A Bad Day for Sunshine

by Jones, Darynda

  And yet here he was. Her knight in shining, majestic, rugged, panty-melting armor.

  She decided to change the subject.

  “Your nephew is at my house.”

  The once-over he was in the middle of performing from underneath thick lashes paused at her hips. “Jimmy?”

  “The one and only.”

  “Shit.” He grabbed his jacket. “He escaped again?”

  “He’s done this before?”

  “Yeah, he doesn’t like hospitals.”

  “He must like the gowns. He stole one.”

  “He does that, too.”

  “Wait! My Moscato!” she said as he started for the door.

  He made a U-turn and waited for her to buy her precious Moscato even though it clearly irked him. Oh yeah. Definitely a knight in shining, majestic, rugged, panty-melting armor. Damn it.

  22

  It’s all fun and games until

  Russia tries to hack our queso recipe.

  —SIGN AT TIA JUANA’S FINE MEXICAN CUISINE

  Levi followed Sun to the apartment where the kids awaited their return. Only they were in her parents’ house eating green chile stew and homemade tortillas. Those things were worth the price of admission right there.

  Levi took the box she was carrying and held it as they went inside.

  “Hey, Mom!” Auri said, thankfully because anyone else saying that would have been awkward.

  “Hey, bug bite.”

  Auri beamed at her for a half second before her jaw dropped to the floor. She’d spotted him.

  “Uncle Levi!” Jimmy shouted. “You found me again!”

  Levi put the box down and opened his arms. The boy, who was almost as tall as Levi, ran into them, but only for a second. He stepped back and asked, “Are you mad?”

  Levi frowned. “Mad? About what?”

  “About that you have to find me.”

  “I’m not mad, but your mom is probably really worried.”

  Sun’s parents had also taken note of their visitor. Her dad stood and offered his hand. “Levi, good to see you.”

  “You, too, sir.” He nodded to Elaine. “Mrs. Freyr.”

  “Mrs. Freyr,” she said as though indignant. “Call me Elaine, and sit down. You’ve had quite a day.”

  “Thank you.” His gaze landed on Auri, who was still gaping.

  Without another word, she jumped up and threw her arms around his neck. He lifted her off the ground and let her feet dangle as he held her, and the emotion that hit Sun like the shock wave from a nuclear blast stole the breath right out of her lungs.

  He’d saved her life. It was the one thought that she’d repeated all day over and over. He’d saved her life, and she’d never even known.

  “How are you, Red?” he asked into her hair.

  “I’m good. Better now.”

  Sun had of course entertained the idea of a father figure, and the consequences of the lack thereof, throughout Auri’s life. But it had never hit her quite so hard as now.

  Had it been selfish of her to focus so much on her career? Should she have at least tried to find a suitable match so that Auri would not miss out on the everyday normality other kids had?

  Not all kids, of course, but there was no denying the immense advantages for a kid with two supportive parents in the home.

  Hailey showed up about five seconds later, and because of their supersecret pact, could not stay for dinner. Levi, however, could. Hailey thanked her parents and Auri and then whispered a soft thank-you to Sun before taking a very disappointed Jimmy back to the hospital.

  “You stay put, mister man,” Auri said to him. “And I’ll come see you first thing tomorrow morning.”

  He brightened at that, and Sun was struck with just how wonderful her daughter was. A daily occurrence, yes, but one she cherished.

  They sat down to eat, and Sun was so distracted by the god sitting at the table, as one is when gods sit at tables with mere mortals, that she didn’t even notice when the same daughter she’d just praised, the same one she’d just gushed over, snuck off to look at the evidence she’d brought home on the Sybil St. Aubin case.

  While her parents made small talk with Levi, asking him about the business and the world of moonshine, Sun downed about half the bottle of Moscato and enjoyed every ounce. Staring into her glass helped her not stare at Levi. Helped her not dwell on how he’d looked in bed that morning. Or what he’d said to her when she’d left.

