Chapter One

Cherie

It wasn’t even midnight yet and the ER was already a madhouse—no, it was at least three steps up from a madhouse. And the worst part? It was only Thursday which meant it was too damn early for all the craziness. My shift started at ten since we were on twelve hour shifts to accommodate the fact that we were the only hospital around after two others had closed in the past decade. Already four gunshot wounds had come in from Ojo, a few drunks and a junkie who’d OD’d, most of whom we’d been able to save.

I had just finished stitching up the eyebrow of a woman whose boyfriend didn’t like the way she fried his chicken when another call came in. Domestic violence cases made up a bulk of my work as an ER nurse, and I hated it. But what I hated more was seeing the same women time and again who couldn’t stand up to their abusers and worse, who wouldn’t leave them. Those cases left me exhausted both mentally and physically, so as soon as I discharged her, I made my way to my favorite dark corner of the cafeteria with a salad and a cheeseburger. I knew this meal could end at any moment, it was the nature of ER work, so I ate fast while looking over job postings online.

It was time for me to leave Brently for good. Too much crap was going on in town and my brother Baz, along with his club, CAOS, were always in the middle of it. They weren’t bad guys, they were all veterans with massive hero complexes which meant they often found themselves playing the good guys to the worst bad guys of the world. So far Talon, the club’s Vice President’s new wife, had been assaulted and Minx, fiancée of the club Secretary, Cash, had been kidnapped and beaten badly. As Baz’s sister, I knew my luck wouldn’t hold out much longer so I worked hard, picking up as many extra shifts as I could to pay the hospital back for my RN degree.

Then, I’d be gone.

I tapped a job posting in Minnesota, ignoring the stinging in my chest as I thought about our mother. She was from St. Paul. Had grown up there and fled after the death of her twin brother. She’d left us not long after our dad died, leaving me all alone while nineteen-year-old Baz was in the Army. My brother’s friend, Torch, stepped in to care for me, a ten-year-old girl who’d been abandoned. I scratched that idea right away, Minnesota was off the table. Permanently.

I’d just taken the final bite of my burger when I was summoned to the ER for an EDP, because emotionally disturbed people were now my area of expertise. I trashed my food and put the tray on top, wiping my hands on my scrubs and shoving my phone into my hip pocket. “What do we have?” I asked as soon as I entered the exam room, but no answer could be heard over her shouting.

“They’re burning! You have to save them or they will all die!”

I walked over to her with a serene expression on my face and a calming voice that would settle her. “Who is burning, miss?”

“Los bebes! Las chicas! They are burning.”

The babies. The girls. I had a feeling she was more than a junkie, so I gave her half a dose of sedative hoping to get her more coherent. “I need you to calm down, ma’am, so I can treat your wounds.” She had burns, scratches, and cuts all over her body, but the soles of her feet and her hands seemed to have taken the brunt of the damage. “Calma por favor.”

Big brown eyes looked up at me and nodded. “Gracias.”

I smiled and got to work cleaning and bandaging her as the sedative kicked in and her breathing evened out, her heart rate returned to normal. “Now that you’re calm, perhaps you can tell me your name?”

“Monica.”

“Okay, Monica, can you tell me what happened to you?”

She looked terrified, and I swallowed the ball of fear that settled in my stomach. “They put us in a truck headed for the border,” she began in heavily accented English. “But something happened and it stopped. Then fire. Everywhere. We were trapped. I got out, and I ran. They will be coming for me.”

Before I could ask another question, she drifted off to sleep, which I was sure she needed after what she’d been through. I made a note in her chart to alert me when she woke up and went to take care of a double whammy, a junkie with a split lip, a swollen eye, and a cut wrist.

Fuck my life.

After dealing with that particular mess, I needed a breather and a change of clothes. I headed out to my car, scanning the parking lot because two in the morning was not a good time to be out alone. “Shit.” Two of my tires were flat, and though I knew the odds were slim it was just misfortune. I ignored the sliver of unease and texted my brother for a ride before reaching inside for my bag.

A pair of hands grabbed me from behind and slammed me against the trunk of my car. “Tell that puta to keep her fucking mouth shut or she’ll end up like the others.”

I closed my eyes and swallowed back the lump of fear that strangled my throat. I steadied my nerves and took note of what I could. Spanish accent. Short, probably five-six to my five-four, young based on the pitch of his voice. Kind of chubby. “You’ll have to be more specific. Which puta?” Even though I was terrified, I steeled my voice. It wasn’t the first time an angry boyfriend or husband showed up to threaten the staff.

“Get your fucking hands off her!” an enraged voice shouted from behind us, and I knew instantly who it was. A voice I’d heard many times growing up and now in my dreams as well. He pulled the man off of me, and I heard several blows before a groan of agony. “You okay, Cherie?”

I nodded and looked up into clear silver blue eyes, crinkled with worry at the corners. Those eyes I’ve dreamed about looking at me with love since I was about thirteen-years-old. “Roddick? What are you doing here?”

“Are you okay?” he asked again, a little bit gruff and a little concerned.

I nodded again, taken off balance by his nearness, by the masculine scent I’d recognize anywhere. “I think so. I don’t know who he is. But I have a feeling I know exactly who he wanted.” I picked up my bag and started toward the hospital entrance. “Why are you here, anyway?”

“I was on my way here because Talon went into labor.”

“She did?” I gasped and cupped my hand over my mouth, because he gently took my hand in his and squeezed. “She’s fine, Cherie. I’m in my way up now.”

