“Your brother called and wants to review the casino contract again before the meeting. He called Cain, your father, and even Muriel Casey for a sit-down this afternoon.”
“Once this thing is done I’ll treat you to a bottle of champagne.” Remi took a sip of beer and slowly faced her. “Come on, old girl, let’s see what else hell can dredge up for us today.”
Simon’s smile faltered and she pointed at Remi. “Watch it. Don’t tempt the fates.”
“It’s what I live for, Simon. It’s what I live for.”
New Orleans, Louisiana
“Are you sure?”
“Today, baby,” Emma said after she drank a little of her juice. Her usual cup of coffee was absent.
Emma and Cain had been back in New Orleans for two months, living with Jarvis and Muriel Casey again while the contractor finished repairing their house. As Cain had promised, their life had returned to normal after they’d returned from Wisconsin, or as normal as life with Cain ever got.
The one thing hard to miss was the FBI surveillance that had been stepped up from the moment Cain had hit their radar again. The invasion of privacy aggravated Emma, but the authorities were still wondering what had happened to the Bracato family, so Cain had warned her in advance what to expect.
“Today?” Cain asked again as she pushed away from the table.
“If you’ve got something else planned, then I suggest you reschedule.” Emma leaned back in her chair and tried to sound menacing. When Cain chuckled she realized she’d failed.
“Would you think less of me if I told you I’m scared?”
Emma laughed along with her. “I’m sure you’re quaking in your shorts.”
“Are you questioning your ability to make me quake in my shorts, lass?” Cain put her hand on her chest and widened her eyes.
“I just don’t want to waste the opportunity, love.”
Before Emma finished her statement, Cain had risen from her seat and dropped to her knees next to her. “You can’t think I’m not going with you. I’ve been waiting for this day from the second we talked about it. I love you and I’m ready.”
“I was just teasing you, honey. If anything, I’m enjoying my final days of you letting me lift my own glass.” Emma put her hands on Cain’s cheeks, then kissed her. “So are you free at ten?”
“Since my buddy, Dr. Casey, gave me a call and told me not to be late, I’ll be there.”
“Want to go upstairs and do everything we can to relax before our appointment?” Emma kissed her again. “Mook just left with the kids.”
“Then come with me, Mrs. Casey.” Cain stood and offered her hands. “Relaxation is my specialty.”
“Cain?” Katlin Patrick, Cain’s cousin and guard, stopped at the door of the dining room. “Sorry to interrupt.”
“What’s up?”
“Ramon called to remind you about today’s meeting.”
Cain glanced down at Emma before turning to Katlin. “Call him back and tell him today is out. Muriel can handle our end of things.”
Emma rested a hand on Cain’s chest and exercised her new partnership with Cain. “Katlin, please tell him if the meeting is after one this afternoon, Cain will be happy to be there.” She patted Cain’s chest when she felt her take a breath to start speaking. “We’ll be done by then, and I’ll be happy to nap while you’re out.”
“Call him then, and don’t bother us unless the house is on fire.”
“True, honey, you have other fires to start,” Emma said as she slipped her hand into the front of Cain’s pants to lead her upstairs.
Chapter Three
Key West, Florida
“Dallas, why pick this fucking place? This dump is like a furnace.” The sweaty, red-faced Bob Bennett ranted while he walked through the Key West airport. He kept a firm grip on Dallas Montgomery, who was trailing him. “At least the plane should be here soon, and we can get the hell out of here.”
“No one asked you to come. It was my vacation, remember?” Dallas said. “Besides,” she jerked out of his grasp, “I thought you said it was a studio plane. It’s not like you can miss that.” She tried to reason with Bob because once the irritating man got going, her life became that much more difficult.
“How about you shut the hell up. You’ve been nothing but a screw-up all your life, and it’s time you start asking me before you plan these little excursions. You better resign yourself to the realities of your life because, believe me, whatever you’re doing, it’s going to be with me.”
Dallas stayed quiet but mentally added another entry to her list of “ways to kill Bob”—5614—setting him afloat one hundred miles offshore with nothing but a bloody rump roast around his neck.
He was right, though. He wasn’t going anywhere, and instead of enjoying her budding career, she had to deal with the leech who could take it all away. He knew a lifetime of secrets that could break her in ways she wasn’t willing to think about.
In the air above the landing strip, the Jatibons’ private jet was receiving its clearance to set down when Doug Price, the pilot, saw the helicopter cruising in from the east. “Might be the boss, so prepare for a quick turn-around,” he told his copilot and navigator. They had flown the Jatibon family for years, shuttling the family around for business and pleasure, and had over the years become trusted employees. Their greatest asset was their short-term memory. Once the flight was over, no matter who they were escorting, they forgot the name and face as soon as the wheels hit the tarmac. No one could talk or testify about something he had no memory of.
The wheels of the jet touched down and the crew taxied away from the commercial side of the airport toward the section with a multitude of private planes sitting idle. Once the two men had shut down everything, they stepped from the cockpit to let Rosa, the attractive attendant, know they should be on the ground no longer than an hour.
They headed out into the ninety-degree heat in their pressed chino shorts and white polo shirts with the Jatibon name and snake-eyes logo stitched on the breast pockets. The same image of the hooded and slitted eyes of the king cobra was painted on the tail of the plane.
They were there to pick up not only Remi, but her two business partners, Dwayne and Steve, and their wives, Molly and Lisa. Remi’s father, Ramon, affectionately referred to them and Remi as “the crew.” The guys had attended school with her, and when it was time to conquer the world, Dwayne and Steve had signed on willingly with the ambitious Jatibon family. They had two kids each, with Remi the only holdout. She was still single, but the group meshed as well now as when they were prowling the campus at Louisiana State University, then later in law school.
Remi had met Dwayne in their freshman year at LSU and built an instant rapport with him. Steve joined the tight-knit group in their junior year after befriending Remi. Wanting to keep them together, Remi asked Ramon to invest in their future.
He had paid for all of them to attend law school, and the three graduated at the top of their class. They were by far the best negotiators Ramon had seen in corporate America. And after Remi took over the firm that protected Ramon’s company from the sharks constantly circling the waters he chose to swim in, she had won every litigation.
“Steve, is that Rosa?” Lisa, his pretty brunette wife sitting on his lap in the overcrowded terminal, asked.
“Yep, that’s her, which means our ride’s here. Let me get up and start loading all this stuff. Remi should be back soon, and our schedule just got tighter.”
In a few minutes, Steve and Dwayne were joking their way over to the plane, fighting to see who was going to sit next to Rosa, when they noticed the commotion at the bottom of the steps.
Doug was standing by the plane, blocking the entrance and trying to prevent the irate man who was confronting him from boarding.