by HELEN HARDT
“If you say so.” He rubbed his neck and left.
I suppressed a shiver. Theo’s fake blue eyes had held the look of an insane killer. He’d meant every word he said. I cleared my throat, determined not to give him the “thank you” he no doubt expected.
“So you’re bringing in new blood, huh?”
“Business doesn’t stop just because you’re here, Ruby.”
“Where’d you get this batch? Another raid on a resort? Or did you pick up some homeless people?”
He didn’t respond. Not that I expected him to.
“You do understand that I’m going to do everything within my power to free these innocent people and bring you and the rest of your goons down.”
“I’d expect nothing less,” he said, his voice resigned.
“Take me to them. The new ones.”
“No.”
“I’ll follow you when you leave here, then.”
“If I have to, I’ll chain you down. Do you understand me?”
I understood perfectly.
“Where’s Gina?”
He cleared his throat but again didn’t answer.
“Is she here?”
He let out a sigh. “If you must know, no, she’s not here.”
“Where is she, then?”
“She’s been sold.”
My gut nearly exploded as I swallowed back brine. Sold. I couldn’t wrap my head around it. I fought back the need to vomit. “To whom?”
“I don’t have those records. We just provide the merchandise. We don’t deliver it.”
This time I couldn’t hold back. Though I tried choking it down, I threw up all over my father’s desk. The ramen I’d eaten made a second appearance.
“Now look what you’ve done,” he said.
“What I’ve done? My beautiful cousin, who you set up to look like she’d killed herself, is now someone’s property? I’m going to get her back, Theo, if it’s the last thing I do.”
“It may very well be. If she went where I think she did, her master is a powerful man.”
“He doesn’t scare me.”
“He should.”
Yes, he probably should. But right now my anger was taking over.
“Those other kids who were taken around the same time that Talon was… Where are they?”
“I don’t know.”
“You’re lying.”
“Ruby, that was twenty-five years ago. Kids are sold, but they eventually grow up. I don’t know what’s done with them after that. It’s not my business.”
“Not your business? These are human beings!” I stood and threw the tray still holding ramen onto the ground. I fought back more retching. “How did you get like this? How, for all of these years, have you been able to treat people like things to be bought and sold? Used and abused? How?”
He sighed, his countenance resigned. “It’s a long story.”
Chapter Thirteen
Ryan
Raj went down first, and then Talon. Because Talon had freaked a bit during practice, we’d decided to let him go in the middle. Finally, I dropped into the dark water. We were using lights since we’d otherwise be basically blind. I’d been prepared for the noise. Breathing through a regulator was loud, and it had startled me during our practice runs. Inhale, and then exhale fully. I’d done okay during practice, but now my nerves were frazzled. I had to stay calm, or I’d hyperventilate. I turned my head to look to each side. My mask cut off part of my peripheral vision, and I was surprised at how much I missed it. Raj had taught us some hand signals to communicate with each other underwater, but vision would be limited because it was nighttime. He was taking us toward the island. I tried to control the urge to continuously adjust. He’d told us to relax and let the water take us where we needed to go.
Talon swam ahead, between Raj and me. I kept my eyes on his fins and followed.
I tried to calm my rattling nerves by making Talon my anchor. Keep your eyes on Talon.
He seemed to slow down. When my mask bumped his fins, though, I knew something was amiss.
I stared at him, looking for hand signals. I gave him the okay sign, questioning him.
He didn’t “okay” back. Was he even looking at me?
One of his arms flailed out suddenly. I went closer, and when I saw his eyes through the glass of his mask, sheer panic looked back at me.
What was wrong?
Raj was ahead of us, but if something was going wrong with Talon, I couldn’t afford to take the time to alert Raj. I tried the okay signal once again, and again Talon offered no response. Bubbles rose from his mouth in a constant stream instead of shutting off between breaths.
When his arms started flailing, I knew I had to act.
Was he breathing? I couldn’t tell. He hadn’t used the “out of air” signal, but then he hadn’t used any signals at all. I ripped my octopus out of its holder and offered it to him.
Talon spat out his regulator and grabbed the octopus, inserting it into his mouth. He took what looked to be two long breaths.
I gave him the okay sign again, and this time he returned it. I pointed upward, indicating that we should rise to the surface.
His tank must have malfunctioned. When we reached the surface of the water, I pulled the regulator out of my mouth. “What the hell happened?”
Talon removed my extra regulator and took a long, deep breath. “I don’t know,” he said, still breathless. “My air started coming really fast. Like a fire hose. I didn’t know what to do.”
Raj rose to the surface and swam back toward us. “Everything okay?”
Everything was not okay, or we wouldn’t have come up. But I didn’t say that. Talon was still a little breathless, so I spoke. “He had a problem with his tank and regulator. The air started coming really fast.”
“Free flowing. Shit,” Raj said. “We’re close enough that we can swim from here.”
About ten minutes later, we reached a point where we could stand on the ground and get our shoulders out of the water. Although we removed our fins, walking with all the equipment was arduous, but we soon reached the sandy shore.
