I could pick them off one by one from this vantage point. Too bad I was holding a camera instead of a gun.

I was lying on my stomach on the roof of the warehouse, watching as the Guardians pulled into the empty lot behind my property in their cars and trucks. Just as Sullivan had predicted, one of the first vehicles to arrive was a red Kia Forte. Tyler Sanders himself climbed out, checking the clip of his gun as he did.

“Hello, asshole,” I whispered as I took picture after picture.

They moved into a wide circle about fifty yards behind the warehouse and bowed their heads in prayer. I photographed that, too. I recognized a few of the faces. The men who’d been with Smythe at the Walmart were there. And a couple of the guys we’d caught on camera at Alli’s were there, too. I was thrilled to death until I caught sight of a face I hadn’t wanted to see.

Matthew Pearce, Ruth’s brother, was there, too.

They’re coming, I typed into my phone, sending warning to Patrick and Quentin down inside the warehouse. The Guardians thought they were about to catch us sleeping, which was probably why they were being a little bold in pulling up so close to the back of the building. But we were waiting, ready for whatever they had to show us.

I liked Sullivan, but wasn’t sure I could trust him completely. Tonight I needed only guys I could trust, so I’d sent him to Alli’s with Ruth. I couldn’t imagine he’d get into too much trouble with Alli there to keep him in line.

The Guardians were moving quietly, their weapons drawn, as they approached the warehouse. Several of them had cans of spray paint instead of guns. I snapped dozens of pictures as they began tagging the back and sides of my building.

Careful not to alert them to my presence, I moved around to the front of the building and photographed their approach toward the front door. I heard more than saw Patrick cock his shotgun and step out the front door.

“What do you want?” he called into the darkness.

I switched over to video to record the confrontation.

“We told your boss it was time for him to leave town. We’re here to remind him of that message.”

“You’re barking up the wrong tree,” Patrick informed them. “Stone’s not going anywhere.”

“He will if he knows what’s good for him.”

“It’s a free country, friend.”

“But this is our town. We own everything and everyone in it.”

This was from Tyler Sanders. Perfect.

Patrick stepped forward to where I could see him, Quentin coming up behind him. Tyler stopped a few feet in front of them, four or five men gathered around him. Matthew was one of them.

“You should move on,” Patrick said. “Or this could get ugly.”

“Take the first shot,” Sanders goaded him.

“I’d love to. You are trespassing on private property, after all.”

“Take the first shot.”

I’d instructed Patrick to keep things under control. As a result, he had nothing to say to Sanders’s goading. But Quentin, standing beside him, was clearly enraged. He aimed his gun at Sanders, the muscles in his jaw working hard enough that I could see it even from this distance.

“Get off our property,” he growled.

“Wouldn’t you love that, Quentin Forrester? For us to hand back your father’s ranch? Is that why you’ve joined ranks with these fools?”

“One thing has nothing to do with the other.”

“I don’t believe that any more than you do.”

Quentin took a step forward. I bit my lip, holding back the warning that wanted to bounce off the end of my tongue. But he stopped before he reached Sanders.

Sanders laughed. “You people think you’re so tough. You think you can back us down. But the thing is, we have all the power in this town. We will get you out.”

“Not tonight,” Patrick growled.

“Maybe not. But soon enough.”

Sanders popped the safety on with a flick of his thumb and placed the gun into a holster at his side. He held up both hands to show that he was no longer armed.

“We’ll go,” he said. “But tell your boss we’ll be back.”

He swiveled slightly like he was going to walk off, but then he turned and swung. He clipped Quentin in the jaw, rocking him back just slightly. I cringed, afraid Quentin would fire the weapon in his hand, but he didn’t. He dropped the gun and went at Sanders with his fists, pummeling his chest and face with fast punches that I was pretty sure Sanders hadn’t seen coming. In just a second, one sucker punch had turned into a full-out brawl.

I recorded a good thirty seconds of the fight before setting the camera aside and climbing down off of the high roof. I waded right in, taking a few punches, but giving as good as I got. This was what I called a fair fight. It was almost refreshing after the bullshit Smythe had pulled on me before.

