The first truck was already open and a few of the crates unloaded. Lionel found the word 'Sardines' stenciled on the sides, just like Cain had said in the bunkhouse when she made the deal. When they demanded the next few trucks open their cargo doors, they found the same stash of crates, stenciled the same way. It was over. Kyle had made his case, but none of them felt much like celebrating.

"Call ahead, Murphy. Tell them to have an OR ready to go, and call the folks in the blood bank." The woman nicknamed Tex was barking out orders as she ran alongside the gurney holding a compress to the hole in the front of Cain's chest. Kyle's shot had gone completely through, leaving a much larger exit wound and one h.e.l.l of mess. The legs of the gurney folded under when they pushed Cain inside the ambulance, freeing Murphy to run for the driver's side.

Tex let her other partner climb in next and was almost knocked down by the two women trying to follow him. "Hold up there. Where in the h.e.l.l do you think you two are going?" The paramedic held her hands up and stood in the opening to keep anyone else from entering.

"That's my partner in there. I'm coming with you," said Emma. She looked dazed but deceptively calm, despite the fact that she was standing there covered in Cain's blood.

"Ma'am, that's our patient, and you need to give us some room to make sure she's all right. I'd love to stand here and talk at length to you about it, but I don't have the time. I'm sure one of the officers will be glad to give you a ride. You sure don't need to be doing any driving."

"Come on, Ms. Casey, I'll take you." Shelby put her hand on Emma's shoulder and pulled her back so the ambulance doors could be closed.

The ride seemed to take an eternity as the two women followed the flashing lights of the large vehicle in front of them. Every so often Emma would look from the ambulance to the woman sitting beside her. The image of her comforting Cain was hard to erase as she took in the tight jaw muscles and worry lines across Shelby's forehead.

"Can I ask your name?"

"I'm sorry. I'm Shelby Daniels."

"Are you and Cain good friends?" It seemed ridiculous to have this conversation now, but she needed some rea.s.surance of where she stood and what her role would be once they reached the hospital.

"We met just recently." Shelby took a hand off the wheel and put it on Emma's knee. "I work for the FBI, ma'am. That puts Cain and me in an awkward position for any romantic relationship, but it doesn't make it impossible for us to be friends." Friends who share some pretty nice kisses, but that's all it'll ever be.

Emma swiped at her veil of blond hair as she leaned forward a little. "I'm sorry. You probably think I'm just an idiot, but when I saw the two of you earlier I thought"

"I know what you thought, ma'am, and like I said, Cain and I are merely friends. We got to know each other because Cain saved my life. If it weren't for that, I'd probably only know her as the voice on the tapes we have."

Needing some comfort, she put her hand over Shelby's and looked up at the ambulance. "Do you think she'll be all right?"

"I have faith Cain loves life more than anything. Giving up isn't in her vocabulary, so maybe we should have the same belief in her. I think she'll be just fine."

Shelby and Emma left the car in the emergency room lot and ran in after the gurney. Tex was now on it, almost straddling her patient as she held an ambu bag over Cain's face, pumping to keep her breathing. The sheet Cain was lying on was saturated, signaling them that the bleeding hadn't stopped.

So much had already happened, but in reality the night was just beginning.

Chapter Twenty-Eight.

The doors of the exam room swung closed, and Shelby and Emma neither saw nor heard of Cain for hours. Coffee cups still full of bitter-tasting liquid sat before them untouched. An intern had taken Emma into another of their exam rooms and checked her for injury and shock. She had only a scratch on her side where the bullet had exited Cain and grazed her. Once she rejoined Shelby each, as if by silent agreement, took hold of the other's hand and didn't let go.

"I should call the house and ask Merrick to speak to Hayden." Emma was dreading having to tell her son what had happened but felt he would want to be there supporting his mother.

"It'll be okay, Ms. Casey. This wasn't your fault."

"Please call me Emma, and you don't understand our son. He idolizes Cain, with good reason, I guess. She never abandoned him, not like I did."

Shelby tightened her hold on Emma's fingers and smiled. "You're his mother and he needs you now, even though he's bigger than both of us and might not think so."

The cell phone Shelby was holding up looked almost frightening, but Emma rubbed her hands along her legs and accepted it.

"Casey residence." Merrick's voice sounded tight and cold from the waiting.

"Merrick, this is Emma."

"Ms. Casey, Cain's not home."

"Could you put aside your feelings for a minute and listen? I know Cain's not home, that's why I'm calling. She was shot, Merrick, and she's still in surgery. I need you to come and bring Hayden with you, but please bring extra protection. I promised Cain I'd look out for our son, and I need your help." Her grip on the phone was making her hand cramp as she antic.i.p.ated Hayden's response.

"What hospital?"

She told her the name and where she and Shelby were seated.

"We'll be there in ten minutes."

The second hand of the large clock on the wall of the waiting room swept around with a low grinding noise thirteen times after she ended her call before Merrick, Hayden, and Mook filled up the small room by sheer presence. She stood up and prepared herself for whatever reaction Hayden was going to have. His poker-serious expression softened just a little when he saw the blood covering her blue dress.

