The Cain Casey Series

“Why?”

To most, the question would have been too broad-based, but Cain understood it immediately. “Because Danny was a cruel son of a bitch, 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 pissant, 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 compassion.

“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 ass-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 bitch 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.”