The air was filled with grunts and cries, the whoosh of air being forced from someone’s lungs, the crunch of noses breaking. It might not have been the civilized thing to do, but it felt damn good to finally have an outlet for all the tension that had been building over these past few weeks. I don’t know who backed off first, them or us, but it seemed that by some sort of unspoken mutual consent, they wandered off, leaving us to our property.

I walked the perimeter to make sure they were all gone. The back and sides of the building were tagged with more messages, words I didn’t even care to read at this point. It angered me to see the mess on my clean, white walls. But most of the fight had been washed out of me.

When I walked into the warehouse, three of the Guardians were tied to chairs, stragglers who’d refused to leave with their buddies. Their faces were bloodied and covered in dirt from the dusty parking lot. I walked past them, pulling their heads back to see if I knew any of them. The first two were strangers to me—strangers filled with hatred as they glared up at me—but one I knew.

“Matthew Pearce,” I said, tugging at his hair a little harder than necessary to push his face back. “Does your sister know what you’re up to tonight?”

“My sister lost her right to know anything about me when she moved in here with you.”

The words suggested indignation, but his tone was flat. Tired.

“What should we do with them, boss?”

I crossed my arms over my chest and stared at them. “Leave them for the night. We’ll take them back to their people in the morning.”

One of the men began to snicker.

“What?” I asked, pushing his head back again.

“You like to talk big, but you’re weaker than you want us to know.”

“What makes you think that?”

“If you had any power, you’d be taking us to the police. But no cops in this area will do anything to help you.”

I studied his face for a long minute. “You might be right about that. But there are other ways to get justice.”

I walked off, ignoring the continuing snickering.

After a hot shower, I sat at my desk and looked over the pictures I’d downloaded from the memory card on the camera. Most of them were dark, hard to distinguish faces and details, but some were gems. I picked out the best and put them in an electronic file for later use. The others I sent to the tech team back in Memphis to see if they could clean them up a little more.

Sullivan arrived with Ruth and Alli as I was finishing up. Ruth paused in her step when she saw the men tied to their chairs, but I don’t think she recognized her own brother. She came to me, kneeling on the dirty ground between my legs as she threw her arms around my waist.

“I was so worried!”

“I told you it would be okay.” I ran a hand over the top of her head before lifting her chin and stealing a kiss. “It wasn’t as bad as you might have imagined.”

She touched my cheek where someone had clocked me good. A bruise was beginning to form just under my eye. “It was bad enough,” she said.

I pulled her hand away and kissed her again. “We pushed them back. That’s all that matters.”

“What’s with the hostages?” Alli asked.

I looked up, suddenly aware that Alli, Sullivan, Patrick, and Quentin were all gathered along the front of my desk. I sat back slightly, tugging Ruth up onto her feet.

“They didn’t get the message that it was time to go, I guess.” I glanced over at the Guardians sitting defeated in their chairs. “We’re going to send them back in the morning. All but one.”

“What are you going to do with him?” Alli asked, a devious light shining in her eyes.

“Get some information. We’ve got the Guardians spooked. Tonight made that pretty clear. But we need more. We need to know where they gather, need to know where they’re most vulnerable. We need to know how to take them down.”

“You think one of those fools will give you that information?” Sullivan asked.

I glanced at Ruth. “Yeah,” I said softly, “I think so.”

 

 

Ruth was still sleeping soundly when I left the narrow cot we shared. I touched the little teardrop of a dimple above her upper lip with the tip of my finger, closing my eyes and asking for forgiveness in a silent prayer before I left her. Quentin and Sullivan were in the main part of the warehouse, wrangling with the two men we planned to send back to Smythe. They were tied up and gagged, their eyes flashing with anger. But they were otherwise unharmed, something I was positive Smythe would not have ensured if the shoe had been on the other foot.

“Be careful. Check the area before you stop.”

Quentin nodded. “We know what to do.”

“Good.”

I watched them drag the two men out to Quentin’s truck before I wandered over to the coffee maker we had precariously set up on the folding table in our little kitchen. Patrick was with Alli, back at the shop. That woman was indefatigable. It was admirable.

I could feel him watching me as I made my way back across the cavernous room.

“Did you know what they were going to do when you joined the Guardians?”

He didn’t respond, but his eyes were glued to my face.

“Did you know they would become murderers?”

His eyes dropped briefly at that.

“Did you know they would threaten to rape your sister?”

His head came up hard. “They wouldn’t.”