"It's not mine, Hayden. Don't be afraid. I just don't want to leave until I know Cain's all right."

"She said you were here to make things right between the two of you. Did you?"

She was surprised by the question, thinking that he would have asked about Cain before anything else. "To be totally honest, it's going to take more than just one night to do that, but I'm hoping we'll eventually get there. You may find it hard to accept, but Cain and I were the best of friends at one time, over and above the love we shared."

"She told me that too. The nurse informed us on the way in that it'll be another couple of hours, but Mom's hanging in." The information was the only comfort he gave her.

Ah, of course he would have stopped to ask. He's Cain's kid, after all. The woman could have done commercials for the Boy Scouts--always be prepared.

Emma knew Cain's idea of being prepared meant getting all the information about any given situation. Hayden was no different. "Thank you, and thank you, Merrick, for getting him here so quickly."

The room was small, granted, but Merrick had noticed how close the two were sitting. "Did you and Agent Daniels have lots to talk about before we got here?" She had already come up with two scenarios as to why Shelby was thereto either help finish Cain off or something more intimate.

"Agent Daniels was nice enough to give me a ride to the hospital from the warehouse."

Hayden walked nearer to his mother and the other woman sitting right behind her. "You were there?"

"We both were, Hayden."

"What happened?"

Riffling through her hair and taking out the pins that held only strands now, Emma took a deep breath. "It happened so fast that all I remember is standing next to Cain and then someone yelling at her to throw down her gun, which didn't make any sense. You and I both know Cain doesn't ever carry a gun."

Behind Hayden, Merrick nodded in agreement. Cain didn't need to carry a firearm. She was surrounded with them all the time.

"Before I could react she grabbed me and swung around, and something knocked us both to the ground. When the lights came back on I realized it was the force of the bullet that knocked her off her feet. She saved my life."

"It seems that every time she protects you from something, she loses big in the end, doesn't it?" said Hayden.

The tears came when Emma faced such anger in her son. Any chance of reconciliation with Hayden was as slim as with Cain. "I'm sorry. I can't say anything other than that. This may sound like an old cliche, but if I could trade places with her I would." The sobs that were threatening came spilling out then, and she ran out to escape any other sarcastic comment he had.

"Wouldn't it have been more effective to just slap her and get it over with?" Shelby asked him, never getting up from her seat.

"What do you know, lady? You're just here to try and drag my mother down."

"Check that att.i.tude with me, Mr. Casey. I'm not Emma, and I'm not going to put up with it. Granted your other mom is in there fighting for her life, but I'm almost positive that if she were out here, she'd have slapped you down by now herself."

It was remarkable to look into his eyes and find so much of Cain there. They held the intensity in their blue depths, and the same fire.

"Don't come in here and spout off about things you know nothing about. My mother lets you see only what she wants you to see, and nothing more. Even you can't be so stupid not to have figured that one out."

"I'm not stupid, Hayden. I just heard what she told you in the restaurant tonight. You're smart enough to know we're always listening. 'To be a man you have to respect your mother and your family.' Isn't that what she told you? One little setback and you have to lash out at the easiest target? One you know isn't going to fight back. Maybe Cain's right, and following her father's rules does show what caliber of man you will become. But you act as immaturely as you just did, and people like me will finally break you."

She kept her voice calm and waited to see if Hayden would make any other smart comments. When he turned away from her and leaned into Merrick, Shelby got up and went to find Emma.

"Do you think she's right?" Hayden asked Merrick, once they were alone in the room with only Mook.

"Boy, you got a lot of learning to do yet, so I wouldn't worry about it too much. Cain didn't get everything right the first time, and you don't have an edge on doing it any better."

"What do you mean by that?"

"It means that you are your mother's son, and nothing anyone can say will ever change that." Merrick pushed back the hair that had fallen on his forehead and smiled at him. "She has one fiery temper when she sets her mind to it, and it makes her say things she normally wouldn't. Lucky for us she doesn't give in to that part of herself often."

"I can't help but get mad sometimes."

"I know, buddy. Thing is, I'm paid to sit, watch, and listen, and to provide counsel when asked. I was there when Emma left and eventually realized why. I also knew that one day she was going to come back." She smiled kindly at him. "You were a heavy factor as to why she made the trip, but not the most important. I know that sounds cruel, but sometimes love is."

Merrick's words shamed him, and he couldn't hold back the tears, but he dropped his head so Merrick wouldn't see. "I know she doesn't give a rat's a.s.s about me. You don't have to rub it in."

"Listen to me, Hayden. You're Emma's son, and half the blood running around in here belongs to her." Merrick tapped him on the chest over his heart. "But as important as the bond is between mother and child, it's as strong for the person who owns your heart. The woman didn't move to some out-of-the-way farm because she had a burning desire to stare at cows all day long and find someone else to fill Cain's place. She left her heart here with your mother, and dying is the only way she's going to get it back."

