She followed him to the location he suggested and hoped no one from the house would come searching for her if this took too long. In less than an hour Kyle painted a picture of Cain she had never considered. She couldn’t conceive of the drugs Cain peddled and the number of prostitutes she owned. They went far beyond the image Cain had always painted of herself as a saintly bootlegger.
It was his last detailed account of Danny’s murder that finally made the tears roll down her cheeks. If what Kyle said was true, Cain had looked her in the eye as she washed his blood off her hands and lied. The last lie in a long list of them.
“I don’t believe you.”
“Ms. Casey, what could I possibly have to gain by deceiving you? I’m not here to try and talk you into testifying against Casey. I just think you deserve to know so you and your son have a fighting chance at a normal life, if that’s what you want.”
He sounded so sincere as he described the makeup of Cain’s business and the people she dealt with. However, when he asked what she would do when the ugliness Cain was involved in invaded their home again, but with more devastating results, she winced. What if next time the enemy went after Hayden? Could she live with that?
A few days later Emma had packed her bags and left. She sacrificed one child to save another, and when Hannah was born she had tried to make peace with her decision.
How strange it had been when they laid the baby in her arms and she had not seen Cain’s blue eyes smiling down on her in pure joy. Her friend Maddie and her father had been the only ones at the hospital to make sure mother and child had made it okay, but they were outside in the waiting room, not standing by her side as Cain would have been.
Four Years Earlier—Maternity Ward in Wisconsin
“One more big push, Emma, and we’re done,” the doctor coached as one of the nurses mopped her forehead.
It was a relief to finally be in labor after what seemed like more than nine months of misery. This time around she had no Cain to rub her tired back or to grimace in sympathy through the worst of the morning sickness. This time she saw only her mother’s disgusted face, which grew worse in proportion to her waistline.
She screamed as a powerful contraction hit her, and she half sat up and pushed. She felt the baby slip out and heard the lusty cry a few moments later. Then she sobbed from the happiness of hearing the baby roar and the doctor say, “It’s a girl.”
Hannah Marie Casey was placed in her arms just long enough for Emma to know any chance of forgetting Cain was futile. Her first clue was a full head of black hair matted down from the mess that still covered the baby. Later, when she breast-fed for the first time, the innocent blue eyes that opened served to complete the picture. She had given birth to another Casey, and she had to keep it from the one person who would have rejoiced in the knowledge of her existence. Billy Casey might have provided the means for her conception, but Hannah was Cain all over again. Not only in looks but in spirit.
“It’s just you and me, baby girl. Let me tell you about your family.” Emma started talking to Hannah about her rich heritage, just like Cain had done for Hayden after his birth.
Rousing herself from her reverie about Hannah’s birth, Emma murmured, “I’m sorry, Cain. I’m so sorry.” She watched the dust settle after the departing vehicle roared away. Kyle had lied, and she couldn’t begin to understand why.
Chapter Twenty
“You want to talk about it?” Cain sat in the backseat with Hayden in the Tahoe Mook had rented, and the others followed close behind.
Hayden watched the scenery they drove past in silence, much like he had done on the day they had arrived. Being strong now meant keeping his mouth shut. He knew that was what Cain would have done, so he shook his head. His questions could wait.
“It’s all right, Hayden. Go on and ask if you want to.”
“I can wait, Mom.”
“Maybe this time I don’t want to wait.”
“Why?”
To most, the question would have been too broad-based, but Cain understood it immediately. “Because Danny was a cruel son of a bitch, and I made the mistake of underestimating him. That’s the most succinct answer I can think of.”
“But why?”
Cain put her hands on her thighs and slid them down to her knees and sighed. “You have to understand how much I loved your mother. From the first day she came into my life, she set herself apart from every other woman I’d known. Why? Because she asked me, that’s why. Letting Danny go wasn’t going to impact the business or, more importantly, my family, so I let him go.”
Hayden was surprised Cain mentioned Emma and love in the same sentence after all the woman had put them through, but she was always full of surprises. “But it did.”
“Boy, did it. Danny was such a pissant, I didn’t keep tabs on him for too long. I just figured he’d end up on some street corner selling dime bags until the cops got ahold of him. I thought I’d hear from him again when uncle Robert phoned begging me to get his son out of trouble, because with Danny it was always just a matter of time.”
“Does he ever ask about Danny?”
“Who, our esteemed uncle Robert?”
Hayden nodded. He had heard stories of how his Grandfather Dalton and his family felt about the Baxters. They had only one redeeming grace and miracle, and Dalton had married her. All of Therese’s brothers were varying degrees of losers, but losers nonetheless.
“I think uncle Robert knows better.”
Three Hours after Marie Casey’s Death--At the Morgue
The room looked so sterile and plain. When Cain surveyed it, she grimly thought how strange and funny it was, in a nonhumorous kind of way. What did it matter now if it was sterile? The people here were dead. What did they have to fear from a mundane thing like infection? The living had to contend with that, and their guilt.
She could hear the low voices of her guards outside, one of them saying to keep it down. “The boss’s in there alone paying her respects.”
But she wasn’t alone. Marie was with her. Cain had moved the sheet enough to see her face and hold her hand. As she caressed it, she noticed not how cold it was, but that her sister had more than one broken finger. Why hadn’t she broken Danny before he smashed Marie like a china doll? She would have a hard time ever forgiving herself.
Most people would have considered a child like Marie a burden. Cain only thought now about how her days would be forever a little more empty without Marie’s laughter in their house. Taking care of her had been a pleasure and honor, never a burden.
“Boss?” Merrick stood silently just inside the room, shadowing Cain, oozing compassion.
“Is he here?” she asked, turning her head a little toward the door.
“He’s outside, but we can do this later if you want.”
“Send him in, Merrick. Really, it’s okay.”
The small man was pushed into the room, stumbling a little from the alcohol in his system and the fear of not knowing why he was there. “Cain?”
“Uncle Robert, thank you for coming.”
When a bunch of guys show up at your house and physically pick you up and throw you into the car, it’s kinda hard to say no. Robert wasn’t going to say the thought out loud, and he wasn’t about to complain until he knew what was going on. He looked at his niece hunched over the sheet-draped gurney and wondered who the lifeless body belonged to.
“Why am I here?” Since Robert wasn’t used to being subjected to the Casey muscle, he decided a direct approach might be best. This family respected guts and power, so he was desperate to hide his fear.
“Where’s Danny?”
Behind Cain’s back Robert pointed his index finger at her and tried to sound authoritarian. “Leave him alone, Cain. He made a mistake with you, I’ll give you that, but he’s doing good now. You tossed him out and gave him a good ass-whupping. He’s not bothering you.”