Reunion Under Fire Read online

  “You’re not in uniform.”

  “Chief told me to switch back to detective, and even if he hadn’t, I didn’t want to draw attention to us. Better if we look like a regular couple than cops.”

  “Got it.” Did that mean he’d given her the hug for show, too?

  “Annie.” He placed his hand on hers. “I want us to be a real couple. However that can work out for us, whatever it’s going to look like.”

  She met his gaze, and instead of the sexy heat he’d conveyed minutes earlier, she saw warmth and certainty.

  “But I’m only here short-term. And Becky might be hurt again.”

  “Becky will manage with whatever happens with us. And I’m willing to focus on the time you’re here, for now. We can worry about you going back to New York soon enough.”

  The desire to believe his words, to trust that things could and might even work out, was so strong, but so was her typical reaction to any man who wanted to make things more serious than a casual relationship.

  “Well, the city is only a three-hour train ride away.” She could picture herself coming back on weekends. Except that her job never gave her that much time off, and when it did, she needed sleep and quiet.

  “I know.” Spoken like a man who’d checked it all out.

  “How’s Becky?”

  His smile faltered. “She’s very, very good. Couldn’t wait for me to drop her off today, and she’ll move in permanently this coming weekend.”

  “How’s her big brother?”

  “You caught me.” He drummed his fingers on the table. “I’m okay. It’s tough—she deserves to have the most freedom possible, and there isn’t a better place anywhere than what we’ve found. Thank you again for going with me to check it out.”

  “Stop. Back to you. How are you feeling about letting her go?”

  “I keep forgetting you’re a counselor.” He hugged his cup with his hands. “It hurts, makes me a little sad. She doesn’t need me anymore.”

  “Parents who become empty nesters struggle with grief. Just because your relationship with Becky is a little different doesn’t mean you won’t go through the same stages.”

  “What stage is kick-in-my-gut? Let me guess—it’s right after tear-my-heart-out?” He made light of it, but she heard the sadness under his words.

  “It’ll pass. And it’s a sign of the connection you both have. If you weren’t so bonded, you’d never feel this way.” She stared at him, all handsome six feet four inches of him, his profile strong against the antiqued wooden bench seat. Josh was the whole package. A public servant, devoted brother, superb lover. Boyfriend. Boyfriend.

  “What? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” He looked over his shoulder and leaned over the table. “This place is supposedly haunted. Did you just see George and his revolutionary spies?”

  “Stop it or I’ll kiss that grin off your face.” She finished her scone, conscious of him watching her slowly chew the flaky confection, lick the crumbs off her lips. His eyes narrowed and his jaw tightened infinitesimally. A surge of lusty satisfaction roared through her. She laughed.

  “You’re wicked, Annie Fiero.” Josh missed nothing.

  “I try.”

  He leaned back. “What did Kit say?”

  “A lot. And let me say that we’re never going to get her out of that house, not until she gets to the bottom of Valensky’s operation.” She quickly filled him in, careful to go over every point of Kit’s report. “We’re lucky to have her, but as we’ve already discussed, I’m afraid the cost could be too high.”

  “I hear you.” He looked thoughtful. “Too bad we can’t bring her into Trail Hikers. She’d be perfect for the op.”

  “She has zero law-enforcement training. And how can you totally trust her?” Annie was surprised he’d mentioned TH. “I’ve worked in law enforcement for the better part of a decade, and my clearance with them is minimal.”

  “True.”

  “What’s next?” She wondered if he’d want her to do anything different in the shop, or even help bring Kit into SVPD to give her statement.

  “What’s next is that you and I need to make a date.”

  * * *

  Color crept into Annie’s cheeks and spread to the roots of her hair. Her eyes were luminous in the dim café lighting, and her lips were puffed, slightly open. Her reaction to his declaration was so natural, so hot, that he immediately grew hard as he watched her face.

  “Answer me, Annie.” It was all he could do to not haul her across the booth and kiss her.

