Edge Of Darkness (Arrow's Edge MC #2) - Freya Barker Page 0,21
no fighting with your sister. I’ll be right there.”
She waits until the kids are in the car before she turns to me.
“My days are spent in a clubhouse with grunting and swearing men. I come home, I don’t appreciate my boy giving me one-syllable responses or tossing around the F-word. Swear that boy’s gonna be the death of me.”
I swallow a chuckle when she turns a warning look in my direction.
“You’re a saint,” I mutter quickly, to which she nods appreciatively.
“Bet your booty I am. I can’t even remember what it’s like to commune with a grown-up anymore. What’s with that coffee?”
I feel awful. I haven’t forgotten her invitation but between work and Yuma, I haven’t really had much time to myself.
“Work’s been crazy.”
She looks at me with an eyebrow raised.
“That what they call it these days? Guess I’ve been out of the game longer than I thought,” she semi-mumbles to herself. “Yuma been helpin’?”
I look at my toes grinning. Shouldn’t surprise me she’s caught wind of Yuma spending quite a bit of time here, even though he’s gone back to his own place every night.
Apparently he’s serious about my suggestion to take things nice and slow. There’s been kissing, and some touching over clothes, but I’ve gone to bed alone and aching these past few days.
“Something like that.”
Lisa puts a hand on my arm, taking me in with a solemn look on her face. “Be careful, girl. There’s an edge of darkness on that one.”
Lisa doesn’t know me well, but I’m sure she’s trying to look out for me. Sisterhood and all that. If the roles were reversed, who knows, I might’ve suggested caution too. I’m guessing she’s probably seen Yuma at his worst, but she can’t know he’s been brutally honest with me. Much more honest than I have been with him. I haven’t really shared that much about my life before I came here.
“I have that edge of darkness in me too, Lisa,” I admit. “I’m just better at hiding it.”
She looks at me closely before nodding.
“I see it now.” She pats my arm. “Hope I didn’t offend.”
“Not at all. And we’ll work on that coffee.”
“Please, because right now living next to a cop is about the only thing keeping me from bloodshed,” she grumbles, before jogging down the stairs to where the kids look to be arguing in the car.
I follow at a slower pace and she’s already peeling out of the parking lot by the time I climb in my truck. I cast a brief glance at Yuma’s apartment but there’s no sign of life. His bike is parked out front. Before my mind goes places it shouldn’t, I put the car in reverse and back out of my spot.
When I walk into the station, Mike Bolter, the desk sergeant, calls me over.
“The chief called a meeting. They’re in the conference room.”
“Thanks, Sarge.”
Instead of heading right to my cubicle in the bullpen, I take a left. The door to the room is open showing Chief Benedetti, Blackfoot, Ramirez, with the surprising addition of FBI SAC Gomez and Mayor Woodard.
“Going in, Detective Bucco?”
I turn to find the new coroner, Dr. Meredith Carter, standing behind me.
“Yes, of course.”
The men look up when we walk in.
“Perfect,” Chief Benedetti says. “Take a seat so we can get started.” I take an empty seat beside Ramirez while Dr. Carter finds a spot on the other side of the table. “This is a fact-sharing meeting. Mayor Woodard asked to sit in since he has a vested interest in the development.” I look over at the mayor, who looks decidedly unhappy. Gomez doesn’t appear too pleased either. “In short, the DPD’s investigation at Wildcat Canyon development is crossing over into an ongoing FBI case,” Benedetti explains.
This should be interesting, jurisdictional scuffles happen regularly but they can get pretty ugly.
“The FBI has been investigating the American National League for close to two years,” Gomez explains. “Last year’s raid in Moab was only the tip of the iceberg. Organizations like that grow silently, and widely, spreading tentacles and burrowing deep. The Hinckle compound in Moab was one of the tentacles. Every time we get close, they simply cut off the tentacle and grow another. Each time that happens, we need to start all over again.”
As Gomez informs us, Nowak is another tentacle. The FBI apparently has kept a covert eye on him for a while, gathering information to bring them closer to the root of the organization.