Edge Of Fear (Arrow's Edge MC Book 4)

by Freya Barker

  She elbows me. “You know you’re aging right along with them, right?”

  “Don’t remind me,” I groan, picking up the beer Mack slides in front of me. A good barkeep knows what you’ll have to drink before you do. “How are you enjoying working here?”

  “Love it.” She grins. “Especially the tips.”

  “Order’s up.”

  Lea walks over to where Mack sets a few more drinks on a full tray. She easily swings it up on one hand like she’s an old pro.

  “Try the pulled pork tonight,” she directs at me. “Almost just as good as Lisa’s.”

  I’m about to tell Mack to put an order in for me when Ramirez comes in with his wife, who’s an EMT for the fire department. He spots me and they walk over.

  “Smelled the food from this kitchen but haven’t had a chance to taste it yet. Figured it was time we give it a try.”

  “You’ll be pleasantly surprised.” I get up to give his wife a hug. “Looking good, as always, Blue. Still don’t get what you’re doing with this guy though. You could do so much better.”

  She shakes her head and grins.

  “Let me guess; you?”

  “Isn’t that obvious?”

  Ramirez puts his arm around Blue, pulling her to his side.

  “Quit flirting with my wife. Don’t you have your own woman to bother?”

  Not long after, Sophia appears and shows them to a table, while I order my dinner from Mack. Lea was right, the pulled pork is good and I tell her so when she checks in with me.

  From my vantage point at the bar I have a good view of the dining room, where Sophia has taken over serving drinks. Mack comes to hang out with me in between orders. He may look like he came straight from prep school, but he surprises me when he tells me about the old bike he’s working on with a buddy.

  I’m about to order another beer when Ramirez passes me on his way to the men’s room, giving me a pointed look. I motion to Mack to get me another draft. Then get up and make my way down the hall. Ramirez is leaning against the sink, arms folded over his chest.

  “It’s date night. Blue would have my balls if she knew I was talking shop, but I wanted to give you a heads-up.”

  “About?”

  “Shit’s gonna go down tomorrow. Finally gathered enough intel to convince a judge to sign off on a search warrant for the house on the other side of the parking lot back there. We’ve been observing for a week now, noted a number of drug transactions in the area, and have been able to identify a number of key players. The one thing they have in common is that house. We suspect it’s used as a distribution hub. Like a goddamn Sam’s for dealers.”

  It’s not making me feel good this is going down a hundred yards from where Sophia parks her fucking Jeep.

  “No shit?”

  The door opens and an older man walks in, eyeing us with suspicion before ducking into a stall.

  “Dead serious,” Ramirez says in a low voice. “Hope we get some answers.”

  We hear the toilet flush and step aside so the guy can wash his hands. I wait for the door to close behind him before I speak.

  “Restaurant is closed tomorrow.”

  He nods. “That’s why I suggested holding off until then.”

  “What about the attack on the cook? Has he talked to you?”

  “Bernie’s recuperating at his sister’s place in New Mexico, but he says he doesn’t remember anything. I don’t believe him, though. I have a gut feeling it’s linked to what’s going on across the parking lot, but at this point it’s nothing more than a hunch and that investigation is dead in the water.”

  “What about the delivery guy?” I suggest, but Ramirez shakes his head.

  “Doesn’t know anything, didn’t see anything.” He turns to the sink and washes his hands. “Better get back to Blue before she comes looking for me.” He dries with a couple of hand towels and tosses them in the trash. He turns to me with his hand on the door. “Do me a favor? Wait until after we’re gone to tell Sophia? I don’t want this conversation to get back to my wife. That would ruin the plans I have for tonight.”

  “More than I needed to know,” I grumble, as he opens the door and slips out.

  I give him a few beats before I walk out as well, but as I make my way to my barstool, I find Blue’s eyes narrowed on me from across the restaurant.

  I’m grinning as I sit at the bar, my draft waiting for me.

  It would appear Ramirez is busted.

  Sophia

  I watch Tse walk over to the bar.

  Five minutes ago I saw him slip into the men’s room, moments after the detective disappeared inside. I’m not an idiot, I’m sure they were discussing something they don’t want me to know, but I’ll be damned if I let either of them leave me out of the loop. This restaurant is my responsibility and I’m not a wilting flower. If there is new information, I should be the first one to know.

  Unfortunately, we are at the peak of the dinner rush and I’m stuck at the cash register, doing tallies for the tables getting ready to check out. When we have half the tables cleared off—including Ramirez and his wife’s—and I’m about to have a word with Tse, a group of twelve walks in, keeping both Lea and me busy for the next hour and a half. By the time they leave it’s close to nine, time for the kitchen to close. Other than a few drinking stragglers Lea and Mack can handle, the dining room is empty. Except of course for Tse, who is still on his perch at the bar.

  “I have to check with the kitchen and I need to run my reports, but don’t think you’re off the hook,” I warn him.

  I walk past when his arm shoots out and he grabs my wrist, pulling me back toward him. His other hand comes up to my face, and he surprises me with a hard kiss that robs me of some of the steam I’ve been building up.

  “I like it when you get feisty on me,” he mumbles, his eyes full of humor. “Go do your thing. I’ll fess up after.”

  “You’d better.”

  When I stick my head in the kitchen, Chris is just on his way out.

  “Busy night.”

  “Yes. I’m running low on these.” He hands me a list with nonperishables. “If this volume is the new normal, we’re going to need to adjust the standing orders as well.”

