“Juliet, you need to help me. You need to tell me everything you know. I’m going to get us out of here.”
She turned toward me and laughed—actually laughed, though it was still entwined with stoicism. “How? How the hell are you going to get us out of here? It’s not possible. Believe me, I’ve tried everything. I tried sucking up to them. That just made them beat me harder. I tried starving myself. They didn’t care. I tried yelling and screaming until my voice was nothing but a rasp. I tried stealing a cell phone, and I got caught. There’s nothing in here. Nothing to use as a tool or weapon. Just a toilet and sink, which I can’t even get to until they come and unchain me. I’ve learned to hold everything in until they let me go.”
Damn! If only my mind were working better. I had to figure this out. “Who brought you here?”
“Those three guys.” Then she shook her head. “No, that’s not right. They put us on a boat. We never saw them again. I’m not sure who brought me here. This is the second place I’ve been. They…” She choked out a sob.
It was the most emotion I’d seen from her yet.
“What?”
“They killed Lisa. She fought back hard. Bit them a few times. They decided she was too much trouble, and they killed her.”
I hadn’t thought I could be more sickened than when I’d witnessed Juliet’s rape. I was wrong. “How do you know? Maybe they just moved her.”
“Because they made me watch! They beat her until she was unconscious.”
I managed to swallow the bile erupting in my throat. Fucking bastards. And my father was a part of this.
The acid overtook me then, and I barely made it to the toilet. The taste was putrid on my tongue and left vile stickiness around my gums.
I didn’t ask Juliet any more details about what happened to Lisa, even though I was morbidly curious. I needed to know as much about my captors as I could if I was going to get us out of here. Later. After she’d settled down a bit. The woman had just been raped.
“Juliet, you said you stole a cell phone. How did you do that?”
“One time when one of them was in here, you know, raping me, his phone fell out of his pocket. I slid it under my foot before he noticed.”
“Did you text anyone?”
“I texted my mother. And Shayna. Those were the only two numbers I could remember.” She laughed sarcastically. “I had everything on speed dial. No need to remember anything. God, first world problems! If only I could go back.”
“How many times did you text Shayna?”
“Once. Just once. I typed ‘help’ and sent it, and I texted ‘help’ to my mother, but they caught me with the phone before I could hit send.” She pointed to her healing black eye. “I got this for that stunt. It was worth it though.”
Hmm. Shayna had gotten two texts saying “help” from a private number.
“You only texted Shayna once?”
“Yeah.”
I had no explanation. Unless the sadistic bastard whose phone she’d stolen had sent the text again. Why would he do that? Why would any of these monsters do anything like this?
I didn’t want to get into that now. I simply walked slowly to Juliet and held on to her, trying to soothe her.
Oddly, after tearing up over Lisa, she became apathetic again. Though she didn’t turn me away.
“It’s going to be okay,” I said again. “I’m going to get us out of here.”
She laid her head on my shoulder. “You won’t. I’ve accepted it. This is my life now.”
I grabbed her by the shoulders and forced her head up so she was looking at me. “Don’t ever let me hear you say that again. This is not your life. You don’t deserve this.”
“But it was my f—”
“Stop it!” I had to refrain from shaking her. I didn’t have the strength anyway. “We’re going to get out of here. I haven’t been gone very long. There are people who will look for me. And they’ll find me. When they find me, they’ll find you.”
“If they haven’t found us by now, they’ll never find us.”
“Bullshit. My boyfriend and his brothers will have the cavalry looking. Besides, I haven’t been gone long.”
She remained stoic. “Ruby, they put you in this room over a day ago.”
Chapter Five
Ryan
The yacht was first class all the way. Two master suites for Talon and me and another queen suite for Raj. A crew of four, including a chef, were there to cater to all our needs. Raj had given them the story that we were two American brothers looking to buy real estate in the Caribbean, possibly a private island.
We were treated like royalty when we boarded, and a bottle of Dom Pérignon was waiting for us to toast our adventure. Though neither Talon nor I felt up to celebrating, we kept up the act and each took a champagne flute.
Once we were seaborne, the chef prepared a Jamaican meal of brown stewed chicken with cabbage and okra. I couldn’t help thinking how well my seasoned Cab would go with the dish—if I actually felt like eating. For dessert we had banana fritters.
Talon and I both cleaned our plates to keep up the show, though neither of us was hungry. The meal, which normally I’d have enjoyed, had tasted like mud.
After dinner, while the crew was cleaning up, Talon and I went out on the deck with Raj to discuss plans. The air smelled of sand and salt, and the water was blue as Ruby’s eyes.
Ruby. My baby. How I wished we were sharing the beauty of the ocean together. Without her, and not knowing her fate, I couldn’t enjoy anything.
“We’ll be traveling at night to avoid suspicion,” Raj said, “but it’s important to stay aware. One of us must be awake at all times. I’ll do it as much as I can, since I know what clues to look for, but even I have to sleep sometime.”
“Understood,” Talon said.
“Not a problem. I volunteer.” I pushed my hair out of my eyes. “I won’t be able to sleep anyway. Not until I know Ruby is safe.”
“You sure?” Raj said.
“Yeah. I’m sure. You guys get some shut-eye. I’ll be fine out here on the deck.”
“I don’t want to leave you alone,” Talon said. “Let’s have a nightcap, bro.”
“Tal, I’ll be fine.”
“Look,” Raj said. “It doesn’t make any sense for both of you to stay awake. We all have to take turns. That’s the only way this will work.”
“I just want to join my brother for a nightcap. No harm, no foul. I’ll hit the sheets after, okay?”
“You two are the bosses,” Raj said. “Just trying to make this as easy as possible on you.”
“I understand,” I said. “I’ll make sure he goes to bed.”
“How much you sleep is totally up to the two of you. Just know this isn’t going to be easy, and we all need our rest.”
“We get it,” Talon said. “But Raj, this isn’t going to be easy on us whether we sleep or not.”
“No shit,” I said under my breath as Raj nodded and left the deck.
“You want a drink?” Talon asked me.
I shook my head. “I want to stay awake.”
“Yeah, I don’t want one either. I just said that to give Raj a reason why I’m staying with you for a few.”
“Do you trust him?” I asked.
“He comes highly recommended. Of course, we only had a day to get him hired, and the fact that he was available at the last minute makes me wonder. He seems okay to me, but I’m going to keep one eye on him.”
“Me too,” I said. “And on this crew. We only have Raj’s word that they’re discreet.”
Talon nodded, stroking his stubbled chin. Then he turned to me. “Thanks for doing this, Ry. Thanks for helping me put this to rest.”
“Hey, it stopped being just about you a long time ago, but even if it were, you know I’d be here for you, bro. You’re still my hero.”
Although I’d found out recently that Talon probably hadn’t saved me from his horrible fate that day—in all likelihood my mother had—I still felt beholden to my big brother. He’d tried to help me get away, and had I been bigger and stronger, I’d have done the same for him.
That’s what brothers do.
Talon had said those words to Joe and me after telling us he’d have gladly gone through his hell just to spare the two of us the same.
Even though he was only my half brother, we were bonded by more than blood. All three of us were.
The Steel brotherhood.