by Ali Vali
“I want to help, and I know what that means.”
“When we’re done, we can go back to the way things were, but in here,” she tapped over her heart, “and up here,” she tapped the side of her head, “you won’t be able to undo it.”
“I can handle it.”
“I’ve got to worry—you’re my family.”
“Boss,” Katlin said from the door.
“We’re done, come in,” Muriel said.
Cain nodded and told them what she’d just learned from Shelby. “I need a few things from you all. Katlin, I want one of Rodolfo’s guys that was outside the day we went to the Steak Knife, the one with a ponytail.”
“You want to talk to this clown?”
“I’m interested in a long, private conversation.”
“We’ll go tonight and take a look. If you’re in for the night, I’ll take Lou with me and maybe he’ll recognize him.” Katlin leaned her hip against the side of Cain’s desk, and Muriel saw how she didn’t hesitate to follow Cain’s orders.
“Muriel,” Cain said next. “I’m going to have some of the guys work with you.”
“I can handle it myself.”
“In law school did they teach you how to break into someone’s house and not have them notice you’ve been there?”
“Breaking and entering? Since when are we involved in petty crime?”
“Think of it this way,” Cain said, not sounding upset with Muriel’s question. “If we get caught, it’ll be much easier to defend me against that than tax evasion and bootlegging.”
“Who are we robbing and how do I fit in?”
“Anthony Curtis—”
“Agent Anthony Curtis.” Muriel was shocked that Cain would even consider such a move.
“Is it time for you to go up to your office?” Cain asked, not quite slamming her hand down, but getting Muriel’s attention.
“I’m not trying to piss you off, just keep you out of trouble. Don’t you think they’re waiting for you to go after Curtis?”
“I’m always thinking, and if something goes wrong, don’t worry. It’ll be my ass in the vise, not yours.”
The set of Cain’s mouth was proof that Muriel had pushed too far and shouldn’t have initiated this conversation with Katlin and Lou in the room, but she didn’t let up. “Don’t you think I know that? That night in the warehouse you were supposed to be the only one in the line of fire—Emma was a surprise. And look at what that almost cost us. If you want this family to survive intact, get used to the idea of me taking care of you.”
“I appreciate that, but if you want to get involved in all the business, remember there’s only one person in charge. And you have to trust I know what I’m doing.” Cain glanced up at Katlin. “Since what I’m asking is new to you, I’ll put Katlin with you. I want someone in Curtis’s house, but don’t go near him. I need information, not the satisfaction of driving his nose into his brain.”
Muriel locked eyes with Cain but realized she couldn’t win. “What do you need?” she asked as her way of conceding.
After Cain started her list, Muriel realized she would have to go because it was the only way she could be sure they’d get what Cain needed. She knew without any explanation why Cain was asking and what she planned to do with the information.
“Cain.” Cain’s assistant came over the intercom. “I hate to bother you, but Remi Jatibon’s on the phone.”
“Any questions?” Cain asked the group in her office. She didn’t pick up until she was alone. “Remi, where are you?”
“I’m helping Dallas gather a few things from her place. She’s staying with me for several days since she’s got a lot going on, including starting her contract negotiations today. It reminded me why I asked you for help with Bob.”
Cain laughed at the frustration in Remi’s voice. “I think it reminded you that you want Dallas all to yourself. I’ve been there, my friend, and it can make you crazy.”
“I’m beginning to realize that.”
“Can you talk? I’ve got something that might help you,” Cain said as she opened the file she’d made on Dallas.
“Not right now, but I can swing by later.”
“Come for dinner tonight and bring Dallas. We can talk about your problem and recap everything else we’re facing.”
Remi laughed. “What, you’re not going to give me a hint? Did you find anything?”
“I had an idea and it panned out. Stop worrying. You’ll have to learn to live with some things and forget others, but you can have faith in what she feels for you.”
“Thanks, Cain. If you’ve got most of what I was looking for, I can call off my father.”
