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in her eyes when they were in his truck.
    A hand clapped him on the shoulder, “Hey man, guys are all here. You want a beer?”
    He nodded. “Yeah, Phil. Thanks. Let’s get this over with.” He made his way back inside
     the shop and leaned against the counter at the front of the store. A few of the guys
     were flipping through the bins of music, another was playing around with the drum
     set, and a few others were parked in front of the television playing video games.
    “Anyone got any news?”
    Roger spoke up first. He was tall and looked like he could break someone’s neck with
     just a look. But his broad shoulders and thick thighs were softened by the dirty blond
     hair he kept short. He had the start of a scruffy beard on his face. He set his sunglasses
     on top of his head and crossed his large arms over his chest. “Man, when is this community
     protection going to stop? I mean I get it, we got a corrupt police department, but
     considering I gotta be up at the ass crack of dawn every morning, these night shifts
     are not working for me.”
    Sam cleared his throat from the couch. “I’ll take some night shifts. The club is running
     pretty well with the managers I got in place, and they can always get me on my phone
     if something comes up. I think the better thing though is to just get the information
     out there and let people know we’re setting up a sort of neighborhood watch. This
     way, if someone gets into trouble they know to call us whether it’s to contact one
     of the attorneys in town, or get a bail enforcement agent to set something up to get
     ‘em out. Sounds kind of simple, but I mean, if we’re trying to keep people from getting
     beat on, just putting the word out to get in touch when they get jacked up by the
     cops would go a long way. Could also be a way to collate information, keep a database.”
    Derek spoke then. “I could set something up, we could take each person’s information
     and description of what happened, dates and whatnot, leaving names out of course.
     Then we have more to hand over to . . . well, whoever the fuck decides to look into
     this.” He scowled. “Coop, what’d the feds say?”
    Cooper snorted. “Some phone jockey took my information, said they would look into
     it, which probably means they never will.” He ran a hand through his hair and let
     out a frustrated breath. “But Sam’s right. If we have numbers, stats, something in
     writing to give them, they may be more inclined to get Saybrook the fuck out of here
     and put him in a cage where he belongs.”
    Roger started speaking again, but Cooper’s mind wandered to Kyla. Her mouth had been
     one of her most distracting features, full lips and a smile that lit up her green
     eyes. Though when her temper flared, that was pretty fantastic, too.
    “Cooper, you think that’s a good idea?”
    He snapped his head up; taking a second to recall what had been asked. “Yeah, that’s
     fine with me. Whatever y’all want to do, make it work. Look, guys, I know this sucks.
     We shouldn’t have to police our own cops. But if we disrupt the shit they try to kick
     up and are a presence out there to protect the people we care about, or rely on as
     employees, we might make a bit of headway until someone official looks into this shit.”
    It was Sam’s turn to snort now, ”Yeah, well, Saybrook is a sick fuck who gets off
     on hurting people—men, women, he doesn’t give a rat’s ass. Only thing he is going
     to respond to is tactics like that. We disrupt his extracurricular activities, he’s
     going to be pissed and won’t hesitate to come after us.”
    Roger crossed his arms over his chest. “That prick will come after us whether we stir
     shit up or not. I just want this over with. I’m sick of living under this cloud. I
     want my town back.” The guys were silent. All of them had known Cheryl and all of
     them had been there for Roger when she was killed. They all wanted this over and were