Moving Target (3 page)

After she finished locking the safe, she went back to work in the shop. From the time the store opened at nine A.M., starting with the Harrisons' arrival, it continued to be a busy day. Tourists picked through the collectables and not-so-collectables, most taking their time to browse the shop that included a huge lower level. Bisbee was an artists' community with tourism supporting the economy, and the tourists definitely supported this store.

In between interruptions, Ani worked on the inventory program she'd convinced Tammy to buy. Even though she was constantly interrupted by customers, she still managed to get work done.

Her friend Lyra stopped by on her lunch break to see if there was anything new and interesting, specifically old lunch boxes and other old tin items. Lyra worked up the street in a shop where she sold metal sculptures she made out of pieces of tin and aluminum from various items. Ani had several of Lyra's pieces in her own home. Lyra was one of the few friends Ani had made in Bisbee along with Lyra's husband, Dare, a private investigator.

Around noon, her cell phone rang. "This is Ani," she answered. The line crackled. "Hello?"

It crackled again, but she didn't hear anyone. Probably one of the few friends she had in Bisbee, calling from a cell phone out of range. Happened all the time with Bisbee being in the Mule Mountains. The caller ID said "not available," so it could have been anyone.

She punched off when no one on the other end responded.

The rest of the day flew past and Ani fielded a few calls on the antique store land line, along with another out-of-range call on her cell that didn't come up on her caller ID. By the end of the day her feet were killing her and she had a headache.

Her cell phone rang again.

She glanced at her watch. Six o'clock. Time to close the store, and it was Friday. Also time for Daniel's call—maybe he'd been the one trying to reach her earlier, even though he never called her that early in the day.

Her heart raced as she slipped her cell phone out of the pocket of her slacks. On the caller ID it said "unknown," but she was certain it was Daniel.

She answered the phone with a breathless, "Hello."

"Hi, Ani." Daniel's deep, sensual voice affected her the way it always did. It sent a twist of sensation in her belly and caused her heart to beat faster.

"Hey." Ani closed her eyes, imagining Daniel's lean, muscled physique, his slightly wavy brown hair and warm coffee-brown eyes. It had been an entire year since she'd seen the Deputy Marshal, the Inspector, who was her contact, but she could picture him in his Stetson and Wranglers, down to his boots. "Anything exciting today?" she asked.

"Not until you answered the phone." His voice was smooth and sexy, like warm buttered rum, but the man never said anything he didn't mean.

Ani almost sighed out loud at the feelings he stirred within her. "Same here," she said as she opened her eyes and saw only Daniel in her mind's eye. He'd been there from the beginning, moving her to the Oregon Burn Center, to rehab, to a safe house, and then to Bisbee. She'd been in Bisbee for a year now.

He used to call every now and then to check in on her, but those calls became more frequent and more personal, until they talked almost every Friday. Sometimes on the weekend. She'd fallen in love with everything about him.

She'd fallen in love with a man she could never have.

"How 'bout you? Anything interesting happen today?" Daniel asked in his lazy drawl.

She shook her head even though he couldn't see her. "Same old same old." She walked to the front door, locked it, and turned the OPEN sign to CLOSED.

"Oh, wait." A buzz of excitement quickened her pace as she returned to the front register that sat on a long glass case. "A man and woman came in first thing this morning with a priceless treasure." Her delight in handling such an object faded as she realized why it had ended up in her possession in the first place. "Their son is a burn victim, Daniel. Eighty percent of his body." The large scar on her back itched again, but she tried to ignore it. "They need the money to pay his medical bills, so I helped them broker the piece."

Daniel was quiet for a moment. "Honey, what did you do?"

"Well, ah . . ." Heat flushed Ani. "I called an old client who collects Masian artifacts and hashed out a deal."

"Shit!" Daniel's voice came out so loud and harsh she held the cell phone away from her ear. "Goddamnit, Ani. You know the rules."

