Chapter 290


    Chapter Two Hundred Ny


    Sephie


    Viktor took hisputer out of one of the bags he brought back. “I still don’t understand how Ricardo


    could be pulling the strings with Armando. What does he have over him?”


    “I don’t think life is as rosy for Armando as we’ve been led to believe. When he first cut my clothes off


    me, he told me I was going to solve a lot of his problems. He got pi ssed when he saw how bruised I


    was from them. mming me into the car when they grabbed us because I wouldn’t fetch as much


    money. That’s when I told him about my back. He turned me around and saw my scars and that’s when


    he lost it.”


    “Why would Armando be needing money? He’s worth more than the other bosses,” Andrei said.


    “Maybe he’s only worth more on paper. He could be in debt to someone or several people and be


    struggling to pay them back. Just because he has plenty of assets on paper doesn’t mean any of those


    are actual liquid assets. He might be strapped for cash,” Adrik said.


    “The million-dor question is why he’d be strapped for cash,” Ivan said. “Princess, you didn’t overhear


    them. talking at all when they were both there, did you?”


    “No, I only heard the other two guys speaking Italian. Sal and Armando kept their conversations


    completely private when they were both there. Armando never said anything in Italian in front of me.


    Neither did Sal. Only those other two dudes.” I thought about what I’d said to Armando for a few


    moments, trying to remember, all the details that the guys might’ve missed. “The exact moment when


    you guys came into the chat escapes me. Did you guys hear me asking him about Sal?”


    “No, what did you say?” Stephen asked.


    N?velDrama.Org owns ? this.


    “I was trying to make him angry when he found out that I was damaged goods, basically.” Adrik clicked


    his tongue, flexing his arms around my waist. I know he wanted to squeeze me, but he didn’t want to


    hurt me. “It was part of trying to make him mad. I told him he might’ve been able to sell me with just a


    front picture, but because I was bruised all the angles were just f**ked up. I asked him what Sal was


    going to do when he found out that I wasn’t going to fetch top dor and what he was going to do when


    he found out it was Armando that f**ked it up. That’s when he snapped. There’s something to Sal and


    there’s something to Ricardo,” I said. “And also f**k him for thinking I was damaged goods. That is all.”


    “What if we’re looking in the wrong spot?” Stephen asked. “There’s somebody behind Armando and


    likely has been for a very long time. Seph thinks Lorenzo is really the brains behind Sal. What if


    Ricardo and Lorenzo are the connection and we’ve missed it?”


    I could hear Viktor starting a new search after hearing Stephen’s theory.


    “What did your father think of Armando?” I asked. Adrik would only speak about his father on rare


    asions. Their rtionship was strained, but respectful. On some level, Adrik understood what his


    father did to keep him safe and make sure he could survive this world. On another level, that also


    meant that Adrik didn’t really have a solid father figure in his life. Viktor was more of a father figure to


    Adrik than Vitaliy. Since handing over the business to Adrik, Vitaliy had basically disappeared. He


    would resurface from time to time for a few days,


    but then he would be gorie for years. Adrik knew how to get in touch with him, if he needed to. He just


    never needed to.


    Adrik sighed. “As far as I know, he had a good rtionship with Armando. Armando was new to being a


    boss when my father handed everything over to me. I think Armando just did whatever my father told


    him to do, not many questions asked. He told me when I took over that Armando would never be a


    problem. He was under the impression that Armando was an idiot.”


    “I think I agree. He’s an idiot, but he’s also a ps ycho. It’s a very weirdbination. You guys heard him


    confess what he did to his first wife, right?”


    “I missed that part. It was hard to hear everything with the guys trying to make me less pretty,” Ivan


    said, smiling. He motioned like he was flipping his non-existent hair over his shoulder.


    “He told me he beat her to death when she wouldn’t shut up. I asked him if he’d gotten her h o oked on


    coke the same way he did Giana. He didn’t know we knew about that, so it stumped him for a minute. I


    asked him if he knew that coke was a stimnt and told him if he wanted his wife to be quiet that he


    should’ve gone with heroin or another opioid. He looked genuinely confused. That’s where the idiot part


    comes in. That’s also when I first asked him who was pulling his strings, because he was clearly to o


    stupid to have stayed in this business for this long without help. He did not like that,” I said.


    “Dario was right about Armando’s first wife,” Misha said.


    “Yeah, I remembered that part too,” I said. “Now I’m curious to know how Dario knew.”


    “It might be worth having another conversation with Dario. He might tell us more when he sees that we


    have Armando,” Misha said.


    “I agree, but I think Sal is his biggest fear, after Massimo,” I said. “Sal is what made him react. Armando


    just made him angry.”


    Viktor, who had been quietly searching for information while we were all talking, got up and brought his


    computer to me. “Do you feel up to tranting this?” he asked.


    “For you? Of course,” I said, winking at him. I scanned over the article. “This one is old. From before


    Lorenzo got banished. It’s talking about how he took over the docks. ‘Injecting new life into the failing


    import business, it says. He made a deal with an Italian exporter to bring goods into the city.” I looked


    up from theputer. “I’ll give you guys one guess who the Italian exporter is.”


    “Ricardo,” they all said.


    “Winner winner chicken dinner,” I said. I finished reading the article to make sure there wasn’t anything


    I missed. There was a link to a second article that I clicked to see what else I could find. “Here’s one


    from a few yearster. It says that in the span of 6 months, four boats were founding into the


    docks loaded with people.”


    “It appears Lorenzo has been in the flesh trade longer than we thought,” Viktor said.


    “This article doesn’t mention Ricardo, but I’d be willing to bet if we dug a little, those boats belong to


    him,” I said. Viktor got up and took hisputer back, to see what else he could find.


    Adrik sighed. “This is much bigger than the bosses trying to take the city from me.”


    “Which is why you need to teach them a lesson so no one will ever think about trying it again. There’s a


    reason history remembers d the Impaler’s name hundreds of yearster. Savagery has its ce,” I


    said. Adrik tightened his hold on me. I grinned at Stephen, asking, “Yoden, what was d like in real


    life? Was he cranky? I feel like he was cranky.”


    “All Romanianse across as cranky, Seph. But d? Surprisingly sarcastic. Liked dad jokes, too.


    Oddbination, but it worked with him,” he said with a straight face like it was the Go d’s honest


    truth.


    “What about the impaling? I feel like you helped hime up with that idea.”


    “No, that was all d. I just supported his dreams. It’s called enabling. I invented that,” he said, still


    completely straight-faced.


    I tried to hold it in, but I couldn’t help butugh, which caused me to grab my ribs in pain. “I did this to


    myself,” I whined as I waited for the pain in my ribs to subside.