by Ali Vali
“What’s on the plate today?” Cain asked.
“Could be me if you play your cards right.”
Cain let her eyes stray to the all-too-tempting cleavage and sighed. “It’s hard to turn down such a great offer, so don’t forget it later when we’re done here. Did you meet with Mook this morning before he left with Hayden for school?”
“Of course. Don’t worry, sugar. I’m not letting anything happen to your boy or to you.” She reached over and patted the inside of Cain’s knee. “To answer your first question, your uncle Alex’s waiting to see you. He wanted to talk to you sooner, but I told him the last couple of weeks weren’t the best time. He wouldn’t be put off any longer, so I figured you’d want to get this over with.”
Alex Baxter, her mother’s redheaded older brother, was the one person on that side of the family who had tried to act as a surrogate when Cain’s father had been killed in a turf war fifteen years before. The same battle had taken her brother Billy and her mother three years later, leaving her and Marie to pick up the pieces. Alex was the most socially acceptable of all the Baxter boys, but just barely.
“Did he say what he wanted?”
“No, just said it was important and it wasn’t family business.”
Merrick took Cain’s black coat and hat as soon as they cleared the door and handed them to Cain’s assistant. When she saw Alex was alone, she took her usual seat outside Cain’s door.
“Cain, how are you?” Alex stood as if waiting for his niece to embrace him and just as quickly sat down when she bypassed him and sat behind her desk.
“I’m fine. Thanks for coming by to ask. If that’s all you want, we’ll have to cut this short. I had to postpone a lot of things to take Hayden on a short trip, and the paperwork piled up. As much as I love these little chats with you, I’m busy.”
“I told your trained pit bull outside I wanted to talk to you about something important, so surely you can spare me ten minutes.”
“Careful not to call her that to her face, uncle. She’s been known to bite for less. What’s so important you walked into the viper’s lair to talk to me about?” Cain relaxed into the leather chair and put a fist under her chin. She was grateful these little talks didn’t happen often, but they were annoying nonetheless.
“So much like your father, Cain. What my sister ever saw in that man, I’ll spend my life trying to figure out.” He shook his balding head, remembering the senior Casey and his sister’s adoring looks whenever he was within sight. Time and years of marriage hadn’t changed the way she felt about him or what she was willing to overlook.
“Considering you and Edith lived off his money, and still do to an extent, I’d think you’d talk about him with an iota more respect. I’ll tell you for the hundredth time to tread carefully when it comes to speaking ill of my father or of my mother’s choices.”
“No need to get mad.” Alex threw his hand up, starting in on his reason for coming. “I want to talk to you about someone close to you who recently called and asked me to soften the blow before they come to see you. Promise me you’ll listen before you end up smashing something.”
Cain ran her hand through her thick jet-black hair, trying to defuse her impatience with the annoyance taking up space in her office. It was always the same between them. He would blame her father and his family for her mother’s death, and she would get mad enough to throw the windbag out. The only other time he became this much of a nuisance was when his monthly check was late.
“Either you spit out what you’ve got to say or get the fuck out.”
Before Alex could reprimand his niece for her language, the voice of one of Cain’s other uncles, Jarvis Casey, interrupted him from the open door. “Perhaps the person Alex is speaking of went to the wrong family member for help. They should’ve sent only the favorite uncle, instead of one from the side of the family you find extremely annoying.”
Jarvis’s teasing yet biting remark coaxed the first smile out of Cain that day. Her uncle Jarvis was the closest thing she’d ever get to watching her father, Dalton, grow old. Jarvis had been born a few years after Dalton, but in some of their childhood photos the brothers could have passed for twins, both fitting the clichéd tall, dark, and handsome description.
Alex studied the two as they said hello. Unlike the Baxter family, which produced a brood of short redheads, the Caseys had produced giants with dark looks and even darker blue eyes. It had been Dalton’s eyes, Therese had told him, that had captured her heart the first time she looked into them.
