by HELEN HARDT
We exited the stairwell into the hall. He was right. Men in black were everywhere checking rooms. We blended right in. That siren had given us the perfect cover.
But where to now? I had no idea. We hadn’t made any plans on the yacht because none of us had a clue what we’d find here. Talon and I had agreed to give Raj the lead, as he was the most experienced at investigating.
So far, he’d proven himself trustworthy, but I still wasn’t sure. Something niggled at the back of my neck. I thought again of Ruby, about how she’d said she’d learned not to ignore her intuition.
My intuition was telling me to tread carefully with Raj. He was hiding something. I was almost sure of it. As soon as I had the chance, I’d relay my concerns to Talon.
For now, we followed Raj, nodding to the other men in black who scurried down the corridors. Some wore masks and some did not. We didn’t dare remove ours. They might not all know each other, but what if they did? What if they recognized that we didn’t belong here? We couldn’t take that chance.
We still had no idea what Scotty’s keys opened.
Raj began stopping at doors. “Cover me,” he yelled to Talon and me.
We stood in front of him while he tried all the keys. We did this at three doors before we hit pay dirt.
The door opened, and inside were two children. Boys. Both had blondish hair, could pass for brothers—maybe were brothers. They were dressed only in large T-shirts, and their wrists and ankles were bound with white rope. Both cowered in the corner when we entered the room.
Talon went rigid.
I could see it in his eyes. He was flashing back.
And that damned siren kept blaring!
“Hold it together, Tal,” I yelled at him. “Please! We’ll get them out of here!”
Then his eyes went feral. He ran to the two little boys and grabbed one of them.
“No!” The little boy yelled. “No! Please! No more!”
“We won’t hurt you!” I yelled.
And the siren stopped blaring.
Thank God.
But the little boy was yelling, and the other was quietly weeping.
“Hey, hey,” Talon said. “You need to be quiet if you don’t want the bad people to come. We’re not going to hurt you. I promise.” He quickly unbound the little boy’s hands and feet.
“Can he walk?” I asked.
“Of course he can’t walk. Look at him. Look at both of them. They’ll stumble. They’re starved and malnourished. They’ll need our help.”
Talon knew. He knew just what these boys had been through. And it was eating him up inside. I could see it. See what it was doing to my hero.
This had to stop.
“Tal,” I said. “Get a grip. We need them to be strong if we’re going to help them. You walked out, remember?”
“I had help.”
“You had Larry, who let you out, but you didn’t have anyone to help you walk. They do. They have us. They’ll be okay.”
“Listen, mon,” Raj interjected. “We can’t take them right now. We don’t know what we’re walking into. The siren has stopped. Things will settle down and get back to normal. We need to find who’s in charge here and get him taken care of. They’ll slow us down.”
“We are not leaving them here,” Talon said through gritted teeth. “I’m paying your bills, goddamnit, and you’re going to help me get these boys out of here.”
My mind whirled. The fact that Scotty had a key to this room meant he’d probably had a hand in abusing these young kids. Abhorrence erupted in my throat. I hadn’t been able to rescue Anna, but we could rescue these two little boys.
Not just for them, but for Talon. For the little boy my brother had been. For the little boy I had been, saved only because I had a different mother—an evil woman who had orchestrated all of this.
I so couldn’t go there right now…
“Talon’s right,” I said to Raj. “We’re not leaving them here.”
The boy Talon held let out a scream.
I clamped my hand over his mouth. “Hey, I know you’re scared. But we’re going to help you. We need you to be quiet. If you scream, someone will find us and we won’t be able to help you. Do you understand?”
The boy nodded shakily, but when I removed my hand, he let out another blood-curdling howl.
“He doesn’t trust you, Ryan. He doesn’t trust any of us. He can’t. He’s been through hell.”
I hated what I was about to suggest, but we had no alternative. “Raj, you still have the tape?”
Talon turned on me. “We will not tape his mouth! Damn it, Ryan. We can’t put them through more shit.”
“Tal, I understand, but they have to be quiet.”
“I’ll get them to be quiet,” Talon said. “I know what they need right now.” He set the little boy down next to the other and then sat on the floor with them. He removed his mask.
The little boy let out a heart-wrenching shriek.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Ruby
He was tall. Tall and broad. In his hand, he held a black Stetson. His eyes were dark as strong coffee, and his hair was the same color, though silver streaked through it, especially at the temples.
In his sculpted jawline I saw Ryan. In his profile I saw Talon. And the rest was exactly what Jonah Steel would look like in twenty-plus years.
“Brad Steel,” I said.
“Hello, Ruby.”
“You know who I am?”
“You’re Theo’s daughter. My son’s girlfriend. I helped bring you here.”
I nearly lost my footing. I’d seen two blurry faces that day as I lost consciousness.
Two…
No. Ryan’s father wouldn’t participate in kidnapping me.
But I didn’t know Ryan’s father. After all, Ryan was nothing like his mother, thank God. His father could very well be just as monstrous.
“So Wendy was telling the truth. You are alive.”
“I am. I’m sure you have a lot of questions.”
