by Geri Krotow
“Welcome to SVPD, Annie.” Colt Todd held out his hand, and she shook it before she took the woman’s.
“I’m Claudia. Nice to meet you, Annie.” Her smile was warm, but the woman was clearly an über-professional. Not one hair out of place, and her suit was understated elegance that conveyed power better than a superhero costume. Just who was she?
“Have a seat, folks.” Without preamble, Colt Todd launched into a quick overview of SVPD’s current operations. “I tell you this not to boast, Annie, but so that you’ll comprehend what we’re facing. We’re not the NYPD, we’re a medium-size town’s police force. But we’ve faced our share of big-city problems. Only last year we worked to wipe out a cult that had tried to sink its hooks into Silver Valley. And now we have the ROC playing chicken with us.”
As Colt spoke, Annie was aware of Josh’s body heat next to her. The leather sofa sagged as they sat side by side, forcing their thighs against one another. Claudia sat in the large leather chair directly across from Colt’s desk, and while she didn’t say anything, her eyes blazed with intensity. An energy Annie understood—Claudia wanted to get the job done, whatever it was.
“I’ve worked several cases and helped colleagues deal with the aftermath around the ROC.” She didn’t mention that it was an ROC op that had driven her client and NYPD officer to pick up a heroin habit after nearly two decades of sobriety. Or that he’d killed his wife before taking his own life, all under her watch.
Colt Todd had done his research on her, and she had no doubt that her boss had told him whatever he’d asked for.
“Yes, your boss speaks highly of you. And I have to ask, are you completely comfortable with taking this assignment while you’re on sabbatical, Annie?”
“Absolutely. I’m not sure how much my boss told you.” Seeing Colt’s serious glance, she was pretty certain he knew the deal. “I went through a lot these past several months, and that’s why I’m on sabbatical. For a rest. But it’s more stressful for me to not work. I’m sure you understand.”
Colt nodded, but it was Claudia who spoke up. “Annie, I’m on staff here at SVPD as a social media expert. Officially. Unofficially I’m the director of a classified agency called Trail Hikers that is involved in the counter-ROC operation. Would you be willing to be read into our program as needed?”
“Of course.” She understood that being “read into” any government program meant she’d have a special clearance and access to sensitive information. She’d also done her share of supporting clandestine ops while in New York. “But I’m only here for the next two months.”
“Well, then, don’t do too good of a job or we’ll try to keep you here in Silver Valley.” Colt smiled; she relaxed. If he knew why she was on sabbatical, he wasn’t going to reveal it. Annie respected that he recognized it was her story to tell. She didn’t miss how Claudia soaked up his presence, either. She made a mental note to ask Josh about it later.
“You don’t have to worry about that.” Her words fell into silence, and she inwardly grimaced. “Wait—that came out wrong. Of course I’ll give you my best while I’m here. I meant that New York’s been my home and where my job has been for over a decade.”
“I get it.” Claudia spoke, her gaze keen. “I only moved to Silver Valley at the insistence of the powers that be—the government folks who started Trail Hikers. I was perfectly happy in my nomadic Marine Corps lifestyle up until then. My last few tours were in the Washington, DC, area and I expected to retire there. But then this job opened up and believe it or not, while TH is a global operation, I found out there’s a lot more going on in Silver Valley than I ever imagined.”
“As you probably already know, and stop me if I’m being patronizing, we tend to get a lot of overflow crime because of the three major interstates that intersect through the county.” Josh pointed at the map that hung on the wall behind Colt. “I-81, State Turnpike 76 and I-83.”
“Plus all of the state roads that crisscross the valley.” She spoke as much to herself as them. “You have to understand that I’m not a cop, I’m not a detective and I’m not an intelligence expert. But I’m good at what I do, usually.” She faltered, the memory of why she’d needed a sabbatical slamming her confidence. Again.
“Annie, I’m going to speak frankly. I’m aware of why you took a break, beyond coming to town to help out your grandmother.” Colt’s eyes were kind. “You’re among trusted colleagues. You haven’t known us long enough to know that, but I promise we’ll prove ourselves to you.”
She felt Josh’s stare and knew he had to be wondering what the heck Colt was talking about. Sucking in a breath, she turned toward Josh, figuring that Claudia already knew what had happened. She’d have to, if she was willing to offer her a position, even temporarily, with Trail Hikers. Annie had no doubt her entire résumé and work history had been vetted before she walked in here, and she was okay with that.
“One of my clients, he’d been a longtime friend, died in a murder-suicide. He was seeing me for PTSD symptoms from an operation breaking up a child trafficking ring. He’d witnessed the worst parts of human behavior, as I’m sure you understand. He was a heroin addict and had been sober for years. Until...until he wasn’t. He used, and went off the deep end. His wife managed to called 9-1-1 before he killed her, but we didn’t get there in time. For either of them.” She squeezed her eyes shut, all the while knowing that nothing could ever erase the memory of seeing the crime scene. “It will haunt me for the rest of my days.”
“Each of us has our demons from doing this kind of work, Annie. As long as you’re faithfully in contact with your therapist, and promise you’ll speak up if this case gets to be too much for you, I’m good with you working with us.” Colt regained control of the conversation and Annie nodded.