“Merrick,” Cain said into the intercom, “please come in here and show Alex to the door. We’re done.”
Alex followed Merrick out, knowing Cain’s dismissal was genuine. The Casey clan was an inner circle the Baxter side of the family would never crack.
Cain jumped up and hugged Jarvis as soon as her finger had released the intercom button.
“How you holding up, kid?” asked Jarvis.
“Trying to convince myself she’s gone, even though all this time has passed. Marie was an innocent. She didn’t deserve what happened to her.”
“You took care of your own, Cain. Don’t go doubting yourself now. It’s only been a few months so cut yourself some slack. Walk across the street and buy an old man a cup of coffee, and I’ll tell you a tall tale, I will.”
The two strolled out, followed closely by Merrick and three other people. Under their assorted coats the four were wearing enough firepower to take out the entire block, if necessary. As backup, a team of ten guards looked on from the roof of the Casey warehouses. Each of them had a legally registered high-powered rifle strapped to his shoulder.
“What’s up?” Cain cocked her head up from under the brim of her hat to give the telephoto lenses, always aimed at the warehouse to catch her in a misstep, a clear shot.
“Why do you always look up when you know they’re there?” Jarvis turned the brim of his own hat further down on his head.
“I figure the ladies in the jury pool will never convict me if I provide enough good-looking photos for them to study in the deliberation room.”
The joke made her uncle laugh and slap her on the back. “Ah, it’s nice to hear a little of that ego back. I missed it.” They walked across the street to a café where Cain ate lunch almost every day. “Your father loved coming in here for the eggs.”
“You left your house in this rain to tell me about my father and eggs?” Cain waved to the waitress, holding up two fingers before she pointed to the coffeepot.
“It could be I just wanted to see you.”
The finger tapping on the table clued Cain to the fact that something was bothering Jarvis. Once the waitress put down two cups mixed with the right amount of cream and sugar, Cain laid her hand flat on the Formica surface, ready to hear whatever was on her uncle’s mind. “What gives?”
“Emma called.”
Had Jarvis stood up and slapped her, he wouldn’t have gotten a more stunned response. Cain slid her hand away from the coffee cup and curled it into a fist at hearing the woman’s name. “What did she want?”
Jarvis lowered his head and played with the top of the wet hat resting on his lap. He’d consider himself lucky if the fist close to him on the table didn’t lift and strike him before he was finished. He felt like the room had become nearly glacial from the color and look in her eyes.
“She’s in town and wants to meet with you. I offered her my protection as long as she doesn’t try to contact Hayden without your permission. I’m not telling you what to do, kid, but you need to finish with this business.”
“There’s no business to finish, it’s done. She walked out, remember?”
“She went home…” said Jarvis.
“This was her home, and our life.” Cain’s voice rose an octave, and she slammed her fist on the table, making the salt shaker fall to the floor and break. “I know where she went, uncle Jarvis. For Hayden’s sake, I know all about her. What does she want?”
Jarvis w
as surprised at the outburst since Cain was usually all about control when she was in public. He noticed that everyone else in the diner went about their business as if the two of them were sitting in a soundproof box.
“Just a chat, Cain. Then you’re done.” Jarvis put his hands up in an effort to calm her down. He knew he was taking a chance, but he thought it was the best decision for all of them in the long run. He was willing to gamble anything for Cain to be happy.
Cain turned in her chair and addressed Merrick. “Call Mook now. Tell him no detours today, straight home, and he doesn’t open the door unless it’s one of us. Any fuckups on this one and it’ll be his last.”
Merrick didn’t ask why. She just pulled her phone out and relayed the message to the big blonde who was in charge of Hayden’s personal security.
Cain glared at Jarvis. “Tell Emma to meet me at the Erin Go Braugh at one o’clock. She’s got twenty minutes. And next time, uncle, never pick someone else’s loyalties above your family’s. If you learned anything from my father, besides what foods he liked to order, it should’ve been that.”