"They have to have the resources for their son's treatment." She blinked back tears. "It's been two years. George Hanover is an old friend—and he's very discreet. How could the Mob find me through him?"

"I'm coming to get you." Daniel's voice steeled and suddenly she didn't recognize him. This man's tone was harsh and unforgiving. "Do
not
leave the store. Stay in the back room, away from the windows. I'm sending in local police. Do not open the door for anyone except the police—if you're absolutely positive it's the cops."

Ani said in a rush, "I used my cell. You and I use our cell phones all the time."

"I'm not a contact from your past—your friend was," Daniel said in a voice that sounded like a low growl. "He's the point of reference the Mafia could start with and work backward until they found you."

"But—"

"It's a four-hour drive from Phoenix. I don't have a Deputy Marshal available who's close enough to you, so you'll need to wait at the police department until I get there."

"Daniel—"

"Like I said, don't open for
anyone
but the cops, and there'd better be sirens and flashing lights. Do you understand?"

"Yes, but—"

"Are all the doors and windows locked?"

"Yes—"

"You are not to call
anyone
that you know,
anywhere
. Understand?"

She sucked in a deep breath, but the tears wouldn't stop flowing and she couldn't stop the tremble in her voice. "I'm sorry," she whispered.

"I don't have time to talk. I have arrangements to make."

He severed the connection. She brought the cell phone away from her ear and held it in both fists as she flipped it shut.

She leaned her head back against the wall and slid down it until her butt hit the floor. Tears ran freely from her eyes as she dropped the phone, wrapped her arms around her knees, and buried her face against her slacks.

With one little phone call she'd screwed up everything. She could possibly have put herself in danger, and she hadn't even
thought
about placing Daniel at risk.

She raised her head and dried her tears with the backs of her hands, then thunked her head against the wall when the tears continued to flow down her cheeks. What a freaking mess. Why did her father have to—well, do what he did? If he hadn't gotten in bed with the Russian Mafia, her whole family would be alive today.

Those bastards—especially Dmitry Borenko—needed to pay.

Ani's skin crawled and her heart kept an unsteady beat. "I'm so
stupid
." She rubbed her temples, got up from the floor as she picked up her cell phone. After she pocketed her phone, she slipped into the back room, locked the wooden door between her and the shop. She checked the locks on the big metal door that led to the alley.

When she checked again to see that the doors were secure, she started to pace the length of the room, but then she plopped into a chair by Tammy's ancient rolltop desk. There was one window in the back room and she had to stay away from it. Smells of dust and pine-scented cleaner from the recently mopped floors clogged her nose and made her even more nauseated than she already was.

All she had wanted to do was help that poor child. After being in a burn center herself, she could relate to Jamie, if only in a small way. God. Eighty percent of his little body. She wiped tears from her eyes with the backs of her hands again. She had just wanted to help him.

How could George be any kind of link to the Mob? How could the Russians even know she had called George? Of all the millions of phone calls going on throughout the day, how could her one little call be traced?

Nothing would likely come from it, but still, she had screwed up. Maybe she could have had Tammy call—but then the rather reclusive George Hanover would wonder how she knew of his collection.

But could the Russians have contacted every one of her past clients and friends? Her heart nearly stopped at the thought.

Were her old friends and clients in danger? What if they'd been threatened from the time she vanished into the WITSEC

program?

The old shoulder wound from the bullet ached and the scar on her back itched. She rubbed her hands up and down her arms as she glanced in the direction of the shop itself, which was on the other side of the locked wooden door. With all the windows the store had, being in that section was like walking out in the open.

The antique shop was a corner building at the end of Main Street. Being the gossipy and busybody type, Tammy liked keeping the fifteen-foot-high windows without blinds so that she could watch everything that went on outside, and so potential customers could see in. The store was directly across from the post office and library, and catty-corner to a small indoor mall. Well, if one could call it a mall.

She stopped rubbing her arms. Oh, jeez. She needed to let Tammy know she wouldn't be back. Ani found a notepad on the antique desk where Tammy preferred to do her paperwork.

