by Ali Vali
“Boy, did it. Danny was such a pissant, I didn’t keep tabs on him for too long. I just figured he’d end up on some street corner selling dime bags until the cops got ahold of him. I thought I’d hear from him again when uncle Robert phoned begging me to get his son out of trouble, because with Danny it was always just a matter of time.”
“Does he ever ask about Danny?”
“Who, our esteemed uncle Robert?”
Hayden nodded. He had heard stories of how his Grandfather Dalton and his family felt about the Baxters. They had only one redeeming grace and miracle, and Dalton had married her. All of Therese’s brothers were varying degrees of losers, but losers nonetheless.
“I think uncle Robert knows better.”
Three Hours after Marie Casey’s Death--At the Morgue
The room looked so sterile and plain. When Cain surveyed it, she grimly thought how strange and funny it was, in a nonhumorous kind of way. What did it matter now if it was sterile? The people here were dead. What did they have to fear from a mundane thing like infection? The living had to contend with that, and their guilt.
She could hear the low voices of her guards outside, one of them saying to keep it down. “The boss’s in there alone paying her respects.”
But she wasn’t alone. Marie was with her. Cain had moved the sheet enough to see her face and hold her hand. As she caressed it, she noticed not how cold it was, but that her sister had more than one broken finger. Why hadn’t she broken Danny before he smashed Marie like a china doll? She would have a hard time ever forgiving herself.
Most people would have considered a child like Marie a burden. Cain only thought now about how her days would be forever a little more empty without Marie’s laughter in their house. Taking care of her had been a pleasure and honor, never a burden.
“Boss?” Merrick stood silently just inside the room, shadowing Cain, oozing compassion.
“Is he here?” she asked, turning her head a little toward the door.
“He’s outside, but we can do this later if you want.”
“Send him in, Merrick. Really, it’s okay.”
The small man was pushed into the room, stumbling a little from the alcohol in his system and the fear of not knowing why he was there. “Cain?”
“Uncle Robert, thank you for coming.”
When a bunch of guys show up at your house and physically pick you up and throw you into the car, it’s kinda hard to say no. Robert wasn’t going to say the thought out loud, and he wasn’t about to complain until he knew what was going on. He looked at his niece hunched over the sheet-draped gurney and wondered who the lifeless body belonged to.
“Why am I here?” Since Robert wasn’t used to being subjected to the Casey muscle, he decided a direct approach might be best. This family respected guts and power, so he was desperate to hide his fear.
“Where’s Danny?”
Behind Cain’s back Robert pointed his index finger at her and tried to sound authoritarian. “Leave him alone, Cain. He made a mistake with you, I’ll give you that, but he’s doing good now. You tossed him out and gave him a good ass-whupping. He’s not bothering you.”
With a final pat on the top of Marie’s mangled hand, Cain tucked it back to her sister’s side and covered it. She must have tried to fight back the best way she knew how to get so many wounds. The cigarette burns so close to her nipples and scattered around her abdomen, though, had been hard to ignore. Cain realized Danny had probably used them to subdue Marie and get her to comply. I should have killed him right after he touched Emma.
“I didn’t ask how he was, I asked where he was. Where is he?”
Robert raised his voice and tried to keep his courage up, but it was getting more difficult since he was so desperate for a drink he was about to sell out anyone. “Come on, Cain. What’s my boy ever done to you but try to have a little fun with a bitch who left you anyway?”
He started to shake and sweat when she took her jacket off and rolled up her sleeves.
The hospital workers who came running down the hall when they heard the scream emanating from the morgue just as quickly turned away when the five people by the door reached under their jackets and shook their heads.
Inside, Robert was reeling from the sudden pain to the side of his head where Cain had punched him, but he wasn’t on his knees long before she grabbed a fistful of oily hair and yanked him to a standing position. With the same force she pulled him to the gurney.
“Look at her and tell me what you see.”
