Unraveled_Steel Brothers Saga_Book Nine

by HELEN HARDT

“For God’s sake, tell us the fucking truth!” Joe yelled.

  He looked to Ruby, his black eyes sunken. “They went through the same training themselves.”

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Ruby

  My mouth tasted like battery acid. I clamped my hand over my lips.

  “Baby?” Ryan said.

  I shook my head. I’d get through this. So my father had endured things I hadn’t. So what? He’d wanted to inflict those same things on me. I’d just been able to escape before he could.

  I could not—would not—feel sorry for the man, even if I owed my existence to him.

  “You mean…” Talon began.

  “Yes,” Brad Steel said. “Everything those monsters did to you had once been done to them.”

  Marjorie gasped and clasped her hand over her mouth. Joe put his arm around her and whispered something that I couldn’t hear.

  “At least they weren’t ten years old,” Ryan said. “I don’t feel the least bit sorry for them. But I don’t know why anyone would voluntarily put himself through that.”

  “Easy,” I said, my voice cracking. “They were paid well, weren’t they?”

  “Two million dollars each,” my father said. “Their drug business was going well, but this was more money than they’d ever seen.”

  “Two million dollars for their humanity.” Talon shook his head. “Not fucking worth it.”

  “They didn’t have a choice at that time. They’d entered into an agreement. It was fulfill it or be killed.”

  “I think I’d have chosen death,” Ryan said.

  Talon shook his head vehemently. “You wouldn’t have. You wouldn’t believe the survival instinct when you’re in such an insurmountable situation. It kicks in whether you want it to or not.”

  “It didn’t kick in for little Donny.”

  “No. Because he was doing something he thought he was supposed to do, something that someone he trusted told him to do. But when you’re in command of yourself and think you want to die? Unless you’re truly suicidal, you’ll do anything you can to survive. You submit to things you never thought you’d submit to, say things that make you gag to get the words out, just for the promise of one more minute in your hellish existence.” He looked up at the ceiling. “You just don’t know.”

  “Easy, Tal,” Ryan said. “I’m sorry.”

  “It’s okay,” he said. “I’m all right.”

  “He’s right, Ry,” Joe said. “Melanie told me the same thing when she was left in that garage to die. She was willing to do anything to get out alive.”

  “I’m so sorry about what happened to you, Talon,” Brad Steel said.

  “You let it happen,” he said, his words caustic.

  Marjorie still didn’t know why Talon had been taken. I hoped Ryan would stop this. It wasn’t my place. I squeezed his hand, hoping I was conveying my concern.

  “I did,” Brad admitted. “But it was never my intention.”

  “Let’s get back to the discussion,” Ryan said.

  I breathed a sigh of relief.

  Steel cleared his throat. “After they were trained and had regained their strength, they were required to participate in the training of others. Once they were deemed ready, they were let go and then required to train and supply a steady source of people. They were paid very well for this, and they were soon all worth over a hundred million dollars.”

  “So they no longer needed your money,” Joe said. “Why the hell are you still involved, then?”

  “They didn’t need my money. Even Wendy didn’t need my money, because she got a cut of everything they got. But Wendy wanted one thing money couldn’t buy.”

  “You,” Talon said.

  “Right.” He sighed. “I had married your mother by this time, and Joe and Talon, you had already been born. God”—he sank his head into his hands—“I’m not sure I can do this.”

  “Do it,” Joe said through clenched teeth. “The truth, or I’ll beat it out of you.”

  Ryan’s knuckles whitened, his hand still clasping mine. Neither he nor his siblings said a word.

  “Wendy came to our home one night. Your mother was tired from dealing with a toddler and an infant and had already gone to bed. I found Wendy in your nursery, Talon, holding a knife to your throat.”

  Marjorie gasped.

  “I knew she was crazy,” Steel continued, “but would she harm a child?”

  “I think we all know the answer to that question,” Talon said quietly.

