by Ali Vali
“Don’t fuck around like that,” Katlin said as she slapped Muriel’s back. “Everyone’s entitled not to be perfect, and you’ve cashed that chip in.”
Cain laughed at Katlin’s razor-edge personality. If she wanted someone to cut to the bone without much buildup, Katlin was her first choice. “Listen to your family,” she said as she pressed her hand to Katlin’s cheek.
“You’re never this forgiving, so I can’t help but think it’s charity. I don’t want to be the pathetic and idiotic member of the clan you have no choice but to take care of.”
“Do you think Hayden will make every choice and decision perfectly when he starts with us?” Muriel shook her head. “You’re right, he’ll make plenty of mistakes like his mother, and like Da, I’ll forgive each one. It won’t have anything to do with pity or charity, and I’ll take everyone down who says otherwise. Don’t expect me to treat you any differently.”
“I’m not a child.”
“Not gauging by your age, but if you keep talking like this I might change my mind.” She laughed to not make the comment sound too stinging. “Face it, Muriel, I’ll forgive you whatever sin you commit because I love you. We’ve shared a life and a friendship that outweighs any wrong you’ve built in your mind.”
“What are you going to do about Shelby?”
“I’m going to give her what she wants.”
Muriel came halfway off the chair and dropped back when Cain stopped her momentum with a hand on her shoulder. “You can’t mean that.”
“Well,” she tapped Muriel’s chin with her fingers, “I’m going to give her what she thinks she wants.”
Chapter Four
Shelby’s car was still outside the house. She and her need for revenge weren’t going away, and Cain really couldn’t fault her for that. If Shelby hadn’t dedicated the whole of her career to convicting her of something no matter what the cost, she would’ve talked to her by now.
“Go around back, boss?” Lou asked.
“Yeah, I want to stop at the pool house before going in.”
Her longtime guard and friend, Merrick Runyon lived with Katlin in the converted space next to the pool. She hadn’t spared any expense to transform the structure into a handicap-accessible suite complete with a new bathroom and a heater for the pool. The physical therapist she’d hired was there six hours a day, and with the work they’d done in the water, Merrick was now able to get around with a walker. She’d retired the wheelchair completely.
Merrick had put it all on the line to save Emma, so no matter how long it took or how much it cost, Cain had vowed to get her back to full health. The bullet Juan Luis had put in Merrick’s head was a favor she was impatient to return and something the first therapist said Merrick would never fully recover from. It’d taken willpower not to punch the guy in the face or give Katlin permission to shoot him, since the idiot had made his prediction in front of Merrick.
“Hey, Cain,” said Diane Hazell, the physical therapist, as she slung her backpack on. “A few more weeks and we graduate to a cane.”
“I’ll owe you the world when you’re done.”
“A glowing recommendation will do.” Diane laughed and held her brown, curly hair away from her face. “This is the easiest gig I’ve ever had.”
“Good, I want you happy.” She watched Diane walk away as she knocked on the door.
“Come in,” Merrick said.
They’d spoken often after these sessions, and Merrick had commented on the sheer will it took to get through them. Cain couldn’t truly appreciate what it was like, but could imagine the frustration that was now Merrick’s constant companion. Gone from Merrick’s life was the spontaneity most people took for granted. In the first months of her and Katlin’s relationship, Cain had seen them having fun at her nightclub, Emma’s. Their nights out now meant a trip up to the house for dinner a couple of times a week.
“You aren’t beating on yourself with that big guilt stick you carry around, are you?” Merrick asked with her usual sarcasm and sense of humor.
“How’d it go today?” She sidestepped the question as she scanned the room, stopping at a small framed picture that was a duplicate of the one on her desk. That her family was so important to both Katlin and Merrick was a blessing.
“That girl, Diane, is cute, but she’s a bitch.” Merrick laughed and pointed to the chair closest to the sofa she was lying on. “There’s something freeing, though, about that pool. The way I’m able to move around in there gives me hope for the future. Once I can walk without resembling Frankenstein I can start getting back into a shape that isn’t quite so round.”
