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

started moving around. I let him sleep a little longer while I went down to get coffee and breakfast going.

“Talked to Paco after you went to bed. He knows I’m starting a little later.” He dries his hands and hangs up the towel before turning, leaning a hip against the counter. “A few things we didn’t get a chance to discuss last night,” he clarifies.

Something in the way he said that instantly has me on the defensive.

“Like?”

“Where do I start,” he mocks. “Like the fact you took off down an alley where you know there’s been drug traffic, and without backup. But that’s not even the worst part of it: you got out of your vehicle. There’s a car parked in an alley where drug deals take place that are under investigation by the police, after one of your employees was attacked inside your restaurant, and what do you do?”

“It was Mandy’s car, and I thought something was wrong with it!” I argue loudly, but it’s like I never spoke.

“You get out of your goddamned vehicle. That’s what you do. No protection, not even your fucking phone on you, but you get out of the Jeep and walk right on over.”

The sarcasm is thick and I’m pissed he’s talking to me like a three-year-old, but then I hear what he’s saying and it’s embarrassing. I’m embarrassed. Because he’s right, it was a stupid move and I wasn’t thinking.

“Scared the fuck out of me, Fee. Seeing you lying there, that fucker kicking you and you not moving, ‘bout stopped my heart. You were on my watch, if something had happened to you…”

His words drift off and I’m already on my feet, rushing up to him. Clearly this has been simmering under the surface since it happened.

“I’m fine.”

“You were fucking knocked to the ground, Fee” he persists, his jaw clenched and his eyes angry on me.

I put my hands on his chest where his heart beats a staccato. He’s worked up all right.

“I was stupid. I wasn’t thinking, you’re right. But I’m okay.”

His lungs expand under my palms as he takes a deep breath in before blowing it out audibly. Then he covers my hands with his own.

“Almost gave me heart attack.”

“I know and I’m sorry.”

“Good. Remember that, ‘cause you’re probably gonna get pissed again when I tell you what’s on the agenda this morning.”

“What?”

“Animal shelter. We’re gonna get you a dog. Today.”

“Wait a minute.”

I try to pull my hands back but he has a firm hold on them.

“No. Not waiting. Not after last night. You’re getting a dog, and you’re getting a good security system.”

“Now hold on.”

I shake my head. Things are moving too fast and I’m not getting a chance to process. Tse takes my face in his hands and the intensity in his eyes has the hair stand up on my arms.

“The cops planned a raid on the empty house behind the parking lot for today. That’s what Ramirez told me in the men’s room. But given what happened last night, they moved that search up. He was also gonna search the restaurant.”

I grab onto his wrists, my eyes wide with shock.

“Why?”

“Because he’d be a shit detective if he brushed this off as just a coincidence, babe. When we left last night, Ouray was on his way with Luna. Cops are looking for Mandy. I don’t know what the fuck is going on, but with this many unknowns, we’re not taking any chances.”

“Okay.”

I’m stubborn but I’m not stupid. I can see the concern in his eyes and I’m sure by now there’s fear in mine.

In a softer tone he continues.

“Paco’s on his way here. He’s gonna install a security system and you and me are going to the pound. Otherwise, I’ll be forced to shackle myself to you, but I’m afraid that would sour our relationship.”

His lips brush lightly over my partially opened ones.

“And I’d really hate for that to happen…”

He kisses me again, this time a little deeper, and I lift my arms up and around his neck. One of his hands fists in my hair, while the other grabs a handful of my ass. Suddenly my blood is pumping for a different reason altogether.

I moan into his throat, rubbing my breasts against him, ready to climb him like a tree.

“Truck,” he mumbles against my mouth as I try to slip a hand under his shirt. “Fee, baby, truck coming.”

I’m not sure if it’s embarrassment or lust that has my cheeks burn, but I know I’m probably beet red when Tse opens the door to Paco.

“Morning,” I mumble when he steps into the kitchen.

Paco just grins and does that chin lifting thing these guys all seem to have in their repertoire. I tried it once in front of the mirror and I look like I’m having a seizure, so I just stick to words or waves.

“Ravi, you remember Sophia?”

I look beyond Paco, where Tse is standing with his hand on the shoulder of a lanky teenager. I remember seeing the kid around the clubhouse. He’s a quiet one.

“Hey, Ravi,” I greet him and get a barely audible, “Hey,” in return.

But when moments later Tse announces we’re heading to the animal shelter to look at dogs, I see the kid’s eyes light up.

“Ravi, wanna come? Help me pick out a dog?”

He tries to look aloof but the way his shoulders straighten and his teeth bite into his lips, I can tell he wants to.

“He’s supposed to be helping Paco,” Tse points out, and I shoot him bug eyes.

“Helping Paco or helping me, what’s the difference?”

Tse stares at me hard before turning to the boy.

“Would you mind?”

“Sure,” Ravi says with a shrug, making it sound like it’s all the same to him.

But it isn’t, and I know it isn’t, because half an hour later when I see him crouch down in front of the ugliest dog I’ve ever seen—talking softly as he scratches the creature under his chin—the expression on his face is one of pure happiness.

“Good call, baby,” Tse