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“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?”
I pulled my wallet out of my purse and retracted the wrinkled piece of paper with some names on it. Rodney Cates had written down some information the last time Jonah and I had visited him. On this sheet of paper was the name of a woman, Marie Cooke, who had been a friend of Gina’s. She had told Rodney that Gina had been in love.
Gina’s suicide note, which I’d told Ruby about, had indicated she was in love with me. I wanted to talk to Marie and find out if that was true. I had a suspicion that it wasn’t, and that the letter from Gina was a forgery, with the part about her being in love with me thrown in to push me further off track.
It had worked.
I handed the paper to Ruby. “Can you get an address for this name and number?”
“I can try.” She called into the station. Within a few minutes, she had a home and work address.
“I hate to bother her at work,” I said.
“Police business,” she said. “I’ll whip out my badge, and she’ll cooperate.”
