by HELEN HARDT
“Oh, yeah. I know all about you, Mathias. You’re legendary around here.”
“I don’t know who the hell you think I am, but you’ve got the wrong name.”
I rolled my eyes. “You’re not that good of a liar.”
He moved toward me and nudged the barrel of the gun against my heart. I tried hard not to piss myself.
“Not a good liar? Do you think I’m lying now? I’m going to kill you, Steel. I’m going to put a bullet into your heart.”
Wendy surged forward then and plowed into the masked man, making him drop his gun. The weapon slid across the tile floor.
“You will not hurt him! I love that man!”
Before I could think about what was happening, I lunged toward the gun. My hands were clammy, but I got hold of the slick weapon.
I stood over the two of them. “Don’t either of you fucking move.”
The masked man got to his feet and grabbed Wendy, putting her in a headlock. “You drop that gun, motherfucker, or I’ll twist her head right off.”
“You think I care?”
“Brad, please!” Wendy cried. “Don’t let him hurt me. I’m carrying your child!”
Jesus Christ, this woman was deranged. I looked around the house. There had to be a landline here somewhere, but I hadn’t been able to find one. I had no cell phone.
“Either one of you have a phone?” I asked.
“You think I’m giving my phone to you?” the man said.
“I think you’re giving your phone to me,” I said. “Otherwise I’m going to put a bullet in your brain.” I touched the barrel of the gun to his forehead.
The man was cold as ice. No reaction at all.
Until I heard the cock of a pistol behind me.
“Drop the gun, Joe.”
That voice I recognized. Tom Simpson. I had wondered how Mathias had known which door I would try to use to exit this house from hell. Now I knew. He hadn’t. Simpson had been waiting at the other door.
“Nice to see you again,” I said, although I hadn’t turned and I couldn’t see him. I didn’t dare budge with a gun pointed at me.
“Let her go,” Tom said to Mathias, “and move out the door slowly.”
The masked man pushed Wendy to the ground and walked backward toward the door.
Tom moved into my vision. He was wearing a mask this time as well, but I recognized his eyes.
“What the hell are you doing?” I asked. “What am I supposed to tell Bryce? What about Evelyn?”
“You were never supposed to know about any of this, Joe,” he said. “But you Steel boys wouldn’t quit pushing. Our beef was never with you. It was with your father.”
“You have no beef with us? You torture my little brother, and you think we’re not going to come after you? You don’t know any of us very well, and you sure as hell didn’t know our father.”
“You’re the one who never knew who your father really was, Joe.”
I froze, chills skittering through my veins.
Tom was right. I just didn’t know to what degree he was right.
I would damned well find out.
“Everything was going along fine,” Tom continued, “until your brother decided to go into therapy, decided to dredge up all the shit that had been long buried.” He held the gun against the side of my head. “You think I won’t kill you, don’t you, Joe? You think because you’re Bryce’s best friend, I won’t do it.”
I scoffed. “Are you kidding me? You killed your nephew, Tom. I know you have every intention of killing me. You won’t lose a wink of sleep over it. I don’t question you at all. I know you wouldn’t think twice about pulling that trigger and putting a bullet in my head.”
“How do you think it feels to die, Joe? How do you think it feels to have a bullet rip through your body?”
My bowels churned once again, but no way was I going to shit myself in front of Tom Simpson. He was sure as hell not worth that. I would go down fighting.
“Go ahead and kill me if you have to.” I willed my voice not to crack. “But I already told your friend here that we made arrangements with our attorneys for our fortune should anything happen to any one of us. You won’t get your hands on a cent of it.”
“We’ve seen your father’s will, Joe.”
“Good for you. I’ve seen my father’s will, also. You seem to be forgetting that my father is dead, so his will is moot. I have my own will. And trust me, it’s ironclad.”
“We’ll see about that,” Tom said. “We know what’s in his will, and nothing you can do can change what we know to be true. We made sure there were no loopholes.”
What the hell was he talking about? My father’s will had been read to us by his attorneys after his death. No one had contested it, and his death was common knowledge. His obituary appeared in all the local papers. As informed as these jokers claimed to be, surely they knew that.
This was all a ruse. They were trying to play with my mind. To manipulate me. Well, I was far from a ten-year-old boy or eight-year-old girl. “I’m done with this conversation. Either kill me or get the fuck out of here.” I looked to Wendy. “And take her with you.”
“We don’t want her. She was your father’s problem, not ours.”
“Come on!” Mathias yelled from the doorway. “Leave him be. We’d never hear the end of it from her if we blasted his brains all over this place.”
“We could kill both of them,” Tom said. “I’m sick of the sight of them.”
“No more than I am, but you know the consequences. Let’s get the fuck out of here.”
Tom walked toward the door, still holding the gun on me. “You’re getting spared again, Joe. But trust me when I say your luck will run out eventually.” He shut the door behind him.
I let out a gasping sigh, ready to release my bladder. Wendy was crumpled on the floor.
And I realized I still held a gun in my hand.
I pointed it straight at her.
Chapter Thirty–Three
Melanie
I dropped the phone, and it hurtled to the floor.
