by Geri Krotow
“It’s our job to prevent that. Charging him is sobering, no pun intended. When he gets the charges and court summons in the mail, it’ll be another reminder to him that he risks jail time. That’ll be the judge’s decision, not ours.” Josh hoped that they’d be able to arrest Valensky on his dealings with ROC and put him away for the longest time possible. “But I think we shook him up enough that he’ll think about it.”
“I’m glad his wife wasn’t there. Made our job easier. She going to stay in the safe house?”
“No telling. That’s the toughest part of this at times.” He hated even contemplating that Kit would return to Valensky, but he wouldn’t bet against it. At least they had been able to charge Valensky.
So where was his satisfaction at a job well done? Nonexistent, as long as Valensky was free to walk the streets. He couldn’t control the law, or the fact that there was so much domestic violence that not every perpetrator could be arrested, at least not as often as Josh liked. Still, they’d done what they’d come here to do, and Kit was safe, for now. Why wasn’t he surprised that his first instinct was to to call Annie and tell her they’d taken care of Valensky?
Chapter 5
A few weeks after Kit had been taken to the women’s shelter, Annie came up for air from the cloud of fiber, needles and knitters that she’d thrown herself into. She wanted the shop in order in the event she was needed to help with Kit’s case. It helped distract her from thoughts of Josh and what they’d both said no to in her apartment the night Kit came for aid.
She hadn’t been able to shake the sense that a reckoning from Valensky was imminent. If he found out her involvement, he’d level her and the yarn shop. She’d worked too long at NYPD to not know how quickly ROC doled out revenge. Nevertheless, she relished a chance to assist in keeping ROC out of Silver Valley, no matter how small her part.
If she were brutally honest with herself, though, she’d hoped that working the long hours would also help her forget about her attraction to Josh. Or at least put it on a back burner.
Tell that to her body, which reacted every time she thought about his hands on her, his mouth on hers.
The chimes on the front door roused her from sexy thoughts of Josh and the pyramid of red yarn she was stacking.
“Hi, Annie.” Carla, Grandma Ezzie’s backup store cashier, walked up to her. Annie looked at her watch.
“Wow, I had no idea it was lunchtime already. Thanks for coming in, Carla.”
“Anytime. You should call me more often. You’ve been here a month already and I’d guess you could use a break.”
Annie stepped away from the display and went to get her purse behind the counter. “Careful, I may take you up on that.”
Her best friend, Portia, had suggested they meet and Annie agreed to come up for air. A visit with the bubbly woman she’d known since they were kids was the best antidote to her ROC worries. She enjoyed the walk along Main Street to the Silver Valley Diner. She needed girl time with her bestie.
But she questioned her decision when she found herself at the receiving end of her grade school bestie’s interrogation.
“You’re nuts. There’s no way you’re going to survive three months in Silver Valley. It’s snooze-ville compared to New York!” Portia DiNapoli’s brown eyes were wide as she sat across the booth table from Annie.
“I’m fine. And it’s almost a month since I got here, so only two more.” And unbeknownst to Portia, Annie was involved in something besides the yarn store. Or thought she was. Even though she’d only had one text from Josh over the last few weeks that told her Valensky had been charged with assault and battery.
She’d hoped to be more involved. So much for the promise of a high-profile case to help her days fly. But that wasn’t fair. She knew that cases, especially sensitive ones that impacted many people, took a long time to piece together. Josh would call again, when he needed her. And if she felt a little sad that he hadn’t needed her for more personal reasons, that was her problem.
“Fine isn’t good enough, Annie. Every time I’ve visited you in the city, you’ve said you’d never move back here, not even for a week. I know you’d do anything for Ezzie but this is a huge favor. Three months! Not that I’m complaining. There’s so much we can do together.”
Annie listened to Portia’s voice over their meal with one ear. Her mind was preoccupied on how exactly she was going to help out Kit without getting herself completely mired in thinking about Josh. Face it, you already are.
