“My eyes are brown, Ruby.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. “You’re wearing the freaky lenses right now, Theo.”

“And that makes me the only suspect?” He lifted his brow. “Have you forgotten what color of eyes Simpson had?”

My veins froze. I had never met Tom Simpson, but Joe said that Bryce looked a lot like his father. Bryce’s eyes were blue, but they were a warm blue. A gentle blue. Yet that same color in the eyes of an ice man…

Had we been wrong all this time?

“Tom was determined to bring the Steels down. He found out Jade had been digging, and he sent the rose as a warning, trying to frame Larry at the same time. He went so far as to have Larry’s fingerprints changed in the database to match the set on her ex’s business card. And then Joe… Tom thought Joe was a hothead, and when he and Melanie got more involved, Tom was determined to take them both out.”

“Joe is his son’s best friend.”

“Do you think he cared about that?”

I let out a huff. “No, I don’t. I don’t think any of you have ever cared about anything other than money and saving your own sorry asses.”

“That was Tom to the very end.”

“And Larry?”

“Larry was trying to get everything out in the open without having Wendy come down on him. Why do you think he asked Jade to research the Steels? He was leading her to clues. That’s how his mind worked. Rather than squeal, he set people up to figure things out for themselves. He was brilliant in his own way. The problem with Larry was that he had no common sense, so Tom and I didn’t always trust him.”

“Yeah. You had him beaten to within an inch of his life for letting Talon Steel go, didn’t you?”

“Actually, we didn’t. That was all Wendy.”

Wendy. That name again. Ryan’s biological mother. We’d already figured out that she had been the true mastermind behind Talon’s abduction, and she claimed to be the true mastermind behind everything. I’d spoken to Melanie about it on more than one occasion. Melanie was convinced that Wendy was the ultimate id with narcissistic personality disorder and delusions of grandeur.

Melanie was no doubt right. But one thing she hadn’t factored in was Wendy’s creative brilliance.

I didn’t bother asking my father whether he was telling the truth. I already knew he was. The very marrow of my bones knew. Wendy had arranged Talon’s abduction to punish his father for getting his mother pregnant with Marjorie. It only made sense that she was the one who punished Larry for letting him go.

“Larry seemed convinced that you and Tom were the ones who had him beaten.”

“Larry wasn’t aware of the ultimate power Wendy had over the rest of us.”

“You mean over Brad Steel.”

“No, Ruby. I mean over the rest of us.”

“Then by all means, Father, enlighten me.”

He sighed and pushed up the sleeves of his black shirt. The phoenix on his left forearm was still as bright as I remembered. “I don’t expect you to understand any of this.”

“I’m pretty sure I won’t. I still want to hear it. How did a little cheerleader like Wendy have power over any of you? She moved after her sophomore year. Plus, you claim Larry didn’t know how dangerous she was. Larry already told the Steels that you weren’t the most dangerous, which would indicate that Wendy was. Who else could he have been talking about?”

“I didn’t say Larry didn’t know how dangerous she was. I only said he didn’t understand the power she had.”

“Semantics, Theo. Let’s skip over the bullshit and get down to one thing. The goddamned truth.”

“You trust me to tell you the truth?”

I had to laugh. “No, not really, but at the moment, you’re all I’ve got. So spill it.”

He opened his mouth to speak when the door to his office burst open. “Boss, we’ve got a problem.”

“I’m in a meeting, as you can see,” my father said.

“Sorry, but you’re needed elsewhere.”

“Handle it, please.”

“Some new ones have gone rogue. We need your help.”

“You don’t need my help. Show them who’s boss.”

I looked at the masked man’s eyes. They were a familiar brown. This was one of the men who had raped Juliet.

And new ones? Were they bringing new women to the compound? I stood. “Take me to the ‘new ones.’”

My father shook his head. “No.”

“I demand it, damn it. In fact, I demand that you let them go. And not just them. All of them. Juliet. And where the hell is Gina?”

“Ruby.” My father gritted his teeth. “Not now.”

“Look,” the other guy said, “our contract is coming due, and—”

I jerked my head back to him. “Contract? What you people are doing here is illegal, not to mention immoral. The laws don’t exist. Who the hell cares about a contract?”

“Ruby,” my father said calmly, “you don’t understand. This business has its own laws, and we can’t default on a contract.”

“Why not?”

“Do I have to spell it out for you? They’ll kill us.”

“Hopefully not before they torture and rape you,” I couldn’t help saying.

Something in my father’s fake eyes changed, but I couldn’t pinpoint what it was.

“Who the fuck is this woman, boss?” the man asked.

“She’s not your concern.”

He eyed me, his tongue slithering along his lower lip. “Let me take a stab at her. Please. God, that body…”

Disgust crept up my throat. “You’re not getting near me, you psycho.”

“She’s off-limits,” my father said. “That’s all you need to know.”

My father’s words didn’t make me feel any better. I already harbored so much guilt for what he had done to so many, and now I was being spared what Juliet had been forced to endure because I was his daughter? Not that I wanted to be beaten and raped, but my God. When had my father grown scruples? This was the same man who’d attempted to rape me seventeen years earlier. Who’d raped Gina. Who’d raped and tortured Talon.

Talon. Oh my God.

My mind whirled. I knew now how Ryan felt. He’d been spared Talon’s fate because he was Wendy’s son, just as I was now being spared Juliet’s fate because I was my father’s daughter.

A mixture of nauseous gratitude and disgust swirled through my mind and body. How could I be even the littlest bit thankful that I was the spawn of this monster?

I didn’t deserve to be handled with kid gloves. And I hadn’t been. He’d stuck me in that concrete cell with Juliet. Yet I had been spared the worst of it—what I’d been forced to witness happen to her.

Ryan and I had more in common than I’d ever imagined.

The thought of him warmed me. I hoped with everything in me that he hadn’t found the bread crumbs my father claimed he’d left. I couldn’t bear the thought of him wandering into a trap. I’ll find you, Ryan. I’ll do anything to get back to you.

My father eyed me, as if looking for me to say something.

“Am I supposed to thank you?” I said.

“You don’t owe me anything,” he said.

“You got that right.”

“She’s got a mouth on her, boss,” the other guy said. “And when I say mouth, I mean I’d love to shove my cock into it.”

My father stood and advanced on his goon, grabbing him at the neck. “You touch one hair on her head, and I’ll choke the life out of you.” He squeezed the man’s throat. “Do you understand me?”

“Sure,” the man rasped. “I get it, boss.”

“Now get the fuck out of here.” My father loosened his hold. “Take care of things yourself.”

“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.