The Devil's Orchard (25 page)

It took a long pause for Muriel to get out and join her on the sidewalk, but she did after peering back at the sedan. She recognized Joe Simmons and Claire, but that was all. Shelby would come back eventually, and Cain needed to have Muriel in a better place to deal with seeing her as an adversary every day.

“Did Emma like the house?”

Their conversation at lunch started there and ended with what had happened with Ronald the day before. Muriel smiled as Cain whined about the pressure of not ever being out of the Feds’ spotlight
. I think they got it
, Muriel wrote on a napkin she pushed toward her.

“You’d think so.” Cain winked.

At the house she pushed Muriel into the pool fully clothed, and Katlin went in right after, an easy target because she was laughing so hard. The roughhousing was a good reminder of what they were like as children, back when they didn’t have to worry about anything and their only real responsibility was school.

“Give us a bit, then I’ll call y’all in,” she said to Katlin and Lou once dinner and fun were over.

Muriel had changed and watched her as she moved around the room. “You don’t have to do this, you know. If you’re worried I’m cracking up on you, I’m not.”

“Stop bullshitting me,” Cain said sharply. The approach was harsh, but her father had used it plenty of times when he wanted something stubborn to shake loose, as he’d put it. “I’m not going to judge you, and it’s time you hear some truths from me.”

“I’ve heard everything I need to hear from you, and I know how you feel, so let’s get back to work.”

“Sure, once you answer my question from today. Why don’t you believe me?” She grabbed Muriel by the jaw and made her look her in the eye. “What did I do to make you lose faith in me? Better yet, what do I do to change that?”

“Goddamn it, this is something I have to work out for myself, so don’t let it eat at you. If one of us fucked up here it was me, not you. Hell, if it wasn’t for you, we’d be in real trouble because of what I did.”

“The problem is, it does eat at me because I promised your father I’d let you know word for word what was in his heart before he had to go. I’ve repeated them to you over and over, but you haven’t heard a single thing I’ve said.”

“The words that play in my head in a loop are the last ones Da and I exchanged, and that we fought over that bitch I allowed in my bed makes me want to crawl into a ball and stay that way. Jesus, what an idiot he must’ve thought I was.” Muriel’s voice rose to a scream and she slammed her hands into the arms of the chair.

“We all make mistakes, Muriel, but if we don’t learn from them, life loses every bit of happiness. You made a mistake in trusting that Shelby cared more for you than her job, but it wasn’t fatal.”

“No, not fatal, but don’t lie and say it wasn’t damaging.”

“A few years ago I trusted a man because technically we shared blood, and he took something precious from me. That mistake was fatal for my sister, and if I hadn’t been able to get past it, Emma would still be up the road and Hannah would still be under the same roof as that witch who’s her grandmother. For a long time it felt so good to let the anger build—it was all I had. It made it easy to dump all that pain on Emma’s head. My love for her won out, and it’s caused that gash Danny made to heal.” She moved up so their knees were touching. “Danny was never Emma’s fault, but it was so convenient to blame her, to hate her even, but losing her made me bleed more than losing Marie.”

“You’re not suggesting I take Shelby back?”

“I’m suggesting you let it go and move on. If you don’t, the right woman will fall on you and you’ll be too bitter to allow her in.” Cain tapped over Muriel’s heart. “You’re my family, and I love you. Nothing in this life or the next will ever change that. If what happened had made me lose faith in what you mean to me, you wouldn’t be here, you’d know nothing of my business, and I would’ve been honest about letting you know that.”

“That I believe hands down.” Muriel laughed. “You left out that you would’ve kicked my ass.”

“I did kick your ass in the pool today to soften you up for this.” She framed Muriel’s face with her hands and smiled. “You forget I know you, cousin, and I know the pain you’re in.” She choked up when Muriel’s eyes watered and a few tears dropped down her cheeks. “Uncle Jarvis is gone and I know you miss him, but don’t forget you’re a part of me. You’re my family, and I’ll be here for you however you need me.”

“Thanks.” Muriel wiped her face and blinked furiously, as if to dry up her emotions. “If I’d lost your trust and Katlin’s, I’d be a goner, so I appreciate that you didn’t turn your back on me. And I’m sorry I’ve been such a weakling lately. I’m sure you’re ready for me to drop the maudlin act.”