Murdered?
Oh my God.
I hadn’t liked the way she had been making eyes at Jonah, but I certainly never wished her dead.
I quickly picked up the phone and put it back to my ear. “I’m so very sorry,” I said. “May I ask what happened?”
“Who is this?”
“This is Dr. Melanie Carmichael. I’m a…friend of Jordan’s.”
“The name that came up on the caller ID was Jonah Steel.”
“Yes. Jonah Steel is my boyfriend. I’m using his phone.”
“How does my daughter know the two of you?”
I wasn’t sure how to answer that question. The fact that she had been rooting around in Jonah’s father’s past could very well have been what had gotten her killed.
“Jonah’s father and his uncle were alumni at the school where Jordan works. They had been in touch with her about getting some information.” That seemed tame enough.
“I see. There’s not much to tell you. She was shot in her apartment late last night, apparently. There was no evidence of a forced entry, and the police are investigating now.”
I shivered as chills swept through me. “Again, I’m very sorry for your loss.” I wasn’t sure what else to say.
“Thank you.” Jordan’s father ended the call.
I sat back down at the table. Lucy rested her head on my knee. I absently ran my fingers across her soft head.
Another life had ended. Maybe not technically on my watch, but because of what Jonah and I had been doing. Granted, I didn’t know this for certain, but I had a strong hunch.
My heart broke for Jordan. So young. Oddly, she was probably around the same age as Gina. Most likely killed by the same person.
There was nothing I could do about the yearbooks now. So I would keep them. I would keep them until Jonah came home. And he would come home. I couldn’t think otherwise. I couldn’t allow the words t
o form in my mind.
He had to come home.
“Oh, Jonah,” I said aloud. “Please come home to me. Please. I need you so much.”
I wasn’t hungry, but I walked to the kitchen to fix myself some scrambled eggs.
When I had finished eating, I went back to the bedroom. Talon had texted again, assuring me he and Ryan were fine. I had also missed a call on my cell phone. From Detective Ruby Lee.
Theodore Mathias’s daughter.
This was all too much to deal with.
I didn’t want to talk to her right now. I didn’t want to talk to anyone. But she might have news that would help me find Jonah.
I pushed the button to dial her number.
“Lee,” she said into the phone.
“Ruby, hi. This is Melanie Carmichael returning your call.”
“Yeah, Melanie. How are you?”
Surely she hadn’t called just to ask how I was. “Do you have any news on my case?” I didn’t mean to be rude, but my mind was hammering and my head beginning to ache.
“No. Like I told you before, I’m not technically on your case anymore. But I wanted to call and let you know that my aunt, Erica Cates, has been released from the hospital.”
My nerves jumped. “Oh?”
She cleared her throat. “Yeah. I haven’t spoken to her or Rodney, but I’ve been keeping tabs through my connections at the hospital. She was released into her husband’s care by a Dr. Miles Bennett.”
Miles Bennett. The doctor who had recommended I take a leave of absence from my practice. Some recommendation. He’d all but threatened to suspend my privileges if I didn’t heed his advice.
“Are they returning to Denver?”
“No. They’re staying in a townhome Rodney rented in the city.”
“Yeah. I’ve been there.”
“So, I was wondering…”
“What?”
“I’m thinking of paying my aunt and uncle a visit.”
“What does this have to do with me?” I didn’t mean to be short with her, but my mind was full of Jonah. I couldn’t focus on anything else right now.
“I was wondering if you’d like to come with me.”
“I’m not sure that’s the best idea. Right now I have a complaint with the medical board pending that was initiated by Rodney Cates, plus he’s suing me for malpractice.” Jade had given me the name of an attorney in Denver, Sherry Malone, who handled malpractice cases and was considered one of the best. Of course, whether my insurance company would agree to pay her rates was still up in the air.
“Why? Have you been told by counsel not to talk to them?”
“No…” I just didn’t really want to talk to them. Especially not now, with Jonah missing.
“I understand. I was just hoping for some company. I don’t have anyone else to ask.”
Ruby sounded lonely. She’d been on her own for so long. Did she even have any friends?
What the hell? I wasn’t any use to Jonah sitting around the house worrying. Maybe I could get some clues from the Cateses about everything else we were dealing with. All these people were interrelated somehow. “Okay, I’ll go along, but there are a few things I need to tell you first.”
Chapter Thirty–Four
Jonah
“No, Brad, please! I love you!” Wendy crawled toward me even as I pointed the gun straight at her.
“Don’t come any closer, you crazy-assed bitch. I’m getting out of here.”
“You can’t leave me. You promised we’d be together. What will I tell our child?”
She was so delusional. I wasn’t sure I could get anything close to the truth out of her, but I had to try.
“Tell me about those men, Wendy. Why were they here?”
“You know why, Brad.”
“Damn it! I’m not Br—” I stopped myself. It wouldn’t matter. She had convinced herself that I was my father, and nothing I could say would change her lunatic mind. So far, posing as my father hadn’t gotten me any information that was helpful, but maybe that would change. “No, Wendy, I don’t know why they were here. And why did one of them keep calling me Joe?”
