by Ali Vali
“Cain,” Lou said from the door, holding his phone to his ear. “The Feds are at Emma’s and they’re demanding the surveillance tapes.”
“Is Annabel there supervising?”
Lou nodded.
“Great, hand me the phone.” Cain told the manager, “Find that bitch for me and put her on the line.”
“This is Agent Hicks, who is this?”
“Cain Casey, Annabel,” she said, and smiled at Muriel, who smiled back and shook her head.
“Try not to antagonize her too much. We have enough going on,” Muriel said softly, then sipped her coffee again.
“Tell your people to hand over the tapes and save us the trouble of going to court,” Annabel said over what sounded like chaos around her.
“I would, but our system was down for maintenance,” she said, making Muriel groan. “And I expect a full report as to who the new body is and who dropped it off. This latest travesty should prove to you that someone’s committed crimes in New Orleans and I’m not the one doing it,” she said, ending the call.
“That’s why you dropped the damn box over there, isn’t it?” Muriel asked.
“Come on, I have to get my jollies somehow when it comes to these people. Besides, what better disposal service than Annabel and her merry band of misfits. As a bonus they’ll have to concentrate most of their efforts back on Rodolfo and his demise.”
“True, which frees us up to look for Gracelia and figure out which side Rodolfo’s crew will choose.”
“Carlos called this morning before my visit from Hector and said he’s heading back to Cozumel and sending a crew to Cabo to see what he can find out.” She picked up the new shipment papers for the month’s deliveries and smiled when the numbers showed an increase.
“It sounds like you almost like this guy,” Muriel said, making her look up.
“Carlos is a little better than Rodolfo, and a lot better than Juan, but I’m still not interested in changing who we are and what we do.”
“I can understand that, and agree,” Muriel said, something outside making her turn her head.
Cain twisted in her chair and saw Hannah running around the play area they’d set up for her outside. The courtyard close to the sunroom was being set up for Hayden’s birthday party that would take place later that afternoon. Things like this kept her days grounded in normalcy and balanced the problems that often threatened her life.
“How’s your head?” Muriel asked.
“It’s getting there,” she said, running her fingers along the stitches. “I still get those disconnected feelings but no more seizures. It scared me that they wouldn’t stop.”
“You forgive me, right? That I wasn’t there when this happened.”
“Muriel, I don’t need to forgive you because nothing will ever cut away the part of me that shares a bond with you. You’re so important to me that I’m always willing to give you the space you need to find yourself and what part you want to play here.” She smiled and waved at Hannah when she reached the top of the slide. “You have to discover that place in your heart where you’re happy, not with the person you’re with, but with yourself, with no influence from me or anyone else. Until you do, don’t be afraid that you’ll drive me away.”
“I’m still looking because Shelby, while I do care for her against common sense, isn’t the person who will give me that,” she said, standing and pointing out the window. “And that brings us back to Shelby.”
“What does she want to talk about?”
“All she said was that it was important and she wanted the opportunity as soon as possible.”
“Call her and tell her to come over.”
“Are you sure? If they blamed you for whatever reason before she left, this could be a trap now that she’s walked the crime scene.”
“As long as you know I didn’t do this, and Emma knows, I don’t have anything to hide or worry about. Shelby needs someone to blame like I did when Big Gino took Da, then waited awhile before taking Mum and Billy. I finally could do something about it, but the pain of the loss doesn’t go in the ground with the assholes that did it,” she said, putting her hand over Muriel’s when Muriel placed hers on her shoulder. “I could’ve killed that bastard a thousand times over and it still wouldn’t make me feel better.”
“The problem, though, is that she wants to put you in the ground for this.”
“She can try, but like the fat bastard that did this to me,” she said, touching the stitches again, “she’ll find that actions have consequences when you do something without thinking and without proof. They can think whatever they like about me, but I never act without considering those two things. Without proof and intellect, you’re only a thug with the ability to pull the trigger.”
