Hard Knock Life

Josh started in on me the second I hung up the phone, he wanted to know who I called and why I asked them about him. “Why did you tell them that your plans for the weekend were cancelled? Did you have something else you wanted to do?”

I didn’t respond to him until I had placed the phone back on its base and was comfortably seated next to him on his bed. “I called Zack,” I told him calmly despite the fact that I was a little annoyed that he thought I wanted to do something else besides spend the weekend doing whatever it was he had planned for us. “He is on his way over here right now.”

Josh thought about that for a moment before asking, “Why is he coming over here? What’s going on Anna?”

“I want to tell you Josh, I really do but I don’t even know myself what is going on.”

“That doesn’t make sense Anna,” Josh rubbed his hand over his face, he was looking a little tired. “What does this have to do with Carol not taking Jess for the weekend?” His head snapped up, “Is Zack coming over here as your brother or as a cop?”

I told him that I wanted to tell him what I knew but Zack was already mad at me for knowing the very little that I did know. “Please just wait for Zack to get here? He’ll tell you as much as he can.”

Josh reluctantly agreed to wit for Zack to arrive but the whole time we were waiting he was on edge, I knew that he was worried about Jess and I knew that it was my fault that he was. When will I ever learn? I asked myself for probably the millionth time since I called Zack without thinking. I could only hope that Zack reassured Josh enough so that he didn’t go running over to Carol’s, kick Phil’s ass before removing Jesse from their home.

It took Zack a little longer than ten minutes to finally get to Josh’s front door; in fact I think it was more like twenty, or maybe it just felt that way because Josh was unusually quiet.

I was so thankful when Zack arrived, I damn near ran to the door to let him in; Josh followed at a slower pace but still pretty quick, he arrived at the door moments after I did.

Zack had been working when I called him so I wasn’t surprised to see him in full uniform but still it’s very impressive to see him dressed like that. “Hey Zack,” I tried to sound light and cheery but he didn’t look too happy.

“I don’t have that much time,” he told us as he made his way into the living room where he pulled the air chair closer to the couch before he sat down in it. “Well, come on,” he motioned to the couch and without a word Josh and I made our way over and sat down.

“Ok,” Zack rubbed his forehead with his hand before he sighed. “So here’s the deal,” he looked at Josh. “We’ve been investigating Phil since he moved into the area on some of his shady business dealings, I can’t get into what they are but with the mountains of evidence that we’ve collected from surveillance, eye witness accounts and some other stuff that I can’t talk about, along with the cooperation of Carol, we are positive that we can move in this weekend when he’s least expecting it and finally put him away.”

“You knew about this?” Josh looked shocked. “Why didn’t you tell me?” He turned back to Zack. “What kind of business dealing? Is Jesse is danger? How could you let –“

“Josh!” Zack held up his hand, stopping Josh in mid sentence. “This is the exact reason that I didn’t want you to know anything about this investigation! We needed things to go on like normal! We needed you to go on like nothing was happening! It’s bad enough Carol almost freaked out and ran a couple times!”

“I don’t care about her!” Josh snapped, “What about my son? He’s been freaking out for months because he didn’t want to go back there! You told me that there wasn’t anything going on! That he wasn’t in danger!”

“He wasn’t,” Zack remained calm as Josh freaked out. “Jess was perfectly safe; Phil had no intentions then or now to do anything to hurt him. Jess was freaking out because he was sensing Carol’s anxiety and it was only making things worst for her! That’s why I told her to talk to her lawyer about giving you Jess every weekend! I thought that it would relive some of Carol’s stress and it would help you out too!”

Josh paled a little. “You were the reason Carol gave me more time with him? You told her too?”

“Yes,” Zack nodded. “I was watching out for Jesse, I wasn’t about to let anything happen to him. I had everything under control – I still have everything under control!”

“Where does Anna come in to all this?” Josh turned to me. “How long have you known they were investigating Phil? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Anna found out by accident,” Zack answered before I could. “She was in the wrong place at the wrong time; she witnessed Phil entering a hotel with one of our plants. The second she saw this, she came to me and told me. I told her that under no circumstances was she to ever say anything to you! I told her I would arrest her for interfering in an ongoing investigation if she even tried!”

With that Zack stood up, reached for his handcuffs. “Come on sis, let’s go.”

“What?” I gasped as I saw the light reflect off the cold steel. “NO!” I jumped up.

And so did Josh. Standing in front of me, he held his arms out at his sides. “Don’t you come any closer,” he growled at Zack. “I will not let you arrest her!”