She’d lain awake for hours after Josh left. Even though he’d dropped that shocker on her about his sister, Becky, they’d managed to sit back down, albeit in the living room and with a little more space between them, and hammer out what they had to help Kit with.
They were both certain Valensky had no clue where she was. Annie told him everything Kit had mentioned, no matter how insignificant it seemed. She knew from working with NYPD that what seemed silly to her could lead to a big break in a tough case.
Josh had been so complimentary of how Annie had handled Kit’s case, it had been disconcerting. She’d reminded him again that not only was it her job, it was part of who she was. Josh seemed to understand that. But what he didn’t understand, what no one in Silver Valley knew, was that Annie was haunted by Rick’s death and a serious case of low self-esteem.
“Have you heard a word of what I just said?” Portia stabbed into a thick slice of Texas French toast, the maple syrup pooling on the diner’s ceramic plate. They’d both ordered from the 24/7 breakfast menu. “And have you given any more thought to the book group tie-in I suggested? I’ve been putting books aside at the library.”
Annie picked at her spinach omelet. “I have, and I think your idea to do a combined book study–knit group is brilliant. Grandma’s groups have read books before, but with your expertise they’ll get more out of it. You’ll probably bring in more customers to the shop, if you advertise in the library.” Annie shot her a grin, and laughed when Portia raised her brows.
“I’m a librarian, not a wizard. The whole key is in picking the right book to read. I’ll come by this Friday’s group and bring several, and they can pick one.” Portia’s excitement painted her cheeks red. She loved her job as the elementary school librarian and also worked in the local library on a part-time basis.
“That sounds great. Thank you, Portia. I’m in a little bit over my head here.” She didn’t mention that a big reason was that she’d found herself in the midst of a high visibility case. Or even more importantly, that she’d found herself with a serious case of the hots for one of Silver Valley’s finest. She’d gone over their old relationship and her instant attraction to Josh at least a hundred times over the last weeks. Each hour.
“I hear you. Between the library and my volunteer work at the Silver Valley shelter, I feel like my hair’s on fire.”
“You still spend a lot of your evenings there?” Portia had served at the homeless shelter since right after college. “I’m surprised you’re not running it by now.”
“That would require a social worker’s degree, and getting my MLS was enough, thank you very much.”
“You do so much for Silver Valley, Portia.” How would her best friend feel if she knew ROC was threatening the very peace Portia spread by helping the homeless?
“What’s really going on with you, Annie? You’re usually a lot more excited about life and things in general. And while you came home to help out your grandmother, you have to take care of yourself first. If you want to talk about your loss, I’m here.”
Annie smiled at her friend.
“You know there’s more, a lot more, to my sabbatical than the death of a friend. I’m looking at my life, what I’m doing at NYPD. I’m not ready to talk about the feelings around losing a work colleague, one I was assigned to care for. Not in depth, not yet. But if I were, I’d talk to you—you know that.” But she did
n’t think she’d ever want to go over it again. Annie had confided in Portia about the murder-suicide when she first returned to Silver Valley, but she hadn’t shared her worst feelings on it. She didn’t want to face her deepest fears, that it was her fault Rick hadn’t made it, hadn’t stayed sober. Or worse, find that she couldn’t help Kit any more than she’d helped Rick. And her main objective in Silver Valley was supposed to be keeping her grandmother’s yarn shop going, not fighting off the strongest physical attraction she’d ever experienced.
“Losing Rick, and his wife, in the worst way isn’t going to be easy to get over. I need a time-out.”
Portia’s eyes grew huge and filled with tears. She blinked. “Oh, Annie, I know, honey. I’m so, so sorry. That absolutely sucks. Whatever you need, I’m here. And if I’m overwhelming you with all of my plans for us, ignore me. I’m the last person who’d ever put more pressure on you.”
“I could never ignore you.” She smiled at the one friend she’d kept for all the years since leaving Silver Valley for college and her big-city career. “But tell me something. What do you remember about Josh Avery?”
