by HELEN HARDT
“How long have I—”
The door opening interrupted me. Someone entered. I was still lying supine, so I couldn’t see.
“Ready for some fun?” A man’s voice. A masked face looked down at me. “She’s a mess, but that’s a tight little body she’s got.”
“She’s off-limits, remember?” another voice said.
I forced my eyes to stay open.
“Why should she be?” the man staring at me said. “No one’s off-limits around here.”
“She is. Boss’s orders.”
“Can’t even knock her around a little?” His eyes were brown. Brown and laced with evil.
“Only if you make sure you don’t leave a mark. And Bud, you always leave a mark.”
So I was hands off. Not a bad thing. But what did that mean for—
I dragged myself into a sitting position. Another man turned Juliet around and pushed her sweats down her legs.
“Hey!” I pushed myself to my feet. “Get the fuck off of her!”
“It’s all right, Ruby.” Juliet sniffled. “Just let them get it over with.”
“The hell I will.” I ran—more like stumbled like a drunk—toward the man who was now unbuckling his jeans.
The other one grabbed my arm and wrenched it until I shouted in pain.
“Let go of me, you fucking brute!”
Try as I might, though, I couldn’t get free. My mind was still muddled, and he was twice my size. My body wouldn’t form any self-defense moves. It wasn’t cooperating.
“I can’t just stand here and let him rape you!”
“It’s okay,” she said again.
No. This was so far from okay.
She wasn’t crying. Wasn’t even whimpering. In fact, she didn’t even flinch when he shoved himself into her.
A vile scent hung around the dank room—a putrid aroma of soiled bodies laced with corruption and misery. All I could do was watch the fat hairy ass pumping as the man forced himself inside Juliet.
All I could do was watch.
* * *
They’d both taken a turn.
I’d tried to close my eyes, to close my ears to the grunting, the painful silence of Juliet’s resignation to her fate.
But after fighting so hard to open them, two invisible toothpicks had propped them wide apart like two separated curtains. I couldn’t look away from the train wreck, and I couldn’t do anything to stop it. Instead, I’d held back the nausea that threatened to consume me and let the horrid scene imprint itself on my brain.
Juliet was slumped in the corner, and I crawled over to her, guilt overwhelming me. They hadn’t touched me. Why?
“Can I do anything for you?”
She sighed softly. “I wish you could. I wish I could go back to that day on the beach and listen to you. I should have never gotten on that Jet Ski.”
True, but now wasn’t the time to press the point. “No matter what you did, what mistakes you made, you didn’t deserve this. No one deserves this.” I helped her pull her sweats back up to cover herself.
“It’s okay,” she said. “Sometimes they keep us naked. I’m used to it.”
I cringed at her words. No one should ever be “used to” this.
“Juliet, you need to help me. You need to tell me everything you know. I’m going to get us out of here.”
She turned toward me and laughed—actually laughed, though it was still entwined with stoicism. “How? How the hell are you going to get us out of here? It’s not possible. Believe me, I’ve tried everything. I tried sucking up to them. That just made them beat me harder. I tried starving myself. They didn’t care. I tried yelling and screaming until my voice was nothing but a rasp. I tried stealing a cell phone, and I got caught. There’s nothing in here. Nothing to use as a tool or weapon. Just a toilet and sink, which I can’t even get to until they come and unchain me. I’ve learned to hold everything in until they let me go.”
Damn! If only my mind were working better. I had to figure this out. “Who brought you here?”
“Those three guys.” Then she shook her head. “No, that’s not right. They put us on a boat. We never saw them again. I’m not sure who brought me here. This is the second place I’ve been. They…” She choked out a sob.
It was the most emotion I’d seen from her yet.
“What?”
“They killed Lisa. She fought back hard. Bit them a few times. They decided she was too much trouble, and they killed her.”
I hadn’t thought I could be more sickened than when I’d witnessed Juliet’s rape. I was wrong. “How do you know? Maybe they just moved her.”
“Because they made me watch! They beat her until she was unconscious.”
I managed to swallow the bile erupting in my throat. Fucking bastards. And my father was a part of this.
The acid overtook me then, and I barely made it to the toilet. The taste was putrid on my tongue and left vile stickiness around my gums.
I didn’t ask Juliet any more details about what happened to Lisa, even though I was morbidly curious. I needed to know as much about my captors as I could if I was going to get us out of here. Later. After she’d settled down a bit. The woman had just been raped.
“Juliet, you said you stole a cell phone. How did you do that?”
“One time when one of them was in here, you know, raping me, his phone fell out of his pocket. I slid it under my foot before he noticed.”
“Did you text anyone?”
“I texted my mother. And Shayna. Those were the only two numbers I could remember.” She laughed sarcastically. “I had everything on speed dial. No need to remember anything. God, first world problems! If only I could go back.”
“How many times did you text Shayna?”
“Once. Just once. I typed ‘help’ and sent it, and I texted ‘help’ to my mother, but they caught me with the phone before I could hit send.” She pointed to her healing black eye. “I got this for that stunt. It was worth it though.”
Hmm. Shayna had gotten two texts saying “help” from a private number.
“You only texted Shayna once?”
