Unraveled_Steel Brothers Saga_Book Nine

by HELEN HARDT

  My father walked behind his desk and sat down. “No. In the world she’s living in, she only has three children—the three that came from her body. I’m sorry. I hope you believe me, Ryan, that I never meant for you to find out about your maternity. Everything was going well until…”

  “Until Talon was taken,” Joe said.

  I clenched my fists. Was Joe about to spill the beans as to why Talon was taken? Marj was not ready for that.

  “Yes. Your mother never recovered from that.”

  “You let us think she was dead,” Joe said, his voice dark and deep.

  “I did what I had to do to protect you kids and her. I’m hoping I can make you understand all of that.” He turned to me, regarding me with what at first glance seemed like paternal pride and love.

  But I had to be mistaken. My father couldn’t possibly feel those things for any of us, or he wouldn’t have left us.

  “Ryan, Daphne loved you like one of her own.”

  “Doesn’t seem that way now.” I swirled the amber liquid in my glass.

  “She did at first. She agreed to raising you at Steel Acres. Her name is on your birth certificate. In the eyes of the law, you’re her child. She forgave me, and she didn’t hold you responsible for my mistakes.”

  “How did you manage it? Joe says he remembers her being pregnant.”

  “We used a graduated prosthetic. When you were born to Wendy, we invented a story about a home birth and had a doctor and nurse attend to you and your mother.”

  I took another drink. “Are you saying I was born at home?”

  He nodded. “The doctor and nurse were well paid to keep quiet. As was your mother. She broke a vow to me when she told you the truth.”

  “Christ!” Joe stood, pacing. “How could you put our mother through this? How could you fuck that crazy woman?” He turned to me. “No offense, Ry.”

  “None taken.” After all, I wasn’t the only one who had a crazy woman for a mother. At least Daphne Steel wasn’t evil, though.

  “It’s a long story, and Talon isn’t here yet.”

  Silence. What the hell could any of us say to that, anyway?

  “You might as well know. I’m likely to be imprisoned when this all comes out. Ruby’s father will be too. You may want to warn her,” he said to me.

  “Are you kidding? She’s been trying to get him behind bars since she became a cop. She’ll be thrilled.”

  “He’s slippery,” my father said. “He’s eluded arrest all these years. He’s a master of disguise and aliases. So good that he got complacent. That’s how you boys were able to track him down through his tattoo. But there’s another reason he got lazy as well.”

  “Why is that?” I asked.

  “He wants out now.”

  “Out of what? This crazy trafficking ring? It’s not possible.”

  “I can understand why you’d think it isn’t possible. But he wants it bad enough that he has switched alliances. He’s working with me now.”

  Joe’s eyes went feral. “What?”

  “Before you ask, no, I don’t trust him. He probably doesn’t trust me either, but we’re all each other has. You kids were never supposed to know that your mother and I were alive or that Ryan is your half brother. Wendy is going to pay for all of this.”

  “I don’t get it, Daddy. You had Mother, the most beautiful woman in the world. Why would you stray? You said she was devoted to us, even to Ryan, who she didn’t give birth to. I don’t understand.” Marj wrung her hands together.

  “Sweet baby girl,” he said, gazing downward. “Your mother will always have my heart, but my soul? Without meaning to, I sold my soul long before I met her.” He paused, exhaling and looking back up. “I sold it to the devil herself.”

  Three pairs of eyes settled on me.

  My cell phone vibrated in my pocket. I picked it up, trying to ignore the heat of my family’s gazes. From Ruby.

  I just got a text from my father. Something big is going down.

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Ruby

  This is your father. Take cover.

  That’s all the text said. I didn’t know my father’s cell number, and it was untraceable. It could be a hoax, but I doubted it. Oddly, he seemed to be on my side now, and previously he hadn’t usually bothered telling me who he was when he texted. At least that was what my intuition said.

  I quickly texted Ryan.

  I just got a text from my father. Something big is going down.