Talon was still visibly shaken up, his body rigid and tense.
“Why didn’t you signal?” Raj asked him.
“He was frantic. He forgot. We only just learned this shit a few hours ago,” I said. “Leave him alone.”
“Hey, mon, I didn’t mean anything. I admit I went through everything quicker than a dive instructor would. Don’t you remember what I said about a free-flow malfunction?”
“I said he was frantic. You don’t know his past.” No way was I going to let him give Talon a hard time.
“Ry,” Talon said, his eyes pleading with me.
I said no more about his past. “What do you suppose happened?” I asked Raj.
“Could have been a simple malfunction,” he said. “It’s certainly not unheard of. Or…someone could have tampered with it.”
I didn’t want to think about the latter option. Only four others on the yacht besides the three of us. Did one of them want to keep us from reaching this island?
Talon was still shuddering. I touched his shoulder.
“Hey. It’s okay. We’re okay.” I looked ahead. “We’re going to make it.”
“I’m never doing that again,” Talon said.
I clutched at the waterproof container strapped to my hip. It contained a change of clothes and some supplies. It also contained a loaded gun and as much extra ammo as would fit—not much. Raj and Talon each had one as well. We’d be safe. And I wasn’t leaving Talon’s side.
We trudged along the deserted beach. The moon and stars in the clear night sky gave adequate guidance. My nerves were a mess, and I didn’t take my eyes off my brother. He’d been my hero for so long. My anchor. Now I needed to be his.
Someone on that boat might have just tried to kill him.
I didn’t take that lightly.
We pulled off our fins and changed clothes quickly.
/> “We need to find a place to stash our tanks and snorkels,” Raj said.
I looked around and squinted. Trees blanketed the land, surprisingly.
“Before settlement, the Caribbean islands were a diverse forested ecosystem,” Raj said when I asked about the foliage.
I looked around the coastline. It was dark, but I sure couldn’t see any ending. This wasn’t a small island. A faint light shone in the distance through the trees. “Do you see that?” I asked, pointing.
“Yah, mon,” Raj said. “Go toward the light, as they say. But first let’s hide our stuff somewhere out here where no one will look.”
“Why not bury it in the sand?” Talon said.
“Good idea,” Raj said. “But we have to be able to find it again if we need it. I’ll be in touch with the captain on the boat, but we need to be cautious. Someone may have tampered with your tank. We don’t know who we can trust now.” He looked around. “I don’t see a cell phone tower anywhere around, but I do seem to have service.” He fidgeted with his phone. “So there’s something around here somewhere. There are Wi-Fi networks too.”
I turned to regard my brother. He was still pale.
“Hey.” I grabbed his forearm. “You okay?”
He nodded.
“You sure? You don’t have to do this. We can leave right now.” Though I wasn’t sure how, since someone on the boat possibly wanted us dead.
“We have to do this. I have to do this. I have to put an end to this once and for all.” He stiffened and inhaled. “Let’s do it.”
I nodded, sending up a message of thanks to whoever was listening. I didn’t want to leave Talon in Raj’s care, but that’s what I would have done.
Whether Talon went forward or not, I had to.
I had to find Ruby.
Chapter Fourteen
Ruby
“Seems we’ve got time,” I said, looking out the window. “It’s dark now, and I have no desire to go back to that cell you had me in. So tell me the long story.”
He opened his mouth to speak when his phone buzzed on the desk. He glanced at it. “They’re here.”
“Who?”
“Who do you think? Three men have been spotted on the outskirts of the island.”
Three men. The Steel brothers.
A lump formed in my throat. “Don’t you dare hurt them.”
“I told you they’d follow the bread crumbs. That they’d come for you. Didn’t you believe me?”
I tried swallowing the lump, to no avail. I hadn’t doubted him. Ryan would have come for me through a blinding snowstorm. Nothing would stop him, even though I’d wished so hard for him not to follow me. I couldn’t bear the thought of him being in harm’s way.
“Haven’t the Steels been through enough?” I said.
“Not nearly,” he said.
“What do you have against them, anyway?”
“My beef is with Brad, not his sons.”
“Then why bring them here? I don’t understand.”
“I have my reasons.”
“You have Brad Steel. He’s somewhere here. You’ve obviously been keeping him here for seven years, letting his children think he’s dead. Why not just let the family be?”
“I don’t exactly have Brad Steel.”
I was sick of him pussyfooting around. “He’s here. You’ve said so yourself. So let his sons go.” I swallowed, about to do something that already had me gagging. “Please…Dad. If you ever cared for me at all, please let them go.” Yuck. I needed some mouthwash after that. But it was worth it. I’d do anything for Ryan.
He shook his head. “I’ve told you before that I have no intention of hurting them.”
“Then why did you lure them here?”
He sighed. “I want out, Ruby.”
“Out of what?”
“What do you think? Out of this! I’m old. I’m tired. I’m going broke. It’s taken me most of my savings to deal with the fallout of the Steels’ interference. Once Talon Steel got into therapy and Larry hired Jade to be his assistant city attorney, everything started crumbling. I want out.”
