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.

was a line in the note she slipped her dealer about clean wills in 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

“Armando is always done for the day well before Boss is. He’ll be free once Boss is done and we can ask him.”

many more meetings does he have

this one is

coffee,” I said, mostly to

sleeping at night?” Andrei asked, a devilish grin on his

laughed. “We are sleeping, thank you very much. It’s this weird shi t that’s happening with being able to feel each other’s emotions. I’m not complaining. It’s amazing. But it zapped

a time,” Ivan said. “But I can call the acupuncturist if you need her again.”

back to the office with him, hoping to take

I walked in

smiled, relaxing slightly. “It’s okay, love. Just lots of details.

my coffee on his desk. “Feeling your breasts on my shoulder does not hurt, though,” he said, cutting his eyes up at me.

your shoulder, then leave when your next meeting arrives.” I said,

while he had a moment of peace. He opened his eyes, looking up at me, curious. “Why are you all down here? 1 didn’t expect to see

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.

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 the pile.” Stephen

meeting ended, I walked into Adrik’s office while Stephen escorted the man downstairs. I walked in quietly, closing the door behind me. He raised an eyebrow at me and sat back in his chair. I could feel

give us 20 minutes. We both know that’s not nearly enough time for what you’re thinking about right