“I’ll come by Maternity and check on her when my shift is over.” I looked away from his gaze, feeling a surge of emotions overcoming me. “Wait. Why are you out here in the employee lot?” I asked, confused.

He smirked and rubbed a hand over his five o’clock shadow. “I got a text from Baz saying you needed a ride so I came out here to see where you’d parked.”

“Where is he?” My older brother apparently thought he could keep tabs on me while hiding his own life.

“Club business, sweetheart.”

I raised an eyebrow. I hated that answer. The club used it for fucking everything.

“Chill, Cherie. He’s loading up some bikes to take back east. He’ll be gone for a few.” I nodded and turned after grabbing my spare scrubs from the car. He walked beside me, his long, lazy strides made it look as though I was running just to keep up.

“What did that asshole want?”

“What?” I couldn’t concentrate with Roddick so close. He distracted me, made me want to throw all my good sense out the window and ravish the man. But, an experienced man two decades older than me wouldn’t want anything to do with this shy virgin with her nose constantly stuck in a book.

“You said you didn’t know who he was, but you obviously know what—or who—he wanted.”

Damn, he’d caught all that? I shook my head because of course he did. Roddick had been a soldier and a damn good one based on Baz’s estimation, some type of off the books operations leader. I never asked because I wasn’t sure if I wanted to know. I told him about Monica and what she’d said to me. “That’s it. I wasn’t sure if she was half delirious, but I believed her. I guess it’s a good thing I did.”

“Shit!” His huge hands curved around my shoulders to bring me to a stop. “Don’t come out here alone again. I’ll meet you in the cafeteria when your shift is over.” He winced, and instantly my hands went to his midsection.

I could have argued, but I didn’t. As much as I hated his bossiness, I knew he wanted me safe. And I couldn’t pass up a chance to spend more time with him. “Fine. Let me take a look at that wound and then I’ll come up to see Talon when I get a chance.”

“No need,” he said quickly.

“Then I’ll find my own way home. Good night.”

He growled and reached for my arm, wincing again. “Fine. Let’s go.”

I smiled to myself at his gruff tone. The only other person I’d miss as much as my brother when I left Brently, was Roddick.

***

Roddick

A few days later, I’d spoke to Mick as soon as Talon and the brand new baby girl were home. “Mick, I know you’d rather be with Talon and baby Megan, but some shit is going down and I need you.”

After what Cherie had told me, I knew the club had to help the task force. I gave Mick the rundown on what the agents wanted from the club, what Cherie had heard, and the burning bodies that kept turning up. “I hate to bring this to the table, Mick. What if the guys don’t want to let it go after this shit is over?”

Mick nodded. I knew he’d get it. “We have to do it, man. Any one of those burned bodies could have easily been Minx.”

“We have to do it anyway or else the Feds are gonna turn their attention to the club. Now, I don’t want to just give in to all their demands.” I’d been thinking about it for a while, and I knew what I had to do for CAOS. For Brently. “I don’t want the whole club involved in this shit, Mick.”

“I got it. Me, Cash, Dagger and Torch only.”

We spent an hour outlining plans for how this would work, and how we’d deal with the aftermath. “Now go on home to your family and I’ll touch base again soon.” We said our goodbyes, and I pulled out my phone. “Meet at Jade Dragon in an hour and do me a favor, try not to look so much like a fucking fed, yeah?” I ended the call without another word. I hated fucking cops more than anything, but I needed to let Sheriff Darlington know his town was in the eye of this shit storm.

After that stop, I went to Jade Dragon and ordered an appetizer platter so it wouldn’t look suspicious if anyone saw us together. When Brockton arrived, he slid into the middle of the booth. “I’m glad you left your girlfriend at home.”

“She’s new. Overeager, but Johnson’s all right.”

“I don’t trust her.”

“You don’t have to, because I do,” he said with more feeling than I’d seen from him since our first meeting.

“It’s your funeral. Now let’s just get to it.” I outlined my conditions for helping, and I could see he didn’t like some of them, but I didn’t give a shit. “We help you with this and the club gets the reward money on Lazarus’ head. All of it.”

“I can’t guarantee that.”

“You’ll have to because if anyone finds out about this, we’re all at risk. You have the protection of the government, we have wives, girlfriends, and children to protect.”

Brockton sighed and ran a hand through his hair, shaking his head and muttering under his breath. “I’ll have to clear it with the boss. Meet me at task force HQ on Monday.” He took a final bite of the shumai and stood, grabbing the leather jacket that made him look less like Captain America.

“One more thing, Brockton.” I’d told him about the woman in the ER, but I didn’t give him her name. “Another truck was found outside Ojo, confirming her story.”

“Shit!” He stepped outside and barked into the phone with more than a few ‘fucks’ and ‘shits’ thrown in for good measure. He walked back in a few minutes later. “Thanks for the intel, Roddick.”

With Brockton gone, I sat in the booth, eating egg rolls and satay as I thought about my life. I’d been in CAOS since I was a young man, a soldier before that. At forty-four, I felt ancient compared to the prospects, hell even compared to Mick. I didn’t even feel fucking young anymore. I didn’t feel as strong and energetic as I once was, especially the long healing process after taking a fucking bullet. The violence only seemed to get worse no matter what the club did, and in such a filthy fucking world it would be harder and harder for CAOS to stay clean.

I looked over at an old couple enjoying the buffet as much as they enjoyed being together, and it made me think that maybe it was time I got a life outside of CAOS. Like a woman of my own and maybe some ankle biters.

Yeah right, like that shit would ever happen.