Muriel squeezed her shoulder before taking her seat. “I’m not disagreeing with you, but you might want to wait. Annabel’s bosses are investigating the problems in her office, so she’ll hang on to anything you throw at her to turn things around for her.”
“Hicks needs to be brought down a few, and I won’t be the one who helps her climb out of the hole she’s dug for herself,” she said, standing. “Get Shelby over here and I’ll be right back.” Muriel hugged her when she stepped from behind the desk. She returned the gesture, not needing to ask what it was for. That Cain would trust her alone in this room meant their relationship was mended.
Hayden was standing with Emma as the tables were brought out for the barbeque Emma had planned for late that afternoon. Inside, Carmen and the staff were making the sides to go with the thick steaks their butcher had delivered the day before. The new huge television was set up for the video-game tournament Emma had put together with prizes that would make whoever hadn’t been invited sorry, and the cake was hidden in a box in their room, since it was her way of teasing him for worrying so about what his friends would think about his party. Barney the Dinosaur would embarrass him a little, but not enough to make him mad.
“Anything I can do?” Cain asked.
“Have you been looking out the window long enough to know it’s safe to ask that question?” Emma asked, pinching her cheek.
“Guilty as charged,” Cain said, kissing her.
“To think the FBI lives to hear you say that, but I could spank you every time you do,” Emma said, making Hayden laugh. “I’m beginning to think that’s why you say it,” Emma whispered in her ear when she lowered her head to kiss her again.
“Guilty as charged,” she whispered back. “Well, Hayden Dalton Casey, you ready for this?”
“Thanks for all this, Mama,” he said to Emma, hugging her. “Everything you have planned should score me some dates.”
“That’s what I’m here for, but I doubt you’ll need much help in that area.”
“Before your friends get here, your mama and I wanted to give you our gift,” Cain said, putting her arm around Emma since she’d gone out to get it the day Juan and Anthony attacked her. Cain had wanted to destroy the gift but Emma refused, saying it wasn’t to blame for what happened. Mook came out with the box and handed it to her. “It’s a two-part present, so go ahead and open this one first.”
He lifted the top and placed his hands on the Purdey and Sons side-by-side game gun that she’d ordered for him months before. The shotgun was new, but it was the same model as the one she’d inherited from her father and the only gun she legally owned. Like her father’s she’d had the barrel engraved with a long vine of Irish roses, and the leather case it came with had Hayden’s name embossed on the side. He looked awed when he raised his head, and instead of lifting it to his shoulder to check the fit, he threw his arms around Cain.
“Thank you.”
“The other part of your gift is a hunting trip later this fall. We’ll try this out close to your grandfather’s place that’s supposed to be great for geese.”
“Can Mama and Hannah come?” he asked, the question making her smile at Emma.
“They can wait by the fire until we’re don
e,” she said, feeling so good she thought her chest would pop the buttons on her shirt. “You can lock it in the gun safe in my office and we’ll try it out on the skeet range next week.”
“You made his day, mobster,” Emma said, taking his place in her arms when Hayden felt free to check out his present, with Mook following him inside.
“We both did, so don’t give me all the credit.” Hannah had spotted her again and was climbing down from the fort part of the structure so Cain had a few minutes alone with Emma. “Shelby’s back and wants to talk to me.”
“I’m sure she does,” Emma said, wincing when Hannah took the rope ladder a little too fast from what Cain could tell from Emma’s expression of worry. “She’ll ask for your help and tell you it’s because of what happened and your form of justice is the only one that’ll give her satisfaction.”
“I haven’t figured out if it’s a trap or not.”
“What does your heart tell you? Because I know what mine says,” Emma said, looking up at her. “She’s going to play your sympathies for a trust she doesn’t deserve.”
“Having this happen changes a person. I remember being carefree like that.” She pointed to Hannah running full throttle across the yard toward them. “Then it happens and the intense grief makes you lose a bit of yourself you can’t get back, and you’re not so carefree anymore.”