“You move at your own pace, and if anyone gives you shit about it, punch them in the face. That always makes me feel better.”

“That might land me in jail. Assaulting a federal agent isn’t a wise move.”

“Haven’t you heard?” Cain laughed. “We’re criminals, cousin, but we’re damned good ones. We’ve got a lot of ill-gotten gains to bail you out of anything.”

Muriel laughed and stood so Cain could put her arms around her. She hugged her as hard as Jerry had at their arrival and didn’t let go right away. Muriel had coasted since Jarvis’s death, but Cain felt they’d finally made headway in knocking the boulder of guilt she carried off her shoulders.

*

“What do you think they’re talking about?” Claire asked as she watched Cain and Muriel with their heads together. Cain had finally relented from playing the theme from
Bonanza
after months, only to replace it with Disney’s “It’s a Small World”
again. “She should become a contract worker at Guantanamo. You’d tell her whatever she wanted to know after a day of listening to this on a loop. How do you think she does it without going crazy herself?”

“The same way she’s convincing Muriel what an evil bitch I am,” Shelby said with a pain in her chest as she watched Muriel cry.

“Do you mind if I ask you something? Believe me, I won’t be insulted if you don’t answer.”

“Sure.” She glanced away from the monitor and rubbed her eyes from fatigue.

“If you could do it over again, would you change anything? That night when we all had dinner at your place and Cain showed up, I was convinced you really cared for Muriel. I never thought it was all about the assignment.”

“I still care. You don’t suddenly stop what you feel because they toss you to the curb.” She went back to the monitor and remembered what it was like to be in Muriel’s arms. “My mistake was thinking I could crack through that.” She tapped her nail against the image of Cain and Muriel. “They take family commitment to heart, and I wasn’t ever going to be enough to break that engrained sense of Caseyness. I might change my tactics if I got another shot, but I would take another shot, if that’s what you’re really asking.”

“We thought we’d lost you, so that’s good to hear.”

“Grief makes you do crazy shit.” She stared at Muriel’s profile as she laughed at something Cain had said. “Look at what she almost sacrificed because of it.”

*

“Get Colin on the phone tomorrow and ask him if he’s up for a visit,” Cain said to Muriel as a wrap-up on their business for the night.

After Muriel’s call to Colin, she’d researched Fiona and Judice O’Brannigan and found something disturbing to Cain—nothing. Judice had no past, no history except for giving birth to a daughter, Fiona. If not for that, there’d be no trace of the woman at all, and as with Dallas Montgomery, there had to be a reason. People hid from all sorts of situations and enemies, and finding them sometimes proved to be a dangerous proposition, even with the assurance of someone like Colin Mead.

“You want him to come to us, or do you want to go there?”

“Whichever’s convenient for him. I want him happy and at ease so he’ll be willing to tell his tales.”

“You obviously haven’t spoken to him recently.” Muriel closed her files. “Give him a chance and he’ll talk your ears off.”

“Go to bed, and we’ll hear it soon enough.”

Cain went up and gently eased in next to Emma, to not wake her. Muriel’s information had perked her up, but even though she wasn’t sleepy, she didn’t want Emma to wake up alone. Finding that Fiona and her only known family were ghosts was enough to almost make her forget about Juan—almost.

She’d seen enough movies to know that eventually someone would be smart enough to infiltrate the one arena that could tip the scales one way or the other. A family with someone loyal to them in the police department would be huge. Big Gino had almost pulled it off with Barney, but Barney wasn’t really loyal to him. He’d only played a part for Gino to get what he wanted. Masquerading as a federal agent had been Barney’s true acting job, not what he’d been willing to do for Gino to break the law. Only he’d done it for personal gain, not for the betterment of the Bracato family.

Her mind wandered from subject to subject, and the man in her parents’ house that she’d seen later on watching them from his car finally pinged her memory. It was that brief glimpse of him at the shooting range with Hayden that afternoon. It was the same guy, and she remembered how she’d felt compelled to stop and look. The guy with the big shiny gun, the blond hair that clashed with those jet eyebrows, and how he stood almost arrogantly at the top of the steps in her old house.