“So you want out because you’re getting close to getting caught. That’s nice.”
“No, I want out because I’m tired. Believe it or not, I’m not proud of everything I’ve done.”
I rolled my eyes and let out an indignant huff.
“Scoff if you want. I’m nearly out of funds. You were right.”
“It’s a shame Brooke Bailey didn’t die in that accident you staged.”
“That was a million-dollar policy, Ruby. It would have bought me a little time, but not much. A million dollars isn’t a lot in this business. Besides, I don’t expect you to believe this, but I actually cared for Brooke.”
“No, I don’t believe it.”
“Suit yourself. But I’m glad she’s not dead.”
“You got in touch with her. Wanted her to go away with you somewhere.”
“I did.”
“Jade told her everything. She wants nothing to do with you.” I didn’t know if that was true, but I did know Jade had talked to her mother.
“So be it.” He rubbed the back of his neck until it popped.
Time to change tactics. “I want to know about Wendy. I want to know about the symbol on those rings. I want to know what Wendy has on all of you to make you get into this horrible business. According to her, you guys simply got greedy and found out how lucrative the business of selling human beings is.”
“I won’t deny being greedy. I also won’t deny having some odd…tendencies.”
“Odd tendencies? Is that what you call pedophilia? Rape? Odd?”
He closed his eyes. “So much you don’t know. You’ll never understand.”
“How the hell did you find two other guys—Larry and Tom—who shared your sickness? The three of you were on some kind of macho power trip induced by greed and a psychopathy you all shared.”
“It’s not that simple.”
“You’re right about that. It isn’t simple at all.”
“Doing heinous things becomes easier after a while.”
“It shouldn’t.”
“Maybe not. But it does. The first time you break a rule, you’re filled with remorse, but when you don’t get caught, it’s easier to break it the second time. And it gets easier each time afterward, until it’s the norm.” He closed his eyes again, leaning his head back. “Things get twisted after a while. After you…” He opened his eyes and stared at me with those eerie blue eyes. “Never mind.”
“We’re not talking about jaywalking here, Theo. We’re talking about abusing women and kids. People, Theo. They’re fucking people!”
“It was Wendy—”
“Spare me. Three big tough guys were outsmarted and manipulated by one teenage girl? I’m not buying it.”
“You don’t know her.”
He was wrong about that. I did know her. She was evil. As evil as they were. But I couldn’t believe that she had been able to manipulate three strong men. Four, including Ryan’s father. Five, including my Uncle Rodney. All the while having a successful career as a TV and newspaper journalist.
Unbelievable.
Something sinister was lurking here. Something I couldn’t even begin to comprehend. Something no one in his right mind could begin to comprehend.
My father had said it was a long story. My patience was growing thin.
“I need to see Ryan,” I said.
“That’s not possible.”
“He’s here. He’s come for me. If he finds me, he’ll leave.”
“No, he won’t. He’s with his brothers.”
“You asked me to guarantee you safe travel out of the country when you met me at the hotel,” I said. “You managed to get out without my help, because here you are. You’re not as helpless as you’d like me to believe, Theo. Not at all.”
He didn’t deny my words. Not that I expected him to.
“Now that it’s dark again,” he said, “
I’m taking you to more suitable accommodations.”
Chapter Fifteen
Ryan
I reached for my phone to text Joe that we’d made it to the island where the compound supposedly was. It was a pretty long text, because we hadn’t had decent service for over twenty-four hours. I had to tell him that we’d found the coordinates on our father’s ring.
He texted me back within seconds.
Good. Be careful. When you can get away, we need to talk.
I looked around. In the darkness I couldn’t see any wiring. It was probably all buried anyway. This island had killer cell service.
What’s up?
I met with Dad’s attorney. Finally. Got some information out of him.
I didn’t want to think about what Joe had done to get any information out of anyone. My oldest brother had both a hot temper and a dark side—a lethal combination when he unleashed them together.
We’re hiding our stuff.
Then what?
Hell, then what? I had no idea. We didn’t have a plan per se because we hadn’t known what we’d find when we got here. Only the coordinates. The basic plan was to stay out of sight until we figured out where we were and who else was here.
We already had a pretty good idea of who we’d find here. Where? That was the question.
I texted Joe back.
We’ll need to find somewhere to spend the night.
Okay. When you get settled in, like I said, I need to talk to you both. Get me on speakerphone.
I didn’t like the idea of talking in front of Raj. He hadn’t given me any reason not to trust him, but the thing with Talon’s tank had me shaken up more than a bit.
Start a group text. Let’s do it that way for now. Don’t want to talk out loud.
Understood. Will add Tal into the text. Just let me know when you’re both available.
I sent him the thumbs-up icon and continued on my way. I’d fallen behind a bit.
Raj had stopped about a hundred or so feet ahead where the trees made a small clearing. I jogged to reach him and Talon.
“This looks like a good place to rest,” Raj said.
