“The hell I’m not. You can’t keep me here. I don’t care what you’re carrying. I’m out of here.” I stood and headed toward the door.

He didn’t come after me and try to yank me back. No, he was too cool for that. He knew what would get me.

“I know where Brad Steel is.”

I stopped and could move no farther, as though my feet were mired in quicksand. “Where?” I asked without turning back to face him.

“He’s safe. He’s in hiding.”

“Why?” I still didn’t turn around.

“That’s a question with many possible answers. I can only give you mine, and it’s speculation.”

This time I turned. Usually I could spot a liar a mile away, but my father was good. I’d bet good money he could pass a lie detector test as if he had ice in his veins.

“First, tell me where he is,” I said.

“In a compound off the coast of Jamaica.”

Jamaica? We’d just been to Jamaica. Juliet and Lisa were taken from a resort in Jamaica. Nausea permeated my throat.

“What kind of compound? Is that where you run your trafficking through? Is that why you don’t want me talking to Shayna?”

“Shayna’s a lucky girl. And a smart one.”

“I know that. She got away from your goons, thank God. But her friends weren’t so lucky.”

“Her friends are safe.”

“Safe meaning what? That they’re not dead? That hardly constitutes safe in your world.”

“They’re victims of their own stupidity.”

I couldn’t deny the truth of his words. “So what? A moment of stupidity shouldn’t condemn you to a life of slavery and humiliation. Those girls had futures.”

“Did they? Aspiring actresses in LA are a dime a dozen. We find women there all the time. They’re willing to do almost anything for that one big chance.” His voice oozed with sleaziness.

Rage coursed through me. “Goddamnit, they are people! What gives you the right to play God with their lives?”

I didn’t expect an answer, and I didn’t get one. I had to calm down and get a grip. My father had successfully derailed me from the subject at hand. Brad Steel.

“What’s Brad Steel doing at a compound somewhere near Jamaica?”

“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.