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

reasoning behind it, but I don’t like it. It could be dangerous. Then again, so could disrupting the restaurant’s daily operations. It’s a fucking Catch-22 and either way Sophia could be hurt.

A-fucking-gain.

Behind me I hear the door open and Van twists his head to see who it is, but I already know. I can feel her. A small hand is pressed to my back.

“It’ll be okay,” she says in a soft voice. “Luna says they’ll have nonstop surveillance on the place and an agent inside posing as waitstaff.”

“I still don’t like it,” I grumble, turning toward her.

She puts her hands on my chest when I slide an arm around her waist. Van shoves his nose between us, whining softly.

“He’s jealous.” She smiles down at the dog’s ugly mug. “Aren’t you, boy?”

“He’s sleeping downstairs.”

Her brows snap together when she looks up at me.

“Says who? This is my dog, my place, my bed. If I want him—”

I tug her a little closer.

“Yes, but I’ll be spending every fucking night here until this mess is over.” And I may not stop then, but I don’t tell her that. “He can watch over the house while I watch over you.”

Immediately her eyes soften.

“I’m gonna be okay.”

“Yeah, you will. I’ll fucking make sure of it.”

She shakes her head, steps out of my hold, and grabs my hand, pulling me to the door.

“Come on, let’s hear the plans so they can get back to it. We can discuss the dog later.”

“Nothing to discuss,” I grumble stubbornly.

She wisely ignores me.

_______________

We stand in the doorway—my arm draped loosely over her shoulders—watching Ouray’s SUV pull onto the road. The only vehicle left in front of the house is Sophia’s Jeep, and I realize I don’t have my bike here.

It’s fucking summer and I’ve barely looked at my bike in the past week. That’s not like me. Normally I’d take it out every chance I get but since the ride to Moab, I’ve mostly driven around in the pickup—which is now in Brick’s shop—or in Sophia’s Jeep.

“Wanna go for a walk?”

“Sure.”

I wait for her to grab her keys and the dog’s leash, and I set the alarm.

“Ravi mentioned there’s a trail back there.” I point to the tree line behind the house. “Seeing as Paco’s property is a mile or so down the road on the other side of the curve, I figure maybe it’ll take us there. If you wanna see the progress we made?”

She grabs my hand, lacing our fingers, and starts walking.

“Absolutely. Show me the way.”

I’m not sure where that came from, I don’t go for walks; I go for rides. Who the fuck am I turning into? I’ve barely been to the clubhouse, haven’t hung out at the bar, having a beer and shooting the shit with my brothers, or playing cards with the old man. Instead, I’ve been following Sophia around.

Me.

Nice and easy, then love ‘em and leave ‘em has always been my MO. My life is supposed to be all about the club, the brotherhood, with women only a very temporary distraction. Definitely no complicated entanglements but I sure am entangled now, and this one has complication written all over it.

Seems I’ve hooked my wagon to a woman and the fuck of it is…I like it. I like waking up in the morning and the first thing I see are those honey-brown eyes of hers. I like the smell of her lingering on my skin all day. Hell, I even like going for a damn stroll, holding hands while her dog leads the way.

I’m turning into someone I may not recognize, but I’m not complaining.

CHAPTER 17

Sophia

IT’S BEEN STRESSFUL, the past three days.

Going into work, pretending nothing is going on, even though I feel like I’m sitting on a powder keg that could go off at any minute.

On Tuesday after the lunch rush, Mandy walked into my office, closed the door, and promptly burst into tears, rambling how sorry she was. I ensured her I understood, that if someone threatened my family, I’d do anything to keep them safe. It took me ten minutes to calm her down.

Then Wednesday afternoon our new ‘employee’ started. Krystal, the agent’s name, is supposed to relieve me of my dining room duties for the dinner run, mostly greeting and seating. I still do lunch, which isn’t nearly as busy, but this leaves me free to focus more of my time on the actual management of the restaurant. At least that’s the story we’re going with and no one questioned it.

Yesterday Luna called to give us an update. She said they’d managed to intercept another dealer the night before, after Mandy handed off the drugs. They were able to do it quietly, without flashing lights or public scrutiny. That was the plan, for the Bureau to slowly whittle away at the network while they tried to trace the money back to the supplier.

That was the more complicated part of the investigation. The moment they make a move against any of the players on that side of the trafficking—the driver, or Clover Produce—chances are whoever is behind this setup would find out and disappear before they can bring him down. They put surveillance on Bernie and his sister, as well as on the warehouse in Farmington. Luna explained the key now is to gather as much intel as they can, see how all the pieces fit together, and then coordinate arrests, so all of the players are taken in at the same time.

On top of all of that swirling through my head, Tse has been weird this week. I can’t quite put my finger on it but he’s pensive. Still attentive to me with touches and smiles, but just now I woke up again with the outline of his erection pressing against my ass, like I have for days, only to have him roll away the second I moved.

It’s been almost a week since Tse touched me in any sexual way. I’m starting to wonder if he’d still be here if