by HELEN HARDT
My stomach clenched as nausea overwhelmed me. “Selling kids?”
“Slavery,” she said. “Nice little American girls and boys to be used and abused.”
“But they killed Luke Walker…”
“True. So there’s a glitch in my theory. But like I said. It’s only a theory.”
“The others were never found…” I said, more to myself than to Ruby.
“Right. And I’ve pulled up the news from that time. Huge investigations were done. I mean, these were missing kids. No trace of any of them was ever found. Talon was the only one.”
“And Larry let him go…”
“Right.”
“Oh, God…”
“I’ve been thinking back to the short time I lived with my father. He was nice at first, indoctrinating me, so to speak. Then, when he tried to rape me, I ran. But I’m wondering…”
“Yeah?”
“I’m wondering if he had plans to sell me as well. I was an early bloomer. I had the same body at fourteen that I have today.”
“Oh my God… What if Gina…”
“Is still alive somewhere?” Ruby cleared her throat. “I’ve thought of that. But Rodney claims they found her body in the garage and had her cremated.”
“Could he be lying?”
“I’ve thought about that too.” She shook her head. “I don’t want to believe any of this. I really don’t. But what other financial benefit would there be to molesting kids?”
“And Gina was no longer a kid. At least not when she died. Or disappeared.”
“True. But there’s lots of money in women too, and Gina was beautiful.”
She was. Olive skin, long dark hair, deep-brown eyes… She looked a lot like her mother. I cringed. And her uncle.
“I could be completely off base,” Ruby continued. “Just a working theory. We need more information. And the people we can get it from right now are Rodney, Larry Wade, and Wendy Madigan. But…Larry and Wendy can’t be trusted, and Rodney’s not talking.”
“Hmm…”
“What?”
I was hesitant to voice this, as Jonah’s money was not my money. But when we had visited Frederick Jolly, the registered agent for the corporation that owned the house I was held captive in, Jonah had said he could “pay him to talk.”
“How loyal do you think your uncle is to those three?”
“My father and the rest? Like I said, he cried, Melanie. I couldn’t believe it. He’s scared shitless. If I had to guess, it’s not loyalty so much as fear.”
“You say those three are greedy. What about Rodney?”
“I couldn’t say, but everyone likes money.”
“Would money make him talk?”
She laughed. “You don’t have that kind of money, and neither do I.”
“My fiancé does, and believe me, he wants to get to the bottom of this just as much as you and I do. Maybe even more.”
Chapter Forty–Eight
Jonah
The next day, I had to be out in the pastures early. After I finished my work, I came home to have lunch with Melanie. She looked radiant. Pregnancy agreed with her. With all the shit going down right now, she was the calm amid a stormy sea. We had discussed what we’d both found out the previous evening when we returned home. I’d had a voicemail from Mills that the house where Simpson had been holed up, where Colin Morse had been raped and tortured, was owned by the elusive Fleming Corporation, the same corporation that owned the house where Melanie had been kept.
Today, I was still in shock about my father having been the financial backer for whatever horrible things the future lawmakers club had been involved in. Tom had said, when I was imprisoned at Wendy’s house, that my father owed him, that there was something in his will that we didn’t know about.
I shook my head. None of that made any sense.
Or did it?
My father, whom I’d always looked up to as a pillar of strength, was now an enigma to me. I’d never been able to figure out why he swept what had happened to Talon under the rug, why he’d never let us deal with it as we needed to…
I had to face the truth.
I had to face the truth that my father might not have been the man I’d thought he was. He might have impregnated another woman and raised the child as my mother’s.
He might have contributed to my mother’s suicide. Maybe even to my brother’s abduction.
“Jonah?” Melanie touched my arm.
I turned to face her. She was so beautiful, and she represented all that was good in the world.
Thank God for her.
“I’m all right.” And I was. As long as I had her.
“I know this is hard,” she said. “But we’ll get through it. And we’ll find the truth if it’s out there.”
I smiled, brought her fingers to my lips, and kissed them.
And then my phone buzzed.
* * *
Melanie had begged me not to go, but I’d promised her I’d return. As I looked down at my ankle, my holster hidden, while pulling into the driveway at the Simpsons’ house in town, I hoped I’d be able to keep that promise.
Mills and Johnson had found Simpson, ironically at his own home. Why had he been so stupid as to return? I couldn’t say. But because I knew Bryce was in Grand Junction with his mother and Henry was safe at Talon’s with Marj, I had to try.
I wasn’t alone this time. I eyed my phone. I’d just called the police. They wouldn’t be far behind me. This time, Tom Simpson wasn’t getting away.
I exited my truck and walked stealthily to the front door. I turned the knob, and oddly, it was unlocked. I unstrapped my Glock and entered. “Tom? I know you’re here.”
I inhaled. He was cooking something. Odd. It smelled kind of like refried beans.
I walked toward the kitchen—
Something hard hit the back of my head.
“Drop your gun, Joe.”