  “That’s what I was thinking about earlier. When you asked me if I’d seen a ghost.”

  “Thinking of being in bed with me again frightens you?”

  “No. Yes. What are we doing? Dating? I’m okay with that, and I think it’s always a good idea to be exclusive when we’re having sex.” She lowered her voice and looked around the small room. “I keep forgetting we’re not in a loud New York café and that this is a small town. Small-town rules and all.”

  “We’re a larger-size town, and the Harrisburg area is big enough to not worry about it. Except for anything about the case, of course.”

  “You didn’t answer my question.” She shook her head. “Never mind. I sound like a desperate woman, don’t I?”

  “No. You sound smart. And yes, I’d like this to be exclusive.” He’d like it to be so much more, but there was no sense in scaring her again. Despite her constant reminders about returning to New York, she didn’t see what he did: a woman who’d started to find her way back home. That was how he felt, anyway.

  “Okay. Exclusive until I go back.”

  He laughed. “Your turn to answer my question. When are we going to see one another again?”

  “Tonight works for me.”

  “Can’t. I’ve got Becky. But I could do a lunch date.” He waggled his brows at her.

  “Sorry, I forgot about Becky still being home.” She chewed her bottom lip, and he groaned.

  “Annie, don’t do that here.”

  “What? Oh, this?” She did it again, slowly, deliberately. “Okay. I won’t. Why don’t we see what the weekend brings? After you get Becky moved into her apartment?”

  “Sure.” His gut sank. As much as he couldn’t stop thinking about being alone with Annie again, the thought of leaving Becky anywhere but the home she’d grown up in made his future seem bleak. Maybe he was taking this too fast, too deep with Annie. It’d be excruciating when she left.

  “It’ll be okay, Josh. We’ll have things to do that will help distract you from your empty nest.” Annie spoke with quiet confidence, yet the sexual promise wasn’t lost on him. Maybe this next weekend wouldn’t be so bad after all.

  Chapter 10

  “The women are someplace nearby. Maybe not Silver Valley but definitely in the county. No farther than Lancaster.” Kit spoke with certainty as she sat again at the store’s project table. She’d come in after one of her college classes, and fortunately no other customers had been in the store. Shivers raced down Annie’s spine as Kit spelled out what they all knew was coming. A reckoning with the deadliest organized crime ring in existence: ROC.

  “How do you know this?” The whole time she spoke to Kit, Annie watched the cars that drove by the shop, making sure none made repeat passes. She’d been unable to shake the overwhelming sense of danger surrounding them since she’d spoken to Kit. Since Kit left the shelter, in truth.

  “I saw his GPS, on his phone. I couldn’t make out the town, but he’d put someplace in it that said it was thirty-three minutes away.”

  That wasn’t enough to go on, but Annie would pass the information to Josh, whom she hadn’t seen since they’d met in the café, and their texts had been completely professional. She shouldn’t expect anything more—he was using his work phone, she assumed, to text her. It wouldn’t be upstanding to
send sexy notes to her, would it?

  “Kit, how many times has Vadim been drunk since you’ve gone back to him?”

  Kit’s eyes narrowed. “Not at all. Why?”

  “He’s probably due. And I want you to be prepared.” If it was up to her, she’d have Kit out of there the minute Valensky cracked open his vodka bottle.

  Kit smiled. “Ah, but this is what I know for sure, Annie. He’ll not take one drop of vodka as this operation gets closer to happening. This is his typical pattern. He’s afraid to get sloppy and forget what he does in his blackouts. He’s always hit me in a blackout before. He never remembers it the next day, and his remorse is almost pitiable. Of course, I do not pity him. I will lock him up as quickly as his belt reaches my back.” Kit’s eyes were cold and her mouth a straight line.

  “Kit, the idea isn’t for you to get any kind of physical revenge on Vadim. Let the law, and your testimony, do that. But you have to be able to give your testimony! If Vadim gets any hint that you know what’s going down, you’re dead. If ROC suspects you’re going to betray Vadim, you’re dead. They will save themselves above all else.” She saw the steel in Kit’s eyes and she got it; she had the fire in her belly to stop the bad guys, too. But she didn’t want to die, and didn’t want Kit to, either.

