He set the bottle aside and pinned her with a knowing look. “No,” he said, his voice as deep and smooth as ever. “I do not really feel that way about your hair.”
Holy crap. He could read her mind.
“Also no,” he said.
She straightened. “No what?”
He stood to tower over her. “I cannot read your mind.” He really could. When he lifted her chin and bent closer, their mouths almost touching, Sun was ninety-percent certain she ovulated. “Though I’d give anything for that ability.”
A breathy laugh escaped her. “You’d rue the day. Trust me.”
“Not likely.” His gaze dropped to her mouth just as Quincy came over the radio.
“You two done?”
Sun pivoted away from Levi like she’d been caught in the act itself.
“Because we secured the men following you like five minutes ago.”
She cleared her throat and pressed the talk button on her mic. “How many?”
“Two,” Rojas said. “They supposedly don’t know where the other guy is.”
Quincy came back on, “We called in the staties to check out their hotel in case he stayed behind. They’re coming out here, too. Hope that’s okay.”
“It’s more than okay. Not sure what we can hold any of them on, but it’s worth a shot to try to find out their end game. Did Zee have to shoot anyone?”
“Not today, boss,” she said almost sadly. It was a joke. Sun saw firsthand what it did to her the last time she had to take down a perpetrator.
“You guys okay to get them back to the trailhead?”
“Ten-four on that,” Quincy said.
“They’re hog-tied, boss,” Zee said. “I can stay on you. Watch your six, just in case.”
Levi grabbed the backpack and Sun ripped it out of his hands. “Nah, stay on them, then hustle up with the ATVs when the state police get here.”
“Ten-four.”
With the stalkers out of the way, they could continue their journey to the boys and, hopefully, get some answers.
“I want a do-over,” Levi said. After stuffing their water bottles into the backpack, he stole it once more and secured it on his shoulders. “I felt my performance lacked authenticity.”
Unfortunately, Sun responded before giving it much thought. “I doubt your performances are ever found lacking, Mr. Ravinder.” When her words sank in, she froze for a solid minute, then started forward, suddenly eager to be on her way.
* * *
Auri turned to the tapping on her window a microsecond after her grandmother left her room with her lunch tray. Finding dead bodies got her all kinds of special treatment. She’d give it five stars. Highly recommended.
She hobbled over and opened the window. “Cruz, what are you doing here?”
“Checking on you. I got your texts.”
“Sorry. I just had to tell you about last night. Why aren’t you in school?”
“Why aren’t you in school?” he asked, his mouth pressed together on one side, forming a lopsided grin that made him so handsome, it hurt her heart.
“Either way, you will not believe what happened.”
“You found a dead body,” he said.
She frowned. “How did you know?”
“It’s all over school.”
“Of course it is. Come in.” She stepped aside so he could scale the tower wall and enter her fortress of solitude. Also, mixing up fandoms was a specialty of hers.
“I can’t, Auri. I have to respect your grandfather’s wishes.” He paused, his serious expression almost comical, then added, “And you. As a friend and as a woman, I have to respect you.”
She offered him a look of bemusement before catching on. She rolled her eyes. “My grandpa is standing right behind me, isn’t he?”
Cruz nodded.
“Can he hear me?”
He nodded again.
“That’s what I meant, Cruz. Go to the front door and let my grandparents know you’re here to see me. They won’t mind.” She turned to her grandfather who’d totally invaded her space bubble. “Right, Grandpa?”
His lashes narrowed on them. “I’m going to pretend I fell for that.”
“Thanks, Grandpa!”
Cruz went around and was shown in the old-fashioned way, which was way easier on the shins. They lay on her bed, Auri under the covers and Cruz on top, and talked for the next hour nonstop.
“I’m going to confess everything,” she said to him, “to Mrs. Fairborn. I’m going to tell her why we broke into her house, how it was all my idea, and how I was going to turn her in for being a maniacal serial killer.” She hoped Cruz would understand. “I can’t send her to prison, Cruz. She’s too old.”
“I don’t think they would send her to a regular prison. Maybe they have one for the elderly that has a bingo palace.”
“I’m not sure I want to take that chance. I do want to get that necklace, though. And I … I kind of need your help.”
“I’m in.”
“But I haven’t—”
“I’m in.”
“It’ll be dangerous.”
“I’m still in.”
“And we’ll have to wait until dark. We’ll have a very narrow window. Basically, after my grandparents go to bed and before my mom gets home. She’s working a big case.”
“Still with ya.”
“And Mrs. Fairborn could catch us and kill us. Clearly, she knows what she’s doing.”
“I’m still in, beautiful.”
His compliment caused a rush of warmth a microsecond before reality sank in yet again. How could she risk Cruz’s freedom? How could she be so selfish? And why would he agree to another one of her harebrained schemes without question? “Cruz, you’re not listening.”
The more she thought about it, the more panic took hold. But this was her best option. She would be appeasing the Press family while completely botching the investigation and keeping Mrs. Fairborn safe.
