“Brother Matthew.”

I smiled as best as my swollen face would allow. “Brother Tucker.”

I could see surprise on most of the men’s faces as I entered the same basement room where I’d received my beating. Some were impressed, others clearly disappointed. But they all took notice.

“Well,” Tucker said, moving behind his podium, “let’s get started, shall we?”

I took a seat at the back of the room, the best place to watch without anyone noticing that I was observing more than participating. Tucker read from the Bible for the first half of the meeting, reinforcing the idea that the Guardians were sanctioned by God through the words written in Scriptures. As he read, I found myself watching a group of men who were quietly whispering to one another, talking about something that was clearly more important to them than the Bible. Another group of men were chewing on their cuticles or reading on their phones. Those men didn’t look familiar, or as if they belonged. I again wondered if they were out-of-towners or something more, something a little more nefarious.

Some were paying attention, soaking in every word Tucker had to say. Those were the men I knew I’d have to watch the most closely. Those were the men who would do anything Tucker asked of them. Those were the most dangerous of all the Guardians.

“As you all know, we’ve had issues with Stone Security since they arranged a raid on our compound back in late May.”

Tucker paused as the room settled down, and everyone began to pay attention—at least, those who hadn’t twisted around to stare at me.

“We now have a man in our midst who can inform us as to what Stone and his operatives have in mind for us next. Matthew, if you don’t mind.”

I’d been waiting for this, but I wasn’t prepared. I walked slowly toward the front of the room, aware of eyes on my every move. I could feel my skin crawl as I climbed the steps to the altar.

“Brother Matthew, if you could tell everyone what you know about Stone Security.”

“What do you want to know?”

“Well,” Tucker said, appearing to think about it for an instant, “why don’t you start with your part in the raid on the Guardian compound.”

If I hadn’t been covered in bruises, they likely would have seen the color drain from my face. This didn’t feel like a welcome back to the fold sort of thing. This felt like an interrogation.

I shoved my hands into the front pockets of my jeans and stepped up to the mic on the podium. “Jack Stone contacted the Department of Public Safety in Tucson, asking them to listen to a live feed coming from inside the compound and to make arrests if and when they got statements they could use in court. He then called his brothers and several operatives from his offices in Memphis and asked them to go with him to raid the compound.” I stopped, aware that everyone was watching me with rapt attention. “I was not privy to the planning of the raid, nor was I present when it happened. I was at Alli’s Little Shop of Pleasure that night, guarding it from vandals.”

A few men scoffed, clearly not impressed with my telling of the story.

“I was there that night,” one man called out. “I heard Stone trick Smythe into talking about that car accident. He was coerced!”

I shook my head. “I wasn’t there.”

“He tricked him! He forced him to admit Tyler was driving the car, but he never mentioned you. Isn’t that convenient?”

“Yeah,” another guy called. “Weren’t you in the car that night? Why aren’t you in jail?”

“I should be,” I said, not the least bit afraid to admit it.

“But Stone protected you.”

“No. Why would he do that?”

“Because he’s married to your sister!”

I shook my head, again feeling like I was on trial.

“Hold on, guys!” Tucker called, coming to stand beside me. “We’ve already accepted that Brother Matthew made mistakes. We welcomed him back to the fold. This is just an attempt to get more information about Stone and his operatives.”

“How do we know we can trust this guy?”

Tucker looked me up and down. “We don’t. But he is one of us. We have to give him the benefit of the doubt.”

An unhappy murmur moved through the crowd, but Tucker ignored it.

“Tell us about Briggs Thomas.”

I groaned. I would have bitten it back, but my mouth was so sore, I couldn’t even if I’d wanted to. I simply covered the groan beneath a little throat clearing.

“Patrick Shaughnessy is one of Stone’s operatives. He got involved with a woman who knew Briggs—I think they were lovers at some point—and Briggs kidnapped him. He brought him to this room.”

“We know that,” someone called.

I shrugged. “I wasn’t involved in that episode, either. All I’ve been doing for Stone Security is simple protection gigs. They don’t keep me up to date on what’s happening in their case against you all.”