Cain hung up and closed her eyes, trying to order her thoughts. The casino deal, Juan Luis, Anthony Curtis, and Dallas Montgomery were all on her mind, and with enough time she would have some solutions. She already had an idea about Dallas and Anthony, which would only take some finishing inquiries. Nunzio Luca deserved her attention more than all the rest, and she wrote his name at the top of a fresh sheet on the pad on her desk.
To most, Rick was a small cog, and she was almost certain what had happened to him at the airport hadn’t been directed at her. That left two possible motives. Someone had managed to catch him unawares and mug him, or someone wanted him not to report something he’d seen. She circled “something he’d seen,” then picked up the passenger manifest.
She grabbed the phone again. “Are you still in the building?”
“I’m in the parking lot.”
“I need one more thing before you go.” Cain sat and waited for Muriel to come back in. “Hector Delarosa gave us the assassin, Jorge, didn’t he?”
“He went through Vincent, but yeah.”
“Call Vincent and find out how I can talk to this Delarosa guy. It has to be a clean line, since we know DEA isn’t limited to this country. If he’s big in Columbia, he’s being watched.”
Muriel rested her briefcase on the visitor chair. “What do I tell Vincent if he asks?”
“Vincent isn’t going to ask. He’s either going to set it up or not.”
“To satisfy my own curiosity, why do you want to talk to him?”
Cain wrote something down on the sheet and circled that as well. “A strange little man named Nathan gave me an idea. Now I need to talk to someone who can identify the shit that falls out of the Luis family tree when I shake it.”
Muriel stared at her like she was waiting for her to say something else. “Is that supposed to make sense?”
“Hiding in plain sight—that’s what I should’ve thought about when you handed me this, but what happened to Rick threw me off.” Cain stood up and waved her away. “Don’t worry about it yet. Scroll through that Blackberry of yours and see if you know anyone in Tennessee.”
“Because…”
“I promise I’ll be more informative after I talk to Remi about the Tennessee part. After that’s done I’ll have one less thing to worry about and we can concentrate on getting rid of the people out to harm us.”
“I’ll check and see if any of my classmates ended up in the Smokey Mountain State. See you at home later.”
Before Muriel could move, Cain joined her on the other side of the desk and hugged her. “I might bark a lot but you’re doing a good job. Remember to keep your head down and take time to think about what you want in the long run. Letting Shelby go sounds easy enough, but sometimes the hole it leaves is hard to deal with.”
“Are you buying a couch for in here?” Muriel asked in jest.
“If I do, you’re the last person I’d want on it.” Cain laughed as she put on her jacket. It felt good to laugh before she headed to St. Patrick’s Church to pay Rick her respects.
Chapter Forty-One
“She didn’t fire you?” Dallas asked, wiping the sides of her eyes after laughing so hard she’d teared up.
“Are you kidding? If I’d known how well spilling beer on her would turn out for me, I’d have dumped a pitcher on
her head the minute she walked through the door,” Emma said, kissing the pout off Cain’s mouth. Remi took out the leather carrier she kept her cigars in and offered one to Cain. “If you must, then head outside, you two.” Emma pointed to the back door.
They had finished dinner over an hour ago, but Cain hadn’t had the heart to break up Emma’s plans for after-dinner drinks in an effort to get to know both Remi and Dallas better. Emma had made acquaintances in New Orleans, but they weren’t trusted friends. Aside from Cain, Emma didn’t confide in anyone but Mattie, but she was in Wisconsin.
Cain thought that’s why she was trying so hard to bring Dallas and Remi together. Though Mattie was Emma’s best friend, she would never know what it was like to be married to someone like Cain. Their world was totally foreign to the wife of a dairy farmer, but Dallas, if it worked out, would be a true confidante.
“Before you tell me what, tell me how,” Remi said. They stopped at the pool, but Cain took her into the empty pool house. “It can’t be that bad, can it?”