“Yeah.”
I had no explanation. Unless the sadistic bastard whose phone she’d stolen had sent the text again. Why would he do that? Why would any of these monsters do anything like this?
I didn’t want to get into that now. I simply walked slowly to Juliet and held on to her, trying to soothe her.
Oddly, after tearing up over Lisa, she became apathetic again. Though she didn’t turn me away.
“It’s going to be okay,” I said again. “I’m going to get us out of here.”
She laid her head on my shoulder. “You won’t. I’ve accepted it. This is my life now.”
I grabbed her by the shoulders and forced her head up so she was looking at me. “Don’t ever let me hear you say that again. This is not your life. You don’t deserve this.”
“But it was my f—”
“Stop it!” I had to refrain from shaking her. I didn’t have the strength anyway. “We’re going to get out of here. I haven’t been gone very long. There are people who will look for me. And they’ll find me. When they find me, they’ll find you.”
“If they haven’t found us by now, they’ll never find us.”
“Bullshit. My boyfriend and his brothers will have the cavalry looking. Besides, I haven’t been gone long.”
She remained stoic. “Ruby, they put you in this room over a day ago.”
Chapter Five
Ryan
The yacht was first class all the way. Two master suites for Talon and me and another queen suite for Raj. A crew of four, including a chef, were there to cater to all our needs. Raj had given them the story that we were two American brothers looking to buy real estate in the Caribbean, possibly a private island.
We were treated like royalty when we boarded, and a bottle of Dom Pérignon was waiting for us to toast our adventure. Though neither Talon nor I felt up to celebrating, we kep
t up the act and each took a champagne flute.
Once we were seaborne, the chef prepared a Jamaican meal of brown stewed chicken with cabbage and okra. I couldn’t help thinking how well my seasoned Cab would go with the dish—if I actually felt like eating. For dessert we had banana fritters.
Talon and I both cleaned our plates to keep up the show, though neither of us was hungry. The meal, which normally I’d have enjoyed, had tasted like mud.
After dinner, while the crew was cleaning up, Talon and I went out on the deck with Raj to discuss plans. The air smelled of sand and salt, and the water was blue as Ruby’s eyes.
Ruby. My baby. How I wished we were sharing the beauty of the ocean together. Without her, and not knowing her fate, I couldn’t enjoy anything.
“We’ll be traveling at night to avoid suspicion,” Raj said, “but it’s important to stay aware. One of us must be awake at all times. I’ll do it as much as I can, since I know what clues to look for, but even I have to sleep sometime.”
“Understood,” Talon said.
“Not a problem. I volunteer.” I pushed my hair out of my eyes. “I won’t be able to sleep anyway. Not until I know Ruby is safe.”
“You sure?” Raj said.
“Yeah. I’m sure. You guys get some shut-eye. I’ll be fine out here on the deck.”
“I don’t want to leave you alone,” Talon said. “Let’s have a nightcap, bro.”
“Tal, I’ll be fine.”
“Look,” Raj said. “It doesn’t make any sense for both of you to stay awake. We all have to take turns. That’s the only way this will work.”
“I just want to join my brother for a nightcap. No harm, no foul. I’ll hit the sheets after, okay?”
“You two are the bosses,” Raj said. “Just trying to make this as easy as possible on you.”
“I understand,” I said. “I’ll make sure he goes to bed.”
“How much you sleep is totally up to the two of you. Just know this isn’t going to be easy, and we all need our rest.”
“We get it,” Talon said. “But Raj, this isn’t going to be easy on us whether we sleep or not.”
“No shit,” I said under my breath as Raj nodded and left the deck.
“You want a drink?” Talon asked me.
I shook my head. “I want to stay awake.”
“Yeah, I don’t want one either. I just said that to give Raj a reason why I’m staying with you for a few.”
“Do you trust him?” I asked.
“He comes highly recommended. Of course, we only had a day to get him hired, and the fact that he was available at the last minute makes me wonder. He seems okay to me, but I’m going to keep one eye on him.”
“Me too,” I said. “And on this crew. We only have Raj’s word that they’re discreet.”
Talon nodded, stroking his stubbled chin. Then he turned to me. “Thanks for doing this, Ry. Thanks for helping me put this to rest.”
“Hey, it stopped being just about you a long time ago, but even if it were, you know I’d be here for you, bro. You’re still my hero.”
Although I’d found out recently that Talon probably hadn’t saved me from his horrible fate that day—in all likelihood my mother had—I still felt beholden to my big brother. He’d tried to help me get away, and had I been bigger and stronger, I’d have done the same for him.
That’s what brothers do.
Talon had said those words to Joe and me after telling us he’d have gladly gone through his hell just to spare the two of us the same.
Even though he was only my half brother, we were bonded by more than blood. All three of us were.
The Steel brotherhood.
That was us.
There was a time when I thought my father would have been a part of any brotherhood among us Steel men.
I pulled the future lawmakers ring that bore his name out of my pocket.
No longer.
He’d banded together with a group of sociopaths before any of us were even born.
Talon didn’t speak. He’d always been a little uncomfortable with my hero worship, though he was better now that he’d been healing with the help of his wife, Jade, and Joe’s wife, Melanie, who was his therapist.
