“Morris, let the lady and her friends in.” She pointed to the group. “They’re with me.”
“Thanks. I thought we’d have to stand there all night. Who’s that?” the blonde asked the bouncer, referring to Cain.
“The name is Cain, and it’s a popular club, miss,” she whispered in the woman’s ear as they made their way to the door. “People can’t wait to take a walk with the devil, even if it’s just for the night.”
“I’ve heard it can be quite unforgettable if you let yourself go.” Shelby tried to keep it clean since the small evening bag she was carrying had a powerful receiver.
“Can I interest you in a drink?”
“It’s the least I can do since you were so kind to get me out of that line.” Shelby wrapped her hand around Cain’s bicep and trusted her two work companions to keep up.
In the van parked a half a block away, three other agents listened to the conversation, not surprised Shelby had been noticed right away. She looked hot in the dress she’d chosen for the night’s assignment. Surprisingly, Casey had done the picking up.
“Just like a bitch in heat,” Kyle commented as the technicians adjusted the device in Shelby’s purse to drop out as much background noise as possible. They could easily hear the conversation over the loud dance music. “What an idiot. She didn’t learn her lesson from the first blonde who burned her ass.”
“What will you have?” Cain asked her at the end of the bar, which sent the staff into action. The bartender walked its length to reach Cain, ignoring angry customers who were screaming they were there first. “A mojito, perhaps?”
“Doesn’t that mean ‘little wet one’?”
“Well, I’d suggest something else, but I don’t know of a drink that connotes staying dry.” Cain’s joke referred to what had almost happened a week before on Vincent’s plane.
“How about just a club soda, since I’m not much of a drinker?”
“You heard the lady, Charlie. Club sodas all around.” Cain could see her guest, Vinny Carlotti, had arrived and was being escorted to her private table. Vinny’s entourage was shaking hands with her people. “Would you like to join me for a bit?”
Shelby was shocked Cain would even suggest it. She had tried unsuccessfully to get a transfer to another division since the night she’d met Cain. Her hostess had to know she was carrying some sort of listening device, but she didn’t seem to care.
“I’m just here for the music.”
Kyle almost blew the top off the van when Shelby gave that answer. To have Casey invite her into the inner sanctum of whatever was going on wasn’t an opportunity that came along too often.
“Trust me. You can hear it from over there.” Cain pointed to her table.
“If you’re sure.”
“What’s your name, arling’?”
“Shelby Phillips, and yours?”
“Like I said, why don’t you just call me Cain? Come on. Charlie will bring those drinks over to us.”
Shelby took the offered hand, and Merrick cut a path through the dancers for them as they made their way to the other side of the club.
The two other agents she had arrived with sat at the bar and kept an eye out in case Shelby needed them to intervene.
“Shelby, I want you to meet Vinny Carlotti. Vinny, this is my new friend Shelby.”
“Shelby and I have met.”
Cain arched a brow, wanting him to say from where.
“She works for my father, part time, I believe.” Vinny got up and shook hands with her before she took a seat next to Cain.
The agent didn’t knock Cain’s hand off when it came to rest on her knee and hoped her notorious friend knew what she was doing.
“Have you made all the appropriate arrangements?” Cain asked Vinny, liking the feel of the skin under her fingers.
“We’re all set to move for next week. My men will be there to help divide the shipment once you take control of it. Once it’s ready we’ll send it out from there. Dad added another truckload of cigarettes since some of the vendors we deal with on the Gulf Coast were interested. Overall we stand to make over five million apiece, if everything goes according to plan.”
“Good. We’ll be getting the warehouses ready to move the stuff out the same night we get it. I don’t want to be sitting on this much merchandise for too long and get my ass popped for it.” Cain shook hands with her old friend and made sure he and his party were taken care of for the rest of the night if they chose to stay.
“Want to join me in the office for a more intimate drink?” she offered Shelby.
“If she says no to this, I swear I’ll have her ass transferred to the most disgusting place I can think of,” Kyle said to the others in the van. He had already called the group assigned to Vincent Carlotti and informed them of the new alliance with Casey.
“Sure.” Shelby followed a little behind Cain, enjoying the way the black slacks and black turtleneck Cain was wearing looked on her.
“I’m sorry, ma’am, but Cain doesn’t allow anyone to carry anything in with them. If you’d like, you can leave your purse with me, and I promise I’ll keep an eye on it.” The big man standing at the front door of the office held his hand out and waited to see if the agent would comply. If he had to call Cain back out, it might look like he couldn’t handle the situation.
“It’s just a purse.”
“And it’s just her rules. Her club, her rules, that’s the way it works. If you like I can go in and tell her you’ve changed your mind about joining her.”
Shelby handed over the purse, knowing it was her last link to her backup. Not that she worried Cain was going to harm her, but Cain had made it clear it wouldn’t be a good idea for her to keep up her surveillance. She noticed the two men move from the bar to get closer to the office, but they weren’t able to get too close with the number of personnel Cain had between them and the door. To move in now would blow her cover not only with Cain, but also with Vincent. She hoped for the best and handed over the purse.
The office was a large space with only a bar, a desk, and a sofa that overlooked the crowd through what she assumed was a two-way mirror. Soft, low lighting made it feel warmer than it was, considering the sparse furnishings, but she could still see Cain clearly as she stood at the bar and poured two glasses of amber liquid.
“Irish whiskey,” she informed Shelby when she handed over the glass before walking over and sitting on the sofa. “Come over here. I’m not going to bite. Unless…” Cain was obviously referring to any other wires Shelby might be sporting.
“Don’t worry. Agent Kyle is most probably having puppies by now since my purse has left my person.”
“I’m glad to see you again, but to tell you the truth, I’m surprised you’re here.” Cain drained the glass and sat it on the floor by her feet. Eventually she would have to finish furnishing the space to make it more functional, but it hadn’t been a priority. She only came to the club when business demanded it or when she was in the mood for the rare evening out on the dance floor.
“I’d have put in another request for transfer this week, believe me, but any more of them and it would’ve started to look suspicious. I thought a few weeks of me coming up empty would do the trick, but you go and get all chatty on me. It’s going to be hard to get rid of me now. Why did you do that? Was it a test or something?” Shelby took a seat and left a little room between them. Cain looked criminally good tonight, instead of just criminal.
“Maybe it was my way of helping you get that medal we talked about.”
She slid closer and reached out for Cain’s hand. “I appreciate what you did for me, Cain, but we agreed I have a job to do, and I’m not going to shirk my responsibilities even though you know who I am. You had to realize I was wired.”
“I told you before, I’m not going to sell you out, and you’ve upheld your end of our deal, I would imagine.”