King of the Underworld by RJ Kane

373

Sephie

As soon as we were safely in the penthouse, I stopped Ivan and hugged him again. He was much more relaxed after leaving the hotel, but I knew he was still completely unnerved by what had happened. He wrapped his giant arms around me tightly, picking me up for a few moments. He just stood there, my feet dangling, holding onto me as he slowly calmed himself down.

When he set me down, I said, “I saw what you saw.” I quickly looked at Andrei. “Did you see anything when she finally got her a ss out of my chair and turned to look at me?”

“I saw her extreme hatred for you, if that’s what you mean,” Andrei said.

I looked at Ivan’s shocked face. “She didn’t look human,” I said.

Andrei started to put it together. “That’s why you panicked when she looked at you.”

I nodded my head. Misha, always curious, said, “okay, you guys are going to have to explain what the he ll happened. I also want to know what you said to Battista to get that woman out of your chair.”

Before I answered him, I asked, “did you get anything from her, Misha?”

He nodded his head, emphatically. “I was insanely nauseous the entire time we were there. But only when looking at her.”

Before I could speak, Ivan moved to lean against the counter in the kitchen. He looked at everyone, sighed, then said, “when I was a kid, my m om sent me to a research facility where they did ho rrible experiments on me because of my inability to feel pain. She didn’t know that would happen. They gave her some other story and promised to send my siblings to school. My dad had died shortly after my youngest brother was born, so she was trying to raise four kids on her own and she agreed. She thought I would be taken care of. The reason that hospitals f**k me up is because I’m reliving what they did to me in there every single time. It wasn’t just physical torture. They tried to break me. They tried to turn me into a monster and they enjoyed it.”

As he was talking, I hopped up on the counter next to him. I hooked my arm through his and rested my head on his shoulder. I felt him squeeze my arm as he continued talking.

“When Sephie told you all that my demons pull other people’s demons out so the world can see them as I do, she didn’t know how accurate she was. When I was at the facility, I never saw the doctors’ real faces. I saw the demons inside them. That’s why I’m so haunted by it and why I fight so hard anytime I have to go to the hospital. I’m trying to ki ll the doctors, but they keep coming back. I can’t see whoever is in front of me. I only see the demons’ faces from that facility.”

woman at the hotel today. I saw the same thing with her that I saw with the doctors. As soon as she walked up to introduce herself to Vitaliy,

caught his look when he touched her,”

get the f**k out of my chair,” I said. They all laughed at my

to

for us. Then I said if he did, I needed to thank him because it’s been a really long time since I made another woman cry.”

slid his arm around my shoulders, hugging me to his side. “What about when

to hide my smile. “I told her if she tries to touch Adrik again that she will no longer

even louder laughter than the

Battista say to you before we left?” Adrik

him a huge favor and

attitude toward that woman changed after you put her in her place,” Stephen said. “I don’t know what they were saying, but he was very dismissive of her

too,” I

Giana about staring,

and pointed to

know how you knew she tried to touch me because it happened while you were gone, but

Adrik, clearly feeling his disgust. I couldn’t help but love him a little more for it. I wrapped my arms around his

know about,

said.

I know he knows something about her that he couldn’t say in front of

point out how convenient it is that you’re so good at reading my mind now. I didn’t have to tell you Ivan was unnerved. I was planning on letting you figure out why he was unnerved when we

“You’re adorable when you get all bitchy,” he said, kissing my temple.

it back to the penthouse. They all took care of little things they’d been putting off because of more important tasks. Adrik had some work in his office to get done, so I went with him so the guys