Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1

D eputy Sheriff Carlos Santiago stared up at the building before him with a feeling of trepidation. So much had changed in six months. Had it only been February when he'd last partied with the Via Daemonia , celebrating Bear and Tessa's re-wedding? How had so much changed in so little time?

He was man enough to admit that a good part of that change was himself. He thought he could live with the decisions he'd made guilt-free, but his conscience was coming back to haunt him. There would be pandemonium, chaos, and anarchy without the law. He knew this better than anyone as a cop. Carlos believed that, even if some laws were out of date or inaccurate, they were just.

Until that night.

That April night over a year ago. Ohiopyle.

Carlos closed his eyes and internally winced.

The horrors of that night should have vindicated the vigilante justice. All those women. Those two little girls. Madison Mitchell.

His heart and head screamed that whatever his brother and the Via Daemonia had done to Mark Connelly and his accomplice was justified. He knew Madison. He knew her parents. Because of the Via Daemonia , she was now about to start her sophomore year of college. She was happy, alive, and thriving. She hadn't been sold to become some deviant's sex slave.

But his soul? It felt stained. Like he'd dishonored the badge he cherished since he'd earned it at eighteen years old.

Carlos had been thirteen when his mom had been diagnosed with breast cancer and his piece of shit dad had decided that in sickness and in health was not a worthy vow to keep. His older brother, José, had joined the Army to get a solid paycheck and insurance to cover the cost of their mom's treatments. Carlos had become his mom's live-in caretaker. Though he'd never admit it out loud, as a teen, he'd resented the fact that their roles weren't reversed. His brother had gotten to see the world! While Carlos had gotten to see and learn how chemotherapy worked.

He'd been so close to joining the Army too. He'd had the application in hand.

But then reality had come crashing back down when his mom had relapsed. Cancer had come for her again.

No. His dreams, his ambitions to see the world, would wait. His mom , the woman who had birthed him, the woman who had given him everything, the woman whose smile could light up a room—even if that room was in a hospital—needed him.

Carlos had stayed.

He'd thrown out the Army application and gone straight into Sheriff Longhill's office the day of his high school graduation to apply to be a deputy. Longhill already knew him from the Junior Deputy program Carlos had been involved in during high school.

The resentment had not come back as Carlos had expected it to. He'd gotten to protect and serve, even if it was on a smaller scale.

His mom had been so proud of him.

His badge had never felt heavy. It had always been a compass for him. Right versus wrong. Black versus white.

Except that his black and white universe had recently turned gray.

Steel had been prepared to question Connelly in Ohiopyle. He'd started to—and it had been Carlos who had told Steel to do it elsewhere. He might as well have signed Connelly's death certificate himself. At the time, his mind had been on getting the women medical care. Some… Well, the blood on their thighs had been telling.

A horrible, vindictive side of Carlos could not stand that rapists and murderers, stalkers and abusers got to live another day. Some days, it felt like he was reining in a monster. Certain arrests… But if he went down that road, where would it end? Mount Grove was not littered with crime like a big city. He hadn't had to face that turmoil often.

That night, though? When he'd learned that his fellow deputy , a man he'd worked with for over five years, had been involved in human trafficking? That he'd kidnapped a seventeen-year-old girl? That he'd tried to rape her and it had only been happenstance that had stopped him? That he had raped two other women prior?

The monster had won out.

The Via Daemonia were not bad men. They were honorable men. Sheriff Longhill would have never allied himself with them otherwise. Carlos had been in the station the day Steel had walked in to inform Longhill that he was creating a motorcycle club in Mount Grove. At first, Longhill had been skeptical. An honest motorcycle club? By the end of the meeting, though, Steel had been shaking hands with Longhill.

Carlos had felt himself breathe a sigh of relief. If the VDMC built in Mount Grove, then his brother was staying. Though their mom was in remission for a second time, Carlos always had a fear the cancer would return.

Third time's the charm…

The honor that ran through the VDMC stemmed from a desire to protect. More than once, Longhill had called on the Via Daemonia to back up the police department. He knew that the veterans who made up the club were better trained than his deputies. Carlos had gotten to see his brother be Bulldog , the Army soldier, in action.

When Carlos had told Steel to take Connelly away, Carlos could argue that he hadn't known what the Via Daemonia had planned for his fellow deputy. He could claim there had been no history of violence from the club and, therefore, how could he have known that the club would choose a lethal form of punishment. He could even point out that he didn't know without a shadow of a doubt that Connelly was dead because he'd never seen his body.

