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“Fair point. I’m not complaining either, for the record. I love what’s happening. I don’t understand it, but I fucking love it. And I fucking love you,” I said. His handsome smile stretched across his face. He rested his hand against my cheek, looking at me for a moment before leaning down to kiss me. “You always know exactly what I need to hear, my love,” he said. I felt a strong pull in my chest as he smiled at me.
“Do you get like a pull in your chest when I smile at you?” I asked. He chuckled. “Every single time,” he said.
“That’s where that’s coming from,” I said, thinking out loud. I looked up at him once more, grinning. “I really had no clue of the effect I’ve had on you this whole time. Now that I can feel what you feel some of the time, it makes me admire your high levels of self-restraint. It’s really felt like this for you since the beginning?” I asked.
He nodded his head. “Since the first time I touched you, I’ve felt a pull back toward you every time we’re apart. When you smile at me, I either feel that pull in my chest that I’m guessing you’re feeling right now or it feels like my heart stops. When you’re sad or upset, sometimes I feel that pull in my chest too. Sometimes it’s stronger when you’re upset, like my heart is demanding I destroy whatever is making you upset.” His eyes got darker and I saw his jaw tense. I was suddenly hit with a wave of sadness. He closed his eyes, preventing me from finding out why. He sighed. “It was especially bad after the ball, when we were on the plane and you wouldn’t let anyone touch you. That pull toward you was so strong because I just wanted to make you feel better and I couldn’t. I also knew you were upset, on top of being hurt. It felt like there was a hole in my chest until you allowed me to touch you again.” He opened his eyes and I saw the regret he still carried over that whole situation. I felt the tears welling in my eyes as I saw him struggling with the memory of what happened.
“Adrik,” I said. I put both of my hands on either side of his face, so he would look at me. “You don’t need to keep carrying this guilt over what happened. It ultimately worked out for the best and I got a kickass scar out of it, to boot,” I said smiling. I was hoping to make him laugh, but he flinched at the memory of me being hurt. I stood on my toes, kissing him gently. I sighed, taking a new approach. “I think it needed to happen the way it did, Adrik. If I hadn’t gotten hurt, I wouldn’t have remembered everything about my uncle and I would’ve kept a very big part of me locked away forever. Until we were on that plane, I would still regularly hear my uncle’s voice in my head. Like he was standing next to me, still telling me all the same things he used to scream at me when he was beating me. There was a very large part of me that was terrified he would find me again and kill me. Remember the first night I spent at the house? When I had a nightmare and started shaking so bad I couldn’t control myself?” I asked. He nodded. “That was a regular occurrence. I’ve had that same nightmare so many times I lost count. It just ended differently that night because of Anthony. Do you know how many times I’ve had that nightmare since the night of the ball?” He looked at me curiously, resuming all efforts to tame my curls. “Zero times. So, while you’re beating yourself up thinking that you put me through Hell, I’m eternally grateful to you for saving me from it. It was you, Adrik, that showed me the way out. If that night hadn’t happened, I never would’ve gotten out.” I could see the tears forming in his eyes as he listened to my words. While he felt a pull in his chest, I felt a fire building throughout my entire body. I felt that warmth building as he looked at me with complete love in his eyes. Just to see what would happen, I concentrated on what I was feeling and then tried to push it to him.
I heard his breath hitch as his eyes widened and I knew he felt it. I grinned at him. “That’s what it’s been like for me since the beginning,” I said.
“No wonder you’re freezing when I’m not around,” he said, his sexy smirk on his face.
“That struggle is ridiculously real,” I said. We heard a soft knock on his office door. I stood on my toes again and pressed my lips to his. “That’s Stephen, I’m sure. He’s the only one with enough finesse to be able to knock that softly. You need to hear what we found out about our dearest Giana today.” I walked to the office door to open it. Stephen was there, looking somewhat unsure about whether he should’ve disturbed us or not. I laughed. “It’s good, Yoden. You guys can come in.”
He turned and motioned to all the guys to come to the office. I walked back to Adrik, who walked us both to one of the couches. He pulled me into his lap and leaned me back against his chest. I crossed my legs in between his as he wrapped his arms around me.