The face was so battered Robert barely recognized his other niece lying there, and he fought a wave of nausea when he figured out why Cain wanted Danny. “Oh my God.”
“No, God had nothing to do with this, so tell me where I can find your bastard son. Because, believe me, uncle, if I have to beat it out of you…” She stopped, not needing to finish the threat. “In the mood I’m in now, I may rid myself of the whole more troubling side of my family.”
“Danny couldn’t have done this.”
“The idiot left a note pinned to what was left of her dress, so tell me where I can find him. I know he keeps you in booze and cigarettes, so you have to know.”
The sniveling man tried to look up at Cain, causing her to tighten her hold on his hair. “What happens to me if you kill Danny?”
“You get to live, which is more than generous on my part. After all, much of what Danny turned out to be came from his upbringing. Be grateful he hasn’t brought a plague on the rest of your house with this atrocity. Not yet anyway.”
“I don’t know where he is. Honest, Cain.” A punch to the kidneys made him regret the lie, and this time she left him on the floor.
“I tried to do this the easy way. Remember that.”
It looked like the worst of it was over and she was leaving. “What does that mean?”
“It means you stand with Danny on this one but, more importantly, against me. Go home and wait for your son and Giovanni Bracato to protect you. In your moments of lucidity, pray I’m kinder than this when I strike back and that I make it quick, but this is hard to ignore.” She waved a hand toward the gurney.
“He’s my son, for God’s sake.”
The slap to his face was so hard it knocked him into a table stacked with surgical supplies, and when he put his hand up to cover the sting, it came away with blood.
“You can live the rest of your life not reminding me of that fact.”
“You stay away from my family, Cain.”
“Just like yours stayed away from me and mine? Don’t threaten me, you useless piece of crap. I guess the old saying ‘the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree’ isn’t just bullshit, now is it? Don’t worry, though. I’m on my way home to fire up the chainsaw. Baxter trees from your orchard won’t be a problem for much longer. Danny might have thrown the first punch, but you should know me by now. When I’m done there won’t be a Baxter left standing. I don’t give a fuck if you’re my family or not.”
“You can’t do that.” He tried to wipe off some of the drool and blood that oozed down his chin.
Cain grabbed him by the hair again and dragged him back to the gurney. With one flick of her wrist she pulled the sheet back and showed him all the damage Danny had done. “She didn’t deserve this, or to be related to the human garbage you’ve inflicted on the world.”
Robert gave her an address and dropped to his knees with his hands covering his face. Even if Cain left the rest of them alone, the memory of Marie’s marred skin would sear his brain forever.
“I don’t think Robert will ever invoke the name Danny Baxter in our presence again.”
The boy nodded and gazed back out toward the farmland they were leaving behind at a fairly quick pace. “How can you forgive Emma?”
Cain picked a piece of lint off her coat as a way to delay her answer. The truth was love. Her love for Emma had blinded her to her responsibilities, a mistake she’d never make again. “I’ve lived with this memory from the moment I
found Marie near our house and, trust me, blaming your mother was the last thing on my mind. I’m the head of the Casey family--me, not your mother. I blame myself every day for what happened. I don’t need to forgive her.”
Hayden turned in the seat until he was fully facing Cain. “Then maybe it’s time you learn to forgive yourself and think about the good things you did while Aunt Marie was alive. Maybe you didn’t give her enough credit, Mom.”
“What do you mean by that? I loved her.”
“I know you loved her, but you did so much more. All you had to do was give her a home and keep her safe, but you went way beyond that, didn’t you? She told me you took her to a movie once, even though you didn’t want to go. One of those old ones playing at the Prytania. She remembered how much fun she had going out to dinner and then that movie. She even told me how you took her over to the pub after the show and got her as many Shirley Temples as she wanted.”
“Yeah, I remember that night. Marie always liked the pomp and circumstance that came from the idea of dating. She just didn’t understand it was supposed to involve someone you loved or were interested in, not your sister.”