Still, she’d be putting Cruz at the center of it all. She’d opened the can of worms they were now swimming in. It was up to her to close it. She wouldn’t need his lockpicking skills if she walked right up to Mrs. Fairborn’s door and knocked. Once inside, she could excuse herself to go to the bathroom and grab the necklace.
“I’m pretty sure I am.”
“You are?”
“Listening.”
She fell back against her pillows. “Never mind. I can’t get you into trouble again.”
“Auri,” he said, leaning over to brush his thumb across her bottom lip, “I’m in.”
Relief washed over her. She really was selfish. “Thank you.” She looked at the clock on her nightstand. “You know, sixth hour is starting soon. You’re going to miss class.”
“It’s okay.”
“You’re in enough hot water with your dad, right? Did he make it home last night?”
“No, not yet. He had an emergency.”
Auri had to wonder what kind of emergency a mechanic would have out of town, but her thoughts were interrupted when Sybil texted asking how she was doing.
“You answer,” Cruz said. “I’m going to get you something to drink. You need to stay hydrated.”
She smiled as he left and texted Sybil back. I’m fine. Cruz is here.
Oh, good. I was worried.
Why?
He hasn’t been here all day. Thought maybe his dad killed him after all. LOL
Cruz said he heard at school about what happened last night.
IDK. Wasn’t in any of his classes. It’s all over FB tho. Maybe he saw it there.
That was strange. She texted back a quick Maybe then let her suspicions run wild. If Cruz hadn’t gone to class, where did he go? And why did he lie to her about it?
21
Driver reported he swerved to miss a tree.
It was later discovered to be his air freshener.
—DEL SOL POLICE BLOTTER
Sun heard the ATVs coming up the mountain. It only took her
and Levi another half-hour hike to get to the mine. She was surprised to hear her deputies coming so soon.
“The state cops must’ve been close,” she said, panting as they studied the opening to the Sawry Silver Mine. Her lungs burned and her legs ached. Clearly she needed more cardio and less Oreo.
The entrance was boarded up with the words KEEP OUT plastered all over it. “They may as well post a sign that says, Hey kids! Come on in! We dare you!”
“They are kind of inviting trouble with all of this.” He pulled away a board that hung loosely over one end of the opening. Dust billowed around him when it broke loose. “Here.”
She walked over and looked inside. “It’s very dark.”
“Scared?” he asked, taking his flashlight off his belt. The flashlight right next to the hunting knife.
She scoffed, ducked inside, and took out her flashlight, too. The dank smell mixed with animal droppings took some getting used to.
Levi crawled in after her, his wide shoulders barely scraping through. He winced and groaned a little, favoring the left side of his rib cage.
“You know, if you get a punctured lung up here, your chances of survival are almost nonexistent.”
“Thanks,” he said, his voice strained.
“Let me have the backpack.” She held out her hand.
“Please.” He whacked it out of the way, then scraped past her into the mine.
Rude.
She followed, the underground cave so dark it seemed to absorb the light from their flashlights the deeper they went. The slits in the wood slats glowed when she looked back at the opening, but the light didn’t reach far.
“How do you want to handle this?” he asked her.
“You’re sure they’re here?”
“I’ve been tracking them for the last two miles. Eli’s dirt bike is tucked behind a copse of bushes about twenty feet from the opening.”
“Do you think Adam came with his brother willingly?”
“I do. I don’t think he would force him.”
“I hope you’re right.”
“I am. If I remember correctly, the mine opens up to a chamber of sorts about a quarter mile in.”
Sun spun in a circle, careful not to knock herself out. Parts of the rock ceiling dipped low when one least expected it. “I haven’t been here since I was in high school.”
“Who’d you come out here with?” he asked, ducking under a low boulder.
“Friends. Quincy and a few others.”
“No romantic interludes?”
After an indelicate snort—not that any snort was delicate—she said, “Not unless you count the time Ryan Spalding tried to kiss me.”
“Tried?”
“And failed. What about you? Any romantic rendezvous in a dark, cold, creepy mineshaft?”
“Nah. There are far easier places to get to.”
Figured. She slipped but caught herself. Thankfully, he had taken the lead and missed her acrobatics. “What about with Crystal Meth?”
“I’ve never done meth. Here or anywhere else. Surely, you know that.”
“I mean the girl, which, by the way: poor thing. Her parents suck.”
“I gotta say, I really think they were oblivious.”
“Nobody’s that oblivious.”
“And you brought her up because?”
“You guys were making out the night Seabright was attacked. Outside the bar.”
He stopped and turned back to her. “Making out? Me and Crys?” The fact that he used her nickname so casually caused an unsettling in her stomach. “Where’d you get that from?”
“Crys.”
“She told you that?”
She shined the light in his eyes. Mostly because she could. “Not in so many words. It was very much implied, however.”
He frowned and tilted her flashlight downward. “We were just talking. She was asking for a job.”
“I bet she was. I can only imagine the interview process.”
He didn’t say anything for a few seconds, then asked, “Is your opinion of me really so base?”
