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“She went on and on and on about my high cheekbones and my delicate features and how she wanted to do a makeover on me. Get me into some decent clothes that would flatter my body, do something with my hair. Pretty much made me want to vomit.” Ruby rolled her eyes.
I was pretty close to vomiting myself, but not because Brooke had wanted to make Ruby over. This was crazy. Finally things were starting to add up. Talon had been right. Turned out that this was all too close for comfort for a reason.
Unbeknownst to her, Ruby had just given me the proof I needed. Proof that Gina’s uncle was most likely also one of the men who’d abducted Talon. The third man. The one who had so far been elusive. I wasn’t sure how much I could say to Ruby right now. It was still somewhat conjecture. All I knew for sure was that Brooke Bailey’s boyfriend, Nico Kostas, was Ruby’s father and the same man who had abused Gina. There was still no proof that he had abducted Talon, other than the circumstantial fact that someone named Milo Sanchez—another alias that Theodore Mathias had used, according to Rodney Cates—had the exact same tattoo as Nico Kostas and one of Talon’s abductors.
“Does your father happen to have a tattoo?”
“Yeah, he has several.”
“Any chance one is on his forearm?”
She nodded. “Yeah, he does have one there. On the left, I think.”
Bingo.
“Let me guess. It’s a phoenix.”
“How did you know that?”
I had just identified the third abductor. I swallowed back the nausea that threatened to overtake me.
“You okay?” Ruby asked.
I nodded. “I’m sorry. My mind was racing there for a minute.”
“You didn’t answer my question. How did you know my dad had a phoenix tattoo on his forearm?”
“I’m not at liberty to say yet.” I silently hoped she’d buy that. She was a cop. She understood keeping things under wraps. “So you haven’t seen your father for a few months, you say?”
She shook her head. “Nope. And let me tell you, I have no desire to ever see him again.”
“Why is that?”
“Why do you think? He’s a horrible excuse for a human being. He raped and abused my cousin, leading to her suicide.” She let out a huff. “Let me rephrase what I just said. I do want to see him again—behind bars.”
Was it too soon for me to voice my theory that Gina had not committed suicide but instead had been murdered? Probably. Not before I talked to Jonah and Talon. And I certainly couldn’t tell Ruby what else I suspected—no, what I knew—about her father. That he had been one of the three who abducted and molested Talon Steel.
“Ruby, he didn’t ever…”
She sighed. “No. He tried once, but I got away. That’s why I ran away when I was fifteen.”
My heart went out to her. The therapist in me wanted to find out everything and help her. “What did you do? Where did you go?”
She stood. “You have any booze around here? If we’re going to stroll down memory lane, I need a drink.”
A drink didn’t sound bad to me, either. “I might have a bottle of wine around. Maybe some gin. I’m not a huge drinker.”
“Neither am I,” Ruby said. “But if I’m going to talk about dear old Daddy, it’s a necessity.”
I rummaged through the kitchen and found a bottle of Pinot Noir. I foraged for my corkscrew and opened the bottle quickly, pouring two glasses. I handed one to Ruby.
“I wish I had a decent place to sit.”
“Don’t mind me. The floor is fine.” She sat back down cross-legged.
“I’m really sorry,” I said. “About what you went through with your father, I mean.”
Ruby took a long sip of her wine. “That’s not bad. Wine is my drink of choice, though I’m not usually a big Pinot Noir fan. I’d like to learn more about wine sometime.”
