Cain laughed at the frustration in Remi’s voice. “I think it reminded you that you want Dallas all to yourself. I’ve been there, my friend, and it can make you crazy.”
“I’m beginning to realize that.”
“Can you talk? I’ve got something that might help you,” Cain said as she opened the file she’d made on Dallas.
“Not right now, but I can swing by later.”
“Come for dinner tonight and bring Dallas. We can talk about your problem and recap everything else we’re facing.”
Remi laughed. “What, you’re not going to give me a hint? Did you find anything?”
“I had an idea and it panned out. Stop worrying. You’ll have to learn to live with some things and forget others, but you can have faith in what she feels for you.”
“Thanks, Cain. If you’ve got most of what I was looking for, I can call off my father.”
Cain hung up and closed her eyes, trying to order her thoughts. The casino deal, Juan Luis, Anthony Curtis, and Dallas Montgomery were all on her mind, and with enough time she would have some solutions. She already had an idea about Dallas and Anthony, which would only take some finishing inquiries. Nunzio Luca deserved her attention more than all the rest, and she wrote his name at the top of a fresh sheet on the pad on her desk.
To most, Rick was a small cog, and she was almost certain what had happened to him at the airport hadn’t been directed at her. That left two possible motives. Someone had managed to catch him unawares and mug him, or someone wanted him not to report something he’d seen. She circled “something he’d seen,” then picked up the passenger manifest.
She grabbed the phone again. “Are you still in the building?”
“I’m in the parking lot.”
“I need one more thing before you go.” Cain sat and waited for Muriel to come back in. “Hector Delarosa gave us the assassin, Jorge, didn’t he?”
“He went through Vincent, but yeah.”
“Call Vincent and find out how I can talk to this Delarosa guy. It has to be a clean line, since we know DEA isn’t limited to this country. If he’s big in Columbia, he’s being watched.”
Muriel rested her briefcase on the visitor chair. “What do I tell Vincent if he asks?”
“Vincent isn’t going to ask. He’s either going to set it up or not.”
“To satisfy my own curiosity, why do you want to talk to him?”
Cain wrote something down on the sheet and circled that as well. “A strange little man named Nathan gave me an idea. Now I need to talk to someone who can identify the shit that falls out of the Luis family tree when I shake it.”
Muriel stared at her like she was waiting for her to say something else. “Is that supposed to make sense?”
“Hiding in plain sight—that’s what I should’ve thought about when you handed me this, but what happened to Rick threw me off.” Cain stood up and waved her away. “Don’t worry about it yet. Scroll through that Blackberry of yours and see if you know anyone in Tennessee.”
“Because…”
“I promise I’ll be more informative after I talk to Remi about the Tennessee part. After that’s done I’ll have one less thing to worry about and we can concentrate on getting rid of the people out to harm us.”
“I’ll check and see if any of my classmates ended up in the Smokey Mountain State. See you at home later.”
Before Muriel could move, Cain joined her on the other side of the desk and hugged her. “I might bark a lot but you’re doing a good job. Remember to keep your head down and take time to think about what you want in the long run. Letting Shelby go sounds easy enough, but sometimes the hole it leaves is hard to deal with.”
“Are you buying a couch for in here?” Muriel asked in jest.
“If I do, you’re the last person I’d want on it.” Cain laughed as she put on her jacket. It felt good to laugh before she headed to St. Patrick’s Church to pay Rick her respects.
Chapter Forty-One
“She didn’t fire you?” Dallas asked, wiping the sides of her eyes after laughing so hard she’d teared up.
“Are you kidding? If I’d known how well spilling beer on her would turn out for me, I’d have dumped a pitcher on her head the minute she walked through the door,” Emma said, kissing the pout off Cain’s mouth. Remi took out the leather carrier she kept her cigars in and offered one to Cain. “If you must, then head outside, you two.” Emma pointed to the back door.
They had finished dinner over an hour ago, but Cain hadn’t had the heart to break up Emma’s plans for after-dinner drinks in an effort to get to know both Remi and Dallas better. Emma had made acquaintances in New Orleans, but they weren’t trusted friends. Aside from Cain, Emma didn’t confide in anyone but Mattie, but she was in Wisconsin.
Cain thought that’s why she was trying so hard to bring Dallas and Remi together. Though Mattie was Emma’s best friend, she would never know what it was like to be married to someone like Cain. Their world was totally foreign to the wife of a dairy farmer, but Dallas, if it worked out, would be a true confidante.
“Before you tell me what, tell me how,” Remi said. They stopped at the pool, but Cain took her into the empty pool house. “It can’t be that bad, can it?”
Cain glanced around the place her inner circle of guards had made their own. “I want to make sure if you react to what I’m going to tell you, you don’t embarrass Dallas. If you do, that’ll stay between me and you.”
“How do you know what you found out is right?”
Cain put her hand on Remi’s shoulders. “Listen to me. Ramon followed the money, but that’s not what drives this girl. We needed the key to unlock her past, and I found it.”
The cigar in Remi’s hand hung loosely in her fingers as she fell into a chair. “What was it?”
“Her name,” Cain said. She pulled another seat closer and patted Remi’s knee. “Katie Moores of Sparta, Tennessee, and she hasn’t had an easy life.”
“Katie?”
“I don’t have the why yet, but Katie ran away with her little sister, Sue Lee, and ended up in Los Angeles. After she got there, she was too young and didn’t have any experience to make a living that would support two people.”
“She has a sister?”
“Kristen Montgomery, who’s a college student up North. Dallas has done a good job of keeping her away from her job and out of the limelight.”
“How did you find all this?”
Cain told her about Nathan and how he’d helped Dallas with the identity she’d used to build her new life. “If you couldn’t find her, then I figured there were only a few ways she could’ve managed an identity that’s stood up this long. I started with the best and lucked out.”
“How’d she afford that?” Remi asked, sounding as if the answer was something she needed to hear but dreaded at the same time. “Something like that isn’t cheap.”
“You have to meet Nathan Mosley. He made a deal with her, and she kept her end of the bargain. Otherwise he would have sold her out. The new identity holds up only if Nathan keeps a client’s secret.”
“What’s going to stop him now?”
Cain laughed as she headed to the bar. “My reputation is good for something, and Nathan seems to genuinely like her.”
“After you get to know Dallas you’ll understand why,” Remi said. She accepted the glass Cain handed her. “And I imagine what you’ve told me so far is just the fluff of this story.”
“You should’ve asked yourself how a girl you can’t find ended up on the screen. Where’d she get her start?” Cain raised her glass and encouraged Remi to take a drink. “Nathan didn’t know the whole story, but he knew enough to give me a place to start. Sweet China was the name she used in a short stint in the porn industry.”