  The shop bell sounded and they both jumped. Annie’s throat squeezed tight and she had to force herself to focus on the man who walked into her shop. At which point her heart thudded in dread.

  The man closely resembled the photographs she’d seen in his police file. Vadim Valensky never took his eyes off Kit, his eyebrows drawn in a straight line.

  Annie’s insides froze, and it seemed every second was an hour. She had to get to her weapon, in her purse behind the counter. Slowly, she stood, never taking her eyes off Valensky.

  “What are you doing here?” Kit spoke to him as if he were a bug. The bravado was impressive but Annie feared for Kit’s life. Valensky was so much larger than her and looked like he could snuff out her life with a solidly placed backhand. Annie watched Valensky for signs of imminent violence, other than his forbidding presence.

  “I drove by and saw your car.” He looked around the shop, and Annie tried to see it through his eyes. Yup, definitely a yarn shop. Nothing remotely linking it to SVPD. His gaze settled on her. “Who are you?”

  Annie wanted to reply The woman who was with the cop you had your thug shoot at but remained silent, refusing to break eye contact with the monster.

  “This is the shop owner.” Kit spoke up first, and Annie’s ire rose.

  “I’m Annie. And you’re?”

  “Her husband.” He thumbed his finger at Kit and walked around the back of a display, rudeness so much a part of his demeanor he didn’t qualify his reply. Instead of walking over to him as she would with any other customer, to see what they needed, she took a place behind the counter, her purse open under the counter, weapon ready.

  Valensky stood in front of a pile of baby alpaca wool, picking up a skein at a time, squinting at the label, putting it back. “Do you do gift certificates?” He spoke to a large display of sock yarn instead of facing her.

  Annie and Kit exchanged incredulous glances. “Yes, we do.”

  “I’d like one for my kitten.” He named an amount that would pay for the next month’s mortgage with some left over for the utilities.

  “I can make it out for whatever amount you’d like.” Annie walked to the counter and pulled out a gift card.

  “Vadim, this is crazy. I don’t need that.” Kit’s conciliatory tone coursed revulsion through Annie’s veins. “You do too much for me.”

  “You do need more yarn. It makes you happy.” He looked at Annie. “She doesn’t want a new purse, no more new fancy shoes—all she wants is to go to classes or to come here and knit. So she will get whatever she wants here.” He thought he was coming across as a nice, generous husband and not the controlling loser he was, putting his stamp on the one fun thing Kit had in her life.

  Annie riled at how he spoke about Kit in the third person but said nothing, hoping the smile on her face appeared genuine. Because it wasn’t. What was true was how much she wanted to see this bastard caught and locked up for his many transgressions. As much as she knew his basic rap sheet—trafficking of drugs, weapons and possibly humans, what she related to the most was his abuse of Kit.

  For that, she’d see him rot in jail.

  She keyed in the amount and scanned the gift card, waiting to see that the system had registered the transaction. She told Valensky the amount again, to make sure he was certain that was how much he wanted to spend. “I can do credit or debit.”

  “Credit is for rookies.” He rolled his r in a uniquely Russian way and shudders ran down her spine. Not from Valensky’s language, but from the way he peeled one-hundred-dollar bills from the wad he’d pulled out of his pants pocket. He was a walking cliché but not in a good or campy way.

  Valensky was the walking embodiment of a hardened criminal and abusive husband.

  Annie accepted the money and rang up the sale, placing the bills in the cash drawer. Her fingers crawled from where Valensky’s fingers had brushed hers. She met his eyes as she handed him the gift card, all neat and tidy, in a gold-foiled box. “Here you go. Thank you for your purchase.”

  Obsidian eyes stared at her, and when she held out the small box he grasped her hand along with it, his huge paws engulfing hers. Annie stared at him, fighting the instinct to pull free and run for the hills. The son of a bitch was trying to intimidate her.

