Annie's Neighborhood (Harlequin Heartwarming)

by Fox, Roz Denny

  Sky stepped to the door, assuring her he’d be calm and composed when what he wanted to do was put his fist through a wall. He hated feeling powerless against this gang. He hated the fact that they’d retaliated against Annie for no reason other than her unwillingness to hide. Instead, she cleaned the graffiti off her house and refused to back down from her plan to organize folks and take back the neighborhood. He didn’t like that they were stepping up their crimes. And to have this drive-by happen right under his nose galled him no end.

  After the entourage left, Sky spent a few minutes guessing at the angle of the first bullet. He took photos with his cell phone and experienced some satisfaction when he found a slug in the wall. Leaving it, he went out to his car for an evidence kit. He carefully removed the slug and saw that it bore trace evidence of blood, obviously Sadie’s. He recalled the second shot, which exploded the window, going wide of the table. After a few minutes’ examination, he discovered that slug embedded high in the wooden molding that framed the dining room ceiling. Climbing onto a chair to retrieve it, he then tucked the evidence bag in his shirt pocket and turned to the task of sweeping up glass. He also heeded the words of the fireman who’d warned them about properly disposing of the leftover pizza. Ultimately he decided to put the trash bag in his car to throw in the Dumpster behind the police station. Sky doubted even hungry drunks were stupid enough to rummage through the department’s garbage.

  As bad luck would have it, Annie didn’t own a board big enough to cover her window. Sky visited the homes on either side of hers to see if the neighbors had anything he could use. Neither couple answered his knock. Annie had probably been right that they were hiding in fear. Since he couldn’t force them out, he made do with some two-by-sixes that were in Annie’s garage. He nailed two of them in a big X over the jagged opening and put two others on the inside. Once he’d completed that, he recalled the last comment made by the fireman who’d been helping Annie, a suggestion about finding her a safe house for the night. His department budget didn’t stretch to putting any victim up in a hotel. But he was afraid gang leaders might send someone back here tonight. He debated the options that were open to him as he gave the house a final once-over. Having done the best he could with cleanup, he left a light burning over Annie’s kitchen sink, locked up and headed for the hospital.

  Fifteen minutes later, Sky turned into the parking lot of the nearest trauma center, which served lower Louisville and Briar Run. He met Koot driving out. They stopped their cruisers beside each other and both rolled down their windows.

  “How’s Sadie?” Sky peered into the car, where she sat beside Koot with her eyes closed. “And where’s Annie?” He didn’t see her in the backseat.

  “Busy night in the E.R.,” Koot said. “A doc was just going in to evaluate her. She insisted I take Sadie home, so I told her I was sure you’d be along shortly. Thank heavens Sadie’s not as bad as I feared,” the older cop admitted, relief evident in his voice. “The bullet grazed the underside of her arm. The doc said she was lucky. It’s soft tissue, which is why there was so much blood. I should’ve known that,” he said with some irritation. “But it’s hard to think like a cop when the person bleeding all over you is someone you love.”

  “It’s okay, Koot. You don’t have to apologize for being distracted, I understand. You get Sadie home. I’ll go see what’s up with Annie. If they finish with her and I’m not around, I wouldn’t put it past her to call a cab.”

  “I noticed she’s pretty unflappable. In fact, we ought to be plenty proud of both our ladies, Sky.”

  Sky pulled his lower lip between his teeth for a moment. “Yeah. But Annie’s not my lady. She’s a taxpayer in our district—that’s all. And considering the way she’s setting off the Stingers, she’s our department’s personal pain in the butt.”

  “Really?” Koot’s comment was mild compared to his expression, which implied that he thought Sky was full of baloney.

  Flustered by his coworker’s insinuation, Sky rolled up his window and drove on. His nerves jumped as he exited the car in the lot. To keep his hands steady, he buried them in the back pockets of his jeans. Sky didn’t know how he felt about Annie, and wasn’t sure he wanted to know. She piqued his interest on several levels. But he wasn’t happy his feelings were transparent enough for Koot to see that interest. After all, look at the disaster he’d made of his marriage. What did that say about his ability to pick a woman? The right woman. Chin lowered, Sky stiff-armed his way through the emergency room glass doors.

