by Ali Vali
“My head hurts, Muriel, so don’t push me into throwing you out.” She meant it. “I got to wondering,” she said, when Muriel lowered her eyes, “who answers a call in the middle of a funeral, and that’s what Shelby did as we were burying your father. Tapping into someone’s phone isn’t rocket science.”
“If today hadn’t happened, would you have told me?”
“Lately you’ve had a lot going on, and I didn’t want to pile on top of that, especially since you’d think I was being petty.”
“I’m sorry, but it really hurt that you cut me off.” Muriel moved to the end of her seat and put her hands on the bed. “I wanted something you have, and I guess it never occurred to me that I was jealous. Today, though, wasn’t about that. Shelby was upset and I wanted to be there for her.”
“You don’t have to apologize,” she said, having to close her eyes again to keep the room from spinning. “I really do think Shelby cares about you, only her commitment isn’t as deep as yours. I’m sorry, because you deserve someone in your life you can count on.”
“Are you kidding?” Muriel said, laughing. “Shelby’s with me because I’m a fucking moron too absorbed in self-pity to notice she went through my office. Do you realize how stupid that makes me?”
“Don’t get carried away knocking yourself.”
“She didn’t even want me at her parents’ funeral, Cain. Does that sound like someone in a relationship?” The bed moved a little when Muriel slammed her hands down on the mattress. “She can fuck herself for what she was doing.”
“Not so fast,” she said, the nausea building again. “You aren’t there because they really do think I ordered the deaths, for whatever reason, but you tell her why you want her out of your life…” she said, stopping to breathe.
“And it makes them believe it’s true,” Muriel said, finishing her thought.
Muriel put the basin under her mouth in time so the bile that came up didn’t soil her or the bed. “You need to keep this from her when she comes back, and I want you to go back to work,” she said after she rinsed her mouth.
“This can wait. Let me go get someone.”
“I want to finish because I need to know Emma won’t be alone through this. But, Muriel, I can only be forgiving up to a point if you decide to work on your own. I’ve trusted you all my life, but I’ll have to cut you off completely if we have to have this conversation again. And you can’t know how hard and painful that is for me to say.”
“Don’t worry about anything. I’ll do whatever I need to make this up to you and Emma.” When she closed her eyes again Muriel sounded like she’d come closer. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“My head feels like it’s about to pop. Take Emma home and we’ll talk again in the morning.” She heard Muriel’s steps as she moved even nearer, then the strangest sensation came over her. Her last thought before the room went black was that she’d never enjoyed being cruel, but she intended to skin Agent Cehan alive right after she shoved that belt buckle up his ass.
*
The car stopped and Rodolfo strained to listen for any clues to where they’d taken him. Aside from the slamming of car doors all he heard was Gracelia’s muffled voice giving what sounded like orders. Whatever sick idea his sister had come up with was about to shatter any illusion of dying an old man in his bed.
“You aren’t sleeping, are you?” she asked when Lorenzo opened the trunk and helped him out. “Juan went to a lot of trouble to find this place.”
They’d stopped in a clump of trees and the only light was from the headlights of the two vehicles. When he saw the base of the largest one, he knew what she had in mind. “You blamed me all these years for Armando’s death, but at least give up the dream he was coming back to you.”
“He loved me, and you stole the possibility of him knowing his son.”
“Your bastard was one of many, you stupid bitch. When we found him he’d already found your replacement and laughed that he got someone of your standing to spread your legs so quickly.” His death was certain but he’d get the satisfaction of speaking his mind before the ants finished their job.
“Lying now is pathetic, Rodolfo,” Juan said.
“You can change your name,” he said, wincing as his arms were tied behind him. “What you can’t change is that your father was scum and your mother’s a whore who’s slept with every man she could interest. Hate me, but I’ve paid to keep everyone from talking, since she’s never associated with anyone with class.”