“If Katlin was here, you’d get a spanking for that one.” She held Merrick’s hand and didn’t feed into the self-deprecating humor. “My cousin’s not perfect except for one thing.” Merrick nodded and squeezed her fingers, as if her words had overwhelmed her emotions. “The way she loves you is the way I love Emma. It’s perfect not because we don’t make mistakes, but because we love without reservations. No matter what happens, trust that Katlin will always be here.”
“Speaking of Emma,” Merrick said as she dabbed at her eyes, “she’s getting good at swimming laps while Diane tortures me. If I haven’t said it before, that’s one special lady, and I’m sorry for all the shit I said about her.”
“Once she has you watching her back again, you might change your mind, so hold off on the praise,” she said with a wink. “Emma’s mood when she’s really pregnant sneaks up on you at times.”
“I was shot in the head, so I’m ready for anything,” Merrick joked back.
“Until then, anything new?”
Merrick’s body still wasn’t where she wanted, but her mind was sharp, as it had been from the day of the attack. When Cain had given her an assignment, it’d helped with the rehab, probably because Merrick believed she hadn’t lost faith in her.
“With Katlin’s help we’ve talked to some of the smaller players,” she said as she moved as if trying to find a more comfortable spot. “You know, the guys standing on the street corners.”
“Sometimes the people holding the dime bags are the ones with the most useful information.”
“Right, so since I’m stuck here for the moment, I’ve sent Katlin out a few nights a week with a list of questions I want answers to.”
Cain crossed her legs and tapped her fingers on her knee. Maybe it was time to give Muriel more access to their daily operations, cutting Katlin loose to help Merrick. “She find anything?” If she had, Katlin hadn’t shared it with her. A deep breath tamped down the sudden irrational anger that made her chest burn. These blinding episodes had been a side effect, not of her recent concussion, but in response to not being in control from the second she saw Merrick in that car and Emma not beside her.
Control was as much a part of her makeup as her blue eyes, and Juan Luis had plucked it away in one savage moment. Sometimes it was as if he’d ripped it from her body and held it up and gloated—a bleeding lump he’d ground under his heel that proved she’d never be able to let her guard down ever. That missing piece would forever be gone and cause her to lose all those special people in her life.
“Stop it,” Merrick said with heat.
“What?”
“The gloomy thoughts that’ve been slicing through your soul like a hot knife through butter. What happened wasn’t your fault.” Merrick put her hands up when Cain opened her mouth. “Juan is an idiot who deserves whatever death you’ve planned for him, but that’s not who I’m interested in.”
“Anthony, you mean?”
“Without that motherfucker, Juan would’ve spent his life jacking off while he thought about Emma. No offense, but you know that’s as close as he would’ve gotten.”
“My problem, though, is that Anthony is now linked to the idiot and his mother because he has no other option. I don’t exactly have an informant in the FBI, but there’s no way Annabel takes him back.”
Merrick stared at her for a long moment. �
��They were going to cut Barney Kyle loose. Have you forgotten that?”
Barney Kyle had turned Emma against her or, more accurately, had driven her away. Not only had he been the special agent in charge of the FBI office in New Orleans, but he’d been on a rival family head’s payroll. Merrick had derailed his release from jail by putting a bullet in his head at Cain’s order.
“Annabel can try cutting a deal with him, but to do that, she’s got to find him. It’s my goal in life to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
“It’s what I really want for my birthday this year,” Merrick said, in a way that made Cain laugh.
“So what answers do you have so far?”
“Hector is gaining strength from Florida to Texas, and only two speed bumps are in his way keeping him from total dominance.”
“Carlos Luis has to be my first guess,” she said of the late Rodolfo Luis’s son, a son he’d claimed only hours before he died. Before that, Carlos had served him faithfully as the head of his security detail. Rodolfo had made it clear to everyone who worked for him that his business and money were to go to his son, not his traitorous sister and nephew.
