by Ali Vali
“‘You don’t go backing down from too many fights, but you’re smart enough to know who’s going to be winning in the end. The one thing I want you to copy him in more than anything is how he died.’
“Since the Caseys never talked about death, I laughed, probably because I was nervous. ‘I don’t want to be dying, Papa, so what are you talking about?’
“‘He died in his bed next to the one he loved, in his sleep. My old man did a lot of living before that night came, and that’s what I want for you as well, me pride.’
“Dalton used to tell me all the time that Caseys were like bad grass. ‘You can weed us out for a little while,’ he’d say, ‘but once we’re rooted, you can’t really kill us off. You’re an offshoot of that blade of bad grass, so don’t be wasting your time thinking about death. She’s the one woman you’ll keep waiting for years to come.’”
“He compared you to bad grass?” E mma laughed.
“He wasn’t wrong, now was he? Giovanni Bracato and his sons have much to answer for, but that day won’t come until I’m ready to ask the important questions myself. For now, we’re going to do what he expects a weak woman to do. Only he doesn’t know what we know—bad grass doesn’t kill easy.”
Emma pushed herself up. “You’ve already decided what you’re going to do, haven’t you?”
“Just this second lying here with you, so stop giving me those sad eyes. We’re going to run to someplace where I can see a rabbit coming at five miles.”
Emma’s eyes widened at the admission, and she didn’t say anything for a moment. “You’re running? I’m not going to hear about this for years to come, am I? How in your weakened condition I made you do something you’ll regret until hell freezes over, since that’s what I wanted to begin with.”
“This isn’t running because I’m afraid. It’s running like a small rooster from a big bird with a very sharp beak on its tail. Did I ever tell you that story?”
“Will I like it?”
“Better than that, little girl, you’ll learn something too.” She patted Emma on the butt, and Emma moved closer. “Dalton once told me…” Cain began.
Outside, her plan was set in motion, and it would bring them one step closer to finishing a tale she’d one day use to teach her son when it was his time to lead their clan.
Chapter Seven
“Well?”
“I want those bitches to suffer, so I’m going to blow their lives and everything they hold dear to shit. I’ve already taken care of the club and the lawyer’s office—got a few more to go. My guy’s getting the supplies together to finish the job.” Gino Bracato sat across from his father Giovanni’s desk and was so angry he spit as he spoke.
He’d made a serious mistake when he let his guard down after his father had kidnapped Hayden Casey. With Cain in the hospital, all of them had expected Emma to roll into a ball and wait for someone to save her. So when she had Gino’s baby boy kidnapped to use as bait to get her own little bastard back, it’d been like a bat to the face he didn’t see coming. Touching his son was one thing, but Emma had also humiliated him by leaving him to wait in his underwear while his father made the deal for his release.
At Emma’s order, Cain’s men had taken him out of his mistress’s bed and held him, his brothers, and his son hostage in exchange for Hayden. On the way out, he’d seen his men knocked unconscious, which he’d rewarded with a trip to the bottom of the river.
“Careful how you carry this out,” his father Giovanni screamed. “We don’t need any more heat from the feds or otherwise.” He was confident there were no bugs since they’d swept the room just before the family meeting. “And you…” He pointed to his second eldest, Michael, next. “What the fuck happened?”
“The shooters didn’t expect that kind of firepower at the bitch’s house, Papa. We thought with her in the hospital, the muscle would be there taking care of her.”
Stephano Bracato sat back and listened to the rest of his family argue over their mistakes. He was slowly taking over the drug trafficking in the city and along the Gulf Coast. If he took advantage of this opportunity and his volume grew big enough, he could break away from his father and his brothers.
“My problems begin when the four of you start thinking,” Giovanni screamed.
Michael and the youngest son Francis cringed a little when their father’s voice kept escalating.
“We have to finish this before Casey wakes up from whatever the hell is wrong with her and mounts a counterattack. I’m too close to finally taking control and driving all the other families out. No more fuckups.”
