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.”

“What about?”

like this was a very serious matter. “Did you or did you not want to kil

then said, “okay, so how 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 cheeks were

across her chest, looking at me triumphantly. “Told

lasted for that first day and a half. Once you stitched me up in your kitchen, my murderous urges subsided,” he said, grinning at her. “And not just because you’re handy

did know him better than I did at this point. It did not surprise me in the slightest. She was still proud of herself for winning our little wager as I pulled

where this is

up?” Ivan

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

not make it easy on you, but I’m very glad you’re as stubborn as

said, turning around so she could see him,

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

was this?”

scared of both of us initially, but then more sarcasm came out of

me. Clearly, my soul wasn’t the only one that recognized this

little.” Ivan said.

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

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

Trino coming with finding a new security