Page 49 of Rise of the Queen

We saw Misha move and knew that the movie was over. This time, I didn’t feel Sephie’s anger at all while they were watching the movie. We all looked toward them, expectantly.

“I think we watched the same conversation, just from the other side this time,” Misha said. “But at least Sal was speaking English so me and Andrei could understand him as well.”

“Stephen was right. Henry is on the take, not the mayor. He’s framing the mayor so we’d look at him. Sal made a comment about not being able to get to the mayor. He was angry about it. He’s also angry with Henry. It looked like he’s just angry in general, really,” Andrei said, smiling.

“He and Lorenzo were close. He’s not going to take his death lightly,” Vitaliy said.

“I still find it interesting that he’s grieving more for his brother than he is his own son,” Sephie said. “I’ve not heard him mention Anthony’s name one time in any conversation.”

Stephen suddenly inhaled. “What if Anthony wasn’t really his kid? Didn’t Andy say something like he would’ve believed Anthony belonged to Massimo more than he would Sal?”

“Why would Sal steal Massimo’s kid though? Isn’t that a little extreme, even for Sal?” Misha said.

Stephen was thoughtful for a minute, trying to make the connection. Sephie, in her quiet way, walked to him, taking his hand while he was deep in thought. He glanced down at her. It was obvious he was fighting more than making a connection. She smiled up at him, saying something quietly so only he could hear. He nodded once. She was still for a few seconds, then said, “What if Sal was trying to hurt Massimo the same way Massimo hurt Dario? I don’t know how Massimo was about women, but judging by the rest of them, they probably have plenty of children they may or may not know about. What if Sal found out Anthony was Massimo’s and took him before Massimo found out? Talk about a ‘fuck you.’”

“Dario might know. I definitely think the story of Dario and Sal hating each other all these years was really Sal and Massimo hating each other,” Ivan said.

“We can talk to him again. I don’t mind Armando knowing we have Dario now. He might not even be lucid enough to recognize him at this point,” I said.

“I’m surprised you’ve let him live this long,” Vitaliy said.

“I’ve never wanted someone to suffer as much as I want him to suffer. I’m going to drag it out as long as possible. I’ll get him medical care, even. He’s not allowed to die until I say he can die,” I said.

Once Sephie and I were alone that night, I asked her what had happened with Stephen, both while they had disappeared during the afternoon and then when he looked like he was struggling earlier.

She exhaled loudly. “Ugh. So, I want to kill his sisters now. I got him to open up a little bit this afternoon. We were making Viktor’s favorite cookies, by the way. He gets very grumpy when I haven’t cooked in a few days and it shows,” she said, laughing quietly.

“Why do you want to kill his sisters? I didn’t even know he had sisters. He never talks about them,” I said.

“For good reason. His sisters were always mean to him growing up. Much more than normal sibling-bickering mean. He told me that’s why it took him so long to warm up to me. He was waiting for me to turn mean too,” she said. She’d taken her contacts out already and I watched her eyes change to the amber brown that meant she was sad. She climbed on top of me, straddling my lap. “There’s more to the story, but I wasn’t going to make him tell me. He really struggled even just withthat. That’s what happened in the kitchen earlier. When Misha questioned him, it made him insecure. Stephen doesn’t like me in his head, but I asked him if I could look tonight. I told him I knew he’d made the connection already, but he was frozen by his insecurities. I was right. It was easy to find, but he was over-analyzing because he was worried he was wrong.”

She chewed on her bottom lip, her eyes still golden amber. I could feel how upset she was, but it was different. She was upset for him. She looked at me, her fingers tracing lightly over my facial hair. “I told him this afternoon that he should always trust his first instinct. He’s so smart, but he doesn’t believe how smart he is. He’s so freaking hilarious too. I love him a little more each time he makes a joke about Vlad in front of Vitaliy,” she said, leaning her head on my shoulder in a fit of giggles. I laughed with her. It was quickly becoming one of my favorite things as well. My father was convinced that Vlad was a living person at this point. I certainly wasn’t going to tell him any different.

While we were still laughing, my phone beeped on the nightstand. Sephie sat up so I could check it. It was a message from Viktor.

Tell Sephie thank you and I love her. She knows why.

I showed her the message. “The cookies?” I asked.

She nodded. “He told me his wife used to make these cookies for him when they first got married. He said he couldn’t get enough of them. I almost didn’t try to make them, because they’re not going to be the same. She was the secret ingredient. But he’s been so grumpy since I haven’t cooked the past few days that I decided to give it a try. It gave me a reason to kidnap Stephen, so I think it worked out. I think those two are slower about figuring out how they’re special because I don’t spend as much time with them.”

“You can kidnap whoever you like, solnishko. They all know what to do. One of the other ones will step in to take care of things,” I said, twirling one of her curls around my finger.

“I might start stealing Stephen a little more often. Viktor is going to be more difficult. I need your help with him. He enjoys his job too much. He’s very good at it, don’t get me wrong, but he doesn’t like to leave his regular duties.”

“He would if it meant spending time with you. They would all much rather spend time with you than anything else they have to do.”

“Viktor always grabs one of the other guys when I try to steal him though. He was also the most unnerved about my eyes changing. I might scare him now,” she said.

I laughed. “You don’t scare him, love. You don’t scare any of them. Viktor loves you just as much as the rest of them.”

She narrowed her eyes at me like she didn’t believe me, but she didn’t argue further.

“What about Andrei? You said earlier that he had levels you didn’t even know about? What happened?” I asked.

She looked at me, wide-eyed. “That kid can see auras and he never told anyone.”

I laughed at her response. “Explain.”