“They did. I could bring her out here and have her tell you.”

“They wouldn’t do that. She’s my sister. She’s their sister.”

“They did. Grabbed her right outside this building and made threats you would never want to hear uttered about a woman you love.”

He shook his head. “I don’t believe you.”

“You don’t have to believe me. You just have to sit there and continue to condone what they’re doing to innocent people.”

His head dropped. He stared at the floor for a long moment. “I didn’t know,” he finally said quietly.

“If this continues, your sister is going to get caught in the crossfire. You know that, don’t you?”

He nodded. “I told her to stay away from you.”

“It’s not just me, Matthew. It’s those people. They will eventually find a reason to hurt anyone and everyone they think has crossed them in some way. She might have spoken the wrong words at a church meeting or dressed the wrong way at a Sunday social. People like that, they don’t stop when all the riffraff is gone.”

He shook his head. “They’re doing God’s work.”

“They’re torturing people who are just trying to survive!”

He shook his head again, but he didn’t argue.

I sipped at my coffee, watching him for a long time. “She’s a good person, your sister. She told me from the very beginning that her beliefs came first in everything. Told me what we could and couldn’t do together. And she’s stuck to that. Do you know how rare that is in this world today?” It was my turn to shake my head. “I admire her for that.”

“Yet, you took her into your bed last night.”

“Yes, I did. At her request.” I studied his face, looking for hatred in his eyes, for anger. All I saw was fear, though I wasn’t sure if it was fear of me, or fear for his little sister. “But she’s a strong-willed woman. All we did was sleep.”

“And I’m supposed to believe that?”

I shrugged. “I don’t really care what you believe.”

Matthew tugged at the rope holding him to the chair. “What are you going to do with me?”

“I’m going to ask you questions. You can answer them, or not. And then I’ll send you back to your friends.”

His face tightened at that news. I found that very interesting.

I finished my coffee and set the cup down, grabbing a chair and sitting backwards on it as I faced Matthew, my arms crossed over the back of the chair. We stared at each other for a long moment. I liked to think that I learned how to read people quite well when I was with the DEA. But I was having a little trouble reading him.

“Smythe is getting out of control, Matthew. He’s hurting people. Harry’s dead because of Smythe and his people. Alli’s nearly lost all her inventory and most of her customers because of him. And your sister…they’ve tried to take off with her twice now. Did you know that?”

Matthew didn’t respond.

“They followed her here, tried to grab her as she was leaving. They told me Smythe’s intention was to have his way with her and then pass her around to his men.” I tilted my head as I waited for his reaction. There was a definite flash of anger in the way he held his jaw. “And then they confronted us outside the Walmart. If not for a crowd that gathered, they would have taken her then, too.”

Matthew shook his head. “I haven’t heard anything about that.”

“They wouldn’t tell you, though. Would they?”

He rolled his shoulders. “We’re a brotherhood. We tell each other everything.”

“Apparently not.” I lifted my hands, dragged my fingers through my hair. “Did they tell you they planned on running Harry off the road? That they needed to get him out of their way so they could go after Alli full blast?”

“That was an accident!” he suddenly insisted. “Sanders just got a little too excited, that’s all. Smythe was pissed when he found out about it.”

“Was he?”

“He punished Sanders. Made him pull guard duty three nights in a row over it.”

“Is that the punishment he got? Guard duty?”

Matthew’s head came up, his eyes wide as he studied me. “It wasn’t supposed to happen.” There was raw grief in his voice when he said that. It made me wonder.

“Were you in the car that night?”

Pain created deep lines on his face. “I tried to make him stop!”

Fuck!

“You were in the car? You saw him kill my friend, and you stayed with them?”

Matthew quickly shook his head. “I tried to stop him! I told him he was being stupid, told him somebody was going to get hurt! I even grabbed the wheel, but by then it was too late. That man…his truck was already going out of control. There was nothing we could do!”

“You killed Harry!”

I stood in a quick movement, the chair clattering to the floor. Matthew flinched, clearly prepared to be hit. But I didn’t hit him. I moved away, shoving my hands deep in the front pockets of my jeans to assure I wouldn’t use them.

Neither one of us saw Ruth standing in the doorway of the office until she suddenly rushed across the room and slapped her brother fiercely across the face.

“How could you?” she demanded.

