by Geri Krotow
“Okay, what’s your crossroad?”
Portia caught the green sign to her right, through the slanting snowfall. “Hilltop Drive.”
“That you, Portia? Thanks.” Josh sounded happy to have the information. “I’ll turn this around ASAP. You two stay safe and hunker down when you get to our place.”
“Will do.” Annie answered as she drove.
“Love you.” Josh’s reply was so casually genuine that Portia blinked at the tears his deep love for Annie prompted.
“Love you, too, babe.” Annie disconnected and cast Portia a bemused glance. “He’s super affectionate.”
“So I hear.” They both laughed, and Portia welcomed the release after the constant stress of being on the lookout for Markova. She sobered. “She didn’t know we were in this car, did she?”
“Nope. My guess is that she’s been taking the back snowmobile routes down the mountain, and crossed onto the main highway just as we did. If she knew it was us, we’d be fighting her right now.”
“You mean if she knew it was me, I’d already be shot.”
“Yes.”
“She’s going to figure out I’m at your place. It’s inevitable.”
“Not really. I’ve had some training since I quit NYPD, here with SVPD. Between Josh and me, we’ll keep you safe. Just don’t go outside the routine we’ll establish.”
“I’d think routine would be anathema to me staying alive.”
“What I mean is our tactical routine. We’re going to shake up when you go to the library, your start and stop times, and you’ll never be alone. I’ll be taking you to and from work, and there will be an SVPD officer with you at all times in the library.”
“But cops don’t do personal security.” Neither did undercover agents, yet Kyle had protected her. The loss of proximity to him was already affecting her and it’d only been thirty minutes. She felt something akin to panic but it wasn’t as frightening.
“The entire town is at risk, which includes a public building like the library. Keeping you out of harm’s way is an added benefit.” Annie gently pressed on the brakes as they came to a four-way stop at the entrance of Josh’s subdivision.
Correction, Annie and Josh’s neighborhood. A pang of a different kind hit her in the solar plexus and Portia had to sit still and accept that for the first time in her life, she was jealous of her best friend. She wished that she could at least fantasize about having a place of her own with a man like Kyle. Okay, not a man like him, but him. Kyle, the person she’d shared more with in the past week and a half than anyone else in her life.
“We’re here.” Annie put the car in park and slid out of the driver’s seat. Portia saw her friend’s slim shape bow against the brunt of the wind, which was still strong, even as the storm was reportedly beginning its departure. She paused before opening her door, and sent up a hope that this would be a new start for her, so quickly after her entire life had changed. But from now on she had to let go of any permanent-type thoughts of Kyle. Their time together had been great while it lasted.
She had a gala to organize.
* * *
Kyle had said goodbye to other women he’d dated, accepted a fling for what it was. But as he’d watched Portia shove her things into her backpack, he’d felt like anything but experienced at bidding a woman farewell. Worse, he’d had to fight every fiber of his being that told him not to let her go.
It wasn’t ever going to last. There were no guarantees it’d be easy. He’d known it the first time he’d set sight on Portia in the library. She was the woman who’d stay with him years after this. When ROC and Ludmila Markova were distant black-and-white memories, what he’d shared with Portia would be as fresh as the several feet of snow now blanketing Silver Valley.
You could change your mind. Stay here.
He shook off the damning accusation. His involvement with Portia had almost cost her everything. If he’d been more alert instead of sleeping off their most recent round of lovemaking, he’d have Markova in custody instead of still out there, targeting Portia.
“You okay, man?” Josh’s hand hit his back in a friendly wake-up. They were alone in the kitchen area as the SVPD forensic team finished up their work.
“I could have gotten her killed, Josh.” The confession came out unbidden, and didn’t do anything to ease the razor blades of recrimination stabbing his soul.
“Oh, no, you don’t. Absolutely do not go there. It’s a quick path to insanity. Trust me on this—I was there last year with Annie, when she got involved in our human trafficking case.”
