King of the Underworld by RJ Kane

King of the Underworld

474

Adrik

I caught myself standing close to Sephie while she worked on making dinner, with Misha’s help, just watching everyone relax and enjoy a few moments of peace. Before Sephie, I rarely came to the house. Now, I find myself wanting to come here more and more. It’s become a sanctuary for us. A place where everyone could just relax and unplug from everything going on in the city.

Sephie caught me observing, with a small smile on my lips. Her smile stretched across her face, “We should make it a point to come here more often. Even just for a night. We all need it,” she said silently.

“I agree. You do have good ideas. Don’t listen to what Iwan says about you,” I said, trying not to laugh. She didn’t fall for it. She knows Ivan just as well as I do. Maybe better, at this point.

I heard her laughing in her head. “7 might’ve believed that if you picked anyone but Squish. He’s a very close second to you in how much he loves me.” She glanced at him, sweetly smiling at the memory she was obviously thinking about. “We’ve come so far from me thinking he wanted to ki ll me in my sleep the first few days I knew you guys.”

I laughed. “He never wanted to ki ll you, solnishko, “I told her, shaking my head.

“I disagree. I think he totally thought I was the next Vanessa for at least the first day and a half,” she responded.

“Would you like to wager?”

“Don’t ask st upid questions,” she said, cutting her eyes at me while she washed a dish in the sink. She waited for a lull in the conversation between everyone else, then looked at Ivan. “Squish, we need you to settle a dispute.”

chuckled. “What about?” he asked.

or did you not want to kil l me in my sleep for at least the first day and

technical is this dispute? Because I wouldn’t have waited until you were sleeping if it came to that,” he said, grinning at her. His

crossed her arms across her chest, looking at me triumphantly. “Told you!” she said,

that first day and a half. Once you stitched me up in your kitchen, my

was still proud of herself for winning our

this is going, “I told

this up?” Ivan

I had good ideas and that I shouldn’t listen to what you say about me,” she said. “I told him I might’ve believed him if he’d picked anyone but you. Then I thought back to how far we’ve come,” she said,

easy on you, but I’m very

around Tori and Vanessa both. I think you actually did make it easy on me,” Sephie said, turning around so she could see him, but still leaning back against me. She took both of

time you tried to intimidate her and even that was half-assed compared to what you normally

this?” I

watched her. She had fallen asleep on the couch, so she didn’t know that me and Ivan switched places with Viktor and Andrei. She was expecting them when she woke up, so she made a sarcastic comment before the saw us. She was scared of both of us initially, but then more sarcasm came out of her mo uth. Ivan tried to intimidate her because she made a joke about Viktor being on meth. She was scared, but the sarcasm

Clearly, my soul wasn’t the only one that recognized this relationship,” she

a little.” Ivan said.

as quick as this one, but you were a fairly close second,” she said. I could hear the smile in her voice, as well as feel her joy at this

dinner. It was nice to talk about other things. We made bets on whether Ilya would call Jessica and how that potential relationship would work out. We also made bets on whether Vitaliy would try to recruit Viktor’s other brother at some

coming with finding a new security team?” Sephie