She went for another blow, but I grabbed her wrists, pulling her back against me. She struggled, screaming at her brother words filled with pain and anger and disappointment and a million other things it would take me days to fully identify.

“You let them kill another human being, break the most basic of all our beliefs, and you did nothing? You let them get away with it! You let them end a man’s life and destroy the people whose lives he touched! How could you do that? How could you turn a blind eye to such a thing? How could you turn your back on our beliefs?”

Matthew just shook his head, clearly broken. Tears dripped from his chin, splattering on the dirty floor in miniature muddy puddles.

“I’m sorry,” he finally whispered.

“Testify,” I said.

That caused both of them to look sharply at me. Ruth twisted in my arms, her eyes wild as she looked from me to her brother and back again.

“He’s right,” she said. “You could make sure that man pays for what he did.”

“But if I go to the sheriff, he’ll just tell Smythe, and…I would disappear, Ruth. Smythe’s done it before. He could do it again.”

“He’s killed people?”

I don’t know why that idea would shock me. He seemed like the type, the power-hungry type who threw his weight around even when it wasn’t necessary.

Matthew shook his head. “Not personally. But there was a guy who kept arguing with him at meetings. He just disappeared one day, and his wife and kids moved away. I have no idea what happened to him.”

Ruth crossed her arms over her chest. “You’ve known all this all along, and you’ve done nothing! Said nothing!”

“What was I supposed to do? Once I agreed to be part of the Guardians, there was no going back.”

“We’ll help you,” I said. “You agree to testify against Sanders, tell us what we need to know to stop these people, and we’ll protect you.”

“You think they hate you now…you have no idea what they’re capable of.”

“I do, actually. But we have a plan.”

“I hope that plan doesn’t involve the sheriff, because he’s Smythe’s brother-in-law. He won’t do anything.”

That made sense. I just nodded slowly, my eyes cutting to Ruth. She was watching me, the wheels clearly turning in her head.

“Tell us what we need to know, and we’ll protect you.”

Matthew looked from me to his sister, his eyes lingering on her face. “Did they really threaten to rape you?”

She blushed, but nodded. “They said Smythe would have his way with me and then give me to his people.”

Anger flashed across Matthew’s face.

“Will you help us?” I asked.

He nodded. “I will. I’ll tell you everything you want to know.”

 

 

I held Ruth in my arms on the cot in the quiet office, my thoughts moving in circles. There was tension in her shoulders as she curled up against my chest, so I knew her thoughts were doing the same dance. We’d listened to Matthew talk for more than an hour, heard things we were expecting to hear and others we weren’t. But now we finally had all the information we needed to end this thing.

“I’m trying very hard not to be angry with him,” she said softly.

“It’s okay to be angry.”

“I’m supposed to forgive him. Love thy neighbor and all that.”

“You can still be angry. You’re only human.”

She sighed. “That’s become very clear to me since the day you walked into my life.”

“Has it?”

Her mood suddenly underwent a drastic shift. She giggled, her breath hot on my arm. “When I saw you standing in the hotel window…I’d seen lots of people looking down from that window. I don’t think people really appreciate how clear that glass is. But you were different.”

“How’s that?”

“You didn’t have a shirt on.”

I laughed. “Surely other people standing in that window had been in various stages of undress.”

“Oh, yeah. I’ve seen women in just a bra and men with no shirts, no pants sometimes. But none of them looked quite like you.”

I ran my hand slowly down her back. “I could say the same for you.”

“I was fully dressed.”

“But you looked like an angel. I swear that’s what I thought you were.”

She sighed, rolling over so that she was lying across my lap, her eyes moving affectionately over my face. “Do you believe in love at first sight?”

“I never thought I did.” I ran a finger down one of her cheeks. “But I’m reassessing that opinion.”

She took my hand and pressed my palm against her lips. “Can I ask you something?”

“You can ask me anything.”

“The girl you were with before—”

I groaned. “Do we really have to go there?”

“You don’t talk about her. You mentioned her once, and that was it.”

“That’s because it’s bad manners to talk about the past within a new relationship.”

“What if I want to know?”

I groaned again. “Ruth—”

“I just…do you still love her?”

