The yacht was first class all the way. Two master suites for Talon and me and another queen suite for Raj. A crew of four, including a chef, were there to cater to all our needs. Raj had given them the story that we were two American brothers looking to buy real estate in the Caribbean, possibly a private island.

We were treated like royalty when we boarded, and a bottle of Dom Pérignon was waiting for us to toast our adventure. Though neither Talon nor I felt up to celebrating, we kept up the act and each took a champagne flute.

Once we were seaborne, the chef prepared a Jamaican meal of brown stewed chicken with cabbage and okra. I couldn’t help thinking how well my seasoned Cab would go with the dish—if I actually felt like eating. For dessert we had banana fritters.

Talon and I both cleaned our plates to keep up the show, though neither of us was hungry. The meal, which normally I’d have enjoyed, had tasted like mud.

After dinner, while the crew was cleaning up, Talon and I went out on the deck with Raj to discuss plans. The air smelled of sand and salt, and the water was blue as Ruby’s eyes.

Ruby. My baby. How I wished we were sharing the beauty of the ocean together. Without her, and not knowing her fate, I couldn’t enjoy anything.

“We’ll be traveling at night to avoid suspicion,” Raj said, “but it’s important to stay aware. One of us must be awake at all times. I’ll do it as much as I can, since I know what clues to look for, but even I have to sleep sometime.”

“Understood,” Talon said.

“Not a problem. I volunteer.” I pushed my hair out of my eyes. “I won’t be able to sleep anyway. Not until I know Ruby is safe.”

“You sure?” Raj said.

“Yeah. I’m sure. You guys get some shut-eye. I’ll be fine out here on the deck.”

“I don’t want to leave you alone,” Talon said. “Let’s have a nightcap, bro.”

“Tal, I’ll be fine.”

“Look,” Raj said. “It doesn’t make any sense for both of you to stay awake. We all have to take turns. That’s the only way this will work.”

“I just want to join my brother for a nightcap. No harm, no foul. I’ll hit the sheets after, okay?”

“You two are the bosses,” Raj said. “Just trying to make this as easy as possible on you.”

“I understand,” I said. “I’ll make sure he goes to bed.”

“How much you sleep is totally up to the two of you. Just know this isn’t going to be easy, and we all need our rest.”

“We get it,” Talon said. “But Raj, this isn’t going to be easy on us whether we sleep or not.”

“No shit,” I said under my breath as Raj nodded and left the deck.

“You want a drink?” Talon asked me.

I shook my head. “I want to stay awake.”

“Yeah, I don’t want one either. I just said that to give Raj a reason why I’m staying with you for a few.”

“Do you trust him?” I asked.

“He comes highly recommended. Of course, we only had a day to get him hired, and the fact that he was available at the last minute makes me wonder. He seems okay to me, but I’m going to keep one eye on him.”

“Me too,” I said. “And on this crew. We only have Raj’s word that they’re discreet.”

Talon nodded, stroking his stubbled chin. Then he turned to me. “Thanks for doing this, Ry. Thanks for helping me put this to rest.”

“Hey, it stopped being just about you a long time ago, but even if it were, you know I’d be here for you, bro. You’re still my hero.”

Although I’d found out recently that Talon probably hadn’t saved me from his horrible fate that day—in all likelihood my mother had—I still felt beholden to my big brother. He’d tried to help me get away, and had I been bigger and stronger, I’d have done the same for him.

That’s what brothers do.

Talon had said those words to Joe and me after telling us he’d have gladly gone through his hell just to spare the two of us the same.

Even though he was only my half brother, we were bonded by more than blood. All three of us were.

The Steel brotherhood.

That was us.

There was a time when I thought my father would have been a part of any brotherhood among us Steel men.

I pulled the future lawmakers ring that bore his name out of my pocket.

No longer.

He’d banded together with a group of sociopaths before any of us were even born.

Talon didn’t speak. He’d always been a little uncomfortable with my hero worship, though he was better now that he’d been healing with the help of his wife, Jade, and Joe’s wife, Melanie, who was his therapist.

