Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5

D espite being distracted by the excruciating pain radiating from his testicles, Carlos did catch sight of Clara running away with her son. Mind, it was more of a fast-paced walk, but there was no doubt in his mind that she was running. From what? It couldn't have been him, because she hadn't seen him until they were falling down the stairs together.

As Carlos hobbled over to a lawn chair with the icepack still between his legs, he took an assessing look around. More people had shown up since his tumble down the stairs. Steel and Jenna were standing around a teenage boy, who must be Ollie. He was very thin and very tall. Steel hadn't given an age for him, but Carlos guessed around fifteen.

Hannigan was on the back porch with Conner in his arms. He was still in his uniform, though badge- and gun-less. Carlos had locked both in his cruiser prior to coming over to Steel's house. His own gun had fallen off of his belt down the stairs, but thankfully one of the brothers had grabbed it and not one of the kids. It was now sitting on the table next to Carlos.

Looking around, Carlos compared the couples versus the singles. Most who were here were coupled off. Steel and Jenna, Lucky and Harper, Bulldog and Abby, Bear and Tessa. Hell, he could include Hannigan and his wife Cindy in that grouping too. The couple he didn't see was Jumper and Jasmine; he wondered where they were. Of the singles, there was Demo, Cage, and Grumpy. Carlos knew all three members lived in the clubhouse and, knowing Jenna, likely had an automatic invite to lunch.

The club kids running around were growing in numbers. If his mom was here, Louisa would be all over them. She loved being a grandma now. Though four didn't seem to be enough for her, and she was now bothering Carlos to add to those numbers.

A sharp pain radiated up from his balls, as if warning him they were in no condition to start reproducing.

Carlos spotted Bree and Cassie. They were on Bulldog's back porch. While most of the club property had been transformed to make access for Bree's wheelchair, there were still some areas that she wasn't able to go. Bulldog's back porch did not have a ramp. Cage, who managed the club's construction company and a licensed contractor, had explained that Bulldog's back porch was too short to the ground, which would make the ramp either too long or too steep. This was due to the slight incline that Bulldog's house rested on. Therefore, he could only add a ramp to the front of Bulldog's house.

Bree and Cassie were in no way excluded from the party. Jenna and the other ladies would never allow that. Carlos wondered if Cassie's agoraphobia was keeping them on the back porch. Most likely one of the ladies was on food duty for them. That was when Carlos realized Angel's absence. Was she at work?

Cage made his way down the porch steps carrying two plates of food. He gave Carlos a chin lift as he passed. The club brother climbed up the stairs of Bulldog's porch and delivered the food to the two teenage girls.

Bulldog came down the stairs next. He was holding up a soda can and a beer bottle.

Carlos glared at his brother. "I'm still on duty."

"And if a bank robbery was in progress right now, do you honestly expect me to believe you're capable of running down the perps?" Bulldog waggled the beer in front of Carlos's face.

He snatched the bottle away. "That's why I have deputies. They do the running for me."

Bulldog laughed as he took a seat on the other side of the table from Carlos. The house provided them with enough shade that they did not need to put the umbrella up. "You're the boss for less than an hour and already you're delegating while you sit on your ass?"

Carlos held up his middle finger.

He didn't realize his eyes had gone back to the spot between Steel's and Lucky's houses where he'd last seen Clara disappear until Bulldog said, "Give her time."

Carlos's head snapped around towards his brother. "What?"

Bulldog tipped his beer bottle in the same direction. "Clara. There's a reason she ran, and it wasn't from embarrassment about getting up close and personal with your nuts."

Carlos's eyes narrowed. He had the distinct feeling his brother was trying to tell him something without telling him anything. "I thought she'd left Steel and Jenna's. I figured she went back home."

"She did leave." Bulldog took a sip of his beer. "But she didn't go back home."

That made no sense. Other than the houses in the Pentagon and the apartments in the clubhouse, there were no other living spaces on the club's property… Right?

Bulldog scratched his long beard. "I saw the way you looked at her."

Carlos looked down at the unopened beer bottle in his hand. Condensation dripped down the dark glass. "I don't know what you're talking about."

