Beth’s touch lingered on my lips. The desire I felt for her hadn’t dampened one bit in the last ten years. If anything, it had grown more intense. But she was vulnerable; no matter what else he was, my brother had been her husband. She’d built her life waiting for some other shoe to drop with him. We both had. First, it had been the flashy cars and expensive trips he wanted to take her on. Sean had a respectable job as a sanitation worker, but it wasn’t enough to afford the fast cars and diamonds he brought her.

Then, Sean had started bringing people to the house that scared Beth. She’d been afraid to confide in me at first. But in my line of work, I knew every corner of Port Azrael and I recognized members of one of the most dangerous drug cartels when I saw them. Sean made all the promises guys like him usually make. They were just friends. He wasn’t involved in their businesses. Finally, Sean started disappearing for weeks at a time and Beth got followed home.

I remember that first night like it was yesterday. I found her in the last pew at San Mateo’s. She’d been waiting for me. She didn’t want to betray my brother, but she was worried about him. Then she was worried about herself. We worked out a system. She came to church twice a week and sat in that back pew. If she missed a day, I knew something was wrong.

I used to tell myself that she needed me and I had to be there for her. It was my vocation, after all. Though she was my sister-in-law, she was also a parishioner. But after a while, it became something else. I needed her. I was the one who was weak. When she cried on my shoulder, I felt the supple outlines of her body. I grew drunk with the scent of her perfume. And each week, the things Sean did grew worse. She’d recorded his conversations, documented the calls he received and where he went. There was no mistake. Sean was moving up the ranks as a major dealer for the cartel.

Then Beth wanted out. One terrible night, she confronted Sean. I had no idea she was planning it. Sean beat her within an inch of her life. Too scared to go back, I got her into the small convent associated with San Mateo’s and we met in the gardens every single day as the sisters nursed Beth back to health.

I was thinking of Beth sitting on the stone bench in front of the rose bushes. That’s where she’d always wait for me. Alone. Pale. Scared. But a fire flickered in her eyes when she saw me. That fire still burned; it flared to life when she kissed me tonight.

When I pulled into the clubhouse lot, I got the first sense that something wasn’t right. Mama usually waited in the doorway when one of us had taken off for a few days. The woman knew how unsettled I was. I think she also knew it wasn’t completely about Sean.

When I came into the main room, Mama was treating Shep at the bar. Blood ran in rivers down his chest and he hissed as she worked a needle through his shoulder.

“What the hell’s going on?” I asked. It looked like a battlefield hospital in here. I realized with horror that’s exactly what this was. Mama was almost done with Shep, but Axle lay on the table in the back of the room, his arm heavily bandaged.

Bear stormed out of the conference room. He was on his burner phone shouting orders to some of the other guys. “You tell everybody in Abilene to lay low. You get Chase, Toby, and Zig to the safehouse there.”

“Here!” Mama barked at me. She tossed me a packet of disinfectant soap. “Scrub up in the sink. I’m going to need you to hold him down while I finish these stitches. Bullet passed straight through.”

“Bullet? What the hell’s going on?”

“Ambush, that’s what!” E.Z. roared as he came out of the conference room behind Bear. “Axle and Shep were making a gun drop up the coast. Cops were waiting in the weeds. Somebody tipped ’em off.”

“Cops shot you?” I finished scrubbing up in the sink and put on a pair of purple latex gloves so I could assist Mama. Shep looked gray, but he was sitting upright. Mama’s face was hard and determined, but she wasn’t panicking. Her son’s wound wasn’t deep. It looked like the bullet had just grazed the fleshy part of Shep’s shoulder. A little more to the left and it could have shredded major arteries or done serious muscle damage. By the looks of it, he’d just have an ugly scar. Shep bore his mother’s treatment with a stony face.

“Yeah,” Shep said. “It was a rookie deputy. Got trigger happy. He was a lousy fucking shot.”

“Lucky for you!” Mama scolded.

“Just one?” I asked. It didn’t make any sense. If the cops had been tipped off we were making a drop, why wasn’t the A.T.F. on it?

“He was in the right place at the right time,” Shep answered, flinching as Mama debrided his wound. She took the needle from me. I put my hands on Shep’s shoulders and held him steady as she closed the edges of his wound.

“Axle too?” I asked.

“Nah,” Axle shouted from his position on the table. “Just got a little banged up trying to run interference and grab Shep. Nothing worse than a little road burn.”

“Well,” Mama said. “I’ve done about all I can do here.” She snapped her gloves off and put a gentle hand on her son’s back. She looked scared. I don’t think I’d ever seen her like that. Shep reached up and touched the back of her head, pulling her forward so he could kiss her.

“I’m okay, Mama. Go on home. Bear’s going to want to talk.”

She glared at her husband over Shep’s head. He was still on the phone but gave her a nod. It did nothing to placate her but Mama Bear knew the drill. I told her I’d clean up the mess. She grabbed her purse and stormed out of the clubhouse. Bear would have hell to pay with her later.