“Josh? The boy you obsessed over all of junior and senior year?” Portia wiped her mouth. “Oh my gosh, Annie, that was so long ago. I remember you wanting to make the relationship more, but being afraid to. And then the prom thing...”
“So you do remember that.” Annie grimaced. Some things were best left to an adolescent past.
“I felt so bad for both of you, but then we all went to college, and I trust that none of us are virgins any longer, right?” Portia grinned and Annie laughed.
“We all drifted so far apart, considering how small a town Silver Valley is.” Annie heard the regret in her voice and realized she’d missed her hometown more than she’d admitted to herself.
“Your grandmother kept you up to speed, too, though, didn’t she? After your parents moved to Florida?”
“Yes, she’s always kept tabs on anyone I knew. When Josh’s parents died, she told me, but I never put it together with him needing to take care of his younger sister.”
“That’s right. I used to see them at the library together a lot. Not so much the last couple of years. She’s what, eighteen or nineteen now?”
“Nineteen. It took her a couple of extra years to get through high school, I guess. And she’s got special needs, always will have. Josh said it’s called PDD.”
“Pervasive Developmental Disorder.” Portia nodded.
“Wow, you know about it?”
“I’ve had more than one or two parents come in to research it over the years. And it makes sense that Josh is stressed, because I’ve seen plenty of parents scramble to find ‘what’s next’ for their mentally challenged children once they’re adults. The library has an entire section on Pennsylvania law and benefits for disabled adults.” Portia’s sincerity was reflected in her clear tone. “Josh was a great guy and still is. He used to come in and do talks for the elementary school kids on career day. They ate it up. He hasn’t done it for a while since he was promoted to detective, but he was a regular for many years.”
Annie didn’t say anything about Josh’s move back to a uniform, even if it was at his own request for lighter hours.
Portia’s eyes widened and she slapped her hand on the table. “Wait. Why the interest in Josh? Have you seen him again?”
“Hold on there, Portia. We, er, we’re working on the same case. Nothing I can talk about, though.”
“Uh-huh.” Portia eyed her over her empty plate. “What did you think when you saw him again?”
The flush she felt creep up her face was obviously visible to Portia, who crowed with glee. “You still have the hots for him! I can see it stamped all over you.” She sipped her water before leveling Annie with a sincere gaze. “You’re both single. And as previously stated, no longer virgins. Seems to me it’s the perfect time to pick back up together.”
“First, there’s nothing to ‘pick back up.’ I knew him in high school—okay, he was my high school crush, but as you have so brilliantly described, we never took it far enough to talk about.”
“I’m sorry, Annie. I didn’t mean to be so in-your-face. You’ve been single again for a while, though, and I think anything to break that spell is good, you know?” Portia shrugged as if Annie’s feelings for Josh were no big deal. And they shouldn’t be a big deal, but kept popping back up, refusing to go away.
“Yes, change of scenery of any kind is never bad.” They both laughed. “Thank you. You’ve always understood me, sometimes better than I do myself.”
“It’s mutual.”
“What about your love life, Portia?”
She rolled her eyes. “Puh-leeeze. You know my luck with men—it’s nonexistent.”
Annie studied her friend. Portia was classically beautiful and had been ostracized in high school because of it. Instead of seeing her as the brilliant young woman she was, their classmates and even some of the teachers couldn’t see past her looks. Annie remembered the long, tearful conversations when Portia confided she hated being seen as only a pretty girl. Yet Portia followed her calling and went on to be the youngest librarian in the state to run her own branch, and she contributed more to her community than most. Annie knew that Portia would make the best partner for the right man, but Annie was in no place to play matchmaker. She sucked at fixing her own love life; how could she help Portia?
“This case you’re working with Josh—will it keep you from getting bored? Or will it add to your stress? You’re supposed to be home taking a break from an awful experience, right?”