After a long moment of silence, Carlos looked up to see his brother assessing him. It had been a while since the two of them sat and talked. Carlos had been keeping his distance, knowing he'd let his brother down. Bulldog had needed his support and Carlos had let his morals get in the way. But what choice did he have? If he let the monster loose…

Their mom had fought her second battle with cancer during the last two years of Bulldog's military service. During that time, Louisa had wanted to get in touch with her Italian roots. Her sons wanted to give her a reason to keep fighting, so they made her a promise: kick cancer's ass a second time and they would take her to Italy. All three of them had studied Italian and Carlos had discovered that a second cousin of their mom's owned a vineyard in Italy. Eventually, their mom had been declared in remission and her sons took her to Italy for almost four months.

Almost eight years later, the three Santiagos still continued to speak Italian around each other. Louisa wanted to go back. She'd been in the process of researching another trip when Abby had come back into their lives, along with four kids. Now Louisa wouldn't go back unless it was with the entire family. At this time, though, neither Abby nor Cassie were able to travel. Louisa claimed she was fine waiting.

Lila had picked up on Italian rather quickly. To the point where, in the six months since she'd become Bulldog's daughter, she was able to hold nearly an entire conversation in Italian. The kid was smart and Carlos was a bit jealous that she was learning so quickly.

Generally, the brothers only held conversations in Italian around their mom to keep their language skills up. They still intended to take their mom back to Italy and didn't want to lose the progress they'd made in the language between now and then.

So for Bulldog to start speaking in Italian when it was just the two of them around, it made Carlos pay attention. "Cassie's been cooped up in the house a lot this week. Why don't you see if she and Bree want to take a stroll with you?" He stood up. "Maybe follow the new walking path we had put in that circles the property."

Carlos tried to keep the suspicion off of his face. Clara had been headed in the direction of the walking path too. "Am I looking for anything while on this casual stroll?"

Bulldog just shrugged and then walked away.

It took nearly an hour before his balls felt well enough for him to ditch the icepack and walk towards his niece and Bree. He left both the icepack and the unopened beer on the table.

Carlos would never forget the sight of Cassie, Abby, and Lila in that rusted old minivan six months ago. The utter fear in Cassie's eyes. He'd been thirteen years old the last time he'd seen Abby, but he'd known her immediately. Too thin and very pregnant. He'd remembered.

It had taken her some time to remember.

"Oh God! Carlos. You're all grown up. Where is he, Carlos? Where's my José?"

The monster had roared. Abby had been like a big sister to him. Who could have hurt her in such a heinous way?

And not just her. Cassie too.

Carlos did not fault Cassie her agoraphobia in the slightest. If he'd suffered what she had, he wouldn't want to go outside either. Cassie couldn't see her strength, but her adopted parents could. Carlos could.

Looking at the two teenage girls, Carlos felt for both of them. Bree had been kidnapped and abused for over two years by a pedophile who might be a cop. Then he'd sold her to a pornographer who made snuff films as a way to dispose of people for profit.

The monster demanded vengeance for both these innocent girls.

Pushing aside his inner-turmoil, Carlos tried not to wince as he walked up the stairs to his brother's back porch.

"Afternoon, ladies."

"Hi, Uncle Carlos," they both said to him. Bree smiled widely at him, happy to see him. Cassie, though, just looked sad.

Carlos leaned forward conspiratorially. "What do you two say about going for a walk? We won't go far," he assured Cassie. She'd stiffened at his offer. "I'll be with you the whole time, sweetheart. You'll be safe. I promise."

Bree pushed her wheelchair forward enough to tap her feet against Cassie's leg. "Please, Cass? We'll come right back if you need to. Let's get some exercise."

As much as Carlos was doing this because he was curious about his brother's cryptic behavior, Carlos also wanted to help Cassie. If she felt better about leaving the house to go for a walk with him by her side, then he'd gladly go for that walk with her. Regardless of what he may or may not find.

He didn't know why Bulldog was being cryptic, but he did know that it had to do with Clara. And Carlos was very interested in learning more about her.

Finally, Cassie agreed. They had to go through the house to get to the ramp for Bree. The difference in Cassie's anxiety from being inside to outside was visibly noticeable. Her entire body tensed and she walked like she had a hundred-pound weights tied to her ankles. Carlos was about to nix the whole thing and take Cassie back inside when she took his hand.

Looking down at his niece, he saw her gave him a tight smile. "Let's do this."

