by Ali Vali
“It’s time to save myself.”
Chapter Twenty-one
The kids, Roth, and Muriel arrived later that afternoon, and the kids’ rundown of what they’d done cheered Emma up. She was about to turn down Cain’s offer to go out, but changed her mind when Cain said it was important.
She took her time dressing and found it both comforting and sexy to have Cain sit and watch her. It made her feel wanted as well as loved.
When she finished, Cain opened the safe and removed the diamond choker that had been her mother’s, a gift from Dalton because she’d said yes. “I promised you a surprise today and I think I did good in delivering.”
“I needed them back here with us, so thank you.”
“Tonight isn’t about trying to get away from them. I simply want to give you something else.” Cain put her hands on the necklace and kissed the side of her head. “My father gave this to my mother the day they married. It was his way of presenting her something precious for the promise of the life he’d have with her. That’s what I want to do as well.”
“I have everything I need already.”
“Let’s see about that.”
They arrived at Vincent’s restaurant and stopped briefly at the door so the folks in the van would see them before they entered. Vincent escorted them to the private room and locked the door so he could access the room they held their meetings in.
“I’ve always been curious about this place,” Emma said as they descended slowly. She didn’t seem prepared for what waited in the basement and leaned on Cain as if to regain her composure.
Cain had destroyed the house where Marie died—had stood outside the day the company she’d hired crushed it and trucked it away, but she kept one single piece with this night in mind. It sat in the middle of the room, sturdy and ready for one more act of violence. Dino and Shaun had done a good job of following her directions before they took off. Juan was spread on the table where Marie had lost her life the same way he’d tied Emma down. They’d stripped him bare and only covered his groin with a towel.
“My gift tonight is peace of mind,” Cain said as she left Emma’s side and moved to the table and grabbed Juan by the hair and lifted his head. “I wanted you to see him like this so you’d know he can’t hurt us anymore.”
Juan pulled against his bindings and she briefly mourned the loss of the opportunity to beat him to death, but it was important for Emma to remember this sight. She wanted Emma to know what would happen to anyone who tried to harm her or their family, and how she’d deal with it. On her watch, rabid animals would always be put down.
“You were planning this again, weren’t you?” Emma asked Juan as she stepped next to her. “What did I ever do to you that made you this crazy?”
She motioned for Katlin to remove his gag, but gave her a serious look. If he was going to be the same ass he usually was, he’d die without another word. “You belong to me,” Juan said, after he’d taken a few deep breaths. “I show you that. I take you to make you happy.”
“He missed his chance to deny who he was,” Emma said as she looked at him with an expression Cain had never seen on her face. When she took another step toward him, Katlin replaced his gag. “Do you remember the day we met?” Juan had gone back to straining and glaring. “I told you then my name is Emma Casey. I belong to her.” Emma pointed at Cain and moved closer to him. “You should’ve walked away that night because she’s relentless, and I love that I belong to her. There wasn’t a chance in hell you would beat her.”
Cain held up her hand for Katlin to back off when Emma raised her fist over his head and held it there. When she brought it down, the echo of the slap rang clearly in the room. Five more came in quick succession before Emma stopped and gripped the table.
“Go upstairs, lass, and I’ll be up in a minute.” Cain put her arms around Emma from behind and held her.
“Are you going to kill him?”
“I’ve thought about it.”
Emma swung around and looked at her, as if not believing her answer. “I’m not asking because I’m upset about it. I want to know for sure. He’s taken too much from us for you to show mercy now.” Emma placed her palm against her cheek. “I can’t watch you lose another minute of sleep over trash like that. He deserves everything you have in mind.”
“Juan hurt you,” she said, and kissed Emma, which made Juan groan. “So no, he’s not leaving here alive.” Katlin handed her something and she released Emma to take it. The bottle usually held ketchup, but not tonight. “I’ve thought about it for a long time—how to kill him, I mean. His family has a tradition of sorts.” She squeezed the bottle and aimed it at his crotch, after she’d removed the towel.
