Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1

S heriff Carlos Santiago tossed his badge onto the top of the desk. His uniform shirt and utility belt went next. He kept his gun, holster, and cell phone. The white short-sleeved undershirt he wore was thin, but it would have to do. He didn't have any other option but his beige work pants and boots. There certainly was no time to go home and change into something else.

He rushed out of the diner seconds behind Owen. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Kelly the waitress standing behind the service counter. Carlos did not have time to explain or thank her for her help. While he didn't know Owen that well, or at all really, instinct told him Owen would not hesitate to leave him behind.

Ghost and Ranger were outside by their bikes. Ghost was on his phone, though Carlos didn't know who with.

"Keys!" he shouted to both of them.

Ranger's eyebrows shot up. The man looked like he was a gene away from being labeled an Albino. Carlos had never seen anyone with such bright, natural white-blonde hair before, but Ranger swore he didn't dye it. On more than one occasion, Carlos had overheard him offer to show the questioner his pubes when they still doubted him.

Owen was already straddling Ghost's bike. It was a Harley-Davidson Limited Edition El Diablo Low-Rider in the iconic shimmer red. Ranger's was a sleek gray Nightster.

Ghost turned, his flaming red hair as bright as his bike's paint job. "Carlos, what?—"

"No time," Carlos said quickly. Owen looked seconds away from hotwiring the bike he now straddled. "We need your keys."

It only occurred to Carlos then that the reason behind Ranger's confusion was because he'd assumed Carlos was calling out for his club brother Keys and not demanding Ranger's bike keys .

Carlos was fairly certain if he was anyone else, they would have laughed in his face and never relinquished the keys to their beloved bikes. What biker willingly gives their bike over to someone else? Someone who wasn't even in their club and also a cop.

But Ranger and Ghost knew Carlos like he was one of the club. They knew he could ride because they'd seen him on Bulldog's hog more than once. They knew that Carlos would never take their bikes unless it was an emergency.

It was Owen that both of their gazes turned hesitantly on. Ghost's back had been to his bike when Owen had mounted it, so he hadn't seen Owen until he had turned at Carlos's first demand for his keys.

Ranger held out his keys. Ghost was slightly more hesitant, but Carlos grabbed for them as soon as they were in view.

He tossed them over to Owen, who caught them with ease. The man was wearing jeans, boots, a black t-shirt, and black lightweight jacket. However, now that he was sitting, Carlos could see the outline of the gun holster at his chest.

Carlos untucked his undershirt to help cover the gun on his hip.

Without a word to anyone or putting on a helmet, Owen spun the bike in a quick fishtail and then sped away.

Carlos hurried after him.

He didn't care what it took. He didn't care how many laws he broke. He was getting Zoe's son back from the bounty hunter who took him.

Carlos was having second thoughts. Not about going after Kyle. Never that. But the speed in which they left. Carlos, by nature, was a strategist, a thinker. He did not make impulsive, split-second decisions.

And yet he'd done so twice in the past week.

The first was moving Zoe and Kyle into his home. It had felt right. Like they belonged there. Carlos wasn't a person who acted based on how he felt in the moment. Hell, he hadn't even asked his mom first before moving them in. And, technically, it was her house. Louisa, though, had taken it in stride and had never uttered a word of complaint—or questioned his sanity.

Then there was now. As soon as Owen had said he was tracking down the bounty hunter, Trapper, Carlos had jumped to follow. He'd made a vow to Zoe that he would not return until he had her son with him. Carlos wasn't the boy's father, but he did feel responsible for him. He'd made a vow he wasn't even sure he could keep.

He prayed he could. Fuck, was he praying. If anything happened to Kyle beyond the abduction, Carlos wasn't sure what he would do. Zoe and he were so new as a couple. He wanted a life with her. He wanted to one day be "Dad" to Kyle, as well as any future kids they might have.

But that would never happen if he failed to bring Kyle home. If he broke his vow.

Carlos had no information. He was blindly following Owen, and that wasn't like him.

His brain wasn't in control, though. Carlos knew himself well enough to know that the monster currently held the reins. He was the driving force of Carlos's more vengeful side. The raging beast inside that demanded blood and carnage as recompense.

Carlos knew that if he wanted to get Kyle back before his identity could be confirmed as Davis Rutterson Jr., he couldn't be the sheriff. He could not risk the red tape and the law getting in his way. Sheriff Carlos could not keep his vow to Zoe.

But, perhaps, the monster inside could.

They rode east for nearly three hours before they stopped. Owen needed to make a phone call and they both needed to top off the gas tanks of their procured motorcycles.

"What's the plan?" Carlos asked. "Where's Trapper?"

Owen was standing at the pump opposite Carlos. He had his phone out, having just hung up with whomever it was he needed to call. "My people are getting me his location now. We can't be too far behind him."

"How do you even know which vehicle he's driving?" Danny, one of Carlos's deputies, had put a BOLO out for the rental Trapper had had in Mount Grove the week before, but it had come back as returned to the rental dealership.

Owen put his phone into his pocket. Again, Carlos caught a glimpse of the gun shoulder holster he was wearing under his jacket. "He has a cousin who lives in the area. Last time he was here on a bounty, he borrowed the cousin's truck. That license plate was just captured on camera at a toll booth."

"Still doesn't prove he took or still has Kyle."