“I’m not going to have time to be bored, and not because of the case Josh and I have stumbled upon. Grandma Ezzie needs the full three months, at least, to rehab from her stroke, so my parents took her to their place in Florida. I have no idea how to run a yarn shop, yet here I am. No time for boredom.” And now she had the case of Kit to keep her occupied.
“You’re an excellent knitter. Didn’t you win all those county fair contests in school?”
“Like, when I was twelve. Maybe a little older.” Annie sipped on her iced tea. “Hey, what else do you know about Josh, besides what you’ve told me? I mean, since I’ll be working with him, I don’t want to put my foot in my mouth over anything that’s common knowledge.”
“Ha! What you really mean is ‘is he attached?’ Or has he been recently?”
“I know he’s single.”
Portia stirred her iced tea. “Sounds like you know more about him than you’re admitting. You’d stay in touch with people better if you’d get with the rest of the century and join social media.”
“That’s not wise in my profession.”
“His either, clearly. He posts under a variation of his name, to protect himself from the crazy criminals he chases down, I imagine.”
Annie paused. “I know it’s in the past, but it bothers me that I never heard about his parents’ accident until a week after it had happened, and I didn’t reach out to him.”
“What would you tell me, Annie? Let it go. We were a lot younger back then. Immature. And wasn’t that about the same time when you dated that creep, freshman or sophomore year of college?”
“Don’t remind me.” Said creep had been the driving factor in her going for her psychology major. She’d made a great career out of what she’d learned surviving an abusive relationship.
“I know it was a rough time, Annie. I’ll never get over how you’ve made the best from it, going into counseling yourself. You’re my hero.”
She squirmed again. “Stop.” The ghost of that abusive relationship must have passed over her face, as Portia leaned over and grasped her hand.
“I’m so proud of you! That took so much courage. And now you help women in worse situations. Look at that!” Portia had always been her biggest advocate besides her parents and Grandma Ezzie. If she could
n’t share her attraction to Josh with Portia, what kind of friendship was it?
“Thank you. And, Portia?” Annie waited for her friend to look up from her meal. “You’re right. I do have the hots for one of Silver Valley’s finest.”
* * *
Annie spent the rest of the weekend organizing new inventory that had arrived in her first couple of weeks at the shop. She’d gotten all but a few packages stocked, which she found herself doing to keep up. It was quiet, repetitive work that allowed her mind to wander and figure out how she was going to proceed with Josh. In the hush of the living room and library-turned-store, it was almost meditational. She loved how the tall library shelves were filled to the brim with skeins of yarn, yet still housed books in various locations.
Of course, she and Josh had agreed to not proceed with their personal relationship, but they were still both vested in Kit’s case. And she hadn’t heard any more on the case, but that wasn’t unusual, either. She knew how her involvement in the ROC issue could go from absolute quiet to mind-numbing, in the thick of things, with a single phone call.
Sunday midmorning her stomach was beginning to growl, and she thought about leaving the remaining two boxes of merino wool sock yarn for later. A harsh banging on the front door of the shop startled her, and her awareness immediately shifted into hyperalert.
A large, burly man stood on the other side of the stained-glass window that covered most of the front door. His face was partially obscured by the faceted multicolored glass, but his heavy brows were visible through a pale yellow rectangle, drawn together in the universal frown of anger.
“Open up!” His shout rent the air, and she felt the reverberations of his pounding through the floor and her feet. Her heart felt as though it was in her throat and she froze. Feelings of cold helplessness clawed at her, slid over her skin. No. She breathed in and out, made her world shrink to her breath.
“I’m okay, I’m okay, I’m okay.” Annie drew on the techniques she’d learned in therapy and taught to others. Almost immediately she was grounded and ready to fight back. In quick movements, she grabbed the SIG Sauer Josh had lent her from under the counter and then dropped to her knees to hide behind shelving. She plucked her cell out of her back jean pocket and for the second time since she’d returned to Silver Valley, called Josh.