“That’s right,” Chase said. “The phoenix.”

“The phoenix is a symbol of Lucifer? The devil?” Bryce asked. “I’ve never heard that.”

“My guess is that you never studied the occult,” his uncle said.

“Not in this lifetime, no,” Bryce said.

A vise tightened around my abdomen. The phoenix was an image I was well acquainted with. Ruby’s father, Theodore Mathias, had a phoenix tattooed on his forearm. Talon had told me about how he remembered the image from his captivity, how it had been both heaven and hell—the symbol of those who menaced him, yet also a symbol of escape. Of course he hadn’t realized all of that until he went through therapy with Melanie. He had been very open with me about what he had learned about himself and those two torturous months he had endured.

He had treated me like a brother.

Again the knife sliced through my gut. My hero. My brother. Talon.

He, Jonah, and Marj had all assured me time and time again that I was still their brother in all the ways that counted. We did, after all, share the same father.

“…can never know for sure.”

I wasn’t sure whether Bryce or Chase had spoken. Here I was, learning about a ring my father wore, the symbol upon which could mean anything, and I was stuck having a little pity party, feeling sorry for the fact that I had a different mother from my siblings.

Get over yourself, Ryan. There are more important things here.

“Can never know for sure what?” I asked.

“We can never know for sure whether the symbol was meant to be twisted the way I’ve twisted it,” Chase said. “It could simply be a symbol they created themselves that had its own meaning. There’s just no way to know.”

But I knew.

In my gut, where the dagger was still twisting, I knew.

I doubted that my father and the others worshipped the devil. No, they wouldn’t have wasted their time on worship of anything. Simpson, Wade, and Mathias had worshipped only the almighty dollar. Greed was their motivating factor, and when they had figured out that more money could be made by breaking the law than following it, they had gone to the dark side.

The evil side.

That was what those symbols meant. The symbol of Lucifer. The phoenix.

Evil.

---

Ruby and I sat in the visitors area at the prison, waiting for a guard to escort Larry Wade to see us. I hadn’t yet told Ruby about what Bryce and I had learned from Chase Walker. I hadn’t been able to form the words yet. But I had to tell Larry, and Ruby would hear it then. Larry would know whether we were right.

The guard escorted him to the table, and Larry Wade plunked down. Both of his eyes were blackened today, and he had a cut on his upper lip.

“Seems your fellow inmates aren’t treating you very well, Uncle Larry,” I said.

“I’m not your uncle, boy.”

Another brick in my gut. He was right. He was the half brother of Daphne Steel, so he was half uncle to my siblings, but not to me.

“I’d say that’s a good thing,” I said. “One less psychopath I’m related to.”

Ruby touched my forearm, the warmth of her fingertips seeping into me. She was showing me her presence, trying to soothe me. Problem was, I was currently unsootheable.

“You’re not related to me,” he said. “But that mother of yours is the queen of the psychos.”

He didn’t have to tell me. “I didn’t come here to talk about my mother.”

“Who’s this?” He gestured to Ruby.

Ruby flashed a badge. “Detective Ruby Lee, Grand Junction PD. We’ve met.”

“She’s with me,” I said. “Obviously.”

“I’m not here on police business,” Ruby reiterated.

“Then why are you here? Cops make me nervous.”

“She’s here because she’s a friend of mine,” I said. “How did you know I was aware of my true maternity, anyway? You’d have just shocked the hell out of me if I wasn’t.”

“I keep my ears to the ground,” he said.

“You do?”

“People talk. I listen.”

“Who the hell is talking about my maternity? Why would anyone in here care?”

“I didn’t say it was anyone here.”

“Are you saying you have other visitors? Who the hell would want to see you?”

He scoffed. “Kid, you have no idea.”

“I have a pretty good idea,” Ruby said. “You know I can easily get access to the visitors log, don’t you?”

“You think anyone who visited me left a trace of who he might really be?” Larry laughed, wincing. Then he eyed Ruby, narrowing his eyes. “Shit.”

“What?” I said.

“You’re her, aren’t you?”

“Who?” Ruby asked. “Who do you think I am?”

“No one.” Larry motioned to the guard.

“Not so fast,” I said, grabbing his cuffed arms. “You’re not going anywhere.”

“I have rights, you know. I don’t have to talk to you.”

“The guards may think you have rights, but as far as I’m concerned, your rights ended the day you took my bro—”

“Damn it!” Larry whisked his arms away. “I had nothing to do with that.”

“We know that’s a lie,” I said. “You tortured and raped him just like the others.”

“I had nothing to do with taking him. Ask him yourself. Two men took him. I wasn’t one of them. I fed him, for God’s sake. And I’m the one who fucking helped him to escape.”

“And that absolves you from the crimes of rape and false imprisonment?” I said. “I don’t think so.”

“Look, kid, you know who your mother is now, but I still have other secrets to keep.”

I had to stop myself from standing up and punching him in the fucking nose. “What are the secrets worth to you, Larry? Because I’ve got all the money in the world.”

“You think your brother hasn’t already offered me money?”

“I know he has. He offered to pay for the best defense lawyer in the state. You turned him down. I’m going to offer you something else.”

Larry eyed Ruby again. “I won’t say a word with her here.”

“She stays,” I said.

Ruby grabbed my arm. “It’s okay. I can go.”

“No, I want you here. You have every right to be here. There are cops swarming all over this place.”

“I don’t think the fact that I’m a cop is the issue”—she turned her gaze on Larry—“is it, Mr. Wade?”

Larry said nothing.

He knew who Ruby was. She’d told us that she’d visited him before. So far, Larry had refused to roll over on Theodore Mathias. Surely he must know that Ruby had no loyalty to her father.

Or did he?

I had no idea. I had never faced Larry Wade on my own, but maybe I could get some information.

“All right,” I said to Ruby. “Don’t go too far.”

“I won’t. I’ll be outside when you’re done.” She got up and left the visitors area.

“All right, Larry,” I said. “Do your damnedest. What can you tell me?”

“Nothing.”

“Come on. I got rid of her. You can talk now.”

“I know who she is.”

“Yeah, I figured that out. You didn’t seem to recognize her at first, but she’s visited you before.”

“He speaks highly of her, you know.”

“Who does?”

“You know who.”

Damn, this man was a pain in the ass. He still wouldn’t say the motherfucker’s name. It didn’t matter. We already had proof that he was the one we were looking for. And he obviously had something on Larry Wade.

“Does he?”

“Yes. Says she’s smart as a whip. Said he’s had to work twice as hard the past eleven years to stay off her radar.”

“She’ll get him,” I said. “Don’t ever doubt that.”

“She won’t,” he said, wincing. “He wins. He always fucking wins. Never gets caught. Never slips up. Simpson got lazy. But not him. He’ll never surface.”

“I can assure you, his days of winning are numbered. You’re locked up. Simpson is dead. My father is dead.”

He arched his eyebrows slightly.

“Or am I incorrect about that? Is my father not dead?”