by Ali Vali
“That you did, sweetheart,” Ross said, embracing Cain next.
“Let me get to work so we can celebrate later.” Cain left them to find Lou and Muriel in the kitchen.
“Where are we meeting everyone?” Lou asked.
“According to Shaun, Santino’s here but alone. So let’s go see Jasper’s new compound.” She put on a suede jacket and sat in the back with Muriel. “Nunzio didn’t learn anything last time, so this might get his attention, and once he pops his head out of whatever hole he’s hiding in, I’m going to blow it off.”
*
“I put my guys over at the Hilton like you asked, Cain, and it got them to move,” Jasper Luke said once they’d driven through his newly built security entrance at the end of his private street. Jasper and his family had been friends for years, and no matter how successful he became, he’d never had the desire to move out of the lower ninth ward.
Twenty-five feet of water had destroyed the old place he had and shared with his Aunt Maude, but Jasper had wasted no time rebuilding. The main house was almost finished, and the rest were in various stages of construction. Cain laughed when the first place he’d shown off was the kitchen he’d built for Maude, who’d raised him from the time he was three.
“That’s what we needed so I could see who was with him. From what your guys and mine have said, Nunzio is so far a no-show.” Cain glanced at Remi and her brother Mano. “I had other plans for Nunzio, but I think the time has come to eliminate the threat. What I need from you and you, Vinny,” she said to Vincent’s son, “is for you to be ready to pick up the slack. Hector’s got problems, from where I’m not sure, but we can’t let him move in on this action.”
“You say when and where and we’re there,” Vinny said.
“Wait,” Remi said, holding her hand up. “What was your original plan?”
“I wanted to be sure of all his holdings and dealings so Jasper and Vinny wouldn’t have to go looking. That would’ve been easier, but now he’s sending people to Hector to say I stole from him and that you must be a part of it because the stuff was found in your building. I think between all of us, we’re smart enough to figure it out.”
“I can be patient if you want to do that.” Remi seemed relaxed, but Cain knew how deep her hatred for Nunzio went. “Like I told you before, as long as he ends up dead, I’m not interested in how long it takes if it helps us.”
“We can’t kill what we can’t find, and he’s not here or in New York. I’m guessing Santino has become his mentor since Junior’s death.” She thought of the old man she’d met in her early twenties with her father. “Junior and Nunzio didn’t learn much from him, but they should’ve paid attention. Santino is no dummy, so that’s where we’ll start, and the rest should take care of itself.”
“When?” Remi said, smiling like she’d just been given the winning lottery numbers.
“As soon as we hear from Shaun that he’s headed out, we’ll be waiting. I need him in a secluded-enough spot that we can take him without too many witnesses.” As if conjuring him up by mentioning his name, Lou’s phone rang. It was Shaun.
“He’s leaving now, Boss.”
Cain smiled. “See, and my mother-in-law thinks God doesn’t love me.”
*
“Are you sure?” Nicolette asked, skeptical of the information Freddie had given her. “Why would someone call you with that?”
“When I worked with Emray we picked up a few of the shipments, and it was my job to be there to meet them with girls. For some reason, those guys loved hookers from Airline Highway, and I’d pick up a few so they could party while I unloaded. Then they’d turn around and head back.”
“Don’t you think that’s a big mistake on the part of whoever’s in charge?”
“Look, if they’re running again, this is how they started. Eventually the shipments came directly to the bar once they figured out the guys at customs only ever looked at the boxes. Once in a while, they’d open a few, and since all the stamps and shit were there, it was like brushing your teeth every month after that,” Freddie said in a flat tone. “You said you wanted in. If that’s true, tonight’s the night.”
“What do I need?”
“The way it worked before, four guys were on the boat, and me and Mitch would come and unload. We did that for like six months, and then all we did was go pick up the finished product from this guy on the west bank that knew how to turn it back.”
“There was no more security than that?”
“The place they come into is deep in the woods south of here. You don’t need security if no one’s around for miles.”
“So how much in each shipment?” Nicolette started plotting as Freddie answered each question.
“Each shipment was the same since it was all they could fit on the boat. It’s enough to get you started, if that’s what you’re interested in.” He crossed his arms over his chest and stared at her. “I’ll go and show you, but you have to keep me on. If Nunzio and his grandfather find me, I’m a dead man.”
“You have no idea who it’s coming for?”
“The guy just said they’d be here around eleven tonight. He didn’t say who the delivery was for because he guesses I’m going to be there to pick it up.”
“Get dressed and be ready to go in an hour. I’ll get enough people to wipe out whoever’s there and take the shipment. If what you’re telling me is for real, then I’ll set you up here to deal with this from now on.”
“That’s what Nunzio Luca told me, and then he fucked me.”
She winked at him and stood, her hand gliding from the side of her breast to her hip. “As you can see, I’m not Nunzio Luca, so you’re going to have to trust me. Either take my offer, or after tonight, you can go back to him and beg for scraps. If you live long enough, I doubt you’ll be your own man ever again.”
“An hour then, and make sure you bring enough people to get us both out of there alive.”
“Don’t worry. You can hide behind me,” she said and laughed.
