King of the Underworld by RJ Kane

Chapter Two Hundred Fifty-Seven

Sephie

Viktor and Stephen were busy with their normal Master of the Schedule duties, as Adrik had another

busy day. I recruited Misha, Ivan, and Andrei to help me get Ms. Jackson up to the penthouse,

hopefully without Giana knowing. Since Glana used the excuse of having afternoon tea with Ms.

Jackson, I wanted to have a chance to talk to her early enough in the day that she would be home

should Giana stop by later.

Ivan and Andrei volunteered to go fetch her while Misha stayed in the penthouse with me. “I have to

admit that I’m still angry with Ms. Jackson for setting up Giana’s ambush of you,” Misha said as we

waited.

“I know, my adorable Russian guardian. I’m hoping that she simply wasn’t aware of what was going on

when she set it up, but I do plan on asking. You know how quick she is, she might’ve caught on when

you told me we didn’t have to stay,” I said. He laughed, shaking his head. “What?” I asked,

“You always do that.”

“Do what?”

“Give people the benefit of the doubt, second chances, third chances, 500 chances in the case of Max,”

Misha said, rolling his

eyes.

I thought for a moment. “I know I do. Sometimes I think it’s a fault, but I refuse to see how thinking the

best of someone is a bad thing. It’s gotten me hurt and taken advantage of plenty of times in my life.

You’d think I would’ve learned by now, but I just can’t help myself. I still see the good parts of people.

Most people.”

The door to the penthouse opened and Ms. Jackson was escorted inside by Ivan and Andrei. “Child,

you have fully realized your power if you’ve reached a point of summoning people to you now,” she

said, laughing.

“She didn’t want to risk being ambushed again,” Misha said. He had an edge to his voice that wasn’t

usually there, especially around her. He was definitely still angry with her. She picked up on it right

away.

“I do owe you an apology for that. I had no idea there was an issue between you and Giana. She made

it seem like she just wanted to spend time with you. As soon as you saw her, I knew there was an

issue.” She looked right at Misha. “Then when you told her she didn’t need to stay, I figured out Giana

must’ve done something. She put me right in the middle, which is not somewhere I like to be, but I was

trying to make the best of it.” She looked between me and Misha. “I owe you both an apology. Child, I

wouldn’t have called you down there if I knew that was going to happen. And you, sir, you’re much too

handsome to ever chastise like that. It nearly broke my heart.”

It did make me feel better that she was just as ambushed as we were that day, but Misha was still mad.

Slightly less mad, but still mad. Didn’t detract from how adorable he was, though, so my working theory

that he got away with murder as a child was still a good one.

“What happened after we left?” Andrei asked Ms. Jackson.

Ms. Jackson sighed. “I might’ve read that poor girl the riot act. I still don’t know exactly what happened,

but I gather she accused Sephle of using drugs. Spend any amount of time around that child and It’s

obvious she’s got giant demons in her past. Those kinds of demons only show up when there’s drugs

involved or abuse and Sephle had both. Glana is a nice enough girl, but if I’m being honest, she’s an idi

ot. She can’t see past her own nose. I don’t have a way to prove it, but I’d be willing to bet she accused

Sephie of doing the exact thing she’s doing.”

We all looked at each other. Ms. Jackson, of course, noticed. “So, I’m right then? She’s the one on

drugs?” she asked. Ivan

nodded his head. “We got confirmation of it yesterday,” he said.

“There would be a lot less drama in the world if people would just figure out that others will always

accuse you of what they’re afraid of you finding out they’re doing.” Ms. Jackson said. She thought for a

moment, then looked to me. “I’m guessing there’s more to it than just her killing herself slowly? I can’t

imagine you needing to summon me for just that.”

I smiled at her. She really was a very sharp woman. “Has she talked to you much about Armando?”

“Little bits here and there. Their relationship hasn’t been that great lately. She said he’s been arguing

with her a lot lately, but I’m guessing it has to do with her needing to apologize to Sephie. Armando, to

his credit, has been trying to help her grow up. She did tell me that her father lost a substantial amount

of money because of Armando. She said it happened years ago, but Armando still feels bad about it.

It’s why she got the job as his assistant. That girl can barely assist herself. She said she didn’t even

know how to use a computer when he hired her. He’s taught her everything.”

I looked to Ivan. Stephen was right. She’s likely been a plant all along. Since Ms. Jackson could

understand Russian, I couldn’t say anything, so I chose to curse in Italian instead.

“That reminds me, child. Since when do you know Italian?” she asked me.

“It’s not important,” Ivan said abruptly. Maybe Misha isn’t the only one still slightly angry with Ms.

Jackson.

“What about her family? Does she talk about them at all?” I asked, trying to steer the conversation

away from me.

“She’s mentioned them a few times, but never in a good light. She told me her family was wealthy, but

they’re controlling. She said her father still tries to control her life, even though he’s in Italy and she’s

here. Not much else that I can remember. She’s been unhappy since she got here. She wants to go

back to Italy, but it also sounds like she was unhappy when she was in Italy,” she said.

“She’s going to be unhappy wherever she goes until she learns that she’s the one responsible for her

own happiness,” I said. “Are they making any plans to go back to Italy? Has she said?”

Ms. Jackson nodded her head. “She told me at the end of the month, that she would be gone for a few

weeks. She said she finally talked him into taking her back to Italy. She apparently ha tes the cold and

wants to go somewhere warmer.” We all exchanged glances. If she was planning on robbing Armando,

that must be when she was planning on doing it.

“Do you spend much time with Armando?” I asked.

“I do see him occasionally. We sometimes have dinner together with Mr. Turner,” she said.

“Do you get the impression he knows she’s on drugs?” I asked. I was still trying to figure out if Armando

was choosing to ignore it or if he really was that stu pid.

“If he doesn’t at least suspect it, then he might be the du mbest man I’ve ever known. Even Mr. Turner

picked up on the fact that she was on drugs. The last two times we’ve had dinner, she’s been so high

she can either barely function or she won’t shu t up the whole time. There’s not a lot of in between with

her. Mr. Turner said there’s a kid who’s a dealer that comes to his hotel frequently. He’s seen the kid in

the lobby here a few times, but never with Giana, so he can’t say he’s her dealer.”

“He’s her dealer,” Ivan said.

“Ms. Jackson, I want you and Mr. Turner to be careful with Giana. This is much bigger than just a drug

problem. I know you both know how to take care of yourselves, but a little distance between both

Armando and Gilana is probably a good thing right now. She’s been using you as cover to get away

from her security guys, too,” I said.

“I knew she did it once, but I didn’t know she was still doing that,” she said. She thought for a moment.

“The perks of getting older mean I can fake an illness as much as I want and nobody will question it. I

feel a cold coming on the next time they want to have dinner,” she said, matter-of-factly.

“If you hear of anything else that seems out of the ordinary when it comes to either one of them, will

you tell me right away?” I asked. “I know you default to keeping your mo uth shu t, but this has the

potential to be bad.”

“Of course, child. You know I’ll never turn down a reason to call one of your eye candies.”