“Yes, sir. To be frank, this will be a nice break from stashing yarn. Retail sales isn’t my talent.” They all quietly laughed, and for the first time since she’d left New York she felt a sense of camaraderie with fellow law-enforcement personnel. Almost as if she belonged, which was silly. It’d taken years to feel part of the force in New York; how could only one morning at SVPD in Pennsylvania be so inviting?
* * *
After their meeting broke up, Josh caught Annie at the coffee counter. “I can treat you to some even better brew and throw in a scone if you have time. I’ll fill you in on how we do things here.” The words were out of his mouth before he took the time to engage his filter, and his immediate horror turned to overwhelming relief at Annie’s wide smile.
“That’d be great. I have a cashier at the shop and don’t have to be back for a while yet.”
“Follow me.” He didn’t want to admit how easy it was to walk alongside her, to have her near. How had a month flown by? He regretted not making time with her happen, the consequences be damned. He already felt the gaping hole she was going to leave when she went back to New York.
Once in his civilian vehicle, he drove the few minutes to his favorite coffee spot.
“It’s changed so much since I left.” Annie looked at either side of the main highway that bisected town, and he understood her sense of wonder.
“Yeah, I have to say it shocks me and I see it every day. We’ve had a 500 percent increase in commercial construction over the last seven years, and even more the last two. We can’t keep up with the increased traffic, and the school district is scrambling to build more elementary schools.”
“What about Silver Valley High?” It was where they’d both gone to school, where they’d met. He detected a note of nostalgia in her tone.
“It’s holding its own after the expansion five years ago, but the writing’s on the wall. Silver Valley is going to need either a second high school, or two to three additional classroom buildings.”
“Wow. It’s already what, the second largest high school in the state?”
“Something like that. Silver Valley is g
rowing, and encompasses more land and thus families than Dauphin County.” He referred Harrisburg’s county as he pulled up to the drive-through portion of the coffee café. “So while we’re still technically a town, our high school is a full third larger than most of the Harrisburg schools.” He rolled down the window so that Annie could see the menu. “What’ll you have?”
Annie’s thrilled laugh made tingles go up his back. Tingles. What the hell?
“They sure didn’t have drive-through coffee places when I lived here.”
“No, this just opened a few months ago when the owners expanded. You’ve been back several times since high school, though, haven’t you?”
Her eyes were thoughtful. “Yes, but honestly I only come to town to see Portia and of course my grandmother. My folks moved to Florida years ago, so I spend my holidays down there, as does Grandma Ezzie. I haven’t needed to know the town as well as I suppose I should. It is my hometown.”
“It is.” He asked her again what she wanted to drink and ordered both their coffees via the shop’s intercom, adding in a chocolate chip scone. He paid and retrieved their drinks and pastry, handing them to her so that he could drive. “I’ll pull over there, and we can sit on a bench for a few.”
“Sounds good.”
“Thank you. This is delicious.” Annie’s pink lips left a perfect Cupid lipstick mark on the plastic drink cover and he bit back an audible groan as his awareness of her shot straight to his dick. His dating life had hit the skids since Becky’s school extracurricular activities had disappeared when she finished her public school education last spring. Not that he’d been serious about anyone at the time, but it was nice when he could take a woman out, maybe spend some intimate time together.
“What? Did you say something?” The soft furrow between her brows was almost as kissable as her dang pretty lips.
“No, I didn’t say anything.” He forced himself to stop frowning. If he told her what he was thinking about, she’d think he was a—
“Phew. I was worried you’d turned into some kind of a perv, the way you were staring at my mouth.”
Horrified, he sought her gaze and the twinkle in her sapphire eyes reflected the sunlight and eased his concern, but not his alarm. “Are you psychic or something?”
“Not at all. Just observant.” Bold woman that she was, she lowered her gaze to his...crotch.
“New York City taught you some things since prom, I take it?”
She jerked back, and her eyes widened and for the second time in thirty seconds he feared he’d pushed too far. Until she tilted her head and batted her lashes at him.
“You weren’t complaining when we were together last month.” Her lips distracted him.
“No, ma’am, I sure wasn’t.”
She sipped her mocha-latte-something froufrou drink, and he took a gulp of his black coffee. It’d been a long while since sitting next to a woman on a public bench had been so tortuous.
“You look really uncomfortable, Josh. No, I don’t mean, your, um, you know, that.” She waved her hand in the general area of his pelvis. “I mean more along the way of being here with me. We agreed to keep it professional, but maybe going out for coffee together is pushing it too much?”
“I can’t tell if you’re yanking my chain again or serious, Annie. I’m a physically healthy thirty-year-old male. Single. And I’m sitting next to a beautiful woman. But I can’t do a damn thing about it right now, right here.”
“You think I’m beautiful?” The teasing lilt was back in her voice, and he loved it and hated it the same.
“Stop it, Annie.” Even he heard the wolfish growl in his response.
“Why did you say you’re physically healthy, as if maybe you have other parts like your emotional and mental state that aren’t so hot?”
