“Go ahead, Shelby.” He was keeping his eye on the cars the players had arrived in. Most of the drivers were leaning against one of the SUVs, smoking and laughing at something one of them was saying. The muscle was stationed at all the entrances. A well-planned hit would take out most of the bad guys in town.
“Call me the minute that door opens and you see them all leaving, Joe.”
“You got it.”
Back in the restaurant, Cain said, “This time around it’s worth the risk, Ramon. What’s the old saying, ‘a life without risks isn’t worth living’?”
“I believe it should be a ‘life without love’ instead of ‘risks,’” Marianna said. She smiled at Emma, who sat quietly next to Cain. “If that’s true, your life is very worth living, so take Ramon’s advice to heart.”
“Thank you, Marianna.” Emma also smiled, at the words and at the fingers squeezing hers gently. “And please don’t worry about Cain. She has too many responsibilities to be going around doing foolish things.”
“Is it official yet?”
“What?” The bottle Vincent had opened was almost empty, and Emma hoped the toasts for the night were done and someone would bring her a large glass of water.
“The reason you haven’t touched that?” Marianna pointed to the drink.
“You’ll be one of the first to know. I’m just following the doctor’s orders in getting ready.”
She laughed as she accepted a large juice Marianna got up and poured from the bar. “Once it happens I’ll be happy to shout it from the rooftops.”
“You might have to hurry for that, sweetheart.” When Emma looked up from her drink, Marianna pointed to the room where the others had disappeared. “The only other person I’ve known who is as crazy about such news is Ramon, so I’m sure Cain will beat you to shouting out the good news.” Marianna stood and embraced Emma. “I’m happy you have found yourself back home.”
“What in the hell are they talking about?” Claire asked. All of a sudden the interference had gotten so bad all the conversations disappeared, and then just as quickly it came back incredibly clear.
“If it’s anything important then they’re talking in code.” Shelby hitched her shoulders a bit as she continued to listen to the women discuss what sounded like nothing. “It’s hard to believe they met tonight so Marianna Jatibon and Emma Casey could catch up on old times.”
“Shelby?”
Joe’s voice startled her as she ran through the possibilities of what was really going on.
“Go ahead.”
“Does this sound vaguely familiar?” With powerful binoculars he swept the area again, but no one in his sights had moved.
The question stopped her thought process cold, and something became clear to her, making her stare at Claire and panic.
“What’s he talking about?” Claire asked.
“We need to get in there,” Anthony said. “Get our boss on the horn and get us a warrant.”
“I say we wait,” Lionel said.
“Explain, please,” Claire repeated. “If we blow our cover we’d better have more than a benign talk between two women.”
“The last time Cain played us,” Shelby paused, trying to get her thoughts in order, “for one brief moment we thought she’d screwed up and let us see into how her mind works. All of a sudden every conversation, every plan she was making was out in the open, and it was as if she didn’t care who was listening.”
“She had her own agenda.” Claire sounded as if it all became clear to her as well. “And tonight is no different.”
Not far from them Anthony was on the phone with Annabel Hicks. He was pleading his case, using the same rational argument Shelby was laying out for Claire.
Because he was, Hicks was hard-pressed to find any personal bias against Cain or the others. As soon as she finished talking to him she picked up the phone again and called one of their more reliable judges for the proper paperwork.
“What do you think she has in mind?” Claire asked.
Shelby kept listening as Emma, Marianna, and Sylvia talked about trivial matters. “Think about who’s in there, and all we hear are the three least important ones. The major players must be gone, making whatever move they had planned all along.”
The phone next to Claire rang, and both women just stared at it for three rings before Claire picked it up.
After listening to the person on the other end, Claire responded. “Yes, ma’am.” She exhaled heavily after she switched the phone off and told Shelby, “With any luck we have about ten minutes before we raid the restaurant.”
“Raid it? What in the hell for?”
Joe cut in on the radio. “The best Agent Hicks could come up with is liquor violations, whatever that means. It’s an excuse, Shel, to get us into that room and prove your theory right.”
“My theory? Oh, no, I’m not going on record as this being my idea. Because if we do this and we’re wrong, kiss the investigation up to now good-bye. You know as well as I do, Joe, once Muriel and Cain finish fighting this legally, the law is going to bite us in the butt. And we’re the law, God damn it.”
*
In a secluded basement room of the restaurant, the new alliance sat at a table where a lot of their previous meetings had taken place. Here, no matter how good the surveillance equipment was, the group was in a perfectly safe haven. Cain fished the four Bracato rings out of her pocket and placed them on the table, not needing to
