The Devil Inside Part 9

"Cain?" Merrick put her hand on Cain's back, surprised at how cold it felt.

"Go back to bed, guys. I've got things to do." It was a clear dismissal and they all tried to comply, giving Cain some s.p.a.ce. "Hayden."

He opened his eyes and sat up with no further prompting.

"Stay in sight of the guys and Merrick. I'll be back by morning."

"Do you want some company?" Hayden wished for the day Cain would say yes to the question, but her shaking head meant it wouldn't be today.

"I won't be long. Remember, nowhere tonight alone."

"I promise, Mom."

Cain pulled him close and hugged him longer than normal. She had planned this scenario before she left New Orleans, thinking she would drag it out a little just for the entertainment value, but now her anger was fueling the timetable. She didn't worry it would make her sloppy. Kyle would never get that lucky. She wanted to flush the rats out of their holes and discover which of her enemies were helping Kyle set his trap.

"Should I go start the car?" Merrick tried again, hoping Cain would at least take her.

"I'll be fine, and I need you here looking out for Hayden." Cain finished pulling on her boots and reached for her coat. She kissed Merrick's forehead once she was dressed and walked out.

When the door slammed shut, Merrick put her finger to her lips so no one would say anything. The federal agents who had enhanced the room didn't need to know none of them knew what Cain was up to.

Outside, Cain pulled a satellite phone from a bag in the car and punched in a number. "You in?"

"When and where?" the male voice asked.

"Four hours, and you know where."

When Cain slammed the vehicle door like she had the door to the bunkhouse and started the engine, Emma ran back to the window at the sound.

In the back room of the barn's loft, Kyle pumped his fist and whispered, "Yes."

Cain's Suburban was on the road for less than two minutes before it had company. In no real hurry she drove the speed limit and relaxed back into the leather seat. If Bryce did his job, losing the Ford behind her wasn't going to be a problem. A faint chirp from beside her drew her attention from the road for a second as she glanced to see who was calling.

"Mission accomplished, boss. I'm guessing your package will arrive in about three and a half hours, depending on the weather and tailwinds."

"Thanks, Bryce. I'll call back if I need you." Cain drove past the city limit sign and put her traffic signal on to pull in to Ray's feed store lot, where one of the delivery boys who had brought Ross's order sat on the steps waiting for her.

Cain waved to him and pulled an envelope out of the glove compartment before hopping out. "Make sure Roy gets this, and here's something for your trouble." Cain handed him the envelope and a twenty-dollar bill.

"No problem. Do you think this will make much of a mess?" The young man looked like he dreaded the amount of sweeping in his future.

"If you let me out back it shouldn't be too bad." Cain followed him through the store to a large fenced area. A large quant.i.ty of farm equipment and parts was neatly stacked throughout the yard, but back by the delivery trucks was all the room she needed for her ride. She handed the kid another twenty to appease him about the dust and studied the north for what Bryce had ordered.

Special Agents Joe Simmons and Anthony Curtis both started cursing when they saw the approaching helicopter. Kyle hadn't planned for this type of contingency.

Curtis reached for the phone and pressed speed dial to the boss.

"Gentlemen, this better be good." Kyle's voice filled the inside of the car, and from the sound of it, he wasn't too appreciative of the wake-up call.

They knew their boss well enough to realize that after Cain had left, he had gone to bed to rest up for any media appearances he would be making in the morning, if the night panned out like he planned.

"Is Casey in town having a cup of coffee and you got bored, maybe?"

"The cafe closes at nine o'clock, sir, and Ms. Casey isn't looking for a midnight snack. She's catching a flight somewhere."

"She headed for the airport, and you just now felt we needed an update of her whereabouts?"

Joe was busy looking for a volume control, and Anthony rolled his eyes and secretly cheered Cain on. It surprised neither of the young officers that Cain had proved too much for Kyle over the years.

"Sir, we're half a block from the feed store, watching her get on a helicopter. We thought you should make the call to track where she's going, if it can be done." When Anthony finished, a dial tone replaced the bellowing from the other end.

The pilot headed south, trying to keep his eyes on his instrument panel and not his quiet pa.s.senger. Their destination was a small airstrip right on the other side of the Illinois state line, which was all the information the man who had hired him said he needed.

When they landed, Cain sat with her eyes closed, obviously trying to ignore the cold weather that the c.o.c.kpit didn't protect them from, and didn't open them until the whine of the arriving Lear engines came to a stop about forty feet from where the helicopter sat idle.

"I won't be long," Cain told the pilot before she stepped out and headed to the stairs that had been lowered when the Learjet's door opened.

He was mildly disappointed he wouldn't get to see who Cain was meeting.

