I clench all over. “Stealing and torturing people?” I gasp out.
No wonder my mother never talks about her father. Just what the hell am I descended from?
“Yes,” Dad says, and his voice is eerily calm. “Theodore Mathias is one of the men who abused and tortured Uncle Talon. Perhaps we—”
I steel myself. I’ve gone too far to back out now. “No, Daddy. Finish. I promise I won’t interrupt again.”
And I vow to keep that promise, no matter what I hear.
According to what Theo had told Ruby, she’d been the reason for his downfall. He should have been thrilled to do her in.
“You have something in place, don’t you, Mother?” I said. “A fail-safe. Something that will take my father and Mathias down if you die.”
She smiled. “I always knew you were brilliant, darling.”
Of course. That was why my father and the others hadn’t blown her head off years ago.
I regarded my siblings. Talon’s face had gone pale. Blankly pale. He’d come face-to-face with the last of the men who’d tortured him all those years ago, and paralysis seemed to grip him. Jade snuggled into him, rubbing his shoulder, soothing him.
But no one was here to soothe Joe. His eyes were on fire, his jaw tensed.
Somehow, I had to stop him. A gun was still trained on the woman I loved, and I didn’t trust the woman wielding it any more than I trusted the man threatening her.
“Mother,” I said as calmly as I could. “If you love me as you say you do, please let Ruby go.”
“My audience is with all of you,” she said. “I will not.”
“You will,” Mathias said.
But before he could strike, Wendy moved with snakelike stealth.
I jumped at a gunshot.
A bullet from the gun previously pointed at Ruby had shot into Theo’s stomach. He fell backward in the doorway, blood gushing from his abdomen. The metallic and raw stench permeated the air.
Did the woman have eyes in the back of her head? He could have easily shot her first.
It dawned on me then. My mother hadn’t been lying when she said she might be the one to die today.
She was ready to go, which made her even more dangerous.
I had to figure out what her angle was. She might be planning to take all of us with her.
Ruby fell to her father’s side and checked his pulse. He muttered some words to her that I couldn’t make out, and then he grabbed her other hand.
“It’s weak,” she said. “I don’t think he’s going to make it.”
Then Joe struck. He swiftly walked forward and raised his foot.
“Joe!” I said.
He lowered his foot, staring at me.
“Let him,” Ruby said, dropping her father’s hand. “His pulse is barely there. He’s as good as dead already.”
But Joe backed off as Talon seemed to reanimate. He stepped forward as well. “You bastard!” he yelled. “You fucking bastard.” He knelt down and pulled up Theo’s left sleeve, showing the tattoo of the phoenix. “Fucking evil bastard.” He curled his hand into a fist, ready to punch.
Joe got a grip then. He pulled Talon up. “He’s gone, Tal. It’s over.”
Talon stood, nodding. “You’re right. This isn’t who I am anymore. Good riddance.”
I kept one eye on my mother. She still had a gun in her hand, though she wasn’t pointing it toward anyone at the moment.
Ruby sat, staring into nothingness. I kneeled in front of her. “Baby, are you okay?”
She nodded, gave a sniffle, but no tears came. “He saved my life.”
“Maybe. I’m not sure Wendy was going to hurt you.”
“I’m calling 9-1-1,” my father said.
That jarred Wendy back into action. She pointed the gun right at him. “You’re doing no such thing. Besides, he’s already dead. I never miss.”
He put the phone down. “All right. We’ll do this your way, Wendy. What do you want?”
She closed her eyes for a second, still holding the gun, and then opened them. “I was always jealous. Even when I was a tiny child, before I even met you, Brad. Did you know that one of the symbols in alchemy for copper is what we know as the female symbol?”
“Wendy,” my father said, “what are you—”
“Did you ever figure it out? The symbol on our rings?”
“The symbol was nonsense,” Brad said. “Now put that gun down, and we’ll talk about this.”
“Even then I knew I was different. My parents didn’t understand me. The future lawmakers never understood me. Only you, Brad. You knew exactly what I wanted and needed. Sometimes I dream about how you used to tie me—”
“Damn it, Wendy!”
“Our son was conceived in love.” She glanced to me. “You do know that, don’t you? I was bound for your father’s pleasure when he planted the seed that became you.”
“Wendy!”
She turned back toward my father’s voice, laughing. “Oh, you knew me, Brad. You destroyed me, and I let you. I coveted you. We were soul mates. But you never figured out the symbol.”
“It’s the symbol for evil,” I said. “The devil.” I pointed to Mathias’s now motionless body, blood seeping all over the hardwood floor. “He figured it out. So did Larry Wade. And so did we.”
“Of course you would, my brilliant son.” She smiled—a sickeningly sweet smile, right out of a slasher flick. “I contorted it a little, but at its center was the symbol for female…and the symbol for evil. But it’s also the symbol for copper. Do you know why that makes sense?”
No one spoke. I looked around. Jade was holding on to Talon. Joe’s eyes moved back and forth. He was planning something. If I could take my mother down, get that gun away from—
“Copper is a soft metal, you know. Soft, like a female. Not hard like iron. Like a male.”
I gathered my courage. My father might be shot in the process, but—
“And copper turns green. Green, the color of envy and jealousy.” She smiled again. “I never was good at sharing. I always envied others who had what I wanted. So I took things. I made people do things to suit my purposes. But it was never enough. Never enough, Brad, because I never really had you. I could have forced you to be with me long ago. We both know that. But I didn’t. I wanted you to come to me, to admit the truth about our connection. That we were always meant to be together.” Her fingers tensed around the firearm. “I’m done waiting. Now I will finally have what is mine. You and I are going to be together, Brad. The two of us and our son. One way or the other.”
Panic shredded through me. She truly was crazy. Not that I’d ever doubted that revelation. But then—
The memory…
“Never. I’ll never believe that. You’ll pay for this, Brad. I swear to God you’ll pay.”
What she’d said after that emerged into my mind. I could hear her say the words in the voice I now knew as I pressed my ear to my bedroom door.
“You and I are going to be together, Brad. The two of us and our son. One way or the other.”
My father was no longer enough for her. She wanted us both.