Page 83 of Her Ruthless Protector

“Which kiss? Python or Kane?” A.J. asked.

“You kissed Old Sex Snake?” Cullen asked.

“Oh God, everyone can hear me?” A.J. moaned.

Kane nodded.

“How do I turn this thing off?” Kane showed her the switch to click. “Okay, Honey, I’m going. Chances are this is only a drill, but we always treat it like it’s the real thing. Got it?”

“Hell, Kane, I’ve got twenty-six acts and the prince of soul out in the audience. It is the real thing!”

He squeezed her hand and headed for the wings.

“A.J.,” Alistair yelled.

“A.J.,” Derik yelled.

“A.J., Shelly hollered.

* * *

“They’re amazing,”Raiden whispered as Heaven’s Demon Dream started their third chorus. Kane couldn’t believe these were the same women he had heard rehearsing a week ago. They were bewitching.

“They’re going to win,” Cullen breathed. Kane agreed with their assessments. He looked up and saw the acrobats up above the stage waiting to descend for their performance.

Again, his attention was drawn to the stage. The three women were blowing him away and it wasn’t just their voices—the way they weaved and around one another and the mammoth angel and devil puppets was spellbinding.

“Listen to them, I’ve never heard anything like it.” Cullen’s voice was enthusiastic.

“Enough with the commentary,” Max said. “Cullen, where are you?”

“I’m making my way through all of the administrative offices. Don’t worry, I’m paying attention to the job at hand,” he assured his boss.

“Good,” Max said. “Raiden, what’s your position?”

“Checking on Ed’s men at the tunnels. Even now we have people coming in.”

Kane grinned. Max wasn’t letting his men get away with shit. He wasn’t surprised. They needed to have their crap together for the big show. He looked back at Heaven’s Demon Dream. The guys were right. Old Sex Snake had done it. Kane would bet his bottom dollar that this would be the winning act.

The production scale of these performances was off the charts. Kane had occasionally watched the Oscars and had thought that those shows were something else, but that was nothing compared to this. How in the hell were those big puppets picking up those girls?

Before Max had to ask him, Kane did a sweep of the audience and the field. He and Leo had two of the best positions.

He grabbed his binoculars so that he could see across the field to where the men were positioned on top of the VIP section.

What the hell?

“Nick, what’s the shooter on the roof looking at? He has his gun pointed up at the sky.” They hadn’t had enough headsets to go around to all of Ed’s people so he couldn’t get him on his mic, but Nick sure as hell better answer. He was on the opposite side from the shooter that Kane was talking about, but Hunter’s hidey-hole cut was right beneath the guy.

“Ed, contact your guy. He’s got something in his sights. Leo, do you see anything?”

The women were at their crescendo. One of the puppets crashed to the ground, taking the blonde with him. Was that part of the act?

“Asher, get A.J. to turn on her mic. Now!” Kane needed to know what was going on.

“I think we have shots fired.” Kane aimed his binoculars onto the performers, but he didn’t see any sign of injury, and they were still singing.

Was he wrong?