“Things never changed, did they?”
Cain caught Hannah when she jumped higher than she expected. “You lose in life, that you can’t change, but Mum used to quote Father Andy all the time about how God doesn’t give us more than we can handle. So I miss them, but God gave me something in return for that loss, whether I deserved it or not. It was the answer to the prayers I didn’t know how to articulate.”
Emma came back to her after she kissed Hannah and put her down to follow Carmen inside for lunch. “I think about them all the time, but now my conversations with them don’t center around loss and sadness, but hope. You, my love, gave me a gift greater than what I lost. No matter what you believe in the form of a higher being, mine tested me by taking away my family but rewarded my survival by giving me one that cured the pain.”
“I’ve always thought you were my salvation.”
“And you mine,” Cain said, starting them moving toward the kitchen.
The heart of their house was large and filled with noise as their family gathered for a meal to celebrate Hayden’s day before his friends arrived. Merrick received applause when she made it to the table with a walker, having shed her wheelchair, but Katlin hovered close behind. At the door Shelby stood with Muriel, looking stunned, as if the shock of her ordeal had only recently set in.
The group might have been missing her parents and her siblings, but she felt them there nonetheless. “We still have so much left to do, but it shouldn’t take away from days like today,” she said softly to Emma, who stood in front of her with her hands on the baby growing inside.
“We have so much.”
“And so much more to look forward to,” she said, kissing Emma’s cheek and feeling a swell of emotion. They separated and went to their places at the ends of the table, and Cain raised her glass. “To Hayden, our family’s happiness, and to the things yet to come…”
“Clan,” those that belonged answered together, affirming that family was the most important thing. It was the reason Cain was strong and those who were lined up against her would never have a chance. Though the Feds had tried to break Cain through legal means and force, her lost sheep who had a set of keys to the empire was back in the fold, closing the door on the outsiders who meant them harm.
Yes, the toast “clan” that her family had uttered for generations rang true again because everyone there belonged and believed in family as much as she did.
“Clan,” she said in return, rested enough to enter the battle that was coming.
About the Author
Originally from Cuba, Ali Vali has retained much of her family’s traditions and language and uses them frequently in her stories. Having her father read her stories and poetry before bed every night as a child infused her with a love of reading, which carries till today. In 2000, Ali decided to embark on a new path and started writing.
She has discovered that living in Louisiana and running a nonprofit provides plenty of material to draw from in creating her novels and short stories. Mixing imagination with different life experiences, she creates characters that are engaging to the reader on many levels.
Books Available From Bold Strokes Books
The Devil be Damned by Ali Vali. The fourth book in the best-selling Cain Casey Devil series. (978-1-60282-159-0)
Descent by Julie Cannon. Shannon Roberts and Caroline Davis compete in the world of world-class bike racing and pretend that the fire between them is just professional rivalry, not desire. (978-1-60282-160-6)
Kiss of Noir by Clara Nipper. Nora Delany is a hard-living, sweettalking woman who can’t say no to a beautiful babe or a friend in danger—a darkly humorous homage to a bygone era of tough broads and murder in steamy New Orleans. (978-1-60282-161-3)
Under Her Skin by Lea Santos. Supermodel Lilly Lujan hasn’t a care in the world, except life is lonely in the spotlight—until Mexican gardener Torien Pacias sees through Lilly’s facade and offers gentle understanding and friendship when Lilly most needs it. (978-1-60282- 162-0)
Fierce Overture by Gun Brooke. Helena Forsythe is a hard-hitting CEO who gets what she wants by taking no prisoners when negotiating— until she meets a woman who convinces her that charm may be the way to win a battle, and a heart. (978-1-60282-156-9)
