Chapter 15 Annie #2
She forced a smile. “Maybe it was more providence than coincidence. I’m not sure how many men could have hiked sideways across Lewis Ridge to reach the crime scene. You know, us women with our lower center of gravity and better sense of balance.”
Ian laughed, throwing his head back to reveal molars studded with dark fillings. “Oh sure, better sense of balance. I’m sure you could take down a whole roomful of murderers with that. Ain’t that just what this town needs, boys? A well-balanced lady cop?”
The last two words were sneered. An insult. A slur, and Annie squared her shoulders automatically. Her anger was just below the surface now, red and simmering, but she forced herself to keep eye contact.
“Ah, that’s right”—she nodded—“you’d have done a better job than me if your daddy had been able to buy your way into the uniform.”
Surprise flickered across Ian’s features.
He hadn’t banked on her knowing this embarrassing bit of information about him, and with satisfaction, Annie watched the scarlet flush that rose on his cheeks.
His friends went silent, their faces unsure, and Annie knew this was her moment to bow out, before they had a chance to react.
“Have a nice day, gentlemen,” she said icily, grabbed her bags, and turned to walk away.
Ian and his friends immediately stepped around her, blocking her path forward, and Annie’s stomach tightened like a clenched fist.
She could feel it coming, the pressure rising like mercury in a thermometer. Men like Ian Ward did not enjoy being put in their place and never surrendered the last word without a fight.
She could step off the curb and walk around them. There were no cars coming, but escape from the situation was secondary to what really needed to happen. Bullies didn’t back down until they were stood up to.
“I said, let me by.”
Ian leaned forward, and Annie felt his breath on her face. “You know… I don’t think I will.”
An unpleasant chill raced along her spine as she set the bags down again. There was a can of bear spray in her belt. With deliberate slowness, she slid it out and lifted it into view. Her Ruger was in the Jeep, but the small red canister was usually an equally effective deterrent.
“I said, let me by.”
Ian stared at the spray, jaw clenched. “Rethink that move, Annie.”
The world around her screeched to a halt, and Annie watched in what felt like slow motion as Ian reached a hand around his back, grasping for something in the waistband of his jeans.
A gun. It had to be a gun.
On instinct, Annie mashed her finger down on the trigger of the pepper spray, but nothing happened.
She hadn’t used it in months. It was clogged, or broken, or empty.
She had nothing with which to defend herself, and she could see it now, the black grip of the firearm as Ian pulled it from behind his back.
A fraction of a second passed, and then, moving so fast she barely saw him coming, a man sprinted across the street.
Daniel Barela was a blur in her periphery, spry arms and legs and the quick flash of a white shirt as he barreled toward Ian. Lunging with impossible speed, he ducked at the last second and slammed his shoulder into Ian’s chest with the force of a linebacker.
Ian went airborne with a shout and the gun he had pulled free flew up into the sky as he was knocked sideways.
It skittered across the sidewalk, and both of his friends made a move for it, but Annie was faster and snatched it up.
She flicked off the safety, held it high overhead, and fired a warning shot that made both men jerk backward.
“That’s enough!” she shouted at Ian and Daniel, who were wrestling on the sidewalk. They kicked their way apart, each man rising slowly to his feet.
“Gimme back my gun.” Ian glowered, breath ragged. His shirt was torn at the collar and his hair was a mess.
Annie didn’t move. “No.”
“Give it back!”
“I’m confiscating it.” Beneath her uniform, her legs trembled with adrenaline, but her voice was steady.
Ian started to stutter a response but Annie cut him off.
“Look, I may not be a police officer, but I have the same power, privileges, and immunities that they do, including the power of arrest.” She held Ian’s seething gaze as she tucked his gun into her own empty holster.
“And let me make one thing perfectly clear. If you ever, ever, threaten me like that again, I will exercise that authority. Do you understand?”
Ian’s friends looked anywhere but at their leader as he finally dropped his head and nodded. She had broken him.
“Good,” Annie said. “Then we’re done here.”
She shot a glance at Daniel. He was standing back, his features a perfect mask of indifference, though his chest heaved with breath and his lower lip was bleeding. When she caught his eye, he turned abruptly and crossed the street, walking back the way he’d come.
Annie grabbed her bags again, stepped past Ian and his friends with one more stone-faced glare and walked quickly around the corner.
The moment she was out of sight, she broke into a run for the Jeep.