His indignation shocked her. And thrilled her. Not that she actually thought so low of him, but he was now one of the privileged. One of the elite with enough money to buy half the state. They thought differently than the rest of the world, however. She was glad to know money didn’t change him. Or maybe it did, considering his tragic upbringing. His deplorable role models growing up.
“You’re right. I’m sorry,” she said, then squeezed past him, breathing in the earthy scent that wafted off his skin like a soft, alluring breeze, and headed farther inside the mineshaft. The ceiling dropped lower and lower and Levi had to duck down even more, putting a strain on his ribs if his breathing was any indication.
He put a hand on her shoulder to halt her and pointed. A couple dozen yards in front of them a soft light went out, while behind them, the ATV turned off. Its sound stopped its muffled echoing along the rock walls.
He twisted the lens on his flashlight. The color changed to a muted blue. Sun’s didn’t have that feature so she turned hers off altogether.
The floor was getting more uneven, the ceiling even lower, and the walls even tighter. Soon they would be on their hands and knees. “I forgot about this part,” she said softly.
“For good reason. The walls are literally closing in on us.”
She turned to him, panicked. “You’re not claustrophobic, are you?”
He didn’t say anything for a long moment and because she could barely see his face, she didn’t know what he was thinking. Then he said softly, “I can see why Ryan Spalding tried to kiss you.”
“Gross!” a kid shouted from deeper inside the mine.
They both startled and Sun almost knocked herself out on the rocky ceiling when she tried to straighten like the genius she was.
“That was so cheesy, Levi,” the kid said before he made gagging sounds.
Levi covered her head with a hand to try to keep her from concussing herself, then chuckled as a kid carrying a lantern popped his head into the narrow tunnel.
“It gets better,” he said. “Just keep coming. But only if you two stop making out.”
Another kid, Adam, poked his head into the tunnel from the opposite side and giggled as he looked on.
The older boy motioned them forward, but Sun couldn’t move. She could barely breathe. Elliot Kent, the boy she’d spent years trying to find, stood not fifteen feet away from her, as beautiful and healthy as ever.
If ever a dream had come true … She felt tears sting the backs of her eyes, the wave of emotion rising up within her unexpected and surprisingly strong.
“You okay, Shine?” Levi asked her softly.
She sank onto her knees and put both hands over her mouth.
“See?” Elliot said. “You shouldn’t have kissed her. Now she’s upset.”
She made a sound that was half laugh and half sob before regaining her composure. She filled her lungs and nodded up to Levi.
He leaned closer and tucked a strand of hair that had escaped her braid over her ear.
She beamed at him, then duck-walked toward the boys to get past a particularly low part.
“Be careful of the tripwire connected to the claymore,” Elliot said. When Sun stilled, he laughed. “Just kidding. I ran out of claymores a couple of months ago.”
“That’s too bad,” she said, easing closer to the roomy chamber where she could finally stand.
She looked between the two boys. There would be no doubting Adam’s parentage. He was the spitting image of his older brother. Smooth, pale skin. Thick, dark hair. Just enough baby fat to soften the strong features that would someday develop. It would be a sad day when that happened, because he was adorable.
“Elliot,” she said, trying to keep her shit together. “And Adam. Do you remember me? We met at your house.”
The younger boy smiled.
“I’m Sunshine.”
“For real that’s your name?” Adam
asked.
“For real that’s my name.” She turned back to Elliot and did everything in her power to keep her expression neutral. “And I’ve been looking for you for a very, very long time.”
“Why?” Adam asked her.
“She’s stalking me,” Elliot said to his little brother. “What can I say?”
He laughed and Elliot mussed his hair.
“Sorry,” she whispered to him, remembering Adam didn’t know Elliot was his long-lost brother.
“It’s all good.”
It took everything in her not to pull him into her arms. She didn’t know if she could keep from stroking his hair and kissing his face, which would only scare him.
She looked around at the boys’ encampment. They had pillows and blankets. Foodstuffs and water. They even had a small propane-powered cookstove. All the comforts of home.
After a quick scan, Sun remembered the chamber, though she’d only been to it once. It was called the cathedral because the shadows cast on the walls from the lamps made the rocks look like saints watching over the trespassers. She also remembered that off to the left was an alcove, another tunnel only a few feet long that led to the pit. No one dared go down. It was too deep and too dangerous, especially for non-climbers.
“Elliot,” she began when a thought hit her. She turned to Levi. “There was only one.”
He was busy introducing himself to Adam. “One what?”
“One ATV.” She turned a confused expression back toward the main tunnel. “There should have been two. Quincy called for two.”
He tensed. “Maybe Zee came back alone? Once they got the men following us to the trailhead?”
“No. She would’ve radioed ahead.”
“Very good, Sheriff,” a male voice said to her. But the first thing she saw come out of the tunnel was the barrel of an assault rifle.
Her hand immediately went to her duty weapon, but the intruder stopped her with a soft tsk.
“Really, Sunshine? Are you faster than a 5.56 steel jacket lead core?”
Elliot stepped closer to his brother, but the rifle swung toward him.
A Good Day for Chardonnay Page 26