“Just tell us what you know,” Tucker said, slapping me on the shoulder a little too hard for it to be a pat of affection.

“All I know is that Patrick was kidnapped, and he managed to get word to Stone somehow. They showed up here after it was all said and done. Patrick had somehow killed Briggs. There was another man who’d died, too, but Patrick swore it was Briggs himself who killed the guy.”

“He had a temper,” Tucker agreed.

“Patrick broke his arm, and now he’s in Israel visiting some relative.” I shook my head. “I don’t know much more about it.”

“And Truesdale?”

I shrugged. “That was Quentin Forrester. He wanted to ruin Truesdale for foreclosing on his family’s ranch.”

“His family stopped paying their bills!”

I glanced out into the crowd at the person who’d yelled that. I knew him. His own family had struggled for years to pay their bills, but he was still sitting on the two million dollar ranch that had been in his family for four generations.

Hypocrite.

“And now? What are Jack’s plans for us, Brother Matthew?”

This was the part I knew was coming, the part Jack had prepared me for. He’d told me exactly what to say.

“Tell them the truth. Let them know exactly what we’re up to.”

“Stone Security is following a theory that there is a person outside of Ellaville, outside of our church, who is pulling the strings for the Guardians.”

A heavy silence fell over the room. And then, just as suddenly as the quiet had fallen, laughter began to roll through the room.

“They think someone outside of this room is pulling our strings?” Tucker asked, his tone making it clear he found the very idea incredible. “Who does he think it is? And for what purpose?”

I shook my head. “He didn’t tell me. But he thinks someone is using you to buy up property in the area.”

“But why?”

The laughter was beginning to change. Some were listening to what I was saying. Others were talking to the man beside them, ridiculing the very idea.

They didn’t see the evidence that was right there in front of them.

I didn’t know who was more surprised here, them or me.

“That doesn’t make sense,” Tucker insisted, a big smile on his face like he thought it was ridiculous. But there was concern, even doubt, in his eyes.

Did he believe me?

“We need to chase Jack Stone out of town,” a tall, dark-haired man in the crowd cried out. “Enough of his bullshit!”

His chant was caught by a few of the others in the crowd.

“Hold on,” Tucker said, lifting both of his hands into the air. “Let’s not act hastily. Others before us have tried to chase Jack Stone out of town and failed. We have to be smart about how we do this.”

“Arrive on his front doorstep with guns—that will certainly get him out of here!”

“No,” I said, the idea of my sister getting caught in some sort of crossfire burning through my mind. “We should use the law, the same way he used the law against us.”

That drew most of the group’s attention.

“What do you have in mind, Brother Matthew?” Tucker demanded.

“Jack Stone uses questionable tactics to protect his clients.” I pulled a hand out of my pocket and brushed it over my forehead, wiping away sweat that was forming on my bruised brow. “Briggs Thomas put a virus on his computer months ago. If we could figure out how to access the information from that virus, maybe we could prove that he’s committed a crime or two and take it to the cops.”

“You’d be willing to have your sister’s husband arrested?” Tucker smiled widely, this smile reaching his eyes. He lifted my hand above my head. “You see, brothers? Matthew has truly returned to the fold!”

The room was filled with voices then, everyone discussing among themselves the idea I’d just put in front of them. Some wanted to take Jack out themselves, deal with him one on one. Others weren’t pleased with the idea of taking the information to the cops, but liked the idea of finding something to blackmail him with. Others liked my idea and even offered ways we could proceed.

Tucker slapped me on the back.

“Good idea, Brother Matthew,” he told me. “I’ll get our computer techs on this first thing in the morning.”

“What can I do to help?”

He studied my face for a long moment. “I think you should remain on the sidelines right now. You’ve proven your loyalty. Now allow us to do the hard work.”

“I want to help. I want to protect my sister from this man. The sooner you find something on him, the better, and I might recognize something important before your men do.”

Tucker thought about that for a second, then lowered his head. “All right. I’ll see what we can do.”

He sent me home that night with a card on which was written a local phone number. I was to call the number in the morning and arrange a time to meet with the computer techs.

Step one was down. Now on to step two.