"I wanted to thank you for making me so happy and," Emma lifted her head and bit down gently on Cain's chin, "because I didn't want you to think we were going to stop doing this just because my father's in the house. I thought I'd nip that in the bud before you got goofy on me."

"Considering we're going to try and convince him to retire to warmer climates, I'm not that crazy."

"Do you think he'll be happy here? He's used to running a farm and being active."

Cain stopped her hands and held Emma closer. "I'm sure we can keep him busy, and I have some ideas of how to keep him involved with the life he's used to."

"Don't worry is your answer, huh?"

"And get a good night's sleep." She kissed Emma and got her more comfortable by rolling over and sliding behind her. "I love you."

Emma lifted their joined hands and kissed Cain's knuckles before she moved Cain's hand between her b.r.e.a.s.t.s. Before Cain gave in to sleep, she hoped all their problems could be settled so easily. But she was serious about trying to keep Ross nearby, if only to have one more person willing to do anything to keep Emma and the kids safe. Cain would have a problem with Ross being there only if he invited his wife to join him.

Chapter Thirty-Three.

"Cain, the airport called," Carmen said as she poured herself a cup of coffee in the kitchen. Cain was leaning against the counter downing a bottle of juice after her run. With Hayden in school she shared her runs with Merrick and Mook. "Mr. Ross's luggage finally made it, and they offered to deliver it, if you want."

"If we take them up on that, Ross will never see his underwear.

Call and tell them I'm sending someone." Cain glanced out to the foyer and spotted one of the young guys Lou had a.s.signed to the house and who had been out with them to various restaurants. The tall blond named Rick Greco was somehow related to Mook and had earned Lou's trust by never turning him down, no matter what Lou asked of him. Lou was thinking of putting Rick with Hannah when he had a little more experience.

"Rick," Cain called.

"Morning, boss."

"Do me a favor and take one of the cars and run out to the airport.

Ross was missing a bag and it just made its way from Hawaii, probably."

"Sure, let Lou know where I am."

"Actually, I'll drive you," Lou said. "We ordered some new scanning equipment and it's at the FedEx office out there. I'll drop you off, pick the stuff up, and come back for you so you don't have to park. Come on, kid." Lou put his hand on the back of Rick's neck and guided him toward the door. Cain shook her head at their roughhousing. It was one of the ways Lou acted when he really liked someone.

"Is Emma up yet?" Cain asked Carmen.

"Not yet, but Hayden's almost ready to go."

Outside, Lou got behind the wheel of one of their SUVs and laughed as Rick told him about his last date, which had turned out disastrously.At the airport he dropped Rick at the baggage claim and waved to him as he drove toward the freight area.

Rick walked to the Delta office and rested his elbows on the counter since the place was empty. A pile of bags sat outside next to the carousel and in the office, so he was content to wait, not wanting to check every tag himself.

This section was the airport's newest addition, and from where he stood he could see the new customs office. A group of Hispanic men loitered outside the solid door, and the shortest one in the bunch piqued his interest. Rick thought he'd seen him before but couldn't place where or with whom. He moved closer to the gla.s.s wall for a better look at the guy with the ponytail. The men stood in a circle talking and laughing at something one of them had said, but none of them were facing out.

One other guy sat on the other side, and Rick could see his legs and his black dress shoes, but not his face. He moved closer to the door, trying to get a better angle to see the guy and hoping that whoever it was would trigger the memory of where he knew the long-haired man from.

When he moved to the open door, the short guy turned in Rick's direction and, from his facial expression, Rick guessed he'd recognized him right off. The guy said something, the others looked too, and then Rick could see the man seated. Anthony Curtis locked eyes with him, and Rick fumbled in his pocket for his cell phone.

Lou's number rang twice before the men reached him, pulled his arm down, and pressed a gun into his back.

The action made Rick remember where he'd seen the little guy with the long thick hair. He was one of the men standing outside the Steak Knife the night Juan Luis went there with Nunzio Luca and his uncle.

"What you doing here, hotshot?" the men behind him asked him in a heavy accent. Rick took a slight step forward when the gun was jammed harder into his back. "I asked you a question."

The door behind them started to open, but before the airline employee made it in, the men hauled Rick toward the bathroom close to the escalators. Anthony watched the whole time but didn't move.

One of the four guys checked the stalls, while another one stood at the door to prevent anyone from coming in. The guy Rick had recognized was s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g a silencer to his gun and the sight of it drove his pulse up, but he showed no outward emotion. They were probably just going to scare him a little after luckily finding him alone.

"How you knowwe here, cowboy?" the little guy asked as he pressed his gun to Rick's forehead, having to hold it at an odd angle to reach.

"I'm picking up a bag, a.s.shole, and I don't really give a s.h.i.t why you're here."

