by Ali Vali
Cain stopped toward the head of the line and stared at a woman standing with two men, waiting to get in. She couldn’t believe she had the guts to show up here, and with company, no less. Time to put her reputation to work and get a date for the evening.
“Morris, let the lady and her friends in.” She pointed to the group. “They’re with me.”
“Thanks. I thought we’d have to stand there all night. Who’s that?” the blonde asked the bouncer, referring to Cain.
“The name is Cain, and it’s a popular club, miss,” she whispered in the woman’s ear as they made their way to the door. “People can’t wait to take a walk with the devil, even if it’s just for the night.”
“I’ve heard it can be quite unforgettable if you let yourself go.” Shelby tried to keep it clean since the small evening bag she was carrying had a powerful receiver.
“Can I interest you in a drink?”
“It’s the least I can do since you were so kind to get me out of that line.” Shelby wrapped her hand around Cain’s bicep and trusted her two work companions to keep up.
In the van parked a half a block away, three other agents listened to the conversation, not surprised Shelby had been noticed right away. She looked hot in the dress she’d chosen for the night’s assignment. Surprisingly, Casey had done the picking up.
“Just like a bitch in heat,” Kyle commented as the technicians adjusted the device in Shelby’s purse to drop out as much background noise as possible. They could easily hear the conversation over the loud dance music. “What an idiot. She didn’t learn her lesson from the first blonde who burned her ass.”
“What will you have?” Cain asked her at the end of the bar, which sent the staff into action. The bartender walked its length to reach Cain, ignoring angry customers who were screaming they were there first. “A mojito, perhaps?”
“Doesn’t that mean ‘little wet one’?”
“Well, I’d suggest something else, but I don’t know of a drink that connotes staying dry.” Cain’s joke referred to what had almost happened a week before on Vincent’s plane.
“How about just a club soda, since I’m not much of a drinker?”
“You heard the lady, Charlie. Club sodas all around.” Cain could see her guest, Vinny Carlotti, had arrived and was being escorted to her private table. Vinny’s entourage was shaking hands with her people. “Would you like to join me for a bit?”
Shelby was shocked Cain would even suggest it. She had tried unsuccessfully to get a transfer to another division since the night she’d met Cain. Her hostess had to know she was carrying some sort of listening device, but she didn’t seem to care.
“I’m just here for the music.”
Kyle almost blew the top off the van when Shelby gave that answer. To have Casey invite her into the inner sanctum of whatever was going on wasn’t an opportunity that came along too often.
“Trust me. You can hear it from over there.” Cain pointed to her table.
“If you’re sure.”
“What’s your name, arling’?”
“Shelby Phillips, and yours?”
“Like I said, why don’t you just call me Cain? Come on. Charlie will bring those drinks over to us.”
Shelby took the offered hand, and Merrick cut a path through the dancers for them as they made their way to the other side of the club.
The two other agents she had arrived with sat at the bar and kept an eye out in case Shelby needed them to intervene.
“Shelby, I want you to meet Vinny Carlotti. Vinny, this is my new friend Shelby.”
“Shelby and I have met.”
Cain arched a brow, wanting him to say from where.
“She works for my father, part time, I believe.” Vinny got up and shook hands with her before she took a seat next to Cain.
The agent didn’t knock Cain’s hand off when it came to rest on her knee and hoped her notorious friend knew what she was doing.
“Have you made all the appropriate arrangements?” Cain asked Vinny, liking the feel of the skin under her fingers.
“We’re all set to move for next week. My men will be there to help divide the shipment once you take control of it. Once it’s ready we’ll send it out from there. Dad added another truckload of cigarettes since some of the vendors we deal with on the Gulf Coast were interested. Overall we stand to make over five million apiece, if everything goes according to plan.”
“Good. We’ll be getting the warehouses ready to move the stuff out the same night we get it. I don’t want to be sitting on this much merchandise for too long and get my ass popped for it.” Cain shook hands with her old friend and made sure he and his party were taken care of for the rest of the night if they chose to stay.
“Want to join me in the office for a more intimate drink?” she offered Shelby.
“If she says no to this, I swear I’ll have her ass transferred to the most disgusting place I can think of,” Kyle said to the others in the van. He had already called the group assigned to Vincent Carlotti and informed them of the new alliance with Casey.
“Sure.” Shelby followed a little behind Cain, enjoying the way the black slacks and black turtleneck Cain was wearing looked on her.
“I’m sorry, ma’am, but Cain doesn’t allow anyone to carry anything in with them. If you’d like, you can leave your purse with me, and I promise I’ll keep an eye on it.” The big man standing at the front door of the office held his hand out and waited to see if the agent would comply. If he had to call Cain back out, it might look like he couldn’t handle the situation.
“It’s just a purse.”
“And it’s just her rules. Her club, her rules, that’s the way it works. If you like I can go in and tell her you’ve changed your mind about joining her.”
