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.”

me to not call him that to his face from now on, so thank you for that. And two, he’s

how you keep all of us on our toes. We 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

really took his training seriously, it’s going to be painfully obvious very quickly. And something tells

more than we’re able to.”

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

“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

see the uncertainty in her eyes. She then looked at each of the guys. “You’ll all be there?” Everyone nodded. She looked down, her hands fidgeting in her lap. She took a deep breath, then said, “I’ll

were trained by the best and they trained

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.

this. The more I thought about 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

noon, to give him time to recover from his night of partying that ! assumed happened. When he answered his phone, he sounded like he

amigo?” he said, the sleep

information that you’re going to want to hear,” I said. I filled him in on what we’d found out about Dario. and Massimo, as well as what Salvadori, Anthony, and Lorenzo had been planning. When I got to the part about them negotiating with the Mexican cartels, Trino’s anger erupted

control, but he was still cursing in Spanish as he said, “do

laugh. “Sephie is actually the one that informed everyone else of that fact. Mando didn’t even know

now, I will risk it all to get her. She can learn

like to see you try, if

sensitive man,”

on getting more information on the warehouse where they’re manufacturing the brawn. We’d like to have New Year’s fireworks early. How much longer do you think you can keep Anthony

possibly can if it’s helping you out. I’m enjoying toying with them. It might be concerning how much I’m enjoying toying with them. They still don’t know that Dario and Massimo are down here. I’ve kept them separate from each other. I can let that slip

can find. Draw it out as long as possible. He’s truly a slek