“You caught that, huh? What are you, a psychologist or something?” He stared straight ahead, preferring the safety of their banter to the heated direction their conversation had veered onto.
“Hmm. Not right now—I’m just a friend here. What’s going on?”
“I’m questioning my sanity because I can’t stop thinking about taking you in my arms and kissing you, making you as turned on as I am. I can’t help but imagine both of us naked, and what we’d do if we were naked.” At her silence, he risked a glance. “Annie? Your fancy-pants drink too hot? Did you burn your tongue?”
“Not at all.” She jutted her chin as if she were about to take on a black bear that’d climbed out of the mountains. The obvious swipes of rosy red on her cheeks warmed him all over. He was affecting her, too.
“You sure about that? You look deep in thought.”
“I’m thinking about what I tell my clients all the time.”
“What’s that?”
“You have the right to change your mind. As in, we have the right to change our minds. Maybe instead of agreeing to stay out of a physical relationship, we need to be drawing up some ground rules. If we were to decide to take this past collegial.”
Her voice and posture were totally professional, friendly. But the heat in her eyes told him what he needed to know. As they stared at one another, she licked her lips, and with a start he understood it didn’t matter if it was an unconscious action or deliberate. Josh wanted Annie with the ferocity of the adolescents they’d once been and the knowledge and experience of the adults they were right this minute. Holy mocha-latte.
“This could get dicey. Risky.” He couldn’t take his eyes off her wet lips.
“Yes, sir.”
His phone vibrated and he checked a text. “Oh crap.” He ran his hand over his face. “I forgot I’ve got to be somewhere. Fifteen minutes ago.”
“No problem.” She stood and threw her empty cup in the receptacle, tossing the crushed paper pastry bag after it. “My car is still at the station, though. I’m still good with time, Josh. If you need me to tag along with you I can, until you can take me back.”
It was only a few minutes back to the station, but he liked having her with him. Liked how well they seemed to mesh. “It’s to look at a place for Becky. She’s eager to move out, and there’s room at one of the best places in the state, and it’s here in Silver Valley.”
“That’s great! And I’d love to come along with you.”
“Then buckle up, buttercup.”
As they got into the car and fastened their seat belts, Josh had to accept that no matter what he wanted to think, no matter how crazy it seemed to be that he’d hit it off with someone he hadn’t seen for the better part of ten years, Annie Fiero was getting under his skin. This was the first time in he didn’t know how long that he’d actually not been worried about Becky. Or at least wondered how she was doing. Annie allowed him to trust in himself and the choices he’d made for his sister. And whether she realized it or not, she was helping him see that his needs were just as important as Becky’s.
Annie had worked a miracle.
Chapter 8
Annie couldn’t tell who she’d shocked more—herself or Josh—when she offered to accompany him to check out Upward Homes. Because of her psychology work, she was very interested in seeing a new supported living community created specifically for adults with disabilities. But it was because of Josh’s tension that she’d really wanted to join him. He’d seemed overly worried about Becky, and she’d wanted to ease his discomfort. That gave her pause. Compassion was part of the deal for her vocation, true, yet she hadn’t felt this connected with anyone else in a very long while. To call it a romantic bond was short-selling it. She’d had two or three long-term relationships in New York but nothing that had stuck. After having such a creep for her first serious boyfriend, she’d been so cautious with other men that she knew she’d stymied her chances at a satisfying, longer-lasting relationship. But being with Josh had her rethinking her inability to form a deep connection. Had she always held Josh up as her
standard for all men, somewhere in her subconscious? They’d still been kids themselves when they’d parted. When she thought about the years they’d been apart, her heart hurt. She didn’t want to examine that fully, not yet.
Annie looked around the building they were touring. It was a nice break from the concern she had for Kit, and the foreboding sense that the ROC case could explode at any moment, requiring her full attention to life and death.
She and Josh were a half step behind the guide, and Annie fought the urge to hold his hand. He looked a little stunned. She leaned in close to him, just enough to catch a whiff of his sexy scent. “Can you afford this?”
His eyes exuded warmth and appreciation. “Yes, or we wouldn’t be teasing ourselves with it.”
“Then why do you look so overwhelmed?”
He offered her a weak smile. “I’m sad to see my sister move out.”
The tour guide turned around and addressed them.
“Here is where Becky will enjoy our group activities.” Sandra Deal, the facility coordinator, opened the doors to an expansive clubhouse in the apartment complex. It included a large screen television, kitchen area and lounge furniture. “There are game nights, movie nights, cooking nights. We bring in students from York Culinary Institute to teach the residents different recipes, usually seasonal. This is to keep our residents from becoming lonely in their apartments and isolated.”
“Do all the other residents work, like Becky?”
“Yes, all of our residents are high functioning and need minimal life skill instruction or assistance.”
“That’s Becky. She’s fine on her own, but she loves being with other people.” Josh’s in-depth knowledge of his sister’s capabilities and consistent concern for Becky was touching. Annie watched as he looked over every aspect of the facility and the empty apartment that would be Becky’s if he agreed to it. Sandra took them through several rooms that were open to the entire community, including a library that had a comfortable sitting area.