Shelby handed over the purse, knowing it was her last link to her backup. Not that she worried Cain was going to harm her, but Cain had made it clear it wouldn’t be a good idea for her to keep up her surveillance. She noticed the two men move from the bar to get closer to the office, but they weren’t able to get too close with the number of personnel Cain had between them and the door. To move in now would blow her cover not only with Cain, but also with Vincent. She hoped for the best and handed over the purse.
The office was a large space with only a bar, a desk, and a sofa that overlooked the crowd through what she assumed was a two-way mirror. Soft, low lighting made it feel warmer than it was, considering the sparse furnishings, but she could still see Cain clearly as she stood at the bar and poured two glasses of amber liquid.
“Irish whiskey,” she informed Shelby when she handed over the glass before walking over and sitting on the sofa. “Come over here. I’m not going to bite. Unless…” Cain was obviously referring to any other wires Shelby might be sporting.
“Don’t worry. Agent Kyle is most probably having puppies by now since my purse has left my person.”
“I’m glad to see you again, but to tell you the truth, I’m surprised you’re here.” Cain drained the glass and sat it on the floor by her feet. Eventually she would have to finish furnishing the space to make it more functional, but it hadn’t been a priority. She only came to the club when business demanded it or when she was in the mood for the rare evening out on the dance floor.
“I’d have put in another request for transfer this week, believe me, but any more of them and it would’ve started to look suspicious. I thought a few weeks of me coming up empty would do the trick, but you go and get all chatty on me. It’s going to be hard to get rid of me now. Why did you do that? Was it a test or something?” Shelby took a seat and left a little room between them. Cain looked criminally good tonight, instead of just criminal.
“Maybe it was my way of helping you get that medal we talked about.”
She slid closer and reached out for Cain’s hand. “I appreciate what you did for me, Cain, but we agreed I have a job to do, and I’m not going to shirk my responsibilities even though you know who I am. You ha
d to realize I was wired.”
“I told you before, I’m not going to sell you out, and you’ve upheld your end of our deal, I would imagine.”
She nodded. She had gone against everything she had been taught and believed when she omitted the truth of their flight. Cain had been right. No one from the bureau had even known she was gone, so it was more of a lie of omission than anything more sinister. Either way, if Cain turned out to be less than honorable, Shelby’s lie could come back to haunt her eventually. Pacts with the devil usually didn’t come cheap.
“I gave you my word, Cain.”
“Then that’s good enough for me, and once this is all over, I’ll see what I can do to help you get that transfer.”
She tugged Cain’s hand into her lap and ran her fingertip along the back of it, trying to find a way to say what was on her mind. “Not that I don’t appreciate your help. After all, you saved my life, but please don’t make any calls on my behalf.”
The low, mirth-filled laugh made her relax, assuring her she hadn’t insulted Cain. “I’m thinking more along the lines of your superiors being so impressed with your job performance they’ll move you further along, than of me picking up the phone. As surprised as I was to see you tonight, I’m glad you’re still around. Think you can lose your shadows tomorrow night and meet me for dinner?”
“I’d love to, but only if it’s dinner. You fascinate me, that’s true, but commitment is important to me, and even if you’d be willing to offer me that, I can’t.”
“My loss, then, but this is business. I trust you, Shelby, and I trust you to do the right thing with the information I’m going to give you.” Cain turned her hand in Shelby’s lap palm up so she would take it. It was sad in a way that they could never be more than friends. She liked the agent, and while Cain would never allow another woman into her heart, she would always welcome women like Shelby into her bed. “Are you ready? I don’t need the feds organizing a raid because they think I’m in here having my way with you.”
Shelby had played out the kiss they’d shared on the plane in her dreams more than once in the past week, and having the real thing so close proved to be too tempting. She moved so that she was almost in Cain’s lap and pulled the dark head down so she could reach the full lips that had felt so good before.
Cain opened her mouth and invited Shelby in as she put her hands on the agent’s hips and willed them not to wander. The door opening behind them broke them apart.
“Yes, Merrick?” She rubbed the side of Shelby’s mouth with the pad of her thumb. She didn’t need to turn around and confirm who it was. Merrick was the only one with the authority to open the door without knocking.
“The young woman’s companions were wondering how long she’d be.”
“Have Charlie pour them a drink on the house and tell them we’ll be out in a minute, thank you.”
The soft click left them in their quiet cocoon once again. Shelby figured the walls were extremely padded because of how quickly the music died away when Merrick closed the door.
“The last time I understood your actions, but tonight I’m at a bit of a loss,” said Cain.
“Last time it was because I was grateful. Tonight it’s just about wanting to. My life’s so ordered that it’s fun to put that aside for just one kiss and be happy in the moment.”
Cain slowly kissed her again, coaxing Shelby’s tongue to meet hers.
Shelby moaned at the contact, finding Cain’s erotic pull impossible to resist. Perhaps the dangerous way she lived her life, or the way her hands felt as they ran along the fabric of her dress until one came to rest at the underside of her breast? Whatever the reason, Cain wove a spell that was hard to just walk away from, but that was what she had to force herself to do.
“There’s a private bath behind the second door if you want to freshen up before we rejoin the party,” Cain offered.
