King of the Underworld by RJ Kane

Chapter Two Hundred Fifty-Four

Sephie

“So, you really confirmed she’s buying drugs when she goes to the lobby?” Keith asked. It was almost like he was expecting us to tell him his suspicions were false.

“She’s apparently got a nasty little coke habit,” Misha said. He held up the vial he picked off Giana earlier that day.

Keith’s eyes went wide. “That’s what fell out of her purse that day!” he said, pointing to the vial in Misha’s hand.

“If she’s buying that much coke twice a week, she’s got to be staying high almost constantly right now. It’s likely why we haven’t seen much of her. That kind of habit eventually gets difficult to hide.” Ivan said.

“I wonder if that explains her nervousness around you guys from the beginning. I’m positive she caught on to how observant we all are right away. She’s never liked being in the same room as all of us. He ll, she’s never really liked being around us much at all, unless there’s shopping involved,” I said.

“It’s easier to hide when shopping. She can be more animated without arousing suspicion,” Andrei said.

“Have you noticed her having nosebleeds?” Ivan asked Keith.

“She’s had a couple lately. She blames the weather. She says she ha tes it when it gets cold,” Keith said.

“Have you seen Armando questioning her about anything? Not that he would do it in front of you, but I just wonder if he’s noticing any of this,” I asked Keith.

“I haven’t seen anything. Ever since they got into a fight about her basically accusing you of being an addict, which is really ironic now, they’ve had a strained relationship. I think they even slept in separate rooms this past weekend at least one night.. I’ve heard them arguing, but they’re always arguing in Italian so I can’t understand what they’re saying,” he said.

and it would probably still sound like a

always in Italian. There was one argument that got really heated, so I recorded part of it,” Keith pulled his phone out of his pocket. We all looked at him, somewhat surprised. “I don’t like not being able to understand what’s going on. I’m not being nosey, but if I’m supposed to be keeping this

the recording on his phone and turned the volume all the way up. It wasn’t the best recording, so I couldn’t hear it well enough from across the office. He tossed his phone to me so I could put it closer to my ear. It was just Armando’s voice, so he wasn’t on speaker. Not that I could’ve understood the other person on this recording. I listened to it a couple of times to make sure I was hearing it

tightly. He put his lips close to my ear, saying quietly, “if I haven’t told you how grateful I am to have you lately, just know I’m incredibly grateful to have you.” I

a business deal that isn’t working out the way it’s supposed to. I would like to stick with

the

ball or the explosion in Italy. Or the

prefer to stick

guys have been down here all afternoon, it can’t be just that she’s the addict among us,” Adrik asked. I was both surprised and impressed that he was remaining as calm as he was right now. His fingers lightly played with mine,

arms as we

house, but none of us have been there recently,” Viktor said. He produced the note that I had translated earlier and handed it to Keith. “Can you make sense of any of that, in reference to his house?”

impossible. You have to have Armando to get into that thing, so that checks out.” He read the other three sentences and then read them again. “Top of

keep anything special in there or is he the special thing?” I asked.

just like the bigger one in his office. You have to

in Italy. Do you know if that’s the case

I don’t know art. I couldn’t tell you how much these paintings are worth or even what the paintings are of, in a couple of cases, but he has the majority of paintings in these rooms on the first floor. He has a few upstairs as well, all in his room. Maybe that’s why his room is specifically pointed out. It’s really the only one with any kind of paintings in

the safe. But stolen art is very hard to sell. Given that her family used to be wealthy,

is no longer wealthy, then?”

out. It didn’t make sense that she was planning on robbing Armando if she came from a wealthy family. She has all the money she could want with Armando.