  “Yes, now. But then, I wasn’t sure. She’d been broken up over her ectopic pregnancy. And she’d never married. Still, I wasn’t going to take a chance with your life, Talon. I asked her what she wanted. Of course, she said she wanted me. I told her I had a family now. I needed to be there for them. She said she could take care of that, and she pressed the knife against your flesh. I lunged for her and took her down to the floor. Thankfully you slept through the whole thing.”

  Silence. I looked at Ryan. His skin had gone pale.

  Steel cleared his throat and continued, “I decided to cut a deal with her. For the first time in my life, I was truly afraid. Afraid for my family. I had to protect you boys and your mother, no matter what. She wanted two things, she said. First, my will had to include a bequest to the Fleming Corporation for a hundred million dollars.”

  “It was only fifty,” Joe said.

  “Right. I changed it later. But she demanded a hundred million dollars. She also demanded my child.”

  “She wanted me?” Talon asked, incredulous.

  Ryan stiffened beside me. “No, Tal,” he said. “She wanted me.”

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Ryan

  “Yes,” my father said solemnly. “She wanted a child by me. Of course I told her ‘hell, no.’ But remember, she was a gifted journalist. She produced a trail of documents linking me to the Fleming Corporation and threatened to leak them if I didn’t comply with her demands. I would have been imprisoned. I couldn’t leave a wife and two children who I loved more than my own life. So I gave in to her demands. I promised to have sex with her one time, thinking I could keep from impregnating her. She only had one fallopian tube, and if I didn’t ejaculate, I figured there wasn’t a chance.”

  “How could you?” Joe said. “How could you do that to our mother?”

  I stiffened. This was all about me. They were wishing I hadn’t been born. Maybe not consciously, but that was what it amounted to.

  “I didn’t think I had a choice. She said she’d accept the chance of not getting pregnant just to be with me again. I had no idea, but she’d been keeping track of her cycles and was at her most fertile time.”

  “What? So this wasn’t an accident?” Joe shook his head.

  I wasn’t sure whether I should feel better or worse. So I hadn’t been an accident due to my father’s infidelity. He’d allowed my birth to happen.

  “Being unfaithful to your mother was the hardest thing I’ve ever done.”

  “Yeah, fucking a beautiful woman is a difficult thing,” Joe said sardonically.

  Our father seemed to ignore him. “So I had sex with her in this office. Well, the office that looks just like this one back at home. Your mother was asleep, and I hoped like hell she wouldn’t wake up. I figured I could control the situation. I tried not to ejaculate, but unfortunately I wasn’t successful. I did pull out as soon as I could.”

  “But one of your little buggers got in anyway,” Joe said. “This is farfetched.”

  “It is,” my father agreed. “But that’s how it happened. She did become pregnant, and the timing worked out.”

  “Didn’t you think it might not be yours?”

  “Of course I did. But I had slept with her, and I knew that it could be mine. No way was I letting her raise any child of mine, so I began manipulating her into giving the baby up.”

  “She let you manipulate her?” Joe said.

  I piped in. “Yes. I can see that. I’ve been able to manipulate her.
She has very strong feelings for both of us. That’s her Achilles’ heel.”

  “Exactly,” my father said. “Of course, giving up a child required a lot of manipulation, and I knew I couldn’t get her to do it without payment of some sort. I paid for all her medical bills, of course, and arranged for her to have the baby at the ranch house. I also gave her a lump-sum seven-figure payment.”

  “How the hell did you talk our mother into this?” Joe was riled. “Did you manipulate her too?”

  “Sadly, yes, I did. I asked her forgiveness for my infidelity and begged her to raise the child as her own. I promised I’d never stray from her again, and I never did. We had some knock-down, drag-outs about it, but finally she forgave me.”

  “Was that it? All it took for Wendy to get rid of me was money?”

  “Don’t think of it that way, Ryan. She wanted you. She wanted you desperately. But I worked her and worked her and convinced her you would have a better life on the ranch with two parents and two big brothers to protect you.”