“You’re jealous because none of them were you,” Gracelia screamed. “You don’t think I saw how you looked at me and what you wanted. You’re the sick one. Your desire for me sealed Armando’s death, and I’m going to make you pay for it.”
“I see Lorenzo’s doing your bidding now,” he said, trying to hide the shame of having his pants and shirt cut away by the man he was talking about. “He was starting out with me back then, but I’m sure he remembers when we found the virtuous Armando fucking one of the maids who worked for the rancher we bought meat from. She begged for his life because of the two sons he’d left her with.”
“Liar,” Juan yelled.
“You’re going to kill me no matter what, so you might as well know the truth. If he’d lived, your father would’ve come by for only two things—money and your mother’s ass.” He laughed as Lorenzo smeared honey on his groin and chest, then jumped back when he relieved himself on Lorenzo’s shoes.
“One day when you get pushed aside for whoever is sharing your mother’s bed, remember what I’m saying. And if this shit tells you the truth,” he said, jutting his jaw out in Lorenzo’s direction, “you’ll know you killed the one man who tried to make you live up to the name I gave you.”
The ants had covered his legs, and as they started to feed on the honey coating his genitals the pain blossomed into agony, but he didn’t scream. “After you were born, she left you with me for two years while she fucked whoever ended up in her bed for the night. She came home and pretended to be the caring mother only after she’d gotten her fill of more assholes like your father.”
He strained against the restraints, wanting nothing more than to knock away the persistent insects that now covered his body. They weren’t like the large black ants he’d fed Armando to, but the small red ones seemed to be determined to finish him in record time.
“Now you can be Gustavo, whose mother whores herself to farm hands and gardeners.” He laughed hard when the first bullet ripped through his gut. “You’ll be the perfect example of the term ‘son of a bitch.’”
He couldn’t stop his death, but his last thought was that he wouldn’t suffer. He just hoped Fausto would watch over Carlos like he’d asked.
Chapter Nineteen
“Are you sure?” Dallas asked as they rode the elevator to Remi’s penthouse condo after dropping Simon off at her place. She’d called Kristen to tell her not to wait up and that Emil was staying on the sofa.
“I’m sorry you had to go through all that, but I’m not sorry it led you to me.” Remi guided her to the bedroom, not turning on many lights, then took her time undressing her. “You’re mine, and I’ll kill to keep you whole.”
“All you need to do is love me,” Dallas said, lying back and spreading her legs. After the emotional wringer of the afternoon, she wanted Remi to touch her until she forgot the past. “I’m yours and I’ll give you everything you need to keep you happy.”
“I already have that,” Remi said, putting her hand over her sex and sucking in an already hard nipple.
Dallas was wet, had been from the time they’d gotten in the car, and she tried to ignore Simon, who was driving, as Remi touched her over her clothes. “Put your fingers in, baby. I need you.” She felt ravenous for an orgasm as Remi’s skin pressed against hers. When she put her heels on the small of Remi’s back and met her thrust by pumping her hips up into her, for the first time she didn’t think of herself as a woman who had only her body to offer.
“Tell me again,” she said to Remi, grabbing the hair at the sides of her head.
“You’re mine,” Remi said, the tendon in her neck standing out as she kept moving her hand. “This is mine,” she said, stopping for a moment and pressing her thumb hard against her clit. “Forget about what you think you did wrong, because no one but me is going to touch you like this again if you stay with me.”
“No one but you.” Remi’s thumb was still stroking even though her hand was still, and Dallas clenched the walls of her sex around Remi’s fingers to try to postpone the end. Tonight she wanted that feeling only Remi had brought into her life to last, but once Remi started moving her hand again the orgasm washed through her and she came hard, pressing her body close to Remi’s, wanting her weight on her.
“You’re really good at that.” She kissed the side of Remi’s head. “That sounds so canned but it’s true.”
“Good to hear because I feel honored to be able to touch you like this.” She smiled at how the confidence Remi had displayed during their lovemaking gave way to the sweetness reserved only for her.