But there was no point in saying any of that. He'd known. He'd stood there and watched as Connelly and his cohort were dragged away by his own brother.

He'd known.

Perhaps that was what bothered him the most. That knowledge.

Carlos wanted to say he slept easy, knowing that an evil man was no longer free or carrying a badge, but he couldn't. Not at first, anyway. It had taken a long time for him to start to move past it. Almost make it seem like a bad dream. That denial had been shattered when certain things had come to light. The man Connelly had worked for, the brother of a cartel kingpin, had come to Mount Grove for his vengeance.

Carlos had known that his boss, Ronald Hannigan, was involved. It was hard to think of him as innocent since he'd done his hardest to derail the VDMC and place blame on them that had rightfully been his own son's. Bottom line, though, Hannigan was innocent. It had not been his doing that had caused Mateo Castillo to set his sights on Mount Grove.

It had been his son, Richard. A man the Via Daemonia had known about but Carlos had not. He'd been the real person to blame. The sheriff's only crime had been standing back and watching. He had not arrested his son but, instead, protected him. He'd tried to frame the VDMC for his son's crimes.

Could Carlos really blame the man when he was doing the same for his own brother?

Carlos did not like the hypocrisy.

The monster had reared its ugly head again. Carlos had stood back and watched the Via Daemonia take Castillo away. There'd been no doubt about the man's fate. Not when he and his minions had nearly gang-raped Lucky's fiancée and Hannigan's daughter, Harper.

His internal war between right and wrong had continued. Castillo was powerful, his lawyers could have gotten him off…but who was Carlos, a simple small-town deputy, to decide the man's fate?

And then… Then there was Abby.

Carlos remembered Abby as a teenager. There was a five-year age gap between Carlos and his brother. Abby had probably held him as a baby. She'd practically grown up in the Santiago house. Long before his brother had taken a moniker, Bulldog had been in love with her. Carlos had thought of her as a sister even after her family had moved out of Pennsylvania.

Abby had become a person from his past. His brother had refused to speak her name for sixteen years and Carlos had followed his lead.

Last February, Danny had called for assistance with an abandoned vehicle on the side of the road. Only…it hadn't been abandoned.

The monster inside him had wanted to tear every man who had harmed Abby limb from limb. He'd wanted to set the Via Daemonia loose on the community who claimed their god had given them permission to treat women like broodmares.

He couldn't. Where did it end? It had to end. The violence. The lawlessness.

Carlos had stood his ground. If he broke for Abby, he'd never be able to control the monster again.

Now he stood outside of the Via Daemonia clubhouse with his boss, Sheriff Hannigan, and fellow deputy, Jeff Miller. Carlos liked Jeff. He was a good man with a loving wife and three grown or nearly grown children. Jeff also had not been pissed off that Longhill had given Carlos a promotion when Jeff had been there longer.

Carlos didn't know why Steel had summoned them to this meeting. He glanced at Jeff, who was completely blind when it came to Hannigan's and Carlos's crimes. What if someone said something and Jeff reported it? That would be the right thing to do. Carlos wouldn't even judge him for it, even though Carlos was too much of a coward to do it himself. He had the contacts; he should report himself.

Looking over his right shoulder, his eyes landed on the Pentagon. Five homes that the VDMC had built on property with a communal, pentagon-shaped backyard. Steel and Jenna lived in the first house with their daughter, Melanie, who would be starting college in a few weeks; Lucky and Harper had the next house with their teenage son, Scotty, who had Down Syndrome, and their new baby, Conner; Bear and Tessa were next with their infant, Maggie; Angel's house was different in size and shape to accommodate her paraplegic adopted-daughter, Bree; and then there was Bulldog's horde. Carlos's brother's house was the newest. He'd built it for Abby and their four children, Carlos's nieces and nephew, Cassie, Lila, Caleb, and Georgie.

Christ, Carlos loved those kids. Even Cassie, who had gone through horrors no teenager should ever have to deal with, was starting to come out of her shell. Her agoraphobia was not as intense as it was in the beginning. And Lila? He was pretty sure she had the energy equivalent to the Energizer Bunny after he downed several Red Bulls . Caleb and Georgie were Irish twins and looked so much alike they could be mistaken for real twins.

