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

listening for any signs of movement, but all I hear is sirens in the distance.

By the time I get back to the alley behind the restaurant, the cops are already on scene.

_______________

“So much for date night.”

Ramirez shakes his head and grins at my comment.

“You don’t even wanna know.”

Probably not.

Flashlight beams bounce through the trees and between the houses bordering the parking lot, where officers are looking for evidence and knocking on doors.

Detective Jay VanDyken got here first and took Sophia’s statement. He’s already gone again, trying to track down the employee Sophia mentioned. From what I overheard, the woman must’ve known the guy who knocked Sophia down.

I look up and see her sitting on the gurney in the back of the ambulance, getting treated for the cuts and scrapes on her hands where she tried to brace her fall. She catches my glance and smiles reassuringly.

“We’re likely going to execute our search warrant as soon as we’re done here,” Ramirez offers. “The police presence will spook whoever is dealing from there, and I don’t wanna give them a chance to clear out. I’ve got someone keeping an eye on the place.”

“Gonna be a long night then.”

“Sure is, because after that I’d like to get into the restaurant as well.”

“The restaurant?”

He shrugs. “Kitchen specifically. Two violent incidents involving kitchen staff within weeks of each other, drug deals going on in the restaurant’s backyard, hard to ignore the coincidence, my friend.”

I hate to admit he’s got a point and it has me even more pissed. It was just a few years ago Arrow’s Edge properties were targeted in an effort to force the club back into the weapons trade. It depleted most of the club’s reserves to keep our businesses up and running. It’s taken a lot to build both the funds as well as the public’s confidence back up, and the Backyard Edge was supposed to put us ahead.

“It ain’t us.”

“Not saying it is,” Ramirez replies immediately. “Otherwise, I wouldn’t have alerted you, but I have to get in there, and I’d like to do that with club permission. Don’t want to wait around for a warrant and end up having to do a search during daylight or operating hours.”

It’s not exactly a threat, but I glare at him anyway.

“Gonna have to call Ouray.”

“Do it. Because as soon as we’re done that place,” he jerks his head in the direction of the house, “I wanna tackle the Backyard Edge. The sooner we’re in and out of the place the better it is.”

I give him a curt nod, glance over at Sophia—who is now sitting on the step at the rear of the rig sipping from a bottle of water—and pull out my phone.

“Fuck.”

I hear Luna’s voice in the background calming her husband down. Probably the only person who can when Ouray is pissed, and he is pissed.

“I’m on my way,” he barks.

“It’s fine. I’ll stay.”

“You’ve gotta take Sophia home.”

I let out a humorless laugh. “Not so sure she’ll wanna leave.”

“Then don’t make it a goddamn option.”

I hear some rustling and then Luna’s voice comes on.

“Tse? What my husband is attempting to convey—and is clearly failing at—is it’s safer for Sophia not to be around. If this turns out to be some kind of setup like we’ve dealt with before, we don’t want it to touch her.”

“Gotcha. I’ll see if I can get her out of here.”

“That’d be good, we’re on our way. And, Tse? Keep your eyes open, because if it turns out the club is a target, then so are each of its members.”

“I hear you.”

I hang up and turn back to Ramirez when I catch sight of a security camera, it’s pointed away from the alley toward the parking lot.

“Ouray and Luna are incoming. Want me to get Sophia out of here.”

He nods in understanding. “Probably best.”

I point at the camera.

“Those are on a forty-eight-hour loop, but Paco has it set up so it downloads the feed on a server before it overwrites. You need access, Ouray can give him a call.”

“Will do. Go, get her home, I’ll be in touch.”

I give him a mock salute and walk over to the ambulance.

According to the EMT, Sophia is good to go home, but if she develops a headache, blurry vision, or any other symptoms of a possible concussion, he wants her to call her doctor.

“He already told me that,” Sophia snips when we walk to her Jeep. “You could’ve just asked me.”

I open the passenger side door and lift her in, ignoring her grumbles. Then I lean in the door.

“I asked him, because I suspect even if things turned out more serious, you’d still be telling me you’re fine.”

She opens her mouth to protest but snaps it shut again, averting her eyes. I chuckle softly as I clip in her seat belt and close the door.

“Wait,” she says when I climb behind the wheel. “What about your truck?”

“Wouldn’t start. That’s why it took me a while to come after you on foot. I’ll get Brick to tow it up to the shop first thing tomorrow. Was waiting for that to happen. I’ve had that truck for near twenty years and even then it was old. Hanging together with duct tape and twist ties by now.”

Probably time to go looking for a new truck. Never felt the need before. I figured as long as it got me from A to B it was fine. But now I feel I need to maybe invest in something a bit more solid. More reliable.

I glance over at Sophia, who covers a yawn. I put a hand on her knee.

“Tired, baby?”

She nods and turns those pretty eyes my way.

“Take me home.”

I can do that.

Sophia

“Weren’t you supposed to work?”

Tse looks up from the dishes he volunteered for after breakfast.

I had a quick shower before I rolled into bed last night and didn’t even notice when Tse joined me at some point. I was awake first, feeling a little banged up, but that got better when I