I gulped. I’d stared down a gun twice, and now twice someone had held a gun to the back of my head.
As much as I hated to do it, I laid my gun down carefully on a table to the side of me, my nerves skittering.
“Now turn around.”
I complied.
Tom stood there, his dyed hair greasy and unkempt, his blue eyes eerily calm. “This is the third time, Joe. The third time we’ve come face-to-face since I left. And this time, you’re not going to get out alive. You’ve cost me my wife, my son, my grandson.”
“You cost yourself those people,” I said. “Your actions caused this, not mine. I simply shed light on who you really are.”
“Who were you to do that? My family and I were happy.”
“Your family and you were living a lie. You’ll never see your son or grandson again. I can guarantee you that.”
“You’re wrong. I will get my family back.”
“Not if you kill me.”
“Evelyn loves me. So does Bryce. So does that baby. They will take me back.”
I shattered inside. This time he truly meant to kill me. I felt it in the marrow of my bones.
Melanie, I said in my mind. I love you. I will never stop loving you. Teach our child about me. Tell him how much I love him.
The thought of never seeing my child killed me.
And now… It would fall to Melanie and Talon to get the DNA test and tell Ryan the truth.
They were strong. They would handle it. Melanie would have our baby, and she would be a wonderful mother, even without my help.
“I’m so sorry,” I said aloud.
“Your apology won’t get you anywhere now, Joe.”
I jerked back to reality. “I wasn’t talking to you.”
Then a shrill sound met my ears.
Tom nearly jumped out of his skin, and I took advantage and rammed my body into his, knocking the gun loose from his grip. It landed with a thud on the carpeting.
I inhaled. Smoke. The sound was coming from one of the fire detectors. In the kitchen. The refried beans were bur
ning. While Tom was still disoriented, I grabbed the gun and pointed it at his head.
“Looks like the game has changed,” I said through clenched teeth.
“You can’t kill me, Joe. You don’t have it in you.”
I gripped the handle of the gun. “Try me.”
“You won’t do it.”
“You kidnapped, tortured, and raped my brother. You killed your own nephew. You tortured and raped Colin Morse, and God only knows what other heinous acts you’ve committed. Why shouldn’t I kill you?”
I glared at him, my body hot with rage. Redness pulsed around me. It would be so easy to put a bullet in his brain, to end the life of someone who no longer deserved to walk the streets alive.
“Think of Bryce. Your best friend. My son. I’m begging you now, Joe. Have mercy on an old man.”
I cocked the gun. “My mercy ran out long ago.”
Sirens blared in the distance. Tom looked around frantically.
“Hear that?” I said. “The cops are coming for you, Tom. Everyone knows about it now. What a degenerate you are. I don’t have to kill you. You’ll get the punishment you deserve. The torture you deserve. You know what they do to child molesters in prison? Have you visited Larry lately?”
Tom gulped audibly.
Seconds later, three armed officers burst into the house.
“You can put the gun down now, Joe,” Steve Dugan said. “We’ve got him.”
I lowered my arm, but Tom acted quickly.
He grabbed the gun out of my hand, and as I braced myself to be shot, a boom rang out into the room.
Tom lay on the floor of the kitchen, blood pouring out of his head, scarlet brain flesh glopped on the linoleum.
I gulped down acid. The bastard had killed himself.
“Shit.” Dugan motioned to one of the others. “Check him out. Make sure he’s gone.”
An officer knelt down by Tom and felt his neck. “No pulse.”
“Good enough,” Dugan said. “I’ll notify the coroner.”
I backed away from the scene unfolding before me, my heart slowing, my skin prickling. It was as if I were an outsider looking in, as if a scene on television were climaxing.
Tom had killed himself, rather than face the music.
In the end, after everything he’d done, after everything he’d put my family through, he was nothing more than a coward.
One of the officers, a female, approached me. “Mr. Steel? Are you all right?”
Her voice was tinny, as if it were being filtered through a cheap walkie-talkie like Bryce and I had played with when we were kids.
I nodded.
I was fine. I would get through this. I would see my child born, and I would have a life with the woman I loved. I longed to put all of this behind me, to focus on the life I had with Melanie and our child. To embrace my family. To maybe have more children and to watch my nieces and nephews born to Talon and Jade. Ryan and Marjorie would each eventually marry as well, and our family would expand into one giant crowd of Steels.
The thought almost made me smile.
Almost.
I couldn’t yet smile, because this wasn’t over.
If my suspicions were correct, once I had the necessary proof, I would have to tell my brother the devastating truth of his parentage.
But that wasn’t all.
One man was still out there. The most dangerous one.
The one who had been untouchable so far.
Theodore Mathias. Alias Nico Kostas, Milo Sanchez, and a host of other names. The one who had founded the infamous future lawmakers club. The one who had orchestrated the abduction, torture, and rape of my brother. The one who had raped his niece and attempted to rape his own daughter. The one who most likely had killed Jordan Hayes.