“Do we have your permission to pick them up and take care of them permanently?” Gino asked.
“You see a clean shot, you take it.” Giovanni pointed his index finger in Gino’s face. “Do you understand me? I don’t want anything fancy. I know Emma took your boy and caught you with your pants down, but I want you to put that behind you. Emma got her kid back, and you have Little Gino. That’s the end of it.”
“But, Papa—” Gino tried to sound pathetic.
“You screw this up for me and I’ll cut you off.” Bracato stood up and left the room, expecting to be obeyed.
Stephano, lounging on the sofa, watched the whole encounter and knew his brother Gino wouldn’t back away so easily. When Gino had married the girl their father had approved of and had a child not long after, his three bothers just slapped him on the back and smiled. Gino could have control of the family if it meant keeping the old man off their backs.
“What’s your plan?” Stephano asked Gino. “I know you, and I know that blond whore embarrassed the hell out of you.”
“She and our old man may think that she’s gonna die from a bullet she’ll never see coming, but I’m not in a generous mood. I want more than anything to fuck that little slut over and have Cain watch me make her scream.”
“Gino, you just heard Papa,” Francis warned.
The anger in Gino boiled over onto his youngest brother. Grabbing him by the neck, he slammed him into the wall. “You gonna go running and tell like you did when you were four, you little pussy? Reach down and make sure you got some balls, Francis, and if you do, start acting like it. Papa hears one word about this conversation, though, and you won’t have to worry about them ’cause I’ll cut them off myself.”
“Let him go,” ordered Michael, who always figured he would gain control of the family when Gino’s mouth got him killed. “And it might do you some good to listen to him.”
“Fuck off, all three of you. If you don’t want to help me, then fine. I’ll take my men and get it done myself. Come with me, though, and I’ll think about giving you each a turn with her.”
Outside, Giovanni walked the length of his dock and jumped onto a boat moored at the end. Four men jumped in with him, and a fifth waited on the dock and cast them off.
“Keep an eye on my four geniuses in there,” Giovanni ordered the guard staying behind.
“You got it, boss.” Before the man made it back inside, the four brothers were gone, so he picked up the nearest phone. This one, though, was bugged.
Across Tchoupitoulas Street three men sat watching from a window, two of them with binoculars in their hands and the third hunched over a computer keyboard. “There’s something coming over one of the lines in the outer office,” Agent Lionel Jones said.
“Could be something going on with everyone making a run for the nearest door,” Joe Simmons added. “The brothers evil left via cars, and Daddy just hit the water. Dumb fucks, they have to know we have all the exits covered.”
“Just like we covered the big shipment of illegal liquor a few nights ago, smart guy? It’s time for us to go back to good old-fashioned detective work and start tying all this together, because I don’t think Cain’s just going to sit on her ass and not take a shot back at these guys.” Agent Anthony Curtis put his glasses down and increased the volume to listen to the conversation.
His fellow agents frowned at him, wh
ich made him throw up his hands. “I like Cain too, damn it, but we looked like idiots the other night. She didn’t do anything illegal, but we owe her for getting stuck with this crap assignment.”
“You know, Tony, we could’ve just looked in the damn crates. We were played, but Cain wasn’t doing the string-pulling. It was Kyle,” Lionel said. “And from what Shelby tells me, Cain’s going to be out of commission for a while yet.”
“People, do I have to remind you who signs your paychecks? We aren’t here to coddle some woman who would like nothing better than to fuck the whole lot of us over just to make her kid laugh.” He put his hands in his hair and pulled in frustration. “And is it so hard to remember it’s Anthony?”
“Lionel’s right, Tony. Cain isn’t doing anything but lying in the hospital with a bullet I feel somewhat responsible for. Besides, Agent Hicks said she isn’t our concern anymore.” Joe tacked on the moniker just to aggravate Anthony that much more.
“You mark my words, she’s going to come out of there swinging, and when she’s done there won’t be a Bracato left standing.” Anthony looked at the other two and wanted to scream at their bland looks.
