“What are you talking about?” Shelby finally asked.
“Curtis was there, and since we all know how he regards me, I’m sure he felt justified in taking out someone tied to me.” Cain stood up. “Don’t bother denying it.”
“Cain, wait, this isn’t a game. You have to tell me how you know that.”
After she handed their waitress a twenty, Cain turned around, and Shelby and Lionel were both standing. “If we’re playing a game, the rules have changed, don’t you think?”
“No one’s going to give you the benefit of the doubt for going after an agent, no matter how justified you think you are,” Shelby said.
“Not like they would you for going after me and mine? Don’t worry, Agent Philips. I’m not known for stupid flights of fancy.” Before Cain walked out she saw Shelby’s lips move, and even though she couldn’t hear her, the word “fuck” was easy enough to make out.
“See, Lou, now we know who we’re fishing for,” Cain said to him softly as they walked toward the office. “Get with Katlin and find him.”
“Will do, boss. You want us to bring him in for a chat?”
“You heard Shelby. No one’s going to forgive us for taking care of this problem. I’ve got other plans for him.”
“Anything else?”
Cain stopped at the door of the warehouse and glanced at the window across the street where the feds were lurking. “You heard the man, cue up Bonanza for him.”
Chapter Thirty-Nine
“Thanks to the smart guys you’ve got working for you, we’re all in deep shit,” Anthony said to Juan. After Juan’s arrival they’d moved to a hotel in the French Quarter and hadn’t left the room.
“Don’t you mean you’re in deep shit?” Juan took another bite from the shrimp cocktail he’d ordered from room service. “Nobody knows I’m here. You, though, were right in the middle of the action, but that’s what you kept saying you wanted. Ain’t no going back to that gray suit, Mr. FBI.”
“This isn’t some joke. Your guys killed a man for no reason.”
Juan pointed at him with a jumbo shrimp and laughed. “Jesus said Cain had sent him to spy on us. In my book that means Jesus did the right thing. What I want to know is how did you let Cain know I was back? You’re the supposed expert on laying low.”
“I didn’t,” Anthony said through clenched teeth. He got up and stared out the window again. At check-in he’d insisted on a room with a view of the street. If any of his co-workers were out there, he hadn’t spotted them yet. “Did you ever consider that Jesus isn’t being completely straight with you?”
“You want out, then get the fuck out,” Juan screamed, and pushed away from his plate.
“I’m trying to keep us all out of jail.”
“Forget about that shit. I got something for you to do.”
The tone of Juan’s voice made Anthony think his gamble was finally paying off. “What do you want?”
“Emma Casey,” Juan said when Anthony sat down across from him. “I want to know everything about her, but most importantly I want to know her schedule.”
“Why?”
“Who paid you to think? I want to know, and I need to know if you can do it.”
“That should be easy,” Anthony said slowly, as if talking to a mentally challenged person, because that’s what he figured Juan was. If he didn’t want what happened at the airport to end his career, he had to stick with Juan, though. He needed him to knock down the rest of the dominos.
“I don’t know. Cain’s better at picking up a tail than you ever imagined. Just a warning before you start. If Cain finds you sniffing after her whore, she can have you to do whatever she likes.” Juan laughed as he picked his teeth with the nail of his pinky. “I’ve found nothing motivates Cain more than when any man keeps his eyes on that piece of ass too long.”
“Don’t worry about it. I’ll start this morning, since they’ll be easy to pick up at the funeral. While I’m doing that, why not have a talk with Jesus and see if he tells you what really happened at the airport.” Anthony tried to relax and sound as if the outcome of this meeting wasn’t particularly important to him. “And you have to trust me.”
“You don’t think I trust you?”
“You order me around but you don’t tell me what for. That means you don’t trust me.” Anthony put both of his feet on the ground and pushed out of his chair. “If you don’t trust me, then what the hell am I doing here? Like you said, if you want me out, then tell me to get out.”
“What do you want to know?” Juan asked as soon as Anthony had made it halfway to the door.
“What’s so important about Emma Casey?”
“My uncle always preached to me that everyone has a weakness—the one thing you can use against them to make them fall to their knees. For Cain it’s Emma and those bastards they have together, but in this case I can’t blame her for letting this woman make her weak.”
One of the brass bands that played for tourists in the Quarter went under the window, and Anthony wished he was one of those people milling around down on Bourbon Street with nothing to worry about except where to eat that night. “What are you talking about?”
“I want to kill Cain, but I want to keep Emma for myself. What happens to the kids isn’t my problem, but I want her alive and whole.”
The way Juan went down his to-do list as if he were planning a trip to the grocery almost made Anthony’s hands shake. “She’ll never do that.”
“Who, Emma? You may have played nice all this time because it’s what you do, but there’s more than one way to break a woman. When I’m done she’ll beg to stay with me.” Juan turned so Anthony could see his face. “And every time she does get that pleasure, it’ll only remind her how much time she wasted with that bitch.”
“How’s your uncle going to feel about your plan?” Anthony tried to talk him back from the brink with the one thing Juan still feared. “It’ll take more than killing Cain to convince her friends and those loyal to her not to come after you.”
“My uncle should’ve listened to his own advice. He’s trying to be something he’s not, and the more he tries, the weaker and more pathetic he becomes.”
“What do you mean?”
“Rodolfo thinks he’s a civilized man, but he’s not. He’s just an old man chasing some sort of respectability that no amount of money can buy.”
Anthony had to laugh because, for once, Juan’s reasoning was right on the mark. “And you don’t care about being civilized?”
“All I care about is winning and control. If that’s not what you want, run back to your job or to my uncle. Whoever you pick won’t give you the respect and the freedom to do what you need to when it comes to beating Cain.” Juan stood and put his hands in his pockets. “We have a deal?”
“That we do, Juan.”
*
“Are you sure?” Remi asked. They were on the way back to her condo after a walk through the Quarter. Dallas had knocked on her bedroom door that morning, and instead of their usual forty-five-minute jog, Remi and Simon had gone for a brisk walk. “You could come in to work with me.”
“I checked my phone this morning, and so far I’ve gotten about sixty messages from Bob. To keep the peace I thought I’d have him meet me at my place, and we’ll go to the studio from there.” She wrapped her hand around Remi’s bicep and squeezed. “Please don’t be mad. I’ll call if I need to change my plan.”
“If that’s what you want to do, I’m fine with it, but don’t you think it’s strange for someone to call you sixty times a day?”