“I meant what I said, baby.” Dallas locked her feet in place to keep Remi where she was. “I still have issues about why I’m worthy of you, but I’m all yours.”
The ringing phone made Remi lose her smile, so Dallas reached for it and pressed it to Remi’s ear. It had to be something important because it was the intercom line that came from Simon and Juno’s place under them. She could hear Simon’s muffled voice through the receiver and went with Remi when she rolled over.
“What’s he want?” Remi asked, still lying down as she listened to Simon’s answer. “It has to be tonight?” Dallas let go when Remi sat up. “Tell him if he wants that he’ll have to wait.” There was a long pause as Remi listened. “Shit,” she said, to end the call.
“You have to go now?” Dallas asked, taking Remi’s hand.
“Rodolfo’s man Carlos is at the club and he’s hysterical. Told the manager he wants to talk to me and Cain tonight. He hasn’t threatened anyone, but I’m not in the mood to draw any heat right now. Leaving, though, isn’t on my agenda.”
“Has anything else happened aside from what you already shared with me?”
“Something’s always going on, but right now it revolves around the deaths I told you about. It’s like finding the pieces of a puzzle, only this time they aren’t coming easily.”
Dallas rubbed her cheek against Remi’s shoulder. They didn’t have any secrets between them now, and while that gave her a new beginning, it brought more fear. These puzzles Remi spoke of meant someone out there was targeting her.
“It’s okay if you have to go, just be careful.” Remi stood up after kissing her and Dallas enjoyed her naked body outlined by the city lights. The house in the Quarter was great, but she enjoyed making love with Remi in this room with its three walls of uncovered glass.
“I won’t be long, so stay and take a nap.”
“Can I do anything for you before you go?” she asked, following Remi into the bathroom.
“That’s why I want you to take a nap, beautiful lady.”
Sleep wouldn’t come easy after what they’d just shared, but she loved Remi’s playful mood.
“I want to thank you again for sharing your story with me. I love you, and you can trust me.”
“That goes for me too, baby. I’ll keep your secrets as well as your heart safe.”
*
Bugs flew around Gustavo’s head as he stood in the beam of the headlights with his chest heaving and his gun at his side. This was one of the only times he’d been the one pulling the trigger, and he was staring at Rodolfo’s slumped, lifeless body hanging from the tree they’d tied him to. The ants didn’t seem to care he was dead as they crawled higher up his chest, making it look like living red lines were drawing new designs as they worked their way to the bone.
“I’ve waited over twenty years for this and you let him escape with no pain,” Gracelia said, her hands on her hips. “He got his way even on this.”
“You wanted to listen to what he was saying about you and my papa all night?” he asked, Rodolfo’s voice ringing through his mind. Rodolfo’s version didn’t resemble anything his mother had always told him. Gustavo bounced his gun on his leg as he considered his family history. “Was any of what he said true?”
“Rodolfo knew we’d finally won, and you’re going to believe the fantasies of his desperation?”
His mother seldom screamed at him, but he wasn’t interested in her reaction. Supposedly Lorenzo had been there when they’d found his father, and if what Rodolfo said was true, he wasn’t an only child. Instead of the golden son his mother spun tales about, he was one of the bastards Armando Ortega left behind like dirty laundry as he moved from conquest to conquest.
Lorenzo was loyal to his mother, one of the first men to leave Rodolfo for her, and not for her promise of a larger take. He stood behind her now and wouldn’t meet Gustavo’s gaze. Gustavo knew it was because what Rodolfo had said was true, but Lorenzo loved his mother too much to expose what he knew. The old bastard didn’t realize his mother would string him along but never be interested in anything but him doing his job.
“I have brothers and sisters?” he asked, wanting to find out at least some of what had been kept from him.
