by Kenya Wright
Information like this would garner me global support from the crime community. Everyone wanted a way to get at Kazimir. They’d even gone after his family—well-planned attacks here and there. They bothered his brothers, attacking and killing their wives throughout the years.
The ones that did it died days later by Kazimir, personally.
But still it hadn’t made the man crumble. If anything, he’d put on double the armor. Barely moved without his men. Never spent too much time with any woman. It must’ve been a lonely position for him to be at the top, surrounded by grieving men, and others like Sasha, who pretended to love him while plotting behind his back.
And then he met the Mouse.
Emily spoke, “I can help you.”
“Can you now?”
“I’m good at solving problems.”
Rafael shook his head. “And yet the Lion is still a psychotic maniac. Maybe you can fix that problem first.”
She glared at him. “I’ve found from my time in the European crime world, that being a psychotic maniac goes with the job title.”
I touched my chest. “Are you calling me crazy too?”
“No. I understand your actions.” She nodded. “I get why you took me. Not smart, but effective. You’ll get Eden back faster than you would have, if you hadn’t.”
“Why?” Louis asked.
She looked at all of us. “Because Kazimir had no idea any of this had been going on. Someone did something and was hiding it from him.”
“Who?” I asked.
“I don’t know.” She shrugged. “Maybe, Misha.”
“Misha is definitely involved in this. And Celina.”
“I don’t know who that is.”
“But you know Misha?”
“Yes.”
Then, you’re as high as any women can be in Kazimir’s life. No wonder he’s destroying Paris.
I knew that he would have some affection for the woman. He’d surely expressed that with his cock when we’d walked in on him. But tear-up-Paris, affection? I hadn’t been prepared for that. He acted as a man that was barely holding on. He moved like he was scared. Kazimir defended. He was too big. There was no need for him to ever attack.
But now he was racing around the city, trying to hurt and destroy anything that was connected to the Corsican.
Maybe the Mouse can do something. Kazimir found her helpful.
I nodded at her. “I’ll take your help.”
Shock filled her gaze. “You will?”
“Yes.”
“How will you help?”
“Keep me by your side. Let me see what you see.” She extended her hands. “Anything I can add. Any information I can find, I’ll do it. We’ll get Eden back. Safe. That’s the most important part.”
I found myself believing in her. Although, I didn’t know if that was part of her skill. I would have to be careful. “You’re smarter than Kazimir. You provide a softness that he definitely doesn’t possess.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
We pulled up to the location where Shalimar had been hiding. My vans of men pulled up around us.
“It’s quiet and empty around here.” Louis scanned the space. “Where are our men?”
Rafael took out his gun. “Here we fucking go, again. The streets are clean, like the Bratva have been here.”
Had Kazimir been here? Had he really taken the steps to find Eden?
Louis opened the door and held his hand up. “Everyone stay here. I’ll go in with my people.”
“No.” Rafael jumped out of the limo. “I’m going in with you. I don’t like the smell of this. I want to make sure Shalimar is okay.”
Rafael and I exchanged looks.
If Shalimar wasn’t okay, then Rafael didn’t need to see it.
I shook my head. “Stay here.”
“Fuck you. I’m a big boy.” Rafael marched forward. “I’m going.”
“Have your men watch Emily,” I said to Louis. “Put the chef in the passenger side with the driver. She’s already freaked out.”
Louis grimaced. “I told Gwen a story, explaining something about Emily being a criminal, and us helping the authorities with the terrorist.”
“So, she thinks we’re on some official investigation for the government?”
“Or, she’s too scared to call bullshit and just nodding and smiling until we take her home.”
“Make sure you smooth things over with Gwen. Money. Whatever. Give her a nice story. We don’t want to freak her out. She’s the best thing that happened to Shalimar’s.” I hurried after Rafael.
I glanced over my shoulder.
Behind us, Louis yelled out orders. The chef left the limo. Three of Louis’s men entered on the other side, sat with Emily, and shut the door.
Okay. Let’s see what’s happening.
I rushed in.
A van of men had already unloaded and hurried ahead of us, knocking down the front door and holding their guns out. A rotting stench hit my nostrils.
Shit. Someone’s dead in here.
I hurried to the door before Rafael and grabbed his shoulder. “Let me go in first.”
“No.” His face already showed dread. “I’m fine.”
I got in front of him, anyway, almost tripping over a pile of bodies. It made me stop. More men went by.
Damn.
We stood in the doorway. I would’ve opened my mouth in shock, had the smell not been so bad. Both Louis’s and Rafael’s men had been watching Shalimar’s house. They all lay dead in a stack. Some had been sliced by their necks. Others decorated in bullet holes.
Rafael muttered, “This isn’t the Russians.”
We walked further. We were making noises, but I didn’t hear it anymore. Foreboding silence seeped into my head. I sank deep within myself.
This won’t be good. We should’ve come here before the damn restaurant. Fuck!
More bodies stacked the living room. Old fast food bags sat on the table. The food had been uneaten. Blood splattered a few burgers and fries.
Shalimar better be okay.
I made sure to keep Rafael behind me. If I didn’t like the sight, I wouldn’t let him in.
