“It’s in the Bible, love.” Emma put her hand back in her shirt and scratched the skin she could reach. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“It takes me a little longer than God, but eventually I find what I need to see. The moment I do, there’ll be hell to pay for whoever did this.” She tilted Emma’s head up and kissed her. “In my gut, I don’t see Shelby being behind this.”

“I trust you, but you can’t trust her. She’s not going to care that you helped her. All those people hiding in that van are loyal only to themselves.”

“That’s the first lesson Da taught me, and I’ve never forgotten it. Right now, though, I want to dance with my wife.”

They held hands as they bypassed the line into the nightclub, and there was a waiter waiting by their table in the back corner. She was happy to see Muriel and Kristen already there. “Hey, sorry we missed dinner, but I was swamped at work,” Muriel said.

“Forget about it. We’ll catch up tomorrow.” The waiter took their order just as Remi and Dallas walked in. “Mrs. Casey, would you dance with me?”

“I’d love to.” Emma took her hand and followed her to the dance floor. They didn’t get to do this often, not wanting to leave the kids too many nights, but she loved holding Emma as they moved to the music.

“The best thing that ever happened to me was meeting a girl in an Irish pub a lot of years ago,” she said as she lowered her head so Emma could hear her. “That balances out whatever bad things we have going on, lass. So stop worrying—we’re going to be okay.”

“I know, because you’ll take care of us. This may sound hypocritical, but I want you to make them pay. Had it been anyone but Hannah, maybe it would’ve been forgivable, but I can’t forget that it was.”

“We’ll leave the forgiveness to the Lord, my love. That’s not in my job description.”

Emma smiled when she turned her head up and kissed her chin. “That’s okay, I’m more interested in the devil I know.”

Chapter Five

“Stop talking shit and answer my question,” New Orleans Police Detective Elton Newsome said. The two feds sitting across from him in the café across the lake in Slidell briefly glanced at each other but didn’t say a word. “You two dipshits don’t seem to understand that you’ve blown my world to hell, and there ain’t no going back.”

“You knew the risks going in,” Special Agent Barry Knight said in a condescending way that made him want to put a bullet in his head.