"Trapper was in Mount Grove. You saw proof yourself of that. The chances that he just happened to be there and a week later Kyle is taken without his involvement are extremely low." Owen straddled Ghost's bike. "Let's go. If we can catch him before he hits the city, it will make our lives easier."

Carlos started Ranger's Nightster. He'd been tempted to call or text Zoe during their pitstop, but he honestly didn't know what to say. Asking her how she was doing was pointless. She wasn't okay and she wouldn't be okay until her son was returned to her.

They continued towards Philly.

In a way, the trip seemed to go by in a blink of an eye. Carlos saw Kyle's little face with his wide brown eyes and his cute brown curls the entire way. Like a beacon guiding him forward. He knew that he wasn't returning to Mount Grove without Zoe's little boy.

On the other hand, each mile seemed to take an eternity. They were going close to twenty miles per hour over the posted speed limit, weaving their way in and out of traffic. As a cop, Carlos wondered where all the speed traps and patrolmen were. His mind whirled with thoughts of how scared Kyle was right then, how he could have possibly let Kyle be taken, how he was going to make this up to Zoe, how he was going to make it up to Kyle …

Carlos didn't know Owen, yet he was trusting and following him. What if Owen was leading him into a trap? But what would be the point of that? What if Owen was taking him away from Mount Grove and Zoe? But why would he do that? What if Owen's information was faulty and Trapper wasn't even headed to or in Philly?

Every mile stretched. How was it possible that time could go by so fast and so slow all at once? Carlos needed to get to Kyle faster , but he also needed a plan. He did not like blindly following Owen into the unknown.

Yet, Carlos knew just enough about Owen to know that he wasn't working alone. The person or people he worked with were like Keys and could get information without the red tape Carlos's badge forced him behind. Trapper would have answers as to where Kyle was—he had to. Because if he didn't…

If he didn't, then Carlos was back to square one without a place to start.

Owen suddenly swerved off an exit. Carlos had to hit his brakes and dodge a Prius to follow him. He pulled off to the side of the road.

Carlos squared up next to him. "What is it?"

Owen pulled out his phone. "Trapper's at a motel about six miles from here."

Carlos's heart started beating faster. "Kyle?"

"Unknown, but he had a suitcase with him."

Carlos felt sick as his stomach dropped. The bastard had put Kyle in a suitcase?! The monster seethed. He looked in the direction of the motel.

Six miles.

Carlos throttled the engine. I'm coming, Kyle. Hold on…

For as long as Zoe could remember, it had been her and Kyle. Even when he'd been born, Davis had refused to hold his son. All of the birth announcements and pictures that Davis had insisted on going out had been Zoe holding her baby while Davis had his arm around her. Kyle had been so small, though he'd been born full-term.

Though she'd been in denial about it at the time, a part of her was grateful Davis had never shown a paternal side. He'd struck Zoe for the first time when she'd gotten her first period following their wedding. That was all it had taken—her failure to get pregnant—for Davis to show his true colors. It had been an underlying fear of hers every time Davis had gotten close to his son.

What small, insignificant trigger would set Davis off enough to harm his son as he had hurt his wife?

The old argument of nature versus nurture. Had Davis even had a chance at being a good man given the house he'd grown up in? Davis's parents had been harsh and strict. More than once, Davis had expressed how much he resented his father's success and complained that nothing came as easily for him as it did for his father. Davis had joined the police force, not out of a sense of duty, but to prove he could triumph over his father's career and records. The more Davis had tried, though, the more he had failed, and the more he failed, the angrier he got.

Zoe had met his parents on multiple occasions. His mom was a stay-at-home mom who did no mothering. Davis had been raised by nannies until his teen years. The only time Mrs. Rutterson had shown any maternal affection was in front of the press cameras. As the son and grandson of Philadelphia's Police Commissioner and retired Supreme Court Judge, respectively, Davis had always fallen short of expectations.

It was why he'd pushed so hard to get married and have a son. Davis needed to prove he could at least do that .

But he had never loved his son.

Davis had proven that the day he'd knocked Zoe unconscious while she'd been holding her baby and then gone downstairs to watch television.

Even up in the mountains, it had been her and Kyle. Others had visited, like Brooke, the mountain woman who had helped her with home repairs and to stock her groceries, and Corbin or Dalton, the mountain men who checked in on them to ensure she had enough firewood and checked on the cabin's amenity stores. Conner had come as often he could but it was never as often as either of them liked.

For a long time, Zoe had needed that solitude with her son. She needed time to heal, to move on. In truth, she hadn't moved on. She'd never come close to moving on while squirreled away in a cabin in the middle of nowhere.

It hadn't been until a new small-town sheriff had come knocking on her door that she'd even contemplated moving on. That there had been a future she could envision for herself and her son that didn't involve daily fear and anxiety.

Now her son was missing. Kidnapped by a bounty hunter.

Zoe had never felt so hollow. The despair was debilitating. She could barely breathe. She needed her son and she needed him now.

The only other time she'd felt so helpless was the night she'd killed her husband. Not when she'd shot him, but afterwards. When she'd had to watch Davis's parents carry her infant son out of her house while she was handcuffed in the back of a police car.

"…this will help calm you down…"

The slight prick to her arm was nothing compared to her shattered heart.

Kyle… She thought as a haze fell over her. Please, Carlos, bring my baby back to me…