Heartstrings On Fire

Chapter Two Hundred Thirty-Five

Sephle

“We have reason to believe that Mike was working for Anthony,” Adrik said. “We needed to make sure

he’s the only one.”

Keith looked stunned. He looked at the floor for a moment. “Now it makes sense.”

“What makes sense?” Ivan asked. Where he had started to calm down, he was now right back to the

anger level he was at when Keith walked in.

“A couple of things, actually. I was with Mike when we went in to get Andy. There was clear recognition

between those two when Andy first saw us. I admit I don’t have extensive experience with those types

of situations, but I did enough work with informants that I recognize the look when you know someone

but you’re trying to act like you don’t know someone. Andy had seen Mike before, but I’m sure Mike

gave him a look when he said the code word you gave us,” he said.

Adrik, who had also started to relax, was no longer relaxed. I could feel his anger, which was feeding

into my anger. I stood, knowing he would want to pace. “He’s a dead man,” Adrik said quietly, but

dripping with anger, as he stood up.

Keith’s eyes went wide once again. “Tell us what else makes sense, Keith,” I said, giving him a tight

smile. The scene in front of him did not help him to calm down. I’m sure my anger was written all over

my face, as Adrik paced behind me like a raged animal just waiting for his chance to escape.

He looked too stunned to speak for a moment. His mo uth was open, but his brain had clicked off as he

just stared at Adrik. “KEITH,” Stephen said, firmly enough that it snapped him back to reality.

“Right. Uh, when we went to get the documents from Armando’s house. When we got back and Mike

said that no one was watching us or following us? Yeah, he was lying. I don’t think Armando caught it,

but both Chris and I noticed we were being followed. Mike was basically in charge and I knew how he

was about being questioned, so I didn’t say anything. I should’ve said something.” He looked up, his

eyes even wider than before. “It was a mistake. It will never happen again,” he pleaded. He was in

genuine fear for his life at this point.

“Anything else? Now would be the ideal time to come clean with everything, Keith,” I said.

He swallowed hard, but shook his head no. “That’s everything I can remember. Just those two

instances. I didn’t notice anybody when we went to pick Andy up and bring him here and I haven’t

noticed anything since. Why wouldn’t they be following us now that Mike is gone?” he asked.

It dawned on me the same time it dawned on Ivan. He caught my eye and we both said “Andy” at the

same time. They didn’t need to follow anyone when they had someone on the inside. I felt my level of

anger rise higher than I’d ever felt it. I vouched for that son of a bi tch. I gave him the okay. I ran

interference for him when the guys wanted to pummel him on multiple occasions. He tried to ki ll Ivan.

That mo therfucker.

I felt Adrik’s arm slide around my waist. He leaned down so his lips were next to my ear. “Take a

breath, solnishko. We need to be smart about this. I want to talk to Chris first before we deal with

Andy.” I looked up at him, somewhat surprised that he was the one calming me down. I immediately

recognized the lust in his eyes when he looked down at me. I shu t my eyes, trying to get control of

myself and to keep him from thinking about ripping my clothes off. When I opened them, I looked at him

again. I raised my eyebrow slightly, silently asking if my eyes were normal again. He just smirked at me

and kissed my temple. “Normal again,” he said quietly.

Adrik looked to Viktor. “Call Chris. Put him in a room until we’re done with Chris.”

Viktor walked Keith out of the office. A few minutes later, he returned with Chris, who was already so

nervous he could barely

keep it together.

“Tell us what happened the night you guys went to get Andy,” Ivan said in his very authoritative tone.

“Keith probably knows more than I do. I wasn’t with him and Mike when they actually went in to get

Andy. I stayed outside, in the hall, to make sure no one surprised us. I didn’t hear anything, other than

Mike tell Andy the code word you guys gave us, then they came back out. You guys know what

happened on the way out of the building, right?” he asked.

“What about what happened the night you went to Armando’s house to get the documents?” Viktor

asked. Even he sounded

angry.

“Oh sh it. Well, Mike lied to you guys, for one. I don’t know why. I think he was trying to save face, but

we were followed. He told you guys we weren’t,” he said.

“Did you notice anything weird with Mike other than that instance?” I asked. I was trying to keep my

cool, but I was certain I was failing miserably at it, as Adrik pulled me closer to him. I felt his hand slide

under my shirt, his thumb on my skin.

