"I really had a good time, and I'm positive Hayden enjoyed his time with you too."

"You sure you won't stay another day?"

"Hayden wants to head home, and I don't feel right about pushing the issue anymore. Stay in touch," she said, holding her hand out.

The farmer shook it without any hesitation.

"Hayden, come over here and say good-bye to your grandfather."

The boy stepped up and offered his hand as well, getting Ross to give him a warm smile. "Thank you, sir, for having me."

"I hope it won't be the last time you come up here to see us. Especially now that we're business partners," Ross joked and held Hayden's hand with both of his.

"Maybe next time you can come and see us in New Orleans," Hayden said.

Just as the large vehicle turned onto the road, Emma came running into the yard with the picture Cain had left. If everything Cain had said was true, she couldn't possibly undo the damage she had caused to all their lives by just walking away.

G.o.d, why hadn't she trusted Cain enough to just ask? She had just blindly sat and listened to Agent Kyle that day he had cornered her outside Hayden's school. The one time she had forced her hand about the constant protection Cain insisted on was the one day the agent had been able to get so close.

Four Years Earlier in New Orleans, a Week after the Attempted Rape "Stay put. I'm just taking Hayden to school. That's hardly cause for a gang war." Emma grabbed her purse and car keys, wanting to get out of the house for a while.

"Ma'am, Cain said" Mook tried to stop her, but Emma wasn't in the mood to listen.

"Cain's your boss, Mook, I respect that, but she isn't my keeper. The fact that I'm married to her should carry some weight."

"Yes, ma'am. I meant no disrespect."

Emma helped Hayden put on his sweater and smiled at her son's guard. "Don't worry, Mook. You can blame me if she gets mad. I just need some time for myself."

"Please be careful."

They made the short drive in relative silence, with just the radio tuned to a station Hayden had picked out. Emma kissed him good-bye at the front door of the school and waved to his teacher standing in the hall.

She never noticed where the man came from, but suddenly when she got back into her car, he stood there tapping on her window. The badge he held up made her put her head on the steering wheel for a moment. Could she just drive away and expect him to leave her alone? His insistent tapping made her look up again and press the b.u.t.ton to lower the window. Kyle handed over his ID.

"Ms. Verde, can I have a moment of your time?"

"It's Casey," she informed him as she ran a finger over the leather of the wallet that held his credentials. It was a rich calf leather and extremely expensive, if she had to guess. Interesting taste the agent had, and she wondered if it was government issue.

"Excuse me?"

"My last name, it's Casey. Would you like to see my driver's license?"

Kyle laughed and accepted his wallet back. "I see you've learned a few things from Casey about how to deal with the authorities."

"Agent Kyle, is it?"

He nodded at her question.

"If you want to talk to Cain, then I suggest you call her at the office. If you don't have the number, I'll be happy to give it to you."

"I don't want to talk to Casey. I want to talk to you. Would you like to have a cup of coffee? I promise it'll be worth your while."

"Do I have a choice?"

"You can drive away now, Ms. Casey, and I promise never to bother you again. But if you'd like to know the true nature of the monster you live with, I suggest you accept my offer."

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 prost.i.tutes 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 EarlierMaternity 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 l.u.s.ty 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 b.i.t.c.h, 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 p.i.s.sant, 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 compa.s.sion.

"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 a.s.s-whupping. He's not bothering you."

With a final pat on the top of Marie's mangled hand, Cain tucked it back to her sister's side and covered it. She must have tried to fight back the best way she knew how to get so many wounds. The cigarette burns so close to her nipples and scattered around her abdomen, though, had been hard to ignore. Cain realized Danny had probably used them to subdue Marie and get her to comply. I should have killed him right after he touched Emma.

"I didn't ask how he was, I asked where he was. Where is he?"

Robert raised his voice and tried to keep his courage up, but it was getting more difficult since he was so desperate for a drink he was about to sell out anyone. "Come on, Cain. What's my boy ever done to you but try to have a little fun with a b.i.t.c.h who left you anyway?"

He started to shake and sweat when she took her jacket off and rolled up her sleeves.

The hospital workers who came running down the hall when they heard the scream emanating from the morgue just as quickly turned away when the five people by the door reached under their jackets and shook their heads.

Inside, Robert was reeling from the sudden pain to the side of his head where Cain had punched him, but he wasn't on his knees long before she grabbed a fistful of oily hair and yanked him to a standing position. With the same force she pulled him to the gurney.

"Look at her and tell me what you see."

The face was so battered Robert barely recognized his other niece lying there, and he fought a wave of nausea when he figured out why Cain wanted Danny. "Oh my G.o.d."

"No, G.o.d had nothing to do with this, so tell me where I can find your b.a.s.t.a.r.d son. Because, believe me, uncle, if I have to beat it out of you..." She stopped, not needing to finish the threat. "In the mood I'm in now, I may rid myself of the whole more troubling side of my family."

"Danny couldn't have done this."

"The idiot left a note pinned to what was left of her dress, so tell me where I can find him. I know he keeps you in booze and cigarettes, so you have to know."

The sniveling man tried to look up at Cain, causing her to tighten her hold on his hair. "What happens to me if you kill Danny?"

"You get to live, which is more than generous on my part. After all, much of what Danny turned out to be came from his upbringing. Be grateful he hasn't brought a plague on the rest of your house with this atrocity. Not yet anyway."

"I don't know where he is. Honest, Cain." A punch to the kidneys made him regret the lie, and this time she left him on the floor.

"I tried to do this the easy way. Remember that."

It looked like the worst of it was over and she was leaving. "What does that mean?"

"It means you stand with Danny on this one but, more importantly, against me. Go home and wait for your son and Giovanni Bracato to protect you. In your moments of lucidity, pray I'm kinder than this when I strike back and that I make it quick, but this is hard to ignore." She waved a hand toward the gurney.

"He's my son, for G.o.d's sake."

The slap to his face was so hard it knocked him into a table stacked with surgical supplies, and when he put his hand up to cover the sting, it came away with blood.

"You can live the rest of your life not reminding me of that fact."

"You stay away from my family, Cain."

"Just like yours stayed away from me and mine? Don't threaten me, you useless piece of c.r.a.p. I guess the old saying 'the apple doesn't fall far from the tree' isn't just bulls.h.i.t, now is it? Don't worry, though. I'm on my way home to fire up the chainsaw. Baxter trees from your orchard won't be a problem for much longer. Danny might have thrown the first punch, but you should know me by now. When I'm done there won't be a Baxter left standing. I don't give a f.u.c.k if you're my family or not."

"You can't do that." He tried to wipe off some of the drool and blood that oozed down his chin.

Cain grabbed him by the hair again and dragged him back to the gurney. With one flick of her wrist she pulled the sheet back and showed him all the damage Danny had done. "She didn't deserve this, or to be related to the human garbage you've inflicted on the world."

Robert gave her an address and dropped to his knees with his hands covering his face. Even if Cain left the rest of them alone, the memory of Marie's marred skin would sear his brain forever.