Dealing with Annie Read online

  Or used to. “She has an elderly aunt living with her. I think Annie takes care of her. But there’s something going on, I can feel it.”

  “So she thanked you for the phone? Told you all about whoever is after her?”

  “She says no one is after her and that the crank call was just a mistake.”

  “But you don’t believe it.”

  “No.”

  Now his brother sighed again. “Can’t you stop being a DEA agent for a little while, at least until you heal?”

  “I thought I could.” Ian let out a long breath. “But now I’m thinking no.”

  “Ian—”

  “Look, I’m still here, okay? I’m not going anywhere.”

  “That’s because you can’t.”

  “So shut up and enjoy me.”

  “Enjoy you.” Thomas laughed at that, then shook his head. “Because you’re such a peach, right?”

  “You know it.”

  “Mom would kill you, you know. If she could see what you’ve done to yourself.”

  “Mom isn’t here.”

  “Because you didn’t tell her you were shot. If she knew, she’d be on the next plane, and then she’d have you tied to your bed, force-feeding you homemade chicken soup until it came out your eyeballs.”

  Ian expended the last little bit of energy he had to give his brother the evil eye. “If you call her, I’ll have to hurt you.”

  “You and what army?”

  “I mean it, Thomas.”

  Thomas stretched out his long legs and put his hands behind his head in a picture of lazy negligence. “I’ll make you a deal.”

  “Uh-oh.” Ian straightened for this, wincing in anticipation of pain at the movement. But the dizziness had passed. Miracle of miracles, it was even safe to breathe again. Still, he couldn’t have taken his brother down to safe his life, damn it. “No deals.”

  “You try a little harder to relax and recoup, and I won’t bring in the big guns.”

  “Mom.”

  “Mom,” Thomas agreed.

  “Listen, I didn’t go looking for this whole Annie thing, I didn’t—”

  “Yes or no, Ian.”

  Ian glared at him, but Thomas just glared right back.

  Ian swore.

  Thomas yawned.

  “Damn it.” Ian shoved his fingers into his hair. “Define relax and recoup.”

  Thomas smiled at the victory. “It means you do as the doctor said. No strenuous activity. No standing on that leg for more than a few minutes at a time. No rescuing fair maidens with errant cell phones. And no looking for trouble with every shift of the wind.”

  Ian let out a disparaging breath. He’d never been idle a day in his life. The concept was foreign. “What can I do, then?”

  “We had two new kids born yesterday. Goats,” he added with a laugh at Ian’s clueless expression. “Twins. Maybe you can keep your eye on them. They’re already trouble, fighting with each other, knocking around their mama, bullying Augustine.” Thomas rose. “The three of you should get along like kindred spirits.”

  “Funny.”

  “It’s not the end of the world, you know, relaxing for a few months.”

  “One month.”

  “You do realize most people would give just about anything for a month off.”

  “Yeah, yeah.” Ian watched his brother saunter off, smug and righteous. The jerk.

  Sure, four weeks off sounded good in theory. But in reality…hell.

  Pure hell.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  JENNY BOLER SAT IN HER Annie’s Garden’s office in New York City, surrounded by stacks of paperwork and ringing phones.

  Normally she loved stacks of paperwork and ringing phones, as this symbolized how far they’d come.

  And for a girl born in a trailer, the places Annie had taken her with Annie’s Garden were nothing short of amazing.

  Past tense amazing, of course.

  Oh, God. She sank her head into her hands and resisted the urge to scream. Where would it all lead? How could it ever work out? She had no idea, other than she had to spill her guts.

  “My, my, you’re lost in thought.” Stella Oberman, head of Sunshine Enterprises, ruler of her own world, and all-round first-class bitch, entered the room as if she owned the place. In her mind, she probably already did.

  Tossing a file onto Jenny’s desk, she smiled.

  “What’s this?” Jenny asked guardedly.

  “An offer for your shares of Annie’s Garden. A more than fair offer, I might add.”

  Omigod, how had she known? “What?”

  Stella lit a cigar and happily puffed. “I’m offering to make you rich again, cheri. All you have to do is sell me fifty percent of Annie’s Garden.”

  “I can’t do that.”

  “Right. So…you still dabbling in day trading?”

  She knew. “There’s no smoking in here, damn it.” Jenny waved at the smoke and tried not to panic. “Who told you about the day trading?”

  “You know this business is incestuous.” Stella grinned. “I’ve been plying your secretary with good booze on Friday nights at the clubs. She told me you’re so close to bankruptcy you can taste it. Does Annie know?”

  “No, and it’s personal bankruptcy only,” Jenny corrected. “Annie’s Garden is fine.”

  “Good. Ready to sell your shares?”

  It would solve every single problem she’d ever had. Feeling a little sick, she flipped through the file and looked at the bottom line. All the zeroes at the end of the offer made her head swim. “Holy cow.”

  Stella laughed. “Yes, I’ve been more than fair in my offer.”

  “I could never sell out from Annie.”

  “Hmm. So you’re going to ask her to buy you out and save your little tush?”

  Jenny felt her resolve sag. She couldn’t tell Annie, not when Annie had made this place her entire life. It had been Annie who had brought Jenny in, it had been Annie who had dreamed the dream, believed in them, while Jenny had come along, always projecting doom and gloom.

  Annie was her hero…. “No,” she whispered. “I’m not going to ask Annie to buy me out.”

  “Okay, then.” Whirling, spilling oodles of elegance and style as she did, Stella moved to the door. “I’ll just let you think about it. Don’t think too long, though, as my offer will be reduced significantly each week. Ta-ta!”

  Through the lingering cigar smoke, Jenny just stared down at the numbers.

  The money was staggering.

  If she sold, she’d never face poverty again. She could get back online and recoup the money she’d lost in the market. She could…

  No. She couldn’t. Wouldn’t. She’d never do it, because that, combined with her other horrible secret, would destroy Annie.

  And Jenny was just barely living with herself as it was.

  * * *

  THREE DAYS AFTER WHAT ANNIE had dubbed “the mud incident,” she stood in the pharmacy aisle of the Coopers’ General Store on Main Street, eyeing the products labeled “bathroom ailments.”

  Aunt Gerdie had needed a few things, a constipation medicine topping her list, since she’d gotten carried away with eating peanuts the night before and now “needed a little help, if you know what I mean, honey.”

  Annie knew what she meant, she just wished she didn’t. She’d have let Aunt Gerdie come by herself, but the last time Annie had sent her to the store unsupervised, Aunt Gerdie had come home with her purse full of things and no receipt.

  She’d forgotten to pay.

  This had happened several times before, and though Dr. Dorn assured Annie that her aunt didn’t have Alzheimer’s, Gerdie was starting to show signs of senility at a disturbing rate.

  It scared Annie, scared her all the way to the bone. Aunt Gerdie was all Annie had in the way of real family. All she’d ever had.

  After her father had walked out on them when she’d been a newborn, her mother had started leaving Annie with her Aunt Gerdie for long stretches of