Zack showed no emotion at all as he reached for his radio and requested that his partner join him. “If you stand in the way Josh, I’ll arrest you too.”

“Then go ahead,” Josh told him. “I’m not moving. You aren’t taking her anywhere. This is stupid, she’s your sister! She didn’t do anything wrong!”

There was a huge racket outside the door as Zack’s partner Rick ran up the steps and now stood just outside the door, hollering that he was the police and for us to open the door or he would bust it down. “There’s no need for that!” Zack hollered back as he made his way over to the door.

Josh turned to me, “Honey there is no way I’m letting him take you anywhere, you didn’t do anything wrong. There’s no way he could even be allowed to arrest you.”

Zack and Rick came into the living room, I heard Zack tell Rick to cuff me and he would take Josh. “Rough him up if you have too,” Rick told Zack. “He looks like he’s going to be trouble.”

“Zack stop this!” Josh spun around to face both of them, once again blocking me from them. “You can’t be serious! You know you can’t hold her, let alone arrest her for this!”

“Josh just get out of the way,” Zack started towards us. “I don’t want to have to take you downtown with us; it won’t look good for you when you go before a judge in Jesse’s custody case if you have a prior on your record.”

“I’m not moving,” Josh told him through clenched teeth. “You are her brother! You are supposed to protect her, not arrest her!”

“Don’t tell me what I’m supposed to do!” Zack finally snapped at Josh. “I told her to leave it alone! I told her I would have to do this if she said anything to you! You are just damn lucky that it’s me not another cop doing this! Do you think they would care if she was my sister or not?”

“Come on Anna,” Rick held out his cuffs in one hand as he reached for me. “Don’t make this more difficult than it has to be.”

“Josh,” I touched his arm and he turned towards me. “I should go.” I started towards Rick but Josh grabbed my hand.

“No Anna you don’t have too, I told you I’ll…”

I turned away from him; I didn’t want to cry in front of him, I didn’t want him to see how scared I really was. “It’ll be ok,” I whispered. I made my way over to Rick and with my head lowered; I turned back on to him and put my hands behind my back.

I waited and waited to feel the metal close around my wrist but it never did. I heard snickers and then full blown laughs instead. My head snapped up and I stared at Zack who was damn near pissing himself as he tried not to fall over laughing. “What’s so funny?” I demanded as the tears streamed down my face.

Neither one of them could talk; they were too busy gasping for breath from laughing so hard. “What’s so funny?” I cried out again as Josh came over to me, pulling me into his arms. “What’s so funny?” I stared up at him but he was just as clueless as I was.

When Zack finally calmed down enough, he told me I was funny. “You should’ve seen the look on your face Anna! It was priceless! Like I would actually waste department time arresting you for this! Come on Rick; let’s go home thanks for giving me a hand with this even though we are officially off duty.”

“You mean…?” My mouth couldn’t say the words I wanted too.

“I told you to stay out of it Anna but you never listen, maybe next time you’ll think before you act.”

Josh who was very stiff through the laughter came to life at the admission that this little ruse was a ‘lesson’ for me. “You son of a bitch!” He took a step towards Zack but I was holding on tight to him so he didn’t get too far. “Get the hell out of my apartment!”

Zack tried to get us to see it for the ‘joke’ he meant it to be but I was too shocked to even speak and Josh was literally shaking from anger. “GET OUT!”

Without another word, Zack and Rick left Josh’s apartment that night and Josh promised me that no matter what, he’ll always be there to protect me. “Even if it’s from your brother!”

I had already learnt that being mad at family was something I didn’t want and I told Josh that. Before the month was over, Zack and Josh were on really good speaking terms again and Zack promised to never pull another ‘joke’ like that on me again. “I’m finding they aren’t worth it anymore Anna, they never seem to go the way I hoped they would. I’m so sorry I scared you that night.”

That weekend went as planned for Zack and his team, they managed to arrest Phil and collect more evidence in connection with his money laundering, drugs and prostitution dealings. It seems that Carol really picked a winner when she decided to cheat on Josh. And karma paid her back in kind.

Josh and I took a rain check for that weekend. He promised me that he will make it up to the second he got out of school for the summer.

He just wasn’t sure what he was going to do with Jesse since he was going to be with him all summer.

When I told him that it didn’t really matter, he told me that as much as he loves Jesse, he has to make the time to have some quality time with me too. “I love you Anna and I plan on being with you for the rest of my life; it’s important that I not only tell you this but show you it too. We will get away for the weekend, I promise you that.”

Is there any wonder why I love this guy?