Wendy was beautiful in her own way. Not drop-dead gorgeous like my mo— Daphne Steel. But even in a hospital gown, her gray roots showing through her brown hair, her blue eyes sparkled with something I couldn’t quite identify.

And her nose.

I did have her nose.

I didn’t expect to have any feelings for her, but looking at her, I couldn’t help but feel something. This woman had given birth to me. I had grown inside her body.

Funny that I was accepting that so freely. My world had been shattered twenty-four hours ago. Shattered by this woman.

But not by her.

By the truth.

The truth she—and my father—had kept from me for thirty-two years. For what purpose?

She’d probably done me a great favor. Growing up on the ranch with my brothers and sister had been wonderful, even with the troubling times. I’d learned so much from all of them.

“The truth.” She sighed.

“Ryan”—Ruby rubbed my arm again—“I don’t think this woman would know the truth if it hit her upside the head.”

Wendy ignored Ruby’s comment. “I’ll tell you anything you want to know.”

“Did you love my father?”

“With all my heart. I still do.”

“Did he love you?”

“Of course. He gave me his child.”

“That only means he fucked you,” I said crudely. “I want to know if he loved you.”

“I was his true love. His only love.”

“If that’s true, why didn’t you get together with him after my mother died?”

“Your mother is right here.” She smiled. A strange smile. A plastic smile.

“You know what I mean. After…Daphne died.” Calling the woman I’d known as my mother by her first name felt all kinds of wrong.

“Circumstances,” she said.

“What kind of circumstances?”

She smiled the plastic smile again. “Nothing that would make any sense to you.”

“None of this makes any sense to me. So what? I want to know anyway. You said you’d tell me the truth…Mother.”

“I told Brad to stay away from the rest of them. I knew they were bad news.”

“Stay away from who?”

“Simpson, Wade.” She nodded to Ruby. “Her father.”

Ruby visibly tensed. I wanted to comfort her, but I was in no shape to offer comfort to anyone at the moment.

“The future lawmakers,” I said. “Tell me about them. Why did my father join their club? Why did you join their club?”

“I joined because I wanted to be near your father. As for why he joined, you’d have to ask him.”

Perfect. “You know very well that I can’t do that.”

“Why not?”

“He’s dead.”

“That’s ridiculous. I just talked to him this morning.”

Ruby rubbed my arm again. “This isn’t getting us anywhere. She’s delusional, like Jonah and Talon said.”

Still, I wasn’t ready to go yet. “What did he say to you this morning?”

“He said he missed all of you kids. He said he missed me.”

“Really?”

“He said he’d come home as soon as he could. As soon as it was safe.”

Ruby rubbed my arm again. I pulled it away from her, not gently.

“What about the ring all the future lawmakers wore? I saw it in their yearbook picture. What was that for?”

“Oh that? I didn’t get one. I was only in the club for a year because we moved before my junior year in high school.”

“But the guys are wearing the rings in the photo you’re in.”

“Are they?” She closed her eyes. “I’m almost sure I didn’t have one.”

“What were the rings for?”

“Just a symbol.”

“A symbol of what?”

“Of their commitment to the club. And to each other.”

My blood ran cold. “My father financed their activities.”

“Yes, he did.”

“What were those activities?”

“They started out small. They formed a secret corporation to buy and sell certain goods for profit.”

“What kind of goods?”

“Goods that were difficult to get. Goods they could mark up substantially and sell to the highest bidder.”

“Illegal goods?”

“Not at first.”

Someone had kicked my stomach in. At least that’s what it felt like. She’d just basically confirmed that my father had been financing something illegal.

“What did they start out with?”

“They’d buy up certain toys that were popular with kids at the time and then sell them on the secondhand market for double the price. Later they got into gaming systems. With your father backing them, they could buy in bulk. They made a ton of money.”

All right. So far so good. Nothing illegal about that. At least not that I knew of. I made a mental note to ask Jade about it.

“Then they got greedy.”

Ruby nudged me. She’d told me about the talk with her uncle, Rodney Cates. He’d said the future lawmakers got greedy.

“And…?”

“Selling illegal stuff yielded much higher profit margins. So they started dabbling in firearms. Then drugs.”

I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding. “Drugs,” I repeated.

“Yes. First just marijuana. Later cocaine. Then they got into narcotics.”

“God…”

“But even drugs didn’t make as much money as something else.”

I wanted to puke. “What?”

She smiled her plastic smile once more. “People.”