Chapter Three
The guards left Cain to her thoughts when they arrived at the Erin Go Braugh, a pub she owned. The crew who ran the place were restocking the bar and finishing their cleanup in preparation for the nightly crowd, and they too worked in silence. Cain closed her eyes and revisited the night that had changed her fate.
Fourteen Years Earlier at the Erin Go Braugh
“Emma, pickup for table five, and try not to spill it this time.” The bartender slid the tray toward the new server, thinking he was going to have to start taking the lost liquor out of her paycheck. He felt sorry for the kid who’d begged for a job so she’d be able to stay in the city and in school. Too bad she wasn’t as graceful as she was cute.
“Don’t worry, Josh. I think I’ve got the hang of it now. This place’s so crowded it takes a miracle to make it to the tables without spilling something.”
Emma Verde had walked by the Irish pub numerous times when she was out with her friends. The live music and selection of beer and native Irish whiskey drew a large crowd nightly, prompting her to wander in one afternoon and ask for a job.
She’d moved to New Orleans to attend Tulane, over the strong objections of her mother. The last thing Carol Verde told her as the bus pulled away from Hayward, Wisconsin, was there’d be no help coming from them since Emma had chosen a place so far from their Christian values.
The tips Emma figured she’d make would allow her the luxury of her tiny apartment and the part of her tuition not covered by scholarship and student loans. Tulane had offered her not only the most lucrative scholarship, but also a chance to get a long way from Wisconsin. Her mother had been right about one thing. New Orleans, especially the French Quarter, was a world away from the farm she’d grown up on.
As she walked toward table five, she thought about the shock that would kill her mom if she discovered her working in a bar. Laughing at her own private joke, Emma never saw the tall woman who crossed into her path. The one thing she noticed, though, was the tray full of ale the woman was wearing when they parted.
“I am so sorry. I didn’t see you.” She used her hands to try and mop the mess she’d spilled from the thick, heavily starched linen shirt. When Josh appeared at her side, she figured he was there to fire her.
“Josh, where’d you find this one?”
The deep teasing voice made her look up and study more closely the face of the woman she’d run into.
“I’m sorry, Cain. Emma’s training day hasn’t been working out quite as planned.”
“Emma, huh?”
She held out her hand, now sticky with ale, but Cain took hold of it anyway. “Emma Verde. It’s a pleasure to meet you,” she said, grimacing at how wet her hand felt.
“Cain Casey. The pleasure’s all mine,” answered Cain, not letting go of her hand. “Where are you from?”
“Hayward, Wisconsin.”
A low rumbling laugh bubbled out of Cain’s chest, which made Emma’s ears get hot for some reason.
“Any bars in Hayward?”
“Just a diner, but they only serve beer at night.”
Cain peered over Emma’s head at her bar manager. “Don’t mind me, Josh. I think this hayseed’s a keeper.”
It had been their first meeting. A night they laughed over often after they had gotten together and Emma had moved in with her.
For Emma, the daughter of a diary farmer, Cain had given up all the women who had shared her life and her bed. For eight years it had been blissful. They’d had Hayden, and the happiness Emma had brought into her life grew. But then Emma had turned her back on all of it.
The hayseed, as Cain often called her, left her seven-year-old son and her lover behind when she couldn’t live with Cain’s darker side any longer. Emma returned to the farm she had grown up on and apparently forgot her life with Cain. Not one phone call, postcard, or letter had come south after she had left, and now after four years she was back. But it was far too late for talking now. She should have talked to Cain four years earlier.
*
Emma took a deep breath and stared up at the sign over the door. “The Erin Go Braugh.” Her inflection of the name never came close to the way it rolled off Cain’s tongue. She felt like a thousand years had gone by since the first time she had stood on the sidewalk trying to work up the nerve to walk in and ask for a job. How different would her life have turned out if she had just turned around and walked away? The question was one she often asked herself, but she never bothered to find an answer because she had walked in and forever tethered her life to Cain’s. No amount of running away was ever going to change that. And now she was back to face the one person who scared her almost as much as she’d loved her.
