After a lifetime of dealing with her family’s criminal antics, Detective Carrie Shatner has run out of tolerance. The Shatners have also run out of time. Thanks to their recklessness, the Department of Public Safety has finally caught on to what they’ve been  up to. Carrie is trying to play both sides against the middle by taking control of her family’s criminal organization as she turns over evidence against them.

 It’s turning out to be a whole lot harder than she imagined.

 It’s Fall in Wyatt County, and Carrie is one of the many Shatners who is dedicating her weekends to terrorizing customers at the Body Farm haunted attraction. Playacting and scaring customers allows Carrie to escape the stress caused by the Shatners and the law enforcement officers who she is trying to save them from.

 One night, the props in the haunted hayride’s torture scene are used for their intended purposes when masked assailants attack two of Carrie’s cousins and murder a family friend. She doesn’t want to think any of her relatives were involved, but she knows that it’s a possibility. Family loyalty is put to the test, and the foundation of the Shatners’ criminal organization begins to crumble as they start turning against each other.

As attacks against her family mount up, Carrie teams up with Sergeant Jerrod Hardy of the Texas Rangers to find the people responsible before anyone else is killed. With outside factors forcing their way into Carrie’s dangerous game and more threats being made against her family, Carrie has to examine both friend and foe to find the person responsible for the brutal attacks and stop them before she becomes the next victim.

CHAPTER ONE

“Tell me, Carrie . . . How much murder and mayhem have the Shatners been involved in since our last meeting?”

“No murders,” I said as I turned my back on the dilapidated lake house that had been the scene of a murder over fifteen years earlier. And yes, two Shatners were responsible for it. As far as I knew, it was the last time any of my relatives had killed anyone. Blocking the rush of bad memories, I leaned against the rear bumper of my Jeep and faced Lieutenant Alexander Schmitt. “And no mayhem aside from the usual.”

“That you know of . . .” Alberto Ramos grumbled as he slipped a hoodie over his head. The sleeves concealed the tattoos that covered his arms from wrist to shoulder. “There’s a whole heck of a lot going on that you don’t know about.”

“Oh, yeah?” Challenging Alberto, I asked, “And what don’t I know about?”

“Did you know Dale and Dickie jacked a car last night?”

I groaned. “Seriously? No one tells me anything.”

Heat spread across my chest, traveling up my neck to my face as I battled a rising wave of anger and embarrassment. When I got my hands on my cousins, I was going to strangle them. Dale and Dickie were not supposed to steal cars without talking to me about it first. That way I could run the license plate numbers through the system and figure out who the car belonged to.

“How do you know they stole a car?” Schmitt asked his agent.

“Because I helped them steal it,” Alberto said. “And I helped them tear it down and load the parts into a moving van bound for the ports in Houston.”

“What the heck, Alberto?” I balled up my fist and thumped him on the shoulder. “I thought we were supposed to be in this together. But you’re as bad as the rest of them. Committing crimes and not telling me about it until afterwards.”

For about two months now—ever since I had agreed to turn over evidence against my family’s criminal operations—I’d been having weekly meetings with Lieutenant Alexander Schmitt and Agent Alberto Ramos. They both worked for Texas’s Department of Public Safety’s Drug Unit, and they were overseeing the extensive investigation into my family. Alberto was working undercover, and he had done an excellent job duping my family. They had quickly accepted the undercover officer who was masquerading as a career criminal. The name my family knew him by was Beto Sánchez.

“And I thought you were supposed to be the head of your family’s criminal organization,” Alberto mocked me as he swatted my hand away. “But, as far as I can tell, not a single one of them takes you seriously. Okay, maybe three or four of them take you seriously. And that’s only because they like you. The rest of them think you’re a joke.”

“Thanks for the confidence boost,” I said as I shuffled my feet in the loose stones. “I’m doing the best that I can. Besides, it’s not like I want to be in charge. You know the only reason I’m doing it is to help you bring down my family and put a stop to their crimes.”

And to protect my innocent family members.