  He’s talking about our fresh deliveries.

  “Fair enough. Let’s talk next week.”

  He nods and darts out without a goodbye for Lauren and Mandy, both of whom are left to scrub the kitchen. Despite his arrogant personality, I like Chris. From a professional perspective at least. I wouldn’t invite the man to a social gathering but I sure like working with him. He’s on the ball, organized, reliable, and a damn fine chef. If he didn’t have such a tight rein on the kitchen, my job would be a lot more challenging.

  I sit down at my desk and pull our bookkeeping software up on my computer. Most of our transactions are debit or credit card, but there are still some who pay cash. Since I wasn’t here yesterday—I normally do the week’s deposit Saturdays—I’ll be making a bank deposit as well tonight. I grab the cash we keep in the safe in my office and sort the bills before stuffing them in a pouch along with the deposit slip. Next are the reports, which take a while to print off.

  I’m just filing the print copies in the filing cabinet when Lauren and Mandy walk past, giving me a wave.

  “Night!”

  “See you next week,” I call after them.

  Lea is the next one to leave, and when I walk into the restaurant Mack is locking the front door.

  “We ready?”

  Tse gets up from his seat, rubbing his ass with both hands.

  “Jesus, my ass is sore.”

  “Right now I can’t find it in me to sympathize.”

  The snark is more to remind myself I still have a bone to pick with him than anything else, but it has Mack throw up his hands defensively.

  “Leave me out of it, please. I just work here,” he says, flicking off the lights before he heads for the back door.

  Tse is grinning as he dra
pes an arm around my shoulders.

  “No offers to make it better?” he teases.

  “Don’t answer that!” Mack yells from in front of us, right before he darts outside.

  I stop outside my office. “I need to grab my purse.”

  “I’ve got it.”

  Tse walks in, finds my bag on top of the credenza behind my desk, flicks off the desk lamp, and pulls the door shut behind him, before following me outside.

  “So…” he drawls. “Are you? Gonna make it better?”

  I roll my eyes at him and turn the deadbolt on the back door.

  “Why don’t you tell me first what you and Ramirez were discussing in the men’s room?”

  “Let’s get home first. There are a few things I need to tell you about.”

  I try not to let the fact he calls my place home affect me; I don’t want to admit I like the sound of it.

  “Fine.”

  I look around the parking lot, but all I see is my Jeep and Mack’s taillights.

  “Where’s the bike?”

  “I’ve got the truck, it’s parked out front. Parking lot was pretty full when I got here.”

  He walks me to the Jeep, waits until I’m behind the wheel, tells me he’ll catch up, and then jogs around the building to the front.

  I start the Jeep and pull out of my spot. It’s not until I turn onto Main Avenue I remember the deposit pouch on my desk. Shit. I can see Tse’s truck, with him behind the wheel so I drive by and hold up one finger, indicating for him to wait a minute. Then I turn into the narrow alley on the other side of the restaurant, leading to the rear parking lot, and notice a car parked halfway down, the front of the car pointing in my direction.

  The sky-blue Honda is Mandy’s car and I can see the trunk is open but I don’t see her.

  I pull up, get out of the vehicle, and walk to the rear of the Civic just as Mandy appears from behind, the large tote she always carries with her in her hands. She stops in her tracks when she spots me.

  “What’s going on?”

  She covers her shock with a smile but it doesn’t reach her eyes, and I’m suddenly uncomfortable.

  “My car is acting up. I was hoping someone would still be here.”

  I don’t believe it for a second. Her eyes dart over my shoulder, just as I hear the crunch of a footstep right behind me. Before I can look behind me, something hits the back of my head and I yelp, toppling forward and landing facedown in the gravel.

  I have the presence of mind to keep my eyes closed and stay perfectly still.

  “Gimme the bag,” I hear a man’s voice. Then I hear rustling and the car trunk close. “Now get the fuck out of here.”

  The door slams shut; the engine starts, and gravel sprays up from the tires as the car backs out of the alley. I almost cry out when the guy kicks me in the back but manage to stay as still as possible. Then I hear Tse’s voice.

  “Hey, you fucking son of a bitch!”

  CHAPTER 15

  Tse

  “I’M FINE.”

  My fucking heart stopped when I saw her Jeep halfway down the alley, door open. I noticed a man haul back and kick at something on the ground, realizing too late it was a person.

  The guy took off through the trees and I probably should’ve gone after him but I was more concerned with Sophia, who was pushing herself up into a sitting position by the time I got to her.

  “Like hell you are,” I growl, as I probe her head with my fingers, looking for injury. “You have a bump on your head and look at your hands, they’re bleeding.”

  “Trust me.” She brushes my hands aside. “I’m fine. Go after him.”

  I only half trust her at her word, but I scramble to my feet.

  “Wait,” she calls out when I start to move. “I need your phone. Mine’s in the car.”

  I toss her my phone and haul off in the direction I saw the guy run. I dart through the trees where I saw him disappear and end up in an alley between two houses. These aren’t in much better shape than the one Ramirez has had his eye on.

  When I hit the road on the other side I look in both directions, hoping to catch a glimpse of the guy. There’s no movement on either end, but when I look toward the river, I see movement on the far side of the railroad tracks. I immediately take off across the road and through the brush. When I get to the other side of the tracks I stop, looking and 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? Ke
ep 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.”