Revealing Annie - Freya Barker Page 0,61
is just leaving, why?”
Tony stops and turns around.
“Because I just watched Annie get in her car by herself and drive off.”
“What?”
Worry must be clear on my face because Ramirez takes a step closer, but I brush past him and rush around the corner of the garage.
Her car is missing from the driveway.
“How long?” I snap as Tony joins me, cursing under his breath when he sees the open space.
“Five minutes, maybe a few more. Did something happen? Are you sure you didn’t piss her off?”
“I have no fucking clue,” I tell him, at a complete loss.
Greene chuckles. “Welcome to the club.”
“I’ve gotta go. I have to find her.”
“Let me know.”
I tuck my phone in my pocket and rush back into the yard with the dog on my heels. I hear Tony close the gate behind us before he follows me up the steps and inside. The first thing I notice is the City Market shopping bag she stuffed her wallet and things in is gone from the hall table.
“She took her shit,” I mutter, before taking the stairs two at a time.
The bedroom looked like it did, the covers slightly rumpled where she must’ve lain down for her nap, but nothing else looks out of place. Even the bag with her clothes is still at the bottom of my closet. My eyes travel up to the gun safe I keep on the shelf. I’m not in the habit of carrying, but I do keep a gun in my bedroom. My fingers shake when I turn the tumblers on the lock and almost drop the clip when I try to load the weapon.
Tony is on the phone when I join him in the hallway downstairs, the gun feeling unnatural tucked in the back of my jeans.
“Okay, I’ll head over there. You keep an eye out,” I hear him say before hanging up.
I grab my own keys off the table and open the front door.
“Hang on,” Tony calls out. “We’re taking my patrol car.”
I’m not going to argue. He can drive faster than I can without consequences.
“Where do you think she went?” he asks, sliding behind the wheel as I buckle myself in.
“Fuck, I hope to her trailer.”
Tony starts driving at what is probably a decent clip but still not fast enough for me. Up ahead cars are waiting on the other side of the bridge for the light to turn and he’s forced to slow down.
“You know,” he says, glancing over at me. “It’s possible she overheard me talking. Some of what I said would’ve sounded pretty damning without the proper context.”
He’s right. If all she heard was him talking about her questionable mental health…
“Fuck!”
I slam my fist on the dashboard, just as sirens sound from behind us. I turn my head to see the engine from Station 3—my own fire station—coming toward us. Tony veers his car toward the curb, like the other cars in front of us, to make room for the fire truck to pass.
I watch them round the traffic into the intersection where they turn right. Heading in the direction we were going. A deep sense of foreboding settles in my bones.
“Go after them.”
Tony clearly had the same thought because he’s already moving the cruiser around the car in front of us as he flicks on his lights and sirens.
My anxiety spikes when we get stuck in the middle of the intersection on a light change and Ramirez has to do some swift maneuvering to avoid a collision. Up ahead I just see the lights of the fire engine disappear and beyond that a dark plume of smoke curls up from the trees.
“They turned into the park,” Tony announces in a flat voice.
The tires squeal as he makes the right turn, gravel flying when we hit the narrow road leading down to the trailers.
The path is blocked by the fire truck, and I vaguely notice my own team jumping down, even as I open my door.
“Sumo, wait!” Tony yells.
My feet are already moving around the truck in front of us, but come to a dead stop when I get a full view of what called them here.
Annie’s trailer, fully engulfed in flames.
21
Sumo
“Stop!”
I vaguely register Cap’s voice as I break into a run up the path. I have only one thought in mind and that is to get Annie out of there.
The heat from the flames shooting out of the busted living room window on the front singe the hair on my arms, but my eyes stay focused