Page 2 of Carlos

A horrible, vindictive side of Carlos could not stand that rapists and murderers, stalkers and abusers got to live another day. Some days, it felt like he was reining in a monster. Certain arrests… But if he went down that road, where would it end? Mount Grove was not littered with crime like a big city. He hadn’t had to face that turmoil often.

That night, though? When he’d learned that his fellow deputy, a man he’d worked with for over five years, had been involved in human trafficking? That he’d kidnapped a seventeen-year-old girl? That he’d tried to rape her and it had only been happenstance that had stopped him? That he had raped two other women prior?

The monster had won out.

The Via Daemonia were not bad men. They were honorable men. Sheriff Longhill would have never allied himself with them otherwise. Carlos had been in the station the day Steel had walked in to inform Longhill that he was creating a motorcycle club in Mount Grove. At first, Longhill had been skeptical. An honest motorcycle club? By the end of the meeting, though, Steel had been shaking hands with Longhill.

Carlos had felt himself breathe a sigh of relief. If the VDMC built in Mount Grove, then his brother was staying. Though their mom was in remission for a second time, Carlos always had a fear the cancer would return.

Third time’s the charm…

The honor that ran through the VDMC stemmed from a desire to protect. More than once, Longhill had called on the Via Daemonia to back up the police department. He knew that the veterans who made up the club were better trained than his deputies. Carlos had gotten to see his brother be Bulldog, the Army soldier, in action.

When Carlos had told Steel to take Connelly away, Carlos could argue that he hadn’t known what the Via Daemonia had planned for his fellow deputy. He could claim there had been no history of violence from the club and, therefore, how could he have known that the club would choose a lethal form of punishment. He could even point out that he didn’t know without a shadow of a doubt that Connelly was dead because he’d never seen his body.

But there was no point in saying any of that. He’d known. He’d stood there and watched as Connelly and his cohort were dragged away by his own brother.

He’d known.

Perhaps that was what bothered him the most. That knowledge.

Carlos wanted to say he slept easy, knowing that an evil man was no longer free or carrying a badge, but he couldn’t. Not at first, anyway. It had taken a long time for him to start to move past it. Almost make it seem like a bad dream. That denial had been shattered when certain things had come to light. The man Connelly had worked for, the brother of a cartel kingpin, had come to Mount Grove for his vengeance.

Carlos had known that his boss, Ronald Hannigan, was involved. It was hard to think of him as innocent since he’d done his hardest to derail the VDMC and place blame on them that had rightfully been his own son’s. Bottom line, though, Hannigan was innocent. It had not been his doing that had caused Mateo Castillo to set his sights on Mount Grove.

It had been his son, Richard. A man the Via Daemonia had known about but Carlos had not. He’d been the real person to blame. The sheriff’s only crime had been standing back and watching. He had not arrested his son but, instead, protected him. He’d tried to frame the VDMC for his son’s crimes.

Could Carlos really blame the man when he was doing the same for his own brother?

Carlos did not like the hypocrisy.

The monster had reared its ugly head again. Carlos had stood back and watched the Via Daemonia take Castillo away. There’d been no doubt about the man’s fate. Not when he and his minions had nearly gang-raped Lucky’s fiancée and Hannigan’s daughter, Harper.

His internal war between right and wrong had continued. Castillo was powerful, his lawyers could have gotten him off…but who was Carlos, a simple small-town deputy, to decide the man’s fate?

And then… Then there was Abby.

Carlos remembered Abby as a teenager. There was a five-year age gap between Carlos and his brother. Abby had probably held him as a baby. She’d practically grown up in the Santiago house. Long before his brother had taken a moniker, Bulldog had been in love with her. Carlos had thought of her as a sister even after her family had moved out of Pennsylvania.

Abby had become a person from his past. His brother had refused to speak her name for sixteen years and Carlos had followed his lead.

Last February, Danny had called for assistance with an abandoned vehicle on the side of the road. Only…it hadn’t been abandoned.

The monster inside him had wanted to tear every man who had harmed Abby limb from limb. He’d wanted to set the Via Daemonia loose on the community who claimed their god had given them permission to treat women like broodmares.

He couldn’t. Where did it end? It had to end. The violence. The lawlessness.

Carlos had stood his ground. If he broke for Abby, he’d never be able to control the monster again.

Now he stood outside of the Via Daemonia clubhouse with his boss, Sheriff Hannigan, and fellow deputy, Jeff Miller. Carlos liked Jeff. He was a good man with a loving wife and three grown or nearly grown children. Jeff also had not been pissed off that Longhill had given Carlos a promotion when Jeff had been there longer.

Carlos didn’t know why Steel had summoned them to this meeting. He glanced at Jeff, who was completely blind when it came to Hannigan’s and Carlos’s crimes. What if someone said something and Jeff reported it? That would be the right thing to do. Carlos wouldn’t even judge him for it, even though Carlos was too much of a coward to do it himself. He had the contacts; he should report himself.

Looking over his right shoulder, his eyes landed on the Pentagon. Five homes that the VDMC had built on property with a communal, pentagon-shaped backyard. Steel and Jenna lived in the first house with their daughter, Melanie, who would be starting college in a few weeks; Lucky and Harper had the next house with their teenage son, Scotty, who had Down Syndrome, and their new baby, Conner; Bear and Tessa were next with their infant, Maggie; Angel’s house was different in size and shape to accommodate her paraplegic adopted-daughter, Bree; and then there was Bulldog’s horde. Carlos’s brother’s house was the newest. He’d built it for Abby and their four children, Carlos’s nieces and nephew, Cassie, Lila, Caleb, and Georgie.

Christ, Carlos loved those kids. Even Cassie, who had gone through horrors no teenager should ever have to deal with, was starting to come out of her shell. Her agoraphobia was not as intense as it was in the beginning. And Lila? He was pretty sure she had the energy equivalent to the Energizer Bunny after he downed several Red Bulls. Caleb and Georgie were Irish twins and looked so much alike they could be mistaken for real twins.

If Jeff turned him in, Carlos couldn’t blame the man. But a chain reaction would start that would disrupt the serenity and families, both real and found, living here.

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