Page 87 of Edge

Before I knew it, I was hugging my kids and kissing my wife goodbye. “Be careful,” Annabelle said.

“I always am, doll face. I love you,” I told her and kissed her once more.

“I love you, too.”

I knew she was worried. I was too, but there was no way around it; we had to meet with them face-to-face.

When we arrived in Cedar Valley, we parked behind the warehouse and got set up while we waited for them to arrive. As he said he would, Hound called Gary to let him know when they were thirty minutes away.

We waited until they pulled into the parking lot and turned off their engines to make our appearance from behind the building. The look on Hound’s face was priceless. In a different situation, I would have laughed.

Hound stepped forward and crossed his arms over his chest. “What the fuck are you doing here?”

“You know exactly what we’re doing here. You forced my hand when you refused to talk to me after the shooting. Then you ordered the fire at the diner to draw us out. Well, here we are.”

“You killed two of my members and are harboring a girl who tried to frame us for murder. Why the fuck would I want totalkto you?”

“We killed one of your members—after he shot three of mine and two family members.”

“You killed Muzzle,” Hound insisted.

“No, we didn’t. I’m not sure why you would even think that.”

“Muzzle came up here looking for his daughter, the one your club is hiding. He disappeared, and then your club is staked out at the diner where his daughter works. You really expect me to believe that’s a coincidence?”

“The diner is owned by a family member. She was injured during a break-in, as were two of her employees. My club was there to help run the place until they were back on their feet. Our presence had nothing to do with you.”

“That’s bullshit, and you know it!” Hound shouted.

“I don’t have any reason to bullshit you. If I killed Muzzle, I’d tell you.”

Hound narrowed his eyes. “Fine. Hand over Evie, and I’ll let it go.”

I snorted a laugh and shook my head. “No fucking way. She didn’t do what you think she did, but that doesn’t matter because she’s a Blackwings old lady.”

“She tried to frame Muzzle and Snarl for murder,” Hound insisted.

I sighed in exasperation. “I read the police reports. Snarl’s fingerprints were on the murder weapon. He’s left-handed. Thevictim’s throat was cut from right to left, and the knife was on the ground to the left of the body. There’s video evidence of Muzzle kidnapping Evie from the hospital parking lot the night of the murder. There’s photo evidence of Evie’s bruised and swollen face right after she was taken. Yeah, she may have reported it, but there was no framing. They did it. The only reason they wanted to find Evie was to tie up that loose end by permanently silencing her. You had to know that.”

“What the fuck is he talking about, Prez?” the man beside Hound asked. A quick glance at his cut told me he was the new vice president, Mange.

“Not now.”

“Yes, now. You said Evie stole the money from Randall’s sales, killed him, and set Muzzle and Snarl up for the murder before she took off. Now you’ve got us in a war with the Blackwings because Muzzle and Snarl were too stupid to not kill her when they killed Randall.”

“I said not now!”

“Fuck that! They’re dead. Whatever Evie does or doesn’t do doesn’t matter anymore.”

“We don’t know that Muzzle’s dead,” Hound argued.

“You just accused the Blackwings of killing him. What are you trying to pull here?”

“Shut the fuck up, Mange! I should end you for disrespecting me!”

“And I should end you for disrespecting our club!”

I knew what was about to happen and took a few steps back as each one produced a gun and pointed it at the other.

---