“What is death anyway?” Larry asked. “Do any of us really know?”

“Don’t try to wax philosophical with me. Just tell me the goddamned truth. Is my father dead, or isn’t he?”

“Death is in the eye of the beholder.”

I was sick to hell of this. “I think you mean beauty.”

“Do I? As far as I’m concerned, I’m dead. I might as well be, stuck in this place.”

“You’re stuck in this place because of your own actions. You of all people know that. It has nothing to do with death.”

“Does it matter? Does it matter whether the person is truly dead, as long as they are dead to you?”

“For the love of God, I just want an answer. We have reason to believe my father is still alive. That he faked his own death, or had it faked for him. What we don’t know is why. He’s our father, for God’s sake. You have children, Larry.”

“Children I’ll never see again, because I’m here. See what I mean? I’m dead to them.”

“Your children are better off.”

He wiped sweat off his forehead. “I won’t disagree with you.”

Interesting. Larry actually thought his children were better off without him. “Do you miss your kids?”

“Of course I do.”

“They don’t come to visit you?”

“Would you come to visit me if I were your father?”

I truthfully had no answer. I had visited my newly found mother, and from what I could tell, she had participated in the abduction of my brother, although not in quite the same way Larry had.

“I’m waiting, Steel.”

Did he really want me to respond to that question? “I don’t know.”

“Bullshit.”

I honestly wasn’t bullshitting. “It would depend. I know you’ll never admit it, but Theodore Mathias is the last of Talon’s abductors. That beautiful cop who was sitting beside me earlier is his daughter. You know that. That’s why you wanted her to leave. I could tell you that you have nothing to fear from her, but you wouldn’t believe it. She wants to see her father pay for all he’s done as much as I do. As much as my brothers and sister do. But still…” I had been about to tell Larry that Ruby had opted to see her father when he had to come into town months ago with Brooke Bailey. I closed my mouth. That was Ruby’s story to tell. Not mine.

“What?”

“I visited my mother.”

“You only just found out that she was your mother.”

“True. And I have a lot of questions.”

“Did you get any answers?”

“Some.”

“I wouldn’t put faith in anything she says.”

“I don’t.”

“Then why did you see her?”

Why indeed? My mother’s relationship with the truth was contorted, at best. Mine, however, was not. And it came to me like a bolt of lightning right into my brain. Why I decided to share it with Larry, I didn’t know, but I opened my mouth to speak.

“Because I wanted to. Because I wanted to see her.”

“Well, my children don’t want to see me.”

“You have young grandchildren, right?” Jade had told me that.

“I do. And I never hurt them. I never hurt my children either.”

“But you can’t say the same for Mathias, can you? He didn’t stop at hurting children he was related to.”

Larry flattened his lips into a thin line. The bastard still wouldn’t talk. Still wouldn’t give up Mathias. What the hell did Mathias have on him?

Time to try a different tactic.

“What do you know about my father’s will?”

“A whole lot of nothing.”

Larry never made anything easy. “Simpson and Mathias seem to think my father owed them something. That there was something in his will to that effect. Do you agree with that?”

“Nobody owes me anything.”

“That wasn’t my question. Why would Simpson and Mathias think my father owed them something?”

No answer.

“All right. Why would Simpson think my father owed him anything?”

Still no response.

“Tom Simpson is dead, Larry. You have nothing to fear from him.”

Once again, his lips remained sealed.

I stood. “I guess we’re done here. My offer stands. Whatever you want, Larry. My entire fortune for some answers.” I motioned to the guard but then shook my head and sat back down. I’d almost forgotten the most important thing—why I’d come in the first place.

“Tell me about the ring the future lawmakers used to wear.”

Larry looked over my head for a moment. “I haven’t thought about that in years.”

“You had one, didn’t you?”

“We all did. Your father paid for them, by the way.”

That piece of news didn’t surprise me. After all, we’d already found out from Ruby’s uncle that my father had financed the future lawmakers. Tom Simpson’s ring was not a cheap piece of metal, either.

“Did he? Why are you all of a sudden telling me things? Usually you’re so close-lipped.”

He chuckled. “I have no idea. I just haven’t thought of that ring in years.”

“Wendy says she didn’t have one.”

“I’m pretty sure we all had one. Hers was smaller, made for a woman.”

My mother wasn’t known for her truthfulness, so I’d take Larry at his word. For now, anyway.

“There’s a symbol on the ring. Do you know what it signifies?”

He looked thoughtful. “I don’t recall a symbol.”

“Oh, come on.” And then I remembered. I had the ring! I pulled it out of my pocket. “This one belonged to Tom Simpson. Look here.” I gestured. “What does this bizarre symbol mean?”

He took the ring from me and examined it. “Oh, yeah. I don’t know. Someone else designed it.”

“Who?”

“I can’t say.”

“You don’t remember? Or you won’t tell me.”

He stayed silent.

“My father?”

Silence.

“Tom Simpson?”

More silence.

“Mathias?”

His lips twitched slightly.

“Okay. Mathias. That figures. Did he tell you what the symbol meant?”

“I didn’t say he designed them.”

I wished Ruby were still here. She’d be able to read him better than I could with her cop instinct. “Up to this point, you’ve refused to even say his name. But we all know it was him, that he’s the third of your heinous trio. And it doesn’t surprise me one bit to know he’s the brains behind this symbol.”

“You’re wrong. I don’t know what the symbol is. Or what it means. Or who came up with it. And if I did, I wouldn’t tell you.”

“We have our own theories,” I said. “So you’re telling me that you wore a ring that you had no idea what its meaning was?”

“Hey, it was a ring. It was camaraderie, you know? We all had one.”

“Where’s yours now?”

“I hocked it long ago. I had some lean years in there. They deserted me after I let your brother go. After they tried to kill me, that is. I didn’t get back into their good graces until a few years ago.”

I’d already heard that part of the story, so I tried to steer back to the ring. “He never told you what the symbol meant?”

“Nope.” Larry twisted his lips into a sly smile. “But I can see why you want to know. The devil is in the details. Just ask your mother.”

“Ryan!”

I looked up. Ruby was walking swiftly toward our table. I stood. “What is it? Are you okay?”

“Yeah, fine. I need to talk to you.”

“Okay. We’re almost done here.” I looked to Larry. “She’s not leaving. Do you have any more information for me?”

“No.” Larry motioned to a guard, who came and took him away.

I looked to Ruby. “Why did you come back?”

“I have a new theory,” she said. “And I’m not sure you’re going to like it.”