“Carlos has been keeping what rightfully belongs to him in Mexico and is slowly branching north. Because the buyers find him fairer than Hector, he’s got a steady stream of people willing to work with him.”
“That gives me another guess.” Merrick nodded when she held her index finger up. “Gracelia Luis is trying to make her way without her big brother.”
“She’s trying, but those truly loyal to Rodolfo are on Carlos’s side, and because Rodolfo’s house is like a fortified compound, Gracelia’s homeless.”
The pieces were starting to fall, but the major ones were still missing. “No word on Juan and Anthony?”
“So far, no.” Merrick’s face lost all expression. “Any mention of the Luis name mostly leads back to Carlos. Gracelia now goes by the name Ortega, and everyone fell in line when it came to compliance. I think that has more to do with insult than respect. No one, no matter what power they hold, agreed with the bitch’s actions. In a way it amounted to Jarvis taking your father out to gain control. It just isn’t done.”
“Gracelia doesn’t understand honor or code, but she’ll catch on eventually. The Bracatos did, after all, and look what happened there. That name died out, and the world is a better place for it.”
“Go home, and I’ll keep digging.”
“Thanks.” She stood and placed a kiss on Merrick’s forehead. “It’s time to send the lost sheep on its way.”
*
Shelby glanced at her vibrating phone but didn’t answer. Fiona O’Brannigan was calling again in an effort to tell her to drop this quest to see Cain, she guessed. They had the same conversation every day, so she wasn’t expecting a change in topic now from the California detective who had led the investigation into her parents’ murders. Her dad had been Fiona’s mentor on the force, but even that close friendship couldn’t make Fiona understand the enormity of what she’d lost.
The cops weren’t ever going to find answers about the gunman, no matter how many man-hours they dedicated to this case. Shelby knew only that her parents were butchered as a diversion, nothing more. That’s how little someone thought of them. Their deaths were meant to put the scent on Cain, and like an idiot, she’d fallen for it.
Her reaction had ensured the death of her relationship with Muriel and the once-strong tie to Cain. All she had left was Fiona and the team she’d worked with since arriving in the city, but none of them understood the ball of rage that was close to consuming her.
“Special Agent Phillips.” Carmen, Cain’s housekeeper, folded her hands in front of her.
“Did you tell her it was important?” Carmen welcomed her every morning and evicted her every afternoon. She was so polite and nice about it, Shelby left without argument whenever Carmen asked.
“I tell her every day,” Carmen said in a tone that projected pity for her. “But I’m not here to tell you to leave. Ms. Casey said it’s okay for you to go back.”
Finally, she thought as she followed two steps behind Carmen. She saw Cain at her desk through the open door, and for the first time she was envious. Cain Casey wasn’t simply attractive; she lived by no other code than her own. Every problem she’d ever encountered, she’d dealt with and buried the evidence so deep, no one would find it in this lifetime. How freeing that must be.
“Shelby,” Cain said as she stood and moved around the desk to take her hand. “I never got the opportunity to offer my condolences on your recent loss. No matter our age we still need our parents, and their loss leaves a profound sadness that seems to cling to us like an oppressive blanket in summer.”
“Thank you.” When Cain touched her she had to swallow a few times in an effort not to cry. “Thank you for seeing me.”
“It’s no problem, since Cain understands better than most what you’re going through,” Emma said, and Shelby whipped around at the sound of her voice. She hadn’t counted on Emma’s presence, considering why she was here.
“Thank you, Emma, and you’re right. Cain is the only one who understands my loss.” She released Cain’s hand and fully faced Emma. “Since we agree, do you mind if I meet with Cain privately?”
Cain watched Emma’s reaction and almost laughed at the way Emma’s eyes closed to slits. The only way she’d leave the room was if she ordered Lou to hogtie her and drag her out. “Shelby, have a seat.” She pointed to the chair closest to the sofa before taking her place next to Emma. “Trust that whatever you have to say, you’re free to do so in front of Emma.”
“I’d rather not.”
“Then this will be a short visit.” The flash of anger that spread across Shelby’s face marred her features and proved to Cain that Shelby still hadn’t cooled off. Someone with this much rage wasn’t in control.