“You were?” Since Kyle had only been in Silver Valley for the last couple of months, he’d never known Josh before he’d been connected to Annie. “I can’t picture you as the overwrought type.”
“When it comes to keeping an innocent bystander safe, we’re all vulnerable. The fact that I had feelings for Annie made it harder to stay detached enough to get the job done. And I faced what you just did—wondering where I went wrong, seeing only the fact that Annie could have been hurt or worse, because I’d turned my head a split second too late or never picked up on a clue because I was otherwise engaged.”
The noose of guilt loosened its hold on him, a tiny notch. “I had no idea.”
“None of us do, until we’re in the thick of it.” Josh put his phone down for a minute. “It’s never easy, what we do, but it’s a hell of lot simpler when there’s not someone special who’s at risk and their life rests in our hands. And even tougher for me was accepting that I wanted to come home to Annie every night, which meant I had to face my fears over leaving her widowed. It’s part of our job description.”
“Yeah, it is.” He wasn’t about to divulge all of his thoughts to Josh. Especially when he knew he still had sorting to do. It all had to wait, though, until ROC’s heroin shipment was seized, and Markova was behind bars.
“We’ll get Markova, Kyle. It might not be here in central Pennsylvania—she’s the slippery type. But she’ll meet hers. TH is all over the globe, and FBI has had her on their wanted list for a couple of years. Her future’s not going to be pretty.”
“I know that. I’d like to take down as many of the ROC thugs as we can.”
“Me, too, but our priority is to stop the drugs from hitting the street. On that note, you should probably find a different place to stay other than your apartment. You’ve been made, and Markova knows you’re with Portia.”
“I’ll take one of the TH safe houses.” Trail Hikers maintained a half dozen or so apartments that were completely secure, on the outskirts of town. They looked like farmhouses from the road, and unless he was followed directly there, it’d be very difficult to know anyone but a farmer was in residence.
“I was going to suggest that. We can get Portia out to see you, Annie or I. Just let me know.”
“That’s not on the table.” He had to keep Portia alive, and being with him wasn’t to her advantage. His stomach rolled into a sickening lead ball and he refused to look at why. If he did, he might hop on the snowmobile in the garage and go after Portia right now.
“Well, if you change your mind.” Josh was looking at his phone again, which lit up with a text at the same moment Kyle’s vibrated with the same message, from Claudia.
Train’s on the move again, from Texas, following back of storm by two days. Expect shipment to arrive SV within the week.
They looked at one another.
“Looks like we’re closer than we thought.” Josh spoke.
“This is all thanks to Portia’s work. She pieced it all together, the shipments and amounts in each.”
Josh gathered his laptop and put on his coat. “I’ll make the slow drive back to town and see that we have all we need at the station to apprehend whoever Markova brings with her to give the packages to.”
Kyle nodded. “I can do the briefing if you’d like.” T
hings were looking up. If they captured this, the largest amount of heroin ever shipped through any East Coast distribution area, they’d send a big message to ROC. Along with arresting their dealers and Markova, it would cripple ROC drug ops for at least a month, maybe six weeks.
And it would keep Portia alive, allow her to return to her regular life sooner than he’d expected. A mental image of her in the library, working with a patron, seared through him as keenly as one of his many sexual memories of her.
But it didn’t matter how much, how deeply, Portia DiNapoli was under his skin. As soon as they had Markova, he was headed for California.
Chapter 18
Portia reluctantly set up shop at Josh and Annie’s. They’d given her a back bedroom and she had the guest bathroom to herself, so she didn’t feel she was in their way. The storm was dwindling and she heard the loud purr of the snowplows on each of the first two nights she slept there, indicating that Silver Valley would soon be back to full operation.
“You’re looking forward to going into the library tomorrow, aren’t you?” Annie smiled at her over Chinese takeout, a nice treat after the power had been restored to town. Josh was out late, as he’d been the night before.