Ani felt the weight of her cell phone in the pocket of her slacks, but remembered she wasn't supposed to call anyone. She leaned forward in the chair and started a note, telling her friend and employer she was sorry but she had to leave due to an unexpected family emergency.

Sadness crept over her as she erased "family." Tammy knew Ani had none. Tammy didn't know the true story, just that her mother, father, and sister had died in a fire.

Ani reworded the letter so that it simply said she was leaving due to an unexpected emergency.

For a moment her eyes glazed as she remembered her sister. Her mischievousness, her sense of humor. God, how her heart ached every time she thought of Jenn. They'd fought a lot as they'd grown up—what siblings didn't? But they'd matured, and they became so close that Jenn had been her best friend, and now Ani missed her so badly. Every single day.

Ani shook her head, trying to focus on the present. She fought back more tears, sniffled, then looked around her.

The safe drew her attention. The Harrisons. They had to be taken care of.

With a deep breath, she sketched out a note about the statue, the Harrisons, and their contact information. She also added George Hanover's information.

When she finished the note, she signed it "Ani." She'd really screwed things up now. She'd had a good life this past year, even if it was a small town, so different than what she was used to. After the trial, she would end up in another place with another name, and possibly a different Inspector Marshal if Daniel was mad enough at her.

The fact that Daniel was so upset with her made her gut clench. She gripped the armrests of the chair. The tone of his voice had been cold and professional once she'd told him what she'd done. When he arrived it would be the first time she'd seen him in a year. All the times she'd imagined herself being close to him again, it hadn't been like this.

He'd been in every one of her fantasies. She loved his deep, sexy voice, his soft laughter when they spoke and something amused him. His concern when she'd had a bad day for one reason or another. She even talked with him about her family and how much she missed them. He stayed with her through the tears, calling her "honey" and making her feel like she had someone in her life who really cared for her.

She'd learned a lot about Daniel, too. He told her of his two brothers who were in the military—Aaron was in Special Forces, and Jacob was a Navy SEAL. Their father was a retired U.S. Deputy Marshal. Daniel had told her things about his childhood and about his hobby of creating model airplanes. Sometimes he told her about cases he was working on—nothing classified, of course. After all of their intimate conversations, she almost felt like she knew him heart and soul.

Only now she was going to see him angry. Not smiling that smile that had turned her inside out the times he'd visited her in the burn center in Oregon and escorted her to a safe house there while she went through rehab, and then here to Bisbee, all in the first year. This past year he'd kept in touch with her over the phone. She often wished he'd come and visit her.

Ani wiped her sweaty palms on her black slacks. Even though she'd ended up in jeans-and-T-shirt cowboy country, she still held on to parts of her past she couldn't let go. When she worked she always wore tailored slacks, silk, and high heels.

She closed her eyes.
Please don't let that phone call, that mistake, affect my relationship with Daniel
.

Ani opened her eyes and stared up at the ceiling. What was she thinking? All she had was a phone relationship with the man. He liked to talk to her. So? He probably thought of her as a sister. Or maybe this was part of his job.

That thought depressed her even more.

I'm so stupid!

Ani checked the locks on the heavy metal door again, the handle cool beneath her palm. It wasn't likely anyone could come through that door, but she felt like she had to do
something
.

Damn, she'd forgotten about the window. She started to pass by it to sit in the chair when she caught sight of a man, directly across the street. It was dusk, but she could tell he was staring at the antique shop.

In the fading sunlight, something metal glinted in one of his hands. He was smoking and he flicked ashes onto the sidewalk.

The ashes glowed fiery red as they floated from his cigarette.

Ani stumbled back, sat in the chair, and gripped its armrests.

In slow motion, the memory of a glowing red cigarette butt, tumbling end over end, flashed through her mind. It had landed on gasoline-soaked drapes covering Ani's mother's crumpled body.

Ani had tried to scream but the sound wouldn't come from her mouth as she saw her mother's body go up in flames.