Anna drove around for about 20 minutes before heading back into St. Helena. She could have just walked the few blocks to Shay’s St. Paws Animal Rescue, but she needed some time to clear her head. And, she wanted to see if someone was following her. She wanted to attribute the itch between her shoulder blades to Danny, but if she were being honest, he brought out entirely different feelings in her. And, that was something she didn’t want to think about. Not now, not ever.
After parking behind the Rescue, she leaned her head back and closed her eyes for a moment. If Danny wasn’t the source of her itch, who was? After all this time, had she been found? Was it time to leave St. Helena? When she first moved here after college, she figured she’d be here for a year or two at the most. But, she’d been settled here for almost 10 years. Had living here so long put her in danger?
Anna jerked upright and swallowed a scream at the tap-tap-tap on her window. Knocking on her window was a black and white dog who was standing on his hind legs and smiling like he was the official welcome wagon to St. Paws Animal Rescue. Hurrying after him was Emme Lawson, the intern at St. Paws Animal Rescue.
“Sneakers, you little brat. Come back here!” Emme saw Anna sitting in the car and huffed out, “Grab him!”
Anna opened the car door just enough to grab the wayward dog’s collar. “I’ve got him.”
“Oh, thanks, Anna. This guy was supposed to be playing in the yard, but he escaped. We must watch him like a hawk. He’s escaped from the yard twice and his kennel three times. And, we’ve only had him two days!”
Anna had managed to get out of the car without losing her grip on the collar and was trying to guide the dog over to Emme. But Sneakers had other plans. He sat down on Anna’s foot and just grinned up at her like a love-sick fool.
“Oh, you’re a little flirt, aren’t you?” Anna rubbed his head and scratched him behind the ears. “What’s his story?”
“Poor guy was stuck in a studio apartment all day in downtown San Jose. The owner worked at a tech company in Silicon Valley 14 hours a day. He got Sneakers without realizing Border Collie’s need lots of exercise. After Sneakers chewed up the sofa bed, the bathroom cabinet, and a bicycle, the owner couldn’t get rid of him fast enough. Shay rescued him from an overcrowded shelter. She thinks he’ll make a great winery dog. We’re looking for someplace where he’ll have lots of room to run.”
“He ate a bicycle?”
“Not the whole thing. He just used the tires as chew toys. Guess it was one of those over-priced bikes people buy, but then think it’s too expensive to ride.”
“Serves the jerk right for trying to contain a free-spirit. Isn’t that right, Sneakers?” Sneakers grinned and nodded as if he knew exactly what Anna was saying. Anna started for the back door to the rescue, with Sneakers right by her side. “Okay, handsome. Let’s get you back in the yard. You need to work off that energy.”
Emme finally convinced Sneakers to go back in the play yard while Anna headed to the server room she used as her office when volunteering her IT services. Installing the software updates was routine for Anna and she was glad for the distraction from her worries for a couple hours. While the updates were running, she had a few minutes to grab a cup of tea and stretch. She started to get up from the workstation but realized something was on her foot. She looked down and discovered Sneakers was curled up, fast asleep on her foot. How had he done that? She must be slipping if she didn’t even notice when 35-pound dog crawled under the table and used her foot for a pillow.
“Hey, boy. Time to get up.” Sneakers just looked up at her with a sleepy-dog smile, then put his head back down and went back to sleep.
“Looks like you’ve made a new friend.”
Anna jerked out of her chair, sending Sneakers into a barking fit as he rushed out from under the table and positioned himself in between Anna and the man standing in the doorway.
“And, he’s a protective friend. I like that.” Danny walked over to Anna and handed her a takeout cup. “Tea with two sugars.” He bent down to pet Sneakers who was now feverishly sniffing Danny’s shoes. Apparently, Danny passed the test because Sneakers promptly rolled over and begged for a belly rub.
“Traitor,” Anna mumbled under her breath. “Tea with two sugars? Let me guess, Lysia told you?”
“I thought you’d like a break from work. Can you take a few minutes?”
Anna really wanted the tea. She could see it was her favorite blend, too. “Thanks, but I should keep working.”
“If I were an insecure man, I’d think you didn’t like me. But, that’s ridiculous because we just met. It’s not like you’ve avoided me the last three times I came to St. Helena.” Danny looked over her shoulder at the computer monitor. “And, it looks like you’ve got a few minutes while the update finishes. Come on, let’s take - what’s your dog’s name?”
“Sneakers, but he’s not mine. He just keeps showing up.”
“Sneakers! Where are you? Darn dog. Sneakers??” Emme came running down the hall into Anna’s office. “Anna, have you seen - Sneakers! There you are. Bad dog. He escaped again. Seems like every time he escapes, he comes looking for you, Anna.” Emme laughed as she looked up to see Danny smiling at her.
Danny held out his hand, “Hi, I’m Danny, a friend of Anna’s.”
Anna wanted to hide at the shocked look on Emme’s face. “A friend of Anna’s? She never told me she was dating anyone.”
“I’m not dating him.” Anna objected, just as Danny jumped in.
“I’m a new friend. Actually, I’m her best man.”