Shelby pressed her lips to Cain’s cheek before she got up with a long sigh.
The man posted at the door handed her purse back with a wicked smile when she stepped out on Cain’s arm. Per his boss’s request, he had spent his time waiting for them to finish their meeting by singing along with whatever song the DJ was playing. Shelby would owe Kyle some aspirin when the night was done.
“How about a dance since you won’t sleep with me?”
Shelby’s face felt hot as she imagined the teasing she’d get later over the question. But she was also grateful to Cain for asking. A reputation for sleeping with the enemy was not something she wanted to add to her resume.
“Just one, then I’ll have to call it a night.” She waved to Special Agent Joe Simmons on her way to the dance floor with Cain, then stopped to hand her purse to Special Agent Anthony Curtis. Vinny was standing at the bar near them talking to Merrick, so it was the best place for it at the moment.
One dance turned into three before Cain signaled the DJ to slow things down, if just for one song. With Shelby this close, she took the opportunity to talk to her one more time. “You do realize why Kyle assigned you lead agent tonight, don’t you?”
“The guys wouldn’t have gotten this close?”
“There’s that, and they aren’t blond.”
Shelby laughed and thought about what the outcome might have been had Cain not had such excellent information on who her watchers were. Would the untouchable Casey’s Achilles’s heel be a pair of pretty eyes and soft breasts? She hoped not, since it would be rather petty.
“Time for us to retreat back to our corners, Agent.” Cain kissed the top of her head and walked her to the bar.
Merrick was waiting with Cain’s coat and had already called for the car. In only two days all hell would break loose, and Cain wanted to go home and spend time with Hayden. If she went to bed soon, getting up for an early run wouldn’t be such a burden.
Kyle watched the car pull away, with a tail not too far behind. All he needed now was a definite time for what was going down. They had already worked out the logistics of mounting a raid. Until he had that information, he wasn’t letting Casey out of their sight. He could almost taste the big payoff he’d get by bringing her down.
The two agents in the van didn’t mind stepping out while their boss made a call. Being stuck in the cramped space with him for such a long period of time almost qualified them for hazard pay. Next time they would try a different approach on Joe and Anthony to get them to take the post with the boss.
“This is Kyle, put him on.” He could hear a television blaring in the background before someone muted it and the person he’d called for came on the line.
“When?”
“I imagine sometime this week. Casey’s been to every pay phone in the city, thinking it would make a difference. Then she had a meeting with Carlotti’s kid tonight. With any luck I can catch two big fish with one cast.”
“You do that, and I’ll make it worth your while.” With that, the line went dead.
Chapter Twenty-Two
The steward gave final instructions for landing, and grumbling, sleepy passengers complied, bringing their seats forward and refastening their seat belts. Emma scanned the familiar marsh surrounding New Orleans and prayed for the best. She planned to confront Cain with the truth and hoped her ex wouldn’t add her to the marsh’s treasures as a food source.
Her father, stern but supportive when he delivered his pep talk on the way to the airport, had been confident Cain would accept the news of Hannah with nothing short of happiness. No one who treated one child with such caring could reject an innocent who was part of her.
“For the rest, Em, you’ll have to be patient. She loves you. Her heart knows that, but it’ll just take some convincing to get her head to agree.”
“If only it were that simple, Daddy.”
“There’s nothing simple about this, and you’ll need to deal with your son as well as Cain. Hayden isn’t going to let you into his good graces when he finds out. You have to commit yourself to not giving up.”
�
�Having you think I can do it makes me feel better.”
“You’re a parent, Em, like me. No matter what, you love your children and have to fight for their happiness. Hayden is missing what you can bring into his life, and our Hannah’s being cheated out of what Cain can add to hers. The most important thing missing here, though, is the completeness only you and Cain can bring each other.”
“How’d you get to be such a fount of wisdom living out there on that farm?” Emma reached over and squeezed her father’s arm with a smile, to let him know she was teasing.
“I watch Oprah when you aren’t looking.”
After her luggage finally appeared on the conveyer belt, she arranged for a cab to take her to her first destination. If her luck held, this course of action would be as successful as the first time she tried it. Of the very few avenues available to get to Cain, her uncle Jarvis was the only one she was sure wouldn’t just toss her out at first glance.
The kindly older gentleman strongly resembled his older brother Dalton and had always gone out of his way to make her feel like a member of the Casey clan. One of his niece’s most trusted advisors, he was one of the only people in the city not afraid to rail against Cain’s famous temper. She usually accepted his gentle rebukes because she knew Jarvis thought only of her best interests and those of the family.
Jarvis stepped to the front room of his house and hugged the woman whom he had come to love, regardless of how Cain felt. “Clara, please put Emma’s bag in one of the guest rooms upstairs. What brings you back so soon, child?”
“I come asking forgiveness again, uncle Jarvis.”
“Of Hayden? Surely your visit didn’t go that poorly?”
“No, of Cain this time. I’m not forgetting Hayden, but I’ve done something that hurt Cain more than anyone.”