by Geri Krotow
“Do any of the residents actually use this library? All Becky wants to do is play video games.”
Sandra laughed. “That’s not uncommon. We have several university students from the education department who come in to get the requisite community service hours for their degree program, and one of them has had particular success with turning a few of the gamers into readers. I’m not promising anything, but once Becky sees that a story is behind every game she plays, she may show more interest in books.”
Annie had remained quiet the entire time, but when Sandra took them into a fully modern gym and pool house, she couldn’t help from saying something. “Josh, this is wonderful. Becky can work out with her friends and swim. She still loves the water, I’ll bet, right?”
“You remember.” He paused, and she knew he saw the same memory she did, of when they’d taken Becky with them to a water park. “It’s her favorite thing, to go to the beach. And a pool is a close second.”
They wrapped up the tour, and Josh agreed to call Sandra with his decision as soon as he made it.
“Don’t wait too long. I can hold the apartment for Becky for the next twenty-four hours, but then I’m afraid I have to continue down our waiting list.”
“I understand.”
They walked in silence to the car, but before they got there, Josh grabbed her hand. Annie felt the warmth shoot up her arms and to her heart as she stopped and turned.
“Thank you, Annie. I couldn’t have done this without you.”
“Are you kidding? You didn’t need me—I was just your arm candy.” She smiled, hoping to break him out of his serious, older-brother mode.
“No, not true. I’m not used to having anyone around to see the decisions I have to make. It’s nice to have a listening backup.”
“Anytime. Becky is so lucky to have you as her brother, you know. You aren’t giving yourself the credit you deserve.” Annie knew she was babbling, and she tried to keep her thoughts where her words were. Professional, friendly. But with Josh holding her hand under the apple tree, with the warmth radiating from his eyes, her attraction was on full steam ahead. As in she wanted him to—
“Annie.” He hauled her against him and lowered his mouth to hers. She eagerly met his lips, wrapping her arms around his neck. They were in an isolated part of the facility, in a small parking lot behind the main building. Since the residents didn’t drive, there was no need for a large lot and this was more like a garden courtyard, ringed with fruit trees and picnic benches.
His kiss rocked her as his tongue played with hers, his hands moving lower to cup her ass. It felt so good that she swore he was making her butt vibrate, until she realized it was her phone. “Josh,” she groaned as she pulled away, beyond reluctant to end the kiss. She reached in her back pocket and withdrew her cell.
“Everything okay?” He stroked her cheek and she closed her eyes, wishing they were somewhere she could toss her phone to the side and make good on her raging hormones. This had to be purely chemical—true intimacy took years to build. You had years together a long time ago. You have shared history.
She reread the texts with increasing alarm. “No, everything is not okay.”
“What is it?”
She looked up at him, damning the intrusion on their private moment. “It’s Kit. She’s left the shelter and is back at home with Valensky.”
Josh took a step back and let go a string of epithets that Annie hadn’t heard since she’d left NYPD. Before she could react, he was on the phone with Colt. The conversation didn’t go well and ended quickly.
“What is it?”
“Valensky’s checked himself into anger management rehab.”
“That’s a good thing, at least. But why did Kit go back to that house?”
“I can’t say I’m surprised. It’s not the first time a victim has gone back to her abuser.”
Annie nodded. “I know. I was worried about the same thing. In her texts she says she’s okay, that Valensky seems to believe her when she says she made a mistake by leaving and is sorry.”
“Until he gets her phone and sees she’s texting you.” Josh’s anger was evident. He was as frustrated as she was.
“She’s smarter than that, Josh. She’ll immediately delete these. And she can still call me under the pretense of needing more yarn. Although it’s hard to imagine he’ll let her back out of the house.” She bit her lip, trying to think of the best way to get to Kit.
“I know you won’t want to agree with this, Annie, but Kit may have done us a favor, as risky as it is for her. It’s a long shot, and since she went back it’s possible she’s gone into denial again about the danger from Valensky, but maybe not. Maybe she was serious when she said she wanted to help us bring him down, along with ROC. With her back on the inside, we may be able to stop the shipment of women coming in next week. We’ll go in immediately if she gets into trouble.” His earnestness outweighed the danger he’d acknowledged Kit could be in, with no warning. Annie’s gut turned hard.
“You’re right. I don’t agree with that. At. All.” What. The. Hell. “Who are you?” She stared at him, trying to reconcile the man she’d started to fall for with the man standing in front of her. Did he really think it was okay to put a woman in danger, for the sake of anything? Dismay washed over her, and she wanted to get away from him, away from what she feared was the end of her possible relationship with Josh.
“Annie, wait, hear me out.” He looked straight ahead. “Did you know that Kit has a sister in New Jersey? And she goes to visit her when Valensky gets rough. When I questioned him he thought she was there. He had no idea she was in the safe house. I reached her and confirmed her sister’s existence.”
“So she probably told him she was at her sister’s. And her sister, assuming she came over here the same way Kit did, would back her up.”
“Right.” Josh’s expression was haunted. “Annie, there’s more to this case than domestic violence.”
