The Family

For a moment, she looked as if she had turned to stone. Any slight twitches of her facial muscles ceased. Even her chest stopped rising and falling as she took in air. Everything went completely still, her eyes glazing as she stared down at the mug in her hands. A pause that lasted several seconds before she snapped her eyes upward and asked, "There were more?" "Yes."
"How many?" When Reed Mattox and his K-9 partner, Billie, received a direct summons to the personal residence of Governor Thomas Cowan, he assumed it was another escalation over the particulars of their new position as liaisons between the Columbus Police Department and the state Bureau of Criminal Investigations. Another overstep by the highest ranking elected official in Ohio, trying to bring Reed and Billie directly under his control. What he didn't expect was to enter the man's home and find that, not only was the case presented to them legit, but unlike anything they had ever seen. A friend and associate of the governor, kidnapped, sedated, and tattooed across the entire length of his forehead. PRIDE. A single word, with no clear cause or motivation, until a second victim turns up the next day. GREED, proceeded in order by SLOTH. The fabled seven deadly sins, branded on people from across the state. Victims with no obvious connection between. Knowing more attacks will come, Reed and Billie fling themselves headlong into a search unlike anything they've encountered before. A hunt that brings them in contact with people trying desperately to keep secrets from the past hidden. Secrets someone is fighting to make certain they never forget.