“Of course.” She moved her orange chicken around with her chopsticks. Hunger hadn’t been top on her list since she’d left the country house.
“Okay, let’s talk.” Annie put her napkin down. “You’ve been moping around since you left Kyle. Have you talked to him?”
“No, of course not. We’re not a couple—you know that.”
“Except that you’ve done everything a couple does, Portia. I know it’s on an accelerated timeline. Kyle’s not a man who has the time to give you the full-blown dating deal. But it doesn’t mean he’s not more sincere than anyone else you’ve ever been with.”
“I was never with anyone else before. Sure, I thought I was, but Kyle makes all of those men, those relationships, seem adolescent. Even Rob—he looked all adult and fancy in his nice suits and smooth talk. He’s a consummate politician. And even if he hadn’t been such a dog, I’d still have broken up with him. He didn’t hold up the end of a conversation like Kyle does.” And no other man’s touch aroused her, made her willing to let go and enjoy the moment—no man except Kyle.
“Have you told Kyle this?” Annie asked. Her eyes expressed her concern, her compassion for Portia’s pain. It was more than Annie’s counseling skills, too. This was what Portia valued about their friendship the most.
“You get me, Annie. I don’t know what I’d do if I didn’t have you to talk to about all of this.”
Annie reached over the island and squeezed her hand. “It goes both ways, sweetie.” She pulled back and picked up her chopsticks. “I do think that it’d be worth speaking to Kyle one more time. What do you have to lose, Portia? If he blows you off, then there, you have an answer. But it could work out into something you never expected. Something wonderful.”
Portia made a show of rolling her eyes and got the desired laugh out of Annie. “Look, just because you’re glowing like the nuclear station at Three Mile Island could have forty years ago, don’t think my relationship with Kyle is anything like yours with Josh. First, you knew Josh your entire life until you left Silver Valley. I’ve only known Kyle for what, two weeks?” She shook her head. “It’s not possible to have anything long term between us. Real commitment takes time and that’s one thing we don’t have. He’s going back to California, where he grew up, as soon as the case is over.”
“Like I said already, it’s not about the timeline, Portia. You know as well as I do that while we have a shared history that cements our friendship, if we met today, we’d still hit it off and be friends. We click, we operate on the same frequency. As, it appears to me, do you and Kyle.”
“‘Frequency’ is a good way to put it.” She chewed on her dinner thoughtfully, swallowed and had a swig of the jasmine tea Annie had brewed. “And I do agree—the length of time just isn’t a factor. Kyle’s the real deal.” But it didn’t mean they’d make it as a couple.
“Then the next question you need to look at is if you’re interested in checking out California.”
Portia sputtered. “Wait a minute—that’s too far. Kyle hasn’t said anything about wanting more than what we’ve had here so far.” And he’d never mentioned nor asked her if she’d want to visit, much less live, there. Would she?
It was too risky to her heart to contemplate anything more with Kyle than what they’d shared here, in Silver Valley. The elation at just the thought of having more time with Kyle scared her in its intensity. Was Annie’s question about California reasonable? Sure. And yes, she’d consider going there. But Kyle had never asked her for anything past now. She was pretty certain he’d have already suggested that she at least visit California to see him after he moved back there. Which meant the inevitable ending—the nonending, as far as she could see—was going to be excruciating.
She looked at her friend. Annie was happily in love with the man of her dreams, and that was great. Sure, Annie had left New York City to come back to her hometown, said she was going to, regardless of what happened between her and Josh. But Portia knew her friend. Annie would have been heartbroken, inconsolable, if things with Josh hadn’t worked out. She got that, totally.
Of course she did. She was already in the inconsolable phase over Kyle.
* * *
Kyle buried himself in the ROC op for the next several days. Without Portia by his side, it was the only remedy for the way his conscience gnawed at him. Finding Markova and tracking her every move had been almost too easy, but he figured it was because the shipment was imminent. Even Markova answered to higher-ups, and if she didn’t come through with the coordinated distribution of drugs to preselected dealers, and get the cash from the sales, she’d be out of a job. Except ROC didn’t fire people in a conventional way. They killed them.