Both Viktor and Ivan walked in with their laptops. “We need more translations, princess,” Ivan said, handing me his computer. Andrei and Misha walked in behind them.
Stephen said, “Keith will be here shortly. He said Armando had a late meeting, so he asked Keith to grab dinner for him and Giana.” I looked to Stephen, who had a knowing look on his face. “I agree. Weird move.” His phone beeped. He looked at the text, saying, “He’s on his way.”
It was barely one minute later that we heard the elevator doors ding to signal Keith’s arrival. He walked into the office, looking slightly nervous. I’ll give it to him. The last time he was summoned before all of us was slightly uncomfortable for him.
“Shut the door, Keith,” Adrik said. I could feel that he was enjoying fucking with Keith’s head and was not mad in the slightest. It was all I could do to not laugh. I hugged his arms tighter around me.
“What’s up?” Keith asked, sitting down in one of the chairs. He looked like he was trying to not be nervous. He was failing miserably.
“We did some investigating into Giana and her frequent excursions to the lobby unattended,” Ivan said. Keith looked surprised but intrigued. He glanced around the room, looking at all of our faces. His face dropped slightly. “Why do I feel like this is so much worse than a drug problem?”
“So, you really confirmed she’s buying drugs when she goes to the lobby?” Keith asked. It was almost like he was expecting us to tell him his suspicions were false.
“She’s apparently got a nasty little coke habit,” Misha said. He held up the vial he picked off Giana earlier that day.
Keith’s eyes went wide. “That’s what fell out of her purse that day!” he said, pointing to the vial in Misha’s hand.
“If she’s buying that much coke twice a week, she’s got to be staying high almost constantly right now. It’s likely why we haven’t seen much of her. That kind of habit eventually gets difficult to hide,” Ivan said.
“I wonder if that explains her nervousness around you guys from the beginning. I’m positive she caught on to how observant we all are right away. She’s never liked being in the same room as all of us. Hell, she’s never really liked being around us much at all, unless there’s shopping involved,” I said.
“It’s easier to hide when shopping. She can be more animated without arousing suspicion,” Andrei said.
“Have you noticed her having nosebleeds?” Ivan asked Keith.
“She’s had a couple lately. She blames the weather. She says she hates it when it gets cold,” Keith said.
“Have you seen Armando questioning her about anything? Not that he would do it in front of you, but I just wonder if he’s noticing any of this,” I asked Keith.
“I haven’t seen anything. Ever since they got into a fight about her basically accusing you of being an addict, which is really ironic now, they’ve had a strained relationship. I think they even slept in separate rooms this past weekend at least one night. I’ve heard them arguing, but they’re always arguing in Italian so I can’t understand what they’re saying,” he said.
“It’s Italian. They could be confessing their love for each other and it would probably still sound like a heated argument,” Adrik said sarcastically.
“I’ve heard Armando arguing on the phone several times lately too. Again, always in Italian. There was one argument that got really heated, so I recorded part of it,” Keith pulled his phone out of his pocket. We all looked at him, somewhat surprised. “I don’t like not being able to understand what’s going on. I’m not being nosey, but if I’m supposed to be keeping this dude safe, then I need to know what’s going on,” he said.
“Fair point,” I said. He found the recording on his phone and turned the volume all the way up. It wasn’t the best recording, so I couldn’t hear it well enough from across the office. He tossed his phone to me, so I could put it closer to my ear. It was just Armando’s voice, so he wasn’t on speaker. Not that I could’ve understood the other person on this recording. I listened to it a couple of times to make sure I was hearing it correctly. “He’s talking in very vague terms. Saying things like ‘I’ll take care of it’ and ‘you have to give me time.’ At the end he says, ‘I told you that wasn’t going to work but you wouldn’t listen to me.’” I tossed the phone back to Keith.
Adrik pulled me back against him again, hugging me tightly. He put his lips close to my ear, saying quietly, “If I haven’t told you how grateful I am to have you lately, just know I’m incredibly grateful to have you.” I felt my cheeks flush slightly. He left his cheek against mine for a few moments.
“What do we know of his business deals lately?” Ivan asked. “He could be talking about a business deal that isn’t working out the way it’s supposed to. I would like to stick with that option rather than the other option my mind came up with.”