  Seconds later, he found me in the kitchen. “What’s going on?”

  “I don’t know yet. He told me to ‘take cover.’”

  “Take cover? What the—”

  Brad Steel’s footsteps thumped loudly down the corridor, followed by Joe and Marj. “I just got word. The FBI has raided the compound. I need to get your mother out of here.”

  “And go where?” Ryan said.

  “What the hell is the FBI doing on foreign soil?” Joe said. “If you’re lying, I’ll fucking kill you with my bare hands.”

  “Why would I lie?”

  “I don’t know,” Ryan said with sarcasm. “You’ve been so honest with us for the past thirty years.”

  “If it’s truly the FBI, we’re not going anywhere,” Joe said. “The only guilty person here is you. The rest of us are innocent.”

  “And if the FBI is here,” Ryan said, “they’re rescuing Anna and the others from that horrible place. So yeah, I’m with Joe. We’re going to let them do their job.”

  “I have contacts at the FBI,” I said. “Let me see what I can find out.” I left the kitchen and made a quick phone call to my confidante at the FBI. Armed with new information, I walked toward the kitchen, listening.

  “This isn’t going to end well,” Brad Steel said.

  “For you, maybe,” Ryan said.

  He didn’t deny it.

  Marjorie went into his arms. “I forgive you, Daddy. I don’t want you to go to prison.”

  “Nothing can stop that now, baby girl.”

  “Christ, Marj,” Joe said. “What is this about? He kept you from knowing our mother. He kept her from all of us.”

  “That doesn’t mean he should go to prison.”

  Joe rolled his eyes. “Maybe not, but the shit going on here does.”

  Brad nodded. “Your brother is right. I had nothing to do with any of it, but I did know about it. That makes me an accessory.”

  “How could you know about this and not do anything about it?” Marjorie asked.

  “For you,” he said. “For all of you. Everything I did was to protect my children. My legacy.”

  That was as good a time as any to interrupt with my information.

  “It is the FBI. My sources confirmed it. And your PI, Raj? He’s an FBI attaché in Jamaica. He’s actually an American citizen, a captain in the Marine Corps who masquerades as a private investigator. He didn’t disappear. He rendezvoused with the other agents when they arrived.”

  “How did your father know there was going to be an FBI raid?” Ryan asked.

  “I’m not sure. We’ll probably find out when he contacts me again in the same enigmatic way he always does. Unless they already have him in custody, and I hope they do.”

  “Theo will get away,” my father said. “He always has before.”

  “Seems the two of you have that in common,” Ryan said.

  “No, it’s over for me,” he said. “I’ll die in prison. But at least Daphne will be taken care of.”

  Talon finally arrived. “Hey, what’s going on? I looked for you in the office.”

  “The FBI has raided the compound.” Joe quickly filled him in. “It won’t be long before they come here.”

  Talon eyed Brad. “I see.”

  “So we’d better get to the whole truth before they get here,” Joe said. “Back to the office.”

  I squeezed Ryan’s hand. “Go ahead.”

  “No, this time you’re coming with us,” he said.

  “I don’t thin
k that’s approp—”

  “Ryan’s right,” Joe said. “You’re as involved in this as any of us. Come to the office. You deserve the truth as well.”

  Brad had taken a phone call and appeared to be listening intently. I looked to Ryan for guidance, and he nodded.

  We all followed Brad back to the office.

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Ryan

  I walked numbly, Ruby’s hand in mine, to the elaborately decorated office across from the bedroom Juliet and Ruby were using.

  Would we finally get the answers we sought? Or would the FBI interrupt us? Only time would tell.

  Joe took the lead. “Start from the beginning. The future lawmakers. We know you funded their business. We know you once considered them friends. Ruby’s uncle even said you were the one person Theodore Mathias trusted. So how the fuck did a club based on brotherhood—Mathias’s words, according to Ruby—turn into a million-dollar human-trafficking business? And we already know you got greedy.”

  “I’m going to be getting another call. I don’t have much time.”

