Page 13 of Carlos

As the others gathered around the deputy she’d fallen down the stairs with, Zoe frantically tried to make her escape. She looked around for Kyle. Spotting him across the lawn, Zoe headed towards him but Jenna stepped in her way.

“Stop! They’re not here for you.”

Zoe froze at her words. Her heart was still thundering loudly in her chest. Both from the fear of having been discovered as well as her tumble down the stairs. The deputy, the one with the sweet eyes, had protected her from harm.

Jenna reached for her hand. “They’re here for lunch too. That’s all. They don’t know who you are and aren’t suspicious of you—unless you run off. Then they might start asking questions.”

Zoe swallowed nervously. Should she believe her?

“Please, Clara,” Jenna encouraged. “They only know you as my niece. I promise.”

Zoe looked across the lawn at Kyle, who was playing on the swings, oblivious to the possible danger. If Jenna was wrong, she would be arrested. Would she even make it to jail? Did she still have a bounty on her? Not for the first time, she wished there was a way for her to contact Owen or Jack to find out.

“I can’t risk it,” she finally managed to say.

“You’re safe here. If Steel did not trust these two deputies, they would never have been allowed on our property.”

Zoe looked over her shoulder at the crowd that had gathered around the good-looking deputy she’d accidently taken down. Her cheeks flushed with embarrassment for having kneed him in the groin. She recognized him from almost six months ago when she’d still been living in Steel and Jenna’s house. He had been respectful and sweet to her—and she remembered thinking him handsome.

But he was a police officer. She could not, would not, trust the police again.

“You may trust them,” Zoe told her, “but I don’t.” She pulled her arm free of Jenna’s hold. “I’m sorry. I can’t risk being taken away from my son. I shouldn’t have come here.”

Zoe rushed across the lawn to the swings to get Kyle. As they made their way back down the path to their trailer, Zoe wondered if she meant ‘here’ as in lunch…or ‘here’ as in Mount Grove.

CHAPTER 5

Despite being distracted by the excruciating pain radiating from his testicles, Carlos did catch sight of Clara running away with her son. Mind, it was more of a fast-paced walk, but there was no doubt in his mind that she was running. From what? It couldn’t have been him, because she hadn’t seen him until they were falling down the stairs together.

As Carlos hobbled over to a lawn chair with the icepack still between his legs, he took an assessing look around. More people had shown up since his tumble down the stairs. Steel and Jenna were standing around a teenage boy, who must be Ollie. He was very thin and very tall. Steel hadn’t given an age for him, but Carlos guessed around fifteen.

Hannigan was on the back porch with Conner in his arms. He was still in his uniform, though badge- and gun-less. Carlos had locked both in his cruiser prior to coming over to Steel’s house. His own gun had fallen off of his belt down the stairs, but thankfully one of the brothers had grabbed it and not one of the kids. It was now sitting on the table next to Carlos.

Looking around, Carlos compared the couples versus the singles. Most who were here were coupled off. Steel and Jenna, Lucky and Harper, Bulldog and Abby, Bear and Tessa. Hell, he could include Hannigan and his wife Cindy in that grouping too. The couple he didn’t see was Jumper and Jasmine; he wondered where they were. Of the singles, there was Demo, Cage, and Grumpy. Carlos knew all three members lived in the clubhouse and, knowing Jenna, likely had an automatic invite to lunch.

The club kids running around were growing in numbers. If his mom was here, Louisa would be all over them. She loved being a grandma now. Though four didn’t seem to be enough for her, and she was now bothering Carlos to add to those numbers.

A sharp pain radiated up from his balls, as if warning him they were in no condition to start reproducing.

Carlos spotted Bree and Cassie. They were on Bulldog’s back porch. While most of the club property had been transformed to make access for Bree’s wheelchair, there were still some areas that she wasn’t able to go. Bulldog’s back porch did not have a ramp. Cage, who managed the club’s construction company and a licensed contractor, had explained that Bulldog’s back porch was too short to the ground, which would make the ramp either too long or too steep. This was due to the slight incline that Bulldog’s house rested on. Therefore, he could only add a ramp to the front of Bulldog’s house.

Bree and Cassie were in no way excluded from the party. Jenna and the other ladies would never allow that. Carlos wondered if Cassie’s agoraphobia was keeping them on the back porch. Most likely one of the ladies was on food duty for them. That was when Carlos realized Angel’s absence. Was she at work?

Cage made his way down the porch steps carrying two plates of food. He gave Carlos a chin lift as he passed. The club brother climbed up the stairs of Bulldog’s porch and delivered the food to the two teenage girls.

Bulldog came down the stairs next. He was holding up a soda can and a beer bottle.

Carlos glared at his brother. “I’m still on duty.”

“And if a bank robbery was in progress right now, do you honestly expect me to believe you’re capable of running down the perps?” Bulldog waggled the beer in front of Carlos’s face.

He snatched the bottle away. “That’s why I have deputies. They do the running for me.”

Bulldog laughed as he took a seat on the other side of the table from Carlos. The house provided them with enough shade that they did not need to put the umbrella up. “You’re the boss for less than an hour and already you’re delegating while you sit on your ass?”

Carlos held up his middle finger.

He didn’t realize his eyes had gone back to the spot between Steel’s and Lucky’s houses where he’d last seen Clara disappear until Bulldog said, “Give her time.”