Trauma Alert by Radclyffe. Dr. Ali Torveau has no trouble saying no to romance until the day firefighter Beau Cross shows up in her ER and sets her carefully ordered world aflame. (978-1-60282-157-6)
Wolfsbane Winter by Jane Fletcher. Iron Wolf mercenary Deryn faces down demon magic and otherworldly foes with a smile, but she’s defenseless when healer Alana wages war on her heart. (978-1-60282- 158-3)
Little White Lie by Lea Santos. Emie Jaramillo knows relationships are for other people, and beautiful women like Gia Mendez don’t belong anywhere near her boring world of academia—until Gia sets out to convince Emie she has not only brains, but beauty...and that she’s the only woman Gia wants in her life. (978-1-60282-163-7)
Witch Wolf by Winter Pennington. In a world where vampires have charmed their way into modern society, where werewolves walk the streets with their beasts disguised by human skin, Investigator Kassandra Lyall has a secret of her own to protect: She’s one of them. (978-1-60282-177-4)
Do Not Disturb by Carsen Taite. Ainsley Faraday, a high-powered executive, and rock music celebrity Greer Davis couldn’t be less well suited for one another, and yet they soon discover passion has a way of designing its own future. (978-1-60282-153-8
From This Moment On by PJ Trebelhorn. Devon Conway and Katherine Hunter both lost love and neither believes they will ever find it again—until the moment they meet and everything changes. (978-1- 60282-154-5)
Vapor by Larkin Rose. When erotic romance writer Ashley Vaughn decides to take her research into the bedroom for a night of passion with Victoria Hadley, she discovers that fact is hotter than fiction. (978- 1-60282-155-2)
Wind and Bones by Kristin Marra. Jill O’Hara, award-winning journalist, just wants to settle her deceased father’s affairs and leave Prairie View, Montana, far, far behind—but an old girlfriend, a sexy sheriff, and a dangerous secret keep her down on the ranch. (978-1- 60282-150-7)
Nightshade by Shea Godfrey. The story of a princess, betrothed as a political pawn, who falls for her intended husband’s soldier sister, is a modern-day fairy tale to capture the heart. (978-1-60282-151-4)
Vieux Carré Voodoo by Greg Herren. Popular New Orleans detective Scotty Bradley just can’t stay out of trouble—especially
The Pleasure Set by Lisa Girolami. Laney DeGraff, a successful president of a family-owned bank on Rodeo Drive, finds her comfortable life ta
king a turn toward danger when Theresa Aguilar, a sleek, sexy lawyer, invites her to join an exclusive, secret group of powerful, alluring women. (978-1-60282-144-6)
A Perfect Match by Erin Dutton. The exciting world of pro golf forms the backdrop for a fast-paced, sexy romance. (978-1-60282-145-3)
Truths by Rebecca S. Buck. Two women separated by two hundred years are connected by fate and love. (978-1-60282-146-0)
Father Knows Best by Lynda Sandoval. High school juniors and best friends Lila Moreno, Meryl Morganstern, and Caressa Thibodoux plan to make the most of the summer before senior year. What they discover that amazing summer about girl power, growing up, and trusting friends and family more than prepares them to tackle that all-important senior year! (978-1-60282-147-7)
In Pursuit of Justice by Radclyffe. In the dynamic double sequel to Shield of Justice and A Matter of Trust, Det. Sgt. Rebecca Frye joins forces with enigmatic computer consultant J.T. Sloan to crack an Internet child pornography ring. (978-1-60282-147-4)
The Midnight Hunt by L.L. Raand. Medic Drake McKennan takes a chance and loses, and her life will never be the same—because when she wakes up after surviving a life-threatening illness, she is no longer human. (978-1-60282-140-8)
Long Shot by D. Jackson Leigh. Love isn’t safe, which is exactly why equine veterinarian Tory Greyson wants no part of it—until Leah Montgomery and a horse that won’t give up convince her otherwise. (978-1-60282-141-5)
In Medias Res by Yolanda Wallace. Sydney has forgotten her entire life, and the one woman who holds the key to her memory, and her heart, doesn’t want to be found. (978-1-60282-142-2)