“Honestly, I tried to stay away from him as much as possible. He was a di ck.”

“And you didn’t feel it was important to tell us that he lied to us?” I asked, maybe a little louder than I

meant

“Please don’t hurt me. He made it clear that he was in charge. He also made it clear that he could fire

me and Keith at will. I need this job, even though it might cost me my life in like two minutes,” he said.

Adrik flexed his arm around my waist, causing me to look at him. He wanted to know my opinion of

Chris before he said anything. “I don’t think he’s lying, but I also vouched for that piece of sh it Andy,

too, so I don’t know how much you want to trust me right now,” I responded in Russian.

Adrik clicked his tongue at me, but said nothing. He turned to Chris, saying, “Mike was working for

Anthony. If we find out you or Keith are also working for anyone else, you’ll meet the same fate as

Mike. Only it won’t be so quick.” He looked at Chris with every ounce of hatred he could muster.

“I’m not working for anyone else, I swear. Look, I really need this job. I wouldn’t do anything to

jeopardize it. My m om, she’s si ck. This job is paying her medical bills. She raised me and my sister on

her own, working 2-3 jobs. She means the world to me. There’s no way I would put her or being able to

take care of her in danger,” Chris said. His emotions were right on the surface when he talked about his

mother, making me want to believe him, but I was so frustrated with myself for believing Andy that I

wasn’t sure I should believe Chris.

I closed my eyes, pinching the bridge of my nose. My head was starting to pound. I heard Adrik tell

Viktor quietly to put Chris in a room as well. I opened my eyes and looked at Adrik, who was clearly

concerned about me. When his eyes met mine, he looked surprised. “Blink, love,” he whispered, his

sexy smirk on his face.

“Sh it, sorry,” I said, closing my eyes once more. I took a deep breath, trying to calm down. I was

almost afraid to open my eyes again. When I did, I looked quickly to Adrik, who smiled at me.

“Normal again,” he said, kissing my forehead. He stepped in front of me, glancing at the guys.

“Apologies, but I need to do this,” he said to them as he wrapped his arm tightly around my waist. He

pulled me against him firmly, his lips finding mine forcefully. His anger quickly turned to passion as he

kissed me deeply. I felt my knees go weak. I wrapped my arms around his neck, pressing my body to

his even tighter. Just when I felt my lungs objecting to the lack of air, he stopped the kiss, his forehead

pressed to mine as he regained control. He pressed his lips to mine gently once more then pulled me

to one of the couches to sit. Usually, kissing me like that would calm him down, but I felt like he did that

for me this time. It was effective. I found myself wanting more, no longer so angry I was having trouble

seeing.

“I picked the worst person to be wrong about, it seems,” I said, as I felt Adrik’s arms slide around me.

“We don’t know for sure you were wrong yet, spider monkey. He could still be telling us the truth, just

maybe not the whole truth. That seems to be what he does,” Andrei said.

“Not telling us that he knew Mike before was a big fu cking omission,” I said. “Just like not telling us that

Sal was the one behind brawn all along was a big fu cking omission.”

“Maybe he’s trying to play both sides,” Ivan said. “Essentially, that’s what he’s always done. He worked

for Sal, but fed you information. The big question is whether he’s feeding Sal information while he’s

here.”

“We took his phone. He has no way of contacting anyone outside the building. The guards that are

assigned to him are always with him and have reported nothing. I’m going to speak to every single one

of them, however,” Viktor said. He was just as frustrated as I was with this situation. He felt like it was

his responsibility to keep us safe and this was a potential breech of his airtight defenses. Viktor usually

stayed calm and we rarely saw him angry, but he was angry over this one. He felt directly responsible

for missing that Mike had worked for Anthony.

“What about Chris and Keith?” I asked. “I think they’re both telling the truth, but now I’m not sure I trust

myself, so I don’t know if you guys should trust me.”

–

“As far as I can tell, they’re telling us the truth now,” Misha said. “If Andy recognized Mike, that means

they’d seen each other before. Not necessarily that they’d worked together before. And we were

expecting them to be followed when they went to Armando’s house that night. I thought it was weird

that they weren’t. It might not be as bad as we think it is.”

I hoped Misha was right. Not just for us, but for the people of the city. We were trying to do this quietly,

with as little fallout as possible. I didn’t want to reach the point where chaos was necessary.