"I wish I could remember more about what that time was like. It seems like I should, but I don't have many memories of her. I like that Mom sometimes talks about her so that I have some mental picture to go along with the ones in my room, but I just can't forgive her for leaving me behind. And if what you're saying is true, for leaving Mom behind too."

"My sweet boy, you're learning after all, so don't let the fed get to you. Your mother is proud of you. I promised I'd never admit this, but when you aren't around she just goes on and on about you."

One light pull on his sleeve was all it took to get him to collapse into her arms and have the cry he really wanted to have.

"She's going to be fine, Hayden, if only to kick some serious a.s.s for this happening in the first place."

"Are you all here with Cain Casey?" A middle-aged man in green scrubs stood in the doorway of the waiting room, looking like he had sweated a bucket of perspiration on his outfit.

"Is something wrong?" Hayden stood up so fast he knocked Merrick back into her chair.

"No, I'm Don Elton, her surgeon, and I just wanted to tell you she's out of surgery and holding her own. Are you her son?"

"I'm Hayden Casey, and yes, I am."

"All I can tell you now, Hayden, is she'll probably be in intensive care for a couple of days, and after that's over I'll be able to share with you more about what comes next."

"She's going to be all right?"

The doctor ran his hand over his head, pulling off the surgical cap with his action. "I don't know yet, son. Your mom had a lot of damage, and she lost a lot of blood. I wish I could sugarcoat it, but I don't believe that's fair to you if something goes wrong later. The thing I know for sure is that it's been a while since I've had someone on my table who's in such great shape. That'll mean a lot later on down the road, and now that I've met you I know she has something to fight for. Could you pa.s.s the information on to the other family members who were out here earlier? I'm going to see about getting her set up for the night. Call me if you have any questions, or if you need to talk about anything. The nurse will have all the information you'll need to get in touch with me."

"Thank you, doctor. We'll take care of it." Merrick put her hand on Hayden's back in an effort to provide some comfort from the less-than-stellar report on Cain's health.

"Can I see her?" Hayden asked.

"Not tonight. Why don't you go home and get some sleep, and tomorrow morning we'll see?" The doors swished silently as he stepped back through them, leaving the family alone.

"Are you comfortable, Barney?" George sat in the rigid chair across from the agent and took a sip of the coffee he'd brought with him.

Kyle leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest to try to intimidate the attorney into letting him go. Nothing else had worked, and he had been alone in the interrogation room for over three hours. He felt confident that whatever the problem was, he was only minutes from securing his freedom. All his years in law enforcement had made him an expert on the tactics they were using on him. It would take torture to break him, of that he was sure.

"You want to just get to it, George. I've got a crime scene to get back to, and all this bulls.h.i.t is really cutting into my night."

"I'm afraid there's a little problem in just letting you walk out of here, Barney. Surely you can understand we have to follow the procedures, especially when someone such as you is involved. We can clear this up really quickly, though, if you just want to answer some questions and explain a few things."

The smirk George was more than familiar with was plastered on Kyle's face, and he returned it in kind. It would be a good feeling, he thought, to be the one who knocked it off.

"Sure, shoot. Give it your best, George."

"When did you become Giovanni Bracato's whipping boy, Barney?"

Anthony, Lionel, and Joe almost choked on their coffee on the other side of the mirror. They would have given their boss some more talk before just getting to it, the old proverbial rope that would eventually hang him. Maybe they could learn something from this old warrior. Kyle's pale face was testament to that.

Two minutes ticked by before Kyle felt ready to talk. He used the time to gather his thoughts and retrace where he might have gone wrong.

The silence only confirmed his guilt to George. Innocent people never shut up when they put them in these rooms. They were always eager to prove they didn't do it.

"I have no idea" said Kyle.

"What I'm talking about," George finished for him. "Do you want an attorney present? I'm sure you've read that list of rights enough to know yours."

"I don't need an attorney. I didn't do anything wrong."

"This is the part where I usually tell the c.o.c.ky b.a.s.t.a.r.d in the chair that if he cooperates things will go better for him. That is, when I took the time to come down to the bowels of the building and help out with the questioning. So, Barney, if you cooperate maybe we can work something out for you. I'm picturing something along the line of minimum security, if you play this right and help us out."

Kyle laughed and leaned forward, putting his hands flat on the table. "Go f.u.c.k yourself, George, and like I said, I don't know what you're talking about."

"I would imagine you took more than your share of psychology cla.s.ses before getting that more-than-nifty badge you have, am I right?"

Kyle nodded and didn't say anything, wondering where George was going with this.

The other agents watching also wondered what everyone referred to as mind-bending cla.s.ses had to do with what Kyle had done.

"Placing your hands flat on the table like that is a sign that you're lying. Rapid eye blinking is another dead giveaway." George almost laughed when Kyle jerked his hands back to his lap and tried to pry his eyes open and keep their movement down to a minimum.

"George, we've known each other a long time. You can't be serious in thinking I would help an animal like Bracato. My career means everything to me."