  “Talk fast, then,” Joe said through gritted teeth.

  Our father sighed. “They got greedy. I had money.”

  “Whatever. You funded them, so you’re just as much a part of this,” Joe said. “Explain how Wendy was in control. She was a sophomore JV cheerleader, for God’s sake.”

  “Shit,” he said. “Where to start?”

  “The beginning, Daddy,” Marjorie said. “Jade says Wendy told her you and she were soul mates and always wanted to be together.”

  “Yeah,” Joe said, “but that didn’t add up because you didn’t get together with her after Mom died. Of course, now we know that Mom was never dead.”

  “Wendy does indeed own my soul, but not in a good way.”

  “So you’ve said.”

  “We did date and become”—his face reddened—“intimate during high school. She joined the future lawmakers, and it turned out she had an amazing head for business. She was creative as well. She liked to paint, and she also dabbled in metalsmithing.”

  My hand drifted absently to my pocket. My father’s ring. I’d been carrying it with me all this time. Why? I had no idea.

  “She made this.” I held it up to my father.

  “She did. I see you found it. I left it on the cushion of the couch at Ruby’s apartment.”

  “You fucking drugged my girlfriend!” I stood, clenching my palm around the ring.

  “I did.” He looked to Ruby. “And I’m sorry. You were never in any real danger. In his own warped way, your father loves you.”

  She didn’t respond. Hell, what could she say?

  “It was between the cushions. I only saw it when I sat down.”

  “It must have rolled a bit. But you found it, and it brought you here.” He cleared his throat. “The rings. Wendy designed them and made one for each of us.”

  “And who paid for them?” Joe asked.

  “Who do you think? She designed the symbol and engraved my name on the inside of mine.”

  “And the GPS coordinates?” Talon asked.

  “I had those added recently. So you could find me.”

  “Hold on,” Joe said. “We’re digressing. This is all important, but we need to keep it chronological. Back to Wendy and the club, please.”

  I couldn’t believe he had said please. The tone of his voice and expression on his face didn’t seem pleased at all.

  “Wendy moved away after her sophomore year, and I thought it was over. She had other ideas though. She kept in contact with me and the other guys in the club, specifically Larry, Tom, and Theo. She watched us grow our business, watched them get greedy, and when the time was right, she swooped in. She’s very intelligent and shrewd and cunning. She put ideas into their heads without them even knowing it. As for me? I funded them and continued to do so before I realized they were getting into illegal stuff. They started with marijuana, which was of course illegal in Colorado back then. But face it, pot is pretty harmless. I didn’t see any real reason to get out at that point.”

  “You said yourself that it was illegal,” Joe said. “That wasn’t reason enough for you?”

  “Yeah, but I was seventeen and rich. I figured I was untouchable.” He closed his eyes. “Remember those days? When you’re young and carefree, and you don’t think anything can harm you?”

  “No, we don’t remember those days,” I said. “We were busy dealing with fallout from Talon’s abduction the best we could, since you wouldn’t allow us to get the help we needed.”

  Ruby touched my forearm. She was trying to soothe me. Too bad it wasn’t working.

  “This is all shit you taught us not to do,” Joe said. “Didn’t your father teach you the same thing?”

  Brad Steel opened his eyes and coughed. “As a matter of fact, no, he didn’t. The Steel fortune has some precarious history. Your ancestors left their scruples at the door sometimes to build their fortune.”

  “You’re saying our fortune is dirty money?” Joe said.

  “No. I’m saying they didn’t practice the best ethics. Our money is clean.”

  “Why were you so adamant that we be so ethical, then?” Joe asked.

  “Why do you think? Because of what I had gone through—was going through—with the future lawmakers. I’d thrown caution to the wind when I was too young to know any better, and it cost me dearly. It still is.”

  “You’ve been dealing with these people since then? Our whole lives?” Talon rubbed his forehead. “The people who tortured me?”

  He nodded. “I promised you the truth. I never promised it would be pretty.”

