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

restaurant when she took over for Bernie. I was so relieved at the time I didn’t think twice.

“She’s a friend of Bernie’s. I needed a replacement for a waitress, and he said he knew someone with experience he’d worked with at his previous restaurant. She worked out great. Then when Bernie got injured, she offered to help out in the kitchen. She did a good job there too. I didn’t know—” I’m rambling but I can’t seem to stop myself when Tse does it for me.

“Nobody’s blaming you for anything, Fee,” he says, and I notice him exchanging a meaningful look with Ouray.

I shake my head. I can’t quite believe it, but then I remember that weird incident last week with the delivery guy. I sit up straight.

“That’s why the guy was an asshole.” Ouray and Tse both throw me confused looks. “Last week,” I continue. “Uh, Tuesday morning. I went in early and was alone at the restaurant when the truck showed up maybe ten or fifteen minutes early. They’re supposed to be there after ten, but I remember it was earlier because Mandy wasn’t in yet. The guy was weird when he saw me. Asked where Mandy was.” I pause, recollecting the incident and my eyes drift out the sliding doors where Ravi is running around, the dog bounding at his heels. “He wouldn’t unload,” I remember, looking up at Ouray. “He was moving around stuff in the back of his truck to kill time, but he wouldn’t unload until Mandy got there a few minutes later.”

“You figure Mandy took over more than just kitchen duties from Bernie?” Tse asks Ouray, who shrugs.

“Could well be. Maybe he got caught with his hand in the cookie jar and the attack on him was punishment?”

“Bernie?” I can’t wrap my head around the jovial sous-chef being involved in anything as sinister as drug dealing. I don’t get a chance to say more because Ravi walks in with Van.

The dog instantly moves to my side, sits down at my feet, and tilts his head back for scratches. I readily comply, the dog’s presence making me feel a little more composed.

Tse looks down at me, his forehead furrowed, and his lips set in a hard line, before turning to Paco.

“How’s that alarm system coming along?”

Okay. No.

I’m still freaked way the hell out.

Tse

I watch Paco drive off with a reluctant Ravi in the passenger seat.

The kid really took to the dog and, almost by association, to Sophia, and wasn’t ready to leave. Luna just called Ouray though, giving him a heads-up that she and Ramirez and Luna’s boss, Damian Gomez, are on their way here.

I had a quiet word with Paco and he agreed to take Ravi with him to the build, but first quickly showed me how to set the alarm. He said he could come back for a couple of hours tomorrow to add a few features, including a camera aimed at the driveway.

I’m about to push the door shut when a dark SUV turns into the driveway. I’m on alert until it’s halfway to the house and I recognize Gomez behind the wheel and Luna beside him in the passenger seat.

Waiting for them, I step aside and wave them in. The smell of the fresh coffee Sophia was putting on permeates the air. I have a feeling it’ll be a long fucking day.

_______________

“Absolutely fucking not.”

I glare at Gomez, who calmly stares back.

“It’s perfectly safe.”

“Like hell it is. You’re putting a target on the restaurant, and on Sophia.”

Gomez and Luna just finished outlining a plan of action and it doesn’t sit well with me.

Mandy Roberts was picked up and is singing like a canary. Sounds like she’s not necessarily a hardened criminal but participated in the scheme under pressure. The setup was simple, but ensured the actual supplier never interacted with the dealers. That was first Bernie and then Mandy’s job, leaving only the two of them exposed. Something goes wrong, there’s only one person to take care of.

Gomez suggested that’s what probably happened to Bernie. He may have ripped off one of the dealers, who decided to punish him and take what was owed to him from that morning’s delivery. It wouldn’t have been the supplier; they would’ve taken care of business away from their distribution location.

The other guys they picked up—the ones in house behind the restaurant—only represent one dealer. According to Mandy there are more and she doesn’t know who is supplying the drugs. All she claims to know is that they come in on the Clover Produce truck and she’s supposed to hide the money in the empty boxes.

“It’s the only way to identify the other dealers, but more importantly, who is bringing in the drugs,” Luna offers. “Bernie’s sister approached Mandy in the hospital parking lot when she went to visit Bernie. Showed her pictures of her younger sister at her campus at the University of New Mexico, where she studies engineering. Told her, the sister would be safe as long as Mandy played along. She’s terrified, the sister is the only family she has left.”

“Bernie must have set her up.” Sophia speaks for the first time since Gomez and Luna got here. She’s been quietly listening, processing, and apparently thinking. “He’s the one who knew her, suggested I hire her.”

“That’s what we figure,” Gomez answers, turning his eyes on me. “And that’s another reason why it’s important we keep the restaurant functioning as normal. We need time to ensure her sister is safe before we make a move.”

I need some air and walk to the sliding doors where Van is lying on the floor, with his front paws crossed and his chin resting on top, looking outside. The moment I open the door he darts outside but stops at some brush where he relieves himself. Then he saunters back and sits down on the deck at my feet.

“Good boy.” I drop my hand to scratch his head.

I don’t like this plan. I understand it, get the