone else. I smiled sweetly at her, still lost in her once again normal eyes. Even normal, her eyes were still gorgeous and unique. She smiled at me, then turned toward the guys. “I need something to do. I’ll make the cookies,” she said, following Andrei to the kitchen. We all followed her toward the kitchen. Misha was clearly excited about this development in his life. He was practically bouncing as he walked next to her. “I love you so much right now, gazelle,” he said, throwing his arm around her shoulders.
Before she got started on her latest kitchen project, I walked up behind her, my arms around her waist. She leaned back against me as she pulled bowls from one of the cabinets. “How long are you going to be occupied, love?” I asked, kissing her neck gently.
“About an hour. Do you need to go downstairs?” she asked, curious.
“No, but I need to make a few calls and I need to discuss what Ivan saw earlier with him,” I said quietly. She immediately understood. “Go. I’ll keep everyone distracted,” she said, hugging my arms before I stepped away.
I caught Ivan’s eye, motioning for him to follow me to one of the spare rooms. The other four glanced at us, but said nothing as Sephie was starting a conversation with them to get everyone’s mind off of the drama at hand.
As we walked into the room, Ivan shut the door behind him. “I need to call Panama and we should discuss what you saw earlier. I have a feeling you’re starting to feel more of her emotions, so it’s only a matter of time before you find out,” I said.
He nodded his head. “It started a day or two ago when she finally let herself feel the fear she’s been ignoring. Fuck me, I don’t know how she stays so calm when it happens. She jokes about being out of control emotionally, but if I felt things as strongly as she does, I’d need to be admitted to an asylum.”
“You’re not wrong there,” I said. “She’s the opposite of out of control.”
“I’m guessing her eyes turn almost white when she’s scared?” Ivan asked.
“They do. That’s not all they do now, either, but it’s definitely the most obvious. It’s actually scarier than her demon eyes, if I’m being honest. We haven’t told anyone because of me. I first saw it happen the first time we had sex again after she’s been hurt for so long. I’ve missed her so much this time that I was enjoying having a piece of her all to myself,” I said.
“Nobody faults you for that. It’s necessary. You’ve also been very generous in allowing all of us ample time with her while she was healing, so that we could deal with what happened better than after the ball. They all noticed and they’re all very appreciative,” Ivan said.
“I understand you guys need her too. But I felt myself getting slightly jealous, so I wanted to keep this between us for now. I’m starting to think it won’t be much longer though and one of them is going to see it, much like you did tonight. She’s trying hard to control it, but she doesn’t always know when it’s happening. She can make them go dark at will and she’s starting to be able to control a few other colors, but the white that’s brought on by her fear is almost out of control for her. It feels like she doesn’t know what to do with the fear when she feels it. She almost had a complete meltdown the first time it happened. All because she was terrified to be apart from me,” I said. “She started shaking as bad as she ever has and she casually mentioned that she tends to get hurt very badly when she and I are apart. It almost knocked the wind out of me it hit me so hard.”
Ivan looked at me, his eyes going wider the more he thought about it. “She’s absolutely right. I never put that together. I know why you separated yourself from her, both times, but both times ended very badly for her. That’s justified terror.”
