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did you say her name was? Valensky?”
“That’s right. You know her?”
“Not personally.” His mouth was a straight line; his fingers drummed his desktop.
“But?” She’d wait him out. He knew something he didn’t want to tell her. Or maybe couldn’t, if it was a confidential police case. She was privy to whatever she needed to do her job in New York, but Silver Valley wasn’t the jurisdiction she was assigned. Josh didn’t have to tell her anything.
“But.” He blew out a breath and looked up from his desk, his eyes back on her. “She may be related to another Valensky in town. One we keep an eye on but never seem to have enough on, if you get my drift.”
“Maybe if I could talk to one of your detectives...” She looked at his badge, his uniform. She thought Ezzie had mentioned he’d been promoted, but maybe he didn’t like detective work.
“I am your detective, Annie. All of our officers and detectives are overcommitted right now, working a big case that’s spilled over from Harrisburg and Carlisle. Silver Valley’s caught in the middle of an ROC op.”
“Ouch. That’s a lot of work for a small force.” She knew what ROC meant. They had more than their share of it at NYPD. Organized crime of any type weighed down the caseload, pushed the officers to their limits as they fought not only to keep the streets of Silver Valley clean but human trafficking, the inflow of heroin and countless other ROC-related crimes. She looked around the station. “What do you have, thirty, maybe forty officers?”
He nodded. “Thirty-seven officers, three detectives. Four when I work as one.”
“I wondered about that—I was pretty certain Grandma Ezzie had told me that you were a detective. Why aren’t you now?” She waved at his uniform.
“Personal reasons. I needed the more regular hours for the short term.” His tone was tinged with regret. Based on the energy that vibrated off him, she suspected he liked to be in the middle of a case, solving it.
“Oh.” He must have a family. She didn’t see a ring, but a lot of officers didn’t wear them. It was for practical safety as a wedding band could lead to a severed finger in the midst of an operation, and to protect their loved ones from the vilest criminals who’d stalk their families. For some reason her stomach sank, and she experienced her first wave of defeat since returning to Silver Valley. Not that she’d hoped he was single, like her. His chuckle shook her out of her emotional pothole.
“What’s so funny?”
“I’m not married, Annie.” Oh, no, was she that freaking obvious? “What about you? Are you with anyone?”
“It’s none of my business if you’re single or not.” She bit her lip. “For the record, I’m not married, either. Or with anyone.”
“Ever been?” His teeth were so straight, so white, so sexy in that strong face. His lips were full for a man, yet only heightened his masculinity. “Annie?”
“Hmm? What?” She blinked. “No, never married. A few close calls.” One in particular that swore her off serious relationships for a long while after college and probably doomed the other, longer relationships she’d had. And made her extra sensitive to women like Kit. “You?”
Josh shook his head. “No, but I came close, too. I was engaged for a few years.” His face was unreadable. She wondered if he’d been hurt, why the relationship didn’t work out.
“That’s a long time. What ended it?” Shame sent warmth into her face again, and she held up a hand. “Wait, nix that. Sorry, it’s none of my business.” She’d come in here to help out Kit, possibly save her life. Instead she was flirting with a man she didn’t know, not anymore, not as the man he was today.
A tall, sexy length of police officer.
“That’s all right, Annie. It didn’t work because of a number of things, but mostly me. I wasn’t willing to commit to anything other than...” He trailed off, his eyes misting over but not with tears. Memories.
“Other than your job. I get it.”
“It wasn’t, wasn’t... We weren’t right for each other is all.” He cleared his throat, and she watched the smooth movement of his Adam’s apple, looked at his clean-shaven jaw and almost groaned when she noted the cleft in his chin. She had to stop this. She wasn’t in town for a fling, and a relationship with any man she met in Silver Valley would be short-lived. Her heart couldn’t deal with that right now. It was achy enough, thank you very much. “What about you?”
“Me? Oh, I’m pretty much a career girl.” She hated how much of a coward she was. Here he’d admitted some pretty private stuff, and all she gave him was a cute Mary Tyler Moore reply? “And my job at NYPD is all-consuming. As I’m sure you can imagine. Do you have a psychologist on your force?”
“No, but we contract out as needed. Whenever there’s a shooting, suspicious circumstances around a case that might be due to an officer, or when we have a rough accident or other first response scene.”
She nodded. “That’s what my job was meant to be, originally. But now we have so many cops who are military veterans with PTSD, and who’ve seen the worst here at home, too.”
“You mean like 9/11.”
“Yes. And the human trafficking.”
“We’ve got our share of the sex trade here in Silver Valley, believe it or not. This past year we had a local strip club employing underage girls from Ukraine. ROC brought them in. We’re working a huge case right now, as a matter of fact. There’s another suspected ROC group of underage women en route to Silver Valley. We’ve been able to stop these shipments before, miles away, but each time it’s getting closer to Silver Valley proper.” She saw the enormity of it in the lines etched between his brows.
“That reminds me—when I spoke to Kit, I got the feeling that how she came to the States might be questionable.”
“Hold that thought while I look a few things up.” His fingers flew over his keyboard, and she had to fight the urge to stare at his masculine hands. A man’s hands had always been one of her weak spots, and Josh’s would have made the throb between her legs pulse even if they weren’t. Guilt hit her in her gut. She was here to help out an abused woman, not get all sexy on an old crush.
Josh frowned as he read an open file. “The woman you’re talking about, Kit Valensky, is married to Vadim Valensky, the scumbag we suspect has dealings with ROC but never have been able to nail. We’re fairly certain he has ties to Dima Ivanov, but since the death of the number two guy in that chain of command, Yuri Vasin, there’s no connection we can prove. Did you know that we took out Vasin right here in Silver Valley two months ago?” He waited for her to shake her head. Heck, what had happened to her hometown? “We were thwarting a human trafficking operation the ROC ran. They’re up to it again, I’m afraid. Valensky’s a dangerous character if a fraction of what we suspect he’s responsible for is true.” Josh’s smile was gone, his intention clear. He wanted Valensky off the streets as much as she wanted to make sure Kit was safe. And Annie knew who Ivanov was—everyone in East Coast law enforcement did. He was the head honcho for ROC on the Eastern Seaboard.
“Kit’s in danger, then. We have to get her out of there.” Would waiting until the knit and chat night be good enough? Annie didn’t want to think about what could happen to Annie between now and then.
“There is a six-bedroom mansion on the top of Silver Hill, on the way to the mountains. The Appalachian Trail traverses right alongside its eight-foot wall. It’s a veritable fortress.” Frustration laced his words.
“You sound like you’ve tried to get on his property.”
“Maybe.” He stayed silent on the topic, and she respected that. She didn’t need to be privy to all the workings of a local case. But she still wanted Kit in a safe place.
“Josh,