  She was contemplating all the excuses she could come up with to invade his sanctuary again when Auri walked into the kitchen holding a copy of the letter Sybil sent.

  “Mom,” she said, her eyes like saucers.

  “Auri, you can’t have that.” Sun jumped up to take it from her, knocking her wine over in the process, but the expression on Auri’s face stopped her. “What is it, sweetheart?”

  “Why didn’t you show this to me earlier?”

  “Auri, you can’t have that. It’s part of an ongoing investigation.”

  “But I think there’s a message in this letter.”

  “What do you mean?” She hurried around to her, and they looked at the letter together.

  “Remember when I told you how I met Sybil and how we hit it off and talked about everything from boys to school?”

  “Yes.”

  “Okay, her letter says, ‘Please thank Auri for being my friend for a whole week. I’ve never known anyone like her. We were hoping we would have at least one class together, like first period, but just in case we didn’t, we came up with a way to pass notes to each other like spies sending secret messages. Maybe we can still do that someday. I hope she liked me as much as I liked her.’”

  “I was going to tell you that part, honey. With everything going on, I just—”

  “No, it’s okay, Mom. But I found out something today.” She sank into the chair next to Levi, and if the room had suddenly exploded and blinded her, Sun would still have noticed the arm he put around her daughter’s shoulders.

  She melted into a quivering puddle of emotion, but she snapped out of it when Auri continued with, “So I had to practically threaten this kid today.”

  “You had to what?”

  “Remember the boy? The office aide at school who was very interested in the fact that we wanted Sybil’s schedule printed out?”

  “I do,” she said, thinking back. “Average height, Asian, glasses, probably no more than a hundred pounds soaking wet. Hundred ten at most.”

  Auri chuckled. “Yes. Aiden Huang. He told me he’d reacted that way because he’d printed out a schedule for someone else, and he thought he was getting into trouble. It was Sybil, Mom. She negotiated a trade with him to print out a schedule before winter break. My schedule.”

  “Yours?”

  “Yes. Mom, she already knew my schedule. She knew it before the New Year’s Eve party.”

  Sun sank beside her. “Okay.”

  “So, first off, she struck up a conversation with me, something that, according to everyone at school, she never did. Ever. She was painfully shy. Second, she already knew my schedule when we met at the lake and if we would have any classes together. She’d gotten it from Aiden.”

  “Okay. What does it mean?”

  “This might sound crazy, Mom, but I think she left a note for me. At school.”

  Sun once again marveled at her daughter’s gray matter. Kid would go far. “What do you suggest we do?” she asked, tossing out the bait to see what she would do with it.

  “We go to the school.”

  “Sounds like a plan, but why not just tell you? Why go to all this trouble?”

  “I wondered about that, too.” She crossed her arms in thought. “I think it’s because no one believed her. I think she was worried what I would think. If I would see her as a freak who didn’t want to hang out with her.”

  “If she was worried about what you thought of her, she really did want to be friends. That says a lot.”

  Auri flashed a timid smile,
then said, “We have to get to that school.”

  “Yes, we do.” She picked up the phone and called Quincy.

  “Quince, who’s the security guard at the high school?”

  “Gary Woods. Why?”

  “Do you have his number? We need to get over there. Auri caught something in the letter we didn’t see.”

  “Figures, the little firecracker. But don’t call Gary. Holy shit. We have a key somewhere. Or call Jacobs.”

  “Why can’t I call Gary?” Sun found it odd that even Auri was against the idea of calling the security guard, their school liaison.

  Auri was waving her arms, shaking her head and mouthing, “No, no, no, no, no.”

  “You remember Barney Fife?” he asked.

  “Really? He’s that bad?”

  “Oh no. You misunderstand. He makes Barney Fife look like Sherlock Holmes.”

  “Ouch.”

  “I’ll call Jacobs and meet you at the school.”

