“He’s there of his own free will.”
“Wendy told Ryan that he was being held captive.”
“That’s between her and Steel. I don’t know what he’s doing there, whether he’s in captivity or not. I can only tell you no one forced him to go there.”
“Is that where Juliet and Lisa are?”
No response.
“What about Gina? Is that where Gina is?”
Again, no response.
My father was difficult to read, but if Gina was truly dead, he would have said so. I was sure of it.
My cousin was alive.
“She didn’t kill herself, did she? You forged a death certificate for her and convinced your sister she had committed suicide. There was never any body, was there? You convinced Erica that she’d seen a body, had her tell Rodney. God, no wonder the woman is crazy!”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Don’t I? I think I’m getting pretty fucking close to the truth, Pops. Is Gina there too? At the compound, being trained for slavery? Or has she already been sold?”
“You’re a smart girl. You figure it out.”
“I have figured it out. If it takes me my entire life, I will expose you and bring you down.”
“Maybe you will, and maybe you won’t,” he said, his brown eyes slitted. “But I can assure you it won’t be tonight.”
A blast of sound permeated the room.
The fire alarm.
My father had arranged to have the building evacuated so he could make his getaway. And here I was, unarmed, unable to hold him.
I wouldn’t even try.
He walked past me, brushing my arm slightly. “Don’t take the elevators, Ruby. In case of fire, always take the stairs.” He walked out of the room.
I ran after him, but the hallways were already crowding with hotel guests. It was late, and most of them were in bathrobes or pajamas. I watched the purple Rockies skullcap float above the heads until it disappeared in the stairwell.
I’d failed once again.
Chapter Forty-Four
Ryan
Damn! A fire alarm at this time of night? I was still up, of
course, concerned about Ruby. Where was she? I opened the door to our room. People were congregating in the halls, trying to get to the stairwells. It was a giant clusterfuck.
I sniffed. No smoke. It had to be a hoax. Some kid probably thought it was funny to pull the alarm. High school bullshit. I went back into the room and shut the door. I wasn’t leaving.
Quickly I checked my phone. Nothing. I paced the living area, most likely leaving a trail on the thin hotel carpeting. Her apartment hadn’t yielded any clues other than the book and the paper, but neither of those gave me any idea where she might be.
I couldn’t lose her. Not now. Not ever.
I thought back to our first walk on the beach in Jamaica in the moonlight.