King of the Underworld by RJ Kane

Chapter Three Hundred Forty-Four

Adrik

“We won’t let that happen, princess. I don’t know what to do with her, but it’s clear she doesn’t need to go back to Italy and she doesn’t need to go to South America either. I think we’re going to have to tell her what’s going on,” Ivan said, his voice had the soft tone that I only ever heard him use with her.

“We may not like her, but that’s f**ked up,” Stephen said. “Surely we can come up with an option to give her a fresh start on life. Away from her family. They give new meaning to dysfunctional.”

Viktor’s phone beeped. Sephie just held it out for someone to grab, without moving her face from my shoulder and neck. Viktor took it, looking at the message. “She’s telling Martin. They’re all going to think Armando is dead by tonight,” he said, somewhat amused.

“I mean, is it a lie though?” Andrei asked. “He’s not dead, yet.”

We waited for Martin to respond to her text, but there was nothing. I saw Andrel’s eyes glaze over, which meant he was getting more information than the rest of us. I waited for him to snap back to reality, my arms still holding Sephie tightly. She kept her face hidden against my neck and shoulder so they couldn’t see her eyes as she worked to calm down. The guys noticed Andrei’s look, so they all turned to look at him expectantly. Ivan glanced back at me, a questioning look on his face with a slight nod toward Sephie, silently asking about her while everyone else was distracted. I mo uthed “talk later to him, which satisfied his curiosity for the time being.

Andrei joined us in the present once again, surprised to see us all staring at him, waiting for news. “I still have to work on being subtle. Clearly,” he said.

“What do you know now that none of us know yet?” Viktor asked.

“They know Trino is gone. That’s why he’s not responding to Giana’s text yet. They’re searching for Trino. She’s not going to be happy that he ignores her. She’s liable to explode on him when he does finally respond,” he said.

Stephen looked at Misha, asking, “you’re sure that Trino made it out safely though? They’re not going to find him? He had a good head start, but there’s no telling who is working with Martin at this point.” He was obviously worried about Trino being on his own.

parents’ house was not the same one. He’s changing

not answering. She wants to know when he can come to Italy to get

as she thought about the possibilities of Giana going back

to his parents’ house?” Ivan asked.

phone from my pocket, showing him the location that Trino sent me. He studied it for a few minutes, calculating the time it would take to make it there, best case. “We still have a couple hours to wait,” he finally

saying, “I’ll

everyone else. I smiled sweetly at her, still lost in her once again normal eyes. Even normal, her eyes were still gorgeous and unique. She smiled at me, then turned toward the guys. “I need something to do. I’ll make the cookies,” she said, following Andrei to the kitchen. We all followed her toward the kitchen. Misha was clearly excited about this development in his life. He was practically bouncing as he walked next to

project, I walked up behind her, my arms around her waist. She leaned back against me as she pulled bowls from one of the cabinets. “How long are you going to be

hour. Do you need to go downstairs?”

need to discuss what Ivan saw earlier with him,” I said quietly. She immediately understood. “Go. I’ll

at us, but said nothing as Sephie was starting

you saw earlier. I have a feeling you’re starting to feel more of her emotions, so it’s only a matter of time before you

finally let herself feel the fear she’s been ignoring. F**k me, I don’t know how she stays so calm when it happens.

“She’s the opposite of out

eyes turn almost wh ite when she’s scared?”

it’s definitely the most obvious. It’s actually scarier than her demon eyes, if I’m being honest. We haven’t told anyone because of me. I first saw it happen the first time we had s*x again after she’s been hurt

her while she was healing so that we could deal with what happened better than after the ball. They all

always know when it’s happening. She can make them go dark at will and she’s starting to be able to control a few other colors, but the whi te that’s brought on by her fear is almost out of control for her. It feels like she doesn’t know what to do with the fear when she feels it. She almost had a complete meltdown the first time it happened. All because she was terrified to be apart from me,” I said. “She started shaking as bad as she ever has and she casually mentioned that she tends to get hurt very badly when she and I are apart. It almost knocked the wind out of

he thought about it. “She’s absolutely right. I never put that together. I know why you separated yourself from her, both times, but both times ended very badly