“Then turn on the damn light so everyone can see I’m not cheating you. No one is coming here, especially Mrs. Cricket. She rented a suite at Babylon so she could be closer to the clinic where her husband is recovering. So count already and be done with it. Where the hell is Javier Vincente Rodriguez? We had a deal, Santiago. Where is he?”

“On his way. Traffic. Who knows,” he said, never taking his eyes off Miggy, who was counting the money into neat, tidy piles.

“Okay, it’s all here,” Miggy announced.

“So when are you going to pop him?” Meadows asked.

“When he gets here if he gets here.”

The doorbell rang. In the bright light of Lizzie’s kitchen, everyone looked at everyone else. The decision had not been made as to who was to open the door for Rodriguez. Miggy took it upon himself to do it.

Under the fluorescent lights of the kitchen, Javier Vincente Rodriguez was a sight to behold. Never having seen him before, Miggy was in awe, as were the others who were gaping at him. His wild, rainbow-colored hair stuck up six inches over his head. He was tatted from his forehead to the toes sticking out of his run-down sandals. A swastika sat in the middle of his forehead. Tattoos of snakes, vermin, and other reptiles adorned his ears, his nose, his cheeks, and his neck. Alligators and pythons ran up and down his arms, with tats on each finger, along with a silver ring. Two round, gold circles were embedded in his oversized front teeth so that his lips couldn’t close together. A nose ring with a tiny bell tinkled when he moved or spoke.

“Well?”

Meadows stepped forward, obviously in pain. “I’m ready when you are,” he said through clenched teeth.

The door leading to the basement swung open, and Jack and the gang blew into the kitchen like a tsunami. Taken off guard, the Scorpions raced and scrambled for their weapons, but they were no match for Harry, his friends from China, Jack, and Cyrus, who was a black streak flying through the air when one of the Scorpions was about to swing a chain around Harry’s neck. Cyrus brought him to the ground, sat on his head, and waited for the order to release. Harry’s fist shot in the air in Cyrus’s direction as he leaped and twirled, dodging a machete that he snatched and threw into one of Lizzie’s kitchen cabinets.