The Devil Inside Part 17

"Eat one more shrimp to make Julian happy. Then get out of here."

Shelby ate the shrimp, gathered all the paperwork, and jumped up. She kissed Cain good-bye and was almost to the door before her benefactor stopped her.

"Is there room in your sensibilities for me to ask one more favor?"

"I'll owe you more than one favor if this checks out. What else do you want?"

"Tomorrow night is the one night your boss has been waiting for."

"Cain, it's not too late to call off whatever you've got planned."

"I don't want to call it off. I want this to finally come to a head, and I want you to be there. I'd like to live out the night, and with you there, I'll feel better that'll happen."

Shelby put her hand on Cain's cheek and nodded. "I'll be there. I promise no one will harm you."

"Thanks. Just one more thing. Do you want the video and audio tapes that go along with that file?"

"You have film to go along with all these pictures?"

Cain pointed to the box near the door.

"If you were a man, I'd have your baby, gangster or no."

Shelby kissed her and jumped a little when the door opened again and an acne-faced teenager from the office supply place waited to carry her box out for her. Cain had even thought to put it in a box from the place to make it look like a purchase.

"I'll keep that baby thing in mind, but it'll have to wait. You have work to do."

Merrick walked in, pulled the plate of salad in front of her, and accepted a gla.s.s of wine from Cain. "All done?"

"That should keep her and her friends busy for the next twenty-two hours or so. Anything more and it's just overkill, since we did most of the work."

"Are you sure about all this, Cain? I have the worst feeling."

"Merrick, nothing in life is a guarantee, but I promise you I've worked out all the angles. I'm through with playing by someone else's rules. I'm ready to take control of the game again." Cain lifted her gla.s.s and pressed her lips to the rim. The next question wouldn't come easy. "There's something I want to ask you. Actually it's something I want you to promise me."

"You know you don't ever have to ask me. Just tell me and I'll see it gets done."

She shook her head and reached across the table for Merrick's hand. "No, sweetheart, I want to hear you say it."

"What do you want?"

"If something should happen to me, I want you to take Hayden to Emma, and I want you to walk away. He'll have more than enough money, and I don't think anyone will go after him in Wisconsin."

"Honey, he's never going to agree to that. Maybe with your uncle Jarvis?"

"No, Merrick. Promise me you'll take him to Emma. I love Jarvis, but Emma's his mother. No one will fight harder to keep him whole than she will. He's young and maybe doesn't understand completely what's best for him, but if I'm no longer around, she's what's best for him. I'm counting on you to tell him that if I can't."

For one of the only times she could remember, Merrick's eyes filled with tears, which fell silently down her face.

"Please don't talk like that. I've never known you to plan something that didn't include survival ahead of everything else."

"I don't want to repeat the mistakes of my father and go without planning for all the possibilities. I loved Dalton with everything I was, and I've thought of all the 'what ifs' because he was taken from me so soon. I want better than that for Hayden. He needs a sense of himself other than what he is with me, and I think his mother is the best person to give him that. Trust me, sweetling. I don't ask this without biting back a whole bunch of feelings, but I have to do what's right for my son."

"I may have to tie him to the wing of the plane to get him there, but if that's what you want, that's what I'll do. Will you promise me something now, boss?"

"Anything."

"Promise me this is just one more cog in the wheel you're putting together and not a real possibility. Because if you're thinking like this, I'll tie you to a chair all day tomorrow and be d.a.m.ned with the consequences."

"There's no one you'll meet who adores life more than I do, Merrick. I put tomorrow together because I want to enjoy the years to come as much as possible. When this is all over, there's a girl I want you to meet."

Merrick lifted her brows in surprise. Having Cain mention anyone was cause for celebration. "The one who left just now?"

"No, I don't want to chance prison time every time I exchange pillow talk. This girl, she's special, and when you lay eyes on her you'll understand why."

Merrick lifted her gla.s.s and waited for Cain to do the same before she made her toast. "To life."

"And its infinite possibilities," Cain added, before she tapped her gla.s.s to Merrick's and took a sip.

Chapter Twenty-Three.

The old chair creaked when Cain stared out the windows behind her desk at home. The branches of the bare trees in the yard swayed gently in the cold breeze. The sun hadn't shone all day, and the visibility on the docks that night would be extremely low. While she usually welcomed such a gift from Mother Nature, tonight it made her think of all the things that could go wrong because of all the people who would be watching.

"Cain?"

"Come in, Merrick." Her hand appeared from behind the chair and waved the trusted guard in.

"In a minute, boss. Your uncle's on line one for you."