  “Okay, and Quince,” she added hesitantly, “radio silence on this, okay?”

  “Ten-four.”

  Levi stood and followed them to the door.

  “Thank you again for everything,” Sun said to him.

  He looked at Auri, winked, and then walked out with them, only he didn’t go to his truck. He went to her cruiser. He looked over his shoulder and said, “Shotgun.”

  Auri laughed and got in the back seat.

  “Um, what are you doing?” Sun asked.

  “What does it look like I’m doing?”

  “You can’t go with us. This is an official investigation.”

  “Yeah, I don’t know if you know this, but I’m a bona fide, sworn-in deputy.”

  “The hell you are.”

  “The hell I’m not. Ask your boyfriend.”

  “I don’t have a boyfriend.”

  “Cooper,” he added.

  “We are not—”

  “He was there when I was sworn in for a special assignment.”

  She narrowed her eyes. “What kind of special assignment?”

  “I’m not sure that’s within your pay grade.”

  “You know what?” she asked, frustrated. “It doesn’t even matter. You can’t go. You could be the kidnapper, for all I know.”

  “I’m a suspect?”

  She glared at him. “Everyone is a suspect until they’re not.”

  “Well, un-suspect me, because I’m going.”

  “Why?”

  He leaned over the hood and said, “Because you are taking Red into a potentially dangerous situation, and I like her.”

  Sun blinked when he got in the cruiser and closed the door. When it took her a moment to get in, he leaned over the console. “Want me to drive?”

  “No, I do not want you to drive.” She got in, slammed her door shut, and jerked her seat belt on. He made her sound like a bad mother. She’d only sent Auri in undercover the one time. She wasn’t a monster.

  “You said she traded something?” she asked Auri in the rearview instead of railing at the man in her passenger’s seat.

  “What?”

  “Sybil. You said she traded something with Aiden for your schedule.”

  “Oh, right. Wine from her family’s vineyard.”

  “Figures.”

  “Why radio silence?” Levi asked her.

  “I don’t need to explain myself to you.”

  “Humor me.”

  “He’s clever, this guy. And good with technology. Surely, he’s keeping tabs on the investigation. I’d like to keep my daughter safe, too.”

  “I never doubted it.”

  But he did. She could see it on his impossibly handsome face. Either that or she was projecting her own guilt onto him. It happened.

  Sun watched as Auri practically sprinted for the faculty entrance when Principal Jacobs opened it and gestured for them to come inside.

  “First period,” she said to him, hurrying down the hall.

  Sun and Levi followed her, Levi’s presence like an armed nuclear missile with a clock counting down: sweat-inducing, worrisome, and impossible to ignore.

  Auri stopped in front of a classroom and checked the doorknob. Finding it locked, she turned and waited for what Sun could only imagine seemed like an epoch, her impatience dancing through her as she shifted her weight from leg to leg.

  Quincy emerged from the same hall Jacobs had come from. “You okay, sprout?” he asked Auri when he walked up.

  “Yes.” She gave him a hug. “And I’ll be better when we find Sybil.”

  “Me, too.”

  Quincy acknowledged Levi with the barest hint of a nod. Levi didn’t return the favor. It was a rivalry they’d had since they were kids, and it was ridiculous.

  It was also her fault. She should never have told Quincy about the kiss. About the petting. About her heart breaking when he’d ignored her afterward.

  Her BFF could hold a grudge until the stars burned out.

  Principal Jacobs opened the door, and Auri tore inside, sliding under the desks until she found the one she was looking for.

  “Here!” she shouted, and Sun didn’t even have to tell her not to touch anything. Auri knew better.

  Sun and Quincy kneeled and looked at the underside of the desk. There was a note taped to it addressed to Auri.

  They turned the desk over and carefully removed the note by cutting around it with a pocketknife. Then she handed her daughter a pair of gloves.

  Auri filled her lungs, took the blue gloves, and slipped them on. With some help from a chuckling Levi.