The last guy kicked him behind the right knee, making him lose his balance and fall to his knees. "You don'tgot no backup, cowboy, so be good."

"You need plenty of backup, don't you, little s.h.i.t?" The last word had barely left his mouth when his head exploded.

"What in the f.u.c.k was that, Jesus?" Oscar, who'd been standing behind Rick, jumped back and reverted to Spanish. The back of Rick's head sprayed him from head to waist, and he wiped his face and visibly shivered as his fingers found solid particles that couldn't be blood. "This is going to bring the kind of heat Juan is paying us to avoid."

"Shut up and let me think and keep everybody out." Jesus Vega took his gun apart and paced by Rick's body. He couldn't go back to Rodolfo after this, which made him feel sick to his stomach.

"Merda," he said as he stared into Rick's open, dead eyes. Before Juan had been sent home, Jesus had reluctantly cut a deal with him as a way to a.s.sure his place in the future. Rodolfo was more level-headed, but he wasn't going to live forever.

"They're starting to let people out," the guy at the door said.

"What do we do, Jesus?" Oscar asked.

"Put him in the last stall," Jesus ordered in Spanish. "And change clothes with him. We'll get stopped for sure if you try to walk out like that." He pointed to Oscar's blood- and brain-splattered suit.

"Somebody's going to find him eventually, and when they trace it to us we're dead," Oscar said.

"None of you are going to tell Juan what happened, so it's not a problem. Get me?" Jesus glanced around the s.p.a.ce, trying to remember if he'd touched anything. The others arranged Rick so he wouldn't fall forward.

"And get us all killed? Don't worry," Oscar said as he cinched Rick's belt as tight as it would go.

Anthony was gone when they walked out, but a crowd of people were waiting for their luggage after they'd cleared customs. The four turned toward the wall as Lou rode past them on the escalator.

Jesus saw Lou glance back at them as if he'd noticed something.

Lou had most probably come in because Rick wasn't answering his cell, which they'd heard ringing and dropped in the toilet they'd sat him on.

"Did someone claim Ross Verde's bag?" Lou asked. He snapped his phone shut in irritation when Rick's went to voice mail again.

"I've got it right here." The guy placed it on the counter.

"You didn't see a blond kid in here?" Lou punched the redial b.u.t.ton only to get Rick's recorded message instantly, as if the phone was now turned off.

"Some people were leaving when I got back from my break. I called out but they went that way." He pointed toward the men's room.

"f.u.c.k," Lou said, taking off at a run. The restroom was crowded with guys who'd gotten off the Mexico City flight. He bent down and looked under the stall doors, wanting to throw up when he saw the feet adorned only with a pair of socks. That's what was weird about the guys on the escalator. One of them had on a suit that was way too big. The guy had stripped Rick for some reason and worn his clothes.

Lou kicked the door of the stall in and yelled "No" so loud that most of the men headed for the exit. Rick was slumped on the seat, his eyes still open and a bullet hole in his forehead with a single line of blood coming from it.

"Get security," Lou screamed at the man standing next to him staring, "now." The command got the man moving, and Lou took advantage of being alone to make a phone call. "Cain," he said, hearing Emma and Hannah's voices in the background. "Rick's dead and I need you to stay put until I can figure out what's going on. With Katlin gone I don't need to worry about you too."

"How?"Cain asked.

"Somebody shot him and stripped him in the restroom. It might've been random, but I did see some guys who acted hinky on the way out." Four security guards ran in and Lou stepped away from the stall. "I'll call you later."

Lou closed the phone but made no move to put it back in the holder on his belt. "You need to call the police," he told the group as he held his hands slightly upward. He knew the pose would make his gun holster visible, but he thought it would be better to get the fact that he was armed out of the way. "It's my friend."

He made no attempt to fight when the guards came forward and pushed him to the floor face down. The force they used to pull his hands back into cuffs made Lou exhale, but he stayed quiet otherwise. At least one of his captors was calling the police, and Lou took one last look at Rick as he was escorted out. The security personnel had laid him in the spot where Rick had been killed, and Lou noticed some of his blood was smeared on the front of his shirt.

They had already compromised and contaminated the crime scene, and Lou thought he was losing valuable time dealing with such incompetence, but this wasn't the place to flex his muscle. He didn't want to spend any more time than necessary cuffed by the pretend-cops. He wanted to hunt down the idiots who'd done this.

As the police arrived, Lou was escorted to a windowless room close to the customs office. They sat him in a chair, leaving his cuffs on, and only one of the guards stayed with him; the others, he was sure, were going back to take another look at the men's room.

"Don't I get a phone call or something?" Lou asked.

"We're waiting for a unit to come pick you up, so shut up and get comfortable."

"I have a permit for the gun you took off me, and if you bothered to check, it hasn't been fired recently."