  Yowza! Koot hadn’t exaggerated when he’d said it was busy. People in obvious pain wriggled uncomfortably in their seats. A drunk jabbered out loud to no one. Kids and babies squalled. A fresh-faced boy looking too young to be a father walked his moaning, very pregnant wife past overflowing chairs. They avoided a pasty-faced woman vomiting into a bucket.

  A harried nurse stepped out of a door marked Private and called out a name. She glanced at Sky and, on recognizing him, said, “Chief Cordova, Lieutenant Talmage said you’d be in to collect the patient in examining room D. If you’d like, you could come on back and join her.”

  Sky weighed the possibility that they might have put Annie in a dressing gown. The thin gowns could reveal more than the wearer wanted. Oh, what the heck. “Thanks, Lou. I’ll go let her know I’m here at least.”

  He made his way down the corridor to room D, and poked his head around the curtain. Annie lay on an examining table with her head tipped back. An aide stood behind her, running a large comb with big teeth through Annie’s long black hair. Even from the doorway he could hear the tinkle of glass as it fell into some kind of container. “Hi,” he said, moving fully into the room. “Lou sent me back here,” he informed the aide he wasn’t familiar with. Sky couldn’t say whether he was happy to see Annie in her own clothes, or whether he was just a touch disappointed not to find her wearing one of those short, revealing gowns.

  Aaak, he should feel guilty even thinking that...but he wasn’t.

  “I’m almost done,” Annie said, lifting her head. “Koot said Sadie’s arm was a flesh wound. That’s a relief, isn’t it? I don’t need a stitch in my cheek, either. The other cuts to my scalp are minor.”

  “And thanks to this lice comb,” the aide interjected, continuing to gently comb Annie’s hair, “she’ll soon be free of glass.”

  “That’s good. Annie, I found both bullets,” Sky said, propping one shoulder against the door frame. “If it’s okay with you, I’d like to stop at the office to send the slugs and the photos I took off to the lab. The sooner we can find out if there’s any match to known gang activity, the faster we’ll run down our shooter.”

  “If you need to go now, I’ll call a cab to take me home.”

  Sky laughed and the women both eyed him speculatively. “I’m laughing,” he said, “because I told Koot in the parking lot that if I didn’t get in here to take you home, you’d call a cab. I bet you had no idea you were so predictable.”

  Annie shrugged as the aide said, “That’s it, Ms. Emerson, you’re free to go.” She set aside the comb and plastic basin, and separated a form from a clipboard. She passed a copy to Annie. Bending closer, the aide asked in an exaggerated whisper, “Why on earth would you call a cab, honey? I wouldn’t if I had a big, handsome chauffeur come for me.”

  Sky flushed as Annie slanted him a long, assessing look. “Don’t take the handsome part too seriously,” he said, placing a hand at the small of her back to guide her out of the room.

  “I should have a comeback, but my brain stopped functioning about the time you threw me on the floor, pounced on me and said we’d been shot at.”

  “So you are human?” He said it teasingly.

  They stopped at checkout, and Annie paid what was owed on her bill. Outside, Sky directed her to where he’d parked. He unlocked and opened her door, then shut it again as soon as she was settled. He was in
the process of backing out of the parking space when his cell phone rang.

  “Cordova,” he said, punching the speaker button on his dash.

  “It’s Corrine. What are you doing at the hospital with that Annie person? I tried reaching you a few minutes ago. When you didn’t answer I called dispatch. Margie Dumas said you and some other people were shot at while you were eating dinner at that woman’s home, Skylar. And you don’t see why I’d object to letting my son go off with you tomorrow?”

  Sky’s jaw tensed and he wrapped his hands so tightly around the steering wheel his knuckles turned white. “Zack is my son, too. I called my lawyer last night. He assured me that tomorrow’s my scheduled visitation day. You can’t stop me from taking Zachary to the zoo, Corrine.”

  “Our lawyer told us the same thing,” she said unhappily, “but Archibald says if you had any decency, you’d skip tomorrow and any other visitations until whatever mess you and that woman are involved in gets cleaned up.”

  “Have Zack ready at nine-thirty in the morning. If he still has the backpack I gave him for Christmas, load it with a snack and some juice or water. I’ll have him home at five, although technically I’m allowed to keep him through the dinner hour.” He punched the off button so hard, the plastic knob popped off and landed in Annie’s lap.