If degrees of evil existed, he was the most evil of the three.
None of us would be truly safe until he had been caught.
Chapter Forty–Nine
Melanie
Several days later…
Jonah pushed a gift bag into my hand. “Go downstairs,” he said softly. “Put the contents of this bag on, and wait for me. On your knees.”
I smiled. I’d missed him. We hadn’t made love in a few days. Too much had been going on.
But he shook his head. “That’s not what this is about. I don’t want to take any chances until the baby is born. We have to be careful.”
“I’m a physician, Jonah. Sex is perfectly safe during pregnancy.”
“I’m not saying no sex. I could never keep my hands off you for that long. But I worry. I don’t want to be too rough with you.”
“What if that’s what I want?”
He smiled. “We’ll both get what we want. I promise. But right now is about something else.”
I nodded, biting my lip. I took the bag and headed downstairs. I opened the door to the dungeon and walked in. I smiled. The bed was covered in lavender buds and rose petals.
Jonah was so wonderful.
I opened the bag and gasped.
It was a gorgeous bra and panty set in purple silk and lace. The Midnight Reverie set from the lingerie shop near my office.
It would clash terribly with my green eyes. As much as I loved purple, I never wore it. But, oh, I longed to put it on. I longed to feel the soft fabric against my skin.
I would. After all, Jonah had told me to wear it. I wanted to please him more than anything.
I undressed, folding my clothes and piling them on the settee at the foot of the bed. I smiled when I removed my pink satin panties. Jonah had said never to wear cotton underwear in this room. I had stopped wearing it altogether, so I’d never be caught off guard.
Slowly I dressed in the violet lace, letting its softness caress my skin. I regarded myself in the mirror on the ceiling above the bed.
Not bad. Even with my green eyes.
I knelt at the side of the bed and waited for Jonah.
A few minutes later, I heard the doorknob.
“Beautiful,” he said in a low voice behind me. “You are simply stunning.”
I stayed put while he padded across the soft carpeting and took a seat in the leather Master’s chair.
“Come here,” he said. “Kneel at my feet, Melanie. Kneel and surrender to me completely.”
I smiled as I rose and went to him. I knelt in front of him.
“You’re so beautiful, with your blond waves teasing your shoulders. That lingerie doesn’t do you justice.”
I opened my mouth to speak, but he stopped me.
“I love you. I love you, Melanie.” He touched my hair, twisted a few strands through his fingers. “There will always be a darkness in me, but only because I want it there now. Because we both need it and enjoy it.” He cupped my cheek. “You’ve banished the bad part. You and your love. I thank you for that.”
“I love you,” I said.
Jonah pulled a small velvet box out of his front pocket and opened it. “I’m so happy about our baby, but I don’t want you to think for one second that he’s the reason I’m offering you this. That he’s the reason I want a life with you.” He pulled a ring out of the box.
I gasped. It was large. Larger than Jade’s. And it wasn’t clear. It was the lightest shade of purple. Lavender. Was it a light amethyst?
As if reading my mind, he said, “It’s a diamond. A mauve diamond. Very rare, just like you are.”
“It’s perfect,” I breathed.
He took my left hand and placed the gorgeous ring on my finger. “Then wear it. Forever. Show the world that you’re mine. Marry me, Melanie, and make me the happiest man in the world.”
I sighed and laid my cheek on his knee. “I love you, Jonah. I will be honored to marry you. And in this room, I surrender to you. Completely.”
Epilogue
Ryan
The last barrel of wine had been sent to bottling, and my busy season was finally over. I knew I had been neglecting my family, and it wasn’t fair to them, with both Talon and Jonah goin
g through so much.
Now that Jonah was back, the woman who had been stalking him was safely behind bars in a mental institution, and two of Talon’s abductors had been taken care of, life was finally getting good for my family.
Jade and Talon and Jonah and Melanie were planning weddings. Actually, Marjorie was planning everything. Soon we’d all be en route to Jamaica for the celebration. And Melanie was pregnant. I would be an uncle in several months. I couldn’t help smiling. It would be good for Joe. That man was a born father. He had taken good care of us when we were little, though of course he would deny that. But Melanie had been so good for him. Finally, he was letting go of the guilt that had consumed him for so long. He had been through so much during the last month. He deserved all the happiness in the world. He and Talon both did.
I was heading over to the main house now, to have dinner with my family. From now on, I was going to take an active role in finding Talon’s last abductor. We had a name and several aliases. We would find him. My brothers and I were that determined. But first, I was going to get my two brothers married off.
As I stepped into my truck, my cell phone buzzed in my pocket. It was a number from Grand Junction I didn’t recognize.
“Ryan Steel,” I said.
“Ryan Steel? Ryan Warren Steel?”
“Yep, you got him. Who is this, please?”
A soft whimper came through the phone.
“Hello?” I said.
“Ryan,” the female voice said. “Ryan, my darling. This is your mother.”
* * *
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