by Ali Vali
“Boy, the last fucking thing we need is to get into a pissing contest with Cain Casey. Tell Kim to rework her plan and get back to me, but I can tell you right now, Tuesday’s too late.”
“I think you’re wrong there, Papa. Tuesday will give me all the time I need to put things into motion not only for this deal, but for our future dealings in the South.” The glass felt cold against his hand, but he’d flipped the air conditioner on. He couldn’t sleep unless it was cold.
“What’s on your mind? Or should I say who?” Junior Luca asked.
“If I move, it’ll be with the help of the Colombians.”
“I don’t want to owe anyone any favors after this plays out.”
“Look at it this way, if they help us they’re going to be doing us a favor. But if I let them take care of business when they’re here, then what they’ll owe us in return is going to be so much more. We have a lot of enemies in common, and letting them get involved on our terms will drive our price down in the end.”
“Don’t forget to keep me in the loop, and if not Cain, then who?”
“Remi. That’ll make Cain and Ramon see it’s in their best interest to talk to me,” Nunzio said.
“We’ll see.”
Nunzio threw his phone on the bed and took one last look at the view before he closed the curtains. The phone landed near Kim, and she placed it on the nightstand as she turned up the volume on the television. “He doesn’t agree with you,” she said.
“He doesn’t trust me. That’s different than disagreeing with me.” He sat down so hard the mattress bounced.
“Give him a few days to fully appreciate how this plays out. When Junior gets everything he wants and is making more money than he ever dreamed, he won’t take you for granted again.”
Nunzio laughed and scrubbed his face with his hands. “This is Junior Luca we’re talking about, right? He’s not about to give in that easily, no matter how successful I am.”
Kim pointed the remote at the TV and turned it off. “Then how about if I take your mind off it some other way?” She rolled toward him, put her hand on his crotch, and squeezed.
The blatant come-on made him forget his father, Remi, Cain, and, most importantly, his wife.
*
“Am I too early?” Remi asked when she was led back to the dining room to find Emma and the children having breakfast. “Or is Cain just sleeping in?”
“Cain’s meeting with our contractor this morning, but she said she wouldn’t be long, so please join us.” Emma was cutting up a waffle for Hannah, who was doing a good job of shoving bacon in her mouth. “Hannah, slow down before you choke and Remi thinks we’re not teaching you any table manners.”
“Cain tells me you’ve got a birthday coming up, Hayden,” Remi said. “What’s on your wish list?”
“A Corvette, but Mama says I have to wait a few years,” he joked. “Think Emil would consider helping me out with some boots?”
Remi crossed her feet at the ankles and gave him a good view of her black alligator boots, polished to perfection. They’d been a gift from her father’s personal guard Emil, who knew as much about trapping gators as he did about keeping Ramon safe. “I’m sure if we ask him real nice, he’ll put you in some new footwear.” Remi opened her arms when he came around the table and hugged her.
“Thanks, Remi, and if you’re not busy, come to the barbeque Mama’s putting together. You can meet my Grandpa Ross. He’s making the trip down from Wisconsin.”
“I wouldn’t miss it.”
Hayden kissed Emma next and waved to Hannah before he walked out.
“He’s getting tall.” Remi smiled at Hannah, who’d moved on to filling her cheeks with waffle. “And this one just gets cuter. I can see why Cain talks about them all the time.”
“They’re beautiful, but they’re a handful since they don’t just look like Cain. She keeps telling me it’s the strands of bad Casey grass running through them.”
When Hannah lost interest in her plate, Emma wiped her mouth and put her on the floor. Hannah stopped and gave Remi a hug as well before she followed Carmen out.
“If you’re good enough for Hayden,” Emma explained. “That’s her litmus test.” She stood and poured them a cup of coffee. “It gets a little more complicated once we get older, doesn’t it?”
“That’s because the older we get, the better we get at hiding who we are.”
“Can I be honest with you?” Emma sat down across from her and added cream to her coffee. “This is decaffeinated,” she said when Remi nodded. “I hope you’ve had a real cup already.” Her attempt at humor worked and Remi laughed. “I had lunch with Dallas, and I noticed something about her.”
Emma sounded so serious Remi hesitated before answering. “If she made you feel uncomfortable—”
“Remi, she didn’t make me feel uncomfortable. I felt sorry for her. Dallas is running from something, and the last thing she needs is for you to disappear.”
“What makes you think I’ll do that?” Her coffee sat forgotten, but Remi did run her finger along the cup handle to have something to do while she lay under Emma’s microscope.
“How do I know? Are you kidding?” She laughed, and some of the hair in her ponytail pulled loose. “I might have graduated from Tulane with a degree in English, but I have a doctorate in life when it comes to understanding Derby Cain Casey. You two are at different points in your lives, but in here,” Emma stood up and placed her hand over Remi’s heart, “you’re the same. It’s this,” she tapped the side of her head, “that gets in the way when it comes to situations like this.”
“You sound like you do know about it.” Remi stood and followed Emma to the sunroom. Outside Hannah was running around chasing the last of the falling leaves.