  Without saying a word, her expression benign, she snapped it back in place.

  Sky altered his tone. “I’m sorry she kept calling you ‘that woman.’”

  “I’ve been called worse by a few clients I had back in L.A. And you’re the one who has to deal with her on a regular basis, Sky. I’ll never meet her.”

  He pulled into precinct parking. “Here I was about to ask if you’d like to go to the zoo with us tomorrow.”

  “Now why would I do that?” Annie asked, giving him a hard look.

  “Well, partly because we haven’t caught the people responsible for the attacks on your house. All evening I’ve been thinking about a remark made by one of the firemen. He said I should get you into a safe house tonight. I don’t have money in the department budget to put you in a hotel. I do have a spare bedroom at my place. It’s not the Hilton, but it’s got a bed, a dresser and its own bathroom. The next problem I see is that I won’t be around tomorrow to look out for you.”

  Annie sucked in a breath, then blew it out. “I appreciate your concern, but I can’t go home with you and leave my house empty and vulnerable to whatever attack those idiot gangbangers dream up next.”

  “I was afraid you’d say that. Stay in the car for a minute while I toss the trash from your dining room. Then we’ll go inside and I’ll ship off the evidence kit to the lab. It’ll take me another two minutes to inform our dispatcher that if she gives my private information or whereabouts to my ex—or anyone—ever again, she’ll be fired.”

  “I’ll wait in the car. That’s not my problem. I have enough of my own.”

  “That you do. Problems, may I point out, that you’ve brought on yourself. What you should do is put out through the grapevine that you’ve decided to stop trying to save the neighborhood.”

  “But I haven’t. Other women came to help me today. They’re willing to let me help them paint their homes. And they want the gangs run out of town, too.”

  “You can’t be a one-woman army, Annie.”

  “No, but it only takes one ant to start moving a mountain.”

  “You know what? I’ve exhausted my arguments for now.” Sky picked up the evidence bag, slid out and hit the door locks. He went to the back of the car, opened the trunk and hauled a trash bag to a big bin behind the police station. Then he went into the building through a back door.

  Annie leaned against the head rest and shut her eyes. Her nerves were frayed. What if Gran Ida’s dream of revitalizing Briar Run was totally unrealistic? Peggy Gilroy and Gran’s doctor said she’d tended to ramble and lose herself in the past. Annie hadn’t witnessed much of that. But what if Gran’s faith in her ability to make a difference was part of a dear old lady’s desire to turn back the hands of time? Annie’s early attempts to fulfill Gran Ida’s wishes were causing havoc for good people. The Gilroys and Spurlocks were afraid to leave their newly painted homes. Sadie Talmage had embraced Annie’s plan and it got her shot. And Sky— Sometimes you just knew when a man was good. The more time Annie spent around Sky Cordova, the more she felt that way about him...and wished she didn’t.

  Sky returned to the car in the middle of Annie’s reflections.

  “Hey, are you just dozing off, or are you suffering belated effects from our trauma?”

  Rolling her head, she gazed at him from heavy-lidded eyes. “It’s been a long day. I should’ve taken a cab home. Dropping me off takes you out of your way. But there isn’t much we can do about that now.”

  “Ah, you’ve lost some of your fire.” He remembered what Koot said. “According to Koot, you held up like a champ. Better than him, he told me.”

  “They’re a great couple. Sadie’s a woman with unbelievable guts.”

  Sky started to comment when his two-way radio came to life. “A unit in south Louisville just stopped a vehicle matching the description you sent in, Cordova. You reported two men in the car. All we have is a driver. He’s wanted on priors so we’re taking him to the station if you’d like to drop by and ask him some questions.”

  “You bet. Did you find any weapons in the car?”

  “Negative.”

  “Hmm, okay. I can be there in about twenty minutes. Do you mind checking his hands for residue?”

  “Will do. See you in twenty, Cordova.” The light on the radio went off.

  “Is that the car involved in our incident?” Annie faced him, drawing up her left knee and bracing it on the console that separated their seats.

  “Could be. But they picked up one guy and no weapons. Your neighbor saw two men.”