Claudia had called another meeting, this time at TH headquarters, to go over what they had so far. He sat in the secured office space next to Josh, opposite Claudia and Chief Colt Todd.
“I take it you decided to leave Portia out of this briefing, Kyle?” Claudia never minced words.
“I did. She’s done immeasurable good work for us, helping me figure out what was on the USB stick. My desire is to keep her safe and as far away from Markova as possible.”
“The good news is that Markova seems to have switched her focus back to the drug shipment.” Colt nodded at Claudia. “We’ve compared what you’ve reported from following these last days to the intel we’ve received from other sources about the shipment and what the East Coast ROC is focused on at the moment.” She looked at Josh, indicating he should continue.
Josh cleared his throat. “The train is moving again, after the long wait from the storm. And you already know that Markova is busy making sure every dealer’s on the hook for the shipment. We’ve also gotten reports that this is only the first of as many as six shipments planned this year. We’re hoping that by stamping this one out, we’ll let ROC know they won’t get away with it. But we have to be prepared as a town and community to face repercussions from them.”
“Like you haven’t already dealt with?” Kyle hadn’t been here for it but SVPD and TH had dealt with several different local human trafficking rings, all led by ROC.
“We’ve only touched the tip of their iceberg.” Claudia’s proclamation cut through the discussion. “TH is deployed globally, fighting against criminals and despots 24/7. Over the last five years, US LEAs have had to dedicate up to 20 percent more resources in the fight against ROC.”
“Why did they pick Silver Valley, Claudia? It doesn’t make sense to me. Sure, from logistical and geographical standpoints, but Silver Valley isn’t New York or Miami. While a stranger or new transplant might not stand out as quickly as they would in a small town, Silver Valley isn’t big enough for ROC to hide very many of
their operatives.”
“I don’t have the answer to that, Kyle. We’re working on it, because there’s no such thing as coincidence in the ROC world.” Claudia hated admitting she didn’t know something, so Kyle knew this had to cut deep.
“The bigger picture isn’t what I’m worried about,” Colt broke in. “Right now we can make a difference for hundreds, thousands of Silver Valley residents by keeping the drugs from becoming available.”
“Not to mention the entire Harrisburg area.” Josh added his take on it. “ROC has operated on both sides of the river since they showed up in the area.” The Susquehanna River separated the state capitol from many suburbs, including Silver Valley. SVPD was the largest police force on the west shore, though, and often worked closely with the Harrisburg PD.
“Right.” Colt looked at Kyle. “We wouldn’t have gotten this far without your contribution.”
Kyle wished Colt would save the appreciation for after they wrapped up the case. He wouldn’t be satisfied until they locked up Markova and every last one of the drug dealers whose hands itched to distribute products that would make them big bucks and keep addicts using, too many becoming OD victims.
He shifted in his seat and focused on what his teammates were saying, but always, always knew he’d be more comfortable if Portia were here. As his partner analyzing ROC data, as his confidante, as his lover.
Good thing he’d learned early in life that you don’t always get what you want most.
On the morning of the gala, Portia made her coffee and grabbed a yogurt from Josh and Annie’s refrigerator. The lack of Josh’s presence the last couple of days was telling. And it raised her concerns over Kyle, who hadn’t contacted her, by mutual agreement, when she’d left the safe house. He had to focus on his job. Still, a text would have been nice.
She heard Annie’s footsteps and looked up to see her friend drag herself into the kitchen, circles under her eyes.
“Good morning. I’m guessing your exhaustion isn’t from a long night of knitting?” Portia was pretty certain Annie only helped at her grandmother’s yarn shop on an as-needed basis, on the weekends or evenings. And she wouldn’t be working there while the ROC case was ongoing.