“I don’t want to hear it, Josh. There’s nothing more important than saving Kit’s life.” How could she have thought that Josh was different, special? That he’d never do anything but protect women?
“I don’t disagree with you. But it’s a lot harder to help someone who’s not taking our suggestions. And now Valensky’s signed up for the counseling he needed all along. It’s a better result than we often see.” Annie heard the truth in his words but railed against them. She could still feel each verbal cut she’d received from her loser abuser boyfriend in college too easily. And she never trusted that an abuser could be rehabilitated. Sure, it happened, but not for most.
“He’s also an alcoholic who needs long-term rehab. What about that?” She went to his car and waited for him to unlock the doors, and she reached for the handle after she heard the locks open.
Two shots rang out and Annie heard the ping of a bullet hitting the patrol car.
“Get down!” Josh’s command came as she was already flat on her stomach on the pavement. Two more shots, the sound of running feet.
Annie looked up to see Josh running after two assailants. They crossed the street and ran in between two apartment buildings, with one of the men peeling off to the right. Josh kept chase with the one who went straight. She got into his car, shut and locked the door and called 9-1-1.
As she relayed what she’d observed, dispatch confirmed they had a nearby unit that would meet Josh. Annie was to stay put and keep low in the seat of the car, until an SVPD unit arrived. She saw Josh take down the man he chased, just as sirens sounded.
“Officer Avery is in between the apartment buildings at 500 West Third Avenue, with a suspect on the ground. He’s disarmed him now. I have no idea where the other suspect went.” She watched as Josh, still holding the thug’s hands behind him, his knee into the man’s back, slid a pistol across the concrete, out of arm’s reach.
The nex
t twenty minutes were a blur as police units arrived, the suspect was handcuffed and read his rights, and Josh spoke with the other officers. Annie had nothing to add but support for Josh, but she’d only be in the way if she got out of the car now.
As the suspect was turned around and led to the SVPD vehicle closest to her, she saw his face. Icy dread swirled in her belly.
It was the man who’d tried to break into her shop.
“Annie, unlock the door.” Josh was knocking on the window, waiting for her to open up.
She forced her shaking fingers to hit the switch, and Josh hauled her out of the car and pressed her to him.
“Josh, it was the man from the store the other day, with an accomplice.”
“They wanted to scare us.”
“More like kill us!”
“No, he’s one of Valensky’s thugs. He admitted it as I was cuffing him. He doesn’t want to do time for a loser like Valensky. But he’s going to. After we get the information we need from him. I’m angry I didn’t get the other one.”
She held on tight to Josh, needing to feel the warmth of his heat through his shirt, on her cheek, against her body. “You could have been shot, Josh. It’s a big deal that you caught one of them.”
“I wasn’t. If they’d wanted to take us out, he had a free shot. Their goal was to shake us up, make us want to think twice about fighting Valensky and ROC.”
The thugs hadn’t succeeded. Anger started to simmer as the reality hit Annie. Her conviction to help keep ROC out of Silver Valley was strengthened, not deterred, by the loser’s foul play.
“Thank you, Annie.” Josh’s hand pressed firmly on her back and he spoke into her ear, his sincerity unmistakable.
“Thank me? You’re the one who caught the bad guy!”
“One of them, at least.”
Josh pulled back and looked into her eyes. She waited for what he’d say, but instead he kissed her long and hard, in full view of the SVPD officers on-site. And Annie let him. He wasn’t injured, the bad guy hadn’t managed to hurt either of them, and they could work out whatever else they had to.
For now, that was what mattered.
* * *
Josh and Annie drove back to SVPD in silence. Their earlier argument over using Kit to bring down ROC seemed a year ago instead of an hour. She didn’t want to look at him, didn’t want him to see her vulnerability, but his hand found hers and it didn’t feel like it belonged to a man who didn’t care about women. Josh was law enforcement and she’d learned at NYPD that solving the case almost always came first. A hard line but necessary. She’d been too quick to doubt him. Josh was doing his job, nothing less. She grasped his hand back but couldn’t look at him, not with the tear that fell down her cheek as she gazed out the passenger window. He could have been killed in front of her eyes only moments earlier.
“Annie. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to sound so callous before, about Kit. If you think we need to get Kit out of her house right now, we will. We can drive straight there and bring her out. I’ll support you in making it happen. You’re the expert at this.”
“You’ve handled domestics.” She considered all police officers experts. They had to be, with the statistics.
“Of course I have. I was ‘handling’ it with Valensky, as much as it hasn’t turned out how I’d wanted it to. I didn’t want Kit to go back home. Usually my participation is either in the midst of a brawl or right after a woman’s been abused. I’ve had to convince women to leave when they didn’t want to, and I’ve done my share of wrestling an admission of guilt out of the abuser who’s hyped up on testosterone and often booze or drugs. But Kit doesn’t want our help right now, and Valensky’s awaiting arraignment. And the kicker is that he’s voluntarily checked himself into an anger-management course that we can’t drag men to most times. There’s a good chance the judge will let him go free as long as he continues to comply with his treatment plan.” Josh’s words caught her up short.
