King of the Underworld by RJ Kane

Chapter One Hundred Ninety

Adrik

I watched Sephie’s reaction at Stephen’s solution to the Mike problem. She thought for a minute, clearly unsure about it.

“I don’t know how I feel about this,” I said. “It’s one thing for you guys to spar with her. I know you guys won’t hurt her. I don’t know that I can say the same for Mike. If he hurts her, he’s a dead man.”

She leaned into me, smiling sweetly at me. She had that spark in her eyes that only I could see. I felt my heart jump in my chest as I looked at her.

“Mike doesn’t have the same training as Sephie does now,” Viktor said. “This could actually work out really well. I was going to have them start training with us starting Monday anyway.”

“Sephie can be his first test. I heard him trying to convince you that he didn’t need any training. Tell him if he can best her, then he can skip it,” Ivan said, a sly smile stretched across his face.

“But what if he really can best me?” Sephie asked.

Misha and Andrei looked at each other, laughing loudly. “Gazelle, you don’t need to worry about him besting you. We need to worry about being able to pull you off him, so you don’t seriously injure him.”

“But he’s not you and Bubba. He’s not going to know what to say to pi ss me off. I don’t know how to just summon the anger,” she said. She still had a worried look on her face.

“That’s what we’re for,” Andrei said. “We’ll get you to see red and throw you in there with him.”

Stephen had been quietly contemplating this plan, as he was want to do. He looked at Sephie, “from the impression I got from talking to Keith, Mike is more talk than anything. He likely did well on the force in the small town, but it’s not saying much when you’re King Turd on a pile of shi t.”

from now on, so thank you for that. And two, he’s still a

have brute force, sure. But it’s harder to move that much mass as quickly as you can move your lighter, smaller body. And when you’re angry?” He scoffed, “you’re like lightning fast. That’s why me and Misha enjoy pi ssing

like you did Misha on the beach, Mike won’t know what hit him. That’s the best I’ve seen you look, princess,” Ivan said. “If Keith is right and Mike never really took his training seriously, it’s going to be painfully obvious very quickly. And something tells me that you don’t

than we’re

for how long it takes her to take him down and for

it wouldn’t happen if I didn’t want it to. I looked to Sephie. “This only happens If you’re okay with it and want to do it. I have zero doubts that you’ll be able to handle him. He does strike me as more bark

could still see the uncertainty in her eyes. She then looked at each of the guys. “You’ll

be able to handle herself. My guys were trained by the best and they trained her. I’d seen what she could do and I

temper in the event she got hurt. It would take all five of the guys to pull me off Mike and Ivan still only had the use of one arm. The odds were in my favor and I knew it. That didn’t bode well for Mike, if it came down

it, the more I thought it could be good for her. She was holding back, but only because she didn’t believe in her abilities 100%. Facing someone she knew nothing about could be a major confidence boost for her.

called Trino the next afternoon. I waited until after noon, to give him time to recover from his night of partying

said, the sleep still

hear,” I said. I filled him in on what we’d found out about Dario. and Massimo, as well as what

was still cursing in Spanish as he said, “do those

of that fact. Mando didn’t even know that,

to steal her, Jefe. I respect you, but I’m telling you right now, I will risk it all to get her. She can learn to love

like to see you try, if I’m being honest,” I said.

sensitive man,” he said, still laughing.

We’d like to have New Year’s fireworks early. How much longer do you think you can keep Anthony and Lorenzo down

Massimo are down here. I’ve kept them separate from each other. I can let that slip and watch them fight each other for at least two weeks. It’ll give Massimo hope that I’m going to let him live. Makes it that much sweeter when I

one you can find. Draw it out as long as possible. He’s truly a slek fu ck, Trino. He killed Dario’s parents when he was just 12 years old. Then he convinced Dario