Shelby stared at her with mouth set in a thin line and, after what appeared to be an internal struggle, finally relented. “I blamed you for my parents. I was so sure.”
“You don’t have to elaborate on that—we believe you,” Emma said. “Cain has the bruises to prove it.”
“I’m sorry for what happened to you,” Shelby said sincerely. “The only family I truly have now is an aunt, and my team.”
“Shelby.” Cain wanted to interrupt Shelby’s run down an emotional road that would get them nowhere. “Had you asked me, I would’ve been honest. But you should’ve considered how important you were to Muriel. I would’ve never hurt you or your family because of that fact alone.”
“I was important to her.”
“Muriel wanted more from that relationship than I think you were ready to give.”
The skin around Shelby’s neck turned bright red as she spoke, and her jugular veins were vivid. “I really don’t need a lecture.”
“I love Muriel, but I understand your motivations, so this is no lecture. When you examine your life truthfully, you’ll see it’s actually made up of priorities. We work and strive for the things we want most. I won’t dispute that you care for Muriel, but you care greatly about your job. Muriel always came second to that.”
“You know that’s not true. Muriel is the main reason I do my job so well.”
Cain put her hand up to make Shelby stop talking. It’d taken only one blatant lie for her body to tense. “You have interesting ideas about love, and I’m not in the mood to argue with you. Perhaps you saw yourself as a crusader who was saving my cousin from a life she’s been forced to live.”
“You honestly think she had a choice up to now?” Shelby asked, and the tentacles of anger spread quickly into Cain’s skull, making pain flare above her right eye.
“Everyone has choices, Agent Phillips, but your self-imposed nobility has blinded you to that. You’ve also chosen to ignore the truth of who Muriel is and what she was willing to give up for you.” She stopped to take a deep breath, realizing the volume of her voice was climbing. “Muriel is the daughter of Jarvis Casey,
and she embraced him and the rest of her family proudly. Had Muriel chosen to stay with you, the rest of our family would’ve never turned our backs on her.”
“But you would’ve locked her out, right?”
“You’re the one with a lecture to give, it seems,” Emma said hotly.
“Did you want something?” Cain asked, not in the mood for this bickering.
“I’m sorry, but I do love Muriel. It hurts that you’d think otherwise.” Shelby sounded contrite as she rubbed her palms along her slacks. “I need your help, Cain,” she said in a half whisper, as if she loathed the words and the request. “You’re the only one I can ask.”
“If I can, I will,” she said, and almost laughed at Emma’s hard pinch to her leg. “What do you want?” It wasn’t difficult to guess, but she wanted Shelby to spell it out.
“I need the animals who killed my parents to pay.” Shelby held up a finger as she spoke. “And I need to watch as the life of those who ordered the hit ends when I pull the trigger.” She held up another finger at that. “You and I know we’ll never make enough headway with the investigations to hold anyone accountable.”
“We…as in the FBI?” she asked.
“Or the police, take your pick. The bastards who killed them are safe back in Mexico, and their bosses are having a good laugh about it.”
“Shelby, let me share something with you before I give you my answer.” Cain smiled to put Shelby at ease. “My father was a powerful man who, like yours, was taken from me by ignorant assholes. When he died I thought of nothing but revenge. The need for it consumed me.”
“That’s how I feel.”
“My mother told me something before her life ended the same way my Da’s did. She said, ‘To avoid the fruit of sin, stay out of the devil’s orchard.’”
“What does that mean?” Shelby asked.
“Revenge is something you think will soothe the ache that loss leaves you with. Like apples growing in an orchard, it will tempt you, but it’s an illusion. Once you pull the trigger, it won’t bring your parents back or fill the hole in your heart. It might give you a brief sense of satisfaction, but it won’t be the miracle cure that’ll right your world. Take my advice and avoid the orchard, the sin,” she said as she placed her hand against her chest, “and the devil you’ll find there. This devil for sure will not lead you into that tempting place.”