Chapter One

Torch

“Hey, Sheriff. What’s up?” He could deny it all he wanted to, but Ethan Darlington and I went back a long, long time and I knew him well. I knew he wouldn’t show up on CAOS property in broad daylight except to arrest us or warn us that some big shit was going down. That and the tense set of his shoulders and the white lines around his mouth told me he was a man with something on his mind.

Light green eyes took me in, and his shoulders relaxed. “Your Prez in?”

Yeah, some shit was going down. “I’ll get him,” I told him and whistled loudly for one of the prospects who quickly came running. “Go tell Mick we got a guest. It’s important.” The blond kid, Boone, looked to be about fifteen when he flashed a smile and took off.

“Sure thing, Torch.”

Shaking my head, I watched him dart off. “Christ, I feel fucking old.”

Ethan chuckled and pulled out a cigarette. “You and me both, Colt. How are things?”

I winced at his use of my given name, but he refused to call me anything else so I shrugged. “Things are…how they always are.” Which was pretty shitty lately. We lost our last Prez ‘cause he’d done the unthinkable to protect the club. Though he was technically still a member, he was off living his life in the wilds of Canada and making babies with Baz’s sister. I was surprised the crazy bastard let Cherie leave, but they seemed happy enough so I was happy for Roddick.

He nodded gravely and took a long pull on his Marlboro menthol. “Your family?”

I glared at him because he knew how the fuck things were. “Same as always, Ethan. That son of a bitch died a few years back.” And the asshole had left me one final “fuck you” by making me executor of the estate and therefore in control of my twin siblings’ trust funds. I’d be glad when they hit thirty and could manage that shit themselves.

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

“I’m not.” I knew it sounded cold as hell, but my old man was the worst kind of piece of shit. Rich, connected, and brutal as hell, state senator Milt Silver never hesitated to raise a fist to any of us, including Mom when shit didn’t go his way. Made a bad trade? Bust someone’s eardrum. Lost a big donor? Someone lost a tooth. At least until I turned fifteen and gained six inches and forty pounds of muscle in one summer. Street fighting and jiu-jitsu gave me the confidence necessary to stand up to the asshole, making sure he never laid a hand on any of us ever again. Even when I joined the Army, he knew I’d return just to kill him. Some days I wished he would’ve given me a reason. “Hopefully his ass is roasting every fucking day.”

Finally Mick came out. “Sheriff. What’s going on?”

He pulled on his cigarette until it was done, letting the smoke out in a long thin plume. “Kyla saw something she shouldn’t have and drove all night to come home to me. Her friend was murdered, and she saw it happen. All she heard was the name Stash, and I’ve checked every database I have access to, came up empty. No criminal record with that alias, and I’m hoping you can help me out here.”

“Of course. I’ll let you know what we find.”

With a sigh of relief, he shook Mick’s hand and thanked him. “I won’t forget this.”

“No problem, Sheriff.” Mick waved him off, watching with his arms crossed as Ethan shook my hand and ambled off to his cruiser. “That was fucking weird.”

I shrugged. “Not really. Darlington almost became one of us, but some of the guys were too angry. Too bloodthirsty. He didn’t want to shit on the memory of guys he lost over there so he finished his degree and went to the academy and became the law.” I respected the hell out of Darlington because he understood the gray nature of war, which was what law enforcement was. He didn’t fuck around with good or bad, just policed the important issues and otherwise left people to their own devices.

“Well, I’m happy to help. He stepped up for us after that shit with that crazy Fed bitch, and I won’t forget it.”

I nodded and gave a grunt just thinking about that bitch. She’d been working with the cartel the whole time and tried to give up CAOS to save her ass after she was caught trying to murder Roddick and Cherie. Darlington stepped in and assured the Feds we were little more than wannabe gangsters and that was that. “I’m headed home for the rest of the day, try to get some painting done. Call if you need me.” The one thing I’d used some of my inheritance for was a big ass house on the outskirts of Brently. I didn’t know why I bought the damn thing, it’s too much house for one man, but one look at it and I had to have it.

Maybe someday I’d have some family of my own to fill it up.

I doubted it. But hey, anything could happen.

***

“What?” I hated being woken up by the damn phone and cursed myself for not shutting off the ringer. Shit had been so bad lately, I couldn’t bring myself to do it, so the someone on the other end of the line got to experience my sunny fucking disposition.

“It’s Darlington’s daughter. Someone broke into the house, trashed the place, and set her car on fire.” Mick’s words were emotionless, but I could hear the tension in every syllable.

“Shit.” I sat straight up, grabbing jeans and a t-shirt from the chair by the door, shoving them on while I grabbed my gun, my leather jacket, and my keys. “Is she okay? What about Darlington?”

Mick sighed. “He’s pissed and worried. She’s scared as hell. Meet me there,” he said and hung up.