Merrick opened the door for Emma and scrutinized her before pointing to a table that overlooked a small courtyard at the back of the pub, where Cain sat nursing a beer. Emma hadn’t changed much, thought Merrick; even the smile she graced her with as she passed was the same. A simple blue dress had replaced the designer clothes Emma was partial to when Cain’s money was paving the way, but she carried it off well. The sophistication and style Cain had taught her transcended the clothes.
“Cain?” Emma spoke softly and stood a few feet from the table. The years hadn’t changed Cain much either, and Emma’s heart sped up as soon as she saw her. “It’s good to see you.”
“Don’t.” Cain didn’t turn around, but the tone of her voice was unmistakable. There would be no forgiveness coming from her today.
“I’m sorry. May I sit down?”
“It’s your twenty minutes, Emma. You can do whatever the hell you want.”
She stepped closer and sat down, shaking her head when Josh held up a beer glass in her direction. “Thank you for seeing me. I thought after all this time you’d be willing to let some of the anger go. Can you try for just a little while not to hate me?”
“I don’t think about you enough to hate you, so get off your soapbox. It isn’t going to gain you any sympathy. What do you want?” Cain watched a blue jay out on the patio fly away with a forgotten straw and pretended Emma being there wasn’t affecting her. Next to her sat the woman who had managed to do what none of her enemies had accomplished. She had cut deep and left a wound that still festered.
“Still not big on small talk, huh?”
“You walk out on our family four years ago, we don’t hear from you in all that time, and you expect me to talk to you about the weather when you do decide to show up? Even you can’t be that naïve, Emma. I’ll ask again. What do you want?” Cain finally turned and skewered the woman she had loved with the intensity reserved for her adversaries.
“I want to see my son.”
“Your son? That’s rich. What makes you believe he wants to see you? He’s not the same little boy you left behind without another thought when you went to look for whatever you found in farm country.”
“I�
��d like to talk to him.” Emma studied the strong profile when Cain’s head turned back in the direction of the courtyard. To have gotten this far without Cain calling the dogs on her was a minor victory. The pit bulls Cain surrounded herself with were always on a short leash and ready to attack.
“Let me ask him and I’ll let you know. Hayden’s old enough to make his own decisions.” Cain heard the surprised breath Emma took and laughed. “Don’t get me wrong or act so surprised that I’m giving in so soon. I’m not stupid. I knew you’d come back one day and I figured that, if he was old enough, I’d let Hayden decide on what kind of relationship he wants with you. That is, if he wants to have any relationship with you.” Cain leaned forward to deliver the rest of the threat, not caring who was listening. “Just remember you don’t get to walk away for free this time, Emma. You hurt my son, or make me spend one more night holding him when he wakes up crying because you left without so much as a ‘kiss my ass,’ and I’ll bury you. I’ll bury you so deep, God Almighty won’t be able to find you, and you know I can do it.”
Emma never got to respond, and she never glimpsed the blue eyes that still haunted her thoughts, because Cain just got up and walked out, trailed by the two constant deadly shadows.
“Yes, Cain, I know you can do lots of things,” whispered Emma to the forgotten glass of beer on the table.
She hadn’t really thought much about how their meeting would go, so she was a bit dumbfounded at her good fortune. Now if she could only control the itch in her hands from wanting to reach out and touch Cain. Her ex-lover even smelled of the same fresh citrusy cologne she remembered.
The short visit convinced Emma that no amount of time would ever erase Cain from her mind, or her body. She’d been branded by the tall, dangerous woman, and that was the way it would stay.
Chapter Four
Hayden was waiting for Cain in the den where they often watched television together. “Why now?” he asked, hoping to find the right answer in the blue eyes that always reminded him he belonged to her. They seemed guarded for once, and Cain had been a little on edge since she’d gotten home.
