Edge Of Fear (Arrow's Edge MC Book 4) by Freya Barker (best love novels of all time .TXT) 📗

Instead I’m on my way to the clubhouse, where I’m hoping to catch Trunk.

I park the truck next to the shop and stick my head in when I see Brick working on a car.

“Morning.”

He looks up from under the hood.

“Morning’s almost over.” I grin at his grumbling response. It’s like he needs to get his licks in everywhere else since Lisa and the kids all have him wrapped around their little fingers. “Bedroom door’s been open the past couple’a days too,” he adds with a pointed look. “That girl is like a daughter to me. I find you’re fuckin’ around on her—”

I cut him off, my grin instantly gone.

“Hold onto your suspenders, gramps. First of all, I was with her—not that it’s any of your goddamn business—and second of all, fuck you. If you’d been paying any attention last weekend you’d’ve seen it’s not like that with her.”

He turns his attention back to the engine he’s working on and I’m about to turn my back when I hear him say, “Don’t want her gettin’ hurt. Just lookin’ out for the girl.”

“My job now,” I bite off. “And don’t call her a girl, she’s all woman.”

I start walking toward the clubhouse and throw back a last glance, catching him watching after me, a grin on his face.

Asshole. I let him get under my skin.

I spend a few minutes chatting with Nosh and he directs me to Ouray’s office, where I find him and Trunk in conversation.

“Come in.” Ouray waves me inside. “We’re talking about Ravi.”

“Why? Something else happen?”

“Close the door and take a seat.”

I kick the door shut but instead of sitting, I perch my ass on the edge of the large conference table.

“The boys are talking,” Trunk volunteers.

“What do you mean? Talking about what?”

“Turns out for the past year Ravi has managed to get up before anyone else to take his shower.”

The showers in the dorm are set up like a locker room. A bunch of showerheads and nothing but a pony wall to separate them from the lockers where the kids keep their shit.

My mind immediately goes back to the campground and Ravi’s reaction when he saw there were separate shower stalls. He’d even commented on the locks. That should’ve been a clue and I missed it.

What was a suspicion before turns into a certainty.

“And?” I ask sharply, almost defensively.

“The other kids noticed. It apparently became something they teased him with. You know how kids are.”

Yes, I can imagine. I heard most of those myself twenty-six years ago, when I first came to Arrow’s Edge.

I avoid looking at Ouray because he’d remember. It was the reason he’d taken me to get a tattoo. Said we’d give my dorm mates something to look at. That’s when I got my chain.

“The night Maska got hurt he wasn’t sleepwalking. He and Elan got up when Ravi snuck into the shower. Followed him, wanting to give him a hard time, but then they saw scars all down his backside.”

I hiss sharply, still not prepared, despite already knowing the truth. Trunk’s eyes snap to Ouray, who calmly nods, even as his eyes stay focused on me.

“Ravi flew past them straight for his bed. When Maska tried to apologize, putting a hand on the kid’s back, Ravi swung around with the crowbar he’d pulled from under the covers.”

I lean forward, my hands on my knees, as I focus breathing in through my nose and out through my mouth. I hear Ouray continue.

“The older boys decided to pretend Maska had been sleepwalking when it happened.”

“Did you have a word with them?” I direct at Ouray.

“Or two,” he confirms. “Problem is, what they did is no more than boys do in a group setting. They tease, they rib each other, they initiate newbies, none of it good, but all of it fairly innocent.”

“Tell that to Ravi,” I snap.

“Brother,” he says calmly. “There was no way for the boys to know. Heck, I was thinking back on the times I’ve seen him without a shirt and realized I never have.”

“Me neither.” This from Trunk.

That should’ve been another clue, even when we swam or fished while camping, the other boys would whip off their shirts, flexing their baby muscles, but never Ravi. At the time I figured it was because he’s so scrawny.

“Or me,” I admit.

“The moment they saw the state of his back, they could guess and they regretted it immediately,” Ouray continues. “And after I talked to them, trust me, they regret it even more.”

“The problem is Ravi. He won’t talk. He’s closing off even more than he already was, and according to Shilah, he’s not sleeping,” Trunk explains. “Not sure what to do if he won’t talk, brother.”

“First of all, get him out of the dorm. He needs to feel safe, and unless he has control he won’t sleep. I bet he hasn’t had a shower in the dorm since. Give him my room; he’ll have his own bathroom. I’ll get my shit out.”

“Tse, man, we can’t do that. It sets a precedent. The boys go in the dorm, that’s the way it’s always been,” Ouray says pointedly.

He’s right. That is the way it’s always been. I stayed in the dorm but I wasn’t alone, I had Manny—who had my back—and I had his. Besides, I was one of the oldest kids at the time.

“You know this isn’t the same. Unlike me, Ravi has no one to stand up for him. No one he trusts enough.”

I feel the energy in the room change and look at Trunk, who suddenly narrows his eyes on me.

“I’ll be fuckin’ damned,” he swears. “That’s why the boy’s drawn to you. He senses a kindred spirit. Shee-it, brother. It all makes a fuckload more sense now.”

“Don’t waste your psychoanalysis on me, focus on the kid.” I turn back to Ouray. “Fuck precedent. We’ve had kids sick stay in the clubhouse before. Ravi’s no less in need of special care.”

I start pacing the room while