Behind him the door opened and closed, only adding to the tension in the room.
“Is it a private moment,” Shelby asked, “or can anyone join in?”
“It’s nothing,” Joe said.
“Nothing? You’re about to throw away your career and you call it nothing?” Anthony couldn’t believe his ears.
“Who’s throwing away their careers?”
“Like I said, Shelby, it’s nothing. Tony’s all bent out of shape that Cain isn’t going down with the rest of these guys,” Lionel supplied. “Our buddy’s still smarting from the spanking Cain administered the other night when our raid netted us a shitload of legal liquor. I know she fucked us, but she did it almost with our permission. Not one of us thought to question Kyle or to check when all of a sudden she started burning up the wiretaps we left with information about her business. We just barged in there and watched Kyle shoot her for Giovanni Bracato. And even after that all we could do was salivate over the fact we’d caught her with a line of trucks full of booze—our payback for all those miserable days being holed up in places like this.”
“We need to take a step back and consider what we’re doing. Am I the only one who thinks we’re getting way too chummy with the enemy?” Anthony asked.
Shelby put her hands on her hips and let out a long, even breath. If they didn’t pull together and act as a team, they wouldn’t be taking anyone down for anything, not even a traffic violation. “Listen, Anthony,” she started, trying not to antagonize him any further. “Joe, Lionel, and I are on the same page, so if you’re not comfortable with that you need to say so now. True, we got scammed, but Joe’s right. Cain did it fair and square. We’ve gotten too far in to turn back now. Cain and her people are talking to me, which means they’re doing the same to you, with the help of our little toys.”
“They’re talking to you, Shelby, because they all want to sleep with you.” Tony dropped down to a chair as if he were tired of trying to explain himself.
“Are you questioning my integrity, Agent?”
“No more than you’re questioning mine. I want you to listen to me. All of this is going to turn out bad if you take sides. Giovanni Bracato is not as suave and cute, but Cain is no different from him. Pull back before it’s too late.”
“This has to be a team decision, Tony,” Joe said, “and I’m with Shelby.”
“Me too,” Lionel chimed in.
“Then I’m asking Annabel for a transfer. I like my job and want to keep it, not to mention I have no interest in going to jail. Keeping Kyle company for years to come isn’t something I relish.” Anthony picked up his coat and walked out, leaving total silence behind him.
“It isn’t too late, guys, if you want to join him. I think this is the best way, but it doesn’t mean it’s the only way.”
“He’ll drive around for a while and come back, Shelby. Don’t sweat it. Tony’s strung a little tight because his old man was in the agency and the rumors of him being on the take never did die down. Especially not after a big drug kingpin got away because the old man didn’t play it all by the book,” Joe said. “I’m thinking, though, that we’ve come too far with this for him to want out now.”
“I hope you’re right. Would this be a bad time to tell you two that I have a date for drinks with Muriel Casey?”
“I wasn’t too worried about Cain,” Lionel said. “But Muriel—keep an eye on that one, Shelby.”
“You think she’s dangerous?”
“Only in a quirky kind of way. Cain knew better than to get too close to you, but Muriel’s the chance-taking kind of gal,” Lionel explained, with a shy tilt to his head. “I just don’t want what Tony said to be a problem for you, and you getting pulled in front of an ethics committee for one stupid night will be problematic in the long run when it comes to your career.”
“Thanks, Dad, for your concern, but I know what I’m doing.” Checking her watch, Shelby waved to them and headed back out to her car. “Don’t wait up.”
“You think we should have her followed, Lionel?”
“So she can have me singing soprano tomorrow when she grabs me by the short hairs? No, thank you, Joe.” Lionel watched the sedan disappear. “We either have to trust her or we don’t.”
From the other direction their replacements for the night pulled into the lot. “Just one drink, Lionel. Where’s the harm in that?”
“Said the spider to the fly,” Lionel answered with a laugh. “I hope you’re right, buddy.”
The problem was, though, that they hadn’t been right when it came to the Caseys in a good long while.