  I looked to my sister. Our father hadn’t mentioned the other thing he’d promised Wendy to get her to give me up. I sincerely hoped he wouldn’t, but I knew it was coming. If he didn’t say it, Joe might beat it out of him without thinking of how it would affect our baby sister.

  True to form, Joe said, “What else did you promise her? Say it, Dad.”

  He raked his fingers through his salt-and-pepper hair. “I promised to be celibate from that time on.”

  “What?” Marjorie clamped her hand to her mouth and shook her head. “But then who’s my father?” A pause. Then, “You are. We had the DNA test done on all of us.”

  “Yes, baby girl. You’re my biological daughter.”

  “Then was I…”

  “An accident? No.” He smiled. “More like a surprise. Of course I had no intention of keeping that promise to Wendy. Your mother and I loved each other, and I intended to continue sleeping with her. I figured our family was complete with three boys, and your mother had been on the pill since she stopped nursing Talon.”

  “But birth-control methods fail…” Joe exhaled. “That’s how Melanie got pregnant.”

  “Yes, they do. Your mother had bouts of mild depression sometimes, and sometimes forgot to take her pill. I didn’t know about that until she admitted it to me when she became pregnant with you, baby girl.

  “But back to Ryan’s birth. When you were delivered, Ryan, and I held you, I knew without a doubt that you were mine. You looked exactly like your brothers as newborns, and you grasped my thumb almost immediately.” Tears misted his eyes. “You were mine, and when I looked into your eyes—you were very alert for a newborn—I knew I hadn’t made a mistake by sleeping with Wendy that one time. I’d made you.”

  My eyes welled. Ruby put her other hand over our clasped ones, offering her support. Invisible ropes pulled me in myriad different directions. My father. My mother. Without them, I wouldn’t be here. I wouldn’t have my life. I wouldn’t have the beautiful woman beside me whom I loved more than anything.

  But how I’d gotten here… What a fucking mess.

  “I loved you, just as I loved my other two sons. And I vowed from that day forward to protect all of you with my life if I had to.”

  “That didn’t work out so well for Talon,” Joe said.

  “No, it didn’t.”

  Here it comes. I braced myself for the pain my sister was about to endure.

  But my father’s cell phone rang. He checked it and then said quietly, “I have to take this.” He put the phone to his ear but said nothing. After several seconds, he took it from his ear but kept it in his hand.

  “I’m afraid we need to table this discussion.” He stood and walked out from behind his desk, tapping something into the phone.

  Marabel appeared at the door almost instantly, opening it without knocking. “Code five?”

  “Yes. In ten minutes.”

  “Jocelyn and I will have her ready.” Marabel hurried away.

  “What the hell is going on here?” Joe asked. “There are still a ton of unanswered questions. What happened to Mom? Why did you build this place? Why did you fake your death?”

  “Another time, Joe.”

  “Fuck that. I told you I’d beat the truth out of you, and I aim to.” Joe lunged toward our father, who was still standing in the doorway.

  “You will not!”

  And I hurtled back in time to when I was a kid. Our father’s voice. No one argued with that tone.

  “If you love your mother and want her protected, you’ll leave this for now.”

  “You’re taking Mother?” Marj asked. “What’s going on?”

  “There’s a helipad on the top of the house. It’s well-hidden, so you probably didn’t notice it when you came in. The FBI are on their way here. I need to get your mother out of here and to someplace safe.”

  “But you—” I started.

  “I will surrender myself to the authorities when the time is right,” he said. “Right now, your mother is my priority. I must take care of her and get her to a safe place. If the FBI swarms in here…” He shook his head and left quickly.

  I stood and ran out the door, my siblings and Ruby behind me. Soon, the whirring helicopter propellers buzzed above us. We all covered our ears.

  Minutes later, Marabel hurried down the hall, our mother in tow. Our father took her in his arms and shouted something inaudible to Marabel. Then he raced toward the garage entrance.

  “What do we do?” Marj screamed.

