King of the Underworld by RJ Kane

Chapter Two Hundred Twenty

Misha

Armando laughed, telling me he wasn’t sure what I’d said, but he’d likely said the same thing last night. I couldn’t help but feel some relief that Armando was also angry and frustrated with this situation. If he was blindly siding with Giana over this, we would have bigger issues.

“With all due respect, Mando, you need to handle this before we do,” Stephen said. I could hear the anger in his voice, as well. Somehow his anger justified mine. I knew if he was mad, it was a big deal. Sephie looked at Stephen, as well as the rest of us. I think she was just as surprised as the rest of us to hear the anger in his voice. He waited until Armando looked away, then he grinned at Sephie.

She was thoughtful for a moment. I watched her pull Adrik’s arms tighter around her. Just like she was an anchor for all of us, he was that for her. She got stronger when she was with him, just as he got stronger when he was with her. They complimented each other in a way that I’d never seen before. She sighed and said, “she’s probably grown up privileged and somewhat sheltered. Now that she’s been thrown into the real world, she has no real coping mechanisms. She can only come from her place of understanding, which is made from her life experiences.”

While she wasn’t wrong, I did notice that Sephie tended to give people the benefit of the doubt a little too much. Sometimes a bi tch is just a bi tch. While she was hardly ever wrong about people, I found myself angry at her lack of anger at Giana. I knew she would get there eventually, if things didn’t change. I’d seen what she said to Max and I knew how long it took her to get to that point. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to handle it if it took her that long to get to that point with Giana, if this situation wasn’t resolved quickly.

People need both. There can be no good when there is no bad. Her bad consists of slightly less good, so the really good doesn’t feel right. Her soul. knows that, which is why she’s wanting for something more. But she’s looking in the wrong places for that something. It has to come from within her. She’s the only one that can decide to be happy. Nobody else will ever be able to make her happy if she can’t make herself happy. That’s what you need to try to get her to see, Mando. She’s choosing to be miserable and insecure. No one else is making her feel that way. No one is going to be able to make

Sephie a question in Italian, which annoyed me. I enjoyed being the one that could keep everyone else in the dark when we spoke Russian in front of others. Sephie tried to laugh, but I saw the pain

ago and we hadn’t been able to go yet. Maybe I should bring it up again, after Armando left. I didn’t know what it was about being- able to go to the lake that helped her recharge herself, but it was obvious every time it happened. I could literally watch the stress melt off her as we sat and

Impending doom coming to indicate that an outcome was going to be negative. But now, I was starting to get indicators on good outcomes as well. Completely different Indicators, thankfully, so I could tell the

looking forward to a long run with Sephie, too. She used to almost ki ll me when we

long enough now that I could almost keep up with her

had been a while since we’d been able to

1)

definitely missing it.

alone for as long as possible. He made plans. to go to his house for the weekend, which made me happy to know I wouldn’t have to see her for a few days. He finally stood to leave. I couldn’t help but feel relieved. I liked Armando, but I wanted him gone right now. I was having trouble getting