Dirty Passions An Interracial Russian Mafia Romance (The Lion and The Mouse #5) - Kenya Wright Page 0,3

to Paris.”

I paused midway on the steps and closed my eyes.

Boris’s voice held unease. “Emily, are you okay?”

“Yeah.” I waited for several seconds in silence, opened my eyes, and forced myself to go up the stairs.

“Maybe you should go back to bed.”

“I’ll go back to bed, when Kaz comes with me. If I let his ass stay out here on his own, then all types of people will die.”

“I’m sorry about Yuri. Now wasn’t the best time for you to find out. I swear on everything that I will personally find out who killed Yuri.”

“I know you will. But, you’ll need help. I’ve got somebody in mind.”

“Who?”

“My brother, Maxwell. I want him on it.”

“Sounds good. I met him in Paris, he was no nonsense.”

“That’s Max.”

“He also smokes a lot.”

“Yeah. That’s Max too.” Exhausted, I let out a long breath and continued up the stairs.

Boris took my hand.

I needed the help and let him guide me up. Meanwhile, there was a lot going on in my head, but no time to analyze it all.

Boris continued to hold my hand as he led me to the war room and then opened the door.

I stepped inside.

Kaz stood in the center of the large space, swallowing up the room with his massive presence. His huge back had been to me.

As if he could sense me, he turned around. But he didn’t look at my face or smile. Instead, his attention went straight to Boris’s fingers wrapped around mine.

He glared. Those eyes were moving liquid, but so fucking cold.

A little tension left me.

Kaz.

Even with the anger on his face, my lion exuded a lethal beauty. He had the look of a high fashion editorial model—edgy, yet perfectly structured. Shoulders a mile wide. Dark hair cut with style. A sleek jaw.

His eyebrows were two dark slashes above thick-lashed eyes that glowed deep blue. In this moment, he lowered those brows and glared at Boris.

I took my fingers away from Boris’s hold.

“Emily, you’re awake.” Kaz placed his hands in his pockets and continued to watch Boris.

Pressure built in my chest as I walked forward. “What’s going on?”

Kaz kept his attention on Boris. “You should be in bed. You have to heal.”

“I won’t go back to bed, unless you’re in there with me.”

Finally, he directed his gaze to me. “I can’t right now.”

I crossed my arms. “Why not?”

“I have business.”

“No. You have war.”

Kazimir’s jaw twitched. His attention returned to Boris.

Silence thickened in the room.

I scanned the space.

Several people were inside.

“Hey, Em.” Max stood in the balcony doorway exhaling smoke and stamping out a joint. Worry creased his face. Max stepped inside but remained near the exit as if hoping to have somewhere to escape. That wasn’t a good sign. It meant that I wouldn’t like what was going on and that Max was participating.

I checked out the other men, who now had all of their gazes on me.

Pavel sat at the end of the table with his long black hair tied back into a ponytail. Pavel was Kaz’s cousin on his father’s side. Same age, they’d grown up together in Siberia. He wore a simple gray suit that clung to his fit body. However, tiny rubies pierced both of his ears. And that hair was sleek and shiny. Once Kaz told me that Pavel always traveled with two hair stylists. I damn sure could believe it.

The man from the airport was at the table too. I think Kaz had referred to him as King David. He was Bratva, but from the brotherhood’s Paris division. It showed. There was a designer finesse to David. Blue eyes. Blond hair—not cut short, but not as long as Pavel’s either. It waved down to his ears. He was young, probably close to my age. Somewhere in the early twenties. But the most intriguing part of him was the tattoos. Bible verses decorated the space under his chin and all over his neck.

Others sat at the table and were from his childhood days in Siberia. They’d been in his first gang along with Pavel—Abram, Roman, and Nikolay. I didn’t know much about them.

Abram had dark red hair, a pale complexion, and permanently scowling face. At Kaz’s party, he’d left without meeting me. Due to that, I found him rude and unworthy of my attention. Granted, his annoyance with me could have dealt with the fact that Kapotnya was part of his territory. And I had gone into it without his permission and recruited men and women. Today, he didn’t even look my way.