Page 51 of Rise of the Queen

Battista raised an eyebrow, curious as to what Adrik was referring to. He looked between Adrik and Vitaliy. “Sal kidnapped her and was going to sell her,” Vitaliy said. It surprised me that he said it in Italian. Battista looked to me, asking in Italian if that was true. I nodded my head. Battista was silent for a moment. He looked to Adrik. “Whatever you need to make this happen, I will help you. Ricardo must be stopped.”

I caught Vitaliy smirking at me. He just winked at me when he saw me look at him.

In the parking garage underneath Adrik’s building, Vitaliy placed my arm through his as we walked to the elevator. “Battista’s help comes with a price. He’ll eventually confirm his suspicions that there is something special about you. He’s going to ask for your help at some point in the future.”

“Please tell him that I can’t move anything with my mind so moving Disney’s Animal Kingdom to Italy is completely out of the question. I don’t care how much he loves okapi. I’m not doing it,” I said.

Vitaliy and Aleksei came with us to the penthouse once we returned from meeting with Battista. Vitaliy declared he was sick of meeting with people he hadn’t seen in years. “There is a reason I haven’t seen them in years,” he said, grumpily.

Adrik couldn’t hide his smile as he looked at me. I think it still surprised him to see this side of his father, but the more he saw it, the more he was enjoying it. It made me happy to see him finally comfortable around his father. I knew he’d spent much of his life feeling intimidated by Vitaliy and worried that he would end up just like him. Now, he was starting to see that wasn’t necessarily all bad. Vitaliy had some very good parts to him. He just struggled to show it to the people he cared about.

“Vitaliy, I think it’s time to maybe consider that you are a warm and fuzzy guy. Despite what you think,” Stephen said,placing his hand on Vitaliy’s shoulder. We could always count on Stephen to be as sarcastic as possible while delivering a heartfelt message.

Vitaliy cut his eyes over at Stephen as they both laughed. It made my heart so happy to see both of them laughing.

As I made dinner with everyone’s help, Vitaliy and Aleksei both relaxed and talked more than they had previously. They both seemed to genuinely enjoy our company. They entertained us with stories from the days when Vitaliy ruled the city. They both gave us funny anecdotes about the current bosses, as well as the bosses before them.

Apparently, Vitaliy had a habit of causing his own chaos between the bosses, just for fun. He finally admitted that he would interfere with the bosses’ plans, but make it look as if it was one of the other bosses who did it. He liked to keep them fighting among themselves so they would leave him alone.

“Clearly, that’s not a lesson I ever learned. I thought keeping the order between them would mean peace in the city,” Adrik said, shaking his head at his father’s antics.

“Eh, it did mean peace. But there’s something about humans that needs adversity in order to be happy. If you make conditions too good for too long, people forget what bad is. The good starts to feel less good. Sometimes you need bad to remember what good really is,” Vitaliy said.

The guys looked at me. I stopped what I was doing and smiled at them all. “He speaks no lies.”

Viktor caught me to the side of the kitchen while everyone else was deep in discussion after dinner. He gently caught my arm, pulling me toward him. He didn’t say a word, he just wrapped his massive arms around me. I knew he was thanking me for baking him a treat and giving him a reminder of the good times of his past.

“She was the secret ingredient, but so are you, sestrichka. I won’t say no to those anytime you want to make them,” he said softly.

“I’ll happily take suggestions for improvements next time, if you want to give them,” I said, my arms still wrapped around his neck.

He loosened his hold on me, standing up straighter once more. “They were perfect, Sephie. They were exactly what I needed.” He kissed my cheek before stepping away to join the conversation once more. Stephen caught my eye as Viktor was walking away from me. I winked in appreciation for his help in making it happen.

Even though Vitaliy complained about being in the city, he still stayed for several more days. He kept himself busy during the day. We rarely saw him, but he almost always made it back so he and Aleksei could eat dinner with us each night.

“You know you can tell your other guys they can come up too. I can make more food,” I said one night.

Vitaliy and Aleksei looked at each other and laughed. “The little flowers don’t want to. I need the other two to keep an eyeon them. I don’t trust them when they’re on their own in a new place,” Vitaliy said.

“Unexpected side effect of teaching them manners,” Aleksei said.

“If you don’t trust them, then why do they work for you?” I asked.

“It’s hard to find good people these days. They’re better than nothing. For now,” Vitaliy said.

Viktor spoke up. “We’re still working on getting guys for Trino. I can help you find guys to replace them while you’re here, if you like,” he said.

Aleksei thought for a minute, looking to Vitaliy as he said, “Might be worth a look. If we can find better replacements, we can get rid of the little flowers.”

“You can send them to Turkey. The Ottomans are going to need as much help as they can get soon,” Stephen said, completely straight-faced, like it was the honest truth.

Both Vitaliy and Aleksei were shocked, looking to Stephen like he knew something the rest of us didn’t. We all tried to hold in the laughter, but we couldn’t make it happen. Vitaliy and Aleksei knew something was off but still had no clue that Vlad wasn’t a real, live person and Turkey was safe.

For now.

Later that evening, once the guys had gone back to their apartments downstairs and Vitaliy and Aleksei had retired to their rooms on the other side of the penthouse, I caught Adrikwatching me as I undressed for bed. He was leaning against the door to the closet, his sexy smirk on his face.

I watched him watching me for a few moments, then said, “You don’t know whether to be really happy with me or mad at me right now, do you?”