  “That doesn’t mean he won’t give up his companion if the police make his life uncomfortable enough,” Annie said.

  “Are you telling me how to do my job?”

  “No. Er, of course not. Well,” she said brightly, “here we are at my house. Thanks for the lift.” Annie had her door open the minute Sky stopped in her driveway, her door key in hand.

  “Wait! I’m going in with you to do a walk-through. I locked the place when I left for the hospital, but—”

  “I’m sure everything’s fine. The street’s completely quiet.”

  “Yeah.” Sky did a cursory glance all directions. “I couldn’t find a solid piece of plywood to cover your window. But I didn’t leave a hole big enough for anyone to crawl through.”

  “It’s fine. You go see if the guy they picked up is connected with what happened here.”

  “Right, I know you’re Ms. Black Belt.” Sky put the Crown Vic in park. “If it’s all the same to you, I’ll wait until you open up and turn on some lights.”

  “Not black belt. Red stripe in a white belt, but I’ll wave if everything is okay.” She hopped out and hurried up the walkway. Annie hadn’t noticed before how dark her sidewalk, yard and porch were at night. Because of all the incidents that had occurred, plus the boards nailed over her broken window, she couldn’t help feeling jumpy. She unlocked the front door, went in and flipped on the living room and porch lights. Turning, she lifted a hand to signal Sky. After that, she locked up quickly, then stood at the window and watched him back out. His departure left a great black hole outside, and she couldn’t suppress a shiver as his taillights disappeared around the corner.

  She kept a light burning in her living room as she went into her bedroom and got ready for bed. She’d lived alone in a neighborhood worse than this one for a long time. Yes, but you were never shot at before. Hoping to silence the little voice in her head, Annie climbed into bed and opened the notebook filled with her preliminary plans for beautifying the
area. Tomorrow the sun would come up, and she’d begin anew. She tapped her pen against her lips. It might not be a bad idea to spread the word that her primary goal centered on helping residents paint their homes. She could downplay the more distant objective of ousting the Stingers. That could come later, once people started to feel confident again. Confident and hopeful...

  * * *

  ANNIE WOKE WITH a start to someone pounding on her front door. She’d fallen asleep while working on her notebook, and she hadn’t even shut off her lights.

  With her heart thumping like the biggest drum in a parade, she threw on her robe and tiptoed to the door. All the while she told herself that people out to do her harm wouldn’t announce their presence by knocking. So perhaps George Gilroy or Mike Spurlock had noticed her lights still blazing at—she checked Gran’s living room clock—1:00 a.m. Yikes, that was late for anyone to stop by. “Wh-who is it?” she stammered, her mouth pressed to the keyhole. She hated how thin and reedy her voice sounded.

  “It’s Sky. Are you okay?”

  Annie was so relieved to hear a friendly voice, she undid the chain lock and the bolt lock and yanked open the door. “I’m fine. Sort of fine,” she corrected, scraping back hair that had fallen out of the half twist she’d put it in before heading to bed. “What’s wrong? Why are you here in the middle of the night?”

  Barging straight into the house, he dropped a duffel bag at his feet. He’d had it slung over one shoulder.

  “Where’s your car? I don’t see it in the driveway.” She craned her neck to peer around him, up the street and down, before he locked the door.

  “I walked over from my house.”

  “You live near enough to walk?” Annie blinked.

  “I live two blocks east. Annie, listen up. I believe the car and driver my colleagues in Louisville picked up earlier does belong to a Stinger member. A guy ordered by higher-ups in the gang to scare you into leaving Briar Run, all because that brochure you put out targeted their hold on the town. The driver of the Cadillac has a mile-long rap sheet. The team in Louisville got a warrant and searched his apartment. It takes time to get a warrant, which is why I’m so late.” He waved his arms. “Anyway, the upshot is they found an arsenal in one of his closets. None of the weapons were registered and he has no permits to own or carry. None of those weapons were fired recently. I know from what Mr. Dawson said that there were two men in the car when it left this neighborhood. The perp refuses to cooperate or give up a companion, assuming he was part of the duo who pulled your drive-by.” Sky smoothed a hand down hollow cheeks. “Smug as the jerk acted throughout his questioning, I came away with a bad feeling. So, I’m bunking on your couch for the rest of the night.”