“If you just change where we’re from, Dallas and I aren’t that different either. In the end we’re all running from something. If you care even a little about her, you need to find out what it is and make her want to run toward something.”
Remi smiled as she gave Emma a quick hug. From the time Cain had introduced them, Remi had liked the little firecracker. Suddenly she saw the allure of having only one woman in her life. “My mother could take lessons from you.”
The teasing comment made Emma chuckle. “How do you know I haven’t taken some from her? I’m just practicing. With a true-bred Casey upstairs and another one coming up right behind him,” she pointed to Hannah, “I can use all the experience I can get. Once all those hormones kick in, our house is going to be a zoo.”
“I’m sure you’ll do fine.” Remi opened the door to the yard and waved her through. “How about if I get some practice with a four-year-old until Cain gets back?”
“If everything works out you could use that.”
Emma was kidding, but is that what she wanted? She had a home, but she had never considered filling it with a wife and children, like Cain had. And if she did consider it, was Dallas the one who, like Emma, could make the perfect partner?”
The answers were like a fortune cookie, wrapped in secrecy. She just had to crack through what Dallas was hiding.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Jimmy Pitre stood in Cain’s office breathing like he’d sprinted a mile. His eyes darted from Cain’s face to the multitude of holes in the walls. This room had been gutted first during the renovations because of all the bullet holes, and Cain was sure the FBI had taken full advantage of the missing drywall to wire the room in which she most likely did business.
“Beautiful day, don’t you think?” Cain asked him after fifteen minutes of silence. She gave him credit for keeping his mouth shut since he’d arrived. Usually the sobbing started five minutes in.
“I guess,” Jimmy said, his voice wavering.
“When you were dealing with my wife, she said you were always certain,” Cain said, staring at him until he dropped his eyes to the floor. “You remember my wife, don’t you? The cute blonde who gave you some pretty straight-forward directions.”
>
“I did my job, Ms. Casey. The house is almost finished. I fulfilled Emma’s wishes, and I didn’t leave any room looking like that.” He pointed to the holes.
“I see.” Her leather chair creaked when she sat back. In the quiet house it sounded even louder than usual, but still she could hear Jimmy’s breathing. “Do I look stupid, Jimmy? May I call you Jimmy?”
He whipped his head up and nodded vigorously. “No, ma’am, you don’t look stupid.”
“Then maybe when Emma hired you she misunderstood exactly what kind of work you do, or maybe you forgot to tell her about all those little things that set you apart from the other guys she could’ve gone with. Which do you suppose it was?”
He spread his hands out in front of him and smiled. “I do go that extra mile to make sure you’re satisfied. But don’t worry—there’s no charge for that.”
“I see,” she repeated and pulled away the kitchen towel she’d grabbed before he’d arrived, then rested her hands on the edge of the desk. “I imagine, then, that the main control for these is somewhere in the house. When you submitted your final bill, I didn’t notice any mention of them, so now that you’re here, explain them to me.”
“Those aren’t mine, and I don’t know anything about them,” he said, his voice going up an octave.
“We’ll get to who they belong to and how they got here in a minute, but first let’s talk about your last chat with Emma. Do you remember the fine she mentioned?”
“She said five thousand per infraction.”
“Right here then we have five hundred and eighty thousand dollars worth of infractions.” She had laid every bug Katlin had found in neat rows on her desk. “And we’re talking the first floor only.” She stopped and picked up two that lay to the side of the others. “Do you know where we found these?” She held them up and Jimmy shook his head. “On the new playground equipment I put up for my daughter. I realize some people consider me a monster, but do you really think if I were, I’d show that side of myself in front of my four-year-old?” She slammed the devices back down on the desk.
“I don’t know who did that.” His lip trembled as he spoke.
“We have a problem, Jimmy. My math tells me that you owe me over a hundred grand at the moment.” She went on talking over him. “Did you bring your checkbook?”
“No.” His eyes were glassy now, but the tears were holding steady.
“That’s okay, because I’m not finished tabulating.” Cain saw Lou’s chest shake in quiet laughter when Jimmy appeared so relieved he took a small step forward. “Like I said, these were downstairs, and once I start on the second floor, the fine will be the same unless I find any in the master bedroom.”
“What happens then?” He sounded as if he had to choose between being disemboweled or burned alive.
“Are you married, Jimmy?”
“Five years.”
She nodded. “Any kids?”
“A three-year-old boy.”
“Uh-huh.” She picked up another bug and studied it. “How would you feel making love to your wife and sharing lovers’ conversations, only to have a bunch of people you don’t know listen in?”
“I wouldn’t like it.”
“Good for you, that was the right answer. Your wife would be proud.” She glanced up at him again and stood. From the way his eyes widened, she was sure he was surprised that she was taller by a few inches. “Back to our talk about the master bedroom. For every one of these I find up there,” she picked up another one at random, “it’s going to cost you a little bit more.”
“How much?” His tears had started and ran down his face almost as if he didn’t notice they were falling.
“Lou, you know Emma,” Cain said, addressing him for the first time and making him step closer to Jimmy. “How much do you think her dignity is worth?”
