Page 154 of Rise of the Queen

Viktor chuckled. “He wanted to do it himself, so it’s going quite slowly. He’s trying to recruit from his dealers, but none of them have adequate training. That’s not going to end well.”

“Is he seeing the error of his ways yet?” she asked.

“Maybe. Chen said he had heard that Trino was thinking about coming back to me for help since he was struggling. He’s kept Gus and Oscar with him the whole time he’s been in the city. Everything’s been quiet enough that I haven’t worried too much, but now with the possibility of Niko and Vito coming back, he needs a security team. A real security team,” Viktor said.

“What about Chris and Keith?” she asked, looking between Viktor and Ivan.

“I talked to both of them about it already. They’re interested. They both speak enough Spanish that they could get by to begin with. But then Trino told me he wanted to find his own people, so that was the end of that,” Viktor said, still amused by the situation.

Sephie frowned, trying to think of a solution. Misha had been working on being more subtle when he tried to find outcomes, so no one noticed him searching for the solution. “It’s okay, gazelle. He’s going to come back to Viktor, like Chen said. He’ll take Chris and Keith too. Chris is going to move his mom to Colombia, even. Once everything is settled, of course. That movie got fast-forwarded quite a bit, apparently,” he said.

“Well, at least we know things will eventually settle,” she said, smiling at him.

“There is the larger question of how much we tell him about everything going on,” Ivan said.

I groaned quietly. “I’ve been thinking about this as well. As much as I don’t really want to tell him everything, I think we need to tell him everything. His new guys too. We need to vet them before he hires them. Chris and Keith included. They don’t know even a fraction of what’s been happening.”

Sephie looked to Misha, silently asking him to confirm what I’d just said. Misha nodded, rubbing his arms after he’d checked. He grinned when he looked at her, then pointed to me. She turned to look at me, her purple eyes telling me everything I needed to know.

Once we finally made it upstairs, I was exhausted. I didn’t even need to tell Sephie I was exhausted. She felt it. She didn’t waste the opportunity to tease me about it, though.

“You definitely got new level zapped. Fighting it never ends well either. I know this from experience,” she said, her sweet smile across her face. She walked back to me, unbuttoning my shirt for me.

“Is this from being able to feel all of them the same way you do? That doesn’t seem like it should’ve zapped me,” I said as I watched her undressing me.

She chewed on her lip, her mind trying to come up with solutions. “I don’t know. Maybe there’s more and we just don’t know it yet?”

I put my hands on either side of her face, gently pulling her to me. I kissed her softly, wanting so much more, but I had zero energy. She smiled against my lips as she pushed my jeans offmy hips. She pulled back, pointing to the bed. “Go to bed,” she said sternly.

I gladly climbed into bed, waiting for her to turn off the lights. She climbed in next to me, after stealing my shirt to wear. She lay across my chest in her favorite spot. I might’ve lasted thirty seconds before I was out completely.

I found myself completely awake in my own darkness.Haven’t been here in years. I rarely remembered my dreams, if I even had them. I assumed I had them, but because I never remembered them, I couldn’t be totally sure. I looked around, trying to see if I could see anything, other than my own body. I could still feel Sephie, just as strongly as I always did. I knew she was still happily sleeping on my chest.

Gradually, the darkness gave way to a path ahead of me that led to a small house. I’d never seen the house before, but I decided to explore anyway. When I opened the front door, I could hear someone playing the piano. I recognized the song as one of Sephie’s songs she regularly played.

I walked further into the house, trying to be quiet so as not to disturb whoever it was playing the piano. After a short hallway, there was a large room where I saw a man playing the piano. I looked around the room, trying to find clues as to who he was or why he’d be in my dreams. I also wanted to know why he’d be playing one of Sephie’s songs. I was so busy looking around, I didn’t notice when the song ended.

“I can play her song because I’m the one who gave her the melody,” he said, as he stood up from the piano. He turned to face me, a pleasant expression on his face. There was something familiar about him, but I didn’t feel like I’d ever seen him before. He watched me, watching him for a few moments. Finally, a smile stretched across his face. That’s when I knew.

“You’re Sephie’s father,” I said. He nodded. “She has your smile.”

“That might be all she has from me, but I find it’s one of my favorite things about her,” he said.

“Mine too.”

He chuckled. “We had extra angels on standby when you two first met because your heart threatened to stop every time you saw her smile. Did she ever tell you?”

I laughed. “No, not about the extra angels. She did tell me she knew my heart threatened to stop each time.”

“She found out that little detail early on in your journey. She was still worried you would think she was bonkers if she revealed too much. I don’t know why she would think that about you. You’ve handled everything like a champ. Better than anyone expected. Seriously. You cost quite a few of us quite a bit of money in the beginning when you didn’t freak out about things we were sure you were going to freak out about,” he said.

I couldn’t help but laugh again. “Clearly her smile is not all she has from you.”

He grinned. “I can’t really take credit for her love of the wager. She discovered it well after I was gone. But it does seem to run in the family.” He paused for a moment, contemplating how to proceed. I knew if he’d brought me here, there was something important he needed to say.

I decided to go first. “I need to thank you for all the times you’ve helped us. You’ve proven to be a very valuable resource for us through all of this and I’m very happy that Sephie has you.”

“You’re not the only one who’s grateful. It’s because of you that she has the right people around her now. I owe you thanks for that too. Between you and Ivan, I really have nothing to worry about. I mean, I still do. Fathers gotta father, you know. But youtwo will always make sure she’s protected and safe. The others too, but you and Ivan have very special roles in her life,” he said.

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