If Jeff turned him in, Carlos couldn't blame the man. But a chain reaction would start that would disrupt the serenity and families, both real and found, living here.

People would go to jail, including Bulldog and Carlos. Cancer hadn't gotten their mother, but seeing her sons incarcerated might.

Why would Steel invite the sheriff here? Why now? Carlos briefly wondered if it had to do with Jasmine and Sophia. Those two hooligans were going to be the ones in jail if they didn't stop their investigation.

Growing up, Carlos had had the biggest crush on Jazz. People assumed he hung out with the two besties because of Sophia. She was old-money rich and her family could be traced back to the original settlers of Mount Grove. However, as much as he enjoyed Sophia's company, it had always been Jasmine who had drawn his attention. She was the shy one of the two, uncomfortable in her own skin. Carlos had never minded that she didn't have the traditional Barbie-esque body. Even as a teenager, he'd liked her for who she was.

Then Jasmine and Sophia had left Mount Grove and gone to Penn State for college. With Sophia's money, she could have gone anywhere in the world, but she'd chosen to go to the same school as her best friend, who had needed scholarships and student loans to pay for her education. Carlos had been sad to see his friends go, once more left behind in this small town. It had been fun to visit them, but then reality would call him home.

As they entered their twenties, Carlos realized that he no longer had a crush on Jasmine. He was grateful he'd never made a move or asked her out. Even more grateful that Sophia had never divulged that she and Carlos had shared a drunken one-night stand back when it had been illegal for them to be drinking. Regardless, Sophia and Jasmine fit back into his small-town life as his friends. Nothing more.

The picture of a shy brunette entered into his mind. Clara, Jenna's niece. She'd been living with Steel and Jenna over the winter but had since moved on. Carlos didn't know where. He knew she had a son and that she was recently widowed. Beyond that, though… He wished he'd gotten a chance to know her. She was…compelling, to say the least. Her utter sadness had gripped him in a way no other woman in his life ever had. Even if nothing came of it, he felt like Clara could have been someone to him. If only a friend.

Another missed opportunity.

That feeling of trepidation nearly reaching a boil, Carlos followed his boss inside.

Zoe Rutterson peeked around the closed living room curtain. It didn't matter that she had been in Mount Grove for a year with no issues and no hint that anyone knew where she was. Every knock was the Marshals, every noise in the night was the cops, every thunderstorm was the crack of that awful belt…

The trailer Zoe and Kyle had moved into was small. Jenna had made several comments about it being too small, but Zoe assured her that it wasn't. Small meant there were less places for an adult to hide and take her unawares. The windows were also small enough that she knew she and Kyle could escape out of them, but a grown man could not.

"Clara," she heard called out, "it's Jenna. I have groceries."

It had been almost three years since she'd taken the name Clara, but she still didn't feel like a Clara. She felt like an imposter. It had been easier in her head to switch Kyle's name. She hadn't wanted him to carry his father's name anymore; it was bad enough that he carried the bastard's DNA. Kyle was young enough that there had been little confusion. It was difficult to believe her little boy was almost four.

Though Zoe knew Jenna's voice, she still had to check. When she'd first arrived, Steel and Bulldog had offered her firearms lessons. It wasn't like she could legally carry, but she felt better knowing that there was a handgun on top of the fridge out of Kyle's reach.

A wave of sadness hit her as she saw Kyle hurry to his hiding place. They'd practiced for days after moving into the trailer. Kyle had a hiding place in each room.

Until Zoe said the magic word, Kyle was to remain hidden. The only other person who knew the magic word was now dead. It occurred to Zoe, not for the first time, that she should confide in Steel, and maybe even Jenna, what had brought her to Mount Grove on her hands and knees begging for sanctuary. Fear always clamped her lips closed. They knew the basics, but not everything. They did not understand her fear, her need to stay hidden.

No child should ever be instinctually scared when someone knocked on his door. Not for the first time did Zoe wonder if she was a bad mother to have taught her son so young to be afraid.

It was that concern, the apprehension that she was teaching Kyle to be scared of the world, that made Zoe accept Jenna's invitation to come to their house for lunch. Though Jenna was obviously surprised by her acceptance, she hid it quickly with happiness. Zoe had never accepted one of her invites before.

They had been in Mount Grove for over a year. Steel assured Zoe that no one knew she was here. Besides, it wasn't like they were leaving the club's property. They had lived in Jenna's house with them for over six months and had shared many meals with them during that time. What could happen?