Sophie whirled to face him. “You’ve known about this all day and you didn’t tell me?”
“You were working.” He wasn’t about to tell her he had followed her all day on her patrol. Despite the fact she was a cop riding in a cop car with a dweeb cop partner beside her, he’d given his word to Jason, and that meant keeping her in sight 24/7. “Didn’t want you to worry.”
“Worry?” Her voice rose to a shriek. “I’ve texted Jason at least a dozen times today. I’ve left messages. You knew I was looking for him. How could you not tell me his house was vandalized? Maybe he was abducted. The odds of finding someone go down exponentially with every hour they are missing, and you’ve kept this from me all day.” She pulled out her phone. “I’m calling this in.”
Ace snatched the phone from her hand. “The police won’t be able to help you. We need to keep this under the radar.”
Sophie glared. “My brother is missing. Last night, when you took me home, he was scared. I should never have left him alone. And now, someone’s shot up and destroyed his house. Doesn’t take a genius to add it all up. He’s in trouble. The police can help. I can help.”
“There’s a lot you don’t know about what’s going on.” Ace held the phone out of reach, and Sophie’s vision went red.
“Can the condescending crap. If there’s something I need to know, then tell me. And give me the damn phone or I’m going to do some serious damage that would render any future communication between us pointless because you’ll have no teeth.”
With a shake of his head, Ace tossed the phone on the kitchen counter and walked through the rubble to the patio doors. His feet crunched over the broken glass as he eased the door open and stepped outside. Sophie grabbed her phone and followed him out into the cool evening, her blood boiling.
“What don’t I know? I’ll need every bit of information to give to the police.”
He leaned against the fence and folded his arms. “Which is why I can’t tell you. Plus, he doesn’t want you to know.”
Her heart skipped a beat. “You talked to him?”
“At the party. He figured you would go crazy if you knew what he was doing. Sort of like now. Women tend to get emotional about this kind of thing.”
If ever there had been a time in her life she wanted to hit someone, this was it. Goddamned outlaw biker. She should have known that behind the sexy smile, the hot body, and the protective charade lay the heart of a chauvinist. But what did she expect? Women weren’t allowed to become members of outlaw clubs. They could only be “old ladies,” “sweet butts,” “back warmers,” or “house mamas,” serving and supporting their men.
I’ll show him emotional. Her palm itched to strike him across the face. But common sense and her training kicked in. Aside from the fact he was bigger, stronger, and faster than her, she wouldn’t lower herself to what could be considered excessive use of force, nor would she allow him to gain the upper hand. The entire scene just reaffirmed in her mind that she needed to handle things the right way. If the police had been on the case from the beginning, no doubt they would have already found Jason, and because of Ace, she’d lost valuable time.
“Do you have a brother, Ace?” She leaned into him, her face close to his, her stomach churning. “Can you imagine seeing his house like this and not being able to get in touch? Anyone would get emotional. Not just women.”
His jaw tightened, and for a moment she thought he was going to turn away. “Yeah,” he said, finally. “I had a brother. Sam. We were put in foster care when I was three and he was two because my dad lost his shit after my mother died in a bike accident. He’d drink and beat on us. I only have vague memories about it, but the social workers told me about it when I got older. After a couple of years in foster care, things were so bad Sam started running away, trying to find our dad. Eventually they separated us. Sent him to a place where he couldn’t run. Never saw him again. I spent years trying to track him down. So I get how you feel, babe. And I just meant women show their