I scanned the dark rooms that looked so much like my childhood home, minus the abusive asshole and the weak-minded woman cowering in the shadows. Disgusted by my thoughts, I pulled the door open and walked outside, locking it behind me and hopped in my black Escalade. I was too damn tired to be on the bike, and I didn’t know what Ethan would need.

As soon as I pulled up to Darlington’s split level with the bright blue door and saw the still smoking red convertible, I knew he’d need more than a fucking name. Firefighters worked to make sure the fire was out while several cop cars flashed lights that probably woke up all the neighbors. “Sir, I need you to stay back.” A young firefighter, probably no more than twenty-two, gave me a wary look. Maybe it was the tattoos, or the fact I was six and a half feet tall with linebacker shoulders. I didn’t want to intimidate the kid, so I smiled around my thick beard.

“Darlington asked me to come.”

That was enough for him. With a brief nod, he pointed to the street where Ethan stood with Mick. “He’s pretty shaken up too.”

I stepped closer to see what I could of the convertible. “Anything look weird to you about this fire?”

The kid looked around before stepping in closer. “Yeah. The brake lines were cut, almost like…shit.”

I knew exactly what he was thinking because I thought it now too. “Almost like two different people were after her?”

“Yeah.”

“Thanks, kid.” I made my way over to where Mick stood with Darlington and a tiny little thing with red hair I assumed was his kid, Kyla. “Ethan, I’m sorry as hell this shit happened. You holdin’ up?”

He shook my hand, shoulders slumped with relief. “I’d be a lot happier if this shit hadn’t happened,” he grumbled. “We still don’t know who this asshole is.” He slid a glance at Mick, answering my next question about whether they had any info on Stash.

Mick raked a hand through short red hair. “Cash dug deep and didn’t find shit. There are tens of thousands of assholes with snake tats, so it didn’t help.” He slid a gaze to the ginger trembling and hugging herself between him and Ethan.

Damn, that was Darlington’s little girl? Hell, she was all grown up and not so little, at least five-feet-nine with curves that even her hoodie couldn’t hide. But those big, almond shaped green eyes trembled with fear. “How you doin’, sweetheart?”

She opened that pouty mouth to speak and burst into tears. “I’m so sorry, Daddy.” She curled in on herself as tears poured from her eyes, unwilling to be held. Touched.

I shrugged off my jacket and draped it over her shoulders. “You didn’t do shit to be sorry about,” I told her, my voice harsher than she probably needed at the moment but fuck, I couldn’t stand to see a woman cry. “Look at me, honey, tell me what you remember about the asshole with the snake tattoo.”

I held her gaze with mine and eventually her tears slowed, quieted, and she sniffed a lot before she spoke. “It had big golden eyes right by his earlobe and a huge red…vein I guess that went through the snake from top to bottom. But it wasn’t like, a drawing of a snake. Even from ten feet away I could see it had texture, like it was a real snake you know?”

I smiled and she gasped, biting her plump bottom lip. “Now that’s real good, sweetheart. Thank you.” I rested a hand on her shoulder and turned to Mick and Ethan. She shivered, and I moved my hand. She was scared. “Sorry.”

“No, it’s all right. I’m just a bit jumpy.”

Damn, those big green eyes were stunning even in tears. They were eyes a man could get lost in and dammit, that’s the last thing I should’ve been thinking about Darlington’s daughter, but those legs covered in a tiny pair of cotton shorts had me thinking of ways to get those long shapely legs wrapped tight around my body. “It’s all right,” I told her and turned to Ethan. “You got anything? Fingerprints? Surveillance?”

“None, and I can’t leave Kyla alone with this asshole searching for her.” He rubbed his thinning hair and sighed that bone deep sigh of a man powerless to protect his family.

I left Mick with Kyla and told Ethan about the brakes. “I think more than one person is after her.”

Green eyes went wide with fear. Shock. “To kill her?”

“Hell yes, Ethan, what did you think?”

Both hands slid over his head and down his face, and he blew out a long breath. “I thought maybe he was under the illusion she had the money he’s owed.”

“Sounds like a hit, Ethan. You need to do your cop thing and find out what you can. We’ll do the same.” We joined Mick who looked supremely uncomfortable next to a still sniffling Kyla.

“What do you need,” Mick asked him seriously.

“I need you to keep her safe.”

Mick frowned. “We don’t do private security.”

“I’m not asking.”

Shit. The last thing we needed was a pissing contest between these two. “I’ll do it.” They both looked at me like I’d lost my fucking mind, which maybe I had because I usually didn’t get involved. I didn’t help people if they weren’t my family, which included my club and my brother and sister. But Ethan Darlington had once done me a solid, and I owed him. “I said I’ll do it. I’ll keep her safe, Darlington, I promise.”

His shoulders relaxed, and his gaze sharpened. He was back in cop mode. “Thanks, Colt.”

“You got it,” I said to his retreating back, hating that he called me Colt.

“You sure?” Mick looked worried and amused when I nodded. “Then we’ll make sure you have everything you need.”

Great.

Just fucking great.