  “Christ.” Joe stood. “We knew it wouldn’t be pretty. Frankly, it’s pretty unbelievable.”

  “I never wanted you kids to get involved in anything like that. I was determined that you would be protected at all costs.”

  “Get back to Wendy,” I said. “How did a fifteen-year-old girl have any hold on you at all?”

  “She blackmailed me.”

  “How? She couldn’t have had any power over you.”

  “She became pregnant after she moved away. We hadn’t been together in a couple months, but she claimed it was mine and that she’d just found out. Remember, there was no DNA testing back then. The best we could do was a blood test that might or might not have indicated paternity. My father would have disinherited me if he knew I got Wendy pregnant.”

  Joe sat down, fingering his hair. “Always about the money, huh?”

  “I was seventeen, Joe, and afraid of my father’s wrath.”

  “What happened to thinking no one could touch you?” Joe rolled his eyes.

  “Please, let him talk, Joe,” Marj said.

  “Anyway, I begged her to get an abortion and not tell anyone. I offered her money, but all she wanted was me.”

  Joe harrumphed. “You’re not going to try to get us to believe that all of this happened because of an unwanted teenage pregnancy.”

  “Partially. I know it sounds crazy, but remember that Wendy is psychotic. More than that, she’s exceedingly good at hiding it. Anyway, she ended up having a tubal pregnancy that went undiagnosed until about ten weeks, and then her tube ruptured. She had vast internal bleeding and nearly died.”

  “So I would have had a true sibling,” I said, astonished.

  “Maybe,” my father said. “If Wendy was telling the truth. We’ll never know. Anyway, after nearly losing her life, Wendy changed. She became even more obsessed with me and the future lawmakers club. To her, the loss of her pregnancy was a message somehow. A message that she needed to make others pay for the loss. To make me pay.”

  “So she spoon-fed Tom, Theo, and—to a lesser extent—Larry all the information they needed and exploited their greed. She figured because I was the financier, I’d always be involved, so she could punish me through the evil deeds of the others. She counseled them to form a corporation.”

  My mind whirled. “The Fleming Corporat
ion.”

  “How did you know about that?” he asked.

  “It was easy enough to find. It’s the corporation that owns the house where Talon was held captive,” Joe said. “It also owns another house, where my wife was left to die. I tried getting information out of the registered agent, but he wouldn’t budge. My threats had no effect on him.”

  “He’s well paid to stay silent, and your threats are nothing compared to the threats from others.”

  “What others? From Wendy? She’s locked up in psych. Simpson and Wade are dead. That leaves only Mathias.”

  “As dangerous as Wendy and Theo are, they’re nothing compared to the elusive ring they work for. That’s who controls them and the Fleming Corporation.”

  “What ring?” Talon said.

  My father shook his head. “I don’t even know that. Wendy wouldn’t tell me. She said it was for my own protection. In her own twisted way, she cares for me.”

  “My father must know,” Ruby said.

  “He doesn’t. Only Wendy knows. And she’s not talking.”

  My mother was truly evil. Evil, psychotic, and a creative genius.

  “Again, goddamnit, you’re digressing,” Joe said.

  “By the time we’d all graduated and Larry and Tom had finished law school, they’d gotten into the business of…slavery.” He gulped audibly. “Even now, I find it difficult to say.”

  “Of course it’s difficult to say. It’s the abusing and selling of human beings. Christ,” Joe said.

  “Wendy set them up with a bigger trafficking operation. Tom, Larry, and Theo became suppliers. They were responsible for finding and training the slaves and then transporting them to the pickup location, which was usually on foreign soil somewhere, but sometimes in the US.”

  Ruby sat beside me, her face pale. I squeezed her hand. “You okay?”

  She didn’t answer me. Instead, she addressed my father. “How did they”—she swallowed—“learn how to train these people?”

  “Baby…”

  “No, Ryan. I need to know.”

  “Are you sure?” my father asked.