I held my hand out. “Maybe you should wait to answer it until we’re done with the Devil.”
“Yo, Em will be cool. In fact, she can keep the Lion at bay.”
I nodded.
“I’ll be back, man.” He stumbled off and yelled into the phone. “Shell-o! What does my Em need? Are you missing daddy?”
Still standing, I checked the time. It was early in the morning. The sun would be rising soon if it hadn’t already.
What would Kazimir’s lover want from Maxwell at this time?
The women still danced on the stage even though no one was near it.
I went back to my seat and thought of Ava. My favorite memory came to mind.
In Ava’s underground rehearsal room, I stepped back and watched her. “Get back on your toes.”
She panted. “I don’t want to dance anymore.”
“But I do.” I grabbed her waist and gently turned her around. With her back to me, she held her hands onto the barre.
I pressed against her back, pushing my cock against her ass and wishing I’d taken it out of my pants. I kept my grip on her waist, helping her remain on those toes and giving her my body to rest against.
I watched her in the mirror. “Pull down the front of that leotard. I want to see your breasts.”
Lust filled her eyes. “And if I refuse?”
“You like to taunt me.”
“I do.” Still on her toes and balancing against me, she yanked the top down. Her small breasts popped out. Her stiff nipples bobbed.
Knocking me out of the memory, Naveen stomped back. His face was twisted in rage. His hand shook as he ran it through his hair. “We have a problem.”
I looked up at him. “What?”
“Instead of coming to meet us, the Devil went ahead and grabbed the codes on his own.”
I stood. “What?”
“So then. . .” Nervous, Naveen backed up. “I told him to bring the codes to me.”
“His response.”
“The Devil said he had a new buyer.”
I bared my teeth. “The Dragon.”
“He also took Jean-Pierre’s woman with him, explaining that he owed Jean-Pierre.”
“Who cares about Eden? We’ll save her if we can. More importantly, the codes can’t get into the yakuza’s hands. The Dragon is pissed with me about working with the Xecutioners. He’s trying to start a war.”
“There’s one good side to this.”
I scowled. “There is no good side.”
“At least, the Dragon would still need the other part of the codes to do any real harm. Once the Dragon understands that, he’ll realize he has more problems on his hand and the Lion’s attention.”
“This trip was to not have Kazimir aware at all.” Rage rose in me. “We have to go after the Devil before he gets to Japan.”
“The Devil cut off the tracker for himself—”
“But he doesn’t know we have a tracker on the codes.”
“One would think that he knew since we directed him to it.”
I shook my head. “The Devil is a small fish playing in an ocean full of hungry sharks. Let’s track and eat him up before he triggers chaos. We’ll get Circuit to give us the locations for the codes, grab them, and kill the Devil—”
“And what will we do with Jean-Pierre’s woman?”
“My father wanted her protected. Like I said before, save her if we can.”
Nodding, Naveen sighed. “At least this can’t get any worse. Where’s Maxwell?”
Maxwell returned. No longer did he stumble or wear a smile on his face. In fact, he had his gun by his side. He waved for the girls to get off the stage and leave. With so much rage on his face, the woman didn’t dispute or try to remain there. They wore worried faces as they hurried with picking up the money on the stage.
I raised my eyebrows as he stomped my way. “What’s wrong?”
“The Corsican took Em.”
My body spun into a tornado of panic.
They took Kazimir’s lover? May the world survive after this.
I focused on breathing. “Tell me everything.”
“The kidnapping is over this chick. Someone took her.” Maxwell showed me a picture on his phone. The woman looked familiar. “The main guy wants you to call him immediately. His name was John.”
“John? Who the hell is that?” I took the phone and studied it. “Wait a minute. That’s Eden. You meant Jean. And this is Jean-Pierre’s violinist. She is the whole reason why my father and he were fighting.”
“This dude wanted you on the phone and he didn’t sound like he was playing around at all.”
I glared at Naveen. “The Devil takes Jean-Pierre’s girl and so Jean-Pierre kidnaps the Mouse.”
“Damn.” Naveen raised his hands in the air. “The Devil triggered chaos. I’m so sorry, Misha. I. . .I thought he could do the job.”
I shook my head and spoke the hard truth. “No. I fucked up by not handling this all myself.”
“Yo.” Maxwell’s face held a deadly expression. Never had I seen him look like this. Usually, he wore a smile. “I don’t give a fuck about the Devil, the French, or even this John/Jean motherfucker. All I care about is getting Em back.”