Cain glanced around the place her inner circle of guards had made their own. “I want to make sure if you react to what I’m going to tell you, you don’t embarrass Dallas. If you do, that’ll stay between me and you.”
“How do you know what you found out is right?”
Cain put her hand on Remi’s shoulders. “Listen to me. Ramon followed the money, but that’s not what drives this girl. We needed the key to unlock her past, and I found it.”
The cigar in Remi’s hand hung loosely in her fingers as she fell into a chair. “What was it?”
“Her name,” Cain said. She pulled another seat closer and patted Remi’s knee. “Katie Moores of Sparta, Tennessee, and she hasn’t had an easy life.”
“Katie?”
“I don’t have the why yet, but Katie ran away with her little sister, Sue Lee, and ended up in Los Angeles. After she got there, she was too young and didn’t have any experience to make a living that would support two people.”
“She has a sister?”
“Kristen Montgomery, who’s a college student up North. Dallas has done a good job of keeping her away from her job and out of the limelight.”
“How did you find all this?”
Cain told her about Nathan and how he’d helped Dallas with the identity she’d used to build her new life. “If you couldn’t find her, then I figured there were only a few ways she could’ve managed an identity that’s stood up this long. I started with the best and lucked out.”
“How’d she afford that?” Remi asked, sounding as if the answer was something she needed to hear but dreaded at the same time. “Something like that isn’t cheap.”
“You have to meet Nathan Mosley. He made a deal with her, and she kept her end of the bargain. Otherwise he would have sold her out. The new identity holds up only if Nathan keeps a client’s secret.”
“What’s going to stop him now?”
Cain laughed as she headed to the bar. “My reputation is good for something, and Nathan seems to genuinely like her.”
“After you get to know Dallas you’ll understand why,” Remi said. She accepted the glass Cain handed her. “And I imagine what you’ve told me so far is just the fluff of this story.”
“You should’ve asked yourself how a girl you can’t find ended up on the screen. Where’d she get her start?” Cain raised her glass and encouraged Remi to take a drink. “Nathan didn’t know the whole story, but he knew enough to give me a place to start. Sweet China was the name she used in a short stint in the porn industry.”
“What?” Remi screamed.
“Think about the position she was in, and imagine what drove her to have to do that. She took what she learned in that life and created one she could live out with a lot more dignity. What’s wrong with that?”
“I’m not knocking her, but why in the hell did she think she needed to hide that? These days, she probably could’ve gotten bigger roles if people had known that’s where she started.”
Remi’s rage was hard to miss, and Cain gave her a few minutes to calm down. “While I can see where she wouldn’t be proud of that period of her life, I think she needed Nathan for another reason. To find that answer we need to go back a little further. This had to have begun in Sparta.”
“Where in the hell does Bob fit into all of this?”
“From what Nathan told me, he was there from the beginning, but only Dallas can tell us what that beginning was. I assume Bob knows every secret she wanted to bury. But I don’t think he knows about Dallas’s sister.” The cigar Remi had been holding was now in two pieces on the floor. “And we’re going to work together to make sure it stays that way.”
“How do we discover the rest?” Remi asked, pressing her fingers to the sides of her head.
“I’m going to have Muriel locate someone I can talk to.”
“If you do, this will be in the tabloids by tomorrow afternoon.”
Cain shook her head, pulled out a twenty, and handed it to Remi. “There’s more than one way to keep someone quiet.” She held up the bill.
“You can offer money to anyone, but if the story’s good enough, someone’s offer will be that much better.”
“Remi, if I give you this bill and tell you something, you probably wouldn’t tell anyone if I ask you not to, right?”
“You know it.”
“But how could I guarantee that you wouldn’t, legally, that is?”
“If I’m your attorney you could give me the money as a retainer,” Remi said, shaking her head and laughing.
