The Cain Casey Series

the positions they found themselves in. “Gino, I want you to listen to me, because I’m only going to say this once.”

“Fuck you!” He tugged on the bindings on his hands again and stopped when the knots tightened to the point of pain. “Get me the fuck out of—”

His scream died in his throat when he saw Cain nod slightly in Katlin’s direction. Katlin pulled on the rope, dragging him farther into the deep end. The outburst had cost him precious inches he could ill afford to lose if he didn’t want a mouth full of the foul greenish soup.

“Ready to listen?”

“What do you want?” When something flitted against Gino’s leg he shuddered and concentrated on Cain to avoid thinking about what could possibly live in this stuff. Trying to stay upright, Gino willed his body to relax and stared up at her.

“I want so many things we’ll be here for a while yet, so hang tight.”

“You fucking suckered me, Casey. Does it feel good to catch someone with their pants down?”

An urgent call from a business associate of the Bracato family had gotten Gino out of the house. After he and his father had dumped Eris’s body, Gino hadn’t wanted to socialize at all. He sat in the den most nights, watching television and holding his son as he ignored the ringing telephone.

“Sort of how you caught my father unawares the night you gunned him down in the street in front of our offices?” The back door where Cain had entered squeaked as it opened again for their last visitor. “Or is it like murdering my mother? What sort of man kills an innocent?”

“I had nothing to do with any of that, so why am I here?” The shallowest part of the pool contained no water, and Gino pressed his hands closer to his back when he saw a large rat standing on its hind legs sniffing the air. Whatever was in the water with him bumped into his thigh again, and he couldn’t help but wonder if rats could hold their breath.

“You’re here because after talking to your brother Stephano…” Cain stooped, took her hand out of her pocket, and laid the signet ring that belonged to the second oldest of the Bracato boys on the cracked cement at her feet.

The fact that it was in Cain’s possession could only mean one thing.

“What are you doing with that?” Gino, starting to panic, rubbed his bound hands together as if trying to make his own ring reappear.

Cain laid an identical one next to the first ring. “Your brother Michael was next, and he folded like a stack of cards in a tornado.” The last ring came out, and she finally looked up. “Unlike you with my sister, I didn’t have the heart to be cruel to Francis, even though he was more than eager to help your father expand his drug empire. He was trying his best to prove he could keep up with his big brothers.”

Gino screamed in outrage and almost fell forward into the slime. “You fucking bitch. He wasn’t even twenty-five years old.” His anger won out for the moment, and he forgot his fear.

“You’re the last of them, Gino, which is good, since I have only one more question.”

“You’re fucked in the head if you think I’m telling you anything.”

Cain put up her hand, her index finger and thumb a hair’s breadth apart.

“Wait!” The word reverberated throughout the area, echoing Gino’s alarm until silence fell again. He tilted his head up and looked at the ceiling, not wanting to know how many more inches he’d lost to pride.

“This is your last chance, so listen carefully.”

“I keep telling you, my father…or should I say if my father had anything to do with the death of your father, he didn’t tell me anything about it.” If Gino had been able, he would’ve held his hands up in surrender to help his case.

“I believe you, Gino.”

His head snapped up, and he smiled. “You do? I mean, of course you do, since I didn’t know.”

“And since you don’t know anything, you’re just wasting my time.” Another nod of Cain’s head and Katlin yanked on the rope again.

“Wait!” Gino yelled again, even more frantic this time. The water was making him itch, and when it reached his neck, Katlin stopped.

“You don’t have many inches left, Gino, and you just said you didn’t know. Why the wait?”

“He ordered the hit after your father slapped him back out of the neighborhoods he controlled. The merchants Dalton did business with started to complain when my father’s pushers started hanging on some of the street corners. Once Dalton was finished, my father lost a handful of good men, and no amount of money on the streets helped my father find the bodies.

“One of the guys we lost was my cousin, but that’s not what motivated my father to kill your family. That was your father’s fault. Dalton wanted to send a message, and we heard it loud and clear. Problem with that was, Big Gino wasn’t about to put up with some Mick telling him his business, so he returned the favor. He hired Danny. Your cousin jumped at the chance to get back at you for giving him every shit job in your organization.”

As Gino gave the ropes one more jerk in an effort to break free, they cut deeper into his hands. “Danny still worked for Dalton back then and knew his schedule. When my father asked, he set up the time and place for the hit.”

“And my mother and brother?”

“Your brother was a hothead, which sealed his fate, and your mother was a bonus. Danny told my father with both of them gone, you’d be easier to break.”

The silence stretched as Cain balled, then relaxed, her fists. Finally, she asked, “Anything else?”

“That’s all I know, I swear it.”