Questions? They swirled through my mind at a hundred miles an hour. What to ask first? But all that came out was, “How could you do this?”
“I need to tell my children the truth first.”
I couldn’t fault his logic, but damn, I was standing right here. “Please. Just tell me.”
“I had reasons for everything I did. Reasons you—and my children—may not understand. But someone broke a promise to me, so all bets are now off. My children deserve to know the truth.”
“They deserved that a long time ago,” I said, seething.
“I was trying to protect them.”
“By not letting them deal with anything? I’m sorry, but you were wrong. Talon is only now getting the help he needs.”
“I know that. And I’m thankful.”
“And Ryan…” I couldn’t finish.
“Ryan was never supposed to know about his mother. His biological mother. Daphne was his real mother. She treated him as one of her own.” He shook his head, his eyes heavy-lidded and sad. “He was never supposed to know.”
“Well, he does now.”
“I know, and I’m sorry. Daphne loved him as much as the others. She raised him as her own. She did that for me.”
“But why—”
“That’s all I can say for now. My children deserve to hear the truth before anyone else does.”
“I understand.” I did. Didn’t make it any easier to have Brad Steel standing right in front of me and not get the answers I was yearning for. And then it dawned on me. “I do understand, really. But I’m Theodore Mathias’s child, and I deserve some truth as well.”
“I’m sorry to disappoint you, but I can’t tell you anything about Theo. He and I aren’t friends.”
“But you used to be. My uncle told me. Rodney Cates.”
“That changed long ago.”
“When he took your son.”
“I can’t talk about that yet.”
“Or did your friendship
end before that? When they went into this disgusting business they conduct on these godforsaken islands?”
He didn’t answer.
“Why? Why did you build a replica of this house here? Who is the woman who lives here with you? Is that your baby?”
“Miss Ruby,” Marabel said. “Please. The master is tired.”
“It’s only midmorning.”
“The master gets up early to do his work.”
“His work? What work? There’s nothing here. Only this house. Outside these concrete walls, there are crimes being committed, Marabel. Vicious, heinous crimes!” I turned back to Brad. “What the hell do you do here all day? Whyever you did it, was it worth it to leave your family? Jonah is going to be a father soon, for God’s sake. You’re going to have a grandchild. So what did you do? Come here and start a new family with that woman and her baby?”
“Miss Ruby, please,” Marabel said again.
“It’s all right, Marabel,” Brad said. “She is understandably upset.”
Juliet’s face flashed in my mind. She’d freak if she noticed I was no longer on the deck with her. I looked out the French doors. She was fine, still in the yard playing with Bo, Beauty, and Ernie.
I turned back to Marabel. “Do you have any idea what goes on here? On these islands? What these people are doing?”
“Enough!” Brad Steel’s voice was loud without actually being a yell.
The fire in his eyes. I’d seen the same fire in Ryan’s eyes. He meant to be obeyed.
I didn’t care. I was in love with Ryan. I eagerly welcomed his commands.
I hated the man standing before me.
“Enough of what? You know what’s true as well as I do. The least you can do is tell me the truth about you and my father. I deserve that much.”
He sighed. “I can see why Ryan loves you. That fiery spirit. I couldn’t resist it when I was younger either. It got me into a lot of trouble. A fiery woman was always my downfall.”
Wendy. He was talking about Wendy. Maybe Daphne as well. I didn’t know anything about her except that she’d been mentally unstable.
“I’ll tell you what I can.”
“Good. We’ll need to go out on the deck. I can’t leave Juliet alone. She’s very fragile right now. Because of what my father and you have put her through.”
“I’ll sit with Juliet,” Marabel said. “Why don’t the two of you go into your study, Mr. Steel?”
“She needs me, Marabel.”
“She’ll be fine with me, Miss Ruby. Look at her. She’s in love with those pups.”
“Marabel will look after her. She’s good with children. She’s done this before.”
I widened my eyes. Before? Did they rescue others and bring them here? Or was he talking about the boys the “lady” had mentioned?
“Follow me,” he said.
I felt no fear of Brad Steel, though maybe I should have. Just because he resembled the man I loved and his wonderful brothers didn’t mean he had the same ethics. I followed him into the corridor that housed the room Juliet and I were staying in. His office was on the other side of the hallway. Probably exactly the same room where Talon had his office at home.
He took a seat behind a large oak desk and nodded toward a few leather chairs on the other side of the desk.
I sat and looked down. I was wearing silk pajamas. I’d forgotten. Brad hadn’t seemed surprised. Did they provide pajamas for a lot of women? I was about to find out.
He stared at me for a moment. “You don’t look much like Theo. Just the hair color.”
“Your sons and daughter all look exactly like you.”
“They do. I must have dominant genes.”
“Except Ryan has his mother’s nose.” I wasn’t sure why I said that.
“He does.” Brad sighed. “So you want to know about your father and me.”
“Yes. The truth, please.”
“What makes you think you don’t already know the truth?”
“Were you there? Are you the one who drugged me with chloroform the night I was taken from my apartment?”
“Yes. And I’m sorry for my part in it, but I had no choice.”