“They tie a man to a tree and coat his genitals in honey so fire ants finish the job.” She squeezed another stream until it puddled under his ass. “It’s slow and painful, and it’s a Luis signature.” She squirted his hands next, and the liquid dripped from his fingers to the cement floor.
“That’s how Juan’s father died,” she said, and he flared his lips, trying to get the curses around the gag. “But from what Hector told me about him, it wasn’t a big loss.”
She emptied the bottle on his penis. “This is how Juan killed his uncle Rodolfo too, so I wanted to give him a part of his family’s heritage but put my own twist on it. When I light him up he can start the journey to hell the way his daddy and uncle did, but someone deserves to punch his final ticket more than me.” She waved to the corner, and Merrick stepped forward with one of her pistols in hand. Her gait was still slow but she made it without a cane.
“So go upstairs, lass, and we’ll finish this. When we do, Juan will never be a problem to you again.” Emma nodded but took the time to kiss Merrick’s cheek and Cain’s lips before Lou helped her up and relocked the door behind them.
She waited until she heard the door close before Katlin took the gag off again. “You stupid bitch,” Juan said when his mouth was clear. He clicked his jaw shut when she pressed the tip of her switchblade under his eye hard enough to pierce the skin.
“It amazes me that people like you issue threats at times like this,” she said, and Simon translated from the corner. She’d volunteered to come since Cain wanted him to understand completely why he was here and what would happen to him. “If you give me Anthony Curtis, I’ll allow Merrick to kill you fast and without prolonged pain.”
He spoke in fast Spanish, so she waited for Simon. “Anthony and my mother will hunt you until they slaughter you and your family. So kill me, and your family and these bitches are dead,” he said, and lifted his head to stare at Merrick and Katlin.
“Your mother is somewhere with Carlos and some of his best men,” she said as she pressed the knife to his forehead and brought his head down with it. “I’d say they’re threatening her with rape before they kill her, but I hear Gracelia loves to fuck anything that moves.”
“You lie.”
“He asked me for Gracelia because she’s got to pay for what happened to Rodolfo, and I agreed.” When he opened his mouth she made another cut. “I just want to know she’s dead. I only care about you and Anthony, so take my offer. If not, you’ll die like your father, only I won’t bother with ants.”
“I hate Anthony, but you won’t get anything from me,” Simon translated.
“Katlin,” she said, and the gag was back in place.
Juan’s eyes grew comically huge when she slowly dragged a match across the side of the box and lit it. “This is for putting your hands on my wife after she asked you not to.” His body arched off the table when his hands started to burn. “And this is for why you touched her at all.” She dropped another match onto his dick.
Large, fat tears spilled from his eyes as his skin blistered, and she let him suffer before Merrick shot him in the head. Katlin put out the last of the small fire on the table, and they all stared at his lifeless body.
“Have Lou go with Dino and Shaun to meet Tina C at the cemetery. She’ll b
e there around three at the entrance to the mausoleum. I want no trace of this one.”
“You paid to bury this asshole?” Merrick laughed. “Tina didn’t have an available hole to throw him in?”
“I insisted this time because if Emma’s nightmares come back, I want a place for her to be able to see. A small plaque was worth the reminder of what a nobody this man is to us, so we’ll put him in a space under the name Juan Nadie,” she said, and tried to repeat it the way Remi had. “Nadie means no one in Spanish, so he’s effectively a John Doe.”
“What about Gracelia?” Merrick asked.
“Gracelia has a date with Carlos tonight. In a few hours he’ll be the last Luis left alive.” She looked at Juan’s pained expression, frozen by death, and the weight she’d carried from the afternoon he’d taken Emma dropped from her shoulders. “I asked him for only one thing before she died, and he gave me his word.”
“What?” Katlin asked.
“A gift for someone frozen in time.”