There was something she realized now that she didn’t then—when he’d descended the steps to leave and glanced back, his eyes weren’t on her. They were on Emma. The way he stood at the top of the steps should’ve tipped her off. His hands were behind his back, and he rocked on his feet as if he were blessing you with the gift of his company. Only two other people she’d ever met made a habit of doing that, and one of them was dead.

Juan Luis, though, was not.

That habit had driven her nuts when she’d had to deal with his uncle Rodolfo, and after watching him as a boy, Juan must’ve picked it up. The fucker had been smart enough to change his face, but not those little things that identified him as completely as a goddamn fingerprint would.

“Shit,” she said softly, and Emma stirred in her arms but didn’t wake. When Cain went to leave the bed, she did.

“Where are you going?” Emma asked, without opening her eyes.

“I’ll be right back, I promise.” She put a robe on and went down the hall to where Merrick and Katlin were staying and knocked.

“You’d be in trouble if we’d been busy,” Katlin said, blinking at the light in the hallway. “What’s wrong?”

“Who’d you put on the guy outside the Columns Hotel?”

“What guy?”

“Wake the hell up and tell me you put somebody on him,” she said, grabbing Katlin by the collar of her robe.

“I wasn’t with you that day, remember? You and Merrick went alone and met Sept and that chick Fiona. What guy are you talking about?”

She heard the tap of Merrick’s cane and the door opened wider. “I put Shaun Quinn on him, since he was the closest to us that day. He’s young, but I’m sure he knows not to drop the ball on this, especially when I told him to find someone to relieve him when he was off. You want me to call him?”

“Wait, what guy are y’all talking about?” Katlin repeated.

“That’s a good question that I’m sure Cain would love to answer over a cup of coffee since I’m up now,” Emma said from behind her.

“It’s too early for coffee. Let’s go downstairs and make a few calls.”

Cain got Muriel up as they headed down, and she waited for Merrick to make the call. “Whoever he is, he’s at the Piquant, so I’d rule out FBI, and Shaun said he’s in for the night. Actually he hasn’t been out much since we left, but he does have another guy with him when he goes out to eat and such. If it makes you feel better I told him to put someone at all the entrances to make sure we don’t lose him.” Merrick sat next to Katlin when she was done and yawned. “Now, will you tell us why we’re up in the middle of the night?”

“It’s Juan.”

Despite them all having been asleep five minutes earlier, they stared at her with the silence that could only come from shock. But saying it out loud made her believe it more. He was right in front of her with his hand on Hannah, and she’d never realized it until now.

“What do you mean it’s Juan?” Emma grabbed Cain’s forearm.

“There was only one way for him to come back, and he did it. The man at the top of the steps the day we went to Remi and Dallas’s new place was Juan.”

“I hate to argue with you, honey, but that guy wasn’t Mexican and looked nothing like Juan,” Emma said, but she stared at her as if something was starting to come back.

“He changed his face through surgery. It was his only escape, and hell if I didn’t fall for it. Do you realize how close he was to you, Hannah, and Hayden? If he’d been his usual stupid self I would’ve lost every single one of you before I could stop him.” She’d been right all along—Juan couldn’t help himself. He’d come back to finish what she’d denied him. “He was there the last time Hayden and I went to the gun range and at the house that day.”

“How can you be so sure?” Katlin asked. “Not that I’m trying to disagree with you.”

“Think about Juan when we first met him, but not how he talked or acted. Think about his mannerisms.”

“Oh, my God,” Emma said, as if the truth had been dumped in her lap. “That day in Jackson Square when he confronted me and Lou was with me. We’d had our mock fight and you’d stormed away toward the church. He came out from the coffee shop and stood there with his hands behind his back. He rocked as he spoke, only showing his fists when Lou talked back to him. If Shelby hadn’t shown up right then I believe he would’ve been arrogant enough to have Lou shot in broad daylight.”

“There’s no way in the world that stupid bastard did that on his own,” Muriel said.

“He didn’t.” Cain put her arm around Emma, not wanting to worry her any more than she had to. “Anthony Curtis helped him get out of town, and he ran all the way home to his mother. Gracelia, from my understanding, is at times hasty, but she’s a lot smarter than Juan. Think about it. She stole Rodolfo’s business from him and killed him without much trouble. If Anthony is still part of that equation, then he’s gone all in, because he certainly can’t come back to his old life after what happened with Emma and Merrick.”