The guard closed his eyes and sat back in his chair, evidently sure Lou wasn't going anywhere. "You can save your innocent routine for the guys who'll arrest you. I'm not interested."

Lou didn't have a choice but to wait, so he closed his eyes as well and tried to remember anything about the guys he'd seen on the way in. He had a gut feeling they were responsible for what had happened to Rick, and he intended to find a way to ask the questions that would get Rick the payback he deserved.

Chapter Thirty-Four.

Since telling Dallas good night the previous evening, Remi hadn't thought about anything but her. At least she was still sleeping behind the closed door, or so Remi guessed, since she hadn't heard a sound from the room all morning. She reread the first line of the lead story in the morning's paper for the twentieth time and still didn't have an inkling of what it said.

She put the paper aside and decided to concentrate on the view instead. Maybe she could do that while trying to organize her jumbled brain. When the elevator doors opened, Remi was so startled she almost went for a kitchen knife. Simon and Juno lived a floor below her, and they were the only ones who occasionally popped in unexpectedly. But Dallas stood in the foyer wearing a T-shirt and a pair of sweat pants, and judging from the perspiration running down her face, she'd been out exercising.

"I thought you were asleep," Remi said as she tried not to put her hand to her chest and calm her heart to a steadier pace.

"Sorry, I checked with Simon and she let me down and came and got me so I could take my morning walk. I would've let you know but you were still in your room, and I didn't want to bother you."

"You shouldn't go out this early alone," Remi said, putting her finger up to keep Dallas from wandering off since the phone was ringing. She looked at Dallas after she picked up but didn't say anything once she pressed it to her ear.

When Dallas pointed in the direction of her room Remi shook her head, not wanting her to leave. "Do you have any idea who?" Remi finally said, then fell silent again and listened. "You need me to send someone out there? Call me if you change your mind."

"Something wrong?"Dallas asked when Remi hung up.

"Someone killed one of Cain's men this morning at the airport."

"G.o.d, that's tragic. What happened?"

"Whoever it was made it look like Rick got rolled and shot, but people usually don't get mugged in an airport."

Dallas kept her distance and wiped her hands on her pants like she needed to dry them. "Do you need to go see Cain? I could sit with Emma if you want me to come along."

"You might want to stay here," Remi said, then cleared her throat as Dallas neared.

"I'd like to help."

"I know," Remi said, and exhaled deeply, "but you might not want to get too involved in this."

"Why am I here, Remi? I mean really here?"

"We've been over this already. You staying homeisn't a good idea right now, if Bob has some problem with you."

Dallas laid her hand flat on Remi's chest and looked into her eyes as if trying to find something in them. "That doesn't answer my question. If that's the only reason, there are plenty of hotel rooms in this city where it would've taken Bob a year to find me. Why am I here?"

"I'm not sure what answer you want, because that's the only one I've got," Remi said, dropping her gaze to Dallas's hand. It appeared delicate against the green, heavy silk of her robe.

"You have another one, but maybe you're not ready to share it with me." Dallas moved her hand up until she reached Remi's shoulder.

"But that's okay." She stood on tiptoe. "I'm willing to wait you out until you're ready." She put her hand behind Remi's head, encouraging Remi to bend down so she could reach her lips.

They'd kissed before, but for Remi this one was like turning the page of a book and finding out something new about the character she thought she knew. Dallas might have been an enigma, but when Remi pressed her lips to hers, she got a dose of pa.s.sion and compa.s.sion all in one act. For all her doubts, Remi relaxed somewhat, because in her experience, no one could fake something like this.

"You're here because you need someone to stand up for you, since you can't or won't for whatever reason," Remi said when they parted. Dallas opened her mouth in an almost perfecto and had taken the breath to push out whatever word she had in mind, but Remi kissed her again. "You're here because I want to be that someone.Not because I owe it to you, or because you asked me, but because I want to."

She pulled away and headed toward her bedroom to get dressed, but stopped as she reached the hall. When she turned around Dallas was standing there touching her lips and appearing dazed. "If you want to, I'm sure Emma would appreciate the company. If you want to stay, that's okay too. But promise you won't go out alone until I know what's going on."

Muriel quickly made it from the parking garage to the airport with only one thing in mind. As much as what had happened to Rick upset her, she was concerned with the living, and she hadn't been able to reach Lou since he'd hung up with Cain. She'd spent the morning calling all of their police contacts and was still in the dark.

While she tried to find Lou, Cain had made a few calls of her own and had gotten their people back from Mississippi. Katlin was there in two hours and had volunteered to escort Muriel to the last place Lou had been, so Katlin, along with a few more men, walked with her, making almost a human cage of protection as they entered the chilly interior of the main corridor.

"Did he say where in the building he was?" Katlin asked.

"They were here to pick up a d.a.m.n bag," Muriel said, disgusted."Nothing worth getting killed over."