*
“I’ll understand if you don’t want to eat and want to head home,” Cain said when she came back in the room where Emma sat with Lou. Emma didn’t appear shocked or sick, but she moved slowly toward her, nonetheless, since this was the first time she’d shown her partner the dark side she’d never denied having. She couldn’t blame her for her fear.
“I’d like to go home, but not for the reason you think.” Emma stood with her hand out. “I want you to hold me while I tell you how much it means to me that you’d do something like this for me. To not have to look over my shoulder for the rest of my life is a blessing. Juan kept trying until you either killed him or he succeeded.”
“It’s my honor to protect you and take care of you, and you’d do no less for me. I’m positive of that.” She held Emma’s hand and led her out to the dining room. The place had gotten crowded in the time they’d spent downstairs, so Lou walked ahead to make sure they didn’t run into problems before they made it outside.
She noticed Fiona O’Brannigan at a table with an older attractive woman who was drinking from a wineglass. Their hair was the same color, only it seemed time had dulled the color of the older woman’s somewhat, and since they shared the same cheekbones Cain guessed it was her mother.
The woman turned slightly after Fiona said something, and Cain also noticed the low-cut neckline of the woman’s dress. This was the ghost Muriel had found, and even with the distance between them she could see the piece of jewelry the woman wore around her neck. “Wait a second, lass.”
She stepped closer to Fiona’s table and stared at the ring hanging around the woman’s throat from a thick gold chain. The woman looked at her with panic clearly etched into her face and subtly placed her hand over her chest. If it was what Cain thought it was from her brief glance, Fiona’s companion had tried her best to hide it from her. Even after what she’d just done, this was bizarre. It was like finding a needle in a haystack as big as the universe.
“What the hell do you want?” Fiona stood up, but the woman put her hand on her wrist. “What?” Fiona repeated, when the woman didn’t move or say anything.
“Cain Casey,” she said, and offered the woman her hand.
“Judice O’Brannigan,” the woman said softly as she shook it, but her other hand stayed on the jewelry.
“Nothing that’s lost ever stays buried.” Cain moved her finger close to the woman’s chest.
“Touch or bother her and I’m taking you in,” Fiona warned her as her hand got close.
“If you want to play it that way we will, but I’ve put off my call to Colin Mead long enough. Have a nice meal and we’ll see what he says.”
“What do you know about Colin Mead?” Fiona asked as she glanced between her mother and Cain.
“Fiona, how about you go back to the pretend world you live in, and I’ll return to my life,” Cain said. “Ronald isn’t going to help your career, you aren’t going to save Shelby, and the list of your friends in this town keeps getting shorter. What you should ask yourself instead is if you have a place to go back to if this doesn’t work out.”
“My daughter isn’t a threat to you,” Judice said, now pale. “Believe me, she’s not. You have my word on it.”
“Learn that lesson from your mother. Family should be the most important thing in your life, and at the end of it it’s the only thing real. I love mine with a devotion that people seldom have anymore, and I’d give anything to keep them safe.”
“I’ve done the same for mine, even if it’s only Fiona.” Since Cain’s eyes had never left Judice’s chest, she took her hand away and let her look. “Mementos only mean you’re trying to remember something special.”
“Something like the brutal death of someone who was a wonderful husband, father, and friend? A man whose life ended in betrayal, and because it did he died without ever meeting his grandchildren? If that’s what you’re trying to remember, then believe me. I’m not the forgiving kind.”
“That’s it,” Fiona said, and reached for her. “Turn around, I’m taking you in.”
“Fiona,” Judice said loudly. “Leave it be.”
Cain walked away before she had to endure any more of Fiona’s delusions of grandeur and took Emma’s hand. The sight of Judice O’Brannigan meant that even though Juan was dead, something else was brewing, and it had nothing to do with Fiona. She needed to be sure the past didn’t rear up and present a bad surprise.