Hayden laughed, remembering the stars in his aunt’s eyes when she told him about the night. “But you did love her, and doing stuff like that for her only proved it. So what if she didn’t know the rest. You were her hero, Mom. She said in the movie the character died at the end, but she told her husband that love meant never having to say you’re sorry.”
“Love Story is what she was talking about. That’s the closest I’ve ever come to crying in a public place over something so, I don’t know, trivial. We ended up going back the next night and seeing the damn thing again.”
Reaching over, Hayden covered his mother’s hands with his own. “Aunt Marie told me one day my mom would come back and we could be a family, but I had to remember Emma loved me, so she didn’t have to say she was sorry for leaving. She didn’t want me to be mad when she did come back.”
“Your aunt was smarter than she let on. Hayden, I don’t want to make this decision for you. Whatever relationship you want to have with your mother will be fine with me. Don’t put my feelings first this time. It wouldn’t be fair to you.”
“I promise to do that, if you promise to stop blaming yourself for what happened to Marie. Danny did it, Mom—not you. Whatever his reasons were, they were all about him. You gave Aunt Marie a life she loved and enjoyed. It isn’t your fault it was too short.”
“You’re growing up to be as wise as she was. Thanks, Hayden. Your saying all that means the world to me.”
Cain stayed silent about Hannah, not wanting to add to the emotions of the day. She often had to put business first, and that necessary callousness probably added to Emma’s decision to leave. But sometimes she couldn’t ignore her responsibilities, no matter how much she wanted to.
She just hoped they weren’t making her incapable of the type of love she had given to and received from Emma. Though that love had caused her to make one of the biggest mistakes of her life, it had also given her one of her life’s greatest joys—Hayden.
*
“Come on in the house, Emma. You’re going to freeze out here if you stay any longer.” Ross put his hand on her shoulder. “Why don’t you go get cleaned up, and we’ll run over and pick up the butterbean?”
“I’ll get her in the morning, Daddy. Thanks anyway.” Emma didn’t move and wanted more than anything for some higher power to give her one wish. If she got it, Cain and Hayden would drive back up so she could make things right with them.
“Maybe she’ll be just the thing you need to cheer you up.”
A door slammed in the distance, and several cars pulled in. Kyle had changed and was ready to catch the plane waiting for him and his team at the small airport sixty miles away. He wanted to be in New Orleans before Cain so he could start planning. “Thank you all for your help. With what we got, we’ll be able to nail Casey to the proverbial wall.”
“Get off my land.”
“Come on, Ross. You’re making out all right here. I see you started using the line of credit we set up for you.” Kyle pointed to the barn, talking about the feed he’d witnessed Cain and Hayden help stack up.
“I don’t think you heard me. Get off my land now. And for the record, as you’re so fond of saying, agent, I didn’t touch a fucking cent that belongs to the government.”
“Hit the lotto, have you, Ross?”
Kyle sounded so condescending Emma wanted to slap him.
“Better. Cain and I became partners. The feed in there belongs to her, and she was nice enough to let me feed it to my cows. Now get out of here.”
“As soon as we’ve packed the equipment.” If Ross had become so chummy with Casey in the few days she was here, he would go down with her if he tipped her off to their presence. “Ross, I’m only going to ask you this once. Did you mention any of this operation to Casey?”
“No.”
“Are you sure about that, old man?”
“No, I didn’t mention any of you scum and what you were here for.”
“Good. Keep it that way, or you’ll find your own name on one of those indictments I’ll be getting in the next few weeks.”
What you should have asked, Agent Butthead, was if she mentioned your being here. Then I would’ve had to say yes, maybe. Ross laughed a little as he helped Emma to her feet and moved her into the house. He watched from the window as the agents carried monitor after monitor and other weird-looking equipment out of his barn. If only Kyle would take his head out of his ass and use it, he would have wondered about how easily the end had come after such a long road of trying, thought Ross. No way would he feel sorry for whatever happened to the man.
