Joe finally nodded. “You’re right. I know you’re right. Let’s do this.”
“Okay.” I sighed in relief. I didn’t want to do this without my brothers. “We need to check with our foremen and let them know we’re going to be gone for a few weeks. I can have Marion over at my office to make all the arrangements.”
“What about Marj?” Talon said. “You know she’s going to want to go along.”
I shook my head. “Absolutely not. It’s bad enough that Ruby’s going. But at least she’s a trained police detective.”
“I don’t particularly want Ruby going either,” Joe said. “Though I see her point. This concerns her as much as it does the rest of us. I agree with Ryan. No way is Marj going.”
“There’s only one way to get around that,” I said. “We can’t tell her we’re leaving, which means Jade and Melanie are going to have to keep it a secret, at least until we’re gone.”
Joe nodded. “Melanie will do it.”
“So
will Jade,” Talon said. “She’ll hate it, but she’ll do it if I ask her to.”
I stood. “Okay. It’s settled. I’ll have Marion take care of the details, and in the meantime, I have someone I need to visit.”
“Who’s that?” Joe asked.
“Larry Wade. I’m going to float this new information in front of him and see if I get any bites.”
“Great idea,” Joe said. “I’ll go with you.”
Talon went rigid.
“You don’t have to go, Tal,” I said. “Joe and I have got this.”
“Look, I’m probably going to come face-to-face with Mathias on this trip of ours. I need to get used to facing those men. I’m going with you.”
Chapter Forty-Seven
Ruby
Ruby, marry me.
Those words haunted me. I hadn’t been able to get them out of my mind.
And to top that off, I was also out of a job.
My request for vacation time had not gone over well. In the wake of Mark’s death, the department was a mess. They were shorthanded, and they didn’t think they could accommodate any vacation time for me with such short notice, especially since I’d just taken time for the previous trip to Jamaica. Even after I told them the whole story, and I was sure they would see it my way, they didn’t budge.
So I had done the only thing I thought I could. I quit the force.
I had been a member of the Grand Junction Police Department for eleven years, detective for only a few months. These people had been my friends and my family when I had no others until Melanie and the rest of the Steels had come charging into my life.
Maybe it was time for a change. I could marry Ryan Steel and never have to worry about money again in my lifetime. I loved him so much, but his proposal had come in the throes of lovemaking, and neither of us had so much as mentioned it afterward. Did he even remember saying it? I wasn’t sure.
I also wasn’t the type to depend on a man—or anyone else, for that matter—for my support. I’d been making it on my own for the better part of the last two decades. Being dependent on another person didn’t sit well with me.
If I married Ryan Steel, it would be because we both wanted to spend our lives together, not because I needed his money.
Luckily, I’d saved a lot over the years. I’d lived well beneath my means, my only extravagance being my gym membership, which wasn’t much, and the recent trip to Jamaica to celebrate Melanie’s wedding. If I continued living as I had been, I’d be able to make it about a year before I needed to find another job, and that wasn’t including what I’d set aside for retirement.
Yeah, I was in pretty good shape.
Still, it had hurt to leave the force. But they’d given me no choice. I had to go after my father. I had to do what I could to stop him.