Page 27 of Rise of the Queen

“How did you know that, solnishko?”

“I don’t know. I just did,” she said, shrugging her shoulders.

I narrowed my eyes at her. “New level unlocked,” I said, as she laughed and hugged me tighter.

Andrei and Misha were standing next to Ivan in the kitchen as we walked back to everyone. Sephie walked between Andrei and Misha, hooking her arms through one of theirs. “When were you two planning on telling me that you could feel me now?” she asked.

Ivan looked surprised as he looked at both of them, then looked to me. Everyone else got quiet, as Viktor and Stephen had heard her as well. Andrei looked nervous again. Poor kid was overwhelmed with everything going on. I was surprised at how well Misha was handling everything. I think he’d had more practice at it than Andrei. Everything was so new for Andrei, and he wasn’t sure what to do with any of it.

I couldn’t help but laugh at Andrei’s expression. “We know you weren’t snooping, Andrei.”

His cheeks flushed slightly. “It started for me when we were in Panama. I felt her anger when you were gone with Vitaliy and I saw Ivan move to check on her. That helped me figure out what it was. Then when she disappeared for a while, I felt her get startled, but then it was like she was all over the place briefly,then nothing. That’s when Misha noticed it, too. That’s when he came to check on you.”

“And since then? Has it happened again?” I asked.

Misha nodded his head. “She doesn’t like walking around the office by herself right now. It makes her really nervous. We could both feel it earlier when she walked from your office to come get us to come up here.”

“You guys felt that? That’s why you asked me about it?” she asked.

“Yeah, we knew you were on your way to us before we saw you. That’s why Misha picked you up before you realized what he was doing. We were trying to get you out of there quickly. My computer was slow or we would’ve got you faster,” Andrei said.

This was new for me. I knew she was shy about people looking at her, especially after being taken, but she never felt nervous in the office to me. I looked at her. “This is true? I haven’t felt this.”

“That’s because it doesn’t usually happen when I’m with you. I think people are scared to look at you. They’re more curious when I’m with the guys and it’s especially bad when I’m by myself,” she said as she walked to me.

Misha looked at me. “She said it feels like when Sal and Armando were looking at her. Even though she knows it’s not the same, that’s what it feels like.”

I pulled her to me. I knew she was still dealing with everything that had happened. “It’s okay. I can handle it. I just don’t like it right now,” she said.

“Can you feel them as well like you feel Adrik and Ivan?” Vitaliy asked, clearly curious how everything worked.

“Not as strongly yet,” she said, looking at both Andrei and Misha.

“She seems to know what they’re doing though. She knew it was Misha at the door when he came to check on her,” Ivan said.

“She knew they both felt her mood just shift, along with Ivan, just a few minutes ago,” I said.

In his quiet, serious way, Stephen said, “Vlad is going to be ecstatic when he hears about this development.” We all erupted into laughter.

Vitaliy and Aleksei both looked confused. “Who’s Vlad?” they asked.

“He’s an old friend. Don’t worry, you’ll love him. Looks a little grumpy on the outside, but has a great sense of humor. Just don’t bring up his strange eating habits. He’s very sensitive about it,” Stephen said, which caused even more laughter from all of us.

Once we were done laughing, I looked at Vitaliy. “Your new guys. What do you think of them?”

He scoffed. “Mediocre at best. It was difficult to replace Yuri and Dmitri. Those two were the best we could find, which is not saying much,” he said.

“They’ve been very disrespectful to my men. I didn’t know about it until we had already left Panama. I’d like to teach them a lesson tomorrow,” I said.

Vitaliy simply nodded his head. “I would very much like you to teach them a lesson tomorrow. They’re too soft. Malishka could beat them, even though she’s still not 100 percent right now.”

“That’s because I have the best trainer ever,” she said, smiling at Andrei.

“From what I saw the other day, I will not argue with you,” Vitaliy said. “You have my permission to do whatever you need with the little flowers.”

I chuckled at both him and Aleksei calling his guys little flowers. I looked at Andrei and Misha. “You’ll get your chance in the morning, then. Don’t hold back,” I said.

I felt Sephie stir next to me the following morning. I knew it was earlier than usual, as it was still mostly dark outside. She had one arm and one leg thrown over me, and her hand was lazily tracing circles on my back. “Good morning,” she said quietly when she saw my eyes open just enough to notice it was still dark out.