King of the Underworld by RJ Kane

King of the Underworld

471

Sephie

I slid my arm through Viktor’s as we walked around the pool. I stopped to inspect the rose bushes at the edge of the gardens as we passed, noticing the tiniest of little buds starting to appear. It was a sign of warmer days ahead, which made me quite happy to see.

“I’m going to be counting down the days to when I can stop wearing a coat outside now,” I said as we continued toward the woods,

Viktor laughed quietly. “You would struggle to live in Russia during the winter,” he said.

“You are not wrong there. I wouldn’t have survived, I would’ve frozen to death. I know it. I was not cut out to be that hardy,” I said.

He squeezed his arm around my hand. “I think you’re more Russian than you give yourself credit for, Sephie. You’ve survived more than most people 1 know. You’re hardier than you think,” he said, looking down at me. The look of pride on his face was unmistakable. I couldn’t help but grin at him.

We walked in comfortable silence for a while, before my curiosity got the better of me. “How does Ilya like working for Vitaliy?”

A wide smile stretched across his face. “He’s very happy. He gets along well with the other guys, even though they’re much older than he is. Aleksei is catching up his training, which makes them both happy. Ilya is happy to learn more, Aleksei is happy to teach more. Vitaliy is happy to be rid of his little flowers.”

“And once again, we saved the world,” I said, wistfully. “So how likely do you think it is that he’ll call the girl from the fundraiser last night?” I asked. I tried to sound innocent, but he knew this was likely going to make an appearance on the whiteboard.

him. I’m not that way. Sasha is not that way. I think Ilya likes having someone to fuss over him,” he said.

said.

last girl. The one that almost broke him. He kept giving, thinking it would fix

kick her a ss,” I

think you need to worry about her. You have enough to worry about without fighting Ilya’s battles for him, too. He

what matters.”

said as dramatically

on that one. I’ve always been the serious one,” he said. We came

that. You’re the oldest and always have been. Makes sense that you’d naturally fall into the father figure role for everyone. You’re so good at it. You’ve had plenty of practice. Remind me to thank Ilya

to do with it. It doesn’t explain how you’re so good at taking care of all of us, though. You were an only child. Aren’t only children supposed to be

like a question, Papa Bear. Have you met me? Have you not seen how I refuse to use my own

You’re so thoughtful is what I mean. Even when I was being an assho le, you were more concerned with how it affected the other guys than you

quiet for a moment, trying to think of how I wanted to respond. I was surprised

They’re your brothers. I’m also the reason things got so weird. Literally. From the very beginning. It’s all because of

than his girlfriend, Sephie,” he said. He held my hand up to look at the ring “And you’re more

ring, but still thinking about how

I never was a normal kid. I never got into the normal troublesome situations that kids do when they’re young. I took school seriously, I took the military seriously, I took my marriage seriously. This decision wasn’t any different, with one exception.” He looked over at me. I could see him struggling to keep it together long enough to finish his thought. “This

extra that’s been happening for a while. It was always your choice as to what would happen. I respect that. Everyone else respects that, as well. The biggest issue is we know you’re not comfortable around us. It’s like a constant reminder for the rest of us that you chose a different path. I don’t care that you did. You did what was right for you and I respect the choice you made. I just want you to feel comfortable around us again. I