Finally, he said, “Dad’s ring?”
“Yeah. I don’t know why I’m carrying it with me. Tom’s is down in my cabin in the safe. But this one…” I tossed it in the air and caught it. Its weight was heavy in my palm.
“Yeah, I get it. Weird to think you’re holding something that belonged—or belongs, for all we know—to Dad. Something we never saw him wear. Something we never imagined he’d wear in a million years.”
“He wasn’t the man we always thought he was,” I said. “Not if he was involved with the other people who wore this ring.”
“How do you think it got in Ruby’s place?”
“Mathias, no doubt. Somehow he got his hands on it and planted it there. It proves he was there when she disappeared. I turned the place upside down before, when I found the Wollstonecraft book, and this ring never turned up.”
“How could Mathias have gotten hold of Dad’s ring, though?”
I blew out a breath of air. “Hell if I know. But we do know this. None of us ever remember Dad wearing a ring like this, but clearly he had one, because he’s wearing it in the yearbook photo of the club. Maybe Mathias has had it since high school. Since Dad bowed out of their business.”
“If Dad bowed out of their business.” Talon cocked his head. “I’m not sure what I believe anymore. This thing with him and Wendy…”
Wendy. My psycho mother, Wendy Madigan. Crazy as a loon but brilliant as Einstein. A lethal combination. She’d been the mastermind behind this whole thing, and according to clues we’d found, the symbol on the ring represented her—an evil female.
I rubbed the ring between my fingers. It was identical to Tom’s except for the name engraved on the inside. I slid my fingers over the black onyx stone, the twisted female symbol on the side, and then to the band at the back—
What?
My fingers hit something raised. I turned the ring in my hand. The back of the band had some engraving on it.
In the darkness, I couldn’t see what it was, and I doubted even with natural light I’d be able to see the tiny figures.
“Tal, check this out.”
“What?”
I handed him the ring. “There’s something engraved on the back of the band, on the outside. I don’t recall anything like that on Tom’s ring.”
“One way to find out,” Talon said. “Let’s go get Tom’s ring and compare the two.”
“I’m supposed to stay outside and keep watch. It’s in the safe in my cabin.” I handed him the key to my room. “The combination is Marj’s birthday.”
“Got it. I’ll be right back.”
Talon returned ten minutes later with the ring.
“I’m not seeing anything on the outside of the band on this one.”
I took the ring and inspected it. He was right. Nothing.
“I need to get a good look at these markings,” he said. “We need light…and probably a magnifying glass.”
“They’ll have magnifiers on the bridge for looking at maps and stuff. Maybe a flashlight too. I’ll go check.”
Again, he was gone only about ten minutes. He came back with a small Maglite and several magnifying glasses.
“This one’s the strongest.” He handed it to me with the ring. “Check it out. I’ll hold the light.”
I stopped for a few seconds to wonder how conspicuous we might be, shining a flashlight in the dark in the middle of the Caribbean, but my curiosity won out. I held the magnifier in front of me and moved it back and forth until the image of the etching became clear. A series of numbers stood out.
My heart nearly stopped. “I’ll be goddamned.”
Chapter Six
Ruby
They put you in this room over a day ago.
I couldn’t wrap my still-haz
y mind around Juliet’s words.
Over a day ago?
How long had I been out from that chloroform? No wonder I was so sick.
“Do you remember them bringing me in here?”
“No. When they moved me in, you were already here, asleep with your cheek embedded in the floor. I can tell when a day passes because of the window. They brought me here about this time yesterday. I’m just assuming you got here right before then, but honestly, I don’t know. You could have been here longer than that.”
I shook my head, willing my brain cells to start firing correctly. I was dehydrated. That explained my unquenchable thirst and also part of my fogginess. But there was no way they’d used chloroform to put me under for that long. A dose like that would have killed me. I’d been drugged with something else. I touched my upper arm, searching for a lump or sensitive area where they might have injected me. Nothing.
God, what had they put inside my body?
What had my father put inside my body?
I fought back another wave of queasiness and reached for the pitcher of water. It was nearly empty. I drained it.
“They’ll bring food soon.”
Ugh. Food. But I’d eat. I had to eat. I needed to regain my strength. If it had been close to twenty-four hours, I needed sustenance.
I backed away from Juliet. It was time to get serious. “I need you to be straight with me. Tell me exactly what has happened since you got here.”
Her eyes dimmed. “Did Shayna make it?”
Did she not know? Juliet had texted her friend, but she hadn’t had the phone long enough to know if Shayna had responded, which she hadn’t.
I tried to smile, though I wasn’t sure my facial muscles were cooperating. “Yes. She made it.”
“Thank God! I always held out hope, even though they told us she’d drowned. They didn’t know what an awesome swimmer she is.”
“She nearly did drown. Luckily some locals spotted her and pulled her onto their boat. They took her back to the resort.”
Juliet’s eyes misted. “She’s so brave. So much braver than I ever could be.”
“Listen to me.” I choked out the words, my mouth still dry and tight from dehydration and stomach acid. “You’re brave. You hear me? Look at what you’ve been through.”