We moved down the hallway.
Horror hit my heart.
My heart boomed in my ears.
Someone had definitely been here.
A man yelled from the bedroom. “In here!”
Hurrying, I smelled the terror and death, before I stepped. But when I did, it hurt me to no end. Ahead of me, a dead Shalimar sat tied in a chair.
“No. No.” I backed up, turned around, and got in Rafael’s way. “Go back. I’ve got this.”
Other men came.
I let them pass.
Exhaustion filled Rafael’s eyes. “Move.”
“Go back.”
“Move.” He shoved me.
“No.” I stumbled back but hurried in front of him. “Let me go in first at least so—”
“You can clean her up?” Rafael rubbed his face with both hands. His fingers shook a little. “How bad is it?”
“I…I didn’t see enough—”
“But enough to know that Shalimar is dead?”
I swallowed. “Yes.”
“I’m going to see her.” Rafael pushed past me.
“You shouldn’t.”
No one should see someone they love, die this way.
I walked with him into the room. I wanted to hug him, hold his hand, and try to console him, but that wasn’t our way. And we could never do that in front of our men.
Slowly, we both took several steps in front of Shalimar.
Dear God. The Devil did this.
One of Shalimar’s arms lay on the floor next to her cut-off foot. The person had placed it in a neat line.
He’d enjoyed doing it.
Shalimar’s head drooped forward. It was still attached to her body, but barely. Her chin rested on her chest, which did not rise or fall. It was clear she was dead, and for the first ti
me in a long time, that fact hit me.
It wasn’t that I cared for Shalimar. It was that I knew this would destroy my cousin.
Rafael should’ve stayed in the car. I could’ve hidden the horror of her death from him. I could’ve. . .
He remained silent, but Rafael’s face twisted in pain. He was close to crying, although he wouldn’t. He’d leave first.
Not able to look at him anymore, I walked forward. “The Devil did this. We’ll get him.”
Grigor had a specific way he enjoyed killing. He liked to dissect the person while they still breathed. He’d probably cut Shalimar’s arm off to get information. Then, he’d went to the foot. That had gotten him what he wanted. If it hadn’t, he would’ve cut off more limbs.
And then, he ended it with a cut to the back of her neck. Something had happened that he didn’t like. Louis used to call it the Devil’s tantrum stroke—a cut to the back or a knife in the heart. That was a pout for Grigor.
I looked away unable to take in anymore. I’d discovered what I needed. The Devil had come to Shalimar somehow. He’d come for something important—information, part of whatever Celina had stolen, or perhaps something had gone wrong with Misha and the exchange of money.
How the hell did he find Shalimar?
Silent, Rafael crouched in front of her and tenderly grabbed the only hand that was attached.
I could barely breathe. I tried to think of something to say. This had been unexpected. Never had I thought Shalimar was in any further danger.
Could we protect anyone?
Dried blood sat under the chair and crusted parts of her naked body. She’d been killed long enough ago for it to dry.
Tears fell from Rafael’s eyes and drew a line down his cheeks. He lifted her head and studied those eyes. They’d been frozen in terror. Her mouth remained wide open. Rafael’s voice stayed calm. “She was killed at least hours ago. Rigor mortis has set in. The eyelids and neck say it. . .and her jaw.”
Rigor mortis was the third stage of death. During that phase, the limbs stiffened caused by chemical changes in the muscles, postmortem. Between two and six hours one could see the signs of following death, rigor mortis begins with the eyelids, neck, and jaw.
Rafael slowly placed Shalimar’s half cut head down and rose. “They grabbed her a while after I left. Definitely after we left the hotel.”
“It could have longer.”
“No. Someone found her through me. They must’ve been outside the building while I left or had me monitored.”
It also meant the restaurant stop had cost us that moment. The Devil had been with Shalimar, while we’d been twirling our dicks on the other side of the city.
The Devil knew us all well. He would’ve recognized Rafael. But how would he have known that Rafael would go to Shalimar?
“I failed her.” Rafael walked over to the bed, pulled one of the white sheets from it, and brought it back to her. “I could never do the right thing, when it came to her.”
“Rafael.” I walked over to him.
He held his hand up. “Leave me alone.”
“This wasn’t your fault. If anything, it was mine. If I hadn’t forced us to kidnap—”
“They would’ve already killed Shalimar by then. Even if they hadn’t, I know this is all guilt.” Rafael looked up at me. “Guilt from me. Guilt from you. In the end, Shalimar made her decision. She caused her own death. I just can’t yell at her, so I’m going to yell at myself.”
Our men still walked around, looking through the room and then disappearing in the bathroom and down the hallway.
The Devil and his men had rummaged and ransacked the place. Things were sprawled all over the floor.
Rafael untied the ropes around Shalimar and wrapped her in the sheet. Sighing, he leaned over and whispered something in her ear. My heart broke. Terror hit me. Would I be doing that soon? Was Eden still alive? Had I lost her, like Rafael had lost Shalimar?
One of the men called out, “Jean-Pierre, we have something in the back.”
I hurried away from the scene of Rafael’s heartbreak. From the death. From the possibility of that being my future.
Louis had entered and joined the men in the back of the house.
