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

did you not want to

thought about his answer for a few moments, then said, “okay, so how technical is this dispute? Because I wouldn’t have waited until you were sleeping if it came

chest, looking at me triumphantly. “Told you!” she said, matter-of-factly.

half. Once you stitched me up in your kitchen, my murderous

of herself for winning our little wager as I pulled her

this is

brought this up?” Ivan asked.

was being cheeky. He told me 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, wistfully as she looked at him

did not make it easy on

saw how you acted 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 my arms and pulled them across her stomach as

wrong there,” Misha said. “There was literally only one time you tried to intimidate her and even

this?”

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 didn’t stop. I saw him trying to

Clearly, my soul wasn’t

little.” Ivan said.

“Not as quick as this one, but you were a fairly close second,” she said. I could hear

It was nice to talk about other things. We made bets on whether Ilya would call Jessica and how that potential relationship would

coming with finding a