“Don’t worry. I hit you with a lot tonight, and eventually you’d have figured that one out on your own. I’m going to hire a local attorney to do the digging for me. If the attorney-client privilege doesn’t convince him to keep quiet, my threat to rip out his tongue with a fingernail clipper might do the trick.”
Remi stood up and held out her hand. “Thanks, I owe you.”
“You owe me nothing.” Cain shook her hand and started for the door. “Does this change how you feel about her?”
“Not in the way you think. I’ve held back because I was wary of her, but now she’s exactly what I hoped she’d be. If I’m lucky she needs me in her life just a little.”
“I saw how she kept her eyes on you all through dinner. You don’t have a thing to worry about.”
Chapter Forty-Two
Remi passed the door of Dallas’s room and paused before continuing to her favorite spot in the penthouse. With the lights off inside, the traffic on the river was easy to see, as was the skyline of the downtown area and the aquarium. Here, twenty floors up, she couldn’t hear any noise from the Natchez Steamboat’s organ or from the tourists milling around having a good time. The quiet in the midst of all the commotion let her think.
Since they’d gotten back from Cain and Emma’s, Dallas had said little as she walked around and peered at the view. She seemed tired and withdrawn and hadn’t wanted to talk after the conversation they’d had when they got home, so Remi had walked her to her room and told her good night. The one thing Dallas had accepted before Remi closed the door was a kiss and a long hug.
To get Dallas to trust her, Remi had done something highly unusual for her. She’d given Dallas a clear picture of who she was, and hadn’t hidden behind innuendo or conjecture. If Dallas chose she could use the truth Remi had revealed to seriously damage her, but she couldn’t expect Dallas to open up to her if she wasn’t willing to do the same. She hadn’t expected Dallas to answer her phone and clam up immediately afterward, though. She’d tried asking if she could help, but after their kiss Dallas had simply lowered her head and closed the door.
“Patience,” Remi said softly to her reflection on the glass, “that’s what Emma keeps preaching.” From the pocket of her robe she retrieved her cigar clipper, opened the humidor sitting on the nearby table, and pulled out one of her favorite brands, ritualistically getting it ready to smoke.
For an instant, the darkness was broken
by the powerful cigar lighter her father had given her, then blue smoke outlined in moonlight billowed over her head. She watched it rise and thought about Dallas and everything Cain had told her. Could she live with the truth of Dallas’s choices? But who the hell was she to even consider judging her? Remi knew all about making difficult choices for the sake of taking care of her family.
The door of the guest bedroom opened quietly, and Dallas stepped out in bare feet, stopping at the end of the hallway, content to watch Remi smoke. She’d fallen asleep almost instantly when she lay down, wanting to escape the fear that had blossomed after she hung up with Kristen, but when her eyes opened again, something had energized her. The way Remi had so methodically laid out the truth meant they’d crossed some barrier Remi had mentally erected to keep her from getting too close. Dallas could imagine how her silence and sudden withdrawal had affected Remi. Most people interpreted silence as rejection, which was the last thing Dallas wanted.
As the smoke rings drifted slowly toward the ceiling she caught the slightest hint of the cigar, and while she’d never really cared for smoking, the aroma from the brand Remi was partial to wasn’t unpleasant. The humidor’s nearness to Remi told Dallas she sat here and smoked frequently. Taking a deep breath to settle her nerves, she walked until she stood in front of Remi, blocking her view. Remi’s eyes roved slowly up and down, making Dallas feel like she’d been caressed.
That was exactly what Remi wanted to do—touch Dallas until she’d memorized every curve and inch of skin. Instead, she curled the fingers of her free hand until they pressed against her palm.
Dallas stepped closer, making Remi concentrate on the sway of her hips and how mesmerizing the movement was because of the long white silk nightgown.
“I thought I told you my feelings about smoking inside?” Dallas asked, placing her hands on the arms of Remi’s chair. When she leaned forward in challenge, Remi had a delightful view down the low scoop neck.