Finally, he said, “Dad’s ring?”

“Yeah. I don’t know why I’m carrying it with me. Tom’s is down in my cabin in the safe. But this one…” I tossed it in the air and caught it. Its weight was heavy in my palm.

“Yeah, I get it. Weird to think you’re holding something that belonged—or belongs, for all we know—to Dad. Something we never saw him wear. Something we never imagined he’d wear in a million years.”

“He wasn’t the man we always thought he was,” I said. “Not if he was involved with the other people who wore this ring.”

“How do you think it got in Ruby’s place?”

“Mathias, no doubt. Somehow he got his hands on it and planted it there. It proves he was there when she disappeared. I turned the place upside down before, when I found the Wollstonecraft book, and this ring never turned up.”

“How could Mathias have gotten hold of Dad’s ring, though?”

I blew out a breath of air. “Hell if I know. But we do know this. None of us ever remember Dad wearing a ring like this, but clearly he had one, because he’s wearing it in the yearbook photo of the club. Maybe Mathias has had it since high school. Since Dad bowed out of their business.”

“If Dad bowed out of their business.” Talon cocked his head. “I’m not sure what I believe anymore. This thing with him and Wendy…”

Wendy. My psycho mother, Wendy Madigan. Crazy as a loon but brilliant as Einstein. A lethal combination. She’d been the mastermind behind this whole thing, and according to clues we’d found, the symbol on the ring represented her—an evil female.

I rubbed the ring between my fingers. It was identical to Tom’s except for the name engraved on the inside. I slid my fingers over the black onyx stone, the twisted female symbol on the side, and then to the band at the back—

What?

My fingers hit something raised. I turned the ring in my hand. The back of the band had some engraving on it.

In the darkness, I couldn’t see what it was, and I doubted even with natural light I’d be able to see the tiny figures.

“Tal, check this out.”

“What?”

I handed him the ring. “There’s something engraved on the back of the band, on the outside. I don’t recall anything like that on Tom’s ring.”

“One way to find out,” Talon said. “Let’s go get Tom’s ring and compare the two.”

“I’m supposed to stay outside and keep watch. It’s in the safe in my cabin.” I handed him the key to my room. “The combination is Marj’s birthday.”

“Got it. I’ll be right back.”

Talon returned ten minutes later with the ring.

“I’m not seeing anything on the outside of the band on this one.”

I took the ring and inspected it. He was right. Nothing.

“I need to get a good look at these markings,” he said. “We need light…and probably a magnifying glass.”

“They’ll have magnifiers on the bridge for looking at maps and stuff. Maybe a flashlight too. I’ll go check.”

Again, he was gone only about ten minutes. He came back with a small Maglite and several magnifying glasses.

“This one’s the strongest.” He handed it to me with the ring. “Check it out. I’ll hold the light.”

I stopped for a few seconds to wonder how conspicuous we might be, shining a flashlight in the dark in the middle of the Caribbean, but my curiosity won out. I held the magnifier in front of me and moved it back and forth until the image of the etching became clear. A series of numbers stood out.

My heart nearly stopped. “I’ll be goddamned.”

Chapter Six

Ruby

They put you in this room over a day ago.

I couldn’t wrap my still-hazy mind around Juliet’s words.

Over a day ago?

How long had I been out from that chloroform? No wonder I was so sick.

“Do you remember them bringing me in here?”

“No. When they moved me in, you were already here, asleep with your cheek embedded in the floor. I can tell when a day passes because of the window. They brought me here about this time yesterday. I’m just assuming you got here right before then, but honestly, I don’t know. You could have been here longer than that.”

I shook my head, willing my brain cells to start firing correctly. I was dehydrated. That explained my unquenchable thirst and also part of my fogginess. But there was no way they’d used chloroform to put me under for that long. A dose like that would have killed me. I’d been drugged with something else. I touched my upper arm, searching for a lump or sensitive area where they might have injected me. Nothing.

God, what had they put inside my body?