I thought about that, an image of Raelyn filling my mind. We’d had a rocky relationship from the very beginning. She never listened to me, never wanted to be told what to do. Even when she was in danger, she refused to stay put when I told her to stay put. She was independent to a fault, and so strong-willed! It was rather frustrating a large portion of the time. But it was that streak of stubbornness that made me love her.

“I was engaged when I got involved with her. Did I tell you that?”

Ruth sat up, a sharp intake of breath expressing her shock. “You were?”

“I was. To the daughter of this business associate. It was more of a convenience thing than anything else. Marry the right girl, promote the business. That was all that mattered at the time. But then Raelyn comes charging into my life, demanding that I help her even though I didn’t know her from Adam.” I laughed at the memory. “She was wild, a force to be reckoned with. I couldn’t keep my hands off her.”

I thought that might upset her, but Ruth just watched me with naked curiosity in her eyes. “What happened?”

I shrugged. “She grew up in this motorcycle club. Her mother was a wannabe member, always hanging out with the guys, hoping one of them would pick her as his girl. It was Rae they were more interested in. The leader, this criminal named Snake, took her as his own, treated her really badly. I was part of a team that busted his club once, years ago. Sent him to jail. She started over and was making a life for herself when he got out of jail and came after her. She remembered me and came to Stone Security to ask for help.”

“And you were her knight in shining armor?”

“I guess I was.”

“And you ended your engagement for her.”

“I did.” I touched Ruth’s face lightly. “But it was a good thing. I never would have been happy with Stacy.”

“Funny how things change.”

I nodded, looking at it through new eyes. “I came full circle, I suppose.”

“She still works for your brother?”

“As far as I know.”

“That must be awkward.”

“It was. Desperately. I was not in a good place before I came here.” I remembered all the mornings I had woken up in someone else’s bed. “I drank too much and did things I’m not proud of.”

“I’m sorry.”

“But you cured me of that.” I drew her close to me. “Being with you has reminded me of what’s really important in life.”

“Has it?”

I kissed her, an excruciatingly gentle kiss. “Yes.”

She pulled back. “You haven’t answered my question.”

“Which one?”

“Do you still love her?”

I tilted my head slightly, my eyes moving over her face. “Is that really a question you want me to answer?”

“Yes.”

I sighed, dropping my hands into my lap. “I love her. I love her independence and her stubbornness. I love that she doesn’t let anyone walk all over her. I love that she stands up for what’s right.” I tilted my head slightly, watching the pain slice across Ruth’s face. “I will always love her. She’s a part of my life that I can’t take back.”

“If she came to you and asked you to marry her—"

“She won’t do that.”

“But if she did?”

I shook my head. “There’s no point in entertaining hypotheticals that won’t happen. Rae made her choice, and I made mine.”

“But if she did?”

I couldn’t lie to her. “I don’t know what I’d do. I don’t think anyone could know until they were in that position.”

“Fair enough,” she said softly.

“Nothing about that changes the way I feel about you, Ruth. Rae is my past. And you, if you want, are my future. That’s all that should matter now.”

She nodded, scooting over to be closer to me. Her eyes were downcast, and when I lifted her chin, they were filled with sadness and fear. I kissed the tip of her nose.

“Please, Ruth. I don’t want my past coming between us. Especially not now.”

She nodded, moving close enough to press her lips to mine. But she didn’t. She sat still, so close to me that I could taste each and every breath she took. For a long moment, I just breathed in the essence of her and reveled in it. There was something to be said for sexual satisfaction, but there was also something magical about these different kinds of intimacy. I felt closer to her than I’d ever felt with any of my other lovers even though she and I had yet to do more than touch. It was illuminating.

When she finally kissed me, it was a kiss filled with all the emotion that had been dancing in her eyes since her confrontation with Matthew. I drew her closer and took everything she had to offer and more, drawing out that kiss until I couldn’t breathe another breath.

I wanted to make promises to her. I wanted to promise I would never hurt her. I wanted to promise that no one would ever come between us. I wanted to promise that nothing would end this moment. But I couldn’t.

I lay awake late into the night, thinking about what we’d said to each other, about the memories her questions had conjured up. I’d been so convinced that Raelyn was my future not very long ago. But now…

What would happen if Rae came to me and begged me to take her back? When I came to Arizona, that had been one of the major motivating factors. But was it still something I wanted?

I didn’t know. And the not knowing was troublesome.