“She’s my mother!” Marjorie cried. “The only one I’ve got. I want to get to know her.”

“You can travel to visit her as often as you like, but she can’t live here. Neither you nor Talon can handle it.”

“I can handle anything you throw at me,” Marj said adamantly. “I’ve proven that.”

“Doing men’s work on a ranch and caring for a mentally ill parent are two different things.”

“You did it,” she countered.

“I did. Because what befell your mother ultimately rested on my shoulders. But you kids are faultless. Let the professionals care for her. She doesn’t even know who any of you are.”

“What if she gets better?” Talon asked. “What then?”

“Talon, she has been this way for twenty-three years. She’s not going to get any better. Now my decision on your mother is final. She is my responsibility. Not yours.”

Joe said nothing, which surprised me. His demeanor was noticeably less combative than it had been on the island. Now he was home, back with his pregnant wife. He’d no doubt been reminded of what was truly important.

Though it was none of my business, I decided to speak. “Why can’t she be someplace closer, where her children can visit her once a week at least?”

“The place in California is the best.”

“So?” I said. “Create a place in Grand Junction for her. We have the money. Hire the best. That way Tal, Joe, and Marj can visit her whenever they want.”

“Ryan’s right,” Joe said. “She needs to be closer to us.”

“I did a lot of research finding her the right place—”

“Bullshit,” Joe interjected. “You kept her on that island for God knows how long. You had a doctor and nurse for her there. Bring them here. You owe us that much.”

“You owe us a hell of a lot more than that,” I said. “For God’s sake, let my siblings have a relationship with their mother.”

“She’s not capable of—”

I stood. “You’re not listening! They know that. They don’t care. She’s their mother. They want to be there for her.”

“No.” He shook his head. “She can’t be in Colorado. I can’t run the risk of Wendy finding her.” He looked me straight in the eye. “What about your mother? Do you want a relationship with her?”

Chapter Forty-Two

Ruby

After picking up puppy food and some other necessities, I headed to my car when my phone buzzed. It was a text.

You and I aren’t through yet.

Of course I didn’t recognize the number, but I didn’t have to guess who it was. My father. I knew he’d turn up. I didn’t bother texting or calling back. He was playing his usual head games, and I wasn’t interested.

I stashed the groceries in the car, and my phone buzzed again. This time it was a call, another number I didn’t recognize.

I shook my head, deciding to ignore my father, but then changed my mind. Maybe he was ready to turn himself in.

Probably not, but I had to find out.

“Yes, what the hell do you want?” I nearly yelled into the phone.

“Uh…hi. Ruby?”

Shit. A female voice. One I recognized from the phone calls I’d received after our first return from Jamaica.

“Shayna! Is that you?”

“Yes. It’s me.”

“I’m so sorry. I thought you were someone else. Are you okay?”

“I’m…fine. Now. I just heard from Juliet. She’s home, Ruby, and she said it’s because of you. Thank you so much.”

“I didn’t do anything, really.”

“That’s not what she says. She says you were captured and you told her you’d get her out of there. To trust you. And you did. You got her out of there. Her and Lisa both.”

“Lisa’s in bad shape, Shayna. But she’s going to be okay.”

“That’s what Juliet says. She says I can’t see Lisa yet. She’s severely malnourished and is in the hospital in LA. She had to have IV fluids before the flight home. But she’s stable, and she’s alive, Ruby. She’s alive.”

Relief swept through me. I hadn’t realized how much I’d been worried about Lisa making it home in her condition. “They both have a long road ahead.”

“Of medical and psychological treatment. I know.”

“They’ll need you, Shayna. They’ll both need a friend.”

“I’m here for them. I swear it.”

I smiled into the phone. “I know you are. This whole thing is a miracle. Many women and children were rescued.”

“I can’t even begin to imagine what they’ve been through.”

“You don’t want to. It wasn’t pretty.”

“I won’t press them for details.”

“That’s good. Let them come to you. They’ll both have therapists they can talk to. Just be there for them.”

“I will be, Ruby. Thank you for everything.”

I was smiling when the call ended. Though the FBI had done much more than I had, at least I had fulfilled my promise to Juliet. I had gotten her out of the dorms and into the nice Steel replica.

Damn. The Steel replica. Ryan was hearing the story of how and why that house had been built at this very moment. I couldn’t imagine the stories he’d have to tell me when I saw him this evening.

I got into the car and readied for the drive home, when my cell buzzed yet once more.

Sheesh! Again, a call from a number I didn’t recognize. It could possibly be Juliet, and I didn’t want to ignore a call from her.

“Hello, Detec— Er…Ruby Lee,” I said into the phone.

“We need to talk,” my father said.

Something surged within me at his voice—an emotion I didn’t quite recognize. “I don’t know what about. You should have surrendered yourself to the authorities, but as usual, you did your disappearing act.”

“How much did Steel tell you?” he asked.

Despite the fact that I’d learned my father had been to hell and back learning to train potential human slaves, I had no sympathy for him. He’d been well paid, and he’d gone into the whole thing with his eyes open. The same thing couldn’t be said for the poor innocent souls he ripped from their lives without their consent. Especially the children.

My heart squeezed in my chest.

As far as I knew, the mother of Dale and Donny Robertson still hadn’t been found. At least they were out of the hellhole they’d lived in for several months. Poor babies.

“Enough to make me question why you wanted to lure his children there. Why, Theo?”

“Because I knew it would draw someone else out, and I wanted to be done with this, once and for all.”

“You’re talking about Wendy,” I said. “She’s locked up. And you’ll still be put away for what you’ve done.”

“I told you I’d never see the inside of a prison cell, Ruby,” he said. “And I meant it.”

“Brad Steel told us you wanted out. You told me you wanted out.”

“I do. I will get out one way or the other.”

“Why now?”

“I’m old and tired,” he said, “but there’s something I have to do first. And I need your help.”

Chapter Forty-Three

Ryan

“Why in hell are you even asking me that? She’s a lunatic. You know that as well as I do.”

“She’s still your mother.”

“Do you want a relationship with her?”

“What I want has never mattered to her. Until she leaves this earth—or I do—our lives are intertwined. She’s seen to that.”

“She won’t entangle me in her web,” I said. “You can count on that.”

“Let’s get back to the subject at hand,” Joe said. “Like how the fuck you ended up on some rock in the Caribbean in a replica of this damned house.”

“You know that your mother got pregnant with Marjorie, and of course Wendy found out. She knew I valued my children more than anything, so the best way for her to get to me was to hurt one of them.”

“Larry always said that Talon wasn’t meant to be taken.”

“He wasn’t. Not permanently, anyway. They knew friends and family members were hands off.”

I wondered for a moment about Ruby and her cousin Gina, but didn’t want to sidetrack the discussion. That had happened much later, anyway.

“Wendy came to me and confronted me about your mother’s pregnancy. Then she demanded another payment for me breaking my vow. Five million dollars.”

“That’s the withdrawal that Jade found,” Joe said. “Wendy told us it was a payment for giving up her son. Though that didn’t make sense, since Ryan was already seven at the time.”

“No. I’d already paid her handsomely to give Ryan up. This was another payment, and again she threatened to take the documents linking me to the trafficking ring public. I felt I had no choice. Then she did the most heinous of things.”

“Really? Something more heinous than having a young boy tortured?” I said.