“We both know the chances of him never harming her again.” About the same as him learning anything from the therapy he’d volunteered for.
“Right.” He pulled alongside her car in the SVPD parking lot and shut off his engine. “Annie, what’s this about, other than me being a complete ass?”
She wiped her cheek and turned to him. “It’s personal for me, Josh. I’ve never been at risk for my life physically, but when I was in college, the first guy I got serious with did a mental number on me.”
“I’m so sorry, Annie.”
She nodded. “It’s okay, now. It was the catalyst for me to major in psychology and go on to become a counselor.”
“Where did you get your PhD?” His face scrunched up. “Wait—I know where. It was California, right?”
“Let me guess, the Silver Valley connection?” She smiled and he chuckled.
“You know it. Your grandmother has never stopped talking to the parents of our high school friends.” His smile straightened into a sad line.
“I know Becky is the most important person in your life, and that it’s a risk to have her get attached to me again.”
“Yeah, she was torn up the first time you left.”
She nodded. “Yes. And I...I understand if you don’t want me to see her while I’m here.” She did understand, damn it. It was going to cost her. Her selfish attraction to Josh would go unanswered.
“Why don’t we take it a day at a time?”
“Sure.”
Josh was around to her side before she had a chance to get to her car. His eyes were lit with something knowing she wasn’t ready to label.
“What?”
“About taking things one day at a time. How about dinner tonight?”
She laughed. “What about Becky?”
“She likes the snickerdoodle cookies from Silver Valley Bakery if you don’t mind picking up dessert. Seven o’clock okay?”
She stared at him, not sure what to answer. He was offering her too much, too soon. Liar. It was all she wanted. To belong, to feel welcome.
To spend more time with Josh. Time without a uniform or a case to worry about.
“There’s no knitting class or group tonight, so it’s not like I have to be at the shop.” She felt like she was on the edge of an outcropping on the Appalachian Trail. What the heck. “I’ll see you then.”
“Don’t you need the address?” Grooves deepened around his mouth. He’d caught her at her own game. As if he saw that her heart and intellect were at war.
“You’re in your family house, right?” A peal of satisfaction lit in her belly at his surprise that she’d remembered.
“Yes.”
“I’d know my way blindfolded. See you at seven.”
* * *
It was with no small amount of nervousness that Annie walked up to the front door she used to walk right through, stopping in the kitchen and grabbing a brownie off the counter. Mrs. Avery had made the best baked goods.
She sucked in a shaky breath. “Easy, girl.” Just because she was having nostalgic flashbacks didn’t give her the right to put her unexpressed grief on Josh and especially not Becky. They’d done their grieving, for ten long years. She was the newcomer to the party.
The door opened as soon as she pressed the doorbell, and she was immediately engulfed in a huge bear hug.
“Annie! I’m so glad to see you!” Becky held her tight, and it wasn’t the diminutive Becky she’d known in high school, who’d only been seven or eight. This was an adult, but with Becky’s exuberance and joy. For the second time in the same day, Annie couldn’t stop the tears from flowing.
“Let me look at you.” She held Becky out at arm’s length and looked at the features that were the exact feminine replica of Josh’s. Gone was the little girl button nose and missing front teeth; a beautiful young woman stood in her place.
“You’re tall
er than me! Not fair.” She smiled at Becky and was rewarded with the widest grin possible. The guilt at not being here in the time after their parents had died tried to press past the happy reunion, but it couldn’t surpass the fact that Becky was obviously thrilled to see her.
“Bring Annie in, Bec.” Josh’s voice sounded from the back of the house, and Becky groaned.
“Coming, Josh.” She looked at Annie. “Will you please come in?”
“Thank you.” Familiar warmth enveloped her as a tsunami of memories washed over her. She and Josh coming in after school; she and Josh doing algebra, geometry and eventually calculus at the scarred maple farm table that she saw the minute she stepped into the living room, part of a great room that connected with the open kitchen.
Josh stood at a large island, chopping carrots. His figure was as incongruous with her memories of the lanky boy he’d been as the whitewashed oak cabinets and stainless-steel appliances were to the memory she had of the original dark-paneled kitchen.
He looked up and met her eyes. “Hey, Annie.”
“Hey.” The kitchen might be modernized, but she was awash in pure old-fashioned lust. She walked over to him. “Can I help?”
“There’s a baguette in that drawer—can you split it and brush it with the melted garlic and butter in that glass cup?” He motioned with his chin as he chopped, and she got to work. “Becky, please set the table.”
“I did!” Becky answered from the sofa, where she appeared mesmerized by the electronic tablet she held.
“She’s so grown up.”
“In some ways, yes.” He paused. “She remembered you.” He spoke low and quiet, for her ears only.
“You must have shown her old pictures or something.”
“Not at all. She’s been excited since I got home and told her you were coming over.”
Guilt crept in, raising the hairs on her neck and making her face flame.
“Annie.” His hands were on her shoulders, giving her a rousing massage as if she were a boxer in the ring. “No more of that. It’s both of our faults we didn’t keep in touch.” He turned her around, and the butter on the pastry brush dripped down her hand. He handed her a paper towel.