  “Okay, sit here, hon,” Sun said.

  Auri sat at a desk and took the note. After Sun gave her the okay, she unfolded it. But it wasn’t a note. It was a drawing.

  She squinted as she tried to figure out why Sybil had drawn her a picture of Auri’s name, graffiti-style. Underneath the pencil drawing was a short note.

  “This is the only thing I see clearly. I knew when we met it was all real. I hope you find this. If not, please don’t be sad. I’m just grateful we got to be friends.”

  “Mom,” Auri said, her eyes watering, her voice pregnant with panic. “I don’t understand what this means. What if we don’t find her?”

  Sun sank to her knees beside her, but so did Levi. He put a hand on Auri’s shoulder and turned her face toward his. “Deep breaths, Red. Remember what we talked about.”

  Auri drew in a deep breath as she gazed into his eyes. Sun sat back on her heels in surprise as Auri and Levi breathed together. Sun could see a calm wash over her daughter. She visibly relaxed, and Sun sat more than a tad stunned.

  “Okay,” he said, his voice as soothing as cool water on a hot day. “Take another look.”

  She nodded and took the picture in, turning it this way and that. Then she ran her fingers over not her name but the background of the picture.

  “It’s textured,” she said. “Like stucco. Or . . . or cinder block.”

  Her eyes widened, and she gasped when recognition finally kicked in. She plastered a hand over her mouth, tears already threatening to spill over her lashes. Her words were muffled when she screamed from behind her hands, “I know where she is!”

  The bond that Auri and Levi had was so much deeper than Sun had ever imagined. She’d been struck dumb when he’d averted Auri’s panic attack, something she was only successful at about 50 percent of the time. But the way he looked at her, the warmth in his expression, the knowing grins he cast her way made a tightness form in her chest.

  Who was this man, and where could she get one of her very own?

  Logic would suggest Levi Ravinder and he was right the fuck in front of her, but things in the real world were not quite that black and white.

  And yet, there they were. Levi leading a team across a frozen field, his tracking skills undeniable since no one, not even Auri, really knew where the well house was.

  She’d only been there once when she was in the sixth grade, and Jimmy was the one who’d taken her, but after t
hey made a quick pit stop, Jimmy couldn’t remember where it was, either. He only remembered it was near a spot the kids call the clearing.

  While at the well house, he and Auri had found an almost empty can of spray paint, and she’d graffitied her name onto a cinder block wall of the tiny room. Sun couldn’t believe she’d do that, but thank God she had.

  Sun dropped her back at her parents’ house and told them that under no uncertain terms was she to go back to the apartment alone. She would stay the night with them.

  They stopped by the station for supplies, picked up Zee and Special Agent Fields on the way, and headed out, all while maintaining radio silence. They could not tip this guy off.

  The minute they got close to the clearing, Levi picked up tracks. Human footprints in the snow and ground. They followed them until the well house came into view.

  “Okay,” Sun said as they huddled in the trees nearby. “He’s probably in there with her now.”

  “The freshest prints would suggest otherwise,” Levi said.

  “What do you mean?” Fields asked.

  “They’re leading away from the shed. If I had to guess, he came to check on her, then left while the sun was still out and hasn’t been back.”

  “Someday, you’re going to have to tell me how you do that,” Sun said.

  “Someday,” he promised.

  Quincy drew in a deep breath. “Okay, let’s do this. I’ll take point.”

  Sun nodded. Surprisingly, Fields let her take the lead and followed her commands accordingly. “Zee, how is your visibility from here?”

  “Great, except there are no windows.”

  “If you see anyone walking up, press the Talk button a few times.”

  “And then?”

  “Can you get a nonfatal shot out of that?” Sun asked.

  “With Beth here, I can.”

  Hoping Beth was Zee’s gun, she said, “Then blow his ass away. Just try to keep him alive.”

  Levi armed himself with a hunting knife that could double as a sword on Game of Thrones.