She hesitated before she picked up the phone. She had honestly forgotten about Jarvis. Their last meeting had left her with enough bad feelings to make her ignore him, but he was family, which brought its own obligations, so she had to put her feelings aside. "Uncle Jarvis, I'm sorry about last night. I couldn't help it, though."

"I know you're busy, Cain. Think nothing of it. Could I talk you into stepping out for a cup of coffee with me?"

Something about the request made the hair on the back of her neck stand up. Jarvis usually just dropped by and dragged her away. When he asked, even so informally, he was usually up to something.

"How about the place close to the house? I'll meet you there in twenty minutes."

"Twenty minutes it is." Jarvis put the receiver down and faced the windows in his study. Emma had wrung her hands during the short conversation. He wondered if she realized how precarious a situation she had put him in. Cain was a special part of his life, one he would miss if this situation brought about his exile.

"Did she say yes?"

"Twenty minutes at the coffee shop near the house. Let me talk to her first. Then I'll send for you."

He knew she was about to protest. He heard the hitch of her breath as she told him she had come to see Cain, which was the only thing important to her.

"Cain has never struck a woman or me in anger. I don't want that streak to end today. Call it a selfish whim on both our parts."

"I trust you to do what's best, uncle Jarvis. My fate is in your hands."

"As is mine in yours, little one."

"Where do you suppose the mighty Cain Casey's going alone?" Kyle focused the binoculars in his hands and studied the way Cain's coat draped perfectly over her shoulders. He saw no guards, no Casey troops keeping watch as the crime boss strolled leisurely down the street looking like any other homeowner on her block. All she was missing was a big happy dog.

"Use another pay phone, perhaps?" The agent sitting with Kyle watched as well so that he could radio the next post to take up surveillance once she was too far away from them.

"Let's wait and see. Move it, Jones. We can circle the block and pick her up on St. Charles."

Cain heard the cable van start behind her, making her laugh when no cable guy emerged from her neighbor's house. Maybe they just throw those nice new digital boxes on your front lawn now and let you fend for yourself. She pulled the brim of her hat lower and glanced quickly down the street for their backup. She stopped at the sewer truck, thinking it was the most logical choice. It suited the way the government conducted its business concerning her family.

"Daniels, do the three of you see her?" Kyle's voice boomed though all their headsets.

Shelby, Joe, and Anthony popped their heads up from the vast amount of paperwork spread out in front of them and barely restrained themselves from answering, "Who, sir?"

"She just turned right on the avenue, sir. We've got her." Shelby scrutinized the tall woman like Kyle had, but with much different results. She wondered what it would feel like to have Cain wrap her up in that greatcoat. "She just stepped into the coffee shop. Her uncle's waiting at a table. Maybe it's just a social visit?"

"Jarvis Casey doesn't have a social bone in his body, Daniels. None of these Neanderthals do. Try to remember that. No, I'm guessing a last-minute advice session before our little escapades tonight." When Lionel Jones stopped short, Kyle lost his balance and almost smashed his head into the back door of the van. "Watch it, idiot."

"Sorry, sir." Lionel was praying the time would go faster so he could meet Shelby and the others before that night. After spending the day working with Kyle, he was ready to take a job as security guard at an old folks' home if it meant never having to sit and listen to the pompous a.s.s spout off about all the subjects he thought were interesting. The real action was happening in the other van, and he was missing it, though he was truly grateful to be one of the agents Shelby had confided in for the job none of their supervisors knew about.

"Cain, thanks for coming." Jarvis stood and hugged his niece.

"What brings you out on such a nasty day?"

Jarvis watched as Cain walked toward him, removing only her hat. "Gloomy days are made to talk about love, don't you think?"

The server came over with the two espressos he had ordered, and Cain spooned some sugar into hers as she smiled and thought of the best comeback she could. "I've always thought gloomy days were made for making love."

"I remember," said a feminine voice.

The people in the coffee shop and outside it had two radically different reactions to Emma's comment.

"What in the holy f.u.c.k is she doing here?" Kyle screamed so loud they all yanked their headsets off. Even a woman riding her bike near the van stopped to see who had screamed the obscenity. "Get a mike trained in there now. G.o.d help her if that little farming b.i.t.c.h messes this up for me," he said. He had honestly thought when they pulled out of Ross's yard he had seen the last of the Verde family until they addressed the question of who got Hayden.

"I tell you, uncle, once is a moment of weakness for a pretty face from the past. Twice, though, is an act of stupidity, and that's not like you."