Chapter Thirty-four
The sedan that picked up Santino at the hotel started driving southwest out of town and turned off eventually where a string of small fishing towns was located. All of them were sparsely populated, and the people who did live there were always suspicious of outsiders. A line of cars like the ones Cain’s group was in would be as obvious as a drunken guy masturbating in the middle of a Sunday mass.
“Doesn’t Emile keep his boat around here?” Cain said as they drove down the ramp off the highway. They’d let one of their people follow so they in turn could lose their own shadows. With Vinny and Jasper’s help that had been easier than usual.
“About fifteen miles in,” Remi said as they both watched the three cars with Santino. “How about I call him and ask him to get some of his friends to give us a buffer?”
“Tell him to drop Dallas at the house and come down and meet us. We might need him later since he’s familiar with the area,” Cain said of Dallas’s bodyguard.
It didn’t take long for a few pickup trucks to pull out in front of them and stay between them and the three sedans they were following. After another twenty miles, the sedans turned left on a dirt road and disappeared into what looked like a swamp. The pickup closest to them pulled over, and the guy got out and started walking toward them, waving them off the narrow road.
“You the guys with Emile?” the man said with a thick Cajun accent.
“That’s us,” Lou said, shaking the man’s hand. “What’s in there besides the makings of a good horror movie?”
“You don’t get out the city none, do you, cowboy?” the man said with a laugh. “There’s an old pier about a mile in, but that there’s the only road in or out since there’s water on either side. Rumor is the drug guys use it to bring that shit in from the Gulf. Pretty cars like that make me believe it.”
“Are you familiar enough with the place to go in without turning your lights on?” Cain asked.
“My
truck’s not bulletproof, no.”
“Lou up there will go with you and a few others in the bed of the truck, in case there’s trouble, and we’ll be right behind you.” She thought of going it alone since this guy was a potential witness and was about to tell him that.
“I do that favor for you, friend, and you do one for me?”
“What’s the favor?” she asked, wondering if she’d be boat shopping after this.
“My little girls had to go live by their mama’s place because the judge man wouldn’t listen to me. My old lady can live with that bastard all her life if she want, but that man went to prison for touching kids. I want my girls out of there with me.”
“You drive me in there, and I’ll take care of it. I’m persuasive when I want to be.”
Cain and Remi got in the front and watched as Lou and a few others got in with their new friend. Right before they took off, a car came speeding up the road and stopped right next to her. It was Katlin and Shaun.
“Let me drive,” Katlin said, so Cain and Remi moved to the backseat. “We hung back to make sure Nunzio wasn’t with them, but the old man’s on his own on this one.”
The shooting started right when they turned off the highway, but their guide kept going in as if he did indeed have a bulletproof truck. He stopped as soon as the narrow road that appeared to hover over the swamp opened into a clearing large enough for a house to have once been there. Apparently, someone else had been waiting for Santino and had shot up the first of his vehicles, which was now almost standing up in the water after having gone off the side. The two cars following it had no choice but to stay and fight since Cain’s group had them hemmed in.
“Katlin, who are those people?” Cain said, crawling into the back of the SUV and retrieving a weapon. “Open up the back.”
“Let’s ask later,” Katlin said, turning to the right to use Santino’s remaining cars as a shield. “Shoot anything that moves,” she yelled as the night lit up with gunfire. They concentrated their fire on the four SUVs close to the water, while Lou and their guide kept Santino’s party under control.
Cain stepped out of the SUV and aimed her machine gun at the flashes coming from the direction of the water. Lou had brought enough clips to wage a war so she didn’t let up. When Remi joined her, the people shooting back immediately went down in number until the night went silent.
“Stop shooting,” a man yelled and came out with his hands up.
The guy in the truck aimed a spotlight at him. He seemed like the only survivor, but Cain wasn’t taking a chance. A few more shots rang out, but she guessed it was Lou shooting at Santino’s people when they tried to clear the road so they could get away.
“I’d take a stroll to see who the hell all these people are, but it’s darker than the inside of my ass out here,” she said, and Remi laughed.
“You alone?” Lou asked. “If you’re not, you’d better drop and roll. The order spurred another round of shooting, and Katlin, Shaun and Lou took the opportunity to advance to where Santino’s cars were and found only two people alive.
“I’m shocked the cops aren’t all over this place,” Cain said as she tried to make out anything in the darkness.
“You in the middle of nowhere here, my friend,” the guy from the truck said. “Ain’t no law or anyone else coming, but if you wait here, I’ll go see who’s left.” He took his white rubber boots off and got in the water. It took what seemed like a second for him to disappear.
“You couldn’t pay me to do that,” Cain said. “What do you think Santino was doing way out here?”
“All clear, friend,” their guide called out, and the man who’d stepped out to give himself up to Lou got up with his hands way over his head.
Lou jogged to keep up when Cain headed to the ring of cars along the water’s edge. None of the dead guys seemed familiar until she got to the third one and saw the blond hair. Nicolette was still alive but had gunshot wounds to the shoulder and right abdomen, the blood marring her suit.
“You bitch,” Nicolette said when she squatted next to her. “How did you know?”