“What was that about?” Emma asked when they were in the car on the way home.
“I need to call a distant cousin to listen to a story about the woman we just saw. Colin Mead runs a branch of our family in California, and he’s got such an eye for the ladies that sometimes he’s not the brightest bulb in the box.”
“You think he’s involved with that woman?” Emma rubbed her hand between Cain’s.
“It’s more than that, but I’m not going to worry until I talk to Colin.”
“Are you concerned that this Colin guy told Fiona’s mother something about your business? If he did, she wouldn’t be stupid enough to share it with Fiona, would she?”
“I’m not really interested in what she does with Colin, or how stupid she is, but I do want to know why she has my father’s ring around her neck. He lost the original that’d been in our family for generations before he and my mother got married. How’d she end up with it?”
“Are you serious? Come on, honey. He made a copy of the original, so maybe it was popular back in the day.”
“I’d almost believe that, but did you see her face when I got there? She had a definite reaction, and when I walked over there, she looked almost afraid. Something’s up, and then there’s what Muriel found, or didn’t find, on her. Think of Dallas when we first met her. When someone doesn’t have anything in their past, there has to be a reason for it.”
“Her daughter isn’t exactly an unknown to you. She’s been nothing but pushy since she got here with the idea of who killed Shelby’s parents.”
“Fiona’s harmless, and if people like Sept aren’t willing to play along with her theories about certain crimes, she’s not going to last long in that job. Her last option will be Ronald Chapman, if he puts her on his task force permanently, but that won’t happen either.”
“You’re not giving her a recommendation?” Emma said, and smiled at her.
The joke made her laugh, but she was sure about Ronald. His day was coming, and all that starch he loved in his shirts was going to strangle him when she pounced. “Let’s see what Colin has to say.”
Muriel met them at the door and followed them to the office. She handed over Colin’s number and sat next to Emma while she dialed. “Colin, please. Tell him Cain Casey wants to talk to him.”
“Shit, I haven’t heard from you in ages. From what Muriel tells me you’re married with kids. Who in the hell would’ve believed that with all the women you bedded in the old days.” Colin was, as always, loud and brash. Her father had found him annoying, but she
and Billy loved him for his honesty even if he was crass.
Emma laughed and shook her head, having heard his comments on speakerphone.
“Thank God I’ve already told her about the old days, since she’s sitting here with me, so put that beer down and pay attention.”
“Is this about Judice and that kid of hers?”
She glanced at Muriel, then Emma before she tapped the side of her head. “Her kid, as you put it, wants my head on a wall, and her mother doesn’t exist. Believe me, if she did, Muriel would’ve found her, so tell me what she does for you.”
“Judice is a magician with the books. She works for me and Sal.”
“Sal as in Salvatore Maggio? Sal trusted someone outside his family anywhere near his money? Did this woman lie and tell him she’s secretly Mother Teresa?”
Colin laughed, and she could hear him beating on something. “I would’ve thrown her out on her ass, but she came with a recommendation I couldn’t ignore.”
“Al Capone was her grandfather?”
“No…your Da was her boyfriend.” He spit the last part out fast.
“Judice was with Da?” She found it hard to believe that, since her father, no matter how many his relationships, had told her about all of them. A life with no secrets, he’d said, was one with very few surprises from the past. She’d been so much like him in so many aspects of his life, but the one thing she was the most proud of was how she’d changed when she’d met Emma and committed. There’d been no one else after that. Period.
“Are you saying he was with this woman after he met Mum?”
“Hear what I’m saying, Cain,” he said, and he lowered his voice. “Once Dalton met Therese, no woman had a chance with him. Judice came before and disappeared a little before your Da fell in love. There was nothing between them again, and she ran out of New Orleans like she’d never find another man again and the devil was chasing her. She came here, and I found her working behind a bar a few months after she left there and gave her a job when she asked. She’s been a nun ever since. All she does is work and fuss over Fiona.”
