“Does she know you?”
“On her good days, she does. I visited her often before I left here. She was in a private compound in Florida.”
“How did she end up in a replica of our house on that godforsaken island?” Talon asked.
“Another long story.” He sighed. “By the time you all were adults, your mother had made a bit of progress—she remembered the three of you that she had borne, though she was convinced you were still young—and she kept asking to ‘go home.’ I couldn’t actually bring her here, because everyone thought she was dead. Plus, I couldn’t risk Wendy finding her. Wendy had uncovered almost everything about me, so I had to use kid gloves where your mother was concerned. So I did the next best thing. When I ‘died,’ I knew I couldn’t move assets around because you kids would go looking. So instead, I took the money earmarked for my bequest to the Fleming Corporation and used it to construct the replica. It calmed your mother to be ‘home,’ but sometimes she still needed an escape from the sensory disruption. So I built the guesthouse.”
“The muted white,” I said, more to myself than to my father.
“Yes. Sometimes your mo— Daphne needs to be free from all stimulation, so I’d take her there.”
“Why that island?” I asked. “Adjacent to that awful place.”
He cleared his throat. “Because I own it.”
Chapter Forty-Four
Ruby
“If you think I’m helping you do anything, think again.”
“You’ll help me with this,” he said, his tone low, and…was that a touch of remorse?
I must have been imagining it.
“What makes you think I will?”
“Because I’m going to find Gina.”
Franticness clawed at my gut. “Gina? After what you did to her?”
“I don’t expect you to understand.”
“Good thing.”
“I can say only this. I was desperate.”
“Desperate enough to rape your niece for years?”
“Yes. I know this doesn’t make sense to you.”
“This wouldn’t make sense to anyone, Theo.”
“I wasn’t in my right mind. I’m still not, but I’m not where I was. Things were…done to me. Things you wouldn’t understand.”
He had no idea that Brad Steel had told us about the training the three of them had endured. Still, I didn’t buy this remorseful act. I knew better than to believe his bullshit. But he knew how to get to me. No way would I say no to finding Gina.
“How could you let them have your own niece?”
“We were short. We had a contract to fulfill.”
“God. Do you even listen to yourself?”
“Ruby…”
“Really, Theo. You didn’t have to ‘groom’ her by raping her for eight years. You could have just taken her when you needed her.”
“It’s not that simple.”
“You got that right. None of this is simple. It’s sick and twisted.”
“I was messed up.”
I scoffed. “You think?”
“There are things you don’t know, that you wouldn’t understand.”
“I know the whole story, Theo. You were tortured and raped for money, to learn how to do it to others. One thing was different. You consented to that vileness.”
“Actually…I didn’t. None of us did.”
A brick dropped into my stomach. I said nothing.
“Wendy blackmailed us. All three of us.”
I stayed silent a few more seconds until I snapped myself out of my stupor. “What the hell could she have had on you? You hadn’t even gotten into anything that bad yet.”
“Wendy always had the upper hand. I tried to figure her out over the years. I never could. She was always one step ahead of us.”
“What was her failsafe?” I asked, not sure that I actually wanted to know.
“Documents, mostly. They linked us to some bad shit. More than just narcotics dealing.”
“Were they forged?”
“Most likely some of them were.” He paused for a minute. Then, “She dropped bits of information into the laps of her fellow journalists. They’d come after us, and then they’d hit a dead end. Sometimes they got pretty close, and we had to sweat it out. It was enough that she could keep us doing what we were doing.”
“She had that kind of power?” I said the words, but I knew the fallacy within them. She did have that kind of power. I’d seen it.
“Finally, she found out about you, Ruby.”
“So what?”
“She threatened you. That was enough to keep me in line.”
“Please spare me your father’s pride,” I said, trying to keep from gagging.
But he didn’t elaborate. “Ruby, listen to me. If you help me find Gina, I’ll make it worth your while.”
I would already do anything to help Gina. He didn’t have to bribe me. But what he didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him. “You don’t have anything I want.”
“You’re wrong about that. I can take you to your mother.”
* * *
I sat immobile for what seemed like hours after the call from my father. I hadn’t looked for my mother. Never. I’d been told she was dead when the authorities took me and made me a ward of the state. Then, when they found my father, I’d gone to him. That had lasted about six months before he tried to rape me and I escaped at age fifteen.
He’d told me recently that my mother had voluntarily given me up because she couldn’t take care of me. I’d thought he was lying.
He still might be.
But if there was a chance…
If my mother was alive, I had to find her.
My phone buzzed. My contact at the FBI.
“Hey, Finley,” I said. “What’s the good news?”
“Hey, Lee. Mostly good,” he said. “We’ve found the parents of all the missing children except for young Dale and Don Robertson.”
My heart sank. “Oh?”
“I guess I should rephrase that. We did find their mother. We found the remains of a woman near Estes Park. Gunshot wound to the head. No weapon found. She’s been identified as Cheri Robertson, the boys’ mother.”
As a cop, I was used to getting bad news. But those poor little boys… Tears welled in my eyes, but I choked them back. I needed to find out more. “So what now?”
“The local police are treating it as a homicide for now, but it looks more to me like a suicide. Just a hunch, though, because no weapon has been found yet.”
Finley had been in the business a long time. His hunches were usually correct.
“The boys are staying with their great-aunt, but she’s elderly and can’t take them permanently. We’ll begin looking for alternate arrangements.”
Alternate arrangements…
Two boys with mental health issues, ages seven and ten… The outcome wouldn’t be good. Alternate arrangements would be a group home. Adoption was almost unheard of for children past toddler age. And children who would need years of therapy to deal with the trauma they’d experienced? Not likely. Even if one found a home, it was unlikely the brothers could stay together. And they needed each other.
I bit on my lip. “I don’t know what to say.”
“I wish I had better news, Lee. I do. I know how much you care for the two boys.”
“Yeah.” I sniffed. “Thanks for the update, Fin.”
“You got it. I’ll be in touch.”
I was supposed to meet my father the next morning. Right now, I had to drive over to Talon’s and tell the Steels the news about Dale and Donny. They would want to know. Maybe they could pull some strings somewhere, or at least throw some money at a home to make it a better place for them. I didn’t relish telling them this.
Those poor boys had lost their mother after everything else they’d been through.
Swallowing back the sobs that threatened to overtake me, I began driving.
Chapter Forty-Five
Ryan
“Say what?” I said incredulously.
“I own the island.”
“The one where all that horror took place?” I shook my head.
My brothers said nothing, but their faces said it all. They were numb with shock.
“No. That one is owned by the Fleming Corporation. I own its sister island.”