  “We haven’t done anything wrong,” Joe yelled. “We’ll stay here and answer their questions the best we can. Then we’ll go home.”

  Chapter Forty

  Ruby

  Three days later, we arrived back in Colorado. Ryan and I said nothing during the drive to the ranch. I had no job to go to, so I was going home with him. After everything we’d been through, I didn’t want to be alone. The silence was soothing. So much had gone on during the last seventy-two hours, and we’d hardly slept.

  The FBI had swarmed in and questioned all of us. They’d taken the names of the two little boys and Juliet and arranged to get them home. As far as I knew, they still hadn’t found the boys’ mother, but they had found a great-aunt who was willing to take them until their mother turned up.

  To Juliet’s and my delight, Lisa had been found. She hadn’t been killed, as Juliet had thought. Anna Shane had also been rescued. In all, twenty-nine women and seventeen children were recovered from the compound. One child wasn’t so lucky. A little girl was found dead in one of the dorm rooms.

  Of the total of forty-six, forty were American.

  There had been no sign or documentation of Gina Cates, my cousin. That saddened me, but I tried not to dwell on it. The FBI was on it now, along with Interpol. They were determined to take this investigation all the way to the top and take this trafficking ring down.

  One fact, though, I couldn’t help but dwell on.

  My father had not been taken into custody. He had disappeared.

  Again.

  Ernie sat on my lap in a small kennel. Juliet had taken Bo, Beauty, and their mother, Jewel, home with her, with a promise to send the two puppies to Dale and Donny once they were situated.

  When we walked into the house, Ricky ran to us, tail wagging. I let Ernie out of his kennel to meet his new big brother.

  “Hey, boy,” Ryan said to his dog. “Have the hands been taking good care of you?”

  Ricky stopped only for a few seconds to let Ryan pet him, and then he was preoccupied with the little ball of fur scampering around.

  “You two better go outside.” I walked to the kitchen and opened the French doors.

  Ernie was a little inhibited but eventually followed Ricky outside.

  Ryan had wandered into his family room and plopped on the plush leather couch. I went to join him.

  “Before I sit down, do you want anything?” I said. “Because once I sit down, I don’t think I’m getting ba
ck up for at least a day.”

  Ryan smiled. “Does that mean I have to carry you to my bedroom to have my way with you?”

  “Yup, that’s exactly what it means.” I plunked down beside him.

  “I can’t believe this is really over,” he said, taking my hand and pressing his lips to my palm.

  I shivered just from the innocent contact…and because of something else. “It’s not quite over.”

  He nodded. “Your father. We’ll find him. And if we can’t, surely the FBI or Interpol can.”

  “He has all those aliases, and he probably has documentation for each one. He could be across the globe by now.”

  “He could be. But I have a feeling he’s not going to stray too far. You are all he has left, Ruby.”

  I doubted Ryan’s words. My father hardly thought of me as family, but he did have a sister. “Maybe. He could be hiding out with my aunt and uncle.”

  “The Cateses? Yeah, maybe. But would they take him in after what he did to their daughter?”

  Gina. I had no idea if she was alive or dead. My father had claimed she was alive, but he could have been lying. If she was dead, at least she wasn’t in any more pain.

  “I don’t know. I’ve given up trying to understand my relatives,” I said. “They’re all nuts.”

  “Tell me about it,” Ryan said, squeezing my hand.

  “Where do you think your father went?”

  “I have no idea. But he’s a planner. He probably had something set up for every contingency. And I do believe he will take care of Daphne.”

  The reality was still so jarring. Not only Brad Steel but also Daphne Steel was alive. We still didn’t know the story behind that, and who knew when Brad Steel would surface again to tell us.

  Talon and Jonah were no doubt filling their wives in on everything right now.

  I closed my eyes and sighed.

  Ryan leaned over and kissed my cheek. “Want to go to bed?”

  I laughed. “Sure.”

  He stood and then swooped me into his arms.