Riskier Business (Crossing the Line 0.5)(29)

Slowly, Ruby lowered herself into a chair. “You cheated with Lenny? Bowen’s…father?”

At first, her mother looked startled, but resignation followed on its heels. “I wasn’t always the paragon of virtue you see before you today.”

“Please, I’m not in the mood for jokes.”

Pamela dropped into the chair across from Ruby. “Lenny and I had a…thing…long before I hooked up with Jim. I was young and it was exciting, watching them fight over me. Up until that point in my life, no one had given two shits about me.”

Ruby sipped her coffee. “I get that.”

Regret washed over Pamela’s features. “So you do.”

Letting the new information sink in about a time before she’d even been born, Ruby frowned. “Wasn’t Lenny married back then?”

“No, she was long gone. Took off maybe three years earlier.”

Ruby swallowed, trying to ignore the buzzing in her ears. “But…she had to have given birth to Bowen, right? He’s four years older than me. If she was long gone…”

Pamela wouldn’t look at her, keeping her gaze firmly glued to a spot beyond Ruby’s shoulder. It told her everything she needed to know. “Bowen’s my—”

“Brother,” Pamela interrupted quietly. “Half, anyway.”

Everything came back to her in a blinding rush. Bowen’s constant, fierce need to protect her from the beginning. Her father’s unexplainable hostility toward him. And, worse, the way Bowen had backed down in the face of it, when he’d never backed down from anything in his life.

“H-how long has Bowen known?”

Her mother looked suspiciously close to tears. “Since you were kids. Forever. I started seeing your father shortly after I had Bowen. For a while, I was living with your father, raising you both. Then one day, Lenny came and took him. I couldn’t stop him, and your father knew better than to cross Lenny.” She rose and walked to the kitchen window. “When he was old enough to understand, Lenny told Bowen to keep his mouth shut. He didn’t want any reminder of me in his house. I…I think he may have even threatened your safety if he talked.”

When moisture plopped onto Ruby’s arm, she realized she’d started crying. All these years, he’d looked out for her, feeling a sense of duty he’d never been allowed to speak about. Just as quickly, her sadness turned to anger. Anger toward the adults who’d played with their children’s lives without a thought for anyone but themselves or who it would affect.

She opened her mouth to vocalize the sentiment when her cell phone rang. Relief eclipsed the anger momentarily, as she stood on shaky legs to reach her phone. But it wasn’t Troy’s number on the screen. A blocked number showed instead.

Her body felt numb as she answered. “Hello?”

“Ruby! Enjoying your reunion with your mother?”

She grabbed on to the counter, her legs unable to support her. No, Jim couldn’t have found out so quickly. He was just trying to rattle her. Please, let that be it. “What are you talking about?”

Her father’s laughter echoed through the phone. “See, this is why I used to do all the talking and you kept your mouth shut and played pool.”

“Too bad you usually talked us into more trouble.”

Ruby could practically see his cocky shrug through the phone. “More trouble can sometimes equal more money.”

God, in that moment, she hated him. How stupid she’d been, allowing herself to hope he cared or felt an ounce of remorse for those years on the road. “Well, at least you have your priorities in order. This conversation is no longer one of mine.”

“Hang up and I won’t let you say good-bye to your boyfriend.” This time, she didn’t even try to grab the counter for support as her legs folded beneath her. The pain of her knees landing hard on the linoleum floor barely registered. “Do I have your attention now?”

“I don’t believe you,” she whispered, her entire being screaming in denial. Still, another part of her, which knew her father better than anyone, heard the rare note of truth in his voice. She also knew what it meant and could hardly breathe through the debilitating dread.

“Would you like to talk to him?”

Ruby deflated under the weight of the confirmation that he had Troy. “Yes,” she managed.

In the background, she heard movement and a few muffled words being exchanged before Troy’s voice reached her though the phone. “Ruby, stay where you are and call the police,” he ordered in a rush. “Do not come here.”

“Come where?” she wailed as a sickening thud, followed by a grunt, assaulted her ear. “Where are you?”

A moment later, her father came back on the line, sounding supremely irritated. “I’d seriously advise you not to listen to him.”

“Don’t hurt him, please. Please.” Ruby commanded herself to sit up and focus, even though she wanted to curl up on the floor and never move again. “What do you want? Just tell me.”

“I’m going to text you an address. Bring your thief mother to me and I’ll let you leave with your boyfriend.”

Ruby shook her head rapidly, forgetting in her fear that he couldn’t see her. It would never happen. He’d never let them both walk.