Cain made the trip back to the chopper and scowled at the pilot. "I'll be highly upset if you decide to use any of the radio equipment or a phone before I get back."

The pilot nodded and held his shivering to a minimum until she left. His tremors had little to do with the dropping temperatures and everything to do with the icy blue eyes that had pinned him with their own silent threat.

Cain noticed a number of guards. She couldn't imagine her guest leaving the city without them, but they only waved in her direction and didn't attempt the normal pat-down. She knew their boss would have them beaten had they made a move toward her, except maybe to shake her hand.

Cain spoke to her host as if she were addressing a visiting dignitary.

"Vincent, you old dog, how are you feeling after your recent travails with the law?"

Vincent Carlotti laughed and stood from the plane's sofa to embrace his longtime friend. His thick gray hair set off his dark eyes well, and after he'd turned sixty he'd started to lose a bit of his waistline but was still an attractive man. He had watched Cain grow into the brilliant leader she had become after her father's death, and could only hope his own son would fare as well the day he departed. His only regret had been when he learned of Cain's s.e.xual preference. On the day of her christening, Vincent had spun for himself a vivid daydream of a day the two families would merge at the marriage altar with Cain and his son Vinny.

"Cain, come over here and give me a kiss. I'm old but I'm not dead."

"The day you stop flirting will be the day I start worrying about your imminent demise."

After a friendly embrace the two sat down, and the others in the area moved to the front of the plane to give them some privacy.

"I imagine my trip north means you were right?"

"Vincent, the one lesson my father beat into my head by sheer repet.i.tion was to always be prepared. He said he learned it from your father. The reason I asked you up was to offer you Bracato's territory."

Vincent arched a brow and pressed his fingers to his mouth. If Cain was offering, it was almost a done deal, but why not take over herself, he wondered. "That sounds, I don't know, intriguing."

"I only have an hour at most here, Vincent."

"Why not do whatever you're planning and take over his part of the city and be done with it?"

The don stopped talking when one of the plane's crew stepped up and put a tray with coffee and cups on the table between them. He and Cain watched her pour and stir sugar into the espressos, then leave before they exchanged another word.

"I'm not interested in expansion. That was Billy's forte, not mine."

Vincent took a sip of the strong brew, leaned forward, and placed his hand over her knee. "You do realize, though, that whoever controls such a big section of real estate can become powerful enough to squash everyone else?"

Cain covered his hand with her own to acknowledge his concern for her. "Once this is over, everyone else will know who was gracious enough to give you this"she paused as if trying to find the right word"gift."

"And I'll owe you what in return?"

"Peace, that's all I'm asking. I've spent years and then some fighting the feds on one front and Bracato on the other. The turf war and the bulls.h.i.t with Kyle isn't impossible, but it takes time away from my son, and I'm ready to be done with both nuisances."

"Cain, you know I would've helped if you'd just picked up the phone and asked. We aren't blood, but we're family nonetheless." He reached over and patted her hand.

"You've had your own problems, G.o.dfather, without having to worry about mine. What do you say?"

Vincent held out his hand to seal the deal. "Tell me what you want me to do."

The two spent another thirty minutes going over plans and the information necessary to pull off what Cain had in mind. Nothing was written down, and no one bothered them as their heads drew closer together. Some of the old guards smiled at how many times Cain made the old man laugh.

Dalton, Cain's father, and Vincent had grown up within two blocks of each other when New Orleans was a different and rougher town. Both their fathers had worked their way through their respective family ranks, and the underlings of both organizations knew it wouldn't take long before each ran his own show. They were smart, loyal, and ruthless when the situation warrantedall the ingredients that would land them at the top and keep them there. In all that time the one thing they could count on was the bond they had forged as boys when they threw rocks at old buildings and rode their bikes along the docks.

The two men served for each other in their weddings and were G.o.dparents to more than one of each other's children. Vincent had openly cried as he carried his friend's casket and then again when Cain laid her mother and brother to rest. It was his muscle who kept her business intact and allowed her the time to mourn without any worry someone would try to usurp her position as the head of her family. He had been at the hospital the day Marie pa.s.sed on and already had his underlings looking for the man responsible.

What Cain was doing now would give the old man tremendous power in the underworld. Enough so that, like he said, he could crush her if it came to a war. He would pa.s.s the gift to Vinny eventually, but Cain worried about neither of them. The friendship her father had shared with this man was the same bond she shared with his son. They had never thrown rocks together, but more than one can had died at the end of their pellet guns over the summers.

"Patrick," Vincent called to one of the guards.

"Yes, sir?"

"Cain, you remember Patrick, don't you?" Vincent pointed up to the wall of a man standing quietly for an order.

"He ate a truckload of food at my house last month, so he's hard to forget," Cain joked and held out her hands. "How's life treating you, Paddy?"

