what the other three families in New Orleans owned.
Vincent Carlotti and his son had their unions, women, and rackets. The Bastillo family, with women, gambling, and protection services, was the newest addition to the city landscape. The Cuban-born Ramon Bastillo and his twins got along with Vincent and Cain and had formed an easy alliance with the two less radical families. With what Giovanni considered a wise but costly investment, all that was ending. After the night was done, the other three bosses would regret ever laughing at Giovanni Bracato.
“Don’t you think you’d be the first person I’d call if the bitch was a problem?”
Giovanni glanced at the man standing next to him, bit off the soggy part of his cigar, and spat it in the water. “I don’t really know you at all, so why don’t you tell me this isn’t a problem.”
“It isn’t a problem. Don’t worry about anything. I’ve got this all under control. Try and remember that we both benefit from Cain’s demise tonight. I’ll hold up my end. Try not to forget yours.”
“Don’t worry, Fife. You’ll get yours when I get mine.” With a laugh, Giovanni walked back to his office and the small listening devices in the walls. He had been so good for so long that even the feds just monitored him from the main office.
When both men went on their way, the young guns watching on the roof scrambled for the stairs. They had a lot to do before the witching hour of Cain’s operation, and they had their own list of people to meet with.
*
By seven, all the players were getting ready for the showdown. Those with a role in Cain’s upcoming tableau felt like the city was doing her part to up the drama by dropping the temperature to almost freezing and enveloping the sky in a heavy blanket of gray, menacing clouds.
Jarvis didn’t give out any more advice as he watched Emma come downstairs in a formfitting blue dress. It was the last gift Cain had bought her, and the color was Emma’s favorite because it perfectly matched Cain’s eyes.
A few blocks away the two Caseys headed to the door, dressed completely in black for their dinner reservation.
Merrick, Mook, and six others followed close behind, wearing long black coats that wouldn’t come off that night unless they needed the firepower the fine wool fabric hid.
“Mom, is something going on?” asked Hayden.
“Saturday night and the natives are restless, I guess, son.”
“Nothing else?”
“Tomorrow I’ll have a hell of a story to tell, but for now think of this as a night to remember. Because for so many people it’ll be a night hard to forget.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
The restaurant Irene’s was dimly lit and full of soft conversations. Cain wanted to spend a few hours with Hayden before the business of the night started. “Hey, kiddo, thanks for having dinner with me. I want to talk to you.” She sat back with a glass of iced tea, looked across the table at her son, and mentally clicked through her montage of memories. She relived the past years, which had given Hayden the fine-chiseled features that branded him a Casey.
“I’m kinda glad to get some time alone with you too. Maybe now you’ll tell me what’s going on. Please, Mom, I want to know, and it’s not like Mook to be so quiet about stuff.”
“Hayden, don’t be in such a hurry to grow up, buddy. Life throws the years at your feet soon enough, so learn to enjoy each stage as it happens. When I was your age my main concern was a redheaded girl named Caroline who lived down the block.”
“Grandpa didn’t have you doing stuff? ’Cause uncle Jarvis told me he was always teaching you things.” The paper on the sugar packet in Hayden’s fingers was getting thin from his constant flicking.
“He was always teaching me things, that’s true, but not always about what you think. When I was eleven it was how to get Caroline to realize I was alive. Why? Do you feel like I’m neglecting your education?”
“No…well, sort of.” Hayden’s shoulders caved in a little. “I want to be ready, you know?”
“For what?” A quick dip of her head to try and catch his eye didn’t work, so she tapped her finger on the table.
“I want to be ready when it’s my time. You make running the business look so easy, and I don’t want to mess up.”
“Kiddo, all this isn’t carved in stone. Is running the business, the family, something you want to do? You have other career choices, you know.”
“No, I want that more than anything, unless you think I’m not cut out for it.”
“Lesson one, sit up straight and square your shoulders.”
The defeated posture melted away as Hayden smiled and took her advice.
“You control your life, son, not the other way around.”
“What else?”
“Just remember you’re a Casey and you belong to me, but only for a little while. The day will come when it’s your turn to pass down the traditions we’ve held dear for generations, and I promise you on everything I hold dear, you’ll be ready.”
“What’d you want to talk to me about?”
Cain drummed her fingers on the table as a delay tactic. Hayden wasn’t going to like the rest of what she had to say, and in truth she could have just skipped the talk all together. Had they shared any other kind of relationship that was what she might have done. But the trust she had built with Hayden came from never lying to him, if she
