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Ashe had hesitated too, almost like he wasn’t sure if he should stay or go.

“So, should I expect your surveillance indefinitely now, or is it a short-term thing?”

He relaxed at that, sinking a little more comfortably into the chair and unravelling the provided cutlery from the napkin.

“Who knows?” he shrugged after chewing his first bite of steak. “The visit we got from your buddies the other day has Princey a little understandably shaken.”

“Mybuddies?” I raised my brows.

“The cops showed up to the studio last week after you and I…” he trailed off, obviously hinting at the night we spent together after Theo had showed up at the pub.

“So?”

“So, they were sending a message. A ‘friend of the station’ was a little concerned that the Redliners might be getting involved with someone we should be staying away from.”

“You think Toni sent the cops to warn you to stay away from me?” I blinked at him.

He nodded once.

I scoffed a laugh, shaking my head and continuing to eat.

Ashe leaned in closer. “What’s funny?”

“That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.”

His eyes grew curious, still looking at me as I put my fork down and slumped back into my chair, crossing my arms over myself.

“You truly believe that after all that has gone on between The Family and the Redliners over the past few years, that now, Toni would chose to go to the fucking cops to send some petty little threat rather than just killing youhimself?”

Ashe pursed his lips, leaning back in his chair and mimicking my posture.

“We know that The Santinos have the police in their pocket.”

“Congratulations!” I smiled wide in mock enthusiasm. “You and everyone else in the state of Victoria.”

He pressed his lips together and I could tell he was suppressing a laugh.

“Of course they have the police under control. You think that he can just do the things that he does and get away with it without having to pay a price to make the police look the other way? He doesn’t use them to scare people. Doesn’t need to. He came home with a bullet in his leg the other night instead of going to the hospital. Does that sound like the kind of guy who’s gonna run to the cops for a cry?”

The slight smile on his face disappeared.

“Toni got shot?”

I nodded once, looking back down at my plate.

“They were supposed to be meeting with a new buyer but it was an ambush. Two guys on motorcycles pulled guns and one of them got Toni in the leg. They weren’t prepared for a fight.”

Ashe frowned, and I could see the way that the thoughts flew through his head at a million miles a minute.

“So they think it was us?” He asked finally.

I nodded.

“Zar, I promise you, that wasn’t Redliners.”

“I know,” I shrugged.

Ashe arched a brow, the surprise plain on his face.