Chapter Eight
“Drinks, huh? Not that long ago you were warning me to stay away from our attractive FBI Agent Daniels, and now you’re going to wine and dine her.” Cain winked at Muriel and smiled. “Of course, maybe if you interact enough with these people they’ll finally figure out we’re just pouring beer and having fun and aren’t some two-bit gangsters with an agenda for mayhem.”
“I give advice, cousin. That doesn’t mean I take it. Shelby just felt sorry for me because I lost some people today, so she offered to cheer me up, nothing more. She’s even more married to her job than I am, so don’t go spinning any romantic notions over her offer of a drink.”
It was just enough to give whoever was listening the right impression of their fellow agent. Merrick had found the listening device on a routine sweep an hour earlier. Her first reaction was to give Cain a complete rundown on paper of Emma’s whereabouts and phone calls. She couldn’t prove Emma had anything to do with it, but was pleased that Cain had at least listened to her concerns when she pointed out the intrusion on her privacy.
Muriel pulled a piece of lint from her pants and smiled, wondering what her father would think of her date choice for later. In the Casey family, her uncle Dalton had been the one to take chances.
“You, on the other hand, look a lot better, Cain. And Merrick tells me there’ve been some personal changes over here while I’m out slaving on your behalf.”
“Going to add your own bit of advice? So far Merrick has been full of it when it comes to the subject. I’d appreciate it if you were a bit more supportive.”
Muriel looked up from the fabric of her slacks. Her cousin usually didn’t need assurance about anything. “Maybe she’s just worried because of what happened. We both saw what that did to not only you.”
“Maybe, but I have to believe that some mistakes are made to be remedied. If not, what’s the point?” Cain’s answer was just as vague. Her life might have been a game of cat and mouse with the feds, but her personal life was not. As much as she could, she’d keep those parts of her life private.
“Then go for it.” Muriel put her hand over Cain’s and spoke from the heart. “I think you’re doing the right thing. There was plenty of blame for what happened, and
you both lost a lot.”
“Yeah, well, that’s enough mush for one day. We have business to discuss.” Cain sounded gruff, but she added a hint of a smile for her cousin’s kind words. This wasn’t the place to share the innermost part of her heart. Not that she didn’t trust Muriel; it just wasn’t anyone else’s business.
“What do you want to do about what’s happened?” Muriel really didn’t expect a verbal answer.
For a long stretch the small listening device next to the bed only picked up silence, making the man across the street think it had been found and disposed of. He expelled a relieved sigh when he heard Muriel’s voice again.
“Are you all right? You just drifted off on me there.” Muriel made sure she sounded both concerned and a little distracted as she read the note Cain had spent all that time writing. “I should leave you to your rest.”
“Thanks. I am a little tired, so if you don’t mind coming back, we’ll discuss our future plans tomorrow. Just make sure you file the proper insurance papers for all the locations.” To make it sound as if she’d just awakened from a short catnap, Cain added a yawn.
“Anything you want me to get you before I go?”
“Just between you and me, I’d love some good Cuban espresso.”
The listener scrunched his forehead in confusion at the odd request.
“I’ll see what I can do about that tomorrow.” Muriel stretched before bending to pick up her coat.
“Good. Try for first thing in the morning before they show up with the swill they serve around here. That way you can tell me how your date went.”
“I told you, boss, it isn’t a date.” The reprimand from Muriel only got her another wink from the bed. It was time to go and see about Cain’s request for a cup of coffee, or in this case to visit the other family head in the city with whom, unlike the Bracatos, they had a good working relationship.
Ramon Jatibon was a native of Cuba and, like Vincent and Dalton, had worked hard to carve out his piece of the city. For years he had carefully built the gambling empire that had helped finance his other enterprises, which his children now ran. As proud as Ramon was of what he’d accomplished, it was his twins, Ramon Jr. and Remi, who made his chest puff out when he talked of them. But they were currently in different states expanding the family’s holdings, and it was the old man Muriel had an appointment to meet.