“This is what you’ve come to?” she asked, shaking her head at the fact that Michel would allow his daughter to lead him in this direction. “You never did know your limitations did you, Nic?”
“Help me,” she said, holding her hands to her abdomen. “I can tell you what Hector has planned for you and that little family of yours.”
“That you would know seals your fate. Remember how you got here and who was responsible,” she said as Katlin stood behind her with her gun at the ready.
“How I got here?” Nicolette laughed weakly. “I got here because of you. Always you, who couldn’t learn to just accept that I love you and you belonged to me. Kill me, or I swear I’ll kill you the minute I’m able to hold a gun.”
Cain started to walk away.
“Cain, wait,” Nicolette screamed again. “Don’t leave—”
Katlin’s shot silenced whatever else Nicolette was going to say. Cain stopped and glanced back. No more loose ends, she’d vowed, but for once she wished Nicolette had gone home and back to the grapes she loved so much. Instead, she’d died in this mysterious place and would have no headstone or coffin in the French countryside of which she always spoke so fondly.
“Found these two hiding in the trees,” Lou said as Santino and some other guy glared up at her from their knees. “The rest of them are dead.”
“How’d you know about this?” Santino asked.
“The woman trying to kill you asked me the same thing, but I only wanted you. I’m not sure about the rest of it.”
“Look, they’re coming,” the only man alive with Nicolette, standing there with his arms up, said loudly as a power-sounding engine seemed to be getting closer.
“You know them?” she asked, and the guy frantically nodded. “Do they know you?”
“Yeah.”
“Good. Make the transaction and don’t get cute. If I even think you’ve made a wrong move, I’ll make you sorry.” Cain glanced around her and waved everyone back. “Take cover. I don’t want to fire another shot tonight.”
Lou knocked Santino and the other man out and dragged him into the trees. They all watched as a cigar boat pulled up to the rickety dock. The man Cain had let live pointed to the cars Nicolette’s people had come in and seemed to be telling them a story. “Just help me get them on land and I’ll call for help,” he told the guy who didn’t appear to speak very much English.
“Freddie, you owe me,” the man said thirty minutes later before he shoved off.
“Freddie, what’s in the boxes?” she asked, and was surprised at his answer. “Mano, can you escort Freddie back to town and introduce him to Vinny and Jasper, please?”
“What about all that stuff?” Mano asked.
“Should fit in two of the Suburbans if we pack them up right,” Remi said, waving for Simon to pull their vehicle closer. “If not, leave the rest here and we’ll bring them with us after we take care of things here. Call Vinny and tell him you need a safe place to unload, and have this guy Freddie walk you through it.”
“And after he does?”
“Leave that to Vinny and Jasper. But if there’s even an inkling of a problem, cut him loose,” Cain said while Remi answered the phone.
“Feel like an airboat ride?”
They loaded Santino in the back and drove the few miles to where Emile kept his boat. The trip to his camp was always interesting at night, but she needed a secluded spot to talk to Santino about his plans for his very limited future. Emile hoisted Santino over his shoulder, and they followed him up the shaky stairs before he went back for the other guy.
Emile dumped the second guy on the floor, and then they waited for the two to come around.
“Do you think he knew Nunzio hired that guy to shoot me?” Remi asked.
“I can’t imagine Junior not telling him. Santino always comes across as the kindly grandfather, but he raised Junior and m
ade it so the man didn’t feel comfortable making a move without consulting him first.”
“I wasn’t much different than Dalton in that regard,” Santino said softly.
“My father’s gone, old man, and I’m not the one laying on the floor bleeding, so I’m confident in that he taught me to stand on my feet without a prop.”
Emile picked up the other guy and set him on the empty chair at the table. The man groaned and blinked rapidly as his eyes opened. The lights were run off the generator outside so they weren’t extremely bright, but the blow to the head had likely left him with a splitting headache.
Cain pulled out a chair across from him and sat. “What’s your name?”
“Mike.” He glanced between the two of them, then reached to his side as if his gun would still be there.
“Mike, you work for Nunzio and Santino here, don’t you?” It wasn’t really a question she was waiting for him to answer.
He didn’t answer, his eyes following Remi as she took out her cigar clipper and cut the end off the Cohiba she’d taken out of her pocket. Cain noticed it wasn’t the gold one she usually used at home.
“You want to tell me where Nunzio is?” Cain did expect an answer this time.
“You keep your fucking mouth shut,” Santino said.
“Let me tell you a little story. The last time I was here, the guy sitting where you are got his fingers taken off one joint at a time.” She turned sideways in the chair and casually crossed her legs as if they had all night. “My friend here took them off with that neat little gadget.”
Mike blinked again when Remi blew some smoke in his face.
“Look, I don’t know. I work for Mr. Santino. I haven’t seen Nunzio for a while now.”
“Okay, let’s try something easier. Who’s the blonde that bears a striking resemblance to the late Kim Stegal?”
“Where’d you see her?” Mike said, then clicked his mouth shut as if he’d said too much.
“A name, Mike,” she said, but he shook his head. “Okay, how about your plans for the future? How’d you get mixed up with Nicolette Blanc?”
