Page 189 of Property of Bob

I stopped on the other side of the gate. “No.”

Her eyebrows pulled together. “Do you know where he is?”

That wasn’t a question I wanted to answer through a fucking gate. “Who’s asking?”

She stared at me for a second.

“Ruby.”

“Ruby what?”

Her lips pressed together.

Clearly, she didn’t like all the questions.

Too fucking bad.

“You came onto club property asking for somebody,” I told her. “I’m gonna need more than Ruby.”

She let out a small sigh and shifted her weight.

“Ruby Palmer.”

The name hit me.

Palmer.

Ron’s last name.

I looked at her a little closer. “What’s your connection to Ron?”

Her annoyance faded slightly. “He’s my dad.”

Well, fuck. I hadn’t seen that coming.

Ruby glanced past me again. “I haven’t talked to him in years, but last week I got an envelope from him. It’s just a jumble of things I don’t understand. I tried calling the number I had for him, but it just keeps going to voicemail. I finally got some time off of work to make the drive here.”

I didn’t say anything.

Her eyes came back to mine. “Can you just tell me where he is?”

Fuck.

This morning had gone to shit fast.

I reached for the gate. “You better come inside.”

Ruby didn’t move. “Why?”

I looked at her through the bars.

Because your father helped someone terrorize us. Because he knew something about Caleb Token. Because he helped get Bernice onto this island. Because before we could get answers out of him, he put a gun to his head and pulled the trigger.

None of that was shit I was saying through a gate.

“Because we need to talk about your dad.”

Ruby stared at me. “What happened to him?”