“You are the only son your father had who mattered,” Gracelia said, leading him to the car and pushing him inside. “You know who you are, Gustavo, even if the name still sounds foreign to you. Rodolfo was a dried-up old man who took pleasure in hurting both of us all his life, and that was true tonight as well. All that talk just showed he had no character.”
“He might’ve been an ass, Mama, but he never lied to me.”
“That you know of. Rodolfo told you and everyone around him what he wanted them to know. He took the whole truth about his life with him.”
He watched Lorenzo walk the area, making sure they left nothing behind before he got into the front passenger seat. “What now?”
“Tomorrow we call Santos for a meeting and ask him if he’d like to help run the Biloxi part of the business like he did for Rodolfo. If he refuses, we kill him and go to the next guy in line. Once we establish ourselves here, I’ll return to Cozumel with Jerome to take control of the production end.”
“You’re planning to leave me here?” If she allowed him to stay in New Orleans, he could concentrate on taking down Casey.
“Do you want me to leave Jerome?” she asked, reapplying her lipstick. “I trust you, and you don’t need to be told what to do.”
“No, I want to stay.” He didn’t want anyone supervising him. “Are you sure you can trust Jerome? He has a different name too, but he’s still a fucking cop under the new face.”
“You leave him to me,” she said, running her tongue along her lips after she finished with the makeup. “He’s going to be a great asset to me…to both of us.”
The way she said it and the way they interacted in the hotel made Gustavo guess his mother hadn’t settled for a gardener or day worker in her bed this time. Since she’d taken Jerome as a lover, eventually she wouldn’t need or have any room for him. He hadn’t gone through all this not to take the control Rodolfo had never shared with him.
He would do that even at the expense of teaching his mother a lesson. She would eventually forgive him, but Jerome could screw himself—if he lived to think about it.
*
It was late but people were still drinking and having a good time in Pescadors when Remi arrived. Her father was upstairs and had sent a few men down to keep an eye on Carlos and the man who’d come with him. The two were sitting where they’d met with Rodolfo before, and as she walked close with a neutral expression, not happy considering what she’d just left, he didn’t see her because he had his head down. When she cleared her throat Carlos must’ve heard her even over the music, because he stood and combed his hair back.
She didn’t know him well but, like Simon, who stood behin
d her, Carlos seemed to be the stoic watcher who was seldom heard. His youth told her that he was deadly enough to be the one who had earned his spot behind Rodolfo. Considering their business and the choices Rodolfo had to make, this young man made her curious enough to put her aggravation aside.
“Don’t you think it would be better to wait for Rodolfo?” Simon asked her softly. “These assholes don’t scare me, but we don’t need the pain in the ass we’ll get if his boss thinks we’re going behind his back.”
“That’s this guy’s problem,” she said, stopping a few feet from Carlos.
“Does Rodolfo know you’re here?” she asked him in Spanish.
“I’m not here to play games, so cut the shit and tell me what you and Casey did with him,” he yelled back. “If he’s hurt I won’t stop until I kill all of you.”
His threat made her father’s men move in and put their hands in their jackets. “Unless you explain, you’re the one playing games. You were here when we met, and unless you were sleeping, you heard that Cain and our family want nothing to do with you. Why the hell would we move against Rodolfo?”
“Then Casey did it without you.”
“You call me for this?” she asked, dropping into one of the leather chairs that were replicas of the ones her father had in his clubs in Cuba. “Sit down and spit it out.” He stayed on his feet and combed his thick jet hair back again, and she saw that it was disordered. Carlos was panicked and that was driving his anger.
“He’s gone,” Carlos said, sitting, “and if not you, then Casey.”
“He’s gone?” This was a new angle for these guys. “If he is, it wasn’t us or Cain.” She didn’t want to share what had happened to Cain, but it would explain to Carlos why Rodolfo wasn’t on their minds at the moment. “If that’s true, how did anyone get past you?”
“That’s not a story I have time to waste on,” he said, not meeting her eyes.