Bear snapped his burner phone shut. We were on a skeleton crew here at the house. Shep and Axle were handling the drop up the coast. The main action was taking place in Abilene. I should have been with them. Bear wouldn’t say it, but I knew he had to be thinking it.

As soon as he was sure Mama got in her car and drove off, he ran a hard hand over his face. “It’s bad,” he said.

“Did we lose anybody today?” I asked, my heart turning to ash.

“No, thank God,” Bear said. “But it was damn close. And this was too fucking coordinated. Somebody knew the crews were gonna be split today.”

“This is the Hawks!” E.Z.’s booming voice rattled the hanging beer mugs. Axle hauled himself off the back table and went to stand by Shep. I still had that weird vibe from the both of them. They knew something. Whatever it was, they weren’t saying it in front of Bear or E.Z. That couldn’t be good.

“I just got off with Chase,” Bear said. “Our suppliers in Abilene are pulling out. We aren’t going to make the shipment with our friends up north. It’s a fucking house of cards and it all just folded.”

“You think this little mishap with Axle and Shep was connected?” I asked.

“I think Galveston County deputies got the okay to rattle our guys. That’s new. And it’s not good. It was a warning shot. But it might not have been from an obvious source.”

“What do you mean?” Shep asked. His color was a little better now. He disregarded his mother’s orders and poured himself a shot of bourbon. I couldn’t blame him.

“I mean if the Hawks had enough rope to hang us, they’d have called the A.T.F., not those Barney Fife locals. You remember we heard about a hotshot new agent out of their field office wanting to make a name for himself? What’s his name? Wright? White? Anyway, I think this was just somebody’s way of letting us know they could have done worse if they wanted to.”

“Somebody.” E.Z. paced the length of the bar. “This ain’t a mystery, Bear.”

“Look,” Bear said, “We need everybody in one place. But right now, I need the others in Abilene to lay low. If Shep and Axle got ambushed, we gotta watch our asses for the next day or two. I wanna figure out just who tipped off that deputy. He could be working for the Hawks too. I don’t know how deep this goes. But yeah, this is coming to a vote sooner rather than later.”

My heart sank. For Bear to even say that meant the outcome was certain. He’d tried to hold the line as long as he could, but war was coming for the Dark Saints. From the looks of things, it was coming from all sides.

“E.Z., you’re with me,” Bear said. “We’re riding up the coast. Chase is going to meet us halfway. You three sit tight here at the clubhouse. Stay out of sight until you hear from me.”

I didn’t like the idea of Bear riding out in the open with just E.Z. to watch his six, but he’d made up his mind. Once he had, they moved quickly. I cleaned up the bloodied bandages and straightened the bar. When the front door closed, it was Axle, me, and Shep.

“Where you been, man?” Shep wasted no time getting into my business. I realized with growing horror what it might look like to him. And it would have been my job to ride with Shep and Axle today if Bear hadn’t let me look after Beth in Crystal Falls. Would it have made a difference?

“I’ve had some ... family shit to take care of.”

A look passed between Shep and Axle. It was the same one I’d seen from them for weeks now.

“You want to clue me in on what’s going on? I know you guys. You’re acting cagey, like you know something. And you’re not bringing it to Bear. You gonna clue me in?”

“Everybody’s just antsy,” Axle said, trying to shut me down. “With good reason. Bear’s right about one thing. It was too much of a damn coincidence today. At the exact same time Shep and I get jumped, Chase and the others have hell breaking loose in Abilene. Somebody knew where we were going to be and coordinated this shit today.”

“You think it was me?” I couldn’t keep the anger out of my voice. I knew I wasn’t misreading the looks on their faces. I waited for one of them to point out that I was the only one AWOL during everything today.

“Calm your shit,” Axle said. “Nobody’s saying that. It’s just, everybody needs to stick close for the time being, is all. Divided, we could get conquered.”

“I told you,” I said. “I had some family business to deal with out of town.”

“Listen,” Shep said. “We’ve all got to sort out our family business. That’s what Bear was telling Chase on the phone before you walked in.”

“What do you mean?” A cold chill ran through my heart. I knew exactly what he meant. If the Hawks had declared war already, it looked more and more like Sean’s murder was the opening shot. And it meant they were going after people close to us.

I felt sick to my stomach. In my attempt to keep Beth safe, had I unwittingly led danger right to her doorstep?

“I gotta go,” I said.

“Deacon, you can’t.” Axle put a vice-like grip on my shoulder. I jerked away. He was still a little woozy from his scrape-up. Any other day, he wouldn’t have let go.

“I’ve got no choice,” I said. “You tell me ... and I mean really tell me. Has Bear put the word out to circle the wagons? Is he worried about your wives and families?”

Axle looked down and it was all the answer I needed.

“Shit,” I said under my breath. How stupid could I be? I’d ridden into Crystal Falls the other day in my cut. People had seen Beth with me. I thought Sean was the biggest danger to her. I’d been so wrong. The danger to Beth was me.