Anna sputtered, “He’s Mike’s best man. That’s all.”
Emme smiled. “Well, either way, it looks like you have two stalkers now. A friendly pup and a … Best man.”
Danny winked in approval, then turned to Anna.
“Danny and I were just going to take Sneakers outside. If that’s okay?” Anna tried to recover from her slip up.
“Oh, that’s great. We can’t exercise the little demon enough. Thanks, Anna. And, Danny, nice to meet Anna’s best man.” Emme turned to leave.
“Sneakers, want to take a walk?” Danny asked. Sneakers jumped up and barked once before running out the door. When they didn’t follow him, he ran back in the office and ran circles around Anna and Danny trying to herd them out the door. “See, it’s settled. Sneakers needs a walk and you can use a break.”
Danny placed his hand in the small of her back and guided Anna out the door. He was herding her just like Sneakers was herding them. As soon as his hand gently rested on her back, she felt it. Not the itch between her shoulder blades that signaled harm, but the funny, squiggly, feeling in the pit of her stomach that signaled a whole different kind of danger.
***
Danny hid a smile as he guided Anna towards the back door. He thought he was home free until she turned right instead of left. Even Sneakers looked confused.
“I thought we were going outside?” Sneakers woofed softly in agreement.
Anna looked over her shoulder at him and said, “We are. I thought we would take Sneakers out back and play catch.”
Sneakers wasn’t sure who to follow. His ears had perked up at the word catch, but he looked torn between freedom on the left and playing ball on the right. Danny looked at Sneakers and headed towards Anna. “Come on, boy. Catch it is.”
Danny threw the ball across the yard and watched as Sneakers race to catch it. After a victory lap around the yard, Sneakers raced back to Anna and dropped the ball at her feet. She picked it up and as she was about to throw it, Danny asked, “Who are you hiding from?”
The ball slipped from her hand and landed about two feet in front of her. Sneakers huffed at her in disappointment, but he picked up the ball and gave it to her to try again. She threw the ball across the yard before turning to Danny. He could see she had used the time to compose an answer.
“What makes you think I’m hiding?”
He gave her credit. She didn’t lie and say she wasn’t hiding, she just avoided answering the question. He grabbed the ball from Sneakers and tossed it again. “Well, you didn’t say you weren’t hiding. You’re very observant when you’re outside. You drive the most common car sold. You dress -”
“What’s wrong with the way I dress?”
“Nothing as long as you don’t want be noticed.”
Anna wrestled the ball away from Sneakers and threw it a little too forcibly across the yard. It hit the ground in front of the fence and bounced over to the yard on the other side. She turned to him and he could almost see the steam coming out of her ears.
“Because I’m aware of my surroundings, drive a common car, and don’t dress like a supermodel, you’re assuming I’m in danger? If that’s how the FBI operates, I think we’re all in danger. I need to get back to work. Why don’t you do something useful and fetch the ball for Sneakers.” Anna stomped across the yard to the door.
“Anna, I never said anything about you being in danger, but you did. That tells me there’s more to this than hiding from an ex. Let me help.”
As she walked through the door, she turned back to him. “There is nothing you can do to help me, G-man. Thanks for the tea.”
Sneakers watched her leave, his head swiveling between the two of them. Danny reached down to scratch the dog’s ears. “Well, Sneakers, looks like we have some work to do. Let’s grab your ball, then find out what’s got her spooked. Okay?” Sneakers woofed in approval and ran for the fence.
After retrieving the ball and returning Sneakers to Emme, Danny decided he’d pushed Anna enough for now and it was time to talk with Mike. He called Mike from the car.
“Hey man, have you had enough of seating charts and cake tasting? How about we pick up a basketball game at the gym this week?”
Mike laughed, “Hell, yeah! I need to get away the great boutonniere debate. The final cake tasting is this week, so I could stand to burn off some calories.”
“Great. I’ll see you then.” Danny hesitated, not sure why he cared, but needing to know anyway. “Hey, what’s the deal with Anna? There’s something going on. Do you know about it?”
Mike was quiet for so long Danny wondered if the call had been dropped.
“What happened to bring this up now?” Danny really didn’t like that answer. Mike all but admitted Anna needed help. “It’s not my story to tell, but I’ll see what I can do.”
“Just answer me this, is she in immediate danger? She’s pretty spooked.”
“Let me talk to her. But, first, I need to know why you care.”
Danny thought about it, then answered honestly, “I don’t know. There’s something about her that … I don’t know, man. Just something.”
Mike’s voice deepened, “Yeah, there’s something about her all right. She’s one of a kind and the kid sister I never had, if you catch my drift.”
“Yeah, I hear you. Weird as it sounds, I just want to help her.”
“Okay. Let me make a few calls and we’ll talk later.”
Danny thought about what Mike had - and hadn’t said - on his drive back to the house he’d rented. Anna was in some sort of trouble, that seemed more serious than a stalker ex-boyfriend, but she wasn’t in trouble with the law. After leaving the FBI last year, Mike joined the county District Attorney’s office, so Danny was reasonably sure Anna wasn’t wanted to the authorities. What did that leave? And, why did he care?