Dirty Passions An Interracial Russian Mafia Romance (The Lion and The Mouse #5) - Kenya Wright Page 0,14

into it with some guidance.”

Groaning, I sat down.

“You want to know, if she’ll be back.” Baba placed her hands on the desk and knitted her fingers together. “I don’t need the cards to tell me that the answer is a yes. However, you’ll have to leave the bombs alone.”

“I want her safe.”

“She’ll be safe, if you stop bombing.”

“The Corsican will not—”

“The Corsican is running far away from Paris at the moment.”

“You see that in the cards?”

“I saw that in my dreams. The French fled. Meanwhile, the mouse rode the lion’s back with pride. The little creature held strands of the mane like it was a horse’s leather harness.”

“Will she be back tonight?”

Baba gestured to the cards. “You must touch them to begin.”

Scowling, I picked up the cards, shuffled, and then set them back on the desk. “Okay. What do they say?”

“Patience.” Baba set the first card on the table.

I looked down at it.

On the card, a large glowing moon hung in darkness. Wolves looked up and howled.

“The Moon. Everything is not what it seems. The moon says to trust your dreams.” She touched the card’s edges. “Your fear overwhelms your decisions. There are illusions and distractions all around you.”

“Everything is not what it seems?” I leaned back in my chair. “I don’t believe you.”

A smile covered her face. She flipped the next card over.

On the card, a man stood near a table, holding a double ended candle in the air. It burned on both sides. Stars glowed around him.

“The Magician.” She studied it, grabbed a long silver stick with a purple gem at the tip, and touched the card with the jewel. “You have all the skills and abilities to be successful in everything that you want.”

“I don’t have my mouse. You said she would be safe.”

“The magician tells you that you can manifest all you’ve dreamed of without exerting much energy, but again. . .you must be wary of misdirection.”

Done with her cards, I leaned back in my chair, raised my legs, and set my feet on the side of the desk. This way I could see her silly cards, but within complete relaxation. “Without exerting energy? I want Jean-Pierre dead. Are we saying that he’ll choke on something and everything will be fine?”

Baba’s smile left as she ignored my question and turned over the next card. “Aww.”

“Aww?” Skepticism sat on my face. I directed my gaze back to my window, wondering if Emily would drive back onto the property.

Where are you now?

“The Devil.”

I shifted my attention back to Baba, took my feet off the desk, and leaned forward to take in the card. There the red monstrous creature snarled back at me. It’s two black horns shined like polished obsidian. Wings of fire expanded from his back. At his feet, a naked man and woman lay on the ground in pain.

A chill hit me.

“You must be wary of the Devil too.” Baba tapped the card with her jeweled stick. “This is literal and metaphorical all at the same time.”

Pressure built in my chest. “Meaning?”

“Metaphorically, your shadow self is dark. It walks with you, feeding off your negativity and hate. It grows the more you seek revenge.” She looked at me. “And then there’s the Devil that you have chained below this house.”

“Did David tell you that?”

“No. I know things, Kazimir.”

Not many women could get me to stir in my seat. This one had.

Baba continued, “No good will come from that Devil either. You should get rid of both.”

“I won’t. Anything else from your cards?”

“There is more.” She turned over the next one. “The High Priestess.”

I assessed this next one.

A woman sat in front of a thin veil decorated with pomegranates, wearing a blue robe with a cross on her chest. A horned crown adorned her head. Two pillars stood behind her—one black and the other white. A crescent moon lay in her lap.

“The Magician and the High Priestess are both in one reading. Lots of power. Lots of illusions.” Baba tapped her jeweled stick against my desk’s surface. “God is on your side, if you will let him do his work. If not, then you will die alone.”

Baba circled the priestess with the gem. “She is the guardian of the subconscious mind and the teacher of sacred knowledge. She sits at the threshold of the conscious and subconscious mind.”

“And is she someone around me?”

“Maybe or maybe not, but the priestess shows up in your readings, when the veil between you and the underworld is thin.” Baba set the