Carlos nearly missed it. The new path the club had put in surrounded the clubhouse, pavilion, pond, and the Pentagon. It was about a half mile long around and made out of smooth cobblestone so Bree's chair and the kids' strollers and bikes could travel easier. Carlos knew about the path being built; he even brought his mom over to take walks with some of the ladies when the weather was nice. The club had started the construction a year ago when Bree had still been in the hospital. They did not want her to be restricted to where she could go because of her wheelchair.

What he hadn't known about was the second path. It wasn't obvious, and he could understand missing it. The only reason he noticed it was because of a broken branch. One that a little boy likely kicked in his tantrum at being taken away from the swing set he'd been playing on.

Carlos didn't know why, but he knew that Clara and Kyle had gone onto that second path. Unlike the main path, it wasn't marked or cleared. It was dirt and grass with foliage and trees. But once he saw it, he couldn't lose it.

With Bree and Cassie in tow, he couldn't follow the second path. They were walking slowly for Cassie, who seemed to be concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other. Carlos was still holding her hand. Bree couldn't hold her other hand and push herself in her wheelchair, so Cassie had her hand on the handle of Bree's chair.

Carlos's balls did not mind the slow pace. Plus, he was enjoying catching up with his niece and Bree. Though Bree also called him ‘uncle', Carlos was not one of her club uncles. She'd picked up on Scotty referring to Carlos as an uncle when she'd first come around the club and had followed his example.

Bree was telling Carlos how she did not want to have a birthday party. It was coming up on her year anniversary of her kidney transplant surgery. She was also starting high school in the fall. Since the only people in Mount Grove that she knew were already in the club, Bree had asked Angel not to throw her a party. Instead, she wanted to throw Cage, her kidney donor, a "thank you for saving my life" party.

"You'll come, right?" Bree asked around Cassie.

Carlos hadn't been to a club gathering since Bear and Tessa's wedding. He'd declined attending Harper and Lucky's. There was no way that he was getting out of attending Bulldog and Abby's though. His own mother would flay him alive if he even suggested it.

Carlos regretted missing Harper's wedding. He'd thought distancing himself from the club would help soothe his monster, but he'd been wrong. The monster couldn't be soothed.

"Of course," he told Bree. He wasn't about to disappoint the girl, regardless of his earlier feelings. He needed to make peace with what he had done, what he knew had been done, and what he might have to do in the future.

Maybe he should make an appointment to see Dr. Rutenberg, the town's therapist. He'd need to be vague about some things, but it couldn't hurt to talk to the man.

They made it all the way around the circle. It took them about a half hour. Bulldog was waiting for them outside his house and walked towards them as soon as they were in view. He wrapped Cassie up in his arms and pressed a kiss to the top of her head.

"Proud of you," he whispered against her hair.

Cassie was shaking and hung tightly onto Bulldog. "I did it."

He squeezed her tight, rubbing his hand up and down her back. "Yes, you did." Bulldog turned so they could continue their walk towards his house. He kept Cassie against his side, an arm around her shoulders. She clung to him like she needed to borrow his strength to make it the rest of the way.

Bree headed towards her house. Carlos still hadn't seen Angel, but both her car and motorcycle were in her driveway. Was she not at work then?

As they neared Bulldog's house, Carlos pointed his thumb over his shoulder. "I think I'm going to take another loop around."

Bulldog nodded once. "Thank you," he said and guided Cassie inside. She waved behind her at Carlos just before the door closed. Carlos wasn't sure if she saw his wave back.

Kyle was in his hiding place. Zoe had been expecting Jenna to visit, maybe bring them some lunch plates or to scold her for leaving so abruptly. As soon as Zoe saw it was the cute deputy, though, panic took hold once more. She had an emergency button that would alert the club that she needed help, but what could they do? It would go to Bulldog and Ghost, and she'd been around long enough to know that this specific cop with those sweet eyes and kind smile was Bulldog's brother .

He wouldn't stand between her and his brother. If the deputy was here to arrest her, she was screwed. Why had she come here? Why had she left Montana?

She knew Montana was only meant to be temporary. The cabin that she and Kyle had stayed in was not to be their permanent home. Conner had meant to bring her to Mount Grove once he was no longer a prospect for the club. The only thing that differed from his original plan was that he was no longer here with her.

Conner would have stood between her and the world if he was still alive.

Now she had a deputy knocking on her door and no Conner to help her. Jenna had said that she trusted the deputy, that Steel did too, but a deputy was obligated to follow the law. And the law said that Zoe was a criminal.

Knowing she couldn't hide, Zoe opened the door to face her fate.