Chapter 513
Sephie
We decided to stay at the house until it was time to meet with Trino the following evening. It meant we
had one more day to rx and not worry quite so much about everything else going on.
Because of Stephen’s admission about his wavering confidence in his abilities now that Adrik had been
leveled up, I decided that today was the day that he was finally going to theke. Because he and
Viktor were almost always the ones that went with Adrik to his office anytime we were at the house, it
meant Stephen hadn’t been dragged to theke by me like the others had. And it was starting to show.
“Get your coat, Yoden. We’re going on an adventure,” I said once everyone had cleaned up from our
morning workouts.
“Well, this sounds like a fun addition to my day. Is it like a side quest kind of mission? Multi–day
mission? Do I need to find someone to feed my bearded dragon?”
he asked.
Iughed. “I didn’t know you had a bearded dragon, Yoden. I’ve been to your apartment, even. I never
saw it.”
“I don’t. It just sounded like something someone would need to feed when gone for multiple days,” he
said,ughing as he walked back toward his room to grab his
coat.
I looked at Ivan, who was in kitchen with me and having a hard time notughing at our exchange. “I
don’t know how you can both love someone so much and hate them just as much all at once,” I said.Belongs to (N)?vel/Drama.Org.
“Wantpany, princess? Or this side quest needs to be a solo venture?” Ivan asked.
“The more the merrier, Squish. I’ve never dragged Stephen to theke before. Today’s the big day for
him. He just doesn’t know it yet.”
“Oh, I’m getting in on that. I’ve been wanting to see this for months now,” he said as he quickly left the
kitchen to also go grab his coat.
Adrik walked in as Ivan walked out. He knew my ns already, as we’d discussed it before falling
asleep the night before. “I’m stealing Squish, too,” I told him as he walked to me. He wrapped his arms
around my waist, pulling me against him. I felt the immediate rxation of my body as soon as his
hands were on me once
more.
“You can steal whoever you like, solnishko. It’s to their benefit to go there with you. I’m surprised they
don’t all want to go,” he said, pressing his lips to mine gently.
“I don’t think the others know yet,” I said, giving him my most innocent grin.
He kissed me one more time, then pushed me toward the back of the house when he heard Stephen
and Ivaning back from grabbing their coats. “Go. I’ll keep the others busy,” he said, a mischievous
grin on his face.
“This. This is why I love you,” I said, walking quickly to the back doors.
Once outside, the weather was beginning to warm up, but the air still had a bite to it. Enough that I was
happy for a warm coat and Ivan’s almost as warm as Andrei’s but not as perfect as Adrik’s body
temperature. He wrapped a giant arm around my shoulders as we set off on our mini adventure.
As we walked into the woods, Ivan looked down at me. “I think seeing the stress melt off you helps the
stress melt off me when wee here, princess.”
I chuckled. “It is noticeable how much it affects everyone when we’re here. I do find myself wondering if
Adrik will ever even tell Vitaliy about this ce. I think we all love our little sanctuary a little too much.”
“Ten bucks says if he does tell Vitaliy, he’ll threaten him and his guys to within an inch of their lives like
he’s done everyone who works here,” Stephen said.
“You should not be surprised, princess. You know how intimidating he can be on a good day. He sat
every single person down and exined, in horrifying detail, what he would do to them should they
ever reveal the location of the house or that it belonged to him,” Ivan said. He was definitely proud of
Adrik in that moment.
Not gonna lie, I was too.
I thought for a minute, then startedughing. “What do you want to bet that’s the moment that Tori fell
madly in love with Adrik?”
Stephen thought for a few minutes, in his usual serious way. “That actually holds up to her personality. I
always thought Andrei was too nice for her. I think that’s why she didn’t like him as much as she
thought she would once they started dating. He’s so quiet, but he looks like the stereotypical alpha
male asshole that bitchy chicks like. She thought she was getting someone who she would get a
challenge out of breaking, but she got the nicest guy on the instead.”
“Poor Bubba. He didn’t deserve to have to deal with her.” 1 sighed. “I do wish more women understood
that a true alpha male isn’t domineering or an asshole. Confidence is quiet, not in your face. Bubba is
an actual alpha male. He doesn’t need to prove himself to anyone, least of all insecure chicks with
murderous tendencies.”
“I think she actually did damage to his confidence,” Ivan said as we came out of the woods to theke.
Ivan headed straight for my favorite spot. I nced at Stephen, who was still deep in thought, but was
also busy taking in the scenery around him. Just the look of innocent appreciation on his face made
this outing
worth it.
“I am almost positive you are correct, Squish. I think it was actually kind of simr to Ilya’s rtionship.
I find myself wondering if there was something extra to Tori that we could never confirm. It would
exin why you always hated her, but never had a valid reason why. It definitely seemed like the more
Andrei gave, the more she took. Same as Ilya.”
“I would be willing to bet she did have something extra. It sometimes makes me sad that I didn’t
discover my gift earlier to take care of some of these people. Massimo is another one I regret not being
able to break,” Stephen said.
“I’ve caught myself wondering if we’ll get a second chance at Massimo’s soul. I don’t know how quick
someone can reincarnate, but somehow I think that soul will make the same mistakes over and over
again. Same for Anthony and Lorenzo,” Ivan said.
I couldn’t help my smile. “I had no idea you guys were putting this much thought into everything,” I said,
laughing. “That sounded way more rude than I meant for it to. I didn’t mean for it to sound like I was
surprised you guys were thinking. You’re very intelligent.” I keptughing as I just dug myself deeper
into a hole.
“At least we don’t have angels telling us we’re weirdos, thank you very much,” Stephen said, feigning
indignancy.
“Fair. Totally fair,” I said, stillughing.
Stephen looked at me, his wide, handsome smile that we were starting to see more regrly across his
face. He sighed. “Seph, I don’t know if you’ll ever know how important you are to me, but I think Ivan
can also agree that yourughter alone is one of the best reasons we’ve found to keep going.”
“Oh, I’ve told her already that herughter was the reason for me toe back anytime I found myself
in my darkness,” Ivan said.
“I think you guys are giving me too much credit. It’s just the spark you needed to remind yourselves of
your own light. Nothing more,” I said, trying to hold back the tears that were threatening to fall.
“I think it’s slightly more than that, but I won’t argue with you,” Stephen said. “Just this once.”
“We’ve all helped each other. You guys help me with everything just as much as I’ve helped each of
you. Like Ivan said, we’re a team. Me and six giant alpha Russian bears. I think Misha was right. I think
we should start solving crimes when all this is done.”
“Seems like it would be too easy, given that we control most of the crime in the city,” Stephen said
thoughtfully,
“Dammit. Now I’ll never get a giant dog,” I said under my breath.
Both Ivan and Stephenughed. Both looked even more rxed than they had since we’d gotten our
hands on both Niko and Vito. We sat infortable silence for a while, taking in the budding signs that
Spring was fast approaching,
Finally, Stephen broke the silence. “If I would’ve known about this ce before, I would’ve told Viktor to
suck it and made someone else be his backup with Boss.”
Jughed. “Everything happened when it was supposed to, Yoden. You were justifiably terrified of me
in the beginning. It would not have been the same.” “I’ve been thinking about the differences in
everyone’s gifts. I think your giftpliments Boss better than we originally thought, Stephen,” Ivan
said.