  “Annie. My wife adores your shop. It’s nice that you have it, here in Silver Valley. I think you want to keep it running, no?”

  She feigned confusion, tilting her head and squinting her eyes. “Of course. Why wouldn’t I?”

  He blinked and looked away, finally releasing her hand. Valensky shrugged and gave a small chuckle. “These businesses come and go so quickly. It’s nice to see one hang around.”

  He walked over to Kit and leaned over to whisper in her ear. She batted his shoulder. “Go. I will be home soon—I still need help with this.” She held up the sweater she’d been working on, and with a combination of dismay and marvel, Annie saw that Kit had ripped out an entire day’s worth of stitches, making it look rumpled.

  “See you at home.” Valensky’s words sounded like a threat, but Annie knew she was adding venom to all he said.

  It was natural to do that with a snake.

  The door shut behind him and Annie stayed at the counter, sifting through an order of skeins that had arrived earlier. “Are you okay, Kit?”

  “I’m good.” She grimly nodded, her mouth a straight line. “Did you see him? He was thinking he’d find me doing something wrong, maybe in an affair, and here I am at the local yarn shop, knitting. He thinks he’s made me the happiest wife in the world with his extravagant gift.”

  “Has he?”

  Kit frowned. “While even I will not turn down two years’ worth of yarn, what I’m happy about is that we’ve tricked him. He thinks he’s so smart and that I’m stupid.” She threw her knitting onto the table and held her face with her hands. Annie walked over and handed her the box of tissues she kept on the table.

  “He doesn’t think you’re stupid or he wouldn’t be worried about what you’re doing.” Annie’s hands shook. Valensky could have turned on a dime and become violent, attempting to kill them both. And she had the creepiest feeling that he knew that she knew that. Bastards like Valensky got off on control.

  “No, but for now he’s satisfied that I’m not causing him any trouble.”

  “How long is ‘for now,’ Kit? Until you get home and he beats you up again?” Or worse. “The shelter is your best option.”

  “It would be my best choice.” Kit sighed. “If I wasn’t so sure he’s about to do something horrific.”

  “When will you come in again? O
r do you want to call me?”

  Kit shook her head. “No, we can’t risk that my cell’s not being watched. I’ll come back here in two days, same time. I’ll text if something happens sooner and say that I have a knitting emergency. Otherwise, we meet in forty-eight hours. Does that work for you?”

  “Of course. Kit—don’t be a hero. If it gets too dangerous, go to the shelter and I’ll meet you there.”

  Kit didn’t respond as she left the shop. They both knew the truth—it was already too dangerous.

  * * *

  After Kit left, Annie took full advantage of Grandma Ezzie’s part-time employees and set up the shop’s schedule for her remaining two months in Silver Valley, allowing herself full availability to Kit and plenty of time to work the ROC case. And to have some space for free time, too.

  Oh, who was she kidding? She wanted more time with Josh, too. She stabbed at the paper calendar with her pencil just as the shop bell jingled and Portia walked in.

  “What are you doing here?”

  “That’s not a nice way to greet your best friend, is it?” Portia walked around the back of the counter and gave Annie a hug. Her brunette curls were massed around her head and shoulders in a halo effect, making her expressive eyes seem all the larger. “Rough day?” She nodded at the mangled pencil, still in Annie’s hand.

  Annie laughed. “No, not really. I’ve got the work schedule done early, actually.” She couldn’t tell Portia a lot about the case. Or that she was terrified for Kit, and the women ROC was moving into the area as they stood here.

  “I’m on my lunch break and thought I’d walk down. Just think, if you moved back here this would be a common thing. And it wouldn’t cost me hundreds of dollars to visit you in the city.”

  “It doesn’t cost you hundreds of dollars. You take the train and stay with me.”

  “But I’m forced to eat at the finest restaurants, see every new show if I want to experience your slick city life to the fullest.”