“There’s always a choice.”
“Not always. Not when the choice is to do something you find distasteful or see everything you hold dear destroyed.”
“You’re Brad Steel. Owner of Steel Acres. Billionaire. How exactly does anyone hold any power over you?”
“Your father has a little. But there’s someone else who has a lot. I won’t discuss that. I will discuss your father.”
“All right. I’m listening.”
“We were friends once. We’re not anymore.”
“Then why did you go with him and drug me? Bring me here?”
“I had my reasons, and we’ll get to that.”
“Fine.”
“Four of us—your father, Tom Simpson, Larry Wade, and myself—formed a club in high school.” He sighed, threading his fingers through his thick salt-and-pepper hair. “God, how I’ve come to regret those innocent first days.”
He pushed his chair back. “Tom and Larry were the actual future lawyers. Your father and I had no interest in the law. I knew I’d be running the ranch, and your father was bound and determined to become rich. He got Tom and Larry into that mindset, so we decided to start a business.”
I knew where this was going. Wendy had told Ryan and me how it had started small. Just a reselling of products in demand at inflated prices. Innocent enough. Until they got into drugs…and people.
“I had money, so I offered to back the business for a quarter of the partnership. I’d be a silent partner. It started out innocently enough, and the four of us made some cash.” He let out a heavy sigh. “Then we had two people approach us, asking to join the club. First was Rodney Cates. He’d been trying to date your aunt, your father’s sister. He thought making friends with her brother would help his case. Turned out he had a mind for numbers.”
“Numbers? He’s a linguistics professor.”
“I didn’t say he was interested in numbers. But he was good at them. So we put him to work on the financials. Let him in for five percent.”
“Okay.”
“Things were going along pretty smoothly, until we had another person approach us for membership.”
I sighed. “Wendy.”
“Yes. Wendy Madigan. A junior varsity cheerleader. All-American girl. Sweet like the girl next door. Or so she seemed.”
“She’s crazy.”
“She is. She’s also got an IQ that’s nearly off the charts, though we didn’t know either of those things at the time.”
“So I’ve heard.”
“From whom?”
“My father. And Larry, before he died.”
“Don’t expect me to tear up on Larry Wade’s behalf.”
“Why would I expect that? I know what he and my father did to Talon. You don’t owe any of them any sympathy. Frankly, I can’t understand why you have anything to do with my father at all.”
“We have a common enemy. A lethal enemy. And the enemy of my enemy is my friend. I don’t have a choice. Larry and Tom are gone, and your uncle has enough to deal with, losing his daughter and his wife, for all intents and purposes. Your father and I are the only ones who can try to right all the wrongs now.”
“My father’s interested in righting wrongs? I witnessed him murder my boss less than a week ago, Mr. Steel. I don’t think he’s interested in righting any wrongs.”
“He wasn’t. Not until you got involved.”
“Why would that matter? Maybe my father has neglected to tell you, but he tried to rape me when I was fifteen. I got away.”
“No, he didn’t tell me. But it doesn’t surprise me in the least.”
“I’m sure it doesn’t. How could you let all of this happen? To your own son, for God’s sake.” I gripped the arms of the chair, my knuckles white.
“That is for Talon to know first, and I didn’t let anyth
ing happen.”
I rolled my eyes. “Fine. Just tell me about my father, then.”
“He was greedy. He and the others didn’t come from money like I did. When the money started coming in, they were astounded. They wanted more.”
“I know all this. From Wendy.”
“Wendy isn’t the most reliable source of information,” he said.
“Probably not, but what she told Ryan about your business makes perfect sense.”
“Wendy tells the truth when she thinks it will benefit her. Unfortunately, this last bout she had with the truth broke a promise to me. I don’t intend to let that lie.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Ryan
Raj covered his ears. “Damn it, mon! We’ve got to leave them.”
I turned on him. “We are not leaving them.” If we did, I didn’t know what would happen to Talon…except that it wouldn’t be good.
Talon held the boy to his chest. “Shh. You see? I took off the mask. I’m just a normal person, like you. Only the men who wear masks hurt you.”
The boy still sobbed.
“You two,” Talon said. “Take off your masks. Show him he doesn’t need to be scared.”
“Mon…”
“Do it!” I commanded Raj. “Just fucking do it!”
Raj sighed and pulled off his mask as I did the same.
“See?” Talon said. “We’re not going to hurt you. I promise. As long as you’re with us, you’re safe.”
The larger of the two boys still cowered in the corner.
“Ryan, get that one.”
I walked forward, and the little boy cringed. My heart nearly broke in two. How could anyone hurt a child? “Please,” I said. “It’s okay. We’re friends. I promise.”
He choked back a sob but didn’t recoil when I reached for him. I pulled him into my arms.
“We know you’ve been around some bad people who hurt you. We won’t hurt you,” Talon was saying. “I know how you’re feeling right now. You’re scared, and you’re hurting, and you don’t know who to trust. You’re also a little embarrassed. You never imagined the things that have happened to you, that such horrible things could even exist. But there is good in the world still, and you’ll be okay. You’ll be okay again. I promise.”
