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.

in him. I’m not that way. Sasha is not

he reciprocates,” I said. “Nobody

he does. I think that was part of the problem with the last girl. The one that almost broke

kick her a

enough to worry about without fighting

what matters.”

boring.” I said as dramatically as possible, getting a belly laugh out

the serious one,” he said. We came out of the woods and walked to my

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 for being irresponsible when you were kids,” I said, grinning at

probably has something 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

Papa Bear. Have you met me? Have you not seen how I refuse to use my own legs to walk as much as possible? Are you

spoiled. 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 were with how it affected you. Even though I know you’re struggling with

respond. I was surprised he actually admitted he was an as shole.

your boss’s girlfriend. They’re your brothers. I’m also the reason things got so weird. Literally. From the very beginning. It’s all because of me. If you need someone to be mad at, it should be

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

still thinking about how I’d been the catalyst for their lives to change so completely.

of the cl ouds in the water. He inhaled deeply, then continued. “I have always been the serious one. Abways responsible. I’ve always made sure everyone is taken care of. It’s just how I am. My mother used to worry about me when I was younger. She was worried I would eventually decide that I’d missed out on my childhood because 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 time, I chose me. I don’t want anymore responsibility. What I have already is plenty. I’m not ready to be able to take on thoughts and feelings of everyone else too. I just went about it in the most as shole way possible and for

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 can barely contain my emotions on a good day, which means I can barely contain when my eyes change. Now you have to look at Ivan and Adrik too. I don’t want to be the reason you’re having PTSD flashbacks because I can’t keep it together. I’ve already condemned the rest of them to always having to