“Daddy, I don’t know what to do now.”
“Emma, I’m your father and I love you, but we’ve had this talk. I didn’t agree with all this, and I was the only one in the house who thought about what could go screwy with this plan. I’m not going to sit here now and tell you what you did was wrong. The nights you sit up wishing you could take it all back will take care of that. You’d better start thinking about your next move, though. Hiding here listening to the wind and your mother isn’t going to take you back to where you obviously want to be.”
Carol wiped her hands on the dish towel as she stood right outside the door and couldn’t believe her husband. “What are you trying to do, Ross?”
“I’m not blind, Carol. I could see the way Emma looked at the woman while she was here. You pulled her back here with all your holier-than-thou speeches, making her feel guilty about every one of the choices she’s made in her life, and she’s been miserable. Cain deserves to know about Hannah.” He turned to Emma. “And if you leave now, it might not be too late.”
“You run again, Emma, and don’t come back here if she throws your worthless hide out this time. You can go back to that spawn if you want, but you aren’t taking Hannah with you.” Carol grabbed Emma by the arm. As a mother she had been cursed with Emma, but she saw another chance with Hannah.
“She’s my daughter, Mother. Try and remember that. If I go back, do you think for one minute I’m leaving her here with you? You need intense psychiatric help if you think I’d give you the chance to make my little girl feel bad about who she is and where she comes from. That pleasure on your part will end with me. Hannah deserves to be happy, so if that means me letting her live with Cain and Hayden, that’s what I’m going to do. You’ll never get the opportunity to poison her mind with that garbage you call religion.”
Carol turned around and raised her fist toward her husband. “You, this is your fault. Soft, you said when Emma was growing up. We shouldn’t be so hard on her, you said. Well, this is what happens when you’re soft with your children. They get taken by the first devil to come along. And did I hear you say you took money from that woman?”
“Shut up, Carol. This is Emma’s life, not yours. You can’t ruin someone else’s life by stealing their cha
nce to be happy. She’s our daughter. She deserves better than your hate and constant judgment.”
The fist opened, and Ross felt his head fly back from the force of the blow. “I want you to get out.”
He put his hand over the heat on the right side of his face. “No, Carol. One of us is leaving, but it won’t be me. You go home and see if your brother and his wife will take you in. This place belonged to my family, and now it’ll go to my grandson.”
“Daddy, wait.” Emma tried to keep him from going inside the barn until the agents had cleared the yard. If Cain turned around and did try to come back now, all of them would be sorry.
“I’ll give you the money to fly to New Orleans if you want to, and I’ll check on Hannah every day over at Maddie’s while you’re gone. If you don’t, then there’ll be no more tears and asking ‘what if.’ It’ll be done.”
Emma tried hard not to cry in front of her father again. “I don’t know where to even begin, Daddy.”
“At the beginning, Emma. You need to give Cain the same chance you gave her at the beginning of your relationship. Because somewhere along the way you forgot what she meant to you and your children. Look where your blind judgment of Cain has landed you. She has a lot to atone for when it comes to you, but you aren’t without blame. She stole Hayden from you, but what you’ve done with Hannah, that’s not right either.”
“I’ll try, Daddy.”
“That’s all you can do.”
Chapter Twenty-One
“The folks at the pub are going to get jealous.” Merrick sat next to Cain as the driver took them to Emerald’s, Cain’s other nightclub, for the fifth night in a row. They were meeting with some of the players in the deal Cain had going and, much to her discomfort, they had left all their electronic playthings at home. Cain didn’t seem to be too concerned as to who else was listening in on all these very public meetings.
“What are you, my agent?”
“No, arling’, just the eyes in the back of your head,” she joked as the car rolled to a stop and the doorman bent to open the back door. Tonight was business, so she took her post behind Cain, scanning the crowd waiting outside for any familiar faces. Cain was more than capable of taking care of any threat that came from the front.