Jarvis's fingers, pinching the bridge of his nose, almost drew blood. Had the woman given him even five minutes, he could have ensured a much more successful outcome. "I told her to wait until we had a chance to talk." He raised his voice just enough to show his displeasure at having Emma go against his wishes.

"And you thought that would've made a difference?" Cain arched a brow at her uncle and watched the man actually blush. "What is it now, Emma? Come to make amends, have we?"

"Please, Cain, just listen to me. Once I'm done, if you tell me to go, I will, and I won't come back. There isn't enough forgiveness in the world for me, I know that, but I have to try and make this right."

"Shut up, Emma. I don't want to hear it. A pretty face and a pretty a.s.s aren't going to work for you this time. Granted, the last time I fell for that was eleven years ago. My libido isn't what it used to be, so give it up. I gave you what you wanted, a chance with Hayden, and you blew it. He doesn't want to see you again, and I'm sure as h.e.l.l not going to force him to do something he'd rather eat broken gla.s.s than do."

"I already knew that."

"Then why waste the airfare?" She turned a little in her chair to look at the woman who had not moved closer.

"To give you back what I stole from you."

Jarvis stood up so fast he knocked his chair over. "I didn't know she stole from you, Cain."

"Go home, Jarvis," she ordered the old man, not wanting to have more of a scene than they had already, given the other customers. She didn't need to complicate the operation that night.

"Come on, Emma."

"No, Emma's staying for a while," she said.

Her tone told her uncle to just walk out and not argue. Jarvis left without another word, hoping Emma would be all right.

"I just wanted" said Emma, only to stop when a big hand went up.

She dropped back into her chair and exhaled so loudly the women two tables over could have heard her. "Come back for round two, have you?"

"Cain, please. I just want you to listen to me. That's all I want. I know I screwed up, but if I ever meant anything to you, I'm begging you to listen to me now." Emma stood with her hands out to her sides, her palms up.

"Don't you know you meant everything to me, and you threw it all away? That I opened myself up to you, and you ripped me to shreds without ever looking back? G.o.d, now you come back here and expect me to just forget all that?"

For the first time ever, Emma saw the weariness that seemed to cling to her partner. Cain looked almost defeated with her forehead resting on her palm, and she felt like someone was twisting a knife in her gut because she had made Cain feel that way.

"I love you, Cain. No time and no amount of distance between us is ever going to change that." She took a step closer, thinking that Cain's defenses were down enough so she wouldn't turn her away.

"What a joke that is. Love doesn't exist for me anymore, except when it comes to my son. The time and the distance, they changed everything between us, and nothing will ever make me want to go back to that place. So just run home to your parents and leave me alone. Take whatever story you have to tell and save it. I don't want to hear it."

Cain sounded like someone who had lived long with a broken heart, and as Shelby watched from the van she straightened up a little and ran her hand through her hair. Being a watcher for so long, she knew Cain was trying to center her feelings since they had obviously strayed too far from her normal cool self.

So this is the infamous Emma Casey who just walked away from Cain and her son. The thought took up so much of her attention, she blocked out the two other people in the van who were busy setting up the powerful microphone to capture the conversation. During all the hours she had spent observing people like Cain in cramped little places, this was the first time she had heard one of them sound so vulnerable.

Kyle's voice filtered up from the floor where her headset still lay. "They all turn out the same in the end. A big p.u.s.s.y who will fall, not because of a false move, but because of the weakness of some blond bimbo. They should study up on their history. Same thing happened to Al Capone."

This a.s.signment couldn't be over soon enough for her. "Excuse me, sir, did you say something?"

"Women, Daniels. They f.u.c.k up in the end because they let their emotions override their brains."

Are you forgetting I'm a woman, numb nuts, or perhaps the Bureau's policy against making such statements? She wanted to say her thoughts aloud, but Anthony shook his head and signaled her to focus on what they were doing. Getting into a fight with Kyle now was not in their best interests. "Interesting concept, sir. I'm sure that'll help us out tonight."

Lionel never turned from the scope sitting on the tripod he was peering through, but he had had enough of Agent Kyle and his low opinion of the people around him, including those who worked for him. "Sir, the Internal Revenue Service was the organization that brought down Al Capone. As for big p.u.s.s.ies, I guess you could've called him that because he was afraid of needles. He died of complications of syphilis because he was afraid of getting a shot, but in the end it was the IRS that got him. Death and taxes, sir, not emotional whims or romantic fancies. Not to mention he wasn't Irish."

In the other van, three beaming smiles were testament that Lionel wouldn't have to buy a round the next time they went out.

"Shut up, you little geek. Who asked you anyway?"

"It wasn't an answer to a question, sir. More like a history lesson, in case you were interested."