King of the Underworld by RJ Kane

Chapter Two Hundred Fifty-Two

Sephie

When I walked back outside, Stephen was waiting, my coffee still in hand. “Can you come to Viktor’s desk or you have to wait here?”

“There’s no way I’m not coming. My watch will tell me when the meeting is almost over. Plus, the door is open, so I can see if they get done early.”

“You’re so efficient, Yoden,” I said as we walked to the rest of the guys. “Somebody fill in Yoden while I shove more caffeine into my system,” I said, taking a drink of yet more coffee.

They filled in Stephen on everything we knew so far. Viktor had continued to dig while Misha and I were upstairs getting liquid energy for me and Adrik. “It looks like one of the deals her father made that lost him a substantial amount of money was with Armando,” Viktor said.

“Do you know what happened? Like why the deal went wrong?” I asked.

“No, I can’t tell from this. It’s in Italian, so we need you to translate,” he said, turning his laptop toward me. It was a news article from years ago, showing a picture of a much younger Armando, along with three other men. One of the men was Giana’s father. I didn’t recognize the names of the other two, but one of the men looked vaguely familiar.

I scanned the article, loosely translating as I went. My poor tired brain was having trouble translating from Italian to English back to Russian. “Um, it says…development deal…housing…four investors…approval still pending…three investors backed out… unknown reasons…final investor was Giana’s father. It looks like he tried to fund the project all on his own and it fell through. He couldn’t recover his money and lost a substantial amount.”

“I would be willing to bet she’s planning on robbing Armando to try and recoup some of the money her father lost in that deal. Especially if what we’re thinking about the artwork is true,” Ivan said.

“Artwork?” Stephen asked.

three locations of the house. Sephie remembered his extensive art collection at his house in Italy. If he has the same here, she’s likely giving them instructions on which pieces to

“Armando is always done for the day well before Boss

more meetings does he have today?” I asked.

this one

might need more coffee,” I said, mostly to

a devilish grin on his face. “Wait, no.

weird shi t that’s happening with being able to feel each other’s emotions. I’m

can

back to the office with him, hoping to take Adrik’s mind off everything in between his last few meetings of the day.

looked even more stressed than he had earlier when I walked in

“It’s okay, love. Just lots of details. It’s more difficult

on his desk. “Feeling your breasts on my shoulder does not hurt,

I said, laughing. I stood behind him, rubbing his shoulders. He was tense. He leaned back in his chair, closing

of peace. He opened his eyes, looking up at me, curious. “Why are you all down here? 1

information on their afternoon excursion in the lobby. We’re trying to figure it all out, but you don’t need to worry about any of it until you’re done for the day.” I leaned down, pressing my lips to his gently. I heard the elevator doors ding, knowing his next meeting was arriving. “Let me know if you need more coffee to get through your last two meetings. I’ll happily be your personal barista,” 1 said, grinning at him. He

and Ivan kept trying to dig up information on Giana’s family while we waited on Adrik to finish his last meeting of the day. I turned to Stephen. “Give me 20 minutes after his last meeting is done and then have Keith come to the office. He has a very short fuse right now, so he needs at least a short break before we throw more shi t on

quietly, closing the door behind me. He raised an eyebrow at me and sat back in his chair. I could feel his di

We both know that’s not nearly enough time for