“A lot more than five grand, boss.”
“You’re right, but let’s give our boy here a chance to redeem himself. How about it?” she asked Jimmy. “One simple question and, if you tell me the truth, we call it even.”
“I’ve been telling the truth.” If Jimmy intended to protest anymore, he clicked his mouth shut when he felt Lou’s hand on his shoulder. “What do you want to know?”
“How many of these are in our bedroom? Tell me the truth and I’ll wipe your slate clear of debt for the second floor. Lie and it’ll cost you fifty for every one I find.”
“I don’t know anything about this, and I don’t have that kind of money.” Jimmy’s tears fell faster when she put her hands on her desk, she leaned over, and took a deep breath.
“Does that answer fit the question I asked? Do I need to explain how much I dislike repeating myself? And asking you if I look stupid is repeating myself.” Cain finally let go of some of her control and started screaming. “So answer my damn question.”
“None,” he blurted. “There’s none up there.”
Cain pointed at Katlin and the room fell silent again as she went to test his answer. For ten minutes Cain drummed her fingers in her usual uneven beat on her desk, and Jimmy continued to wipe his nose on his sleeve. A moment later they heard a loud noise, followed quickly by another—the sound of a hammer going through a wall. Katlin finally made it down and added another six to Cain’s collection.
“You’re not a very honest man, Jimmy,” Cain said. She scraped her nail along what she assumed was the speaker, hoping the idiots listening in had the volume turned up. “You owe me another three hundred thousand.”
“Are those on?” Jimmy asked, suddenly sounding like the panic was really setting in and he’d had a brilliant idea. “Is anyone listening to this?”
“If you want to yell for help, go ahead,” she said, handing him one of the bugs. “I ripped them out, but I didn’t destroy them. I’m guessing, but I think destruction of government property is a crime, and that’s not what we’re about. And if you want to know if anyone’s listening, the van you passed on the way in here is probably full of your new friends witnessing the crack your ass is in right now. Only if they come barging in here like the calvary, they also have to admit these belong to them.”
She leaned over and spoke directly into the new ones Katlin had brought down. “They’re not going to do that for you, Jimmy, because they’re after the big fish.” She pointed her thumb toward her chest. “And they don’t care how many little guppies go down in their pursuit. You know what they’re hoping for out there while they’re crammed in the back of that van like cockroaches?”
“What?”
“That I, in a fit of anger, blow your brains out all over the new rug Emma picked out for me. Then, believe me, they’ll come running, but only if that happens.”
“Can I go home?”
“Just one more thing.” Cain walked around her desk and grabbed him by the collar.
“Please don’t hurt me.”
“I’m not going to hurt you. Like I said, I’m not a monster, Jimmy. Today was just about talking to you and getting our finances straight. See, you shouldn’t have believed what other people said about me instead of asking me directly.” She smiled at him and tightened her hold on his collar. “I want you to divide the pile in two.” She dragged him forward and pointed to her desk.
“What for?”
“You’re going to swallow anything on the right, so keep that in mind when you divide it.”
His hands shook as he stretched it toward the pile. “Are you sure they’re working?”
Cain crooked her finger at Katlin so she’d run the locator over her desk. When she did, the needle on the meter jumped completely to the right. “They’re all working, and the calvary isn’t coming. Think about that when you pay your federal taxes.”
Jimmy peered at her with bloodshot eyes and mucus draining out of his nose. “But why?”
“In situations like this, you’re either a pawn or a prized target. You’re under a lot of stress and obviously not paying very close attention, so I’ll repeat myself so it’ll s
ink in. They’re waiting for the target to kill the pawn. Then they’ll rush in here. Now I do believe we’ve established that’s not going to happen. You can cry and beg all you want, but they’ll just sit and wait for the gunshot.”
“Only the ones on the right?” he asked. He made his cut as if ready to get it over with.
“About twenty-five,” Cain said when he was done. “Not enough to get sick on but enough to show me you’re trying. One more thing—strip.”
“What?” he gazed up at her again. “Why?”
“Because I asked you to. Don’t make me ask again.” He took his shirt off first, displaying the tattoo Emma had described, then removed his pants and underwear. “Bon appetit.”
Jimmy started with the small ones first and gagged on the larger ones. He coughed and held his stomach on the last one but managed to get it down without throwing up on Cain’s desk. “Finished,” he said.
“Not quite.”
For the next part Shelby and the other agents on duty listened as Jimmy grunted and cried, but they couldn’t hear any other voices or noise. Cain must have written her directions.
“Shelby,” Claire said when the front door opened and a naked Jimmy stood there.
He ran across the street and tapped on their back window. When no one inside answered, he banged on the glass again until the van started swaying.
“Open up, you sons of bitches, or I swear I’ll break it,” he screamed.
Lionel was closest to the door and gave in before the neighbors called the police. “You’re okay now,” he told Jimmy, who was holding his hands in front of his genitals as if trying to preserve some of his dignity.
“Shut the fuck up and give me a map of where you put all your shit.”
Shelby tried to calm him down. “We can’t do that, Mr. Pitre. We went over this, remember?”
