“He was frantic. He forgot. We only just learned this shit a few hours ago,” I said. “Leave him alone.”
“Hey, mon, I didn’t mean anything. I admit I went through everything quicker than a dive instructor would. Don’t you remember what I said about a free-flow malfunction?”
“I said he was frantic. You don’t know his past.” No way was I going to let him give Talon a hard time.
“Ry,” Talon said, his eyes pleading with me.
I said no more about his past. “What do you suppose happened?” I asked Raj.
“Could have been a simple malfunction,” he said. “It’s certainly not unheard of. Or…someone could have tampered with it.”
I didn’t want to think about the latter option. Only four others on the yacht besides the three of us. Did one of them want to keep us from reaching this island?
Talon was still shuddering. I touched his shoulder.
“Hey. It’s okay. We’re okay.” I looked ahead. “We’re going to make it.”
“I’m never doing that again,” Talon said.
I clutched at the waterproof container strapped to my hip. It contained a change of clothes and some supplies. It also contained a loaded gun and as much extra ammo as would fit—not much. Raj and Talon each had one as well. We’d be safe. And I wasn’t leaving Talon’s side.
We trudged along the deserted beach. The moon and stars in the clear night sky gave adequate guidance. My nerves were a mess, and I didn’t take my eyes off my brother. He’d been my hero for so long. My anchor. Now I needed to be his.
Someone on that boat might have just tried to kill him.
I didn’t take that lightly.
We pulled off our fins and changed clothes quickly.
“We need to find a place to stash our tanks and snorkels,” Raj said.
I looked around and squinted. Trees blanketed the land, surprisingly.
“Before settlement, the Caribbean islands were a diverse forested ecosystem,” Raj said when I asked about the foliage.
I looked around the coastline. It was dark, but I sure couldn’t see any ending. This wasn’t a small island. A faint light shone in the distance through the trees. “Do you see that?” I asked, pointing.
“Yah, mon,” Raj said. “Go toward the light, as they say. But first let’s hide our stuff somewhere out here where no one will look.”
“Why not bury it in the sand?” Talon said.
“Good idea,” Raj said. “But we have to be able to find it again if we need it. I’ll be in touch with the captain on the boat, but we need to be cautious. Someone may have tampered with your tank. We don’t know who we can trust now.” He looked around. “I don’t see a cell phone tower anywhere around, but I do seem to have service.” He fidgeted with his phone. “So there’s something around here somewhere. There are Wi-Fi networks too.”
I turned to regard my brother. He was still pale.
“Hey.” I grabbed his forearm. “You okay?”
He nodded.
“You sure? You don’t have to do this. We can leave right now.” Though I wasn’t sure how, since someone on the boat possibly wanted us dead.
“We have to do this. I have to do this. I have to put an end to this once and for all.” He stiffened and inhaled. “Let’s do it.”
I nodded, sending up a message of thanks to whoever was listening. I didn’t want to leave Talon in Raj’s care, but that’s what I would have done.
Whether Talon went forward or not, I had to.
I had to find Ruby.
Chapter Fourteen
Ruby
“Seems we’ve got time,” I said, looking out the window. “It’s dark now, and I have no desire to go back to that cell you had me in. So tell me the long story.”
He opened his mouth to speak when his phone buzzed on the desk. He glanced at it. “They’re here.”
“Who?”
“Who do you think? Three men have been spotted on the outskirts of the island.”
Three men. The Steel brothers.
A lump formed in my throat. “Don’t you dare hurt them.”
“I told you they’d follow the bread crumbs. That they’d come for you. Didn’t you believe me?”
I tried swallowing the lump, to no avail. I hadn’t doubted him. Ryan would have come for me through a blinding snowstorm. Nothing would stop him, even though I’d wished so hard for him not to follow me. I couldn’t bear the thought of him being in harm’s way.
“Haven’t the Steels been through enough?” I said.
“Not nearly,” he said.
“What do you have against them, anyway?”
“My beef is with Brad, not his sons.”
“Then why bring them here? I don’t understand.”
“I have my reasons.”
“You have Brad Steel. He’s somewhere here. You’ve obviously been keeping him here for seven years, letting his children think he’s dead. Why not just let the family be?”
“I don’t exactly have Brad Steel.”
I was sick of him pussyfooting around. “He’s here. You’ve said so yourself. So let his sons go.” I swallowed, about to do something that already had me gagging. “Please…Dad. If you ever cared for me at all, please let them go.” Yuck. I needed some mouthwash after that. But it was worth it. I’d do anything for Ryan.
He shook his head. “I’ve told you before that I have no intention of hurting them.”
“Then why did you lure them here?”
He sighed. “I want out, Ruby.”
“Out of what?”
“What do you think? Out of this! I’m old. I’m tired. I’m going broke. It’s taken me most of my savings to deal with the fallout of the Steels’ interference. Once Talon Steel got into therapy and Larry hired Jade to be his assistant city attorney, everything started crumbling. I want out.”
“So you want out because you’re getting close to getting caught. That’s nice.”
“No, I want out because I’m tired. Believe it or not, I’m not proud of everything I’ve done.”
I rolled my eyes and let out an indignant huff.
“Scoff if you want. I’m nearly out of funds. You were right.”
“It’s a shame Brooke Bailey didn’t die in that accident you staged.”
“That was a million-dollar policy, Ruby. It would have bought me a little time, but not much. A million dollars isn’t a lot in this business. Besides, I don’t expect you to believe this, but I actually cared for Brooke.”
“No, I don’t believe it.”
“Suit yourself. But I’m glad she’s not dead.”
“You got in touch with her. Wanted her to go away with you somewhere.”
“I did.”
“Jade told her everything. She wants nothing to do with you.” I didn’t know if that was true, but I did know Jade had talked to her mother.
“So be it.” He rubbed the back of his neck until it popped.
Time to change tactics. “I want to know about Wendy. I want to know about the symbol on those rings. I want to know what Wendy has on all of you to make you get into this horrible business. According to her, you guys simply got greedy and found out how lucrative the business of selling human beings is.”
“I won’t deny being greedy. I also won’t deny having some odd…tendencies.”
“Odd tendencies? Is that what you call pedophilia? Rape? Odd?”
He closed his eyes. “So much you don’t know. You’ll never understand.”
“How the hell did you find two other guys—Larry and Tom—who shared your sickness? The three of you were on some kind of macho power trip induced by greed and a psychopathy you all shared.”
“It’s not that simple.”
“You’re right about that. It isn’t simple at all.”
“Doing heinous things becomes easier after a while.”
“It shouldn’t.”
“Maybe not. But it does. The first time you break a rule, you’re filled with remorse, but when you don’t get caught, it’s easier to break it the second time. And it gets easier each time afterward, until it’s the norm.” He closed his eyes again, leaning his head back. “Things get twisted after a while. After you…” He opened his eyes and stared at me with those eerie blue eyes. “Never mind.”
“We’re not talking about jaywalking here, Theo. We’re talking about abusing women and kids. People, Theo. They’re fucking people!”
“It was Wendy—”
“Spare me. Three big tough guys were outsmarted and manipulated by one teenage girl? I’m not buying it.”