He gulped. “Why today?”

“She felt an obligation toward you and your family. She didn’t want to divulge anything until you had told me everything.”

“She told you that something happened to me?”

I nodded. “But Talon, don’t be angry with her. You told me yourself that something had happened to you, remember?”

Talon stared straight ahead, not speaking.

“Talon? Do you understand what this means? We can have him arrested. One of your abductors will see justice served.”

He shook his head, blinking as if to clear his head. “We don’t know where he is.”

“Wendy told me he owns some land in Montana. We’ll start there. But honestly, he’d be stupid to go there.”

“And if that turns up nothing?”

“We put the cops on it. We hire the best PIs in the business. For once, aren’t you glad that money is no object?”

Again, silence.

What was up with him?

“Baby, this is good news. Once we find Larry, we can force him to tell us who the other two are. Let’s get on it. Let’s get Jonah and Ryan and Marj, and we’ll get started. Not only do you have the money to bankroll a full-scale investigation, but the woman you love happens to be the city attorney of Snow Creek right now. I have access to all the databases. We’ll find him, Talon. I know we’ll find him.”

Still he stared straight ahead.

“What’s wrong? I don’t get it.”

He shook his head slowly, methodically. “I just don’t believe it. I mean, I wanted to believe that I had identified two of my abductors, but inside, inside my objective brain, I knew it was unlikely.” He turned to me, his eyes unreadable. “Is there really an end to this in sight?”

I took his hand, massaging my thumb into his palm. “Nothing can erase what you went through, but we can at least find one of them and bring him to justice.”

And again, silence.

“You should be ecstatic. What’s wrong?”

Silence again.

Then, “It’s just…” He raked his hands through his tousled bedhead. “I’m not sure how to say this. How to make you understand.”

I continued to rub his palm with my thumb, aching to comfort him. I had no idea what could be the matter, but he needed to know I was here for him. That I wasn’t going anywhere. Ever.

“You can tell me anything. You know I’ll understand.”

He drew in a deep breath. “All these years I’ve lived with this horror, and until recently, I never even thought about trying to heal. And now, with you, I finally found a reason to go on. And through you I found other reasons, my brothers and sister, my ranch, even myself. And I’m beginning. I’m moving forward.”

“Yes, you’re doing great. So what’s the matter?”

“I’m not sure. I’m not sure I can put it into words. But if we find one of them, finally put one phase of this to rest…it’s gone. That part of my life is finally gone.”

“And that’s a bad thing?”

He shook his head. “I told you that you wouldn’t understand.”

“Try me. Talk to me, Talon.”

“It was horrible. No child—hell, no living being—should go through what I went through. But I did go through it. It was my own. It was horrible, heinous, awful. But it was mine.”

I squeezed his hand. I wanted to take him into my arms and comfort him, but I wasn’t sure that was what he needed right now. “Why do you want to hold on to this, Talon?”

“I don’t. At least I think I don’t. I told you it was hard to explain. But it’s been part of me for so long.”

“It will always be a part of you. It will always be part of what made you the man you are today. And I think you’re an incredible man.”

“I’m trying, blue eyes. I’m really trying.”

“I know you are. You’ve had to own this. You’ve had to walk this path alone for so long. But you’re not alone anymore, Talon. I’m here for you. Your brothers are here for you. Marjorie is here for you. The six people you saved that day in Iraq—they’re all here for you. The hundreds of employees on this ranch who depend on you for their livelihood—they’re all here for you. You have a lot of people in your corner, a lot of people who would do anything for you.”

“Could it really—I mean really—be over? Really over?”

My sweet, wonderful Talon. He’d lived so long with this burden. “It was over twenty-five years ago, baby. You’ve been free since then. You just didn’t know it. It’s time we took matters into our own hands, time we brought those perpetrators to justice. And now we can. So, my love, it’s time.”

He turned to me, his eyes misted over, and nodded. “Time to let it go.”

As expected, Larry wasn’t in Montana, but with the Steels’ money and a private investigation team, along with help from the local police force and state patrol, Larry was picked up three days later in southern New Mexico. He’d been using an alias and had been working at a hatch chile farm, trying to make enough money to cross the border.

And in his personals? Colin’s wallet and phone.

That sicko had been the one who called me using Colin’s phone.

He’d been brought back to Grand Junction and was being held in the county jail for now. I sat, at the visitors’ window, waiting for him. I’d told Talon I was going, and I’d offered to take him with me, but he had chosen not to come. Probably just as well. I wasn’t sure he could have held it together. I’d had to nearly tie him down—along with Jonah and Ryan—to keep him from going after Larry himself.

I didn’t know what I was going to say to Larry. What could one say to such a sick person? He most likely had killed Colin, too, though with no body, a murder would be difficult to prove. There would be no reasoning with Larry. A psychopath couldn’t be reasoned with. Still, I had to try. The prosecuting attorney had offered him a deal if he named the two others. I was here to convince him to take it.

His hands and feet were cuffed when a guard let him in. He was dressed all in orange, the little hair he had in disarray and his countenance fatigued. He sat down and picked up the telephone.

“Jade,” he said. “Are you here to represent me?”