Page 40 of Rise of the Queen

“Sephie finally lost her battle with sleeping in. She’s on the couch with Andrei. I tried to leave her in bed, but she was shaking and starting to mumble by the time I got ready. He’s experiencing new level fatigue anyway. It works out for both of them,” I said.

Vitaliy looked curious. “You let her sleep with them?” he asked.

“Gross, dude. She’s like our little sister,” Misha said, a look of reproach on his face.

“It’s also very obvious that she looks at Boss very differently than she looks at the rest of us. She loves us, but she belongs with him,” Ivan said.

I couldn’t help but laugh. “I trust them. And I trust her even more. Since she and Ivan were taken, she hasn’t been able to sleep without someone next to her. It brings her nightmares back if she’s alone. Her body reacts sometimes violently. We noticed it early on that I could stop it, but they’re able to keep it from starting if she’s next to them. And Andrei has the warmest body temperature out of all of them. She’s incredibly sensitive to cold.”

“That girl has lived through just as much trauma as I have, Vitaliy. Some wounds stay fresh for a very long time,” Ivan said.

“She’s also exhausted anytime something new happens to her. She’s had a few new things happen recently. We’re all surprised she lasted this long without sleeping in,” Stephen said.

“What new things?” Vitaliy asked.

Misha chuckled. “She gave me and Andrei an extra ‘fuck you’ boost to drive the point home with your two guys. That’s never happened before. I also think she’s incredibly adorable when she’s feeling protective of us, for the record. She was ready to kill those two. On our behalf. You know, trained killers and what not.”

“How?”

“You felt her anger when we were in Panama. That level was barely registering on her meter. She can deal with insane levels of anger and outwardly, she looks completely calm. She learned she can push her anger to them that day at the gym. She’s been doing it with me for months now, with other emotions too, but it’s much easier. She had to get it to a raging inferno to be able to push it to them,” I said.

“When we were at the hotel, we figured out we could give it back to her. She panicked when that woman looked at her and she saw her for what she really is. She struggles with her fear. It’s the only emotion she can’t control. Like her anger, allher emotions are that strong, so when she feels fear, it’s to the same insane, inhuman levels, but she can’t control it. Instead of having to deal with that, she was trying to keep her anger levels high enough it would override everything else. Andrei figured out what she was doing and learned he can push his anger back to her. When he did, it fed into mine as well,” Ivan said. “The few times I’ve felt her anger at high levels, I’ve never been that angry without someone dying. But she walks around like it’s a normal Tuesday.”

“You can’t push yours to her, Vanya?”

“No, I can. It seems to work slightly differently with me and Boss. It’s more connected, like hers is a part of us and ours is a part of her, just in different ways,” Ivan said.

“How?”

“She explained it the first time it happened. She said she can feel the difference between us. She called me her sword and Ivan her shield. She said my anger was beside her, moving through her, waiting for direction. Ivan’s is directed outward from her, away from her, more like a barrier. Like a shield,” I said.

“That’s why you called him that,” Vitaliy said, making the connection.

“She can feel the difference between me and Andrei as well,” Misha said. “She said Andrei’s anger is calm and controlled, but deadly. She said mine amps up the fuckery, which I’m totally here for.” He grinned mischievously at Vitaliy.

Vitaliy thought for a few moments. “I keep thinking I can’t be more impressed by her and she just keeps proving me wrong.”

I laughed. “I say that almost daily, Vitaliy.”

I checked on Andrei and Sephie before leaving to go downstairs to the office. They were both sound asleep on the couch. I caught myself wondering if she waited until today so Andrei could sleep too. He’d been busy the past few days. It wouldn’t surprise me if she knew he was also exhausted.

Ivan and Viktor walked into my office a few hours later. “Mr. Turner does have a tail that isn’t one of ours. Just one guy. We had our guys watch him to see who he reports to,” Viktor said.

“I’m guessing it’s the police chief who saw Mr. Turner walk into the building. Our guys said this guy was terrible at his job. Our guys have been on Mr. Turner for months and he still hasn’t caught on, but this guy was on him for a couple days and was made. The police always think they’re on top of their game,” Ivan said, shaking his head.

“I need to have a conversation with Henry,” I said. “That information we got from the journalist about Ricardo ties him up into a very neat package. I’d like to not fuck that up. Have you heard anything more from the journalist about the mayor?” I asked Viktor.

He shook his head no. “He seemed to think it would be quick work, but I think he overestimated his sleuthing skills. We’ve found a few things, but they’re circumstantial at best.”

I nodded. “Keep looking. Maybe ask for an update from him. Might help him along. Chen seemed to really enjoy lying to that guy, so he’ll be ready to meet him again when we need him,” I said. “Set up a meeting with Henry, in the evening. I want Sephie there when I talk to him.”

They both nodded and walked out of the office. I leaned back in my chair, exhaling. The hardest part of all of this was the waiting. Waiting to collect information, waiting for the next piece of the puzzle to reveal itself, waiting for the next betrayal. I was getting impatient. That didn’t bode well for everyone against me right now.

Chapter Fifteen

Sephie

I could hear Andrei snoringwhen I finally woke up. He was louder than Adrik, so I knew I was sleeping on him before I even opened my eyes. I would’ve been able to tell even if he wasn’t snoring. I wasn’t warm enough. It was almost warm enough, but not Adrik’s perfect warmth.