“I don’t know. Maybe because that’s your son’s name.”
“I have a son?”
“You have two.”
Two? Had she gone back further in time to when Ryan hadn’t yet been born? “What is my other son’s name?” I asked.
“You know your son’s name, silly.” She smiled and batted her eyes.
“Humor me.” I stood over her, letting the gun sag a bit in my hand. “Tell me my son’s name, damn it.”
“Some weird name your slut wife picked out. Talmud or something.”
“Talon.”
“Yes, that’s it.”
I stood over her, rage pouring out of me. “If you refer to my wife as a slut again, Wendy, I’ll rip your throat right out of your neck.”
“I’m sorry. Please. Don’t leave me, Brad. I need you. Our child needs you.”
“Wendy, you know I’m married. Only Daphne is having my children.”
“I am. I am. I swear. I went to the doctor just the other day. He confirmed that I’m pregnant. It’s going to be a boy, Brad. A boy just like you. More beautiful than your two sons with Daphne, with a shining smile and eyes that laugh. Our son will be a god.”
Her words niggled at me. A boy. A Steel son that was considered the best looking and most jovial of the three.
Ryan.
No. Ryan truly was the most handsome of all of us, so he must have come from our mother. Daphne Steel was more beautiful than Wendy Madigan could ever hope to be.
Oh, God…
“Fast forward, Wendy. Tell me about our son.”
“He’s beautiful, just like I knew he would be. Dark eyes and hair like yours, Brad. But his eyes have a brightness that your other sons’ lack. I wanted to name him. I wanted to name him, but you wouldn’t let me.”
“Why?”
“You had a name in mind. But you let me give him his middle name. Warren, after my father.”
Warren? Ryan’s middle name was Warren, but it had been our mother’s maiden—
No, it hadn’t. Our mother’s maiden name was Wade. We had always been told it was Warren, and in fact, Warren was listed as her maiden name on her birth certificate and her marriage certificate. But Jade had uncovered her original birth certificate. The one in the database had been altered. Her actual name was Daphne Kay Wade. That was how we had first found out she was the half sister of Larry Wade.
No.
This could not be happening.
Ryan was not the spawn of my father and this crazy woman.
He looked like us, for God’s sake.
But…we all looked like our father. Marjorie was the only one who looked even slightly like our mother.
No. No. No.
Our mother would never have stood for it. She never would have raised another woman’s child as her own.
But our mother did as she was told… Always…
“I told them,” Wendy was saying. “I told them not to take my son. Only the other one. That’s why they let the little one go.”
Acid slowly crept up my throat, leaving trails of flame in its wake. No. Talon had saved Ryan. That’s why he hadn’t been taken that day. Ryan had told the story over and over again. Talon had saved him. Saved him….
But Talon was never supposed to have been taken. That’s what Larry had said.
Had Wendy been telling the truth all along? That Talon was taken by my father’s enemies? And those enemies happened to be Tom Simpson and Theodore Mathias?
Larry had been lying?
I closed my eyes and inhaled, trying to get my bearings.
If what I suspected was the case, the truth lay somewhere in between.
“Wendy, are you saying you gave birth to my child?”
She nodded, sniffling. “You took my baby, Brad. You took him, and I let you. I let you because I love you and I’d do anything for you. I let
you give my child to another woman to raise. That’s how much I love you, Brad. But still, it wasn’t enough for you. So I made sure you paid the ultimate price for your betrayal.”
Chapter Thirty–Five
Melanie
After I’d told her over the phone about Jonah being missing and the future lawmakers club, I met Ruby at her tiny apartment in the city. I’d made a conscious decision to push my worry to the back of my mind. Talon and Ryan hadn’t let me go with them to search for Jonah, but maybe I could find out something by going with Ruby to see Rodney Cates. After all, he’d been a member of that strange club too.
“I can afford a decent neighborhood now,” Ruby said, “but I keep my life simple. Very few possessions and a small place. I like to be able to pick up and leave quickly if I need to.”
Ruby was dressed in her usual khaki pants and white shirt, one button unbuttoned at the collar. No makeup, hair pulled back tightly. No jewelry or adornments of any kind other than a chunky black watch on her left wrist. I looked closely. Nope. Even her ears weren’t pierced.
“I understand.” And I did. She’d been through a lot. Life hadn’t been easy for her, and she didn’t take anything for granted. I sighed as I took a long look at her. Compared to her life, mine had been easy. Sure, I’d gotten no love or affection from my parents, but at least I hadn’t been physically abused. I’d always had a roof over my head. Plenty of books on my shelves. A chance for a top-notch education.
But Ruby? She’d done all of this herself. Starting at age fifteen.
Unreal.
“I did a little research while you drove over here,” she was saying. “There’s no news on the murder of Jordan Hayes, and nothing about Jonah either. I don’t blame you for putting Mills and Johnson on it. They’re the best. They’ll find him.”
“I hope so.” Over twenty-four hours had passed, and no news. I was numb.
“Thank you for coming with me. I know how worried you are.”
“I was wondering if we could make a stop before we see your aunt and uncle,” I said.
“I suppose so. Where do you need to go?”