Wait. What’s this?
Another stack of men piled the backyard. But the dead men weren’t mine. And all of the kills had been the Russian way. Bullet holes sat in the center of their heads.
My voice went up an octave. Maybe it was shock. “Russians did this?”
Louis headed over to the other pile. “Definitely Bratva.”
And where was Eden in all of this? And where the fuck is Eden now?
My heart hammered.
My phone rang.
I yanked it out. “Kazimir?”
“Did you see? My men say that you arrived.”
Somehow Kazimir had found the Devil and knew that I would show up later.
Had he been waiting for me to get there?
I gestured to Louis, pointing to the sky, letting him know that somewhere in the neighborhood, others were watching. Whether on roofs or from neighboring houses. Knowing Kazimir, he could’ve had control of a damn satellite. Who knew how far he would go to get Emily back?
Okay. You have eyes on me. Let’s see how long you can keep them on me.
“Do you have Eden?” I asked.
“Ah! You have humbled yourself.”
“Kazimir—”
“I thought I answered that already. Put Emily on the phone. That was the deal.”
“We both know I have your Emily.” I rushed off to the side of the house, not wanting to go back inside. “I need confirmation that you have Eden.”
Movement hit Kazimir’s part of the phone line.
The next voice that rode the line was my love.
“Hello?” she whispered.
My knees almost buckled. Kazimir did have her. He’d grabbed her from the Devil.
“Eden! Oh my God. I love you. How are you? Where are you?”
“Jean-Pierre? I’m fine. I’m—”
Kazimir got back on the line. “Put Emily on the phone. Now!”
“Goddamn it.” I rushed across the street to the limo. “Give me a minute.”
“You hurt her, and I’ll erase the French from European history.”
I had a smart reply, but when I raced over, hit the limo, and opened the door the worst possibility gazed back at me.
Emily was not in the limo.
No!
Instead, Louis’s three men lay dead and on the floor.
A note lay on one of their chest.
“Fuck.” I ducked into the limo, grabbed the note, and read it out loud. “I’m sorry.”
Sincerely, Emily.
Kazimir growled on the other side. “What are you sorry about?”
No. No. Where the fuck are you, Emily?
I hurried out of the limo, scanning the area like a mad man.
“Put her on the phone!” Kazimir roared.
“Give me a minute.”
“A minute. I’ll fucking slice—”
“She ran off!” I shouldn’t have said it, but what else could I do. If he thought I was playing with him, if he thought I had hurt her, he could ruin Eden.
The tables had turned.
Kazimir had somehow saved the day and grabbed Eden. There was only one thing left. We had to exchange our women. But Emily had ran away.
My heart stopped. My body tensed. Shockingly, the Lion had no response for several seconds as if he was really considering what I’d said.
And then he asked, “She ran off?”
I ran around the limo and searched around the block. “Yes. She escaped. I swear on everything.”
“Then the next few hours should be interesting.” A dark, evil chuckle hit the line and then he hung up.
Goddamn it!
We had to find Emily, before she got back to Kazimir. If not, then Kazimir, would not be motivated to keep Eden alive.
Shots sounded a block
away.
I turned around.
There you go!
Emily raced across the street. Four of my men raced after her.
Speeding away on those little legs, Emily held a gun as she raced for her life. Every few steps, she slowed the pace, turned around, and shot at my men. They ducked out of the way, but still headed forward.
“Don’t kill her!” I ran their way.
Louis and his men ran out of the house.
They must’ve heard the shots too.
“Get her!”
We all went after her.
It must’ve been a crazy scene. Over twenty huge French men, running after a little black woman, in a wet buttoned shirt and suit jacket. A few cars drove by, swerving and screeching their tires.
This fucking day!
We got her in less than five minutes. She was damn near out of breath as she tried to fight me. It took nothing to hold her arms down and pick her up.
I thought back to the conversation with the Lion. I caught his chuckle, when I’d told him that his mouse had ran away. He hadn’t fought me on it. He hadn’t thought I was lying.
He’d laughed.
How many times has she ran away from you Kazimir?
I dragged her back to the limo and glanced in the front of the vehicle. My limo driver lounged and smoked a cigarette. Meanwhile, Gwen had her eyes wide and mouth open too. Shock and terror covered her face.
Fuck. How are we going to explain our way out of this?
Rafael walked out, carrying a dead Shalimar in a sheet. While one couldn’t see that it was dead body, it was pretty damn obvious as her long hair swung back and forth, dangling near his knees. It was either a mannequin or dead body.
Well after that beautiful vision…Gwen won’t be working with Rafael anymore, so no need to explain this.
I stopped at the limo, opened the door, and shoved Emily in. “Don’t fucking move.”
Emily fell on the floor and then scooted back to her seat.
“And I don’t accept your apology for killing my men!” I shut the door and turned to Rafael as he was about to enter.
“So…” I looked at his arms. “What do you want to do. . .with Shalimar?”
“She’s coming with us, until I can think of what I’m going to do.”
“Okay. That’s why you have her body. You’re going to bury her?”
“Of course I am.” He eyed me. “Wait. What did you think I was going to do with her body?”