"Hey, Cain, I'm all right. How's my brother handling this s.h.i.tty weather?"

"Mook's a good kid. A good kid with a big-a.s.s coat, but he's hanging in."

"Yeah, he loves Hayden like the little brother he wished he'd had, so you got no worries. I've always told him the big-brother gig is a good one, if you can get it." Patrick put his game face back on and looked to Vincent. "What can I do for you, Mr. Carlotti?"

"You wanna go out and talk with Cain's pilot before we fire up to leave?"

The man left, knowing already what the talk needed to be about.

Vincent didn't like to intimidate any bystanders, but sometimes it was necessary, especially when the bystander was being watched from one of the plane's windows doing something colossally stupid.

Changing the subject, he asked, "What do you think of my new stewardess, or whatever the h.e.l.l they call themselves these days?" He pointed to the young woman who had poured their coffee.

"Cute, but definitely not my type." Cain waggled her hand at Vincent.

He laughed again and made a mental promise to have dinner with Cain soon. He loved spending time talking with her. "Why not, too blond?"

"Vincent, you and I know one of my main weaknesses, as it were, is women of the blond persuasion."

"True, so what is it about her?"

"Graduate of Quantico, cla.s.s of '98, I believe. There are so many of these young arling running around it's hard to keep them all straight. Her being here, though, gives me a hint as to who's next on Kyle's to-do list, or at least his replacement's once he manages to apprehend me."

"Are you sure I can't marry you off to Vinny?"

"Not my type either."

"I know you wouldn't insult me by asking, but we swept before we boarded and the crew's checked methodically before boarding, so all she can report is where and who I met with. The problem for her is, no one else knows we left the city, and I'm the only one with a phone."

"Mind if I give it a shot before you treat her to a swim?"

Vincent put his coffee cup down and waved a hand in the woman's direction. "Be my guest." He reached into his shirt pocket and handed over a fistful of small chips. Listening devices courtesy of the blonde in the tight skirt, each one missing its battery.

Outside, Patrick stepped to the helicopter and tapped on the pilot's door. "Cold out tonight, huh?"

He watched the man at the controls try to hide the pad he had probably written the plane's name and identification numbers on. "It'll only get worse, believe me. I'm glad for the business tonight since winter's usually my dead season."

Funny you should mention dead, Patrick thought, and laughed softly. "How are Bonnie, Leo, and John?"

The question didn't sound threatening, by any stretch of the imagination. It wasn't meant to be, but it grabbed the man's complete attention, and he came forward out of his seat as if in a panic. "Fine, but how do you know my wife and kids?"

"Your job is to fly, mine is to know stuff about you and your family. See, when you get back to the arlin town you're from, most likely there'll be these guys who'll want to know all about your grand adventure tonight. With me so far?"

The pilot resembled a bobbing child's toy, his head was moving so much. "Yes, sir."

"You tell them anything remotely interesting, like our talk right now for example, and I'll come back. Only it won't be just me, and it won't be to talk. After I've done my job you won't feel like such a hero for handing over the information, and you'll have only yourself to blame for what's going to happen to Bonnie and those two cute boys of yours. So now would be a good time to tell me how you spent your time out here all alone, stupid."

The pilot handed over the pad he had used, then pleaded tearfully with Patrick to leave his family alone.

Just once he wanted one of these guys to show some backbone, but the crying always replaced the smug machismo they so obviously felt as they sat outside meetings like this and planned how they would spend the reward money. The fantasies of seeing their overweight wives in a bikini on some beach in Hawaii seemed to override their brains concerning who they would be turning in.

"Take a deep breath, Mr. Jones, and try and calm down. To tell you the truth, I want to leave here tonight and never come back. This cold weather frankly sucks, so just remember what we talked about. That way I can stay home and work on my tan, and you can go back to doing whatever it is you do in the course of a day. Make me put this coat on again to hunt your a.s.s down, and you're going to wish your parents never met."

"Don't worry, sir. I'm not going to say anything." The rea.s.surance came out after a series of hiccups and a couple of swipes at his face.

Patrick pulled a bottle of water from his coat pocket and handed it over. The last thing he needed was for this guy to kill Cain from nerves on the way back. "Just a few more minutes and we'll be on our way. Try and remember the big plane over there has windows."

Chapter Sixteen.

The atmosphere in the plane became a little more tense when Vincent called the young woman who stood near the c.o.c.kpit over to them. Throughout their conversation she had tried to listen in without being too overtly obvious, but she wasn't concerned. Whatever she missed, the bugs she had planted would fill in the gaps. Being there to witness the meeting between two of the main figures who ran the city's underworld was enough for her, and would play well in court when the time came.