That much was true as well.
“He sees only what he wants to see,” Mechanic said. “He wants a behavior, and he uses threats and intimidation to get his way. He does it with his employees as well.”
“When we work something this hot, we can’t afford to bring in an untried person,” Steele agreed. “I’m sorry. Maestro, I’m with you. I think if we lose this opportunity, we’re not going to get it back. You know how I am with Breezy. I don’t want her out of my sight. I lost my mind when I first had her back. And I’m not much better now, although I’m trying to give her freedom.” Even as he said it, he winced visibly. “She understands when we communicate. If Azelie is the woman you think she is, it’s my belief she’ll understand the reasons why you left her in play without telling her what’s going on.”
There it was. Steele was one of his closest brothers. He and Keys guarded the vice president and his family. Steele didn’t like having them watch his back so closely until Breezy and Zane, his son, came back into the fold. When it came to needing control, Steele was right up there with Savage and Maestro. He was over-the-top protective and needed to know where his woman was at all times. Breezy gave him that. Maestro was fairly certain Azelie would give him that same consideration without freaking out or thinking he was doing it just to control her. She would recognize he was working hard to overcome those needs that had been ingrained in him since his childhood.
“I’m making the call,” he decided. “She’s mine. I’m asking for everyone’s help in keeping her safe until we get this taken care of.”
“She going to be okay that you played her?” Gavriil asked.
“She’ll be pissed.” He amended that. “Hurt. She’ll be hurt at first, but once I explain it to her, she’ll understand. She’s like that. Hate hurting her for any reason, but we need the information Billows can give us to get to the next level. We also need to get those women out before they’re sold.”
Czar indicated the screen to Code. “Keep playing it. We need to see where the door is and how she got in.”
“It isn’t a key,” Master observed as they watched Azelie stand in front of the wooden wall. “Anyone count how many steps she took?”
“Seventeen,” Alena said. “She doesn’t have a long stride either.”
“I’ve got her stride down,” Maestro assured them as they all kept their eyes glued to the screen.
Azelie stopped in the hall, facing the wood. She took something from her pocket, palmed it, and then adhered her hand to a spot on the wall among the intricate carvings. Her fingers were splayed, and she pressed whatever was in her palm tight against the wall.
“Her fingerprints are being scanned,” Code observed, moving closer to the big screen. “Look at the color around each finger. It’s faint, but it’s there. There’s some kind of electronic plate there, and her fingerprints are critical.”
“I can lift her prints,” Maestro said. “That won’t be a problem. But it’s more than her prints. Whatever she palmed is also being scanned. That’s what I need to find. I have to know what that is.”
“My guess is a chip of some kind,” Code said. “That’s what it has to be.”
“He’s got two kick-ass clubs that are full every night,” Player said. “Both clubs bring in massive amounts of money, but he isn’t satisfied. He doesn’t have that kind of security on either of the clubs, which is insane.”
“Not if you’re training women as sex slaves and intend to sell them to the highest bidder,” Czar said. “You need a large space where you can hold them where no one can find them. You need another space to train them, and then you must have a setup for an auction. After that, you still need to ship them out without getting caught.”
“Hence the rooms beneath his underground Adventure Club,” Transporter said. “And the extra security.”
The door slid open, and Azelie stepped into a narrow staircase lit only by LED lights. Those LEDs were dim, throwing off enough light to illuminate the stairs and that was it. The stairs seemed to have walls close on either side. Azelie descended cautiously.
“Her heart rate doubled,” Code reported.
Maestro found his heart rate accelerated right along with Azelie’s. Her descending that steep staircase in such poor lighting gave off the feel of a very real horror film. Ominous. Sinister. Downright evil. He’d lived in a hell. All of Torpedo Ink had. They’d come from brutal torture, pedophiles for instructors. They were forced to become assassins at a very early age and became outstanding at it. Still, seeing the darkness as she descended slowly felt the same to him as the thousands of times he had been forced into the basement dungeon located below the school where he grew up.
“Mine has as well,” Alena reported.
“You’re not alone,” Lana confessed. “I hate this for her.”
Azelie turned to the right at the end of the stairs. They caught a glimpse of another corridor to the left, but once she made that turn, it was impossible to see anything but what was directly in front of her.
“She’s doing something with her hand,” Ice said. “Go back a couple of frames, Code.”
“The hand she’s holding the chip or whatever it is,” Storm agreed. “See, right there, she fished in her pocket and took out a chain. A necklace of some kind.”
She appeared to do it automatically, but she turned her jacket slightly, just enough for the camera to see her push her hand into her pocket and come up with a chain. It was long and made of what appeared to be silver.
“You see that before?” Czar asked.
Maestro shook his head. “She has jewelry on her nightstand in a little box but no necklaces. It’s cheap stuff. Cute but cheap. I couldn’t find a safe.”
“I thoroughly searched her apartment three times,” Keys said. “I didn’t see that chain either. Or find a safe.”
Azelie hesitated briefly just before an open door. She pushed what appeared to be a tiny square into a pendant hanging on the chain. The pendant looked like a small envelope charm. She put the chain around her neck and then dropped the pendant inside her clothing.
“That’s what you’re going to be looking for, Keys, when I take her out tomorrow night,” Maestro said. “We get that, we’re in.”
Keys studied the picture frozen on the screen. She had placed the chip in the envelope charm so quickly, her hand shielding the item, but at least they knew where it was. It was a matter of finding where she kept the necklace.
“We’ll need eyes on her all the time. She doesn’t have a safety deposit box at the bank, does she?” Czar asked.
Code answered. “No. And she would always need access to that part of the key. Billows seems to call her randomly. This crisis is most likely because he’s been informed his money has disappeared from his various accounts and no one can trace it. He’s acting out of character from what Azelie told Maestro.”
“No shit. I’d be flipping too if fifty million dollars disappeared into thin air,” Master said. “A little more than fifty million,” he corrected, “but who’s counting?”
“I think Billows is. He made bank with trafficking,” Transporter said.
“And a few other illegal businesses,” Code said. “The man knows people. Has the information we need. When we make our move on him, we need to be certain we keep him alive until we have a chance to get that information.” He glanced at Destroyer and then Savage.
Savage grinned at him and held up both hands. “Some men are pansy asses. They give up before we can extract the information. Just sayin’.”
Maestro knew he was full of shit. They all did. Savage didn’t like pedophiles or traffickers. He made that known to them immediately and he did so in extreme ways. He knew how to keep an informant alive and make them suffer the worst pain imaginable, but there were times when his disgust and need for vengeance outweighed his desire to allow the informant to talk.
