Breathless (Steel Brothers Saga 10)

“Those three are animals.”

“Jonah Steel is an animal who could have had you arrested for extortion,” I reminded him.

“You think that scares me? I have the best attorneys in the business.”

“And you think the Steels don’t?” This guy was a trip. He might be worth millions, but the Steels had passed a billion.

No response.

“You’re well off. Why you thought it was a good idea to try to blackmail the Steels is beyond me.”

“They hurt my son.”

“Talon gave him an ass whooping.”

“For trying to see his fiancée.”

“His ex-fiancée,” I reminded Ted. Words lodged in my throat. That was nothing compared to what my father did to him. I didn’t say it. I couldn’t. But it was true. So very true.

“You know what I think, Ted?” I said. “I think you blame me for what my father did to Colin. I can almost understand that, being a father myself. So why are you helping me? Why do you want to give me information? Something here stinks big-time.”

He paused a few seconds. Then, “This isn’t over. The Feds are asking questions. Asking me questions because I won’t allow them to talk to my son.”

“Your son is an adult. You have no say in who talks to him.”

“I’ve held them off so far, but the bust on the island wasn’t completely successful. My son isn’t safe. You’re not safe, Simpson. And neither are the Steels.”

Chapter Twenty–Five

Marjorie

Jade was feeling better, so after getting the boys off to school, I drove to Grand Junction to visit my mother. I tried my best to get to the center once a week, but with Jade and the boys needing me, I didn’t always make it.

My mother, with a wrinkle-free face and only a few strands of silver in her nearly black hair, looked beautiful as always. Also, as always, she carried around her realistic infant doll—a doll she

was convinced was actually me.

“Hi, Mom,” I said as cheerfully as I could.

“Shh,” she said, rocking the doll. “I need to get Angela down for her nap.”

I nodded. What did she think when I called her Mom? I had no idea, but she never argued the point. Since Dale and Donny had appeared in our lives, they had become young Joe and Talon to her. Ryan no longer existed in her mind, as he wasn’t a child of her body.

Ryan had come to see her once. After all, she’d been his mother for the first seven years of his life.

He’d never returned.

It was too painful for him.

It was painful for all of us. We’d all thought her dead until recently.

Daphne Steel laid the doll in the bassinet beside her bed. Then she turned to me. “What brings you here?”

“I just wanted to see how you’re doing.”

“The usual. The boys are at camp again. I miss them.”

Her doctors had told us it was best to play along. “Yes,” I said. “I do too.”